I have worked at finishing ToEE for a few years. Kept making progress but got tired of fighting the bugs/glitches so I would set it aside for a while. Finally I gutted it out and completed it with my first party. As an aside, I did it without using the patches or Co8 mods.
In retrospect I must say I really enjoyed it even though it has been a long haul. I will enjoy finishing my other couple of parties. The game will all its flaws does capture so much of the PnP style of play I remember. I recommend toughing it out if you started it.
Completed at Last
-
Philos
- Posts: 781
- Joined: Wed Aug 18, 2004 12:07 pm
- Location: Near the house that Elvis built
- Contact:
Completed at Last
UNCOMMON VALOR WAS A COMMON VIRTUE
Congreatulations! I still have to complete this one, but my experience told me to only touch it patched and Co8'ed. I agree that this is the closest you'll get to P&P on a PC. I actually liked the questsolving in the village as much as the combat in the Temple.
Man, I'd love to play this with more classes and Prestige Classes & Races available.
Man, I'd love to play this with more classes and Prestige Classes & Races available.
Yay for the purists.
Having not so long ago finished it myself - I must say, last battle requires a really balanced or a gimmicky party. Out of all my characters - only a recruited giant was able to damage the boss. Others lacked magic weapons\strength needed to penetrate its DR(I guess it's my fault for making my main fighter a dwarf with a dwarven axe - of which there are none in game, but who could know this beforehand).
Still a very enjoyable, albeit clunky, game - it really does capture the PnP feel.
My only wish is that it wasn't Temple of Elemental Evil but rather - Various Locations of Elemental Evil. I really like more exploration, side quests and varied locales in my games.
Having not so long ago finished it myself - I must say, last battle requires a really balanced or a gimmicky party. Out of all my characters - only a recruited giant was able to damage the boss. Others lacked magic weapons\strength needed to penetrate its DR(I guess it's my fault for making my main fighter a dwarf with a dwarven axe - of which there are none in game, but who could know this beforehand).
Still a very enjoyable, albeit clunky, game - it really does capture the PnP feel.
My only wish is that it wasn't Temple of Elemental Evil but rather - Various Locations of Elemental Evil. I really like more exploration, side quests and varied locales in my games.
-
Philos
- Posts: 781
- Joined: Wed Aug 18, 2004 12:07 pm
- Location: Near the house that Elvis built
- Contact:
[INDENT]By GawainBS
[INDENT]I actually liked the questsolving in the village as much as the combat in the Temple. [/INDENT]
I did as well, I only hit one bug doing them and that was with the "Rescue of Paida" quest but found a way to overcome it. These non-combat quests added to the PnP feeling for me. My group did stuff like that all the time. Not much experience but gave depth and personality to our characters.[/INDENT]
UNCOMMON VALOR WAS A COMMON VIRTUE
TToEE could have been one of the best games of all times. The battles have been really fun, thanks to the complexity and faihfulness of the original P&P abilities. Unfortunately, it suffers from huge problems:
- Total lack of any story at all. Theres little enough storytelling in the first town, and after that point it pretty much dies out completely.
- Riddiculously bugridden. For example, once I hit level 10, I tried getting back from the temple to grab the smith. Well, I couldnt get into town because theres riddiculous lag if you try to. Or I used teleport(!) to finish the timed quest in the end - and the game still claimed I was still TOO SLOW !!! LOL !!!
- The interface was truely awful. For example, countless times I lost a round in a battle because I had klicked some item on the ground that I didnt / couldnt even see, and the character would run there and pick that item up, even if I just wanted to run there and actually attack. Why is the same key used for both movement and picking up stuff ?!? I mean in some battles there have been tons of stuff lying around and it was really close quarters, it was very annoying.
- They went so extreme with the NPCs that they are simply useless. The wizard for example grabs all spells, so why would anyone want to have him in their party ? Also they would steal from the hard earned money, slow down the xp progression, had bad stats etc.
- Absurd strictness in following the original rules and no way to disable them. And why did we get an ironman mode that doesnt even follow the rules anyway ?
- Quite frankly I dont get how you're supposed to win against that one demon near the end. It was like CR 24 or something like that. According to the rules, you are simply supposed to lose. You wouldnt even gain xp anymore from this encounter if you did it in PvP. Only way I could surive was using bugs.
- Total lack of any story at all. Theres little enough storytelling in the first town, and after that point it pretty much dies out completely.
- Riddiculously bugridden. For example, once I hit level 10, I tried getting back from the temple to grab the smith. Well, I couldnt get into town because theres riddiculous lag if you try to. Or I used teleport(!) to finish the timed quest in the end - and the game still claimed I was still TOO SLOW !!! LOL !!!
- The interface was truely awful. For example, countless times I lost a round in a battle because I had klicked some item on the ground that I didnt / couldnt even see, and the character would run there and pick that item up, even if I just wanted to run there and actually attack. Why is the same key used for both movement and picking up stuff ?!? I mean in some battles there have been tons of stuff lying around and it was really close quarters, it was very annoying.
- They went so extreme with the NPCs that they are simply useless. The wizard for example grabs all spells, so why would anyone want to have him in their party ? Also they would steal from the hard earned money, slow down the xp progression, had bad stats etc.
- Absurd strictness in following the original rules and no way to disable them. And why did we get an ironman mode that doesnt even follow the rules anyway ?
- Quite frankly I dont get how you're supposed to win against that one demon near the end. It was like CR 24 or something like that. According to the rules, you are simply supposed to lose. You wouldnt even gain xp anymore from this encounter if you did it in PvP. Only way I could surive was using bugs.