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Isle Of The Cyclops




Andrew Wright
Sat Aug 15 12:23:40 2009
Arguth: Glad you like the gamebook adventures!

Melric and Raitharve are two characters I made up. Way back in the dawn of time when I discovered FF on the web in 97 or 98, I decided a write an adventure where you play a swordswoman - Raitharve - investigating a crypt full of horrors in the company of a more experienced adventurer - Melric Moonblade.

However, I switched ideas and ended up writing about the Troglodytes who live in the crypt itself. Thanks for the encouragement though, as I have still have further plans for those two and anything could happen in the future!

cheers

Andy

ffproject
Sun Nov 24 11:20:45 2013
Isle Of The Cyclops Again

A few weeks back, I introduced the 'additional challenge' mechanism to Sharkbait's Revenge. This has been met with almost no enthusiasm at all : I think only one person worked their way through them, and by dubious means as it turned out. Nonetheless I intend to persist with this concept. Now Andrew Wright's Isle Of The Cyclops has it as well.

To recap : you initiate the challenges by completing the gamebook in the usual way. Then, following the CONGRATULATIONS message you are presented with an ADDITIONAL CHALLENGES link. Click on this and you go back to the start of the game, but you now have a checklist of challenges to work your way through. It doesn't matter if you die on any subsequent attempt, you can keep going round and round until you are successful.

Play it here

Ulysses
Mon Nov 25 04:00:34 2013
I am quite interested in the challenge concept. I had a go at the challenges in "Island of the Cyclops" this morning, but didn't get far. I couldn't find the fourth beast on the island...

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Yaztromo
Mon Nov 25 08:19:28 2013
Skull - non-optimum ending reached
I took the challenges after I won with the first character.
I think that the Big Four Challenge isn't very meaningful, as it's plain normal that you slay all four beasts of the island with the very first character (you need to be extremely lucky to avoid that), while the Rich Challenge sounded a bit boring to me, as you need to collect plenty of hyena pelts going up and down from Han to the centre of the island a hundred times or so (sleeping at Han every time your STAMINA lowers a bit too much.
The challenge of winning with al four characters, however, is reasonably interesting and meaningful to me, even if there is quite a lot of repetition.
I think you did well to get all four beasts in the first attempt. Three might be expected, but the fourth is a bit less accessible. Yes, the Rich Challenge does involve killing some hyenas - but only ten at the most because after that no more will appear.

Ulysses
Mon Nov 25 08:42:45 2013
@Yaztromo

What were the four beasts? I only ever found three, every time I played...
The missing beast:
SPOILER  
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Ulysses
Mon Nov 25 10:38:50 2013
Star - optimum ending reached
Still can't find 4 animals that attack you on the island...

pi4t
Mon Nov 25 14:27:04 2013
Comet - all challenges completed
Hooray! I'm the first to complete all the challenges (and write about it).

On the other hand, I did find the Rich Challenge rather grindy. Ideally the challenges should challenge you to think in different ways, try different routes through the book. For that purpose, the 'win as' ones are quite effective, and as Ulysses is discovering, so is the Big Four Challenge.

I'll also say that winning as Rhuncaz is significantly harder than as anyone else, as he can't use his luck score in combat. That makes it statistically rather unlikely that he'll actually manage to kill the final boss, so in the end I used a combination of tabs to save my progress as I went through the fight. Cheaty? Perhaps. I'd consider it an alternative application of his luck score...

Ulysses:
SPOILER  
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Well done!

Actually, it isn't too hard to win as Rhuncaz because you can easily acquire equipment that compensates for his SKILL deficiency, and his high LUCK is useful when you are approaching the Cyclops.

duffmeister
Tue Nov 26 15:53:58 2013
Comet - all challenges completed
I've always quite liked this adventure, and it was interesting to have a motive to explore Goi-Han in a bit more depth. The four player characters mean that I was able to try out a few different strategies depending on which character I was playing as. That said, the rich challenge was a bit tiresome and grindy with lots of repeated Hyena killing. The big four challenge was interesting, but without spoiling it too much, whether you get to encounter one of the four is random enough that it may take a couple of attempts to run into it, which is a nuisance. Overall though, the multiple achievements made for an interesting reason to explore Goi-Han. By taking the focus from the one main objective of killing the Cyclops and sailing off into the sunset, and instead putting it on optional mini-quests, it better captured the Fabled Land-sy atmosphere I think the gamebook was written to have, with the focus being on exploring an atmospheric setting and trying out new things.

pi4t
Tue Nov 26 16:20:00 2013
Yes, Rhuncaz's high luck gives you a high chance to get to the cyclops (assuming you survive the other battles on the island), but the only item I could find which boosts your skill is the
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giving you an effective skill of 8. Even if you manage to acquire all 4 hitpoint boosting items (which relies on you not taking too much damage early on meaning spending too much on healing at the inn, and on good rolls at the wreck), it's still in effect an 8SK/18ST character fighting against 9SK/14ST enemy. I haven't calculated the probabilities, but that intuitively feels like a fight you're not too likely to win.
True, but you are still missing one thing that would tip the balance of the fight the other way.

Gaetano
Fri Nov 29 18:35:42 2013
Star - optimum ending reached
Nice! I may also have to think about joining this project. A couple of questions: I take it we should incorporate skill, stamina and luck stats as on the online version, rather than the vitality and other stats included on the print version? Also, what would be the optimal way to "begin" each adventure? Should it be Fabled Lands style, where you wash up on a beach somewhere? Should new players be able to start the adventure from any point, or are we assuming that everyone will have completed Isle of the Cyclops?
Great news. I'll leave it up to Ulysses to legislate on what system the text versions should use. As far as the eventual online version is concerned, my current intentions are :

- It will use FF rules. I will convert from VITALITY etc. if necessary. I seem to remember this was straightforward the first time around.
- Everyone starts on Goi-Han (the Isle Of The Cyclops island). Washed up on a beach.
- As stated earlier, there will be the same choice of four characters.
- In practice you might need to complete Isle Of The Cyclops before going anywhere else, because that's how you get a boat.

It occurs to me that we probably ought to make it clear how each individual gamebook should start. I would suggest that the writer of each gamebook specifies its possible entry points (one of which would presumably be approaching the island in your boat of course).

ben
Wed Dec 18 15:39:41 2013
Skull - non-optimum ending reached
fun but a bit hard, an insta-kill for an unavoidable luck test is rough!

gigs
Wed Dec 18 17:14:51 2013
Skull - non-optimum ending reached
you need to get
SPOILER  
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if you need money for the ferry. Could you fix this as it is a ceat?
Sorry, I don't understand what you mean. I would be happy to fix it if I did.

gigs
Wed Dec 18 17:18:25 2013
i got the hena pelt about 6 times. Why?
You get a hyena pelt for every hyena you kill.

gigs
Thu Dec 19 09:06:46 2013
if you are short of money you can just kill loads of hyenas and get their pelts and sell them in Han. Is this meant to happen?

These games are great! I like the science fiction ones.

pi4t
Thu Dec 19 09:29:47 2013
Gigs: That is entirely the intention. IotC is intended as a free roaming adventure in the style of the Fabled Realms gamebooks, in which you can travel around the world and earn a living adventuring pretty much how you wish. In the Fabled Realms series, each book covers a country or region of the world, and if you happen to wander to the edge of one region then you can jump straight over to the book which covers the area you're entering (assuming you have it). This works in both ways, and it's possible to sail up and down the coast going between books to earn money by buying and selling goods at various ports. It's just a pity that the writers never had the chance to write the second half of the books in the series, due to budget problems.

IotC doesn't currently have any other books in its series (so don't bother with the ferry: it won't take you anywhere currently). However, as it happens there's a big activity taking place right now to write a series of books between us, which is will be possible to travel between in much the same manner as in Fabled Realms, each featuring a different island. Keep an eye out for Tales of the Bird Islands, which should be becoming officially released soonish, when all the first few books are written.

gigs
Thu Dec 19 10:51:02 2013
Skull - non-optimum ending reached
I love the way you can just buy stuff in Han, search the wreck and go on the quest.

gigs
Thu Dec 19 11:58:31 2013
Skull - non-optimum ending reached
I find it hard to enter the cave to kill the cyclops.In Han I go to the temple, by a good luck fortune and set off. I have rope and a lantern.

pi4t
Thu Dec 19 12:05:09 2013
Gigs: what other equipment do you have? Getting a shield, some armour and
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could help you significantly.

gigs
Thu Dec 19 12:25:02 2013
pi4t: I found 104 gold and than left because of the crabs.
SPOILER  
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gigs
Thu Dec 19 14:11:59 2013
pi4t:I found a scimter in the ship?I have a shied,leather armour and a lantern.



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