Black&White - The Game

[Imran Siddiqui]

For whatever reason I can't post in the other B&W thread. I want to list some cons:

I wanted to tell Yin (maybe I'll PM him too), that I have found some bugs. One made me have to restart. That was nasty and a case of bad timing really. Also I have minor quibbles. Such as when you start a game it loads up the pause menu of the last save game. Now, this takes an awful long time and if you want to switch players it takes even longer. It would have been smarter for Lionhead to simply have a main menu page. Perhaps in a patch.

Also except for quick saving and quick loading you can only save the game when you have a citadel and in some cases, in the beginning of the levels, it isn't built yet. An annoyance. Brings me to the length. Many people on the boards complain about the shortness of the game. It is, in total, 5 levels. Now, I don't see what is wrong with that, simply because I just started Level 3 in my new game and have played over 20 hours . And of course, it is VERY open ended, so you can start again and play totally different. Which brings up another problem. You have to play the tutorial EVERY time you start a new game and you can't even press ESC. It gets tedious.

Some people complain about micromanagement. They are simply guilty of listening to the villagers too much . The villagers may ***** and moan, but that doesn't mean you have to listen to them (I didn't), and in Level 3 they begin to make stuff themselves.

Last problem is if you want disciples (which I don't really assign to many of my villagers) it must be done one by one. You can't select a group.

Amazingly for all these faults, Black and White is the most amazing game I've played. The graphics awe me and the AI is light years ahead of anything. Now if Lionhead worked on the minor annoying issues listed above, it'd be many, many years until anyone could knock this game off its perch. However, in their defense, it does seen Lionhead is doing just that. Supposedly, Lionhead is totally dedicated to B&W. It hasn't done much yet because the game still has to be released worldwide. They will provide downloads to add to the game (kind of like what the Sims did) and the MOST AMAZING THING OF ALL Lionhead will reveal the SOURCE CODE to B&W, making it Open Source sometime in the future. This game really has legs because of this and I'm really looking forward to what this game could be (especially with Open Source ).

[jones]

quote: Amazingly for all these faults, Black and White is the most amazing game I've played. The graphics awe me and the AI is light years ahead of anything. Now if Lionhead worked on the minor annoying issues listed above, it'd be many, many years until anyone could knock this game off its perch. However, in their defense, it does seen Lionhead is doing just that.

While they're at it I hope they spring for new hardware for their forum server :/

Im tempted to give this game a miss, but i just can't shake the feeling that there is a truly awesome game in there we're all missing. It is extraordinarily hard, in the sense that micromanagement is extreme in the later stages, and frustration builds steadily and never peaks.


Here is a thread i think worth reading (if you are still making your purchase decision) written by people who have finished the game: http://www.forumplanet.com/planetbla...1480&tid=36385

Also see http://www.forumplanet.com/planetbla...1480&tid=36547


David

[yin26]

Thanks, Imran. I'm definitely waiting for the first few rounds of patching. And if the game will be around a while 'cause of open source, I'm in no rush.

Jones...I'll check the links. Thanks.

[Bkeela]

I've finally got this game!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

It has lived up to my every expectation. Infact, it has blown my expectations AWAYYYYYYYYYYYYY.

7 hours playing it went by like minutes.

My only problem is I don't quite know what I'm doing.

Firstly, is it normal for the creature to just throw materials into the storage pit? Including live animals? Or should he place them in?

Secondly, what are the miracle dispenser things? I got a water one after helping the sailors. I don't need any worshipping to use the miracle, it's just unlimited. This seems strange to me. It remains in the same position at the beach, not at the temple.

My ape creature is pretty fit, and ive been having problems getting him to eat by himself. He spews up grain, but likes fish. But when he is 50% hungry, he just eats people despite getting a thrashing.

Also, is it normal that he shrinks on entering his little pen?

I've also taught him to carry rocks, carry and transplant trees. Fetch food for the storage pit. While trying to teach him the water miracle, he wandered into the sheep pen and ate the sheperd! When I saw him approaching the pen, with 50% hunger, I knew the sheperd was a dead, and I paniced trying to get the leash on him. But my inept skill with the controls brough trees blocking the way, and before i could do anything, I heard that fateful crunching sound!

Is it possible to teach the creature miracles from the dispenser? Or do you need to perform the gesture?

Finally, the ape seems to be very distracted most of the time, and often isn't looking when im trying to teach him something.

Therefore, any tips from anyone concerning this game would be much appreciated.

Bkeela.

[Eternal]

I got it yesterday and I only played it for like 6 hours (and haven't read the manual yet), but I think I can provide some insight.

"Firstly, is it normal for the creature to just throw materials into the storage pit? Including live animals? Or should he place them in? "

My ape did that too. It has the same effect, and even when he's a nice creature that's what he does from what I saw, so it's no problem.

"Secondly, what are the miracle dispenser things? I got a water one after helping the sailors. I don't need any worshipping to use the miracle, it's just unlimited. This seems strange to me. It remains in the same position at the beach, not at the temple."

The Miracles in a Bubble are one-shot only things, and can contain miracles that you can't create using worship. By storing worship you can cast multiple miracles (I keep wanting to call them spells) one right after another.

"My ape creature is pretty fit, and ive been having problems getting him to eat by himself. He spews up grain, but likes fish. But when he is 50% hungry, he just eats people despite getting a thrashing."

My monkey learned how to fish without me even teaching him. Leash him next to the school of fish and I'm sure he'll get it. Give him fish and rub him to encourage to eat it, and rub him again after he does. That should encourage him.

"Also, is it normal that he shrinks on entering his little pen?"

I didn't notice that. Maybe its jsut perspective.

"Finally, the ape seems to be very distracted most of the time, and often isn't looking when im trying to teach him something."

tapping him with the action button will make him turn to you and he'll look at you long enough for you to do any motions or gestures.

[Chowlett]

quote: Originally posted by Bkeela on 04-05-2001 01:15 PM I've finally got this game!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It has lived up to my every expectation. Infact, it has blown my expectations AWAYYYYYYYYYYYYY. 7 hours playing it went by like minutes.

I have it too. It's awesome.

quote: My only problem is I don't quite know what I'm doing. Firstly, is it normal for the creature to just throw materials into the storage pit? Including live animals? Or should he place them in?

Mine does that too, though not very often. I don't he's quite learnt how to yet.

quote: Secondly, what are the miracle dispenser things? I got a water one after helping the sailors. I don't need any worshipping to use the miracle, it's just unlimited. This seems strange to me. It remains in the same position at the beach, not at the temple.

In addition to eternal's comment - dispensors gradually recharge the one shot miracles, so you can use them again and again.

quote: My ape creature is pretty fit, and ive been having problems getting him to eat by himself. He spews up grain, but likes fish. But when he is 50% hungry, he just eats people despite getting a thrashing.

Funny, mine prefers fish too.

quote: Also, is it normal that he shrinks on entering his little pen?

Never noticed it.

quote: I've also taught him to carry rocks, carry and transplant trees. Fetch food for the storage pit. While trying to teach him the water miracle, he wandered into the sheep pen and ate the sheperd! When I saw him approaching the pen, with 50% hunger, I knew the sheperd was a dead, and I paniced trying to get the leash on him. But my inept skill with the controls brough trees blocking the way, and before i could do anything, I heard that fateful crunching sound!

Good work lad. I haven't taught him to carry yet, but he has stopped eating villagers. I knew I had it when he rescued the drowning villagers. He still does the toilet on the school tho'

quote: Is it possible to teach the creature miracles from the dispenser? Or do you need to perform the gesture?

Yes you can - my ape learnt Heal to 38% from the dispenser granted by the creche quest.

quote: Finally, the ape seems to be very distracted most of the time, and often isn't looking when im trying to teach him something. Therefore, any tips from anyone concerning this game would be much appreciated. Bkeela.

Hope this helps. Thanks to eternal for the tap tip!

[Urban Ranger]

Black and White is just an updated version of Populous. Not very interesting.

[Imran Siddiqui]

John, I'd say Civ is repetitive as well .

All games are repetitive in some fashion. BW is much less repetitive than the Sims, which it is sometimes compared to. Any game with a story ends up with deja vu... That said, I quite like it.

[John-SJ]

IMO, the difference between B&W and Populous is three days.

I played the demo of Populous: The Beginning (P3) and never got into it at all. When I got B&W I was totally immersed and consumed for about 3 days, I couldn't get enough of it, then I took a look back at what the game is really about and realized how boring (IMO) the game really is. The micromanagement is horrendous for one thing and it's SO REPETITIVE! Since then I haven't played at all.

Bottom line, I thought B&W had a great potential but it was mostly unrealized.

John-SJ

[Urban Ranger]

If Lionhead put the source code in GPL, Linux could get a huge boost in gaining a very good game engine. In addition to the Kylix Open Source Edition they will be getting, this is turning out to be a great year for OSS advocates!