Ye, I know. This game likely sux. Who cares, I have it, never tried it, but seems to work, so let's give it a try!
And I'll do it completely blind!
Well, after reading the manual. Ok, not the manual what sux, but some source which contain the information the manual should have.
Skills: the new versions are confusing like heck, each skill giving different bonuses based on class, but I'd be damned to look all these and check all the artefacts like for the M6-8. I'll just go by the proficiencies.
Axes gone for good, they never could design a good one anyway. For any reason there came thrown weapons which I could care less. Unarmed is still here which again not attractive for me.
Removing daggers on the other hand seriously limited things. No sword+dagger by expert level, no dagger at all to mage/lich...
Spells got merged: there is no more fire/earth/etc., just "elemental", also only spirit remained from cleric spells. But just to f* u up now learning spells is again confusing as heck, so again i'll just go with what I find along.
There still is the IDmonster, and all the accustomed supplementary skills. Fine for me. Crucial ones are, based on previous installments:repair, perception, id item, disarm. Given that hirelings also got messed up, preparing to develop IDitem.
Classes: initially I'd choose Gladiator, Lich, Assassin and Druid just for sounding cool. Unfortunately druid still sux for being the unarmed fighter instead of a caster, so reconsider by skill-need.
I'll need Priest. For whatever reason this class, despite how I hate it for forcing religion on your throat, has GM repair item. And the last thing you want to is a broken weapon in a big fight, so there you go.
GM Perception is cool, and dodge allows some interesting messing around with Ranger. Why not.
ID item is Mage. Mage is a Priest clone here, and should fok it. I'll spend some gold on ID instead, but still go with a Lich!
Fourth... Skill-wise Assassin would have GM disarm, but than I'd lack the tank making my party fragile. Gladiator sounds so awesome!
Gladiator: spear + shield gm, armsmater + body building gm, disarm m
Assassin: blade can go gm but who wants that. Spear m, shield expert only. Hm, maybe spear + sword combo from MM6.
Races: elf gives accuracy (at the price of endurance), so ranger will of course be elf. Dwarf is the ultimate fighter throwing away magic for more stats (HP). Halforc gains might for speed, so gladiator only.
Good ideas until now:
- simplified character progression. This might prevent you start with 1 HP mages and crap.
- less, but hopefully each-of-them useful spells.
---------
Ok, the intro sux. The graphic is lower than expected even from a wallpaint, the "story" is at best an afterthought, but it is not miserable.
And although the character-portraits are limited, and seems to be attached to the voice, but I don't feel this a problem. Prequels had either terrible draws, or 50 years old pornstar-faces mostly, so I always chose the same faces. Here I feel all choices viable.
The sound-setting is still only applies after you hit ok, making the setting difficult as you don't know what you are doing.
Patch seems a must. I could care less for most features of the official patch, but HP/MP regeneration IS an issue. You'll notice if this is installed as there is a background-music in the main menu, but no version-number is anywhere.
1.3a patch is unofficial and should stricktly be installed after the official patch is applied. I have no idea how you know it was applied.
It is like a usual patch, messes around numbers which had no problem for "rebalancing", and "reinstalling original intention", and fixes invaluable features, like done quests not removed like you couldn't remember anyway.
The parts that can be useful are a quest working properly (because random can generate the reward elsewhere), some locks remaining open (puzzle related?), and certain dungeons can be done not just for the first, uninterrupted go, or prevented to be accessible if planned conditions don't met (aka. opening puzzle not solved).
I decided to install this, but as it is a double-edged sword, and doesn't seem to do anything from the absolutely must have category, you should decided wether you want it or not.
Also worth mention there are some other unofficial patches (1.3, 2.0), but those are lamer than this and not compatible.
------------
I made my troops.
Too bad you can't choose ALL the skills in the game, I'd give throwing to my lich-wannabe. Who will be a half-orc from sheer frustration.
Races are totally at imbalance.
First: humans: unless you want a character with absolutely balanced stats, you should not bother.
Second: Elves rock. Their prime stat is accuracy which is always useful to anyone, and the bad-stat is endurance where 3 point won't hurt you that much. If you minimalise the bad-stat and max the prime stat you'll still have 15 extra statpoint to distribute if all other stats are 10. This is 2 more than for any other races. So there is no reason to not havea full-elf party.
Dwarf: the HP-powerhouse. If you want a meatshield, make a dwarf, he1ll start with double HP (40 instead of 20 if endurance is maxed (25 at start), and the others have 7-10 for comparsion).
Half-orc: speed being the bad-stat is already not attractive, and might being the prime stat is at best mediocre. No hugh HP, no repair gm for gladiator... the only really good in them is they still gain some extra stats if you go with the racial stats, and they have the best portrait.
When starting the game did not respond after loading. I alt-tabbed, and it started to work. Lag? Annoying definitely. But it works, so oh-well. Oh,and the character-sheets' portrait are associated to wrong characters.
My party:
