You suggest being able to order the Zeppelin around...
No, I suggested being able to give the say-so on when it was 'safe' that the Zepp should advance. Not ordering it all around. It's a very simple safety system, that any escorted vessel would be insane not to listen to -- from their only escort, regardless of command systems.
There is no command system
Yes, there is. It's given in the 2nd half of the escort mission when you are able to tell the escort mission when to fire it's offensive weapon Zeppelin Barrage. As a laziest/simplest implementation, "Zepplin Halt/Advance" could be a defensive 'Skill' that has zero mana and recharge cost could be an ability given from the start. But it would be better just to replace an unused binding (or give player option of where to bind it), since unused bindings could be mind usable in final mission.
Sidenote: During final mission, some final keys that should (or could) be made useful, in relative order of importance (& ease of implementation): 1) (possible small addl. implementation difficult, BUT very useful ability to add to Dragon Flying form for ALL dragon fly missions: - enable 'jump' to have the dragon 'give a powerful burst to wings that pushes it vertically by ~ 3-5 meters (not up and down, but just a push up). 2) enable dragon stone to allow return to castle as is available everywhere else. It makes no sense to disable this. In part-II return to the castle has been restricted/limited to an extended pause & options ability, since when you are done you have to return to where you left off and you can't recharge or regenerate out of battle. In a 'normal' play mode I can understand why this was done, but you might consider re-enabling hit & mana regen in a 'easy' mode and re-allowing (especially in 'casual' mode), ability to use the castle transporter: after return you'd be told it'd been damaged & repaired, with original destinations lost, but could be 'restored' by finding destinations again. In normal mode, it could stay broken (switch difficulties mid-game would simply miss getting the initial 'fixed' dialogue').
3) Enable taking human form (harder impl difficult; least important) -- could place you on the Zeppelin -- where you'd be limited to a small part of deck where you could see incoming shots -- but allow human-level regen and heal abilities & then switch back to dragon form to continue fight.Forestalling the Zepp's start is perhaps one of the simplest options by allowing immediate launch in dragon form to 'clear the way', and make contacting Augustus to tell him when to 'lauch' the final attack the way to start the Zepp-launch cut-scene. That can give anyone the option of making for an escort mission, if they *like* such things, by launching immediately, or can lessen the pressure of escorting by progressively later Zeppelin launch times. Such an option would be both simple to implement and would make tactical & strategic sense.
I disagree with making the Zeppelin too much stronger in offensive power (the player gets a game to *play*, not to be told a story -- they get a movie for passive watching). But it would make sense to increase the defensive power. Surely if a mage could keep out missiles from the city for days or weeks on end, either Zandalor or Deodotus(?) (a secondary mage suggested to possibly relieve Zandalor for a bit, but dismissed as being too weak) would still be able to shield a single ship for the final mission (or most of it, giving it some, significantly, larger amount of hit points).
Honestly, I don't think anyone buys one of these games and wants "
*no* repeats". It's 'excessive' repeats and a feeling of not being able to make progress for hours that is frustrating. This isn't aimed at children (it does have a 'M' rating in the US).
For what it's worth, I *did* finish the final mission after several more repeats, selective named saves, restoring to an earlier save (before the mission and loading up on healing and restoration potions that I put on hot keys next to my 'dragonspirit(heal)'.
Some other minor notes... about the final scene:
A) When I got the new skill of 'bomb' from the ship, mid mission, I didn't need it to replace 2 of my hot-keys. I left a blank-spot for hit, but it also overwrote the original EoP. Even with the bomb ability, I found the EoP more useful due to its area effect and its quicker arrival time. When I'd gotten a bit a head, the time it took for a bomb from the ship to arrive would be significant (I'd could fly almost half the way back to the ship and escort the missile!) -- but if I was clearing an area, the EoP would take out all the platforms around it, while the bomb would only take out the primary.
B) The player should be equipped with either their armor from their previous dragon save if they've played from the prior game (mine was unequipped for the bad armor), OR should be auto-equipped some best optimal set of armor. I presume that the 2 (3) key items of the Cuirass (giving +40% Hit Points) and the Dragon leggings (2 types, but only 1 choice: +40% to defense or offense). To be consistent -- though not-intuitive to a 'safe player', perhaps, the +40% to offense is the better choice, since it's more consistent with the Zeppelin that has an effective -80% (or worse) defense, compared to the player, due to having zero maneuverability in ranged attacks (i.e. it's like having -5 Dex to ranged attacks that are coming in slowly -- not only can't it dodge, but it can't even 'stop' momentarily, to dodge an incoming missile that was launched slightly ahead of the ship to hit where it will be when the missile actually reaches its target).
(B cont.) The Cuirass should have been equipped as well as, at least the +40 Defense.
Note: I found that the part of the final solution was to use the +40 +40 Offense Leggings. I don't know about the 'default' dragon given to those who didn't play through the game from the prior, but I had focused on "Dragon-Fire Sphere" (
DFS), a 1.5second-recharge, single-missile equiv to Magic-Missile (that *seeks* & finds the enemy, so it doesn't miss) [i]. With the "DFS" & +40 Offense, it took exactly 2 shots to take out any single Ballista. Once you know that, you launch 2 shots (usually on approach, or if too close, in reverse (but always moving)).
C) I was VERY annoyed with how it ended w/Command Rhode. There should have been a chance for final confrontation or a lead into (my preference) reconciliation.
I made sure to kill Bellegar before he could escape in his final appearance @ the entrance "Antediluvian Vault". I noted that if I killed his minions first, he took the opportunity to disappear, so I focused on taking him out before the minions were done. (Magic missiles did him damage -- since they would seek him when shot @ minions). So given that he was *dead* (annoying as Willy, that he appeared twice later!), or perhaps in any case, after obtaining the final-artifact, I could be placed in the entry cave to meet with Rhode, who'd just been freed from her stony prison just as I'd been freed from my crystal one. (Various factors/reasons could be evaluated: Bellegar killed (spell breaks), or I took his offer & he breaks spell on her as no longer needed/quest done, or I could be offered dialogue choice w/Behrlihn to have him break Bellegar's curse in addition to the Eop, OR even if Bellegar lived and I didn't take his offer, Bellegar could free her in the hopes she do for him, what he'd been unable to do himself - destroy me). Whatever - she's freed.
Then I'd be able to choose dialogue toward a vengeance fight (for those so inclined, I can easily imagine some would take that route), or, w/me having saved her, appeal to her sense of the greater need to defeat Damion's forces, 'first', as I'd obtained the 'quest item' needed to move against them and we'd both be needed in the final battle.
Additional polish could have allowed a final scene, after the Divine is freed, w/her realizing that it was a dragon who saved the Divine (and maybe really was Damion who had committed the earlier deed), though her dying on the crashed Zeppelin would be another, less fulfilling. A third (more improbable), would be the dragon rescuing her before the ship crashes!
Can you tell, I liked Rhode, despite her misunderstanding of me? As someone who studied under her, I was hurt by it, and still wanted to 'win her over' -- maybe acknowledgment of me as her equal.
D) On the final cut-scene, I felt "ripped off". They walked out Zandalor & the Divine (understandable), but
I should have been that third person. How difficult would it have been to patch in my character in last garb (minus any face-covering helmet? Instead, back from the dead was Bellegar, who had had actually done strong evil to *hindered* the whole mission. I made certain to have replay the initial scene, after entering the the 'Vault', and to *kill* his sorry ass off. I wanted to see him dead after what he did to Commander Rhode -- I was pissed when I saw that.
It was perplexing to see the "Divine" as such a work looking old man. He wouldn't have aged in that crystal.
So Damian isn't dead. That wasn't such a great ending if this is truly supposed to be an ending.
It would be a shame to start over with another character in a non dragon role -- there's so much I'd like to see fixed for dragon flight.
Any final battle Divinity III planned.
Dragon needs to quest in other lands? Find more items to defeat him? He raises another army of of darkness? The dragon is quested by dragons to restore the order of the dragons and gets the powers of Maxos to make others into dragons at the new dragon school? Dragon army (ok maybe a few companions) get to aid in final battle against Damian. Need me to flesh this out some more? ;-)
