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Sight potions/spells: were they essential?

Posted: 05 Apr 2003, 01:59
by JoeGrocottJames
Were the sight potions and spells actually essential, or were they just bonuses? For example, in the video clip of the 'fireball room' in level 2 in series 7, they use an INSIGHT spell. It would be hard, I think, to contrive to make that puzzle impossible if they did not have the INSIGHT spell. What does everybody else think: were the sight potions/spells essential or a bonus?

Incidentally, does anyone know of any cases where a team has missed some information (or an object or a spell etc), but still survived? Because most of the time, if the team made one mistake, they had had it.

With series 1, team 4, what would have happened if they had got through the bomb room? Was the bomb room just an extra hazard, or was it contrived so the team would difinitely die? (Incidentally, it says in the series 1 guide that that team 'left the egg timer and key there...'. I'm puzzled about this. Were they prompted to do that? Because why on earth would they do something like that otherwise? Also, what did Folly actually say that included the clue for the door to take?)

Also, what about the team that took ages to decide whether to give Elita a ruby (and missed out on getting the help they would have got from her) and died in the corridor of blades? Were there any alternative exits between meeting Elita and the corridor of blades? (Because there were no sight spells or potions at that time).

Re: Sight potions/spells: were they essential?

Posted: 05 Apr 2003, 04:34
by Malefact
I think that sight potions/spells were just there as token requirements to get past a given obstacle. The basic formula of Km is to find/earn something needed to complete the level - sight potions/spells are a variation on that theme.

I can't think of any teams off-hand that survived after missing out information. Beveryafraid said that if a team failed in one of its tasks, they were given 'losing' status - and were killed off..

Series 1 team 4 remains a bit perplexing for me. After a pretty obvious clue to take the right-hand door, they take the left-hand door with explosive results. I don't know what would have happened had they chosen the correct door.

The team that lost after giving the ruby to Elita, in my opinion, failed to get help off her because they dithered about for too long and didn't make her promise to help them in return for the ruby.

Re: Sight potions/spells: were they essential?

Posted: 05 Apr 2003, 04:54
by GrimaldineGrimwold
Joe, why do you always ask such good questions? I know these issues have been discussed here a few times before, so if you hunt around you'll find a few ideas and viewpoints.

The true nature of the SIGHT (and such) spells is something I'd love to know the official answer to. No-one seems to have survived without them, but as you say, there are certain puzzles where it wouldn't make a really huge amount of difference if you didn't have the sight. (Play Your Cards Right is probably another example.)

I'd like to believe they were often bonuses, and I've mentioned elsewhere that I think that would be a fair way to reward excellent teams rather than punishing teams who failed to get all riddles correct, for example. If a team does really well on one aspect of the game, they might get a bonus (like a SIGHT spell) to help them with another. But a team who didn't earn the spell could still redeem themselves by being especially quick on the floor puzzle where the spell would have been useful.

Re: Sight potions/spells: were they essential?

Posted: 05 Apr 2003, 04:59
by GrimaldineGrimwold
All the comments people made on the thread you started about Series 8 Team 2 are relevant here, too.

It'd be great to know what everyone else thinks. :)

Re: Sight potions/spells: were they essential?

Posted: 05 Apr 2003, 12:49
by PunmiesterWhiteley
I was going to ask this myself.  It seems bizarre how they could have helped dungeoneers dodge/see computer generated obstacles.

They were vital because a couple of teams died without them.

If you can view Nathan's quest in Series 8 do so.  Failing to get something from Maldame in return for the globe business cost them the game.  Majida pointed out that they were doing this for nothing at the time.  Despite looking like winners an advisor guided Nathan down a hole in that fireball room.  A tragic end.

Sight potions/spells: were they essential?

Posted: 04 Jul 2003, 00:11
by JoeGrocottJames
Does anybody know of any time where a dungeoneer seems to have missed getting an item/spell/password/clue from a character, but survived anyway? I was wondering whether, if any information was just say, which door to take or a causeway combination, the team would have been allowed to survive if they missed the information, but took what would have been the correct door/path by a fluke? Has this ever happened?