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Hellfire |
| 61 to 80 of 281 | [next] [previous] | [first] [last] |
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Chadwick Tue Nov 30 13:19:47 2004 |
Final Hellfire Question (I think). What would persude the Cyclops to tell me how to kill the Trinotaur? They've not been impressed with anything I've got so far. |
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Phil Sadler Tue Nov 30 13:44:17 2004 |
Cyclops:
SPOILER
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??? Tue Nov 30 16:50:25 2004 |
Hmm yes ok but if you go to the shop you can't complete the game can you? ??? |
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??? Tue Nov 30 16:56:40 2004 |
OOPS MY STUPID DOG JUST STOOD ON THE ENTER KEY RIGHT WHEN I WAS ABOUT TO SUBMIT MY QUESTION...IS THERE A WAY OF DELETING AND OR RETRACTING STAMENTS? IF NOT EVERY BODY SEND IN THERE QUESTIONS REAL FAST ABOUT 9 SHOULD DO IT SO SO SO SO SO SORRY ABOUT THIS ??? |
| Not a problem, I can fix this sort of thing easily. |
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!!! Tue Nov 30 17:20:43 2004 |
WOW THAT WAS QUICK AND YES I WAS RIGHT YOU CAN'T COMPLETE THE GAME IF YOU GO TO THE SHOP.
SPOILER
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Chadwick Wed Dec 1 11:29:37 2004 |
I'm beginning to understand how Hellfire is put togetehr now. Once you know the secrets, it's a very complex adventure. But I still maintain you need some more clues in the online text. I guess a lot of the objects and their uses are perfectly clear in the paper version. So if I get it correctly, there should be a way to avoid/weaken the White Dragon...? What is it? Ninja - to make "Spoiler" text put
SPOILER
??? - I think your dog has also pressed the Caps Lock key... |
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Phil Sadler Wed Dec 1 16:16:20 2004 |
"So if I get it correctly, there should be a way to avoid/weaken the White Dragon...? What is it?"
SPOILER
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stirlock Wed Jun 8 03:56:28 2005 |
Hello. When playing hellfire, you have the option of choosing a restoritive potion. However, none of these actually show up in your items list. Is this a bug? |
| Yes, and now I've fixed it. Thanks for bringing it to my attention. |
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Holden Thu Jun 16 18:35:55 2005 |
Ok guys, I need your help once again. In Hellfire, I've made it to the acid river. If anyone knows where that is. All three routes are death traps, but surely there's a way to get across it. How, may I ask? HOlden |
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Phil Sadler Thu Jun 16 22:03:53 2005 |
Hellfire: acid river
SPOILER
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Holden Fri Jun 17 18:52:03 2005 |
Hellfire? Probably the hardest game on the site. Phil did a good job writing it don't you think? I wish I had that kind of imagination, and I do, it's not that developed yet. And I read your exclusive interview in Riders of the Storm, Phil. You said you weren't going to write anymore gamebooks? Dude, you should really continue writing those books like h Hellfire, except with different plots and stuff. I'm telling yiou, your books are real good. Consider it dude. Holden |
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Gamebook Fanatic Sun Jun 19 06:53:35 2005 |
Yeah, Hellfire is definitely the most difficult game, although Riders of the Storm comes close. Personally, I think Phil's books are all fun to read, but can be really frustrating to play. Almost all the encounters in the book are fun and memorable, but I think the difficulty is a little overdone. There are many kinds of difficulties in a gamebook. Steve Jackson uses hidden paths and secret references in some of his most difficult books, like Creature of Havoc and House of Hell. Ian Livingstone's difficult books, like Crypt of the Sorcerer, is known for having too many difficult combats, as well as requiring too many necessary items to beat the game. Then there is the 'fail one roll and die' difficulty in Luke Sharp's Chasms of Malice, and the 'stray off the path once, and the Big Bad Demon eats you' difficulty in Paul Mason's Crimson Tide. And a few others I might have forgotten. Phil seems to have combined practically all of these difficulty elements into one book, which possibly makes his book more difficult than all the original FF books! (though I haven't really collected the entire series yet, so I can't be sure) He doesn't use as many hidden paths/items as Steve Jackson does, but there are quite a few. There aren't as many extreme-tough combats, but the few there are are enough to frustrate the readers for keep geting killed by the same encounter. There are enough neccessary items/equipment to match Mr Livingstone's toughest books. There are quite a number of critical die rolls that could decide your fate, though they are not as unfair as Luke Sharp's infamous One-Stirke Combats. The path to success is rather narrow, and above all this game is extremely demanding on your stats. So far, while I did win a few times, I've NEVER been able to win with a SKILL less than 11, and LUCK lower then 10, even after I've mapped out the correct path. The reason for this is because many of the neccessary encounters drains your stats without giving you the chance to avoid the penalties. With a low SKILL you'll easily run out of Healing Potions. All these difficulty elements I mentioned above aren't always a bad thing by themselves, but put them all together and you can literally send your readers through Hell. The good thing, as I said earlier, is that the encounters in the book are mostly exciting and memorable, so they were a fairly good motivation for me to come back and try to beat it again (though I have to admit that at one point, I was so frusrated that I had to take a couple of weeks' break before coming back to it). I do enjoy Riders of the Storm more though. The plot is still intriguing, more so than the first actually, although I still had a couple of questions unanswered by the end. And at least you actually can win this book without having double-figured Skill and Luck. While Phil's style of game design isn't my all-time favourite, I do think he's a good writer, since he's good at maintaining his readers' interest. Like Holden, I hope he would consider writing more. |
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Phil Sadler Sun Jun 19 09:33:12 2005 |
(In reply to Gamebook Fanatic's previous post) This is some very interesting criticism you've given me! Firstly, in regards to the fact that it (Hellfire) has "too many difficult combats", I would say that it probably does! However, I would quickly add that not all of them need to be faught: some can be avoided, others can be got rid of by the use of items (not all of which may be obvious in the combats themselves, especially the online edition). As for your "fail one roll and die" accusation, I'm not entirely sure that I agree with you. I mean I'm not saying that it never happens but I just don't believe that it happened anywhere near as often as you may remember. For instance, when you compare this 'feature' to many other FF books (including just about any Ian Livingstone book; especially Crypt of the Sorcerer) I would say that they are not overused in either of my books. When you say that you've "NEVER been able to win with a SKILL less than 11, and LUCK lower then 10" I would ask if you have ever tried the reading the Word version? You can find it on the Yahoo Gamebook and Fighting_Fantasy_Gamebook mailing lists. This version is much easier than the online edition because of two reasons. Firstly, you can use Luck in combat! Secondly, there are references in the text that do not appear in the online edition and may give you a few more clues. Suffice to say, whilst playing the Word version I have definitely managed to complete Hellfire with a Skill of 10 and Luck of 9. Although it must be said that even I struggle to win through with scores much lower than that. I Would hope that I corrected many of the faults of Hellfire when I wrote Riders of the Storm and I would hope that you agree with me (the combats arn't as tough, there arn't as many essential items to collect and you can even stray from the path a bit!). One last thing; when you say that (in reference to Riders of the Storm) "I still had a couple of questions unanswered by the end" would you mind telling me what these questions are, because I may well be able to help. If you do it may be best to use the 'spoiler' option up above for people who haven't completed it yet. Right, thank you for your comments, I'm always happy to discuss the books I've wrote :) |
| Unless you have any objections, I'll put the Word version of Hellfire on the downloads page. |
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Matt Thu Jun 23 07:04:42 2005 |
One day, I may be daring and attempt Hellfire + ROTS |
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Phil Sadler Fri Jun 24 20:21:50 2005 |
I've no objections about the book being put on the downloads page. |
| Thanks. It's there now. |
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Gamebook Fanatic Sat Jun 25 10:50:16 2005 |
This is in reply to Phil's post. Sorry I took so long to respond, but I had been too busy to come online much this week. I admit that some of the comparisons I raised in my previous post weren't entirely fair. I raised Crypt of the Sorcerer and Chasms of Malice as the most extreme examples in order to emphasize on the various difficulty elements I was trying to describe. I did point out in my post that "There aren't as many extreme-tough combats, but the few there are are enough to frustrate the readers for keep geting killed by the same encounter". I also said that the critical die rolls in your book are "not as unfair as Luke Sharp's infamous One-Stirke Combats", since only some of them actually kill you outright. But although an unlucky die roll doesn't mean instant death, I found most of them to be deadly in the long run. I've already mentioned that a high Skill is required to finish the game. An unlucky die roll while fighting the Cockatrice means either an instant death or a huge drain in your Skill. Another unlucky roll later in the game drains off about 3 more Skill when you are climbing some wall. There are also a few other similar stat-draining traps that are totally random by die rolls. Without these precious Skill you are as good as dead when you enconter the few tough monsters that you have to fight. I particularly dislike a certain arena in the game, where you have to let the dice decide not only the monster you fight, but also your own stats. More than once I managed to roll up a character with high stats in the beginning, and thought I would have an easier time in the game, only to be killed in the arena because my character was suddenly turned into a Skill 7 Stamina 7 wimp. As I said, these aren't as bad as failing One-Strike Combats, since you do have a slight chance of survival, but the frustration of getting screwed by the dice repeatedly even though you didn't make any wrong choices is rather similar. I do admit that I overlooked the 'Using Luck in Battle" rules. I think it's a pity that they would probably not be added to this site, and yes, they probably would have made the combats easier. However, that raises another thing about this book which I find to be a problem. I'm not sure if I could afford to spend these Luck to preserve Stamina. One annoying point about Hellfire is that it seems fairly demanding with all 3 of your stats. Allow me to bring in some of the other Gamebooks on this site as comparison. House of Horror doesn't require very high stats. Rebels of the Dark Chasms requires high Skill for some critical Skill rolls, but doesn't require high Luck. In Trial of Alibor's Tomb, I found that Luck was the most critical stat, since there are hardly any Luck restores in the game. Outsider requires you to have either a high Skill or a high Psychic score, but not both of them. In Hellfire, however, I found all the stats to be equally important, and usually equally lacking. Stamina is constantly drained during the game. This is usually expected in RPG, but the problem I have with this is that most of the stat drains in your game are necessary and cannot be avoided. It is fair enough to punish the reader if he makes a foolish choice, but to punish him for finding a necessary equipment is just plain unfair. It doesn't help that there are so many of these items in the game. You probably did it to confuse the players as to which are the required items, but I think it is a tactic that backfires. Skill and Luck are also drained in the same way, which may lead to you failing a Skill or Luck roll later in the game, leading to more losses in your stats, which leads to more failing of rolls...... and so on, until you eventually run out of stats altogether. Whenever I play Hellfire, I always have a problem with deciding which of the three stat potions I should pick, since more often than not I need all three. (edit: post too long, conitnue next post :P) |
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Gamebook Fanatic Sat Jun 25 10:51:28 2005 |
(continued from previous post) Also, I said in my previous post that different writers tend to have different ways of making their books challenging. Luke Sharp over-abuses critical die rolls, but he doesn't require you to stick to one path. There aren't any 'true paths' in his books, or there are so many of them that it isn't a problem finding your destination. Ian Livingstones gives you tough fights and makes you fight everything that moves, but he doesn't confuse you with secret passages. Paul Mason makes you play Red Riding Hood and stick to the path, but you don't need to fight a lot. Even his infamous "super mudworm" (which he claims to be a mistake) wasn't on the true path. Likeiwise, readers tend to have different preferences for the kind of challenges they like, and once they know a writer's style they'd know which to avoid. Hellfire, though, had most of those challenges: secret passages, a narrow true path, plenty of combats to go through(a few of them very hard), lots of items to find, and some irritating but important random die rolls. That's just too many different difficulty elements in one book. So while I believe you when you said playing the Word format would be easier, I still think the difficulty level is just a little too high. The combination of so many different kinds of difficulty was what made me call it "more difficult than all the original FF books", although now that I thought further about it, I agree that I was a little too harsh, especially considering that the Word format would indeed be easier. Another good point I would like to add is that, unlike some of the original FF books, this book's ending isn't a disappointment, and finishing it does feel rewarding, it's almost like coming to the end of a great epic. And yes, I agree that Riders of the Storms is very much an improvement in game mechanism. The difficulty level is much better, the combats are mostly easier. Like I said before, you can a least beat ROTS without double-figured stats. You still need a hell lot of Stamina, but at least you know which stat you should focus on, unlike the previous book. Also, you seemed to have focused on only a few of the difficulty elements you employed in the previous book, such as hidden references, instead of putting them all in this book as well. And the annoying stat-draining equipment is gone. That's why I said in my post that I certainly wouldn't mind seeing more books from you. As to my unanswered questions about ROTS, they are mostly in regarding to the storyline of the book. None of them are essential to finishing the game, but I would certainly appreciate it if you would answer them. As you suggested, under spoiler:
SPOILER
These are all I can think of now. As I said, none of them affects your playing of the game, but I'm usually curious about the plots of the books I read, even if it's just a gamebook. Thanks in advance. I hope you take no offence to my citicisms. And sorry for having to put up with my long-winded posts. :) |
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Phil Sadler Sat Jun 25 11:35:00 2005 |
I had never realised just how tough Hellfire could be until I read your post! I guess it certainly helps if you're the one who wrote the book :o) Anway, I'll try and answer your questions:
SPOILER
Some very interesting questions. I hope I've answered them well enough. |
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Gamebook Fanatic Sat Jun 25 12:51:25 2005 |
Hey, that was fast! Thanks for answering my questions so promptly. However, I'm still not sure about Question 5:
SPOILER
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Phil Sadler Sat Jun 25 20:34:54 2005 |
I'll try to answer as best I can:
SPOILER
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