Re: Odyssey HQ-1 Lessons/Questions

From: Chris Conley <quixote>

Date: Fri, 15 Sep 1995 00:00:00 +0000

DLUKE@msu.edu (Doug Luke) wrote:
>Well, I got my first turn results back, and The Hidden Hand didn't do
>as poorly as I feared! After wading through the results I think I have
>a better handle on things, but I also have some new questions. I'd also
>like to just talk in general about the game, trade tips, etc. (Also, if
>anyone in the Wastes/Fringe areas would like to team up, let me know!)
>
>1) Is there any useful purpose for dead prisoners?

Nope, unless they're cool enough to resurrect and BEFRIEND.  Free 'em and
let 'em go.

>2) What about live prisoners? I assume that I can try to get them to join
>my party. If I execute them will I get their gold/items? (Not that I would
>ever do that!)

Well, there's a nice little trick with live prisoners that can prove useful.
See, if you FREE a prisoner into your own party, that prisoner will fight
WITH you for the turn, after which he'll leave the party.  Not too great at
the moment, but if you can CAPTURE a nice Grey Ooze or other potent beastie,
it can prove useful...

Otherwise, you should have stripped any monster/character which you captured
in combat.  If they're not slowing you down, there's no particular reason not
to keep 'em with you.  If they are, you can free or execute 'em, whichever
suits your fancy.

>3) My bashing party (2 good fighters and a so/so magic user) were on there
>way to a particular den, when they were attacked by a party from another
>den! Is hiding the only way to avoid this? This didn't turn out too badly,
>because we defeated the party and got a lot of gold and some interesting
>looking items. However, there appears to be some loot left over which my
>party 'ignored' as they continued moving on to their original destination.
>When we reached that province we couldn't attack because my one live prisoner
>was just too tuckered out. So, this makes me wonder about a few things. Like,
>how quickly do dens restock? If I skedaddle back to the first den, will that
>den loot still be there?

HIDEing is the only way to avoid being attacked by hostile dens.  Note that
the "hostile" flag is a *den* feature, so the same dens will always attack
wayward parties.  (At least, that's the way I understand it.)  And dens
take at least 2 turns to restock, so you should have no problem cleaning
the empty den out.

>4) I screwed up in my setup by giving the Dark One status to my scout instead
>of my deceiver. How can my deceiver get this status? I don't think there is
>a spell for it.

Nope; the only way to get the non-spell status chains is via markers or
items.

>5) How can you use items in guilds without stealing them? I think that my
>deceiver is not quite ready to steal from guilds yet!

Well, you can just CLAIM the guild, but that's not much of an option just
yet (in most cases).  Basically, you can either risk BURGLEing the guild
(with a couple of following ESCAPE orders as a safety clause) or you can
wait.  (Or, if it's an item that can be equipped, you can just BUY it...)

>6) I found a marker that has the notation [Quest End] instead of the feature
>id. I assume that this will be used at the end of a quest. Any reason to
>investigate it now?

Well, if you VIEW it, you might be able to find out where the quest starts.
You could then finish it without needing much exploration, since most of
the quests seem to start in the populated areas (like New Haven, Illuminus
and such...)

>7) I don't know if this is a bug (unlikely), a feature (possibly), or simply
>my misunderstanding the rules (almost a sure bet!). In my bashing party, I
>had set the encounters for each character so that my two fighters rushed in
>and my magic user stayed back where he could use spells and his crossbow.
>However, when we were attacked, he did not stay back. Instead he was right
>in the thick of things, attacking with his bare hands! Needless to say, he
>was badly injured and never got an offensive spell off. My report does show
>that he is not charging. What gives?

Most likely, someone or something charged him.  Mages can't cast spells
when they're engaged in hand-to-hand combat, and there's no way to "back
off".  (Which is why they're of very questionable value to den-bashing
groups, unless you outnumber the opposition.)

>8) Last question (for now, at least). Can anyone give me information about
>how to get the Arcane Adept title? I have a hint about it, but not a t code.
>I'm willing to trade some other info for it.

Give me a little while, and I'll post all the information from the
playtest that I have.  (I have to upload the files from my PC, which I've
finally unpacked from my move...)  I expect that the information that we
have from the playtest is still accurate - there have been some additions
to the database, but I doubt that there were many changes to the previous
items/titles/etc.

- Chris

References

Odyssey HQ-1 Lessons/Questions
DLUKE@msu.edu (Doug Luke)
Thu, 14 Sep 1995 00:00:00 +0000

Referenced By

Odyssey HQ-1 Lessons/Questions
DLUKE@msu.edu (Doug Luke)
Thu, 14 Sep 1995 00:00:00 +0000