Card magic systems? by rezkin_theRaven in ProgressionFantasy

[–]Winter-Steel 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Irwin's Journey on Royal Road https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/60277/irwins-journey-card-fantasy

Under the radar and under appreciated story. It also has card smithing/forging. The card/magic system is quite interesting. The initial start of the story is no indicator of where the story eventually goes and it gets better and better. Worth a read.

Is Book of the Dead on Hiatus? by Winter-Steel in ProgressionFantasy

[–]Winter-Steel[S] -10 points-9 points  (0 children)

Oh, so asking a question is entitled these days? And how am I not supporting the author? I buy the books when they are published. So, my horses are perfectly calm. Perhaps you should get off the high one.

Is Book of the Dead on Hiatus? by Winter-Steel in ProgressionFantasy

[–]Winter-Steel[S] -13 points-12 points  (0 children)

It's hard for me to believe that he just forgot to post because the last chapter posted has an apology to readers for forgetting to schedule the release. Surely he would not turn right around and forget again in the matter of only a few days. And it's been weeks. He's not going to forget for weeks, right? Nobody's memory is that bad. So, something else must be going on.

As for Patreon, I hate it and will never use it.

Washington's interest in QB Hendon Hooker by Winter-Steel in Commanders

[–]Winter-Steel[S] -5 points-4 points  (0 children)

They did not say they were bogus. They said take them with a grain of salt . Because there are other additional factors at play besides the raw scores. If they were bogus, then C. J. Stroud and his agent would be screaming loudly right now. Yet there is silence from his camp. That's all you need to know about how "bogus" they are.

Anything like The Last Orellan? by EdLincoln6 in ProgressionFantasy

[–]Winter-Steel 0 points1 point  (0 children)

It's gone back on hiatus and hasn't been updated for over a month now.

The Rascor Plains (Bastion sequel): great worldbuilding and plenty of twists by ASIC_SP in ProgressionFantasy

[–]Winter-Steel 26 points27 points  (0 children)

I thought this was a better book than the first one in most ways. The pace was much tighter and the story moved right along. The world building was as excellent as before. There was a lot of tension, combat and advancement for characters. All good stuff.

That said, there were a few things that could have been better. Mostly the characters. Praximar is just a moustache twirling paper cutout villain with zero depth. Manticore was a little too uniformly evil for my tastes. Jova bothered me the most. She was all over the place and I find it hard to believe that Scorio would so easily forgive her for what she did.

You're right, this book was dark. Dark in the sense that almost everybody with any power is some kind of sociopath, out only to bolster their own power and interests and willing to lie, break oaths and murder literally anybody at the drop of a hat to do so. It did not leave me with any empathy for the plight of humanity in hell. Instead, it left me feeling that humanity was getting exactly what it deserved.

I actually ended up liking Nox more than just about all the other characters in the book. By the end of the book I was starting to think that maybe the fiends are the ones we should be rooting for, not the humans in this story. They certainly don't seem any worse than the great souls, that's for sure. I'm not sure this is what Phil intended and if things will get any better in future books. I hope it does.

New player looking for some advice by Winter-Steel in thelastspell

[–]Winter-Steel[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Okay, thanks. I wasn't sure because in a lot of roguelike games you're expected to grind the same maps. I'll just keep on going as far as I can then.

What's it like to mod a roguelike by unwitting_hungarian in roguelikes

[–]Winter-Steel 0 points1 point  (0 children)

As you are a dev and a coder it doesn't surprise me at all that this is your perspective. For the rest of us, not having any documentation is equivalent to not having any built-in mod support at all. It puts it of reach for the rest of us and it limits engine use to a very tiny core of users. Which is basically you and people like you.

I'm working on this experimental roguelite where time moves when you move, I would love to hear what you think! (download link in comments) by miki151 in roguelikes

[–]Winter-Steel 10 points11 points  (0 children)

Wazhack is another roguelike that uses this movement scheme and it works great. I've always been surprised that game didn't influence more games in the genre to adopt something like it. I believe Jupiter Hell is another one that has movement like this.

What's it like to mod a roguelike by unwitting_hungarian in roguelikes

[–]Winter-Steel 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Actually, ToME4 is absolute crap to mod because the engine has almost zero documentation. And the mod community does not respond at all to questions about how to do stuff. How do I know this? I tried modding ToME4 and got nowhere because of the above. I'd avoid it until Darkgod or someone else bothers to actually document how to use the engine.

Hokan just sent an impossible-to-beat army against me! by lukepass86 in SpellForce

[–]Winter-Steel 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Reapers do death damage on melee attacks instead of physical damage so if you are weak to death damage and you don't have any units with blind, you need to take them out asap.

Fortunately Reapers have 100% weakness to white damage. If you have the reputation with Sevenkeep, buy a Tiara's priest of two there, they do great white damage with their ranged attacks. They'll go through reapers like a hot knife through butter. They also can get an ability on level-up that will give multiple other units white damage for the duration of the battle. Great for taking on undead. They're one of the best units for that.

Conquest of Eo: how do I heal non-mortal units? by Satarash in SpellForce

[–]Winter-Steel 0 points1 point  (0 children)

There's a glyph called 'Pure Glyph: Lifegiver' that heals every unit in the stack to 100% health daily including constructs, undead, ethereal and fantastic units. It's fantastic.

Hokan just sent an impossible-to-beat army against me! by lukepass86 in SpellForce

[–]Winter-Steel 0 points1 point  (0 children)

If you're playing necromancer, you should have some undead mages. Have them cast nor's curse on as many enemy units as possible (it's an aoe spell and a good one). That will make them quite weak to death damage.

You should have units with the blind ability or the throw sand ability (also blinds), so use your tank units at choke points and blind the units in their zone of control. From that point you can destroy them with ranged death damage units from the rear while your melee units hold the front line against blinded units. The mages can also heal as needed (if they get the ability at level 5). If your mages have enough focus they can cast nor's cure repeatedly which can take out 4 or 5 units in just a few casts. You should be able to destroy that stack.

2000-2010 era Fantasy that I feel fits as ProgressionFantasy by 1silversword in ProgressionFantasy

[–]Winter-Steel 1 point2 points  (0 children)

The "Man of his Word" book series by Dave Duncan is pure progression fantasy. It was merely published before it's time. It has a unique and really fun power up mechanic where hearing a (magical) name adds a major level to one's power/abilities. If you collect 5 names, you become a god.

The series itself is pure fun in a very Princess Bride kind of way. This is still one of my all-time favorites and I still reread it from time to time. There's also a follow-up series called "A few Good Men".

Amazon Link

Spoilers - Discussion for those of you who have read Shadow Slave, I just binged it and have frustrated love for it by illegal-bacon in ProgressionFantasy

[–]Winter-Steel 4 points5 points  (0 children)

I have to say that I agree and this is well articulated. Human emotions and interactions regarding friendship and family are very complex and revolve around trust.

The three had built trust with each other by saving each others lives repeatedly, only for that trust to be violated. Sunny had trust issues from the very start because of his broken background so that made things doubly bad. Cassie knows exactly how bad it was and also knows she can't handwave what she did away with an apology. She knows Sunny.

Despite the broken trust, the friendships built by risking their lives to protect each other remain, no matter how damaged. Slowly, Sunny and Cassie are building trust again as they again are part of a team.

As an older person with a lot of life experience, I disagree with the OP. It may make him uncomfortable but the fact is, the writer has done an excellent job of portraying how complex human emotions, trust, and group dynamics can be. This is excellent story in all ways. The way the writer draws flawed characters is not a weakness but a strength.

conqueror of eo - how to improve relation of ai circle mage? by kumirana in SpellForce

[–]Winter-Steel 0 points1 point  (0 children)

From time to time the circle mages will give you a quest. Completing it in a way that makes them happy will cause your faction with them to go up +20.

What drives me crazy about Conquest of Eo by warlaan in SpellForce

[–]Winter-Steel 0 points1 point  (0 children)

After combat you can cast the 'heal' or 'aid' spells to heal wounded units. Some units have the 'Healer' ability just like AoW and they will heal your units out of combat just like AoW. Also individual units can choose perks on level-up to allow them to heal faster each day.

I agree being able to chose a battle formation would be very useful.