The armor doesn’t really matter (i change it up sometimes)
With those other three items (all have to be forged) And Full Mana reserves I do +35 damage if i match three skulls.(skulls do 5 so total damage is 40) NEXT on to the spells.(only the most important ones)
Flaming skulls: Blue into red,Green into skulls. this lends itself to 4 and 5 in a row’s. Because of my dragonhorn this spell when used properly ADDS MANA to water,earth, and air. Fire stays the same.
Finger of death: makes a +5 skull on selected grid. When used in 4/5 in a row it only costs two mana from each type. (-8+6=-2)
Flaming avatar: Reduces red to zero. puts same number of red spent into a random skill. just to beef my guy up if red is high and i have no good matchs to make.
Chaos Bolt: -12 mana from each type. one type reduced to zero. mana reduced is equal to damage. This lets me finish off a guy who’s health is lower then all of my manas.
Wild Magic: Make four random wildcards. if all manas +12 turn doesn’t end. Helps me make more four in a rows when mana is 24 or higher each type (spell costs 12 each. 12+12=24)
Mount: Griffon
increases air mastery and gives death dive spell. More MAna and more damage to foes.

Haveing said All that i come back to the point that the game needs to cheat. I have One Round defeated a Arkliche RUNEKEEPER. If the game didn’t cheat It would mean i would NEVER lose a fight. When Most complan about the comps long chains, I laugh hystarically as i make 40+ chains, if the opponennt lives that long :)

If the new puzzle quest gets rid of the extra turns it will make it a lot harder to beat people.

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In vague reference to Ging’s first comment, I’m not at all concerned about overcomplicating the game. The original is quite a complex game itself, built on a very simple Bejewelled mechanic to be sure, but once you add in the effects of skills, the tight ability selection, the items, the forging of items, mounts, learned abilities, the monsters themselves…

Like a lot of great games, the central concepts are so easy to understand and work with that you can add complexity to it without ever moving it to where it too difficult to follow what’s going on. So bring on more stuff, I say.

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The options you have when it comes to the abilities you bring into a fight will completely transform the game. Not only will your mileage vary based upon what class you choose, but also your mount, as the powers you acquire can absolutely change the rhythm and composition of play. My first character was a warrior. Hated it. My second was a wizard. LOVED IT. Who cares if the AI cheats, when I’m webbing it for 4 turns with my Spider mount, casting Flaming Skulls to transform blue runes to red and green runes to skulls, and slapping it down with 4′s and 5′s of a kind, knocking out 3×3 sections with fireballs to keep my combo going. I almost hope it does cheat, otherwise I’d feel a little bad for robbing my opponent of 10 – 15 turns. ;)

Galactrix looks to have the potential to fix many of the niggling concerns I have about Puzzle Quest. For one thing, swappable ships mean you aren’t wasting the time you put into a class that doesn’t suit you, since it’s just a stepping stone to unlocking or powering upadditional ships that you might enjoy more.

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I do know the AI is pretty smart about speculating for possible drops that will set up 4s, but I’ve seen it screw those up plenty. Anyway, as has been already said, if the AI does cheat it’s because it needs to. Pick abilities and items that work well together and you won’t lose too many fights.

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Then I booted up Puzzle Quest. First fight(a random encounter), my second turn. I match three red stones at the top. Que my opponent getting SIX TURNS, just on the weight of what was falling in to replace that 1-by-3 gap at the top of the screen.

At the very least, the AI knows /exactly/ what is going to fall next. Very possibly, the game actually changes what falls next based on what the AI needs and what level of challenge it wants to provide. I really shouldn’t even use the term AI, AI suggests it is trying to trick you into believing you’re up agains a real opponent. I should instead say, the game is trying very hard to beat you.

On the other hand, it’s not really that bad. As your character progresses you should unlock a variety of abilities that allow you to control the board through transmutation or destruction of the various pieces. (yet another edit as I reacclimate to the game) I really can’t blame them for maybe cheating a bit, as there’s no way to make an AI to rapidly use such broad, transformative abilities in the brilliant ways a human, given lots of time to weigh options, could.

Is it still extremely luck-based, can you be utterly devastated by an opponent for reasons that are completely impossible to predict based on the information you have at hand? Yeah. But it’s still fun.

You can actually turn the ‘cheating’ game against itself though. Wait for it to give you a suggested move to ‘help’ you. Then, DON’T DO THAT MOVE (*unless it gives you an extra turn). As Iain pointed out in the other thread, the tip function is designed to screw you. By not doing that move, you hamper the game’s ability to cheat.

Something very vital I noticed in the Puzzle Quest: Galactrix video, and maybe I’m reading too much into this, but a couple of times it showed as a matching bonus, “Four of a Kind, Double Effect!”. It didn’t say, “Extra Turn”, it only said double effect. This would go a long, long way toward making the sequence of play less luck-based I would think.

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On the off-chance they DIDN’T get a stupid long combo, they would just prevent you from playing for four turns, then, woah, a long combo.

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I’ve been enjoying PQ; nothing mind-blowing, but it’s kinda fun having a story fuelling the puzzling, even if it is just a hacky little elves-and-dwarves thing. I haven’t had the AI be especially egregious, as frustrating as the odd match can be. I think it’s a bit unfortunate that the monsters level up with you, though — random encounters last about as long as boss fights, which is pretty bloody tiresome when you just want to pop down south to pick up your extortion money (I like how you can besiege a city, lose, and then walk in and stroll around the shops anyway. “Don’t mind the siege, folks! You can’t blame me for having a shot, right?”)

That’s some really neat art for ‘Galactrix’; I wonder if this is going to take a loftier, more Herbert-esque tack.

“Great Shai-Hulud has written our destiny in the sands! Send forth our troops to the homeworld of Emperor Shaddam, and visit blood and thunder upon the Landsraad!”
“Your grace, I cannot get the little skully blocks to match up!”
“Then your life is forfeit! ZAP!“

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Am I the only one who clicked on the link in hopes of seeing his leather jacket? I’m already committed to buy the game for DS whenever it comes out, coverage is unnecessary. But now that I’ve seen it I’m disappointed you failed to mention his awesome shirt.

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