Level Drain, Grinding, and fun.

[Dana Crysalis]

One of my favorite things in the C64 version was using level drain to reduce my characters to level one, using MIBL to kill the 396 Berserkers, and releveling them to level 10-ish, and reaping the benefits of tons of extra levels.

Not only have you made the 396 Berserkers a one time fight (which is really distressing to me), but with the way level drain is not a permanent effect that removes XP, re-leveling is not a thing at all.

Someone who has bad level rolls on the way up to whatever level is just going to have a HORRIBLE time because there's actually no way to grind better. Sure, it was abusing mechanics, but that's part of what made old games fun, figuring out the tricks and getting powerful.

My intent when I got the game was to spend the next while until you released Bard's Tale 2 casually grinding up a bunch of extra levels so I'd be ready with Destiny Knight came out. Now, I don't even know.

[steve2727]

You're annoyed that they fixed a 30 year old exploit? If you wanted to play the game exactly as it was, just get the original game on an emulator. I'm enjoying being surprised by some of the curveballs being thrown at old vets like me who think they know this game inside out.

[Cheesehead]

I'm glad they changed this. If it's too upsetting for you, you can exploit in the new modern way. This would probably be a hex/memory cheater program, or a mod.

The XP curve is less now, so that's good. Part of the reason for some of these changes is for playability. Nostalgia only goes so far.

Besides, the old gazillion berserker exploit may have been unintentional back then. Who knows. They never really "patched" games back then. Back in those days, they sold hint books to make more money, because you really needed them if you didn't want to use up your entire teenage life trying to figure a game out.

I, for one, am just glad the developers put forth the effort to bring these 3 classics back. Bard's Tale 2 was my personal favorite. I wouldn't even bother playing these games if I had to buy some graph paper. I don't have the time or ambition to relive everything I did back then when I could only afford a few games and a C64.

Good re-design choice.

And besides, no one has ever gone in there to clean that room. The mass of dead bodies would make the most bloodthirty being in the entire universe cringe. Not only that, but the SPCB (Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Berserkers) would be outraged.

[Elric]

It was done then so that players could run anew party through without having to nuke and pave their save disk thus losing their old characters.

Making the statues, berserkers. Tarjan and Mangar one shots was not a good design decision.

[Cheesehead]

We don't nuke and pave our save disks anymore. Irrelevant now.

In Bard's Tale 2, a far better game, this berserker room doesn't exist.

There was a one shot mechanic in Bard's Tale 2, with the first dungeon boss. The Dark One (I think that's what he was called---memory could be wrong). In this battle, it would basically level all your characters to level 13, or something like that, but only worked once per character. In which case, you couldn't use it to re-class your casters, and make them level 13 again easily to gain level 7 spells quickly.

Game design changed in that case as well. This is the way of things.

Like I said, those who are unhappy with the change can still cheat if you really want.

It's not really that big of a deal.

I suppose you could argue it's unfair if you want to import your character into the next game and get a head start. I played all 3 games back in the day, and always started fresh because I didn't want to skip ahead. But, well, that's my preference.

I personally didn't use the mindblade the 'zerker exploit cuz it felt sort of cheap. That's me, though. With the XP change, which is actually pretty nice, I really dread the idea of mindblading until I am blue in the face in an effort to shorten the game, or to make god characters.

I'm actually not sure I will bother too much with this until they release the second one. The third game I found to be far too easy and bland compared to the second. Of course, I was older at that time, so my opinion on that may be horribly biased.

up, up, down, down, left, right, left, right, "B", "A", <start> might work I suppose.

[huffadopolis]

That bard's tale 2 dungeon boss you are thinking of was actually not a bug it was the starter dungeon for people that didn't import characters from Bard's Tale 1. No matter what level you finished the starter dungeon at you would get exp boosted to level 13 by completing the quest given to you at the entrance to the dungeon.

It was hard enough and several levels deep that by the time you mapped it and beat it you would be way over level 13 though, making completing the quest pointless, exp-wise.

The first real dungeon that gives you a part of the destiny wand expected you to be importing from bard's tale 1 or at that minimum level.

[sunsidhe]

Go to say, I for one... really enjoyed the exploit. We arent really competing with other players here, so a shame if it has gone.

Altering characters with a hex editor doesnt appeal. But the berserker exploit was one of the most fun things about the game, if you have that kind of mindset. Which I do.

[kaypy]

Note that if you play with the XP legacy option you get a bunch of exploits back (at the cost of getting a reason to use them).

[Damon]

Originally posted by kaypy:

Note that if you play with the XP legacy option you get a bunch of exploits back (at the cost of getting a reason to use them).

Yup with it you will level super fast from those berserkers. You can even easily reach level 1000 from berserkers if you want it. Don't worry about Wizards because in BT2 they will level up as well.