Magely advice requested.

[evilbob]

So, i like playing games on their hardest difficulties and once i saw the reward system for no losses, i was immediately interested. I figured i'd play through on hard first to gauge what i'd need to get better at before playing through on impossible. 65 battles in i'm running into a snag.

You see, I'm playing as a mage and started noticing a trend. No int gear. Everything is low defense and attack. I ninja'd scrolls to get to verona, umkas, tekron to see if this continues and, sadly it does. Data mining my save file also shows no hypnosis, pigmy, or phantom, resurrection scrolls either at all (the first 2) or very late game.

What would you guys suggest in terms of strategies to deal with this problem?

[DGDobrev]

Dig 3 chests on the battlefield with your dragon all the time (the treasure searcher ability). This is essential as a mage, as you may find yourself in a game where you miss a spell or two. This has happened so often in my games that it had me start with the green dragon (who has the ability right from the start) all the time.

[Hento]

When I saw that there is not a single spell in Verona, no fire rain, demon portal, ice snake, phantom, nothing at all, I restarted the game with new mage character.

I think they randomized things too much.

[MaroonMaurader]

Hypnosis and Pygmy aren't really worth the time. Hypnosis just becomes obsolete really fast, and Pygmy is unnecessary pretty much from the start. Resurrection and Phantom are... somewhat more important. My first advice would be to kite maps until you get to wherever they are. If you don't want to do that for whatever reason, here's a fallback:
Paladins, Inquisitors, Archmages, a high-health level-5 tank (Trolls and Tirexes are common), and whatever fifth unit you prefer. Target plus the archmage's shield on the tank will neutralize most of the enemies damage, judicious use of heal (plus inquisitors if you are accidentally less careful) can keep the tank alive, paladins restore any other casualties you get. You'll be good to go at least through Monteron, even without Phantom, although it might take some creative thinking for a few fights.

[evilbob]

My first advice would be to kite maps until you get to wherever they are. If you don't want to do that for whatever reason, here's a fallback:


Well, it's not that i don't want to kite rather, these longer narrower strips to kite them away to ninja the nav seem rather impossible. But i shall attempt your suggestion. I suppose if all else fails i'll create a new one, data mine the save to see where phantom and trap are then try again. Although i do not look forward to another 100 trap kills.

[Petwin]

When I'm finished with my No loss impossible mage game, I will post my walkthrough. The first 2 tips:

1) Start 10 games and save them before talking to Amelie’s father. Use KBScanner to find a game with the spell Trap in Debir. Also nice to find on Debir, Scarlet, Bolo, Rusty Anchor or Verona (in shops, not in castles): Trap (the artefact), Skull of Pain, Well of mana, Shield of Rekross, Ancient Amulet, Gladiator Sword, Banner of True Faith (last 3 for rune farming), Dragon (any colour), Troll, Ogre, Demonologist, Shaman, Druid, Ancient Vampire and Black Knight.

2) After choosing, also check where you can find the scrolls Phantom, Sacrifice, Resurrection, Turn Back Time, Fear, Necro Call, Geyser, Eviln, Death Star and Armageddon

[evilbob]

Wow, that is a lot of stuff to look for. I've just been looking for units and spells and that's been quite annoying enough. As for the rune farming..out of luck on 2/3 of those.

Seems getting this combination of stuff all in the same game is an impossibly difficulty in and of itself

[Petwin]

You don't have to check for all of those things. Only if your a bean counter from Nerdville. Bu I have to admit, I checked 30 save files. :)

I never found all the items in 1 game. 2 out of 3 rune farming items on the first 5 islands is possible. My current game is without Well of mana or the Shield of Rekross, and the Gladiator Sword is far away in Reha.

The list of units is also not compulsory: it speeds things along to have strong units early on, but you don't need all of them. Heck, you probably do fine without any of them.

Knowing the scroll locations are just convenient. I find finding Phantom, Sacrifice and Turn Back Time near the end of the game very unconvenient :)

[travelingoz]

It doesn't have to be that tedious! If you look in the KBScanner files, you'll see two examples of .flt files you can use to generate a separate list.
For example inside my mage list are;

Slippery Cuirass
Gladiator Sword
Ancient Amulet
Novice's Dress
Usurer's Ring
Ring of Mind. Class 2.
Snake Ring
Novice's Staff
Magician's Cowl
Scroll Turn Back Time
"Well of Mana" Belt
Twinkling Boots
Scaly Bracelet
Scale Armor
Scale Shield
Traveler's Staff

You can use Worpad to generate the file and cut and paste the item names from the Artifacts.rpt file that you are looking for. (syntax and case ARE important!)
Save it with the .flt extension eg. mageneed.flt and place it in your KBAP sessions/addons file. After you scan, you should have 2 .rpt files generated. Easy as that! :grin:

[GodClone]

I know that minmaxing is fun, but you guys are to much . Getting an achievement out of the game is kinda diminished if you "cheat" your way to it . Well i don't consider it cheating, but using mods to check items ahead or 1000 restarts for convenience etc . while getting you there , it won't make you a better player .

Play the hand you are dealt and make the most of it . Being able to achieve "your" goal with any start is of more value , than being 1 step from editing the game for a perfect start . Wouldn't you agree ? .

[Petwin]

No, I don't agree. Trying to get the best starting point is in my opinion not a covert way of cheating.

The whole point of all games and most sports is to achieve something within the boundaries of a fixed set of rules. Preparing yourself, training, studying, buying better equipment, tuning your bicycle of waxing your snowboard can be part of the experience, should you choose to.

Cheating is stepping outside the set of rules.

I personally find as much joy in preparing and anticipating before I start a (proper) game as I do in actually playing it. There's always the risk that I put so much time and effort in the preparations and test runs that I never get to the end of a game. In my 25 years of gaming (yep, I'm an old fart! ;)) I probably left scores of games unfinished. I don't think that makes me bad player. I enjoy myself doing what I do, that's good enough for me.

[Arilian]

Yes, but after you finished the game you might want to try some specifically.
It is also pretty stupid when you play the demo as i did and awe at the new death star spell, how cool is it then never encounter it in the game and used the same splls as in KBTL.

[GodClone]

Well if your goal is to see the end game score, thats one thing . But some play to make themselvs better players .
2 different goals , one ends in seeing a score got with a perfect start, another testing your gaming capabilityes , limits, and improving on yourself .

Each with his own , i guess .

[MaroonMaurader]

It's always possible to pile on additional personal restrictions and goals that make the game harder. If you have a pretty good idea of what you're capable of and what you aren't, you probably want to play a game that pushes the boundaries of what you are capable of, but not one that is impossible. So generally players set themselves some goals before the game (the most common is impossible no-loss; more experienced players pile on further challenges from there).

Essentially the overall difficulty of your game is a compound function of how unfortunate you were in your random-number generation, and how difficult the challenges you set yourself are. The first you have no control over without KBScanner, the second you can set fairly precisely if you know what you're doing. Presumably without KBScanner, you set your goals so that if you get an average distribution of items and creatures, your game will be just challenging enough. However, this is a recipe for disappointment - most likely your luck will be above average (in which case you'll end up disappointed at how easy the game was, unless you accidentally set your goals too high), or it will be below average (in which case you'll simply fail at whatever your goals were, unless you accidentally set your goals too low).

With KBScanner, you can get a very good approximation of how difficult completing the game with the set of challenges you have in mind will be, meaning you're much less likely to end up disappointed or frustrated, and in fact more likely to get a level of challenge that is just right - which is also generally the level of challenge at which you learn the most, as you get some success but need to work for it.

Now you might rejoin that you've rarely hear of a player who uses KBScanner restarting the game because the set of items and creatures was too GOOD - only too BAD. So therefore (would run the logic) obviously this player isn't using it to make the game more challenging, but merely to make it easier. But this overlooks the degree to which the individual player is responsible for setting the difficulty of their game. I could get the worst set of items in the world, and the worst creatures, and if I play on easy, take losses, spend 100 days finishing, and only copy tried-and-true tactics pulled off the forums that game is going to be a cakewalk. It's not that players using KBScanner to get a better set of items are making their overall game easier - it's that they're making it possible to try for harder self-imposed challenges, or try more interesting strategies than their skill would allow them to pull off with typical luck in item selection.

The strongest reason not to use KBScanner isn't that if makes the game easier or harder, but that it deprives you of the necessity for on-the-fly adaptation to unexpected circumstances - which many find quite entertaining. In other words, it is perhaps not surprising that the best reason to not use it is if you have more fun without it, and the best reason to use it is if you have more fun with it... difficulty and learning don't bear on the question at all.