Hexen - Kill Korax early in the fight...

[J-selva]

I was just wondering if anyone else knows about this, I couldn't find topics/posts about it here...

If you pummel Cleric's flechettes on Korax from the start, you can kill him off within seconds. This happens also in the N64 version, I believe. But in the PC version, the doors behind him don't open and thus, from what I recall, you cannot beat the level fairly.

I'm wondering if anyone else came across this (using the original Hexen exe, BTW). If so, was this glitch ever addressed officially?

[Vermil]

You can also stop him from teleporting away with a constant stream of Wraithverge ghost's, provided you have the ammo for it.

[Gez]

J-selva said:

was this glitch ever addressed officially?

No.

[printz]

I guess you could balance it in vanilla Hexen by making a God of Hammering crash down most of the flechettes if the Cleric is in the house (level).

[Gez]

printz said:

I guess you could balance it in vanilla Hexen by making a God of Hammering crash down most of the flechettes if the Cleric is in the house (level).

There are Gods of Hammering that crash down flechettes in vanilla Hexen? I learn new stuff every day.

[Quasar]

Actually there are several things that should have been done here:

• Raven should not have assumed Korax couldn't be killed before starting his second phase. His death codepointer ought to run a script that makes sure the exit becomes *fully* accessible, and does not assume that the second phase script already ran. This could probably be fixed by providing a modified ACS script for the map.
  
• Korax's HP should have been rebalanced for different classes. The Cleric is ridiculously overpowered with respect to his abilities.
  
• Korax's HP should have been at *least* quadrupled in multiplayer. I hear the disappointing end to many a Hexen coop journey was getting locked in that room after all the clerics unleashed their ghosts at once.
  

[Ichor]

• Korax's pain chance should have been so low that even if he took all that damage, he still would be able to run the script when his health goes below half.
  
• Maybe Korax could have used a reflective shield much like the Heresiarch, or used a disc of repulsion type effect to throw those projectiles back at the player.
  
• The cleric's flechettes would have been better if they didn't cause pain on the bosses, and they certainly should not be affecting invulnerable monsters like the Heresiarch (the centaurs are a different story).
  

[Creaphis]

I only played through Hexen once, with the fighter. Even that was too easy. Korax is just a pushover.

As I recall, I fought Korax a few times in a row, trying hard to believe that this was actually an end-game boss fight.

[Vermil]

Another thing to consider is the considerable ammount of pickups in Korax's arenas; theres 6 Kraters of Might, 7 Quaryz Flasks, 2 Mystic Urn's and depending on the skill 8, 16 or 24 Crystal Vials and 10, 16 or 18 Combined Mana.

This allows most players to just whip out their 4th weapon, all of which are arguably overpowered, and use it with reckless abandon.

[printz]

I don't recall whether Korax is spawnable in vanilla Hexen. I think not. Otherwise one could have tweaked the script to make Korax spawn himself, if killed too early.

Even so, one could just pull a diabolus ex machina on the players, nuking 'em all, as a righteous penalty for being too fast.

[Gez]

He has no spawn number, if that's what you're asking. But nothing would have prevented Raven from giving him one; they've used only 108 out of 255 values.

[Udderdude]

Korax is definitely a dissapointment. Since Hexen was developed so quickly (In about 9 months, I recall), they clearly did not put enough time into balancing the classes and bosses, especially the Heresiarch and Korax.

[John Smith]

Quasar said:

Actually there are several things that should have been done here:

• Korax's HP should have been at *least* quadrupled in multiplayer. I hear the disappointing end to many a Hexen coop journey was getting locked in that room after all the clerics unleashed their ghosts at once.
  

Yeah I remember this ending a couple co-op sessions. Even with one of each class it can take mere seconds to kill Korax

[goaxis]

korax was eeeasy