KBDS Normal/Hard/Impossible No-loss thread

[MattCaspermeyer]

I was fiddling with this this morning as I also have a save with the Phoenix scroll (it is in one of my modded games), but I'm not at my computer right now, so this is from memory:

In the savedata.txt file, search on telega_ore_box and you should find the first occurrence in savedata.txt is the correct one. This should be dragondor_embyro_13 (note that it is spell as "dragondor" with an "o" instead of the spelling we see in the game "dragandor" and you can also search on this as it should be unique for the file).

Just a few lines lower you will see the entry for "spell_phoenix" - your Phoenix scroll.

By the way, I'm conducting a test right not and have created at least 35 new games and have not seen it pop up again. I have actually seen Power of the Night twice and Flame Arrow once, so Phoenix is not the only spell you can get from the Ore Cart.

I'm going to keep creating batches of 5 savegames and processing them until I see it again and give a statistical breakdown of what you get from the Ore Cart in Dragandor.

I did try changing Power of Night (spell_dark_knight) to Phoenix (spell_phoenix) and using KB_DB_EDIT, but it crashes when trying to compile the file. So it may need to be updated for the new KB games.

/C\/C\

[DGDobrev]

Gotcha. I found it. You should open savedata.rpt with any text editor (I use notepad ++) and look for the following line:

dragondor.embryo_13 Vagon money 2300

So in this case, there's cash in the wagon. No luck there... Matt, have you checked in where the Magic Spring spell is supposed to spawn? I will jump in the savegame testing process as well.

[Zhuangzi]

Okay, some thoughts on the endless saga of Demoness Impossible No-loss...

I'm up to level 48, having just roflstomped my way through Okkarland against Very Hard and Deadly stacks.

Wizards are ridiculously powerful. Buffed by the Archmage staff, given ridiculously high morale by the Amulet of the Twilight Order (Heroic), halving stacks like crazy with Beserker level 3 (15% chance of having PER attack, and the Wizard hits three stacks with one attack when he's in the Fighting Trance). I've picked up a couple of items that increase Crit chance - Undead Master Belt +5% and, even better, a Dagger of Judgement, +20%!!!, that I got from a treasure chest in battle So the Wizard has a Crit chance of 59% and I feel sure that he's halving enemies more than 15% of the time (is this chance affected by whether it's a crit?) I just know that when I finish the game, Wizards are going to be my biggest damage dealer BY FAR.

The rest of my team consists of Dark Paladins, Demons, Executioners and Demonologists. You could use whatever unit you liked in the place of these last three. The only essentials are the Wizards for damage dealing + Magic Shield and the Dark Paladins for resurrecting. At a certain stage of this game, roughly from fights 120-170, I was struggling to win some battles no-loss. I was having to redo fights and look for the easiest fights. But once you get a stack of Dark Paladins, it's game over. Sorry, you also need Phantom in case you've taken too much damage for the initial resurrection, and Calm Rage too. But once you have these spells, we're back to the old Paladin + Phantom + Calm Rage infinite resurrection trick. My main problem here was that there was only about 130 Dark Paladins available in my game, and my current leadership (32k) allows for over 250, so I've had to use Sacrifice to fill out the stack, and this is tedious because I only have Sacrifice at level 1, not wanting to waste the crystals.

Is it just me or are crystals really scarce in this game? I only have about 12 spells learned and I never seem to have enough, so I've taken to buying all the trashy artifacts etc available in the game and destroying them for the crystals.

At level 48 I've cleared all islands except Amazonia (which I'll do next), Galenirim and Aralan, and also Helvedia. I'm up to 269 fights without loss, and I'm guessing that with some failed quests that I couldn't be bothered with (such as when they conflicted with other quests) I must be looking at about 400-450 fights for the whole game.

[DGDobrev]

Crystals are indeed scarce, so breaking items becomes a must at one point. Not that I mind, with so much gold and so much stuff to buy, it is quite all right.

I am nearing the end of the game. Level 71, finishing off stuff here and there. I have only a few quests left that I need to finish - the one about the Ancient Oak and a few assignments for the council in Helvedia. The Oak bugs me though. I have the primordial flame, but I don't see any guardian stacks around it. I think it is because I don't have the stupid Silver Axe. Gotta roam around the maps a bit and see if someone sells it, or look for ways to acquire it.

[MattCaspermeyer]

Originally Posted by Zhuangzi

Is it just me or are crystals really scarce in this game? I only have about 12 spells learned and I never seem to have enough, so I've taken to buying all the trashy artifacts etc available in the game and destroying them for the crystals.

Originally Posted by DGDobrev

Crystals are indeed scarce, so breaking items becomes a must at one point. Not that I mind, with so much gold and so much stuff to buy, it is quite all right.

I'll third this - I always felt like I didn't have enough and like you guys I just bought artifacts for conversion to Crystals. Daert gets a discount with his Bibliography skill so I think it is more of a problem with Neoline and Bagyr.

/C\/C\

[travelingoz]

Originally Posted by MattCaspermeyer

I'll third this - I always felt like I didn't have enough and like you guys I just bought artifacts for conversion to Crystals. Daert gets a discount with his Bibliography skill so I think it is more of a problem with Neoline and Bagyr.

/C\/C\

Yep, major shortage of crystals here, too! I've only learned the spells I've absolutely needed, and waited until I had Bibliography LVL 3 b4 upgrading.

As far as progress goes; It's Day 6 Monteville is all done, I've just started with Insleburg, and have already convinced Madame Curie to come back to the shelter. As with previous games, the difficulty seams to vary between a few restarts and a walk in the park! I have to say the major challenge thus far has been finishing fights with full mana as I only found the Calm Rage spell in a battlefield chest late last night.

Daert is at LVL19 and has just gotten the Archmage abilty, so he has 32 Intellect and 145 Mana. I'd like to buy the Archmage Staff from the shelter but I've forgotten what affects it's morale, so some help here please someone?????

My army at the moment is 1 x Troll and 2 x Ice Dragons (Call Scroll), 2 x Red Dragon 2 x Black Dragon (from Shelter).

[MattCaspermeyer]

Originally Posted by DGDobrev

Gotcha. I found it. You should open savedata.rpt with any text editor (I use notepad ++) and look for the following line:

dragondor.embryo_13 Vagon money 2300

So in this case, there's cash in the wagon. No luck there... Matt, have you checked in where the Magic Spring spell is supposed to spawn? I will jump in the savegame testing process as well.

No need - just start your game and get through the two dialogues and hit "q" to bring up the Quest Dialogue. You'll see which spell you get right there!

Simple as pie!

/C\/C\

[DGDobrev]

Originally Posted by MattCaspermeyer

No need - just start your game and get through the two dialogues and hit "q" to bring up the Quest Dialogue. You'll see which spell you get right there!

Simple as pie!

/C\/C\

Gotcha. So in essence, we need to scan only the games that give Magic Spring as a reward for the phoenix in the wagon. That will take some doing

As for the Archmage staff, I think it drops when you fight Archmages, and rises if you have them in your army.

[DGDobrev]

Ok I am done! I did the last fight with my fave squad: Dark Paladins, Dark Knights, Wizards, Demonologists, Amazons. It was great, I never felt a unit go out of place, and everyone usually had an opportunity to hit something.

Now I am all for the Vamp Phoenix/Magic Spring play-through. It's gonna be fun.

I am sad to say that the last fight was underwhelming. I am happy to say, that with a mod, it will be awesome. Just give the spirit more health, let the stacks be bigger, more diverse (like add level 5 units), and up the spirit damage a bit. Even on impossible, I knew I could win the fight right off the bat. I would also recommend banning ranged units on the mod, as they can be exploited to oblivion. Let the spirit summon melee units only.
EDIT 2: Or just let the stacks grow in leadership. Why? First it nullifies your leadership bonus for halves, and second, it is even more challenge.

In any case, I had a blast. I couldn't finish the Harlequin spy quest, but I assumed you need to take those guys in various fights, and I was already too deep into the game, that I barely had any stacks left for the guys to do something. Unless I misinterpreted the quest. If so, big deal

In any case, even though I never finished KNWOTN, this game sure feels like KBAp/CW. Give it a few mods, and it will do as well as the last one. I like it. It made me feel involved, especially in the quests. I loved how they revolve and how the quests deviate from the EXCLAMATION MARK games, where you just go to that guy and you done. You finally get to think based on the clues in the quest. This is the game that flies in the face of other games that just slams easy quests in the people's faces and makes them feel good. If you really want to play this game, your best friend is the notepad. Note all you did, how you did it, and what the npc's told you.

Broaden your horizons. Stop being linear. Expect more. This is how you know the game is good. Cause it tells us not to.

EDIT: It has to be said, that traps, while being awesome in the early game, are a huge hindrance in the late game. Your summoned troops adopt the "walk on traps" hobby, and they stick to it big time. I suggest you lol at them and keep going. I had tons of lols at cerberi/executioners faced with like the enemy's last 5 fairies walking into a trap that is absolutely not in their way. Go baby go! Go baby go! Go baby splat! Um, whoopsie!?

[Zhuangzi]

Congrats on finishing the game and achieving this challenge, DG. 489 fights? Looks like I am at least 200 fights away, which will take me a couple of weeks, I guess.

Glad you enjoyed the game - I feel like this is the first proper sequel to AP we've had, and the third excellent KB game overall.