'Toe to Toe' with the dragon

[MasterWuuf]

I'm enjoying going through DM with a single person.
I actually stayed in front of the dragon, waiting for him to cause some damage,
then smacking him a couple of times, hoping my levels would reap the 'added experience bonus' someone mentioned earlier.

Poor little dragon eventually died.
(He must have been lonely anyway. He was all alone. )

I even wasted a coin, taking the grand tour through the room by the firestaff gem, where the final resurrection alcove resides.
(I always wondered why that door closed after leaving the close proximity. )

I chose to leave the firestaff for later (first time). I haven't even visited the spider rejuvenation area.

P.S. It was a pleasant feeling, the first time the dragon wasted a fireball over my left shoulder.
(There are some advantages to having a smaller team of heroes.)

I was surprised to find out how easy it was to get through the game with one hero.

[Jan]

Great! I love playing DM with a single character. Whom did you choose? Send us your stats!

But I don't like the spider area... yuck! I always just run around and shut it by the switch. Hate the spiders - and the scorpion regenerating area too!

I think DM is quite easy with one character (except for the first one or two levels). Now, I'm replaying one older custom dungeon - Imprisoned again (a great dungeon, by the way), with one character only (used two or four before), and I'm stuck in the warrior's tower, not able to beat the scorpions with my one poor lonely character.

But that's another story. Anyway, good luck with the spiders!

[beowuuf]

Yeah, sucinum was in favour of having a trained set of characters for his dungeon, you might need a few more levels and perhaps a second front rank person to thump the scorpions.

Worms, Coatyls then Scorpions always scared me, never Spiders funnily! Glad you got to thump the dragon solo! It is amazing how well a single character can cope in what appears to be a four-character game! Definitely tell us your character!

I know Stamm and Halk have always seen me right

[MasterWuuf]

I went with Stamm.
Since he already had an axe, I thought he'd enjoy the Hardcleave,
which I once again had to 'wander around' to find the button to open the wall to get it.

Regarding the spider rejuvination area...
I use poison clouds to start intimidating them, then I poison blast through the gates.
I keep the doors closed, as much as possible, until I have them under control.
I don't figure I'll have much more trouble with one character, as opposed to four.
Sure, tossing four poison blasts, or poison clouds, would be a benefit.

I may decide to 'wade in' early, since I'm having fun 'pushing the limits' of Stamm.

[beowuuf]

Yeah, it's amazing how the no magic tough guys seem to be good one player characters. I think it's the access to good stamina, health, and powerful melee attacks

I think the ultimate challenge is Tiggy, her lack of stamina and carrying capacity is tough. Other people can correct me if I'm wrong!

[Jan]

I've never tried a solo run with Tiggy. It must be really hard! I should try it... once... maybe... definitely not now (*types dm.exe*)

I don't like playing solo with a no-magic character, because I cannot pass the door on level 2 (The vault, I think), and thus cannot access the gold key... I know, I don't need it, but it... sort of... makes me nervous, to know that the key is lying there and I can't get it... it makes me feel anxious...

I've always prefered more balanced characters, like Chani.

[zoom]

Jan, you could warcry a priest level or two at the first screamer in level 2, or 1, it is just below hall of heroes.
then you could manage to cast the spell to get to that goldkey
or train further with potions/torch spell.
would like to do a solorun with Tiggy which is hard.. banging into walls is not nice and mummies kill you right off the spot

Would do no speed run though, using only lightning bolt spell
(since she has the best hidden light skill stat, I thought if you use omly that spell it could
actually be of some worth eventually).

[beowuuf]

The teowand is not too far in to level 4 Jan - you can always backtrack and release the key then ;D

[Trantor]

I agree that a solo game is surprisingly easy. The tough fighter-types are always the best characters, in all games, in all dungeons. A high strength score and lots of HP are the best things that can happen to you. It's funny that I once was a "pure magic" player and have gradually shifted to using melee almost exclusively. I'm currently playing Dark Reign, and my reincarnated characters are all around Craftsman/Artisan fighters and only Novice wizards.

Considering a Tiggy solo run, I don't think it would be especially hard since there are few spots in DM that are actually challenging if you know your way around (the spider chamber is probably the hardest place in the dungeon for solo runs). I always wanted to reincarnate Tiggy and sent her straight into CSB, as CSB was surprisingly easy with a reincarnated Petal. One day, my friends, one day...

[Jan]

@ Beo and Zoom: Thanks! Oh, boy, do you learn something new every day! Even after 20 years of playing DM...

[sucinum]

and I'm stuck in the warrior's tower, not able to beat the scorpions with my one poor lonely character.

You should be fine if you can scare the scorpion in front of you away (War Cry). It doesn't have too much HP, so you should be able to kill it with fireballs. After that, you can kill the scorpions one by one. I didn't put too many Ful bombs in the dungeon, sorry for that.

[Jan]

@Suci: Thanks. I am able to sneak somehow around the scorpions to the central "DDD" section, but I am not able to do anything on this way. I sort of... forgot where the important key (with a gem) is in this tower... But I'll do it somehow, don't worry. Great dungeon! I love it.

@Masterwuuf: Sorry for this off-topic conversation, I know, it belongs in other thread. It won't happen again. (*ahem*)

[beowuuf]

I knew there was a reason people gunned for you, you OT trouble-maker you ;D

[Jan]

(please, do NOT respond to this post - any response would lead to another silly off-topic reaction of mine... which would eventually lead to banning me from this forum )

OK, OK, I give up. I'll be a good boy now. Let's get back to the topic. What was it... yes... Budweiser beer, yes, yes.

EDIT: Sorry, it wasn't. It was killing a dragon with a single champion, single-handed, single-eyed, with a peg-leg, and a parrot dancing on his left shoulder (I mean the champion's shoulder, not dragon's).

[Sophia]

The only one who gets banned for going off-topic is Trantor, and really, that's just an excuse.

[beowuuf]

Yeah, don't worry Jan, different forum, different rules - we ban Trantor in the end here

[Trantor]

[Sophia]

Look on the bright side, Trantor... you've long since displaced Zed as Duke of Banville.

[beowuuf]

QFF

[MasterWuuf]

Yeah, it's amazing how the no magic tough guys seem to be good one player characters. I think it's the access to good stamina, health, and powerful melee attacks

I think the ultimate challenge is Tiggy, her lack of stamina and carrying capacity is tough. Other people can correct me if I'm wrong!

I almost mentioned that I thought I'd try it with Tiggy next.
I figure she'll have 'bulging' muscles by the time I leave the screamer room.
I can just picture Tiggy with the Hardcleave.

[MasterWuuf]

@Suci: Thanks. I am able to sneak somehow around the scorpions to the central "DDD" section, but I am not able to do anything on this way. I sort of... forgot where the important key (with a gem) is in this tower... But I'll do it somehow, don't worry. Great dungeon! I love it.

@Masterwuuf: Sorry for this off-topic conversation, I know, it belongs in other thread. It won't happen again. (*ahem*)

Whew! I'm going to have to stop reading from the newest posts to the oldest...

...had me saying, huh???

Actually, I don't mind the 'sidetrack' stuff. I like to hear about the other games, without the inconvenience of running all over the forum to seek out info.

Always nice to hear from everyone.

[TyGuy6]

Interesting topic, the 1/4th party run.

When I was young and scared of mummies, my Dad impressed us by playing with only 1 character, and on top of that, it was one with very little mana! (He played almost pure spellcaster style.) So when I learned that some items gave you a bit of mana, and later that you could just warcry yourself some, I was both times shocked. My father found that interesting as well. You could actually start with only Halk the Barbarian! (As we used to pester him to, but he was unrelenting.)

Inspired by the idea of playing with only 1 character, I tried it with Might and Magic VIII: a 5-character-party game. Don't ever make a game like they made theirs; each member of the party got a constant 1/5th of the experience, no matter how many members there were. Thus, levelling up was no faster than normal, and the game was very difficult to progress in. (I think I ran out of weak monsters to fight before I was ready to fight the strong ones, and it turns out they didn't respawn either! I had always thought they just kept coming.) If I had kept at it, I might have started fighting the good city-dwellers, just for the exp.

[Ameena]

Do the monsters in MMVIII not reset after about two years of game time like in previous games? I've played VI (by far my favourite) and VII as well. In VI, most mobs reset after two years (a few places are less).

[MasterWuuf]

Interesting topic, the 1/4th party run.

Inspired by the idea of playing with only 1 character, I tried it with Might and Magic VIII: a 5-character-party game. Don't ever make a game like they made theirs; each member of the party got a constant 1/5th of the experience, no matter how many members there were. Thus, levelling up was no faster than normal, and the game was very difficult to progress in. (I think I ran out of weak monsters to fight before I was ready to fight the strong ones, and it turns out they didn't respawn either! I had always thought they just kept coming.) If I had kept at it, I might have started fighting the good city-dwellers, just for the exp.

I'm also curious to know if the bad guys on M and M VIII regenerated after a period of time.
I liked the respawning dragons of MM VI/VII, whichever one had the dragons out in the snow, past the northern mountains. The meteor shower was a good way to get experience and 'stuff' fast.

[Ameena]

That must have been MMVII - all the dragons in MMVI are in the desert (Paradise Valley and Dragonsand, plus one in the Temple of the Snake on the Blackshire map). However, there are Drakes in the northern (snowy) part of Kriegspire - maybe that's what you're thinking of. You can drink from a well in the town which spawns a large quantity of Energy Drakes near the northeast corner of the map. You can do this once per day so if you drink from the well, spend a night in the nearby inn, then drink from the well again, and repeat lots of times, then head up there, you have zillions of Drakes to kill - Starburst does better damage than Meteor Shower so is the best AE spell to use on groups of outdoor mobs (Energy Drakes aren't immune to LIghtning, in fact they aren't immune to anything).
There are soooo many bugs you can take advantage of in MMVI...that's probably why I love it so much - can get unlimited (if you want) exp from an early quest, unlimited gold if you want from another "quest", can get any character, of any class, all the magic skills (well presumably except a Knight as they have zero mana and, as far as I know, nothing you can do about it - I always play with four Pallies and get all four of them all nine magic skills, muahahaha), and there's probably one or two other little funky bits that I haven't thought of. Visiting somewhere like Paradise Valley, Hermit's Cove, or Dragonsand with Fly, Meteor Shower, and Starburst is a sure-fire way of getting tons of exp at little-to-no risk to yourself .
Erm, I think I may have derailed this thread even further...wheee haven't done that for a while .

[ian_scho]

@Ameena I've played MM IV aaaages ago then bought MM IX last year. Big difference in experience and satisfaction!

Started up the ole DM yesterday again, those first 4 levels are always the best. Forgot how much of a swine it is to lose a champion in Creature Cavern and have to trawl all the way back up to the top again!

I actually stayed in front of the dragon, waiting for him to cause some damage

It's funny how you do things the second (or nth) time around. First time I played I was fixated with keeping the champions well fed, fit and healthy. Now they can practically starve or run around with zero stamina as long as they get me from A to B.

[MasterWuuf]

[quote="ian_

Started up the ole DM yesterday again, those first 4 levels are always the best. Forgot how much of a swine it is to lose a champion in Creature Cavern and have to trawl all the way back up to the top again!
[/quote]

Why not pick the easier rooms, saving the creature haven for last? You can pick up three of the four keys, which allows you to open the way to the next resurrection alcove.
It would save you the trip back.

[Trantor]

Am I actually the only one who never ever keeps playing once a character dies? If one of my champions bites the dust, I just kill off the rest, too, and then restart from the last savegame, I'm just too lazy to resurrect dead heroes.

[ian_scho]

I forgot that there was a VI alcove only 3 gold keys away! A simple walk to The Matrix would have sufficed as well.

[Ameena]

Nope, you're not the only one Trant . I can never be arsed to Rez anyone who snuffs it (and isn't there some permanent detrimental effect to their hp if you Rez them anyway?) so I just do the old Fireball-the-wall trick to end it and reload. Although of course sometimes I'm so beaten up that whoever's left doesn't have enough mana to cast a Fireball so I have to sleep a bit to regain it, which might push my hp high enough that I can take that one Fireball without dying. I refuse to give the monsters the satisfaction of killing me so if a Fireball isn't enough, I'm out of mana and there are no pits around, I have to resort to bashing my head in against a wall or just shutting myself in a door.