What do we think of Temple of Elemental Evil

[Jamski]

If you read the module, Jam, you'll see its a 99.99% faithful conversion of the published pnp Temple of Elemental Evil. That is the problem.

I know, that's what I said And the Co8 patch restores the "adult content" - that is the brothel - and the official release ain't missing much my having it cut.

Why Troika decided to do this creaky old module I'll never know. Its not even a good for a Gygax module. But I suppose its one of the ones that everyone has played, so its a bit "cult" ?

Still, as kill-everything dungeons go, the temple can't be faulted much imho.

Well, imho, a dungeon which has harpys in one room, stirges next door, bugbears wandering around, wild trolls, ogres, giants, ettins, 4 clerical factions, lamias, fungus, banshees, skeleton gnolls and god knows what else just pile'd around willy-nilly certainly has a few faults. Don't the guys that own the place ever consider cleaning up and chucking out all the allsorted dangerous beasts? They are all so obviously placed for an adventuring party to fight But that's Gygax for you

Having said that, fighting them was kinda fun Good fun But then it was over

is there an editor?

No

can it be modded easily?

If you can write and compile code, yes. Otherwise see above.

-Jam

[Grumbold]

There was more cut than that - all the kids were cut plus the storylines that related to them (the old crap about not being able to hurt kids that seems to affect some games but pass others like BG by unscathed).

The temple is a mess of different monster types, its true, but I rationalise that as the different priests competing to get monstrous allies of all kinds working for them, having various spiders, rats and snakes around for use in their rituals or as components etc. It makes it a more fun adventure than 100 rooms full of orcs and ogres too

The Co8 guys did a lot of modding in a very short time, but its definitely something to leave to people with the time and expertise. I'd be surprised if there is something you would want that they haven't already discussed implementing and decided for or against it.

[Dis]

well Europe has those rules about not being able to kill kids in video games.

This is why Fallout had to have 2 different versions in the U.S. and europe. The europe version had no kids whatsoever. Made it difficult to do a few quests.

In BG2 I don't think you could kill the kids could you? Though I never tried.

[The Mad Monk]

I remember the first time I encountered the ability to kill children -- in any game -- in Fallout 2.

I had decided to eliminate the two evil trader brothers in the first town, and went at it with my man, whats-his-face. I had started the attack, when suddenly a kid ran in, for no apparent reason. I ignored him, until whats-his-face turned and attacked the kid.

He took several blows, crying and bleeding and whimpering and all those oh-so-disturbing messages, and whats-his-face just kept on, and nothing I could do could stop him. In the end, I just sat, genuinely horrified, reading the message that I was now branded a child-killer, lowest of the low.

I quit out, went back to a previous save, and decided I didn't need to eliminate the brothers, after all. Meanwhile, I figured out how to put my barbarian buddy on a shorter leash, and was very careful about starting anything after that.

[Jamski]

The kids weren't cut, just replaced in some cases with adult models, and called "teenagers" How about that "kid" in Hommlet you have to try to get to like you?

-Jam

[Grumbold]

Several child toons are gone. The woodcutter has a child whose health you can mention but the quest is ripped out, as is any interaction with his wife. The stonecutter asks you if his kids are still playing in the yard, but then nothing happens when you respond because they and the quest are gone. There are other places which imply young children that are not there. I guess the teenager fell just outside the cutoff point.

[Jamski]

So Grumbold, I have to say I get the impression that you think this was 40 quid well spent. I've played it through three times, and I can't imagine doing so again in the near future. I'm really hoping they re-use the engine, fix the bugs, allow character progression to level 20+ and make a game the size and scope of BG, or even IWD would be an improvement. We know Troika can do it, just look at Arcanum. BUT, if they just do "Against the Giants" then I personally won't buy it.

-Jam

[Grumbold]

It was a reasonable buy, especially post patching, in that I got 50-60 hours of entertainment out of it and the best ever combat system in a D&D game so far. Did I expect more from Troika? Of course.

If they did Against the Giants "vanilla" without any good storyline then I wouldn't buy it full price either. The modules are just too thin on plot.

[Jamski]

I'm just comparing my 50 hours against the 500+ hours (at least) I've got out of BG2.

-Jam

[The Mad Monk]

Tajaus, read this thread.

[Traianvs]

In Belgium there's none of the bullcrap of not hurting children.. well not in my copies anyway

everybody can get whacked! woohoo!