honp9@menudo.uh.edu (Jason L. Tibbitts III) (04/02/91)
[Here are the collected rebuttals to the Pool of Radiance review that
appeared some time ago. I have yet to see a response from Mr. Hanlan to
the copy of these that was sent long ago, so I'm posting these without any
comments from him.]
From: daveb@cbmvax.commodore.com (Dave Berezowski)
Organization: POST, Memphis, Tenn.
'Pool of Radiance' and the followup 'Curse of the Azure Bonds' both
are essentially quick ports to the Amiga from the IBM version. I have played
both and agree that the user interface is lacking.
If you want to play a good TSR game that has been completely Amiga'ized
(graphics, sound, mouse, etc.) try 'Champions of Krynn'. Check out the neat
demo mode in the store; I assume you'll be suitably impressed.
daveb
--
David Berezowski {caip,ihnp4,allegra,seismo}!cbmvax!daveb
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From: lord_zar@ucrmath.ucr.edu (wayne wallace)
> 'atmosphere'. There is also some wilderness adventure but I have not
> yet reached that state (and may never) so cannot comment on it.
The wilderness contains FIVE of your future commissions, and is not a place
to be ignored. Wilderness travel lets you move around on your horses (free)
to points of interest, such as the ruined castle to the northeast, the
kobold caves, and Zhentil Keep, each a quest in its own right. Travel is
not 3-D, not combat-display either, but an overhead view much like moving
on a highway map without having to follow nonexistant highways :)
The graphics were well done compared to other computer versions like IBM, and
do give you a sense of just WHERE you are located, and are going.
> 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.)
There was playtesting. SSI's PRESIDENT was a playtester. It says so in the
C-64 version. I would assume that problems with menu selection would be
prevalent in all computer versions, and that the 10+ playtesters, including
the prez would catch it if they didn't like it. I suspect the menus were
organized according to how the programmers liked it, and since programmers
think differently than users... Just turn it into a fast repititive task, like
typing :)
> 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
Fixed in Curse of the Azure Bonds. Say thanks to SSI and MicroMagic (the new
team to replace UBISoft. hooray!).
> 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.
AD&D is designed for unbelievability and heroic unrealistic play, much like
comic books. Go play Bard's Tale, you heathen! ;)
> 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.
Yeah, but I found a way to solve it. Set speed 0, and since these are fodder,
unready arrows and magic items, and hit F6 for QUICK (computer-control) and
pick up a good book :)
Actually, kobold battles are easier with human control. Make sure you sweep the
maximum possible for each fighter :)
> o The graphics are very poor. I understand the requirement for
Think for a moment: This is NOT Dungeon Master! Wargames NEED simpler
graphics, and I am IMPRESSED by what they did here, after seeing how bad
IBM and C-64 wargames were!
As a final, I am quite the AD&D fanatic and enjoyed the game greatly. Points
I didn't respond to, I agreed with. However, the game does NOT become unplayable
just because of these 'features'. Curse of the Azure Bonds improved the system
greatly, and I hear Champions of Krynn is even better. I have solved Bonds, and
am in the process of buying Champions. Look for my Bonds review soon, if JLT 3
takes it :)
And remember, a lot of this program relies on you knowing AD&D. You will come
away less than fulfilled in some cases if you don't know AD&D. Either borrow
someone's rulebooks or post large amounts of questions in c.s.a.games :)
I still remember someone thinking 2d6 was roll 6 two-sided dice. A two-sided
die is a COIN for chrissake! ;)
The End (for now).
Wayne
lord_zar@ucrmath.ucr.edu
{ucsd,uci,ucd,uunet}!ucrmath!lord_zar
-------
From: jerry cullingford <jc@crosfield.co.uk>
Summary: Poor as a video game, Great for existing D&D players, User interface
could be a lot better.
While I agree that the user interface on Pool of Radiance and other programs
in the same series (such as Champions of Krynn) could be much, much better,
there are two sides to the situation:
* As a pure video game, it comes a poor second to Dungeon Master and
Bards tale, but..
* As a game _for existing (A)D&D players_, it provides an extremely good
simulation of the underlying game mechanics. While there are (obviously)
limitations due to the "you can try to do anything you can think of"
nature of the human AD&D roleplaying game, this series of computer games
is the best attempt so far in attempting to reproduce the feel of a live
AD&D game on a computer.
The difference in perception is probably due to the fact that computer
gamers look for impressive graphics and swift interactive gameplay, while
Roleplaying gamers are used to using their own imaginations to flesh out
descriptions from the DM (Game moderator), and so take less notice of the
poor graphics, being impressed instead by the degree of success in
supporting the game system they know and are comfortable with.
An AD&D-playing friend of mine bought an amiga just so he could play Champions
of Krynn, another program in the same series. Most (A)D&D players that I know
who've seen the game like it.
There is still vast room for improvement in the user interface, to increase
the appeal to the general audience though. My pet hate is the tacky font they
use - I find it very hard to read. Fortunately, (at least on C of K), you can
hack the appropriate file with a paint package and turn it back into something
cleaner. This makes a vast difference to the readablility of the messages, and
I would recommend anyone with a copy of the game to try this on a backup copy.
It really does make playing the game a lot more pleasant.
--
+-----------------------------------------------------------------+ |
| Jerry Cullingford jc@cel.co.uk or jc@crosfield.co.uk | ,-|--
| #include <std.disclaimer> Amiga! 2,000,000+ and counting.... | \_|__
+-----------------------------------------------------------------+ \___/
-------
Organization: Graffiti Data
From: adspdk!hclausen@rutgers.edu (Henrik Clausen)
> Pool of Radiance is a good game trapped within a terrible user
> interface. PoR is essentially a software version AD&D in the same
> vein as Bard's Tale and Dungeon Master. It is not as good as either.
>
> [ed. note: Does anyone use this on an A3000? Does it function?]
Runs fine off the A3000 HD - very responsive.
I played it _twice_ recently, once more for getting at more details.
Lots of fun, for me it was good value for money.
The increased CPU power and running off harddisk negates about 2/3 of
the negative points given in the review, and makes for a very playable
game. The problems with eternal loading of graphics and the 40-kobold
encounters are not annoying at 25 MHz :-)
Using AddBuffers on the floppy drive it uses and lowering it's priority
can help speed drastically, if you have more than 1M memory - I did a
similar thing to Bards Tale in really ancient days :-)
-Henrik
______________________________________________________________________________
| Henrik Clausen, Graffiti Data | If the Doors of Perception where cleansed, |
| ...{pyramid|rutgers}!cbmvax! | Man would see Reality as it is - Infinite. |
\______cbmehq!adspdk!hclausen___|_________________________________W. Blake___/
--
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