Magic Item Properties ???

[smass]

Ok - I have found several magic items. For example - I found a cloak of elvenkind. I identified it - but the description gives no details as to what the bonuses are for this item. I am probably missing something obvious - but how do I find out what magical properties (aside from to hit bonuses and damage bonuses) that particular items have?

[Ned Flanders]

Grab a 3.5 edition rulesbook and hope the effects have translated to the game. This is one of the lamest things I have found so far in the game.

With the cloak of elvenkind, I know from NWN that it affects your hide skill, which I confirmed in this game. I have found a +1 holy long sword and I haven't the slightest idea what it does.

[Ares2382]

from what I understand the devs wanted to keep this game as close to P&P as possible, and in p&p you don't usually get the full description of the item from DM unless it's really rare item. So supposedly this is the way it's supposed to be. Personaly, I don't agree with this design decision, and hoping they might be able to change it in some future patch.

[Caedis1]

That would also explain the lack of feat descriptions in game terms (many of them don't explain, for example, which skills they modify, or by how much), which is an absurd move whether done intentionally or as a matter of oversight by the design team. The only benefit of much of this game's design is that it illustrates the shortcomings of quite a few silly D&D rules by implementing them so literally (e.g., paying 100 gp to identify an item, and even then not really knowing what it does).

[fable]

I have a feeling that we will see quite a few websites springing up with full item descripts-- including, probably, GB.

[smass]

On the gamebanshee main site there is a link to an interview with Tim Cain and some of the developers. They talk about this issue - and they may add the item descriptions in a patch.

It is a very interesting interview - outlining the role of the developer and the publisher (Atari). The publisher has much more input into game content than I thought - in the case of TOEE Atari required that some of the dialogues be edited so that the game would come out with a T rating. This also affected their decision to not include much of the evil alignment dialogue options. They also can add and delete features and have almost full editorial control.

Hopefully Troika will be allowed to do a patch. Basically - Atari has to agree to this and arrange contractual payment to Troika. Very interesting stuff. So before we all call for the developers heads - understand that many of the decisions on features and content - as well as the decision of when to publish the game - are made by the publisher - not the developer.

[Ylossakram]

I read the interview too (amongst other things) and yes, looks like Atari's makin a mess with this game
If you pay attention to every single decisions they made regarding this game you'll notice their only aim was to earn the max money not careing for their customers desires and not even for the developers way to make their own game!
The patch issue (not paying Troika for it) is just incredible ... the game has bugs (some major), needs tweaking and some little modifications (like items properties) by public demand and Atari doesn't wanna pay its developers ... i'm speechless.
I'm considering to do like someone suggested in the Atari forum: next time Atari will publish a dedicated rpg developers (like Troika) game i'll get a pirated copy and send my money directly to Troika so, invasive and moronic publishers like Atari, won't have its share of my money while hard dedicated workers like Troika will have the funds (if lotsa ppl will do like me) to publish their own games in the future.
I know it's just a provokation but if more publishers act like Atari's doing we'll have less and less good crpgs on the market ...