There is one difference, which is the whole reason that i ALWAYS play as the female... The man's sword glows a nice shade of blue when it's heavily enchanted, and when enemies are close, it glows more brightly, but it's still blue. The woman's sword glows blue, but when enemies are near, it also glows more brightly, but turns red. Much more useful, I think, when scouting out nearby enemies. Plus, it just looks awesome... "I'm a warrior chick and I'm gonna slice you up with my GLOWING RED SWORD..." B. A.
Fun Anew Wow, I hadn't played Fargoal for two weeks, and just began a new game this evening. Part of me enjoyed returning to familiar haunts, and the other part got caught up, yet again, in the excitement of the game. It wears so well. Paul, I think you should give us some more teases re the 2.0 update. I _like_ teases and am one of those who believe that the anticipation of good stuff is nearly as pleasurable as actually getting good stuff. Code magic, vroom!
Hey Doffie. Have you ever been blocked by some tough beasties, and so you leave the map and come back and they have magically vanished? That ain't gonna work anymore.
i need some help from the people who are good at this type of game. i'm not one of those people, even though i enjoy them. it feels like by the time i get to the 11-ish level, there's a pretty steep jump in risk. going back to earlier levels to grind, doesn't help because it seems like the monsters get stronger anyway, and you just end up using your supplies instead of saving them for later. is it best to push on into the higher levels instead of trying to cover everything in every level? or is it better to take your time and try to fight it out for a while in each level as you go?
There is really no set path... you can fight through everyone, explore everything, or try to be stealthy and get in and out quick. It's up to you.
Hi del, This game is deep enough that you can choose your style of play. I generally like to explore pretty thoroughly for a couple of reasons. One is that you really want to level up as much as possible by the time you get to the lower dungeons. And, of course, you want to give yourself a chance to find wicked good stuff -- the best shields, lots of spells, wands, etc.so that you have a good chance against the really hard baddies. For some people, getting the sword and bringing it home, the stated goal of the game is everything. I have "won" a number of times and racing to the surface with the sword is surely fun and can be very exciting! But I find that I enjoy the journey for its own sake, dungeon-diving and exploring give me at least as much pleaure as winning, maybe more. I don't hoard good stuff, but I think the more you play the more judicious you become in making game decisions. Hope this helps and that you continue to enjoy the game. We are all eagerly awaiting version 2 which will have *lots* of new goodies, weapon, armor, spells, wands, and, of course, new and thrilling ways to die.
Thanks Doffie. Yeah, I'm enjoying the crawling for its own sake too. I hadn't had any experience with this type of game until recently so it was cool to find out what made the genre tick. There was an excellent comment by someone on this thread (or maybe another relating to Fargoal, I don't remember) saying that in this type of game you are managing your losing situation rather than your winning situation as you are in a typical rpg. I thought that was a pretty good summary of it, of what makes it interesting as a game of strategy. Also, as you get deeper and invest more and more time into the game, the tension increases. You feel as though you have more and more to lose by dying. In a way you do: you lose all the time you've invested into this particular crawl. Thirdly, the number one thing that keeps me playing is the simplest, I think: seeing what's under the fog. Finally, the death-is-final thing that some people complain about seems really essential to me. I don't think there should even be an option. Even though it frustrates me incredibly, without that, this genre means nothing. Really fun game, although after losing I have to take a few days off before getting back on the horse.
