B.A.T. II - The Simulator Conspiracy

Written by Ilmari

Last time I had a problem how to continue, since I had no clue where to find any more deeds. Well, it turned out that the solution was to search through the belongings of everyone walking on the streets of Roma. They didn’t have any deeds with them, but one person did own something unique: a local newspaper.

I guess everyone else prefers the digital version

The news told me of a murder that happened in the old Ashan district. Zist Honor, a former page of the ex-king, had been killed by few muggers. Honor had been critical of the current regime of Shedishan, but police didn’t believe there was anything political in the killing.

Now, I knew of one landmark in the Ashan district - the balcony of a house, which required some equipment for me to get in. Armed with the newspaper and a piece of rope, I finally managed to climb in. And yes, I had to had the newspaper in my possession, since I had earlier tried to enter the building with merely the rope. Considering that this puzzle required hours of talking with crowds of featureless characters, just to find a random dude with the correct object, I am mightily pissed.

At least I got in

A door! How to open it?

What’s this then?

Aha! A secret mechanism.

Another door

Jackpot! Some new deeds

In addition to deeds, I found memoirs of the dead page. Apparently an astronomer friend of the page, Moses Banafoosh, had set out on an expedition to Bedhin 6 and taken his store of deeds with him, never coming back. When I went to discuss this with Sylvia, she thought this was a lead to follow.

Sylvia also said I should disguise myself as a praetor, since Bedhin 6 was currently closed for other persons. I would need some praetor clothes and a real praetor card. I knew where to find some praetor clothes - from a clothing store at the Tourist Sector. I had stolen one set at the beginning of the game and sold it, because they paid well. Problem was that the store didn’t have the clothes in its selection anymore. Like every monopoly, the store sure knew how to make its customers pay. The selection was renewed only after I had bought the store completely empty - and there was no guarantee the new selection would contain praetor clothes. After losing a considerable portion of my assets, I finally had some praetor clothes.

Could I get a patron discount?

A joke shop next to the clothier sold fake praetor cards (well, it had sold them, and I had to go through same procedure as with the clothier - I am starting to think the game was developed by hard-core Marxists trying to make players hate capitalists). A false praetor card was not what I needed, but I had an idea, where I might switch one with a real card.

The praetor sauna

I searched the sauna, picked a random praetor’s card I found and dropped my false card.

Now all I had to do was buy my way to Bedhin 6. Problem was that I had just spent so much money that I didn’t have the 5000 credits which space ship would cost. I was then forced to earn some cash by stealing. This was quite tedious, but I did manage to acquire something interesting.

Aureus, the largest “coin” in Shedishan

You might think this solved my financial problems, since all I had to do was to sell it and gain 40 000.

Apparently no one has so much money

Since I couldn’t sell it, I just gifted it to someone.

Money CAN buy friends

The person I gave the aureus liked me so much that he gladly joined me. I am happy that I got to explore this possibility, although it seems to be too late in the game to be really useful.

The main reason for getting companions appears to be that I could make them run errands for me. They can find rare objects, like praetor clothes, for me, and they could be used to collect information on some relevant topic. I also finally found a use for phones - I could give one to my companion and call him, whenever I wanted to have a chat with him.

After getting enough money, I bought a ride in a spaceship. Needless to say, I had to do the driving.

I am sure I didn’t sign up for blogging on Simulator Addict

My first task was to get out of Shedishan, which was relatively easy, since this time I knew exactly the direction I should be taking. The only problem was I kept bumping on some invisible roof every time I flew too high. I guess this was the developer’s attempt to simulate the need for escape velocity, since going full speed solved that problem.

The final frontier

I had no idea where to fly, but the manual suggested I would be heading to the right direction. And in any case, that group of brownish dots was the only landmark, so I flew there. That proved to be the right choice, since it took me straight to Bedhin 6.

 It looks artificial

Seems like I brought my accomplice with me. Couldn’t he have driven?

I didn’t get very far before coming across a guard.

Here’s my official praetor pass

Perhaps I shouldn’t have taken Adelia’s card

Guard didn’t accept my identification and claimed it had been stolen. I guess I was too careless in my pickpocketing. The praetor sauna had a sign telling which praetors were currently on duty and which on vacation. I probably should have taken the card of someone who was not on duty, so that the robbery wouldn’t draw that much of attention.

Well, I was almost forced to do the space simulator sequence again. Fortunately, I got curious and tested something. Remember that escaping from a battle would result in my character “running” through few screens. I was interested what the guard would do if I tried to do that trick in the same screen as he was. I engaged in fight with a random person walking past the guard and instantly escaped. To my surprise, my character just ran past the guard. I guess this must have been a bug, but this time I was happy to find it.

In addition, I ran straight to the machine I was looking for

No!!!!! Not another simulator!

I was supposed to ride through tunnel system in Bedhin 6 with a fancy ship. Although you’d think tunnels would be easier to navigate than flying, I kept driving to some deadly dead ends.

For some reason they were red. Perhaps I drove headlong to a wall of cinnabar?

Then I made a startling discovery. While reading the manual, I noticed a really well hidden sentence that pushing S on my keyboard might be of use.

A map!

The manual really wasn’t forthcoming with this information, but I guess this thing would have been listed in the reference card the manual mentions. Still, it seems unfair that a game so heavily mouse-driven would suddenly use keyboard for a crucial action. With the map, it was easy to search the place. I found the deeds I was looking for in the upper rightmost corner of the tunnel system.

If you want to use difficult words like “praetor”, please check how to spell them

After getting back from the tunnels, I checked what other places of interest Bedhin 6 contained. The asteroid had surprisingly detailed rooms with nothing to do.

Like this. The screen just screams that I should be able to interact with the cups of red liquid, but no

With nothing else to do, I boarded my ship and went back toward Shedishan.

I could have used map view in space also.

That’s Shedishan in front of me. In my return trip I saw few spaceships flying past me

And to top it all, I could have used map view, while flying over Shedishan

What’s this then?

After I entered the spaceport in Roma II, I was captured by the local authorities. My boss, Sylvia, had been killed and I had been framed for her murder. I was sentenced to spend ten years as a technoglad, fighting other inmates for the pleasure of the crowd. My only hope was to beat enough adversaries and to get a pardon from the king of Shedishan.

Interesting plot twist, I’ll admit, but I’m afraid the fights mean another round of minigames…

Session time: 4 hours 30 minutes
Total time: 29 hours 45 minutes