June: Ravenloft: Strahd's Possession

[rusty_shackleford]

PS : When I will get the badge?

End of the month and/or when I find a suitable badge.

[Tweed]

Use the batman logo.

[rusty_shackleford]

@WhiteShark @Oyster Sauce This is available on the weebsystems in weeblanguage fyi

[WaterMage]

Is this based on 1E or 2E? I see the manual says cleric is available to all races, and that's not 1E.

Considering the date, I assume 2e. Eye of the Beholder 1 seems to be 2e and is years earlier.

[rusty_shackleford]

I made a human paladin + halfling cleric, got a bit in and realized I don't know the controls at all so it's time to read the manual.

[wndrbr]

The UI is very unintuitive. Sometimes you need to press LMB to enter certain menus, but you can't use LMB to exit them - to exit you need to press RMB. You need to go into inventory in order to see the spells list. Esc doesn't work.

Really dated stuff.

[rusty_shackleford]

I have convinced the steamjews to put the games(both ravenloft games) on sale, you are welcome.

[Watser]

Completed Tower of Time so it's time to give this a spin. Getting completely lost in the controls I likewise had to succumb to reading the manual.
Now, DrWatson (dorf fighter/cleric) and his assistant VanSpelsin (half-elf fighter/mage) has set out on a crusade to purge this world.

[Watser]

Every time I want to try and click on something to see if it's interactable I just end up spinning the camera around, and the worgs are running circles around me.

[Watser]

******* great. My cleric got possessed by an angry jew who makes me unable to attack anytime I go in a direction away from the nearby cemetery.
The catch is I can't even access the cemetery yet, and when I want to try and make some main quest progress to access the god **** cemetery the jew just shuts me down.

Motherfucking ****.

[Watser]

Would you have known there to be a hidden button on this screen you would need to press in order to progress?
Can you find it?

► Show Spoiler

I sure as **** couldn't

EDIT: Hint, the following wall contains no secret buttons

[Kalarion]

That's my best guess. Is the fact there's a button on the wall mentioned anywhere? Either way that's pretty ******.

[Watser]

That's my best guess. Is the fact there's a button on the wall mentioned anywhere? Either way that's pretty ******.

Yeah it's mentioned in the cluebook lolololololol.
The small chirp in the lower left corner is the edge of a button, the rest of the button is covered by the UI...

The game was obviously designed around being played with the freeroam camera view, but I find that borderline unplayable so I've been using grid movement. The issue is, the severe lack of visual clarity makes it very difficult to tell what you can interact with or not, and some items and objects you only really notice when you are at an odd angle. For instance, some items on the ground you cant even see when on the grid and the secret buttons in the church only stand out a distance of half a grid square.
There are even areas you can't get to through the grid but can squeeze by with the free movement.
It's bad enough that every time I try and click on something on the screen I just end up using the mouse movement instead and start spinning around or walking in unintended directions.

It's a mess.

[rusty_shackleford]

Yeah it's mentioned in the cluebook lolololololol.

Many of these games were designed around you paying for a cluebook tho, it was a dishonest way to get more money from customers.

[Watser]

Yeah it's mentioned in the cluebook lolololololol.

Many of these games were designed around you paying for a cluebook tho, it was a dishonest way to get more money from customers.

The issue is the controls were implemented in 3 different ways, and it clashes with how the game was designed to such an extent that simply navigating becomes your number one enemy.
Eye of the Beholder never had issues like this because it was designed around a grid from the beginning.

[rusty_shackleford]

Yeah it's mentioned in the cluebook lolololololol.

Many of these games were designed around you paying for a cluebook tho, it was a dishonest way to get more money from customers.

The issue is the controls were designed to be used in 3 different ways, and it clashes with how the game was designed to such an extent that simply navigating becomes your number one enemy.
Eye of the Beholder never had issues like this because it was designed around a grid from the beginning.

My biggest issue is I keep trying to pick things up and I move the camera.

[Watser]

Many of these games were designed around you paying for a cluebook tho, it was a dishonest way to get more money from customers.

The issue is the controls were designed to be used in 3 different ways, and it clashes with how the game was designed to such an extent that simply navigating becomes your number one enemy.
Eye of the Beholder never had issues like this because it was designed around a grid from the beginning.

My biggest issue is I keep trying to pick things up and I move the camera.

Thank you for proving my point.

[Watser]

Where's my badge

[rusty_shackleford]

Can anyone get me a screenshot of the amulet?
Looking for the inventory icon itself

[SpellSword]

Can anyone get me a screenshot of the amulet?
Looking for the inventory icon itself

► This one?

[rusty_shackleford]

Can anyone get me a screenshot of the amulet?
Looking for the inventory icon itself

► This one?

Did you beat it?

[SpellSword]

Can anyone get me a screenshot of the amulet?
Looking for the inventory icon itself

► This one?

Did you beat it?

Not yet, that screenshot isn't mine. I'm still trying to complete Of Orcs and Men first before tackling either Ravenloft or Dark Sun.

[SpellSword]

Complete one of these in August to get a RARE EXCLUSIVE TIME LIMITED BONUS BADGE in addition to the standard badge:

• June: Ravenloft: Strahd's Possession

When the Junior Adventurer's Guild was running VTMB it got me in the mood to stake a vampire and now I finally have the free time to do it

Just finished reading the manual it's time to take on Strahd!



I'll be going with a party of a Paladin & Cleric/Mage for maximum undead hunting potential.

Aside from the grim presence of level draining monsters is there any deadlocks I should be aware of in Ravenloft: Strahd's Possession? (Bugs/missable key items/etc)

[SpellSword]

If you thought that your bow wasn't softening up the enemy before they got in melee range, here is why:

Ever wonder why Archery sucks so bad in the first Ravenloft game? It's actually because there's an error in the game code. Arrows always do 0 damage. If you've ever killed anything with a bow in Strahd's Possession, it was Undead and you were using an Undead Slaying arrow, because everything else just bounces harmlessly to the ground.

This is a problem I discovered way back in the day of release, but I don't believe it's well known. It stems from the fact that there were two versions of Strahd's Possession, a disk based and a CD based. The CD based included voices and new characters and quests, and it's the one being offered on GOG. Now, when these new quests were added in, some new items needed to be added too, causing a reorganization of OBJECTS.DAT. The arrows were moved to a new position in the hex code, but unfortunately their damage values were left behind, so now the hex for their damage reads 00 in all six instances, instead of the correct 01 06 00 01 06 00 (for sm - 1d6+0, lrg - 1d6+0).

I've made a working copy of Objects.Dat that will repair the issue, but I'm not sure if GOG is interested in community fixes to 27 year old games. If you'd like to fix it yourself, I've included an image of the exact hex that needs to be edited. Or, like, don't use bows like you've been doing. I'm just happy to see this issue finally be documented.

Happy gaming.

[SpellSword]

Victory!

Strahd is vanquished!

► Ending Screen Spoilers

► A Few Random Thoughts

Loved the characters and atmosphere.
Endless level draining monsters!
Some of the hidden buttons are concealed too well.
Jorn "Fuzzy" McGirk did the voice for the werewolf.
Treants swarm!!!

Overall Game Rating For Ravenloft: Strahd's Possession


I got the feeling they wanted to do more with some of the areas than they had time for. There was a lot of unused space like the second floor of the Blood on the Vine inn. Although I hated some moments (A few buttons are very VERY hidden.) the character interactions did remain a highlight and I looked forward to them throughout the game. And although combat was mostly mindless the final fight with Strahd proved reasonably engaging. A flawed game but not a bad one.

[1998]

MERRY CHRISTMAS @Oyster Sauce

[1998]

► A Few Random Thoughts

Some of the hidden buttons are concealed too well.

Having an elf in your party really helps with that aspect...

[Tangerine]

And another one down. Completed.

► Show Spoiler

rsp_02.PNG

The team.

rsp_03.PNG

Good to see they're respecting gender. Brings a tear to my eye.

rsp_01.PNG

Thoughts:
I found a lot of the character chatter to be charming as they related what was going on to their racial knowledge. One particular example that stood out was the elf saying people don't mind him barging into their homes because people tend to see elves as good omens. It's a little thick on the fantasy tropes, but it's refreshing to see them played straight rather than subverted. The length of the game (~15 hours) felt good and I'd like to see more RPG series with entries around this play time. The game does a really good job with ambience too, with both sound and music. The combat's a bit rough and there are annoyances like level draining, but it's serviceable.

[Kain]

I have convinced the steamjews to put the games(both ravenloft games) on sale, you are welcome.

Why are you helping those pigs get more money?

[J1M]

Any setup tips for this one? When I click to turn it often turns twice. Additionally the combat is so fast that it can't be what was intended. Is there an auto-attack?