What game are you playing until book 3?

[Lord_P]

I'd love to get back to Avadon, but the game feels too much like climbing over higher and higher walls. Damn you, Shadow Beast!

[deathknight1728]

I'd love to get back to Avadon, but the game feels too much like climbing over higher and higher walls. Damn you, Shadow Beast!

That was my favorite quest that you get in the game. Everything about it just made me laugh and the writing was exceptional.

[sirdilznik]

I just discovered Mount & Blade: Warband. I played the demo for a while and holy smokes am I impressed! It's basically Sid Meier's Pirates! medieval style and on dry land. Why did it take me so long to try this game? What's wrong with me? Needless to say, I'll be picking up the full game as soon as I see it on sale somewhere.

[Lord_P]

Good find, Sirdilznik! M&B: Warband is an excellent game. And when the single player becomes boring, there's always the multiplayer.

[blatherbeard]

There was so much negative going around about the original Mount and Blade i avoided it. Good to know that warband is better, might have to look into it again.

[sirdilznik]

There was so much negative going around about the original Mount and Blade i avoided it. Good to know that warband is better, might have to look into it again.

There are demos on Steam for both Mount & Blade & the standalone expansion Warband, so you can just find out for yourself with zero risk.

[DragonDai]

Someone mentioned it a while back in a different post, but the main game I am playing between now and when book 3 comes out is Tales of Maj'Eyal (ToME). It's a totally free (although there are some very small in-game benefits to donating), very fun roguelike. It reminds me a lot of the Eschalon series, with (of course) a lessened emphasis on story (although there is a real story) and a greater emphasis on clearing dungeons full of baddies. However, it features TONS of customization, some very nice features to ease people into roguelikes who may have been turned off by their (sometimes) extreme difficulty and learning curve, and a very nice graphical interface (for people, like me, who can't stand the normal, roguelike ASCII interface).

Give it a try over at te4.org. It's free, so you don't lose anything by trying it.

[deathknight1728]

Someone mentioned it a while back in a different post, but the main game I am playing between now and when book 3 comes out is Tales of Maj'Eyal (ToME). It's a totally free (although there are some very small in-game benefits to donating), very fun roguelike. It reminds me a lot of the Eschalon series, with (of course) a lessened emphasis on story (although there is a real story) and a greater emphasis on clearing dungeons full of baddies. However, it features TONS of customization, some very nice features to ease people into roguelikes who may have been turned off by their (sometimes) extreme difficulty and learning curve, and a very nice graphical interface (for people, like me, who can't stand the normal, roguelike ASCII interface).

Give it a try over at te4.org. It's free, so you don't lose anything by trying it.

Is that so? Yeah I took a break from roguelikes. They're fun and all but I have a tough time playing a game where I die constantly and due to masochism.

Is TOME just like that? I only played a little but stopped playing because I figured it would soon be impossible to get farther in it. I got frustrated beyond belief with cardinal quest to the point where I doubt I'll play another roguelike.

[sirdilznik]

The thing about roguelikes is that they depend so heavily on randomization. The upside is that it will be a different experience every time. The downside is that you could be royally ****ed right from the get go if random chance goes against you.

[DragonDai]

ToME can be REALLY harsh RIGHT at the beginning, sometimes getting you killed before you've explored any more of the map than the area you can see when you start the game. But that's due to randomization and generally doesn't happen much (started probably 3 dozen games, had it happen twice I think).

The first couple maps can be a bit tough, especially if you're getting used to a class you've never played before (or one of the more complex classes that you can't play till you unlock). Out of the 3 dozen starts or so, I'd say probably 50% died before completing the two intro dungeons.

However, not only does the difficulty curve even out a bit once you have some half-way decent starting gear (found in the first two dungeons), but if you do die not to far into one of the first two dungeons, it isn't like you lost that much, either in terms of effort or time (once you get the game's mechanics down, clearing both is maybe an hour, tops).

After that, the game evens out a bit till you get to about the midway, then the difficulty starts ramping up again (slowly at first, and building speed). I haven't beaten the game yet, but I have gotten very close.

And finally, if that's still a little too hardcore, there are the Adventure and (for people who donate any amount of money at all) Exploration mode where you have some (or infinite in Exploration) lives, per character. So if you die, you can pop right back into the action with the same character, items, etc, right where you died, or (usually) out on the world map (in case you got in over your head).

It also has an difficulty setting independent of the "extra lives?" setting, however, I do not recommend playing on easy, as you cannot earn achievements on easy and some of the unlockable classes and races are only unlocked by getting certain achievements (making several classes and races not unlockable if you're playing on easy).

All in all, the more "basic" classes (berserker, bulwark, archer) are pretty easy to get into, get comfortable with, and do well with. I'd recommend playing one of those three, playing on Normal, Adventure (or Normal, Exploration if you've donated and want to feel extra safe), and giving it a couple of attempts before you give up. Yes, you might die right away (or almost right away) the first couple of times, but just remember to take the game slow, think strategically, and rest whenever you're health/resource (mana, stamina, what-have-you) is below max, and you'll do fine.

EDIT: There are also some excellent resources on the forums (under the spoiler sub-forum and then split into further sub-forms by type of class) for each class, talking about their different abilities (pros and cons of both the abilities themselves and to spreading your points out or stacking them in specific abilities), what races play well with said class, and so on. If you're feeling confused about the myriad of options for each class, take a look there.

EDIT 2: A word of caution. ToME is a fantastic game, mechanically. It is REALLY fun to play with TONS of replayability because all the classes play so dynamically, fundamentally differently than each other (with a few, small exceptions). HOWEVER, the game is TERRIBLY unbalanced (which is saying a lot, cause Roguelikes in general suffer from imbalance issues due to the randomization). It is highly likely that you'll be cruising along, smashing everything in your way without a sideways glance and then some boss will come along and murder you over and over and over and over, all by himself, simply because of the way boss monsters are generated (basically they can have any abilities mashed together, so when you get into end game boss monsters, they can have abilities that would make any player basically godlike by getting the right generation of skills from a variety of different classes).

I am just about to wrap up a game of ToME. I played on Exploration mode and so I have infinite lives. I will probably have a death count of around 20-30ish when the game is over, but all but like 2 of those deaths were from dying repeatedly to the same boss, over and over and over (3 bosses total, with all the deaths split between them). I even cruised thru one of the totally optional, there-is-no-way-in-hell-you'll-ever-be-able-to-beat-this boss rooms, and still, a randomly generated mini-boss wipes the floor with me a half dozen times, all by himself.

So anyway, the point of this isn't to drive people away, it's a warning. Play the game, enjoy the game, but realize that winning is really only going to happen if you either cheat and enable god-mode, play on Exploration and just muscle thru the 1-5 encounters in the entire game that really give you any problems, or have silly silly dumb good luck. lol