That was the weird thing. I couldn't even bind them there. :P
I'll probably try again in a while though.

That is indeed pretty weird. Then again, Shogo is a game that's essentially held together with string and sticky tape, so it's not surprising when it fails to work properly.

I played Alone In The Dark 1 last night. Save-scumming was very necessary. I got killed pretty much every time I walked into a room. Excellent game though, and it seems there are a lot of ways to avoid fighting, but still, save-scumming is necessary.

I have recently started an unarmed/weaponless playthrough of Ultima Underworld 1 (I stream it on GOGcom's twitch channel every Sunday and upload it to my youtube channel in case somebody is interested) and I savescum a bit when levelling up.

The reason for that is that I want to make sure I'll be able to finish the unarmed playthrough and when you level up in Ultima Underworld 1 (by meditating at shrines over mantras related to skills) you get a random amount of skill points (between 1 and 4 I believe) and if you use mantras that affect random skills things get even more complicated.
While I don't aim for 4 points every time, I try to get at least 2 or 3. :-)

I also save scummed a little bit at a certain jumping puzzle in level 1 so that I don't have to backtrack and try again all that much which would have been boring. But I actually got through it quite well and only loaded 3 times or so, I think.

I'm not ashamed to admit that I've been playing Darksiders 2 lately and using "save-scumming" to check chests in hopes of better items.

Edit: grammar

You would benefit from savescumming in some strategy RPG's, at least old ones (or newer games on their hardest difficulties) to such an extent that it is arguably mandatory. If the randomness factor is strong enough, like it seems to be in Fire Emblem and Disciples, the game can play fair and still come across as unbelievably bullshitty.

If I don't like a certain a part that I believe will be made easier by save-scumming I do it. Otherwise I try to hit a balance between saving as much that I don't feel like I waste time by replaying an unecessary part but not so much that it becomes a hinder to my enjoyment or progress.

Battle for Wesnoth...
I simply can't let a unit die that accompanied my journey for a long time. Also how am I supposed to face the challenges that lie ahead if my army isn't perfect. I'll need every last bit of power otherwise I might get stuck.

I love games that are punishing and I hate games that don't comply to "Fail-fast".

It's all about perfectionism, I tend to not accept a subpar start in games like Civ5, MoO2... I often try to force myself to not restart a bajillion times but it almost never works.

You had to have a certain number of points invested in certain skills. (to br expert, master and grandmaster you needed 4, 8 and 12 skillpoints). Those were the restrictions.

ah, the game-breaking bugs made me uninstall it. i was already in hongkong with my hardcore difficulty run, but a savegame got corrupted , which meant 4 hours of lost progress. fuck that. hopefully systemshock 1/2 will be less buggy.

A couple of things to do if you want to kill the damn dragon without using cheats: deal with maverick (?!), grab all the wands from the island, all your characters need to know the bow skill, use the two sites that are boosting your fire resistance (is at 100 percent with potions and fire resistance cast, but you need to pay attention to when it will wear off), use real time combat and movement and not the usual TB battle. Time to finish the dragon: half hour when you master the technique, around one hour in the first tries.

You have all the needed tools on the island. You farm fireflies until you reach level 5-6, level the bow skill as much as you are allowed for that class (expert can be achieved for almost all characters), put some skills in armor and dodge, too (character creation). In the cave you need to kill the rats first, than deal with the dragon. With the rats out of the way, you move to the dragon, use the cover (there is a minimal cover) when needed. Yes, the devs did not expect us to find an actual way to kill the damn thing, but we did anyway. Because...challenge us like that and we will find a way to overcome it.

There are plenty of strategy guides that are explaining how to kill the dragon without cheating. If you are truly masochist, you can kill it using only the bows. It will take at least double as a time, but hey, bragging rights.

Still it is exploit as it denies monster any kind of attack opportunity. Though I mist admit I am guilty of using it sometimes. That Power Lich in Corlagon's Estate, or Q? Deny them any attack opportunity by making them stuck shooting in the wall near door and you easily win. This kind of exploit however best to be done in TB mode or monster will start strafing into better shooting position -.-

Edit; Btw those dragonflies eventually stop spawning. I think it is triggered by having 10000 experience on average or something like that.

Fallout : Tactics [classic !] is a great game in that regard.
You have the standard solo campaign, where you learn how to play and can reload as you wish if some of your favorite squad members die horribly.
And then you have the 'tough guy' mode, which doesn't allow saves during missions (only in base between them). But it's not just some ungrateful 'iron man' mode with saves disabled : while not changing the difficulty, it rewards a little more %xp throughout the game so that it gives better tools to defuse 'situations' with only one try. So you can (and will) finish missions with squad members invariably KIA, if your leader does so you have to reload a game.

In the end, this mode is really another experience of the game more than a generic 'harder' mode.

Edit : Did I forget to say it's one of my favorite games ?

You needed skill points (and maybe stats) at a certain level to learn the higher levels of mastery (if allowed for your class), but the requirement for equipping an item was knowing the skill for that item (if applicable; for example, rings didn't have a skill requirement). If you had a piece of plate armor, whether an artifact or not), the only thing that mattered as far as equipping it was whether you had the Plate skill learned. You could be at normal, expert, master, or grand master, as long as you had the skill. If you don't have the Leather skill, you can't wear Leather armor at all, regardless of whether you know Dodging, Chain, and/or Plate.

If you call "run in circles while intermittently shooting arrows at the dragon" an exploit, then this statement is correct. I, personally, don't consider that an exploit. I think multi-looting the dragon's corpse IS an exploit, however.

...Acquire the bow skill on at least one person, then go circle it and shoot it to death. Helps a lot to have a bow on everyone and use the pedestals/wells that are available (except Haste, because it will wear off and leave your characters Weak), but you only need 1 bow to manage it. I never used the fireball wand on the dragon because it always seemed like a waste of charges (Red Dragons have very high resistance to Fire).

Trying to stay in cover is both unnecessary and (in my mind) needlessly dangerous. Don't be standing still when the dragon stops to shoot. Unload an arrow volley, then move when he pauses. Don't get hung up on walls and don't get too close while circling him, and you'll be fine.

Hunh. I've never stayed long enough to see them completely stop spawning. I know they spawn once per day for 5 days (roughly), then they don't spawn on the next day, but sleep/wait for another full day (or two) and they'll be back again for another cycle. I usually alternate killing them and sleeping while waiting however-many-months for the Luck well to recharge.