This Month's Review: Legend Of The Red Dragon (LORD) V.3.55 ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ Ah.. 'Tis a new year! How jolly! What's that? I forgot to wish everyone a Merry Christmas in my last article! Whoops... Well, no one's perfect! I'll do it now so that all your minds will be at peace, and besides, Jan. 1st is closer to Christmas then Dec. 1st, is it not? Well, here it goes: From all here at M.G.E., I'd like to take this opportunity to wish everyone a Holly Jolly Christmas, and a Cheerful New Year! (You didn't expect a plain old regular saying, did you?) I suppose you all want your Christmas present now, EH? Well.. I doubt you'll take this article for you present, so.. hmm.. lets see.. Ah HA! Seeing as how this is a *NEW* year, I've installed so many NEW doors here at M.G.E. that we've had to expand! We're now on our THIRD door menu, with over 60 doors in total! (Could be 70 by the time you read this!) Why do you think I'm writing these articles? :) Opening Comments: ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ Ah.. LORD. It took the BBS World by storm, and continues to be the #1 BBS Door out there, from what I can tell. Any BBS without LORD in this day and age, seems to be generally a flop or at least severely limited in its callers. This is actually a shame, for there are enormous quantities of exceptional games, and even more quality games available for play. This game seems to have literally blinded gamers. I'd say a good half of the users here at M.G.E. play LORD, and of that half, at least half of them call, logon, play LORD, hang up. Mind you, you've got to give credit to Mr. Robinson (author), as from my vast experience in the BBS world, not since Tradewars 2002 came out was the BBS world so captivated by a single game. (Of course, TW2002 *WAS* one of the very first door games from what I know, so it didn't NEARLY have the same amount of competition as LORD does now.) Either way you look at it though, LORD is a solid game, even more so with the new release of LORD 3.55. SysOp's Point Of View: ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ LORD is a simple game, hands down. The setup thus, is fairly simple too. Version 3.55 was simply a write over (unzip the archive in the directory and you're finished) upgrade. Can't get any easier then that, EH? If you're installing fresh, then it not much more difficult then the upgrade process. It's basically a 3 step process (4, if you count setting up your BBS to run the game). First, unzip the archive, next, edit the batch file that comes with the game to point it to the right directory, and then just go into the configuration program and set up your nodes (comport, dropfile, etc.) Your done! The documentation that comes with LORD certainly isn't the greatest, but it does cover what you need to know. And frankly, with all the traffic about LORD in the FidoNet Echos, I'm sure it wouldn't be a problem if some unforeseen problem arose. The configuration editor also comes with a player editor, which, as it should, only works with the registered version of LORD ($15.00 US). The editor is fairly straight forward, and you can edit nearly anything concerning the player. You can also change game settings like whether or not you would like those pretty ANSIs upon logon to be displayed, etc. Due to the popularity of LORD, many add-ons and IGMs (Inter Gaming Modules) have been created for use with LORD. Most notably, is MZKLORD, an add-on that came out around the time of LORD 3.20 I believe. This add-on adds NPCs to the game, which can perform all sorts of nasties, plus what normal users can do. With version 6.0 out by the time you read this it promises to be even better! What better way to tick off your users then adding a bunch of relentless computer players? :) There's also the matter of IGMs. LORD was the first game to use this IGM idea. What an IGM basically is, is a "game in itself", that can be attached to LORD via a programmable menu. These IGMs are (usually) fully compatible with LORD, and as such, can help you (or harm you) when you go into them. Most of them are fun, and they make the game more interesting as IGMs vary from BBS to BBS. Of course, a matter of warning should go out here. There are MANY sad IGMs out there. Either they just plain don't work, they're a pain to set up, or they disrupt the balance of the game too much. As a SysOp, when installing an IGM, consider these things: Is it well written? Will it disrupt the balance of the game? Do I have to many similar IGMs? Firstly, and most importantly, if it's not well written, then chances are it'll end up crashing something, whether it be the whole BBS or just trashing LORD itself. Secondly, experiment with it first. Check it out before putting it online. If it gives you 100,000 gold and you're at level 1, scrap it. Such an IGM would literally eliminate the first 5 some levels, since with that money, lowly players can level up REAL fast. Finally, make sure that you don't have IGMs that a very similar. True, you may have 3 or 4 IGMs that say, give you 1 or 2 charm each. However, in comes that "environmental" attitude: Well, it's only 1 paper cup I threw on the ground, what harm can it do? True, one paper cup won't do alot, but there's 5 billion people in the world. When everyone throws a single paper cup to the ground, well, that 5 billion cups that someone's got to clean up. 5 billion cups WILL make a difference. Asking yourself what I'm talking about here? Well, apply it to LORD. If you've got 4 or five IGMs all giving out the same stuff, no matter how small the quantity, it soon adds up. Keep in mind, that your users will be able to get the same things every day, should they choose to do so. And as it keeps adding up, it will eventually have a profound impact on the game. My personal opinion is that no LORD game should have more then about 5 IGMs in it, otherwise, things will start happening. If you're all confused now, and think all these IGMs are a bad idea, then I'll give you a tip: LORD County Fair is an excellent IGM. It's got ANSI animations in it, plus numerous different tasks that can be done in it. The reg. price for it is $5 (if you pay anymore for an IGM, you're just plain stupid!), and it only gives/takes small things away from the player, so it doesn't ruin the game. True, it's a little generous in places, but it makes up for it in other places. Anyway, I'm on a tight schedule here, so it's time to move onto the Player's Point of View! Player's Point Of View: ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ Ahh.. the anxious player.. Well, I'll tell you right now that there's probably nothing in here that you probably don't know about, due to all the hype about the game that floats around here in CyberSpace. But, it's my job to write about these things, so that's what I'm gonna do! :) As one of my favorite sayings goes, "Simple toys for simple minds". This is basically what LORD is. Therefore, if you're just looking to waste 10 minutes or so, you've probably picked the right game. LORD is a medieval RPG type game. The basic story line is that there's this nice old red dragon. Problem is, he gets a little hungry at times, and ends up eating little boys and girls that just happen to be walking through the forest. So, the townsfolk, unwilling to take him to court for murder, decide to be equally mean and go out and kill him, thus "saving" the town. (Ok, I was a bit sarcastic in the description, but I couldn't help it! ) Luck for you, you get to be one of those warriors that just might be able to accomplish the deed. You'll start off on level 1 (DUH!), with your trusty $200 stick(don't ask) and a coat. Basically, your task is to beat the crap out of things found in the forest, thus getting experience. With enough experience, you can get to the next level, which brings forth tougher enemies, more gold, and more experience. All you have to do is continue this pattern until you reach level 12, at which point, if you're tough enough, you can complete the game. Of course, there's alot of other things you can do.. just check out the inn! In the inn, you can overhear the conversation, and add to it if you want, or go hear Seth Able sing if you want to get a few extra forest fights, or maybe even double your gold! After that, you can feel free to go flirt with Violet, (Seth, if you're a female character) to get a bit of experience. Successful degrees of flirting reflect your charm level. If you want to go "1 step further" then basically, you need to double the charm needed to be able to flirt at the "level" your flirting at now. With 32 charm, you can begin to "get laid" - no wonder this game's so popular? Once you reach 100 charm, you can marry Violet (or Seth). When you married, you get free experience, plus you get to have kids. Each kid you get will entitle you to one more forest fight per day. Such can come in handy if your trying to beat out any arch enemies of yours. Of course, if you want to marry a fellow player, feel free to do so. Now, what good is a game if you can't beat the living daylights out of your best friend? Well, you can do that here too! Just go to the slaughter player menu, pick out who you think will make a tasty dinner tonight, and fire away! Of course, you just might end up being dinner if you're not careful enough! Fortunately though, when you die, you only lose 10% of your experience, while whoever killed you gets 50% of your experience added to their own, or vice-versa if you take out that hotshot that thinks he's immortal. Whether that's a fair scheme to use, well, I'll leave that open for debate amongst yourselves. After all, I'm writing an article here! There's also the matter of IGMs. If there's any available, USE THEM! Most will give you stuff, and if you don' get it, and others do, it'll eventually add up and you'll be at a disadvantage. :( Normally, here, I'd give everyone a good strategy to follow, but this game doesn't really lend itself well to strategy. Your course has basically been laid out for you, an no matter what you do, with time you'll be able to achieve it. Basically, the only advice I can give you, is to do everything. Use all you forest fights, all your player fights, flirt, etc. If you're not doing this, chances are you'll start to fall behind! Now, I could tell you all about the secrets hidden within LORD, but then you'd no every square inch of the game! Therefore, I'll let you find them out for yourselves. Scores: ^^^^^^^ (All scores based on 10 - 10 being the best.) DOCUMENTATION: 7 The documentation for LORD isn't really anything spectacular. It covers what it needs to, plus a bunch of misc. stuff (i.e. What RIP is), but nothing really in-depth. INTERFACE: 9 New with 3.55, LORD has ANSIs placed throughout itself. The commands are straight forward and nothing is more then about 3 key pokes away! FUN FACTOR: 6 This is one of those "pound the enter key 'till the cows come home" type of games. There's really no thought that needs to be placed into anything. This game relies heavily on player interaction. Without any players, to kill, yell at, etc., I really can't see many people continuing to play this game. UNIQUENESS: 8 This was one of the first RPG games out there. Up until the release of LORD, most were "space trading games". LORD and the other early RPG game, Usurper, basically opened up a whole new world in terms of BBS gaming. Some might say that all new games are now basically modified LORDs, so the score should be lower, but remember: LORD was first! THEY copied LORD! LONG-TERM PLAYABILITY: 2 This game is short. It shouldn't take anyone longer then about 2 1/2 weeks to finish it. Of course, once you finish it, you merely start over again and do that exact same thing again. After you've finished it 2 or 3 times, it gets rather repetitive. I'm personally in awe why people continue to flock to this game after playing it so much! OVERALL SCORE: 6.4 The game excels in it's simplicity, and also dies in it. Simplicity makes the game easy to play, however, it also makes that game boring after a while. Most probably think that LORD deserves a higher score then this, but frankly, I think LORD could use a little more meat on it. Closing Remarks: ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ I really think it's a shame that LORD is, has been, and probably will continue to be the #1 BBS game around. As I mentioned before, this is really a "pound enter" game, which requires no thought to play. Now, what does this say about us in general? It says that we're a bunch of lazy dummies who don't want to think. There are plenty of games with the same genre out there - Usurper being one of them, which was a very similar game concept yet are more in-depth and complicated. They might even force you to think once in awhile! Also, there are games like L.O.D. and Tradewars 2002 that you actually control what goes on! You get to think, and decode the outcome of the game yourself! In LORD, basically you just keep leveling up and kill the dragon. Level up, kill dragon. Level up, kill dragon. BORING! I sincerely hope that the BBS society will wake up and move onto more complex games in the future. Sure, LORD is a good game, but certainly not good enough to be #1. Stay tuned! Next month, I review: Usurper V.0.13c Don't miss it! Miscellaneous: ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ This door was tested by the writer using the following: Maximus V.3.00 (BBS) DORINFO1.DEF (Dropfile) X00 V.1.53a (Fossil) Front Door V.2.12 (Front End) 486DX4/100Mhz 8Megs RAM Qemm V.7.52 (Memory Manager) Windows 95 Comments? Suggestions? Want to compliment the author on an astonishing article, or complain about a piece of crap he wrote? Here's how to contact him: InterNet Address: LBUNBURY@OTTAWA.NET FidoNet Address: 1:163/114 Trans-Canada Net (TCN) Address: 201:935/104 Myles' Games Extravaganza (BBS): (613) 825-9016 And don't forget to join up with BRE League 116! If you're a SysOp, just write me and I'll sign you up, or FREQ "116" from my BBS for more information! If you're a user, why not bother some local SysOps and convince them to join? All BBSs are welcome, just let me know you want to join! Until next month, this is Myles Bunbury, saying TTYL! Myles Bunbury SysOp Of Myles' Games Extravaganza! >>>Where the best of the best come to play!<<< þ