Whale's Voyage II - Memories, Tips & Tricks

[Cherno]

After playing Ambermoon, I remembered a distantly similar game I played back in the 90s, Whale's Voyage II for the Amiga. As far as I know it was translated to english much later and even avilable for Win 3.11 as a CD version, but I guess it's pretty rare so I'd be surprised to see anyone else outside Germany ever having played this game.

So anyway, it's a mixture of Space Trading and RPG, with the player travelling between planets, buying and selling things to make money, and in between beaming down to the cities on each planets to buy personal gear and talk to NPCs and follow a storyline. To be honest the RPG part is very lacking, it's all pretty undocumented (even the character creation) and one has to figure out a lot of things for oneself, plus the graphics aren't that great, much worse than Ambermoon. I think the RPG mode should have been a classic top-down view instead of the ugly cities where everything looks the same. Oh well. The combat mechanics are also awful, your characters die in a few shots whereas the enemies take multiple hits from the best guns in the game.

Now for the Space Trading part. I made a trading map so I know which planets buy and sell which things, but guess what... It's worthless, because mostly planets that are supposed to be in demand of a certain article buy it for much less than you bought it for on the neighboring planets that is selling it! However, all planets actually buy all kinds of stuff even if the trader says "I'm not really interested in this", so with a bit of luck you find a good trade route and make loads of cash. Indeed you only need to trade about 30 minutes to 1 hour to make enough money to buy everything in the game with lots to spare.

Anyway, here's few tricks to help you out should you give this game a try (there's also a walkthrough / guide):

1. First, visit every city and explore it thoroughly. Watch for ashtrays (yes, ashtrays!). These inexplicably sell for 640,000 credits each, I think there are two or three in the game, so get them, sell them and you have enough money to start trading in earnest.

2. Buy a compass and scanner. Equip the compass to you have an easier time getting around, and when you have completely explored a city, equip the scanner too, so you know where equipment and NPCs are.

3. The best trade route I found is:

Samrasa or Snemiese - Buy Silver at 23K
Chily - Sell Silver at 26K
fly back to Samrasa, rinse and repeat. You'll make 3K with each ton.
You can also sell Bauxit at the Trading Post at 900 profit / ton.

Buy a bigger loading bay and you can make even more each trip.

Once you made 10 million or so, buy all extras for your ship, and buy the best weapons (Cybertech 1 has Plasma Launchers and Bios (I think) has Plasma Rifles).

For your party, have at least one Psi-Mage because they can cast Brainblast, which kills every enemy with one "shot". Mental Energy takes ages to replete so maybe you should even take a second Psi-Monk. The last challange in the game is a long hallway with enemies and you have to use a special kind of Psi-attack against them, so consider this.

[Neil79]

I always thought it was just 1 that was English translated, didn't know 2 was aswell

[prowler]

Originally Posted by Neil79

I always thought it was just 1 that was English translated, didn't know 2 was aswell

Yep, right here on EAB:
http://eab.abime.net/showthread.php?t=40765

[Neil79]

I was going to swear, so I'll just say..

WOW!

Thanks for the heads up on that

[Cherno]

I'm currently stuck in the storyline with no way to continue, a character I'm supposed to speak to just isn't there and a door doesn't open no matter what I try, so I've been looking for the PC version that was included on the famous mid-90s game compilation Gold Games 1, but I had no luck whatsoever finding a copy online even though it's abandonware

[Gzegzolka]

Did You figure out how to open locked doors?
Also can You do anything usefull with stones, empty bottles, pot plants and empty glasses? None trader want to buy it.
What does "infusion" vial do? - I can sold it for 900 credits, also I find bottle of wine that can be sold for 40 credits - maybe some quest require that item?
I would be very happy if someone could tell me how to create party with good skills. If I made them too strong they are too stupid to talk to npc's. If i made them too smart but not strong enough they can not equip any gun. In one town near trading post is guy that attack my party and kill them fast, when I have guy with high retoric-speach I can bluf him that I'm not from whale. Also there are some "dark" rooms in few cities - are there some hidden items?

[Cherno]

I finally loaded up my old savestate and finished the game.

Here are the things I learned after finishing the game (I actually finished it back then on a real Amiga first!):

As far as I can tell, you don't really need any of the class-specific skills, except for one: Mindblast. That means that you can take any classes you want, but I really recommend taking at least two Psi-Monks. Skills like pick lock can be substituted by readily available toolkits.

Speaking of lockpicking: If your character says that he can't do it right now, just keep on trying (remember that using the pick lock skills uses one strength) until the door opens. This counts for using the skills as well as a toolkit.

Combat in the game works like this:
Even with the most powerful guns (Plasma Rifle), you will end up using a ton of ammo to kill even one guy, so it's not really worth it having to lug a full inventory of ammo around for the few occasions where you have to fight. Chances are, you will have to buy new ammo after each fight. If you really have to, click on the Gen. Attack button as fast as you can and the enemy won't have a chance to shoot back.

The more efficient way to fight is to use your Psi-Monks' Mindblast which insta-kills all enemies in the game. The downside is that at lower character levels, it uses up a lot of your mind power which regenerates very slowly, but you can take essenses for a quick refill (or, if using WinUAE, hit END+BREAK for turbo mode (move to a safe spot first).

The disadvantage Psi-Monks have is their low strength (I think); It might make sense to take at least one strong character who can carry all the misc stuff like toolbox, scanner, compass, translator, and IR goggles.

One specific tip/bug: When one of your party members is taken hostage, and you reach the entrance to the hostage taker's hideout, you are told to put all items in your inventory on the floor before going in. Problem is, is a character has a gun with full ammo, he sometimes has also a magazine selected which he can't deselect; he says that he can't use the magazine because he has no gun that needs ammo. So you will have to find some unimportant NPS (one of the green soldiers, for example) and shoot him once. Then you can reload manually and the magazine will be gone.

BTW, an english translation of the German walkthrough is available here:

http://www.oldgames.sk/en/game/whale...download/9272/

[Gzegzolka]

I'm sure I have write my tips and tricks for that game long time ago, but if I could give any:
1. Lockpick every door, if You find inside ashtray, sold it for great cash.
2. If Your character run out strength by lock-picking, unload every item he is caring and wait till he restore his strength.
3. Shoot first, enemies will always try to shoot You when they are if front/back/left/right side of You, but never on different angles
4. It's worth to have character that know how to identify essence vials, some will boost, some will poison You, keep good one and sold those that could harm You
5. There is planet with blue aliens, create one in Your team when starting game and make him team leader on that planet so You will not need translator item.
6. First upgrade Your ship with cargo and fuel stuff, than with glider, and at the end with guns. Save/load game to avoid pirates till You have fully upgraded ship ready for combat. If You have empty cargo You can surrender if attacked by pirates-since You have nothing, they will take nothing and leave You safe. You can board pirate transport ships by touching team by Your own ship, if You do that You will find rare goods.
7. Shopkeepers sometimes offer very rare updates to Your ship like stealth engine and hologram doppelganger.
8. Save/load before buying stuff till You learn where to buy at low price and where sold on high. After some time there will be no differences in prices on different planets.

[Cherno]

Yes, your tips are in this thread, thanks
http://eab.abime.net/showthread.php?t=76992