It's been a while since our last progress report and I would firstly like to say that Crowley's Adventure ever expands and grows. There's over 300 conversations now with NPC's and over 200 areas which the player can explore. Encounters are well made and require the player to work in harmony with their group while managing tactics and areas are well detailed with lots of places to explore. Secondly I would like to make a brief summary about the companion system:
Crowley's Adventure is fairly party based. When you first start the adventure you have one companion but as the adventure progresses you will meet more companions who you can recruit (or not) to your cause. You can only have three companions following you at one time and there's nine companions in all which means that you'll need to make sure your group is able to work together. Will you bring two clerics with you while you and another companion serve as warriors? This set-up will mean that you'll need to make sure the clerics are protected while they provide buffs to your warriors. Will your group consist of offensive characters? Such a group may work well against some groups of enemies but will fail against other groups. Groups need to be balanced and you'll need to make sure that one character's disadvantage is made up with another character supporting that character. Now let me tell you a little tale:
I was playing in The Lowlands recently and I had Sir Abel (barbarian), Lora (wizard who specializes in offensive spells) and Joan (cleric) with me. We were an able team and Joan was able to repel the undead we encountered in The Lowlands while Lora stuck them from afar as Sir Abel went after the undead to finish them off. I stood back and watched them as though they were my minions. Feeling confident I went and explored some ruins with Joan saying that she heard some people making noise within and that they probably wouldn't be friendly. Me and the team went forth into these ruins and we encountered a heavily armed group of drows who made quick work of us. We all died.
I decided to change my team after reloading. I ditched Lora and Joan and made Scarlett (a wizard specializing in protection spells) and Serephina (half fighter, half cleric and half dragon which means she has draconic abilities) take their places. The undead we encountered actually proved more of a match this time. Serephina is only half cleric which means that her spells were not as potent as Joan's spells and Serephina specializes more in being offensive. This meant that the liches who were part of the undead group were not repelled and began casting spells at me and my group. Scarlett was slain and I had to intervene this time to fight against the undead who nearly killed me.
After retrieving Scarlett from the dead we went further south in The Lowlands and came across the ruins that I had entered before. We went in there and this time the drow didn't prove that much of a match for us. Serephina was resistance to most of their spells which meant that she could strike offensively at them without being harmed. This time we slew the drow with ease.So as you can see from the story, different groups excel in different situations. It's possible to beat the game without changing groups but you will encounter challenges in some places.
Apart from groups and what they excel at, taking different companions to different locations normally results in different consequences. Sir Abel for example grew up in The Lowlands and thus tells the player the way around The Lowlands while telling them about potential dangers. He also has a keen sense and spots a certain character hiding in some ruins that other companions wouldn't have spotted. Scarlett on the other hand tells you about the undead and about why they are in The Lowlands and Joan can sense the undead before encountering them and alerts the player to most dangers within The Lowlands.On another hand, Sir Abel doesn't know much about civilized areas whereas Lora and Joan do.
Companions won't just comment on what they can sense either. Companions will sometimes wish to speak with you and by taking them along for the journey you can learn more about them and quests can even become opened up through this way. Companions also have deposition towards one another and conflicts, romances and fights between companions can even arise! Some conflicts are simply tradings of words but other conflicts can lead to negative outcomes. So as you can probably gather, your choice of companions is important.
Of course you could try to solo the adventure but let me note that I died 7 times in The Lowlands to one group of enemies at LV21 when I tried to adventure through it alone...
And that concludes today's progress report. If you have any questions post them and I'll do my best to answer!
Modifié par Dragon Studios, 23 avril 2012 - 12:29 .
