Conference hydra::amiga_v1

4574.0. "Wizardry: Bane of the Cosmic Forge" by RAVEN1::HEFFELFINGER (Tut, tut. It looks like rain.) Thu Mar 07 1991 22:23

    Title: Bane of the Cosmic Forge
    Publisher: Sir-Tech

    Capsule comment:  Bard's Tale meets Dungeon Master.

    Graphics: 6  (Can you say "EGA" boys and girls?)
    Sound: 7
    Playability: 9
    User interface: 8 (using keyboard)  5 (using mouse)
    Overall impression: 8.9  (would be much higher if the graphics were
    Amigized)

    "Wizardry" and "Amiga" can now be said in the same breath.  And what's
    said can be repeated in nice place like this.  Sir-Tech had its doors
    blown off a number of years ago by EA's "The Bard's Tale."  I'm here to
    tell you that they're catching back up.  After about 10 or 15 hours of
    work, I've decided that I'm enjoying it as much as I enjoyed "Bard's
    Tale."  There's nothing particularly new here, but that's okay.


    The game is like just about every other computer game that followed in
    the footsteps of Dungeons and Dragons.  You "roll up" a party of, in
    this case, 6 characters, who go off to slay monsters, learn spells,
    collect loot, and solve puzzles.  In "Bane" we have a screen that looks
    a little like a Dungeon Master screen done in gaudy EGA colors.  The
    window on the world is in the center of the screen, flanked to the left
    and right by little picture of our heroes, with little bits of
    information.  (Are we dead?  Are we poisoned?  What are we wielding? 
    And so on....)  The control menu is displayed on the bottom third of
    the screen.  The world view is the mouse-eye view popularized by BT and
    DM (and originally, Wizardry) and one moves around the world using
    either the cursor keys (my pref) or the mouse (just a little awkward
    for my taste). Other commands are issued by bringing up a menu
    containing actions such as: cast a spell, change marching order, review
    your characters, etc. There's also a configuration menu to tell "Bane"
    your preferences.  You can permanently tell it where to find the game
    save disk, where to find the game data, whether or not you want the
    sounds, whether you prefer the mouse controls, or the keyboard
    controls, etc.  Bane is easily installable on your hard disk, and copy
    protection is done by reading some particularly nasty rune out of a
    cherry sheet booklet. (The worst part of Bane, IMHO.)

    Fighting is done very much like BT, and very unlike DM.  You give your
    team their orders in one lump, and then they carry them out.  Actually,
    I have no preference between the BT and DM styles.  I can appreciate
    them both. (What I DON'T like is the Ultima style of combat.  Never
    have liked the Ultima series.)


    The graphics are not pretty.  If you look at the data files you'll note
    that many of them are named *.EGA (or is that #?.EGA).  It looks as
    though Sir-Tech just took their, EGA pics and wrote an EGA engine for
    the Amiga to display them.  Like Dungeon Master, Bane's view of the
    world has animated monsters.  Unlike DM, Bane's are pretty jerky.

    Sound consists mainly of sampled sound effects that aren't always
    appropriate to the situation.  Nothing here to excite, but then it's
    very hard to beat DM's use of stereo.

    But despite the sub-par graphics and sound, I really like Bane.  I like
    its feel and so far it seems pretty balanced.  Unlike BT, I have not
    spent hours restoring characters from the save disk just to get my
    party going. Sure I've died a few times but, Bane seems to have
    thoughtfully given us a good place to get strong.  I'll soon be heading
    on to sterner stuff, I'm sure, but the first level of the castle is a
    pretty good place to start.

    Playing off of my slow hard disk, I found the disk accesses to be
    barely noticable.  I haven't found myself waiting for the disk at all.
    
    Through the magic of Amiga multitasking, I just tried to run Bane while
    running VLT.  I had enough memory (still had 1.5M out of 3) free, but
    doing both isn't practical.  Sir-Tech committed the sin of reading the
    keyboard directly, (or at least ahead of Intuition).  So my keystrokes
    were not being recorded in the shell that I'd opened to do an AVAIL. 
    So you multi-tasking fans might want to pass.

    Otherwise, BT fans won't be disappointed.  DM fans who really get off on 
    its real-time nature, might be.


    -Gary

    
    	Has anyone figured out how to lower the drawbridge yet 
    
    	and if so could a spoiler be provided ?
    

    Re .1
    
    Drawbridge??!  I haven't even figured out how to deal with the belfry
    yet.  :-)
    
    
    -Gary
    

    Awright!  If there's anyone playing this stinkin' game could you give
    me a hand?  I'm stuck in several places with jammed doors and I can't
    find keys that work.  I'm most ticked off at the door I come to when I
    swing across the hole in the belfry.  The bell rings, I fight off a
    half-dozen bats, and then I curse at a door that's jammed before I've
    even tried anything.  What am I doing wrong?
    
    -Gary

    
    	Doors ? Doors are opened the appropriate skill or a key (ie:Some
    doors require Keys). So far as I know all gates require Keys. The
    door in the Belfry requires a specific Key, you will know which Key by
    it's name.

    I just got the game this weekend. I admit I am lame at mapping, and
    just strolling around I get the impression it would be difficult to map 
    because of the many levels in the castle. I saw the latest issue of The
    Best of PD at my dealers. It says it contains the (complete)
    maps for this game . If they are in the PD do we have them yet? The
    disk also has SEA Lance,a utility to replace the amiga voice with
    real digitized sounds(using translater) and some other neat stuff. I
    just have an adversion to buying PD stuff. Has anyone sent in for the
    hint book for $5.00 ? if so how is it?
    
    I don't like the method of combat as well as DM. Is their a way to
    pause other than selecting Review,or another such action ?
    								bill

    I spent the entire weekend playing this game. I recieved my map book
    from Sir Tech,(in two days)and that inspired me. I have to get used to 
    not being real time as in DM, aside from that I am enjoying the game.
    I looked at the maps that are in the PD and they are more complete than
    the ones I recieved from Sir Tech. I don't think Sir Tech wanted to
    spoil the game by giving too much info. The maps that are on disk are
    made so that it is hard to print them out. You have to scroll around
    the page using a view program. 
    	In regard to the Drawbridge, There is an item you pick up early on
    that will be needed(I haven't seen the bridge yet)and then a complex
    set of things that need to be done. It would be nice to go it without
    help but I don't think I'd ever finish it without the maps. Has anybody
    figured out an easy way to gauge the effectivness of the various
    weapons ? I found I made a few silly purchases from the trader, and
    that I wasted a lot of spell power eary on. Now I am TRYING to fine
    rogues etc so I can progress to another level, where at first I was
    trying to avoid them. I wish I'd have stayed in a few of the places
    that tended to generate nasties now. You go back later,and they are
    pretty much empty.
    							bill

    Bill has uploaded the maps mentioned in -.1 and they can be found on
    CRISTA""::AMIGA:, as:

                          BANEMAPS.LZH          123

    They are all hi-res and require a viewer that let's you scroll around
    (ie/ Mostra, SuperView) since they are larger than 640x400.

    Pete

    
    Hey,
    
    since there it is some time ago since the last reply, I hope that 
    there are some real experienced BotCF-Players to help me.
    
    I'm stuck in the following situation:
    
    I opened the door with the two ruby eyeballs. Now I'm standing in
    front of a lake or s.th.. There is a symbol which shows a boat
    carrying a tomb in flames across the water.
    I tried everything, but I can't cross the water.
    
    Any hints,
    Joey