Warning: may contain spoilers.
Hi,
The quests in Hommlet are many and boring (can you say pointless? Even the minor quests acquired in the dungeons are more appealing than 99% of the ones your party will get in town) but once you progress beyond Hommlet and get into the main storyline it gets interesting and fun. I started with a lawful neutral party with a paladin as the party leader (I play an old school pally with 17 charisma; most information gathering skills are based on CH with the exception of "sense motive" which favors wisdom). I was able to automatically get townsfolk to talk openly with me about minor quests or to offer me rumors for a price (everything in this game requires gold, which is at a premium until your party gets into the TEE). My other party, the evil one with no CH rating over 12, could not even start a dialogue with many townsfolk and this was before they became hostile =P. All of the main map areas that are central to the storyline will be given freely by the sage in the Inn or someone else in Hommlet or Nulb, so you won't have to worry about not getting all the info the game provides. In retrospect, I would say a thief character with a decent CH would make the better "diplomat" since he acquires snooping skills cheaper (cost of 1 point instead of 2 per rank).
Someone who is not interested in the meaningless quests (errands) in Hommlet can make up for the XP "loss" (and time gain) by travelling to and from various "world map" locations choosing which encounters to accept (one character needs some points in the survival skill for this or there will be no chance to avoid an impossible encounter such as a group of wandering trolls without adequate fire/acid power. Disabled, regenerating trolls can be walked away from, but the party gains no XP's from any encounter where the monsters are not destroyed). A party can quickly level up and move on to the more interesting points in the game (the Moathouse, the Temple) by skipping over the errands in Hommlet.
Party movement can be viewed in both a positive and negative light. If there is a doorway, staircase, world map waypoint or other area accessible via an icon, the entire party must enter. It is impossible to sneak in a lone character to scout or spy. The flip side to this is that you can get your fastest party member (monk) to do all the running around from point to point "teleporting" the rest of the party. This is useful since the pathfinding has little to be desired. At L9 or higher, a mage can mass teleport the entire group to any location on the world map. This can be very valuable during a combat session that is guaranteed to leave you with dead party members. Ressurecting dead characters incurs an XP cost based on character level. It is handy to have a thief with the use item skill in case the party cleric dies and there is no one else available for the task (such as if you are running an evil party that has incurred the wrath of the people of Hommlet by killing Terjon and/or his minon or by doing some less foul deed).
This brings me to the topic of combat. The turn based combat system is a great idea, but there are many flaws. For one, the only way that I know of to withdraw from a combat session is through the use of teleport. Of course, this is not feasible for sub 9th level parties. Once engaged, the party must fight to the death or until the enemy surrenders (not often). Large battles will cause major lag (I have 512 ram; 256 seems to make the game load/run in slo-mo even in non-combat sequences), especially if there are active spell effects on both sides. There are some bugs that cause the visual effects of spells to persist long after the spell expires (I have a few halos around my party that won't go away even with liberal applications of "dispel magic" and other efforts) and this causes even more lag. The worse offender that I have encountered is by the mage spell known as "good hope". In one laggy battle in the fire node area, the game would not allow certain party members their turn in the combat round. The correct icon will be lit up at the top of the screen where initiative order is displayed, but a different active icon will be lit up giving you only the choice of hitting the space bar and moving on to the next character. Of course when you do this, the game skips over the correct character's turn instead of the incorrectly active one. If it were not for "teleport" the battle against the greater balor would have been impossible to win (and this is with 10L characters).
Other combat flaws have to do with the horrid, unadjustable camera angle. There are some areas where it becomes impossible to see what is going on, let alone for you to highlight the right target(s). Areas where it looks like there should be enough room for 3 characters to stand side by side might only allow one character to melee in. This makes the "precision" turn based combat system moot. The pathfinding will cause some problems too, but I suppose I have gotten accustomed to its annoyances already.
Some favorable features: nearly instantaneous movement between major map locations via the world map; some amusing dialog (my paladin has an INT of 7 which might have discouraged a few NPC's from giving his party all the info that he needs but made for some amusing verbal exchanges); the option to play different party alignments for another world theme; turn-based combat which would be greatly enhanced with a camera panning feature; scroll creation (should be more limited since a L9 or higher character has little to no qualms over paying the xp and gold costs for them); the ability to hire and create custom characters in game at the Inns. These are only the ones that come to mind; I am sure I left some out.
Some unfavorable features: dark lighting (nice for setting a gloomy dungeon mood but makes finding doors, regular ones not the secret ones which can automatically pop up with the right skills, a major task); zoom works only on the map screen and it is insufficient; no mini-map feature; static camera angle; buggy combat and spell effects (my mage inscribed a L4 "good hope" scroll thinking that it was identical to the L4 spell he memorizes frequently but it turned out to be an incorrectly named "aid" scroll useable by the cleric in the party); lockpicking with a maxed out thief was tedious at times (spending 5-10 minutes of real time trying to open a lock is frustrating); lack of item descriptions (certain "name brand" fashions, such as Hedrick's gloves, do not show their properties unless you equip them but there will be no actual description even after identified so it is very easy to overlook their value); looting corpses is difficult especially when submerged in water; turned (fleeing) undead sucks (you must chase and corner them; not a problem for evil parties with an evil cleric); logbook gives sparse information about quests; I still have not found Verbobonc (might be my fault for losing interest with the conversations with idiotic townsfolk); party formation is ignored in new area entries (especially annoying on the Gar quest); no building descriptions eventhough there are "sign posts" outside some of the Hommlet establishments (so use your map flags!); encounter imbalance (difficult to beat a balrog even at L10); comp requirements must be better than: athlon 1600, geforce3, 256 ram; even a P4 2.0+ with geforce4 and 512 ram is barely enough. This list could go on, but I think it paints an adequate picture.
Overall opinion: There are bugs and flaws (evil parties have it much harder than neutral or good parties despite what the game makers advertise) in the game that, with the previously mentioned ones, almost override enjoyment factor of TEE. There are many nice features and surprises in the game and if the bugs can be fixed it would be worth the time and effort to play. Playing a differently aligned party adds some points to the replay factor, but the broken quests for the evil party takes many of those points away. I did not complete the game with the neutral party (I stopped when they were L5 and L4; the L4 cleric was added to the party when the rest of the party was L2); just with the evil one. I would have completely lost interest in the game if I did not switch over to playing a neutral evil party, skipping over most of the townsfolk drivel.
Xi
(edit: added Terjon's AC below)
Spoiler warning...the following contains some character info that might not be welcome in the eyes of a purist or a minion of St Cuthbert...
A L5 evil party will have a very difficult time fulfilling their opening quest after being kicked out of the St. Cuthbert church for delivering the message to Terjon about the dead acolytes. The next time that the party tries to speak with Terjon, they will be attacked by him. I won't describe how I killed him but it is possible. For anyone interested here are Terjons stats: HP 270 AC 28 CL30 with multiple melee attacks per round and many spell resistances. His greedy minion is a much easier mark but if you are still interested in bartering with him or anyone else in town, then it is better to keep him alive. Killing either will incur the hostility of the town (except for a group of 3 shopkeepers who did all of my identifing until my mage gained a level and burned a spell slot for it), even from Jaroo.
Hi,
The quests in Hommlet are many and boring (can you say pointless? Even the minor quests acquired in the dungeons are more appealing than 99% of the ones your party will get in town) but once you progress beyond Hommlet and get into the main storyline it gets interesting and fun. I started with a lawful neutral party with a paladin as the party leader (I play an old school pally with 17 charisma; most information gathering skills are based on CH with the exception of "sense motive" which favors wisdom). I was able to automatically get townsfolk to talk openly with me about minor quests or to offer me rumors for a price (everything in this game requires gold, which is at a premium until your party gets into the TEE). My other party, the evil one with no CH rating over 12, could not even start a dialogue with many townsfolk and this was before they became hostile =P. All of the main map areas that are central to the storyline will be given freely by the sage in the Inn or someone else in Hommlet or Nulb, so you won't have to worry about not getting all the info the game provides. In retrospect, I would say a thief character with a decent CH would make the better "diplomat" since he acquires snooping skills cheaper (cost of 1 point instead of 2 per rank).
Someone who is not interested in the meaningless quests (errands) in Hommlet can make up for the XP "loss" (and time gain) by travelling to and from various "world map" locations choosing which encounters to accept (one character needs some points in the survival skill for this or there will be no chance to avoid an impossible encounter such as a group of wandering trolls without adequate fire/acid power. Disabled, regenerating trolls can be walked away from, but the party gains no XP's from any encounter where the monsters are not destroyed). A party can quickly level up and move on to the more interesting points in the game (the Moathouse, the Temple) by skipping over the errands in Hommlet.
Party movement can be viewed in both a positive and negative light. If there is a doorway, staircase, world map waypoint or other area accessible via an icon, the entire party must enter. It is impossible to sneak in a lone character to scout or spy. The flip side to this is that you can get your fastest party member (monk) to do all the running around from point to point "teleporting" the rest of the party. This is useful since the pathfinding has little to be desired. At L9 or higher, a mage can mass teleport the entire group to any location on the world map. This can be very valuable during a combat session that is guaranteed to leave you with dead party members. Ressurecting dead characters incurs an XP cost based on character level. It is handy to have a thief with the use item skill in case the party cleric dies and there is no one else available for the task (such as if you are running an evil party that has incurred the wrath of the people of Hommlet by killing Terjon and/or his minon or by doing some less foul deed).
This brings me to the topic of combat. The turn based combat system is a great idea, but there are many flaws. For one, the only way that I know of to withdraw from a combat session is through the use of teleport. Of course, this is not feasible for sub 9th level parties. Once engaged, the party must fight to the death or until the enemy surrenders (not often). Large battles will cause major lag (I have 512 ram; 256 seems to make the game load/run in slo-mo even in non-combat sequences), especially if there are active spell effects on both sides. There are some bugs that cause the visual effects of spells to persist long after the spell expires (I have a few halos around my party that won't go away even with liberal applications of "dispel magic" and other efforts) and this causes even more lag. The worse offender that I have encountered is by the mage spell known as "good hope". In one laggy battle in the fire node area, the game would not allow certain party members their turn in the combat round. The correct icon will be lit up at the top of the screen where initiative order is displayed, but a different active icon will be lit up giving you only the choice of hitting the space bar and moving on to the next character. Of course when you do this, the game skips over the correct character's turn instead of the incorrectly active one. If it were not for "teleport" the battle against the greater balor would have been impossible to win (and this is with 10L characters).
Other combat flaws have to do with the horrid, unadjustable camera angle. There are some areas where it becomes impossible to see what is going on, let alone for you to highlight the right target(s). Areas where it looks like there should be enough room for 3 characters to stand side by side might only allow one character to melee in. This makes the "precision" turn based combat system moot. The pathfinding will cause some problems too, but I suppose I have gotten accustomed to its annoyances already.
Some favorable features: nearly instantaneous movement between major map locations via the world map; some amusing dialog (my paladin has an INT of 7 which might have discouraged a few NPC's from giving his party all the info that he needs but made for some amusing verbal exchanges); the option to play different party alignments for another world theme; turn-based combat which would be greatly enhanced with a camera panning feature; scroll creation (should be more limited since a L9 or higher character has little to no qualms over paying the xp and gold costs for them); the ability to hire and create custom characters in game at the Inns. These are only the ones that come to mind; I am sure I left some out.
Some unfavorable features: dark lighting (nice for setting a gloomy dungeon mood but makes finding doors, regular ones not the secret ones which can automatically pop up with the right skills, a major task); zoom works only on the map screen and it is insufficient; no mini-map feature; static camera angle; buggy combat and spell effects (my mage inscribed a L4 "good hope" scroll thinking that it was identical to the L4 spell he memorizes frequently but it turned out to be an incorrectly named "aid" scroll useable by the cleric in the party); lockpicking with a maxed out thief was tedious at times (spending 5-10 minutes of real time trying to open a lock is frustrating); lack of item descriptions (certain "name brand" fashions, such as Hedrick's gloves, do not show their properties unless you equip them but there will be no actual description even after identified so it is very easy to overlook their value); looting corpses is difficult especially when submerged in water; turned (fleeing) undead sucks (you must chase and corner them; not a problem for evil parties with an evil cleric); logbook gives sparse information about quests; I still have not found Verbobonc (might be my fault for losing interest with the conversations with idiotic townsfolk); party formation is ignored in new area entries (especially annoying on the Gar quest); no building descriptions eventhough there are "sign posts" outside some of the Hommlet establishments (so use your map flags!); encounter imbalance (difficult to beat a balrog even at L10); comp requirements must be better than: athlon 1600, geforce3, 256 ram; even a P4 2.0+ with geforce4 and 512 ram is barely enough. This list could go on, but I think it paints an adequate picture.
Overall opinion: There are bugs and flaws (evil parties have it much harder than neutral or good parties despite what the game makers advertise) in the game that, with the previously mentioned ones, almost override enjoyment factor of TEE. There are many nice features and surprises in the game and if the bugs can be fixed it would be worth the time and effort to play. Playing a differently aligned party adds some points to the replay factor, but the broken quests for the evil party takes many of those points away. I did not complete the game with the neutral party (I stopped when they were L5 and L4; the L4 cleric was added to the party when the rest of the party was L2); just with the evil one. I would have completely lost interest in the game if I did not switch over to playing a neutral evil party, skipping over most of the townsfolk drivel.
Xi
(edit: added Terjon's AC below)
Spoiler warning...the following contains some character info that might not be welcome in the eyes of a purist or a minion of St Cuthbert...
A L5 evil party will have a very difficult time fulfilling their opening quest after being kicked out of the St. Cuthbert church for delivering the message to Terjon about the dead acolytes. The next time that the party tries to speak with Terjon, they will be attacked by him. I won't describe how I killed him but it is possible. For anyone interested here are Terjons stats: HP 270 AC 28 CL30 with multiple melee attacks per round and many spell resistances. His greedy minion is a much easier mark but if you are still interested in bartering with him or anyone else in town, then it is better to keep him alive. Killing either will incur the hostility of the town (except for a group of 3 shopkeepers who did all of my identifing until my mage gained a level and burned a spell slot for it), even from Jaroo.