Adventure Gamers - Forums

Iznogood - 08 March 2014 06:34 PM

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There are three different paths through the game, respectively know as Mission Street, Lombard Street and Boulevard of Broken Dreams (Boyscout Tex, Tex Murphy PI and Evil Tex), leading to 8 (7 unique) endings. Your path and ending is determined by the choices and dialogue options you choose through the game, where the more unselfish and “good” you play the more likely you are to end up on Mission Street, whereas the more of an egocentric jerk you play, the more likely you are to end up on Broken Dreams.

If you want to see the other endings once we are done, then I have a collection of savegames for all of the 8 endings, once again courtesy of the unofficial Tex site.

Personally I’m looking forward to acting like a real jerk and ending on BoBD, which I haven’t done before, and which surprisingly enough is something I usually find quite unnatural to do in games.

Non-linearity

Especially the first 5 chapters are relative non-linear where many “things” or objectives can either be completed immediately or can be delayed to a later chapter, and there are other objectives that will trigger a new day or chapter when completed.

In order to ensure that we are all on the same page and have played the same parts, then I will post the “action” that will trigger a new chapter, and I encourage you all to do as much as you can and complete as many objectives and puzzles, before triggering the next chapter.

I’m confused. Shouldn’t we all be starting at the same place, e.g. Mission? Meanwhile you, our leader is going down the BoBD track seems a bit odd.

I think I need some serious direction. Where do we start? What path do we take? What is the objective? How long do we have to achieve it?

Given your description of the non-linearity, without direction we will have X people playing their own game. If I’m not playing the same game sequence Chrissie or Becky are playing then we won’t communicate at all. I suggest you find a way to make us all play the same game. If, by the end we enjoy it enough, we will replay on our own to find other paths.

rtrooney - 09 March 2014 09:41 PM

I’m confused. Shouldn’t we all be starting at the same place, e.g. Mission? Meanwhile you, our leader is going down the BoBD track seems a bit odd.

I think I need some serious direction. Where do we start? What path do we take? What is the objective? How long do we have to achieve it?

Well perhaps the wording “path” is misleading, and I only used it because it is the official word used in the game and manual. I can also in retrospect see that I didn’t explains this very well, so let me try to explain it better.

It isn’t like we can just chose our “path” at the beginning of the game like we can chose the difficult setting, instead it is something that is decided by how we act during the game and the dialogue options we choose.

You can to some degree compare it to the choices in The Walking Dead, except in TPD these choices are for the most part completely hidden, instead rubbing someone the wrong way might offend or upset them, which in return can lead to something else that can lead to something else.

It doesn’t in any way mean that we will be going in different directions, playing different games, have completely different experiences or anything like that. The differences are much more subtle then that, and it basically just means that some cutscenes and dialogues will vary depending on the choices we knowingly or unknowingly have made during the game.

The objectives we have to complete is always exactly the same, the puzzles are always exactly the same and the story is also about 95% the same.

I don’t know if I can explain this any better, hopefully I will all be clearer when we actually start playing the game, and my advice is that you simply ignore all this talk about different “paths”, and just chose the dialogue options that you feel best suit the Tex you want to be. I promise you that is really the best way to play it for the first time.

It also won’t in any way compromise or detract from the CP that we don’t all make exactly the same choices, in fact I believe discussing the different choices we make and the consequences of those choices will make this CP more interesting.

rtrooney - 09 March 2014 09:41 PM

Given your description of the non-linearity, without direction we will have X people playing their own game. If I’m not playing the same game sequence Chrissie or Becky are playing then we won’t communicate at all. I suggest you find a way to make us all play the same game. If, by the end we enjoy it enough, we will replay on our own to find other paths.

The different so called “paths” and the non-linear nature of TPD is in fact two different things, though of course related.

I agree that it is best if we all on the same page and play the same puzzle, visit the same locations etc. in the same chapters. And I will do my best to make sure that happens, by providing some guidance at the beginning of each chapter. Also the game isn’t completely non-linear so it shouldn’t be that difficult.

Edit: If you want to make sure you follow a certain “path” and get a specific ending then you can follow this guide that Wilco also posted a link to earlier, but I recommend you don’t read it.

HandsFree - 09 March 2014 07:55 PM

Got the gog version installed.
Does anyone else get all that background noise when Tex is talking? Not during movies, but when clicking on stuff. I fiddled a bit with the mixer settings in the dosbox config file and it improved a little, but it’s still there.

Not me, and I am no expert on dosbox, but I did find this on the GOG forum which sounds (no pun intended) like a similar problem.

It is now time to officially start the community playthrough of Tex Murphy: The Pandora Directive

We will only be playing DAY 1 of the game in this part of the playthrough, so as soon as you get to DAY 2, you should save the game at the earliest possible moment and stop playing.

You have until Saturday the 15 of March evening CET time-zone to complete Day 1. I know 5 days isn’t much, but Day 1 is really a very short chapter with very little you have to accomplish, so we are actually starting up pretty slow, to make sure everybody is onboard.

The action that will “trigger” day2 is when you enter Apartment A, so you should delay that for as long as possible, and instead use the opportunity to explore your own apartment and your neighbourhood, talk to the other people on Chandler Avenue, and get accustomed to the game in general. If you do so then there is also some rewards that can be found in the form of some extra cash, which will come in handy later in the game.

Hint of the day: You can’t talk to Nilo before you have made Chelsea agree on a date with you.

P.s.: Remember to use spoiler tags.

P.p.s.: We still haven’t heard from some of the members that voted for the game, but I hope that they still intent to join this CP.

Iznogood - 10 March 2014 02:16 PM

P.p.s.: We still haven’t heard from some of the members that voted for the game, but I hope that they still intent to join this CP.

You can add me in Iznogood. I’ve decided to gird my loins, brave my heart, eat a can of spinach and play the dark path.

Since I know most of the other paths off by heart I should be able to stay on the right path without needing to backtrack.

Valynis - 10 March 2014 06:34 PM

There are two other keys that might be of interest to new players: TAB: Move your eyesight back to horizontal level (useful after using UP and DOWN keys.) E: Bring you back to stand up height (after using SHFT and CTRL keys.)

And Esc skips the current scene.

Is there a list of all the keystroke shortcuts?

Becky - 11 March 2014 01:09 PM

Nilo just called Tex a “sneakin’ piece of slop.” I have consulted a thesaurus, and I think what he really meant to say was “roguish lump of goulash,” which could be interpreted as a sort of compliment. Right?

I loved the bit with the ex-wife’s photo.

I’m rapidly running through my pile of cash. Will this be a problem in the future?

It could be but you do get very low on cash but not actually need any more until you can acquire some. See Isnogood’s introductory post to starting the game. He gives some very sensible advice.

Kurufinwe - 11 March 2014 10:26 AM

Speaking of the interface, the most important question of this entire playthrough: What colour did you guys pick for the menus? I’ve tried most of them over the years and decided to go with dark blue this time. Anything is better than default red as far as I’m concerned.

There’s a thread on the BFG forum about someone wanting advice on what colour to use for what day! Anyways I’m using grey this time around.

And I don’t like nasty Tex. It’s not like him and it’s also not like me either. I’ve upset Rook, Chelsee, Clint, Zack and Nilo ( ). I don’t think it’s possible to upset Louie

I’m glad so many have decide to join us, even if they didn’t vote for the game, so welcome onboard to all of you. (And congratulations to Sefir for fixing the tech problem)

Valynis - 10 March 2014 06:34 PM

Ok, so please refresh my memory on how these community playthroughs work. Right now, we’re on Day 1. So, are Day 1 spoilerish talks good now, or do we wait until we’re in Day 2? I’ll wait until I get confirmation before sharing my thoughts.

The way it works is that you can post all your thoughts, comments screenshots etc. on the chapter we are currently playing or on any of the previous chapters, but not anything about the chapters we haven’t reached yet. Also any spoilerish talk like puzzle hints/solutions and plot twists, should be posted in spoiler tags, so you can post anything you want about day 1 now, just remember to use spoiler tags when appropriate.

Becky - 11 March 2014 01:09 PM

I’m rapidly running through my pile of cash. Will this be a problem in the future?

As I said, Tex has a lot of debt , and it can turn into a problem.
But there is also some extra cash to be found, both here in the beginning and later in the game, and in worse case scenario you can always convert points to cash. I will also post a small tip/hint on day 2, that can help Tex to avoid bankruptcy.

Becky - 11 March 2014 01:09 PM

Nilo just called Tex a “sneakin’ piece of slop.” I have consulted a thesaurus, and I think what he really meant to say was “roguish lump of goulash,” which could be interpreted as a sort of compliment. Right?

Riiight , I somehow don’t think Nilo and Tex is on a “compliment each other” relationship.