Sir Ender's Legendary Log On this, the 397th incidence of Horatio Caine slipping on his Silhouette Titans and saying something pithy punctuated by the wail of The Who's "Won't Get Fooled Again". Entry I it. Entry II It occurs to me, rather belatedly I'll admit, that the creatures here look rather more muscular and sure on their feet, like evil, ugly, but still breathing effigies of Rudolf Nureyev. Maybe with fewer arabesques and plies but lots of lumbering adiago. Perhaps it would be wise if I took things a little more slowly here. Not that I fear for my safety of course -- I fear nothing! -- but simple prudence suggests caution. Entry III I have been navigating the perimeters of the first dungeon as best I can and avoiding fights where possible -- I'd rather not start mixing it up until I've scouted the lay of the land, at least to some extent. It is only sensible that I know some of the routes lest I need to retr-- er, that is, lead an unwary enemy into my traps. I have found a scroll of teleport, plus a chest with some gold in it. Gold! In a chest! Who ever heard of such a thing? Other expeditions I have embarked upon always had something useful if it wasn't trapped, but no. Ten gold pieces. Not even enough for a Starbucks vente whipped half-caf non-fat double-foam double-shot caramel macchiato. Entry IV I had no choice but to dispatch an elven archer. He was quite robust, especially for someone who wears a leotard which quite unfortunately presented a fairly accurate relief map south of his equator; I'll be scrubbing that one from my mind for days. Nonetheless, I did away with him rather handily, and as a bit of good fortune found the temple for that level just beyond his corpse. Entry V I discovered a vault just beyond the temple. It is guarded by two depressingly burly dwarves with menacing axes. One of them has a metal shield. Both look unhappy to have pulled guard duty. Neither appear to be particularly worried about threats to their charge or their own well-being. I will have to approach this with cunning and strategy such as I alone in this filthy hole in the ground am capable of devising. Entry VI My strategy, which I feel to be effective and most ingenious, is something which I shall call "get into a bit of a tiff and then run away to the temple when I seem to be losing." As I see it, if I can repeatedly strike and then run back to the temple to heal up, I should be able to take them out by the sheer will of my numerous advances. I will be like an army of myself bearing down on the enemy, only single-file and with a coffee break in-between salvos. Entry VII One of them is dead, the one with the shield. It took me some half dozen or more strikes, but he discovered that I find strength in numbers, especially when those numbers are all me. Through unwavering determination I cut and parried through his defenses and saw him introduced to the cold stone floor. I swiped his shield -- how silly of me not to have brought one with me -- and am now prepared to take down the last guard. Entry VIII I am awesome. It was merely another half dozen strikes but the last guard fell to my brutalization. I even took out another of those pesky archers while I was at it. Honestly, is it too much to ask them to wear a cup? Anyway, the vault is defenseless, and surely I will find something which will make me that much more awesome. I shall now pull the lever. Entry IX A wand of striking? That's it? All of that bloody work for a wand of striking? *sigh* Well, I suppose it will help whittle beasts down from a distance -- though who can see anything in this ridiculously dank and dusty hole? It's like wandering through the left half of Glenn Beck's brain. Nonetheless I suppose anything will help at this point. Onward!
Sir Ender's Legendary Log Supplimental Entry X I wonder if I can find a pith helmet down here. I think every adventurer should have a pith helmet, don't you? And no, I don't speak with a lisp. Shut up.
I had a dream of Fargoal last night. There was a dragon's lair with a giant dragon that took up many squares. His neck could snake around corners and attacking him from the back was the only way of standing a chance against him. It was pretty cool.
Be VERY careful what you wish for. It quite possible that dragon could actually appear... it might even have more than one head to worry about
Mindfield, you nutter: my favourite use of the wand of striking lately is to take out those scary vicious killer wasps. Also, the strike can smash carried potions. As for the new creatures to be arriving, I ain't sayin' nothin'. Cool dream though! Makes me think of Smaug on his hoard under the Lonely Mountain.
Now how's a wasp going to carry a potion? Silly. But good to know anyway. Being that Sir Ender is still scouting the first level it ought to at least offer a bit of aid in surviving the treacherous path ahead. I bet a pith helmet would help even more. (SHUT UP.) But while we're talking about headgear and toilet humour, how about armour? Not just a shield, but actual suits of armour, or maybe just individual pieces -- gauntlets, greaves, breastplates, helms, etc. Y'know, treated the same way as shields; you can't carry it around but you can swap what you have for it, and you could expand enchantments to include armour -- either individual pieces or the suit as a whole, depending on which direction you want to go. A whole suit is probably easier, but you should have separate helms, too, pith or otherwise. That way you can make special ones with different properties like the shields, while the armour remains armour with potential enchantment bonuses like the sword. Cloaks or capes would be cool too, worn over the armour. They could be reserved for special purpose items, and like all such items could be damaged.
I have it on good authority that Glenn Beck has _neither_ a left nor a right brain. Where a normal person's brain would reside, he has only a mouth. Goof...oops, I mean "good"... Fortune, Sir Ender. You carry the fate of an entire pop culture in your most competent hands.
lol, I think you mean that where a normal person's brain would reside, he has only an a$$ that LEADS straight to his mouth. Cuz of course, everything he says is crap.
Yes, I'd like to add this stuff. Helmets will be the first to come. It all requires special graphics handling, see, so it's a bit tricky. But yes, the enchantment of armour (shield, helmets, etc.) follows. Basically, increasing the minimum damage threshold for each + enchantment... so you can finally have that invincible, enchanted +25 barrel lid that you've always dreamed of.
Yes! Sir Ender would quite like that. I can imagine his reaction. ...but this was no ordinary barrel lid. This was a hearty barrel lid, a lid of otherworldly robustness, one which could halt the charge of a rampaging Freeper. The sort of barrel lid you wouldn't be ashamed of taking home to mother, assuming you had a mother who was impressed by such things. Were that the case though, you probably have other issues you should work out before going on a dungeon run. Helms will be awesome too. You could have a +30 Fedora of Impossible Coolness, or +22 Porkpie of Summon Red Skelton.
That depends. Is it an African wasp or a European wasp? A side note- enchanting shields would kick ass! As would more varieties of armor. Mindfield mentioned the Fedora, but only if I could have a whip too! One that could disarm enemies, and lash out to catch on nearby stones whenever I fall into a pit so I don't actually fall to the new floor!
What? I don't know! AAAAaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhh--oh, wait. We're not talking about swallows. Never mind then. And when those elves are bad, bad elves... What? Oh, like you never. I'll take a bowler and full-size umbrella with cane handle, because then I might be half as awesome and debonair as Patrick Macnee. And I could beat people up with the umbrella.
Thinking (<--- Dangerous) Vegan had a Fargoal dream. I had a blast of Fargoal's opening music in the grocery store. What's happening to us? Well, this morning I woke up "thinking about shields." Last night I lost three Legend games in a row, nearly at the speed of light. (Screw it, I said, I'll start another Hero game for now.) And today I'm thinking about shields in the game, and helmets and armor --- gear in general. As I explore dungeons, it seems to me that, often, decisions I make about shields (should I keep what I have --- good shield but broken --- switch to a less good but intact shield ---drop the temple shield in favor of the dragonscale shield (if I'm way lucky), etc. Those life-or-death decisions are perhaps the most interesting part of the game for me so far. And I love the idea of other items and hope to make the Madgardens wealthy and happy. But, I don't want Fargoal to morph into too much of an RPG and be "too" equipment-driven either. So, I'm just wondering. Not a dev myself and I'd just enjoy hearing a discussion of this: how much stuff should be added, how the additions might affect the flow of the game, etc. Am mighty sure the Fargoal team is/are pondering exactly these issues, wanting to add all kinds of delightful goodies (and baddies) whilst keeping the soul of the game. Okay, enough thinking for one day.
Another question also, how would enchanted shields and/or armour work? These items are changeable so if you enchant your barrel lid to +10 and decide to toss it for the metal shield, the enchantment won't carry over right? It will be tossed too, right? And then if a nasty dwarf picks up your barrel lid, he'll have a +10 enchanted barrel lid? Ooh...what if there was a way to destroy your won equipment/sacrifice it maybe even, so the baddies who could snatch it up and use it can't?
Yes, we don't want to add too much stuff... but we do want to add stuff that makes the game more fun. So I think if we stick to the "swap" mechanic for things like shields, helmets etc. then it should be OK. Also, when we add ranged weapons, well... you've only got so many arms, right? May need to decide between a shield or a bow. Basically, the decisions are about what kind of hero you want to play as, rather than micromanagement of items. Our focus will continue to be on *streamlining* the interface, not expanding it. Less work for more fun. Still, stuff like helmets and possibly armour make some sense, and they aren't likely to break as often as shields. A helmet would only be struck perhaps 1/8 of the time anyway, during battle... And yes, enchanted shields will rock, CommanderData. Complete with awesome GLOWY SHIELD ACTION! I'm imagining an enchanted shield glowing and sparking a little when it is struck. EDIT: Responding to my wife who is sitting in the next room: Yes, the enchantments stay with the armour, of course! So yea, you may even find some pre-enchanted stuff too.
I too am a bit fearful that enchantments might add too much to the game. It's already a bonus when the character gets a shield, and there are shields like temple shield and shield of menace (the one that causes fear to enemies) that really give the player added advantages already.
I personally think this would be a very cool element making one a bit more wary of swapping shields at any ol' time if they have to fear baddies using it against them!
