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[CatherineMcClarey]

One of the last things your character party needs to do before leaving the RAM prison on Mars is to rescue Scott.dos (the digital personality that's been advising your party throughout both Buck Rogers games) from the digital sharks hunting him down in the prison's computer. In order to do this, a character has to make:
A) A successful Programming roll to access the computer;
B) Up to 5 successful Programming rolls to shut down the data cells; and
C) Up to another 5 successful Programming rolls to find the one where Scott.dos is.
If multiple characters in the party have Programming skill, you are given the option to have a second character attempt to complete all this; however, a second failed Programming roll in a row means that Scott.dos is "dead."
My problem is that I only had 1 character develop Programming skill, and it's only at a pretty mediocre level (33%); thus, it's extremely difficult (maybe impossible) for her to succeed at that many Programming rolls in a row.
If anyone is just starting one or the other of SSI's Buck Rogers games, a word of advice: It's possible to "muddle through" a lot in these games (especially in Countdown to Doomsday) with minimal to mediocre skills, but not here in the Mars Prison area. Be more long-term-thinking in your party's skills development than I was, and develop at least 1 character with the highest possible Programming skill (2 if you can manage it!).
If anyone's already completed this game not too long ago -- is it possible to complete the game if Scott.dos does get eaten by the digital sharks?

[CatherineMcClarey]

Originally Posted by CatherineMcClarey

One of the last things your character party needs to do before leaving the RAM prison on Mars is to rescue Scott.dos (the digital personality that's been advising your party throughout both Buck Rogers games) from the digital sharks hunting him down in the prison's computer. In order to do this, a character has to make:
A) A successful Programming roll to access the computer;
B) Up to 5 successful Programming rolls to shut down the data cells; and
C) Up to another 5 successful Programming rolls to find the one where Scott.dos is.
If multiple characters in the party have Programming skill, you are given the option to have a second character attempt to complete all this; however, a second failed Programming roll in a row means that Scott.dos is "dead."
My problem is that I only had 1 character develop Programming skill, and it's only at a pretty mediocre level (33%); thus, it's extremely difficult (maybe impossible) for her to succeed at that many Programming rolls in a row.
If anyone is just starting one or the other of SSI's Buck Rogers games, a word of advice: It's possible to "muddle through" a lot in these games (especially in Countdown to Doomsday) with minimal to mediocre skills, but not here in the Mars Prison area. Be more long-term-thinking in your party's skills development than I was, and develop at least 1 character with the highest possible Programming skill (2 if you can manage it!).
If anyone's already completed this game not too long ago -- is it possible to complete the game if Scott.dos does get eaten by the digital sharks?

It looks like your PCs can try again to complete the job of shutting down all of the data cells in the RAM prison's computer (at least once at each of the 4 terminals in the room), so it may be possible to get part of the job done, save that much (at a different save position than the one just before you started the process), and repeat at each terminal until the job's done. There seems to be a maximum of 6 attempts allowed, though, before you get the dreaded message that "Scott.dos is dead." Thus, this room may be merely insanely difficult to complete successfully (rather than impossible), if you only have 1 PC with Programming skill, and only at a mediocre level like mine.
(That thumping noise you may be hearing is me banging my head against the wall over this silly thing!)

[CatherineMcClarey]

Originally Posted by CatherineMcClarey

It looks like your PCs can try again to complete the job of shutting down all of the data cells in the RAM prison's computer (at least once at each of the 4 terminals in the room), so it may be possible to get part of the job done, save that much (at a different save position than the one just before you started the process), and repeat at each terminal until the job's done. There seems to be a maximum of 6 attempts allowed, though, before you get the dreaded message that "Scott.dos is dead." Thus, this room may be merely insanely difficult to complete successfully (rather than impossible), if you only have 1 PC with Programming skill, and only at a mediocre level like mine.
(That thumping noise you may be hearing is me banging my head against the wall over this silly thing!)

If I get frustrated enough, I could just reload my saved character party from Countdown to Doomsday and restart Matrix Cubed from scratch. I was thinking how nice it would be to have a skills list table one could mark up offline with which PC has what skill, and at what level. Printing out or copying the section on Skills from the Matrix Cubed logbook (p. 9-13 of the original book/p. 7-9 of the ReplacementDocs scanned PDF version) accomplishes a lot of that, although setting that list up as a chart (database?/handdrawn on graph paper?) with columns for each PC to mark their levels in each skill, would be even better. Having the "big picture" in front of you like that would certainly help in building a balanced and successful character party.

[Saccade]

I have a solution for this, but it involves a hex editor and messing with your game files to change stats and stuff.

Not sure if that is that's what yr after.

biddybiddybiddy.


NB - this photo was taken *before* Megan's law came into effect.

[CatherineMcClarey]

Originally Posted by Saccade

I have a solution for this, but it involves a hex editor and messing with your game files to change stats and stuff.

Not sure if that is that's what yr after.

biddybiddybiddy.


NB - this photo was taken *before* Megan's law came into effect.

I reloaded my last saved game from Countdown to Doomsday, and made sure I put lots more skill development points into Climb, Acrobatics, and especially Programming for those characters who already had those skills open. I also had the Rocketjock open Programming & put the max. 15 points into that skill with each level-up (he already had the Maths prerequisite skill opened, since it's also required for Astrogation & Navigation). Still made sure I saved before attempting to save Scott.dos from the data sharks -- but at least I succeeded this time.
Did a lot of the Jupiter flying-rig sequence dumbed-down to Novice level. As it turned out, it was no big deal that my characters weren't earning as many XPs in that area -- because once your party gets the Matrix Device deployed and finally defeats Sid Refuge once & for all, you get 3 cheers from Buck, Wilma & the rest of the NEO troops who arrive at the rig -- and then get dumped back to the DOS prompt in DOSBox!
BTW, I found my old floppy-disk copies of both Buck Rogers games in the basement (just can't play them without a floppy drive on any of the computers at home) -- so watch my eBay auctions next month, because I'll be selling them there, complete with the original boxes, manuals, and even the SSI cluebooks!