Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!bonnie.concordia.ca!thunder.mcrcim.mcgill.edu!snorkelwacker.mit.edu!apple!usc!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!swrinde!ucsd!ucrmath!lord_zar From: lord_zar@ucrmath.ucr.edu (wayne wallace) Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.games Subject: Re: REVIEW: Pool of Radiance Message-ID: Date: 11 Jan 91 00:58:11 GMT References: <5206@bwdls58.UUCP> Organization: University of California, Riverside Lines: 191 keithh@bwdls40.bnr.ca (Keith Hanlan) writes: > Pool of Radiance is a good game trapped within a terrible user interface. I have some disagreement there. I have solved pool on the Amiga, so I'm in a better position to judge than you, since I had to use the "terrible user interface" far longer. > big (484 vs 256). 16x16 is a little small and somewhat lacking in > 'atmosphere'. There is also some wilderness adventure but I have not > yet reached that state (and may never) so cannot comment on it. Wilderness has some truly challenging encounters, including Phase Spiders, a very deadly menace, totally unlike "40 kobold" fights. > Speaking of detail: the walls have very little detail and > perspective is not handled as well as in Bard's Tale. In BT, it is > possible to map a great distance ahead, 5 or 6 sectors, if your > light is good enough. In PoR, it is difficult to interpret the walls > more than one sector distant. You must resort to the over-head, 2D > 'Area' perspective that the game offers you. This also allows you to > cheat somewhat although it doesn't show you where doors or arches > are. Why the hell are you even mapping ? The game provides it FOR you. If your memory is poor enough that you need copious notes, xerox a friend's cluebook! Oy. Otherwise, just note down which area (middle, NE corner, etc.) something important is in, and sketch the corridors within a 4x4 area of said places. > o There is no type-ahead and the game uses polled i/o. This is > unforgivable! While I am grateful that the game can be installed on > my hard-drive and that it multitasks the polling chews up so much > cpu as to seriously debilitate the Amiga's multi-tasking > capability. The other side effect is that there is no type-ahead. This > slows down game play interminably. In any game involving repetitive > maze navigation, the player becomes accustomed to the key strokes > necessary to move about. Consider movement in Bard Tale where it is > possible to move the characters about very rapidly indeed. In PoR, > this is impossible. I experienced no problems. I frequently held down my forward cursor key to move, and as for menus, I can't say. I'm not a fast enough typist (I might barely make typing 101 from self-taught hunt&peck + some memorization of keyboard layout. I'm definitely better than someone inexperienced) to encounter such a problem. > o Every command and output message involves a very slow re-display > of the text. This is bizzare and also contributes to the gameplay > slow-down. It's doubly strange in light of the fact that the > graphic display is updated very quickly indeed. Dork. Encamp. Alter. Speed. Set it to zero or one. it starts on two. Dork. > o On the other hand, output messages all appear in the same space > and always overwrite each other. Frequently one misses the output > entirely. In fact, due to the continual refreshing it is possible > to be oblivious to the text and not even realize that you have > missed it. If these last two comments sound like text display is > paradoxically too fast and too slow simultaneously, that's about > how I feel about it. It took a mighty poor design team to come up > with this display mechanism. I agree. I don't suffer the problem, however, because I scan text faster than 80-90% of computer users I know, so I miss virtually nothing. > o The command menus are illogically ordered. Some items are > accessible almost everywhere and others inaccessible except in > special situations. For example, it is possible to 'pool' the group's > funds when purchasing goods but not when purchasing training. > Instead, you have to 'trade' money from character to character. > This is only one of many examples. The designers made absolutely > no attempt to streamline the menus according to frequency of player > use. (Did they have play testers? Perhaps not - the credits don't > mention any.) I hated this too. At least blades solved it by eliminating training costs. > o In keeping with the poor quality of information display, it is > impossible to examine a player's attributes during combat until it > is his turn to act. Further, once a character is injured, there is > no way, AT ALL, to determine what his full hit-points are. Thus > when a cleric wants to distribute healing, it is impossible to > distinguish between a character merely scratched (down 1 hp), and > a more seriously injured character (say, down 10hp). Strategy is > thus difficult to apply during a combat. Which fighter do you go > help when you can't tell whether either of them are bleeding? Correct. I saw it first implemented as you request in Secret of the Silver Blades on my friend's C-64. It was nice of them to get around to it. Now if they'd just retrograde this to pool and curse. Myself, I simply remember it all. Don't ask me how. I know AD&D better than calculus :) > o Combat in general has its own host of problems but most of these > are of the same flavour as mentioned above. Suffice to say it is > slow, slow, slow!! In keeping with AD&D, (where if you aren't > following the Gygax Gospel EXACTLY, well then, you are a stupid > heathen who doesn't merit the name 'gamer'), realism is pursued by Go buy Eye of the Beholder. Forgotten Realms. Waterdeep. 2ND EDITION!!!!!! Out now or in 2 weeks. Advertisement in Dragon #165, out now. > pasting kludges upon kludges, typically at the expense of > playability. Disengaging from combat is a good example: Even if > the enemy you are adjacent to has his hands full with three > adversaries, if you back away he gets a free strike at your rear > with bonuses. Yes. And bouncing lightning bolts do damage twice. 2nd ed. changes this to one damage amount, 2 saves. Fail even one, and take full damage. > Another problem I have with the combat is that there are too many > 40-kobold attacks and not enough fewer-but-more-challenging-enemy > attacks. This of course aggravates a combat system suffering from > continual text re-refreshes. The last half of the game is better. Excuse me. LAST TWO MISSIONS. I agree. Fodder is mostly all PCs (Player Characters) can handle at low levels(1-4). Play Curse & Blades for challenging, non-fodder encounters!!!!!!! > o The graphics are very poor. I understand the requirement for > portability but that doesn't require that they distribute the > lowest quality graphics across all platforms. B.S. You want graphics like Dungeon Master ? Buy Eye of the Beholder. New interface similar to Dungeon Master. Open Dragon #165 to the center. Read right-side page. Out for IBM AND AMIGA SIMULTANEOUSLY!!!!!!! No mention of C-64, unfortunately. > Why don't the graphic artists draw in a high resolution and then > use one of the innumerable format conversion programs (the best of > which are free such as fbm and pbm) to 'scale down' the graphics > to each appropriate platform? In fact, the dithering etc that is > done by these programs is incredible and would result in better > looking graphics even for the EGA outputs. I'm all for it. > o The manual has problems, largely stemming from the countless > nested single-line menus. It is difficult to find particular > topics and there is neither index nor cross-reference. Read the manual all the way thru. Once. You don't need it hardly any of the time. I never used it after not even 1/8 of the way thru the game. If you can't find a menu choice, pick a random one, and see if you get a sub- menu. Some people complain over nothing. Write down what you get on a 3x5 card if you need to. > o The game doesn't take advantage of all the memory available to do > caching. Each sector is loaded and unloaded every time you enter > and exit even if you have the memory to contain it. The same is > true of character and monster graphics. Pretty mickey mouse. True, but I wouldn't call it mickey-mouse, I'd call it: (heard from Electronics Boutique employee) SSI sent source code to UBI Soft. UBI couldn't make an Amiga translation exactly, + sounds & FX. UBI failed twice. SSI said screw it, took UBI's code, which probably started to resemble Bard's Tale MCMLXXX, rewrote it into Pool of Radiance proper, credited UBI for their code in the game, and shipped it. > o Apparently the sequel, Curse of the Azure Bonds, has made no > improvements and this fact, more than any other has convinced me > that the designers have absolutely no interest in professionalism. Possibly true, but the encounters are better, and it might just be me, as a hybrid wargamer/role-player, but I liked Curse on my C-64, (didn't get around to solving it 'cause of slow old 1541) and will buy it for my Amiga. >Hope this helps. Please pressure game producers and designers to work on >their user interfaces! Sounds k00l, but don't just be disgusted, you can still find enjoyment from poorly designed games, by way of the story, game speed, etc. Being a avid AD&D fan of either edition helps as well. >Regards, >Keith Hanlan keithh@bnr.ca Bell-Northern Research, Ottawa, Canada 613-765-4645 Regards, Wayne Wallace * // Only /\ |Lord Zar,Commander Of All He Surveys|Stay Alert! Trust * *\\ // /--\MIGA |(and hater of spaces near commas.) |No One! Keep--AHHHH* * \X/ Internet: lord_zar@ucrmath.ucr.edu QuantumLink & Portal: Lord_Zar * * I'm a Purple Hearts & Yellow Moons kinda guy; I'm vay-teeng for you, dahlink*