I also popped in to World of Warcraft tonight, just out of curiosity since there was a major patch today. Unfortunately, I then learned that they also added ‘orphans’ you can adopt as pets, but they’re only available for a limited time. Of course, my compulsive side will not let this pass by, so I know what I’ll be working on for the next little while… Damn you, Blizzard!
In King’s Bounty tonight, I finished off most of the remaining above-ground elven quests and encounters. It turns out that some of the ‘overwhelming’ named fights aren’t really as hard as the estimation claims…
So, now the only place really left to fight in is the Land of Death. This time, I managed to find a boat there, which made getting around and scooping up loose loot much easier. I finally found the last obelisk, which netted me a map that I can give to one of various different people for a reward (sounds like the best reward for me is a bunch of runes if I give it to the not-yet-rescued elven queen).
With a few bumps to my leadership (now around 10,500 at level 22), and a bit more exploration of the Land of Death, I now have some places where I can find appropriate-level fights, so the outlook doesn’t look so bleak anymore. I’ve also managed to build up some decent cash reserves again, so I’m not in immediate danger of running out of troops anymore.
And it was yet another long day in King’s Bounty, but with a fair bit of progress. I finished up nearly all of the encounters and quests in the dwarven areas (except for a gigantic spider that’s really tough), finished off all of the ‘named’ pirates sailing around the Isles of Freedom, and then headed to the elven lands.
The elven areas are fairly tough, but there I was able to pick up new types of troops that are a bit better than the humans I’d been sticking with. The archers in particular are pretty good, as well as some unicorns and dryads. I’m sticking with the horsemen though. Unfortunately, heavy losses mean I’m running out of the lower-level elven troops now, and I’m on the verge of running out of cash, whereas I left the dwarven areas with more money than I knew what to do with.
I’m going to have to choose my battles a bit more carefully, though right now most of the upper elven lands are largely cleaned out and now I need to work on the Land of Death, where things are even tougher yet. Maybe I’m going to have to revert back to my cheaper human troops…
It was a long day in King’s Bounty today, but there wasn’t really any progress in the main quest. I finished off a bunch of encounters and quests on the Isles of Freedom, including a few I didn’t even know about before, and started clearing out what was left of the dwarven areas.
Along the way I also completed the test of magic, which was one of those areas that was immediately accessible right at the start of the game, but seemed like it would be near-impossible…
Yesterday I also spent a bit of time with Hard Truck Apocalypse, which I’d picked up in some sale a little while ago. It’s reminiscent of Autoduel, being based around driving around with armed vehicles, doing quests and shooting up other people’s trucks.
The story is rather cliche (the basic out for revenge for my father’s death, etc.) and the production values are rather low, especially the horrible voice acting. It’s also rather convenient that everybody in the future has to wear masks that just happen to remove the need for facial animations in the cutscenes… Still, you get to drive around and blow stuff up, which can be fun enough on its own. The main complaint so far is that there’s been an awful lot of backtracking through the same roads, but it looks like I’ll be sent to a new area next at least.
Yesterday I finally got back to King’s Bounty after a bit of a lapse, and made some quick progress in it. I got the peace treaty with the dwarves signed, and in doing so unlocked the final member of the Chest of Rage and got promoted by the king. But, now the princess has been kidnapped.
That opened up the Elven lands, and I did a quick bit of scouting around there to pick up loose rewards, though there wasn’t nearly as much I could easily grab as there was in earlier areas. I’ve still got plenty of old quests to work through, so after that I headed back to the Freedom Islands and cleared out a bunch of monsters and quests from there.
I’ve also been dabbling a bit more in Daggerfall recently, and after trying to do a few more dungeon-diving quests, I gave in and turned on the cheat mode, just so I could use the rotate-through-‘interesting’-spot hotkeys. Otherwise, things are just way too hard to find or wind up being somewhere completely inaccessible.
I’ve mainly only done quests for the various guilds, though, gaining a couple of ranks in each and a couple of levels along the way. Levels have been slow though, since I haven’t been using my usual method of raising magic skills, and I probably took a few too many advantages at character creation. The available armour is still pretty low-quality stuff.
A fair bit has happened in King’s Bounty lately, starting with the Freedom Islands, where I cleared out most of the first island and did a few quests.
I still have a bunch of stuff to do on the islands, but after a bit of wandering, I discovered a cave near the back of one of the starting areas and it turned out to be a connection to the dwarven areas. I decided to work on that for a while since that’s where the unlocks are for the remaining Chest of Rage monsters, and after taking care of a traitor in the caves, I unlocked Lina soon after arriving in the dwarven lands. There I also found a quest for discovering all of the obelisks I’ve been seeing, and I only have three more to go now.
I cleared out large chunks of the various underground areas (Dwarves? Underground? Gasp!), completed a few quests along the way, and found the area where I can unlock the final Chest of Rage member. I need to do some more work to clear out that area though, and I also found connections to the demon and Mehgard areas, but they’re way too tough for me right now.
It was about time to actually advance in King’s Bounty, so I went and fought the turtle to advance the main quest. For that I got a promotion, a whack of leadership points, and there’s now an infinite supply of some other types of troops at the castle.
Next, I was sent off to the Freedom Islands. The enemies there are much tougher, of course, so I didn’t actually do much fighting there. I just wandered around, finding some new quests and picking up loose rewards on the map. I inadvertently solved the quest that I’d been sent there for (to find some James guy) and headed back to the starting island, with over double the leadership points I had when I started the session.
Back on the main island, I proceeded to clean up as much as I could, and completed a bunch of lingering quests and cleared out enemies that had been too tough before, though there’s still a small handful that are still way too strong. Along the way I finally found a wife, albeit a bit of a froggy one, and had a kid as well.
Next up, back to the Freedom Islands…
I think I’m getting close to finishing off the initial island in King’s Bounty. A couple of the areas are almost completely clear now, and I spent tonight working on the quests for the griffins on their island and clearing out more of the swamps. There are still some quests and monsters left, but I think some of them are going to have to wait until I come back when I’m stronger.
I also finally got the upgrade to level 2 Order spells, and I can now do 525 damage in one hit. That should help a lot when I finally take on the king’s quest, as I snuck a peek at it earlier and I have to defeat a giant turtle with over 2000 health.