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Character Powers as puzzle mechanics

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I like this style of gameplay a lot. I find it expands the type of thinking involved when you have more than one character interacting with the world in a totally different way. From the first two Goblins games with minimal narrative to the Ben & Dan games where platforming entered the mix.

     
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Cognition: an Erica Reed Thriller is an excellent example of this, she was able to solve many of the games puzzles using her cognitive abilities. And yes, in the case of this game this really added to the games enjoyment. It adds some variety to the puzzle solving which I enjoyed.

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Chrissie:  Yeah so I just beat the first 4 Blackwells, and at first I thought Joey’s skill set to be extremely limited, but there’s actually a surprising amount of depth to the puzzles that require him and Rosangela/Lauren to work together.  I think it just goes to show that with some creative thinking, satisfying puzzles can be made from very limited interactions.

Gatekeeper:  Oh yeah that is very confusing >.<

Phlebas:  Yeah, and so the truth is, I don’t have a ton of experience with Lucas arts, Ron gilbert types of Games.  I just started playing Day of the Tentacle, and I got stuck like a million times because I didn’t really understand the type of logic that was expected.  In Sierra games, for whatever reason, I’m able to follow their crazy moon-logic.  But I’ve only recently started to understand the madness of the Lucas arts-style of puzzle.  I’ve been dying to try out The Cave.  That’s co-op right?

     

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One cool reversal on the idea of using class abilities to differentiate player-characters is the short text adventure The Erudition Chamber. Each puzzle has four solutions: one for a Warrior, one for an Alchemist, one for a Seer, and one for an Artisan.

The twist is that you don’t choose your class at the start of the game.

Instead, you’re placed in situations and solve the puzzles, and the game counts how many times you used Warrior-style solutions [SMASH THE DOOR!], how many times you used Alchemist solutions, and so on. In other words, you don’t get special powers during the game. Instead, at the end of the game you’re assigned to a character class based on your style of puzzle-solving.

This gives the game some QFG-style replayability. To see all the endings, you can try to go for a “pure” playthrough where you stick to one approach (warrior for all puzzles, alchemist for all puzzles, etc.).

     
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WitchOfDoubt - 26 April 2020 01:35 AM

One cool reversal on the idea of using class abilities to differentiate player-characters is the short text adventure The Erudition Chamber. Each puzzle has four solutions: one for a Warrior, one for an Alchemist, one for a Seer, and one for an Artisan.

The twist is that you don’t choose your class at the start of the game.

Instead, you’re placed in situations and solve the puzzles, and the game counts how many times you used Warrior-style solutions [SMASH THE DOOR!], how many times you used Alchemist solutions, and so on. In other words, you don’t get special powers during the game. Instead, at the end of the game you’re assigned to a character class based on your style of puzzle-solving.

This gives the game some QFG-style replayability. To see all the endings, you can try to go for a “pure” playthrough where you stick to one approach (warrior for all puzzles, alchemist for all puzzles, etc.).

Is this kind of like the three paths in Whispers of a Machine?  That game makes it sound like not only does it keep track of which path you choose, but that those choices will unlock abilities related to those paths?


I really just came back to revive this thread to say thanks to Vehelon and GateKeeper because they had planted the seed that I needed to play Star Trek 25th Anniversary, and HOLY MOSES this game is fun!

I understood what Vehelon meant by character powers, but I think that’s kind of a stretch.  You said I would be able to pick my landing party, but it didn’t let me do that.  I only beat level one about the Demon World, and then I started Level 2, but both times, I don’t seem to get a choice.  Spock, McCoy, plus generic security officer no matter what.  I don’t understand why though, I mean I guess none of the main cast in TOS is labeled security that I can remember, and I appreciate the reference to disposable red shirts.
I guess it makes sense as the core team though, Medic, Science officer, gunman, and I guess kirk would be diplomacy/‘seduction’ yuck.

So is it possible to beat the training battle at the beginning of level 1?

I have lost every time I tried to restart the game. 
Which is weird because after that, I gave the finger to starfleet, flew into Klingon Space, and destroyed them in a dog fight on the first try. 
And then in Level 2 there is a battle as well, first try.  After practicing on those other battles, and getting the hang of controlling all the different systems at once, I went back to the training battle, and I STILL can’t win.  I wonder if you are supposed to lose that part (kobeyashi maru-style), or if maybe starfleet ships have more armor or shields that Klingon Birds of Prey ships or that Elasi ship.

Hell controlling a starfleet vessel is way easier than Freespace 2.

Also, I only got 97% on my first mission, and I’m kind of curious if I had done some things differently, could I get a perfect score?

EDIT: if you guys have never read the hint book for Star Trek 25th please read it.  It’s just a novelization of the episode which is so weird.  I know some games like King’s Quest would do this, but I just find it odd.  It reminds me of this one time in middle school, my english teacher made us read a Star Trek script aloud in class for…. IDK why now that I think about.  To Learn English?  Script-writing?  hell IDK.

     

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It’s been a while since I’ve played the TOS games, I’d probably need to go back to them to say anything meaningful. I think when I made the post I had in mind A Final Unity, where you get a bigger choice. I’d say the Kirk-Spock-Bones core in 25th was used because that was TOS was based around. TNG had a bigger cast and wasn’t just the 3 core characters, so you get more choice in that game and I believe the characters affect the puzzle solutions. (I hope I’m right about this, since it’s also been a while since I played AFU)

I’m pretty sure it’s possible to 100% all the missions, and it’s been way too long to say anything about the battles other than I remember wanting them to be over and done with as soon as possible. They’re not the greatest part of the games.

     
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Vehelon - 14 June 2020 05:40 AM

It’s been a while since I’ve played the TOS games, I’d probably need to go back to them to say anything meaningful. I think when I made the post I had in mind A Final Unity, where you get a bigger choice. I’d say the Kirk-Spock-Bones core in 25th was used because that was TOS was based around. TNG had a bigger cast and wasn’t just the 3 core characters, so you get more choice in that game and I believe the characters affect the puzzle solutions. (I hope I’m right about this, since it’s also been a while since I played AFU)

I’m pretty sure it’s possible to 100% all the missions, and it’s been way too long to say anything about the battles other than I remember wanting them to be over and done with as soon as possible. They’re not the greatest part of the games.

Yeah, but I would love to bring Uhura along for diplomacy and stuff.  Like I understand she has to stay on the ship and man the comms there, but still, I think bringing a woman along could have its benefits.  But then she would be like a gameover if she died, where as the red shirt dies, it’s like
“Oh no, not Lt. Whathisname?!”
“We barely knew him!  Literally.”

I look forward to the sequels then because TNG might actually be my favorite casts.  I would love to put Troi and Krusher on my team!

Really TOS is Vulcans and Klingons, and then other races usually make like a single episode appearance, maybe a Romulan or something.

But on TNG we got betazoids and andorians, and bolians, and trill, and ferengi, and all kinds of awesome stuff.

I actually really like the ratings and starfleet commendations in this game because you can in fact continue playing even if you fail to solve the puzzles in the intended way.  It almost has this persistence and openness to it, like how I said before I just went to the wrong star system and picked a fight with klingons.  You aren’t give a game over and kicked out of starfleet, although maybe you should be LMAO.


Lastly, I read online somewhere that fans had patched the space battles out entirely, and I don’t blame them.  The enemies fight pretty cheaply and it controls poorly, but with enough persistence and whisky, I was able to get to like level 5. 

I also read online that the ‘no combat patch’ doesn’t work with all versions.  So IDK.

     

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