Thunderscape-general questions
M Burgess
I have also just started Thunderscape.I seem to recall someone posting
with some bug problems so could someone please let me know:
Any bugs been found?
What skills (ie stealth/merchant/lockpick)I should definately be
boosting?
Any opinions on good starting party (race/professions)?
Any FAQs/walkthroughs available?
Thanks in advance.Please post replies as i'm "borrowing" my works net
link.
MB
Marcus A. Spears
I know there's a few bugs; I can't remember what they all are. There is a patch
to version 1.1 which supposedly fixes the most major bugs. You can probably
download it from SSI's web page (http://www.ssionline.com/cgi-bin/start), and
you can also download it from the Dresden archives on ftp.cdrom.com.
The default starting party is pretty good, except for the thief. Her primary
weapons skill is Fencing, and there are no magical fencing weapons until more
than halfway through the game. There are plenty of good Swords, though; the
easy solution is to write down her attributes and skills, then create a new
character, but use Swords instead of Fencing skill.
The skills to work on: You should have at least one character with the Xenology
skill; at high levels (100+), you can right-click on a monster and see its exact
weaknesses, hit points, amount of damage it can do, etc. You also need at least
one character with a high See Secrets skill and another with Pick Locks skill.
The Spellcasting skill is important for all characters. Stealth can be useful
to a Thief if you intend to use her ability to backstab. Acrobatics is supposed
to reduce the damage from falls; it's hard to tell.
The other non-weapon skills are either totally useless (e.g. Pick Pockets, which
you'll never get a chance to use), or almost useless (e.g. Merchant; there's
only three shops in the entire game, and by the time you get to the second
shop in Karegh Konan, you'll have more money than you need so you won't have
to worry about bargaining anyway), so don't worry about them. Early in the
game, until your characters get decent armor and weapons, it might not be a bad
idea to have one character with at least a little Fast Talk skill; sometimes you
can bribe more intelligent monsters to leave you alone.
Focus on one primary weapons skill and one secondary weapons skill per
character; and make sure they're different types of weapons (blunt, piercing,
swinging, etc.) since some monsters are very resistant (or even immune) to some
weapon types; for example, skeletons are totally immune to piercing weapons.
Then, as the characters go up in experience, continue to focus on the same
skills. When I finished Thunderscape, most of my characters were 45th-50th
level, with a skill of up to 600 in their primary weapon.
Hope this helps! :)
Victor Laking
ci...@cityscape.co.uk (M Burgess) writes:
>I have also just started Thunderscape.I seem to recall someone posting
>with some bug problems so could someone please let me know:
>Any bugs been found?
I have run into a bug which caused my sound (SFX and speech) to disappear
completely. The upgrade patch is supposed to fix it but it didn't work.
>What skills (ie stealth/merchant/lockpick)I should definately be
>boosting?
>Any opinions on good starting party (race/professions)?
I went for a knight, monk, rogue and wizard. There are some races that
are well matched to each of these but it depends on what you want. For
example, I sacrificed the extra thieving skills by not taking a thief so
I chose a race with high dexterity.
As to skills, I found the healer needs magic but the wizard isn't as
useful (except that they both have the same spells anyway so I don't know
what the real difference is between the healer and the wizard. They both
have the same specialty of skills: spells, pole arm, xenology, and merchant.
I would recommend building up lockpicking on your thief/rogue/swashbuckler.
Let the rest of the thieving skills go until a bit later.
I have mostly tried to get each character built up with their weapon and
shield skills.
>Any FAQs/walkthroughs available?
Yes, I have a walkthrough for the game which looks to be pretty good
except that it doesn't help me with the current problem. I believe that
you can get it from http://www.gamespot.com/
To anyone else that has played Thunderscape:
In the Halls of Vangard Keep there are four keys that need to be found
and used to patially open a wall with a door behind it. I have found and
used all four keys but can't get any farther. The walkthrough says to
"hit the switch" but fails to mention WHERE the switch is! It isn't in
the same room with the door & locks and I can't find it anywhere else.
When the last key was used a pedestal raised up in the room. Is there
any special purpose to this? I searched it VERY carefully for any
switches but it is just a blank-surfaced pedestal.
Martin Eberhartinger
v...@MBnet.MB.CA (Victor Laking) wrote:
>To anyone else that has played Thunderscape:
>In the Halls of Vangard Keep there are four keys that need to be found
>and used to patially open a wall with a door behind it. I have found and
>used all four keys but can't get any farther. The walkthrough says to
>"hit the switch" but fails to mention WHERE the switch is! It isn't in
>the same room with the door & locks and I can't find it anywhere else.
I just found 3 keys, but they open the wall far enough to jump up and
click on the door. But I couldn't finish the next level: The game
always crashed. The patch couldn't help me - too bad.
>When the last key was used a pedestal raised up in the room. Is there
>any special purpose to this? I searched it VERY carefully for any
>switches but it is just a blank-surfaced pedestal.
I donno know
Bye
Harti
David Thompson
On Mon, 02 Sep 1996 13:22:50 GMT, ci...@cityscape.co.uk (M Burgess)
wrote:
>I have also just started Thunderscape.I seem to recall someone posting
>with some bug problems so could someone please let me know:
>Any bugs been found?
>What skills (ie stealth/merchant/lockpick)I should definately be
>boosting?
>Any opinions on good starting party (race/professions)?
>Any FAQs/walkthroughs available?
>Thanks in advance.Please post replies as i'm "borrowing" my works net
>link.
>
>MB
>
I believe most of the bugs were fixed, but for me the game was
ruined by the atrocious automap. If it had been a stellar CRPG I would
have slogged through it anyway, but since it was only mediocre I just
couldn't justify wandering around in circles or trying to find my old
stacks of graph paper.
I mean, Ultima Underworld had an excellent automap designed more
than 3 years before Thunderscape was released, and for an environment
that was almost as complex. Even the limited mapping including with
Wizardry 7 was a LOT better than this.
King Monkey
Victor Laking wrote:
>
> ci...@cityscape.co.uk (M Burgess) writes:
>
<snip>
> >What skills (ie stealth/merchant/lockpick)I should definately be
> >boosting?
> >Any opinions on good starting party (race/professions)?
>
> I went for a knight, monk, rogue and wizard. There are some races that
> are well matched to each of these but it depends on what you want. For
> example, I sacrificed the extra thieving skills by not taking a thief so
> I chose a race with high dexterity.
>
> As to skills, I found the healer needs magic but the wizard isn't as
> useful (except that they both have the same spells anyway so I don't know
> what the real difference is between the healer and the wizard. They both
> have the same specialty of skills: spells, pole arm, xenology, and merchant.
>
> I would recommend building up lockpicking on your thief/rogue/swashbuckler.
> Let the rest of the thieving skills go until a bit later.
>
> I have mostly tried to get each character built up with their weapon and
> shield skills.
>
Also, when your warriors gain levels, give raise their spellcasting
ability
a tiny bit. This way they will start gaining mana and will be able to
cast
healing spells...
> >Any FAQs/walkthroughs available?
>
> Yes, I have a walkthrough for the game which looks to be pretty good
> except that it doesn't help me with the current problem. I believe that
> you can get it from http://www.gamespot.com/
>
> To anyone else that has played Thunderscape:
>
> In the Halls of Vangard Keep there are four keys that need to be found
> and used to patially open a wall with a door behind it. I have found and
> used all four keys but can't get any farther. The walkthrough says to
> "hit the switch" but fails to mention WHERE the switch is! It isn't in
> the same room with the door & locks and I can't find it anywhere else.
>
> When the last key was used a pedestal raised up in the room. Is there
> any special purpose to this? I searched it VERY carefully for any
> switches but it is just a blank-surfaced pedestal.
I haven't played in a while, but I thought the switch was on the
pedestal. I have
heard that one of the bugs involves switches not being where they are
supposed to
be. I heard the only way to fix it is to take your characters off the
broken
level and save the game, then go to the save game directory and delete
the file
for the broken level. You will have to go through that level again, but
the switch
should hopefully be there this time.
--
/\
=**=
/\/\/\/\/\/\/\
\ KingMonkey /
\__________/ @earthlink.net
The Misanthrope (and his goat)
> >and used to patially open a wall with a door behind it. I have found
and
> >used all four keys but can't get any farther. The walkthrough says to
> >"hit the switch" but fails to mention WHERE the switch is! It isn't in
> >the same room with the door & locks and I can't find it anywhere else.
> click on the door. But I couldn't finish the next level: The game
> always crashed. The patch couldn't help me - too bad.
He's right. I never found the fourth key, either, but it didn't stop me
from getting past here. (BTW, in case you haven't gotten past yet, you're
gonna lose the rhinoheaded guy right past this door. Depressing.)
> >When the last key was used a pedestal raised up in the room. Is there
> >any special purpose to this? I searched it VERY carefully for any
> >switches but it is just a blank-surfaced pedestal.
After the pedestal is raised (funny, I got it after the first key), you
turn around so the door is at your back and the button is on that pedestal.
If your screen is too dark, you may not be able to see it, since as I
recall it's VERY close to the color of the pedestal. Just click around and
you should find it.
Just as a warning-- a friend of mine borrowed the game from me and had to
stop due to almost the same problem on the last level of the Radiant
Citadel-- one of the buttons just wouldn't show up. If you ARE having this
problem, it may, in fact, be one of those annoying Undocumented Software
Features that you find once in a while.
TM(&G)