[projectaon] Re: Editor's Companion Submission
- From: Amarande <amarande@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: projectaon@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Sat, 02 Sep 2006 19:28:08 -0400
pamail.cgi@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx wrote:
(??) 15tdc 156: and erase any potions of Laumspur and/or Alether. [jfs: Is Laumwort omitted from this list intentionally? Or should it be added there too?]
Other healing potions aren't mentioned, either, and there are a number
of them (e.g., Larnuma, Oxydine, Oede, Kourshah, Baylon's Fungi, Silver
Flask, etc.).
I think we should trust in Joe here that he said "Laumspur" specifically
and not "ENDURANCE restoring Backpack Items." Anyone else?
(ft) 15tdc 156: Also, erase any Meals you may have been carrying in your Backpack, and erase any potions of Laumspur and/or Alether. [jfs: Does this apply to "jars" (as opposed to potions) too? Since jars (obtained in #13) might contain more than one dose of Laumpsur / Alether it is quite unfair to have LoneWolf dispose of them fully if he is carrying these.]
I do think it should apply to the Jars, though; IMO the Jars are merely
Potions that contain multiple doses in a single Backpack Item slot, they
are not intrinsically different from the potions. (As far as I recall
there are VERY few cases where Joe specifically indicates a specific
potion from among a given 'strain' of potions. E.g., book 3 where only
the colored concentrates are usable in certain situations, or book 5
when you can only use a Tincture of Graveweed, not a concentrate. In
just about every other case I've seen, Laumspur is Laumspur, etc.)
(ft) 13tplor 283: You are submerged in a deadly cocktail of acids and toxic wastes from the dungeons of Mogaruit [jfs: Shouldn't the submergion (sp?) in these waters have any effect in the Backpack? As they are full of acids it would be strange that the backpack contents somehow survived being destroyed by them.]
Realistically, maybe. But from a gameplay standpoint I think is most
unfair. It would be book 7 all over again (the only other way out of
Mogaruith besides 168->283 is 241->147, and there you lose your Backpack).
Let's have a look at 234, where you get a bunch of Backpack Items
(potion jars). Let's say you do lose this stuff at 283 (and thus have no
chance to save it, as you must go through 283 or 147 if you do not die).
Particularly notable is that you get four doses of Alether. But you can
only even fight three battles at most before going through either 147 or
283, why would Joe offer you four doses if you were to lose them? Many
items in the game are red herrings, but I'm not at all sure that potions
with direct stat benefits are meant to be such ... it's bad enough that
the +8 Laumspur in Castle Death is useless, as you can avoid the fight
with Zahda and there are no battles, indeed, not even a place to lose
ENDURANCE points afterwards as I recall ... and then you lose it at the
end of the book. Even the Adgana has more purpose than the +8 Laumspur.
Grrr!
Then again, if the jars are to be lost, it explains why they weren't
mentioned in 15TDC 156, as these jars and the +8 Laumspur are the only
times I remember seeing a *jar* of potion as opposed to a dose ...
I think we might want to leave 283 as is though. And come to think of
it, the jars at 234 are stored in what is basically a bio-weapons
facility with no real concept of sterility that I can tell (open
containers of plague virus?). If that doesn't ruin them, what will?
Besides, Lone Wolf has been known to be able to detoxify things other
than his body (in fact more easily than for himself, for some odd
reason; viz. 08TJOH where merely Curing, at any rank, is enough to save
Paido from gnadurn poisoning, while for Lone Wolf to survive he needs
not only Curing, but also Primate rank and ultimately a potion as well
... of course, this doesn't explain the incongruity with 02FOTW where
Healing has a chance to cure, you guessed it, gnadurn poisoning! Or
04TCOD where it seems gnadurn poisoning progresses so quickly as to not
be curable at all ... Then again, if there's one thing that's
inconsistent in LW, it's toxic substances ...), and there is no need to
take any potions after the fight at 283, couldn't he decontaminate them
after the adventure? It's not quite like most other Backpack item loss
scenarios where generally speaking the Backpack or items have been
physically taken from LW's possession (the only other cases where I
remember items specifically being referred to as "ruined" referred to
meals that were spoiled, wetted, and/or partly eaten by vermin).
Thoughts?
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