Poltergeist in Nephil's Gambit?

[JSMany]

Hi everyone,

 

I recently discovered the joys of BoE and started playing Nephil's Gambit(very first custom scenario). Despite the uber difficulty and with the liberal help from the walkthrough, I've managed to get to the throne room haunted by a poltergeist. Of course, not being a professional exorcist in real life, I've been stumped by this puzzle and can't seem to figure it out. Can someone from this board kindly drop me a hint or even hold my hand and walk me through?

[Slawbug]

I can't help you with your problem as I haven't played it in years, but I just wanted to affirm once again that Nephil's Gambit is one of the best BoX scenarios ever made. I back the charms of the fair priestess Karolynna!

[JSMany]

Since Nephil's Gambit is my first custom scenario, I don't have anything to compare it with, but it does seem very well done for something players like me came up with. I can't even imagine the time and effort it took to make an interesting and detailed scenario like that.

 

I'm also impressed with the amount of effort gone in to create, maintain, and support these custom scenarios after all these years. Are people still creating new scenarios for BoE?

[The Almighty Doer of Stuff]

Yes, but most of them these days are extremely short, and production has slowed drastically since the first few years of the millenium, sadly.

[lampshade]

I'm continuing development on my scenario tomorrow; I think I've said that for the third time, but this time I have some ideas.

[Thaluikhain]

Yeah, Nephil's Gambit, for me, is THE best BoE scenario...all goes downhill from there

 

Seriously, though, never found out how to solve the poltergeist.

 

Hoping to finish my scenario (must be 7th or so I've started, never finished any) now that I'm on holidays, though it's going to be abit gimmick based.

[Lilith]

My memory on this is hazy, but there's someone in town somewhere who can tell you that you can exorcise a poltergeist with a ritual involving black candles. You then need to find some black candles and come back.

[JSMany]

Ah Lilith, you are wonderful! I'm gonna head out to the town right now to find this person.

 

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Yeah, Nephil's Gambit, for me, is THE best BoE scenario...all goes downhill from there wink

 

Seriously, though, never found out how to solve the poltergeist.

 

Hoping to finish my scenario (must be 7th or so I've started, never finished any) now that I'm on holidays, though it's going to be abit gimmick based.

 

While I'm glad Nephil's Gambit is a highly recommended scenario, I hope it isn't the best work the community here has to offer. There are still tons of scenarios I haven't even heard about and if I have already tasted the best, then there really isn't anything much for me to look forward to. I will place my trust in optimism and simply say that Nephil's Gambit reflects the creator's obvious talent and effort.

 

Maybe some others in this community can reassure me that there are indeed other scenarios as great or even better than this one.

[Lilith]

There are other scenarios with far more impressive technical design aspects in the areas of combat, puzzles or special effects: NG was well-made for its time, but scenario design techniques have progressed in the years since then. NG does have very good writing, though, which is why it's still ranked up there with the best scenarios of all time.

[JSMany]

Thank you Lilith. Glad to hear that there are other great scenarios. You're full of good news today. Still I'm truly amazed that people are still working on old games such as BoE. I always thought people stopped caring about true game depths as long as it fills the screen with pretty 3d stuffs.

[Thaluikhain]

Originally Posted By: JSMany

While I'm glad Nephil's Gambit is a highly recommended scenario, I hope it isn't the best work the community here has to offer. There are still tons of scenarios I haven't even heard about and if I have already tasted the best, then there really isn't anything much for me to look forward to.

Well "best" is purely subjective, of course. I think it's the best in terms of political intrigue. It also goes to some length to create its own distint and characterful "world". However, the latter is done ever better by certain scenarios...Masks and Pyramids comes to mind (in my version at least, some of the custom graphics of Pyramids need fixing, though), and there was one about running around in the dreams of the long dead (the name eludes me), for example. The Amazonian Saga was quite good as well, though it was a massive disappointment to find out what the message of the scenario was supposed to be.

Originally Posted By: JSMany

I always thought people stopped caring about true game depths as long as it fills the screen with pretty 3d stuffs.

Yeah, but they all moved to the Avernum games.

[Chokboyz]

Originally Posted By: Thaluikhain

in my version at least, some of the custom graphics of Pyramids need fixing, though

You mean the patches of white color appearing in scorpions, elementals and such ? If so, the problem comes from the graphical file (pyramid.bmp) in which the artist use non-white (non 0.0.0 rgb) color for some part of the background. Repainting the background with pure white color will fix this (if someone ever has the courage to do so, i left the file alone when i was sure the game engine was not at fault ).

Hope it helps,
Chokboyz

[Slawbug]

Originally Posted By: Lilith

There are other scenarios with far more impressive technical design aspects in the areas of combat, puzzles or special effects: NG was well-made for its time, but scenario design techniques have progressed in the years since then. NG does have very good writing, though, which is why it's still ranked up there with the best scenarios of all time.

This is well put. NG has very good writing, both in terms of text being evocative and resonant, and also in terms of storytelling. I think what really makes NG stand out for some of us is the world of the scenario. Everything fits together, the fleshy characters and the plot and the little details fit too, reinforcing everything else -- it's 100% internally consistent. Everything fits seamlessly with the Exile Trilogy, too, tying in to events from the trilogy without actually impacting anything. That makes it very easy to sink into the world of NG -- you don't have to suspend much disbelief -- and at that point the carefully constructed, intellectually provocative themes that inform NG's story become engaging enough to carry the player along.

In a sense it's the inverse of a TM scenario, where individual IDEAS -- whether philosophical, or relating to combat or special effects -- are equally robust, but are so forced into the foreground that the characters and story get squished and distorted and lose their believability.

[Thaluikhain]

Originally Posted By: Chokboyz

You mean the patches of white color appearing in scorpions, elementals and such ? If so, the problem comes from the graphical file (pyramid.bmp) in which the artist use non-white (non 0.0.0 rgb) color for some part of the background. Repainting the background with pure white color will fix this (if someone ever has the courage to do so, i left the file alone when i was sure the game engine was not at fault ).

Yeah, I know. The same thing happens to the custom graphics in the scenario I'm working on when I'm using photostudio...it occasionally seems to randomly alter the colours just a little, turning white into off-white for no good reason. Also likes making everything a little bit drab, but I'm going to claim that's totally intentional and due to thematic reasons.

Originally Posted By: CRISIS on INFINITE SLARTIES

I think what really makes NG stand out for some of us is the world of the scenario. Everything fits together, the fleshy characters and the plot and the little details fit too, reinforcing everything else -- it's 100% internally consistent. Everything fits seamlessly with the Exile Trilogy, too, tying in to events from the trilogy without actually impacting anything. That makes it very easy to sink into the world of NG -- you don't have to suspend much disbelief -- and at that point the carefully constructed, intellectually provocative themes that inform NG's story become engaging enough to carry the player along.

Oh yeah, definately. There's a few lil odd things (underground Troglodytes (which should fit canon better than it does, you'd think!), and that stuff of sliths and their metals, which may or may not fit canon), but otherwise excellent.

At the risk of being banned and having null-bugs mailed to me, it does that somewhat better than the Exile games did. The world has a lot more "history" behind it, and some decent ecology as well...it doesn't really make sense to have ginormous caves with trees growing in them and natural lighting, and though the Exile games touch on this a little, NG goes a lot further and makes it seem much more sensible.

Though, personally, I'd say that internal consistent and flavour is WAY more important than keeping it true to Exile (though NP is very good at both). Various scenarios have gotten away with being set in some distant backwater, or not being set in the world of Exile at all...Pyramids comes to mind.

Originally Posted By: CRISIS on INFINITE SLARTIES

In a sense it's the inverse of a TM scenario, where individual IDEAS -- whether philosophical, or relating to combat or special effects -- are equally robust, but are so forced into the foreground that the characters and story get squished and distorted and lose their believability.

What's a TM scenario?

EDIT: Just noticed, I've been here a whole year. Still haven't finished a scenario, though...

[Slawbug]

Originally Posted By: Thaluikhain

Oh yeah, definately. There's a few lil odd things (underground Troglodytes (which should fit canon better than it does, you'd think!), and that stuff of sliths and their metals, which may or may not fit canon), but otherwise excellent.

The metal-touching thing is definitely the most borderline. It works okay given that we knew very little about traditional slith culture before A1 was released. It isn't perfect -- at the very least we'd have expected to hear a comment about metal in Gnass in E1 or E2 -- but perhaps that one was of the things the Gnass sliths were trying to forget. NG does maintain every characteristic we knew, implied and explicit, of the sliths. In particular, we don't meet slith NPCs who gush about their culture (Ask About... "Exposition"). As in Exile, there are a few conversational sliths and a lot of quiet or hostile ones

Quote:

At the risk of being banned and having null-bugs mailed to me, it does that somewhat better than the Exile games did. The world has a lot more "history" behind it, and some decent ecology as well...it doesn't really make sense to have ginormous caves with trees growing in them and natural lighting, and though the Exile games touch on this a little, NG goes a lot further and makes it seem much more sensible.

I agree, but I want to point out that the lighting is *not* natural, and neither is the cavewood -- the latter was created by Erika and company and the former either by Erika or the vahnatai (quite possibly created by the latter and augmented or reproduced by Erika). This is explained several times, just not early on in any game.

Quote:

What's a TM scenario?

A scenario by Terror's Martyr, notorious for his quantity of scenarios (something like 30, over the years), the sometimes high quality of them, his technical contributions to Blades, as well as his provocative forum posts.

[Celtic Minstrel]

Originally Posted By: Thaluikhain

Yeah, I know. The same thing happens to the custom graphics in the scenario I'm working on when I'm using photostudio...it occasionally seems to randomly alter the colours just a little, turning white into off-white for no good reason. Also likes making everything a little bit drab, but I'm going to claim that's totally intentional and due to thematic reasons.

I believe this is called anti-aliasing. I agree it's rather annoying when you're working with graphics that shouldn't be anti-aliased; its purpose is to give a smoother appearance.

[The Almighty Doer of Stuff]

Alternately, it could be that you're saving the graphics as JPGs, which compress the image. Don't do that.

[Celtic Minstrel]

Ah, yes, that could be the problem. The JPEG format doesn't work well with flat colours.

[Zalatar]

Uh. I think this got a little off topic.

Maybe you could try shoving your JPEG up the poltergeist's nose.