Keapon Laffin's Game

[MARIANA]

Hi!!! I was wondering if someone could help me with Keapon Laffin's Game. Im stuck! I won Aziza's Game several times but I can't seem to understand it.
I did use the Grid, the Detect Spell, I moved the prisms and trigger them. I slowed the speed so I could trace the path of the bolt. But still it never bounces the way I think it will.
Is it necessary to win it? Am I missing something? Can anyone give me some Tips or Hints?

By the way I love the game SO SO MUCH! Thank!!

[Sinergy]

Hypothetically align the green line with the direction of contact and the red line will move accordingly, basically do that in your head and you should be able to more or less know how it is going to work assuming it isn't too complex a pattern. Before you cast force bolt it is wise to see which prisms are obviously going to return the bolt back to you (usually at least one of those). cast detect magic every turn so you know what you're up against, and if all else fails, save and load alot oh and if he has a cloud which isn't on a straight line with one of your own, you may want to fetch a prism that is in the way so next turn you can have a direct shot at it

[Spikey]

Have you used the "Rotate" button yet? With it, you can rotate the prisms to align the "hypothetical path" with the actual path to actually see in which direction it's going to bounce off to.

[MARIANA]

Yes, I do use that button. I CANT DO IT... well, thanks for the help
Hope its not necessary to complete the game!

[Spikey]

It's not. It's hard at first, but keep trying and rotating paths and stuff. I still don't get the wall bounce thing, but I can beat it!

[Red CyricZ]

Hopefully this post isn't too huge, but this is going in my FAQ:

Force Bolt Flurry

To learn about playing games, you can talk to Aziza the Enchantress about
magical games. She'll drop his name, and at that point, you can go to the
Magic Shop, click the Mouth on yourself, and challenge the little man.

Spells required for this game are: Detect Magic, Trigger, Fetch, Force Bolt

The main play area is a five-by five grid, laid out thus:

=======
o.....o
o.....o
o.....o
o.....o
o.....o
=======

The equals signs are the top and bottom walls of the play field. The
periods are the 25 spaces of the play field, and the o's represent each
player's five clouds.

The aim of the game is for one player to knock out all five clouds of the
other player. The first to do this wins.

The kicker of the game, though, is that you cannot attack the other clouds
directly. Sixteen prisms are on the board, spread across the outer border
and the center spot, with one space empty. The idea is to bounce a Force
Bolt across the field of prisms and hit another player's cloud.

The prisms themselves are unique little thingies. Each one has a green line
travelling to its center and a red arrow pointing out of it. What this
means is that a Force Bolt hitting a prism in the direction of the green
line will leave it by the direction of the red arrow. So, if the green line
is coming from the right and the red arrow is pointing down, a Force Bolt
coming from the right will be kicked off downard. This angle of incidence
holds true for ALL incoming angles, regardless of where the actual green line
is coming from, so by the same prism described above, a Force Bolt coming from
the bottom will be kicked off to the left, and a Force Bolt coming from the
upper right will be kicked to the lower right, and so on.

As a quick note on the walls, they exist as bumpers. A Force Bolt striking
them at an angle will leave at the opposite angle. One coming perpendicular
to it will bounce straight back. There are no walls on the left or right
side of the playing field, so anything that goes that far out is out of play
(and you cannot harm each other, this being friendly and all).

The game is turn-based, and each player uses a turn on one of the following
spells:

Force Bolt: Used to launch your attack. Pick any of the five lines of the
grid and you will walk up and shoot your Force Bolt straight to the left,
where it will enter the prism maze. You can ONLY shoot your Force Bolt
straight to the left initially, never at an angle.
Trigger: Use on any prism and you will rotate its red arrow (not its green
line) clockwise by one of the six possible directions. Those six directions
are any of the four diagonals to the green line and the two perpedicular
to the green line. A prism can never have a red arrow pointing directly
away from or towards the green line.
Fetch: Use this on any prism and you'll remove it from its current spot to
be placed in the empty spot. Useful if it would take too many rotations to
make it useful.
Pass: Forfeit your turn and let Keapon take another. I personally never see
a reason to do this, as even if you have no good moves at the moment, you
can always try to mess with Keapon's plot.

There are also several other actions you can do that won't cost you a turn:

Detect: Use this spell and any cloud that is in danger of being Force Bolted
will be lit up. Note that this will not tell either of you exactly where
to shoot to hit it, but you can probably work backwards to the origin.
Rotate Symbol: Click this and pick any prism and you'll rotate it along both
the green line and red arrow. This changes nothing about the prism, but
you'll be able to see more easily where a Force Bolt will bounce to if it
connects at a certain angle, which is useful when mapping out a route.
Rotate Symbol with Red X: Click this to reset all viewed rotations to their
original setting, with the green line coming from the right.
Mana Pill: Chow down on a pill you're carrying if you're running low on juice.
Grid: Click this to view a series of diagonal lines, which can help in
viewing how everything connects on diagonals. I never use it, but I guess
I'm more mathematically minded.

All that said, here are some tips for getting by:

1. Take your time. The game is not timed, and despite Keapon's irrascible
sense of humor, he won't bug you while you play, so relax and think clearly.
2. Cast Detect pretty much every turn. The only reason you wouldn't want
to is if you're feeling like you're hot stuff. It's always worth it to
know what clouds are in danger.
3. Plot your route. Kinda goes without saying, but take the Rotate tool out
and trace what will happen at each of the five entry points of Force Bolts.
NEVER let a Force Bolt out randomly, because chances could be that you'll
hit your own cloud.
4. Use as few moves as possible. Keapon's rather efficient in his paths,
so you have to be the same. Check each possible route and work out ones that
need the fewest moves to prepare the Force Bolt, if any at all. Also,
weigh the options of using Trigger OR Fetch.
5. Use the walls. They cannot be moved or rotated like prisms, meaning the
more walls you bounce off of, the less chance you have of Keapon changing
your path.
6. Watch Keapon's moves. Specifically, watch how they will affect yours in
the next turn. Make sure you remember all the prisms you will use in the
next Force Bolt, and change your plans if he changes one of them. Keapon
will only be concerned about his own paths and won't deliberately try to
mess you up, but the chance of crossfire exists.
7. Know when to work for yourself, and when to work against Keapon. If
you have equal clouds or you have more, you can focus on attack, but if he
has the advantage, make sure you block any moves that will threaten your
clouds.

The first time you beat Keapon at his game, he'll give you a scroll that will
increase the potential power of your Force Bolt spell. You'll be able to
hold down the button to charge it up for more damage and knockdown potential.

The second time you beat Keapon, he'll gift you an Electric Fan, which can
be used to decorate your room.

Any other time you beat him, he'll restore all your Mana Points for free.
This will make playing games very useful for building up your skills.

[Erpy]

I couldn't have explained it better myself...and I designed the darn thing.

It's true what you say about taking your time. While playing the game, game time outside stands still, but upon quitting the minigame, time automatically makes a fixed jump forward. (the amount of game time you lose is the same, whether you take an hour deciding each turn or whether you throw the game after one bad move)

The pass-button is used on the occasion (rare at the start, relatively common near the end) that neither side has target clouds vulnerable and the player doesn't want to risk making a move that could give Keapon a free shot.

Charged projectiles cost 50% more mana, but are 100% more damaging. Mana cost for flame dart is rounded up.

[Goilveig]

Also note that, while not guaranteed, if you have a route that hits a cloud, changing the very last step in that chain (by using trigger to adjust the direction or fetch to leave a gap at that last place) may often allow you to hit another cloud. It's not all that uncommon to get three clouds with minor variations on the single chain.

[Red CyricZ]

What I wanna know, Erpy, is why a Pass button wasn't put in Wizard's Whirl?

Would have been more useful there, say if you were an Earth Elemental, and you didn't want to change anything on you tier, and couldn't screw up Aziza, not wanting to waste MP casting a spell that wouldn't affect you or Aziza. 2MP... DOWN THE DRAIN... >.>

[Erpy]

To tell you the truth, I'm really not sure anymore. I think I wanted, at that time, to force players to change the game board each turn even if it had no direct results. Random moves in Wizard's Whirl are much less likely to have harsh consequences than random moves in Force Bolt Flurry do.

[MARIANA]

I DID IT!!!!! Thank You All!!!!

[gutsman]

I don't think I ever lost Keapon's game. Though, I only played it about four times. I just used fetch and never bothered with trigger, or detect magic for that matter. Keapon casts trigger a lot, which gives plenty of different angle prisms to move around where you need them. Plus moving his triggered prisms screws him up as well.

I had a lot more problem with Aziza's game. So many different rules to remember. I ended up having to write all those element interactions down so I didn't need to click HELP every turn, hehe.