Interesting blurbs from Prima's Official Strategy Guide for Kunark

[DeathsSilkyMist]

I was looking through my old Kunark strategy guide. I find it fascinating how the writers of the book described the game at that time. They seem to make a LOT of mistakes too. It is also interesting to see items that were never put into the game.

1. Fear kiting was called "Reverse-kiting", and they considered it an "advanced tactic".

2. Their advice for Bard soloing: "Don't do it. Yes, it's possible, but Bards need friends to be at their best. The best advice for soloing would be, play a haste song, don't stop for long enough to get into trouble, and just explore."

3. It looks like there were quite a few bags that never made it in to the game:

- The first one is "Pierce's Pack". It had 8 slots, giant capacity, and 50% weight reduction. This must
be a different bag from https://wiki.project1999.com/Pierce%...uch_of_Storing , because this
bag is also mentioned in the list.

- There was a 10 slot, large capacity "Banker's Box".

- There was a 10 slot, large capacity, 15% weight reduction "Tracker's Terrapack".

- There was a Lady's Purse that was identical to https://wiki.project1999.com/Purse

- There was an 8 slot, giant capacity "Treasure Chest".

4. There were some additional crafting containers that apparently didn't make it in:

- There was a sharpening kit for blacksmithing. 2 slots, large capacity.

- There was a smithing kit, 6 slots, large capaity. It says immobile, so this may have been similar to
a forge, with less slots.

- There was a Key Maker, 2 slots, tiny capacity. No idea what this was for. It was also immobile.

5. They listed a test item named "Robe of Recovery". https://everquest.allakhazam.com/db/...tml?item=57005

6. Pulling was apparently also called "bait".

7. In the description for the warrior class, they have an interesting description for Agility: "Big people have a reputation for being clumsy, but clumsy Warriors have a reputation for being corpses. Agility here means quick and effective weapon work and more hits per stab."

8. They claim Shadowknights use Wisdom to increase their mana.

9. In the description for the necromancer class, they have an interesting description for Dexterity: "No armor and everyone in the world out to get you? Dexterity is the key to a successful attack. Just think of it as buffing up the fingers in preparation for major finger-waggling."

10. In the description for the monk class, they have an interesting description for Dexterity: "Akin to agility, a high dexterity increases your success in landing an attack. When a Monk tries one of the patented "Monk Moves", it's the Dexterity that counts."

11. Going off of all the odd Dexterity quotes above, here is some of the description for DEX:
"This is your hand-to-eye coordination. DEX helps determine your accuracy and spellcasting capability in combat. DEX helps determine if you're interrupted when you're hit while casting a spell."

Did I miss something? I don't remember seeing DEX as a way to increase chance to hit, or reduce spell interrupts.

It is a large book. Working on finding more gems when I have the time.

[Baler]

Is that from version 1 or version 2 of the kunark prima guide?

I wonder how much of the info from those guides confused people for years.

[Visual]

I also learned everything I know about kunark from nintendo power

[DeathsSilkyMist]

Originally Posted by Baler [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

Is that from version 1 or version 2 of the kunark prima guide?

I wonder how much of the info from those guides confused people for years.

It is from the first edition, some of these mistakes were corrected in the revised edition later lol. A lot of poor people were confused for many years I am sure.

A few more goodies:

1. In the section describing the Stat Wisdom, it says: "Wisdom helps resist spells that affect your mind."

2. Here are two paragraphs from the "Words to the Wise: Races" chapter regarding Iksars:

- "Master Taunters. There is no better race than the Iksar for sheer taunting ability - they have Dual Wield from the outset. To add extra oomph to the skill, try an Iksar Monk. Yowza!"

They seem to suggest Iksars get Dual Wield naturally. That would have been awesome.

- "Know the score. Iksar are a remarkably rounded-out race... not short, not weak, not night-blind. They've got an extra attack (the tail), can Duel Wield, and are excellent tanks and casters. The drawback, and it's a big drawback, is that they are universally despised and feared. Of course, that has it's own charm, in a way."

Here they seem to suggest Iksar's also get an additional attack with their tail.

3. They have a "Spellcaster Issues" section. Within that section, they claim: "Charisma is a good thing for a spellcaster - higher charisma gives a slightly better chance of success (or at least fewer resists by mobs that aren't conning red)".

I assume they are talking about Charming, since they delve into using Charisma with Charming in the next paragraph, but the wording and paragraph order could easily confuse someone.

[plzrelax]

I remember even on sites like ever Everlore people suggested dumping points into DEX for necros

[Jimjam]

What a waste.

It sounds like the author was not deeply familiar with the game and under pressure to get the guide out fast. We can see he had to way over extend his data (clear copy and paste of internet rumourmongering and speculation as well as confusing the innate abilities of his class with those of his race on his new iksar monk).

This is peak capitalism at work; putting out shit products to milk untapped niches and exploiting customers attempting to overcome their own ignorance.

I feel bad for the team that made it, but someone must have been laughing all the way to the bank.

[LazyHydras]

Originally Posted by Jimjam [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

What a waste.

It sounds like the author was not deeply familiar with the game and under pressure to get the guide out fast. We can see he had to way over extend his data (clear copy and paste of internet rumourmongering and speculation as well as confusing the innate abilities of his class with those of his race on his new iksar monk).

This is peak capitalism at work; putting out shit products to milk untapped niches and exploiting customers attempting to overcome their own ignorance.

I feel bad for the team that made it, but someone must have been laughing all the way to the bank.

Sounds a lot like what just happened to Warcraft 3 Reforged. Shitty overhaul of the game that downgraded a lot of features, added models into the game that just didn't hold any fidelity to the originals, took a working battle.net system and killed it by trying to implement an entirely new system from scratch replete with bugs that weren't a thing in the original, etc, etc. Pushed out welllll before it was ready because Activision probably wanted to parlay the money into more Call of Duty content.

[Philistine]

Hoooly smokes! Some of that stuff is nuts! I can only imagine how much gear and grinding was needed to undo some of that bad advice!

[DeathsSilkyMist]

The thing that interests me is this book must have been written while Kunark was being built. I can't find the exact release date for the guide, but if memory serves me right, the Prima strategy guides were released shortly after the game is released. The book also clearly has items that didn't make it into the game. The writers must have been using older item tables.

This makes me wonder if some of these mistakes were actually ideas the Dev's were playing around with, and decided to drop. Maybe Iksar's at one point in development did have racial dual wield, or a special racial tail attack, similar to Slam on Trolls, Ogres, and Barbarians. I know monks specifically get tail rake, but that is class specific, where Slam isn't.

Here are a few more noteworthy things:

1. It looks like a whole visible set of bloodstained armor was planned. The book lists Bloodstained Mantle, Bracelets, Gloves, Leeves (they forgot the S in Sleeves lol), Leggings, Coif, Tunic, and Boots. P99 only has the Tunic, Mantle, and Gloves. What is annoying about this book is they do not list all the stats of the armor. Just the size, weight, AC, and merchant resale value. So I guess we will never know for sure what stats the other pieces would have had. The weird thing is the boots, tunic, and coif all have 13 ac. This seems to be a copy paste error, or maybe the items had temporary values before they were taken out.

2. There was a visible set called "Ebon Mail". It had Boots, Sleeves, Gloves, Coif, Leggings, and Tunic. The AC isn't great (Tunic has 15 AC, Boots have 6 AC), but the name is cool. Again, no way to know if the items had stats or not, sadly.

3. There was a 1HS weapon called "broadsword of the void", 14 Damage, 46 Delay. Cool name, but no way to know what classes could use it, or it's stats.

[kaev]

Even at the time the Prima guides were mocked by the players.