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[humorguy]

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Fenril @ Jan 30 2007, 07:12 PM) [snapback]277180[/snapback]</div>

hehe did some decent playing by now. The game has some rough edges and looks unfinished in some areas, but overall its really a gem k:

Ill probably be the 1000th guy to say this but this game along with Sword of the Samurai is BEGGING for a remake, even if its a low budget shareware one.
[/b]

Glad you're having fun fenril! But i'd rather have a 'rough around the edges' Darklands then a fully filled-in shallow modern game that just takes you from one checkpoint to the next! Darklands is like a huge home-made fruit cake with just a little icing missing! What do you want, the cake or the icing! LOL!

[Borodin]

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(humorguy @ Jan 28 2007, 03:01 PM) [snapback]276876[/snapback]</div>

So early on, and for characters will little armour, I would say agility is important, but yes, Japofran, Armour later on will negate the need for agility as it will protect you much better, just as in real life. As you wear heavier, better protecting armour your agility is lessened. I would say agility is the 'need to avoid being hit in the first place' and armour is the 'need to survive the hit if you DO get hit'! [/b]

Not so. From the Darklands Clue Book:

"Agility is a less-useful attribute. It is important in climbing and sneaking, and decreases your vulnerability to missiles. However, too much weight in weapons and armor can quickly ruin any hard-won agility advantages."

So it only has 3 uses: 1) climbing (those robber barons with their tall towers); 2) sneaking; and 3) avoiding missiles. That's it. The Clue Book rates it as second least useful, right above Perception, and below all the others.

[humorguy]

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Borodin @ Feb 1 2007, 02:31 PM) [snapback]277512[/snapback]</div>

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(humorguy @ Jan 28 2007, 03:01 PM) [snapback]276876[/snapback]

So early on, and for characters will little armour, I would say agility is important, but yes, Japofran, Armour later on will negate the need for agility as it will protect you much better, just as in real life. As you wear heavier, better protecting armour your agility is lessened. I would say agility is the 'need to avoid being hit in the first place' and armour is the 'need to survive the hit if you DO get hit'! [/b]

Not so. From the Darklands Clue Book:

"Agility is a less-useful attribute. It is important in climbing and sneaking, and decreases your vulnerability to missiles. However, too much weight in weapons and armor can quickly ruin any hard-won agility advantages."

So it only has 3 uses: 1) climbing (those robber barons with their tall towers); 2) sneaking; and 3) avoiding missiles. That's it. The Clue Book rates it as second least useful, right above Perception, and below all the others.
[/b][/quote]


How far out was I, for goodness sake! I say 'avoiding being hit' - and you say 'avoiding missiles', I say 'negated by heavy armour' and you say 'too much weight in weapons and armour can quickly ruin any hard-won agility advantages'!

Granted I didn't talk about the sneaking and climbing (although agility and these skills are fairly obvious!), but I don't think 'not so' was a valid statement from you!

As I now have the clue book too, I can be all superior as well, but I will choose to have more empathy! LOL!

[Japo]

I always used the climbing+arsoning tactic against robber barons, and I didn't experience much difficulty wearing full plate. Good to know that you can further increase your chances by taking off your armour, though.

PS Come on I don't think anybody's acting superior, just stating his point in a smiley-free writing style.

Another important thing in combat is not to forget your alchemical potions. When you're just starting, a nice big batch of Eyeburn is almost a necessity. Later on, or right at the start if you know the recipes, get yourself a huge amount of Sunburst and Stone-Tar potions. If you have one alchemist with a good throwing arm and a couple archers, you can often kill enemies before they get anywhere near you. Of course, it's expensive for the alchemical components, but there has to be some kind of balance, doesn't there?

For fighting raubritters, I've used all different tactics. If you just want to defeat the raubritter, try taunting (and make sure your best speaker is your leader when you're doing so); the raubritter's troops will come out in nice, easy-to-manage groups until the raubritter himself emerges. Especially if you have a good amount of Stone-Tar and Sunburst potions, you can often defeat the raubritters troops without ever taking any damage. If you want to try to make as much money as possible, sneak in and then kill everyone you can. You'll get a lot of arms and armor that you can resell later on.

And just to make sure it's clear: the game does have an overall plot. If you start fighting satanists, you will start having dreams about the evil people intent on taking over the world. Eventually, you need to travel all the way to the north, off the map, and then all the way to the south to defeat the Knights Templar and Bahomet himself. The final battles are very tricky -- try them only with vast arrays of Essence of Grace, because you'll be fighting for a very long time and you'll be unable to create any more potions. The animation when you finish the game is nothing special compared to what we see these days, but I remember when I saw it the first time. Wow. Really cool stuff.

With the group that I finished the game with the first time, I think I eventually killed something like 20 dragons, had hundreds of florins and was a hero everywhere. Ah, good times... I'll have to play it again sometime.

By the way, when I run it in DOSbox, the game frequently crashes out on me when I'm fighting large groups of satanists. Since dealing with covens is a necessary part of finishing the main quest, this is a big problem. Has anyone else had better luck?

[humorguy]

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Jiawen @ Feb 4 2007, 01:19 AM) [snapback]277883[/snapback]</div>

Another important thing in combat is not to forget your alchemical potions. When you're just starting, a nice big batch of Eyeburn is almost a necessity. Later on, or right at the start if you know the recipes, get yourself a huge amount of Sunburst and Stone-Tar potions. If you have one alchemist with a good throwing arm and a couple archers, you can often kill enemies before they get anywhere near you. Of course, it's expensive for the alchemical components, but there has to be some kind of balance, doesn't there?

For fighting raubritters, I've used all different tactics. If you just want to defeat the raubritter, try taunting (and make sure your best speaker is your leader when you're doing so); the raubritter's troops will come out in nice, easy-to-manage groups until the raubritter himself emerges. Especially if you have a good amount of Stone-Tar and Sunburst potions, you can often defeat the raubritters troops without ever taking any damage. If you want to try to make as much money as possible, sneak in and then kill everyone you can. You'll get a lot of arms and armor that you can resell later on.

And just to make sure it's clear: the game does have an overall plot. If you start fighting satanists, you will start having dreams about the evil people intent on taking over the world. Eventually, you need to travel all the way to the north, off the map, and then all the way to the south to defeat the Knights Templar and Bahomet himself. The final battles are very tricky -- try them only with vast arrays of Essence of Grace, because you'll be fighting for a very long time and you'll be unable to create any more potions. The animation when you finish the game is nothing special compared to what we see these days, but I remember when I saw it the first time. Wow. Really cool stuff.

With the group that I finished the game with the first time, I think I eventually killed something like 20 dragons, had hundreds of florins and was a hero everywhere. Ah, good times... I'll have to play it again sometime.

By the way, when I run it in DOSbox, the game frequently crashes out on me when I'm fighting large groups of satanists. Since dealing with covens is a necessary part of finishing the main quest, this is a big problem. Has anyone else had better luck?
[/b]

Firstly, you need to register my friend! We need you here!

If you have got the original, is it all patched up? If you do have the original, then download the abandoned version as it is all patched up fully (well HOTU says so, at least!) Thanks for all the tips and hope to see you back here as a registered member!

[humorguy]

I am pleased to announce that cleaned up pdf versions of the Darklands Install Guide, the Manual, the Map and the Cluebook are now available for download from:

http://www.replacementdocs.com/search.php?...=0&s=Search

To give an example, my underdogs manual was 4,100kb, the replacementdocs one is 2,500kb, it also looks more sharper and 'cleaner'. Of course the main thing is the availability of the cluebook, which will make us all egotistic know-it-alls now! LOL

I heard so much hype about this being one of the best RPGs ever made. I searched and searched but I could never find it for download anywhere until I found this site.

I've got to say, it lives up to its reputation. This game is one of my all time favorite RPGs now.. right up there with Ultima VII pt. 1/2, Betrayal at Krondor, Fallout 2, Baldur's Gate II, etc.

I've never played anything like it. It reminds me slightly of Daggerfall because of its open ended gameplay and sheer massiveness. Although it's definitely a superior game.. not marred by the horrible monotony. I love the setting too. Really a unique game. Totally worth the effort to get it to work! I've played three games through with three different parties in the past couple weeks.

PS. Three things you need to master this game
***SPOILER!!!***





1) A copy of Avicenna's Essence o' Grace recipe;

2) As many equal portions of Gum, Camomile, Zincblende, Phlegmatic Base and Sanguine Base as you can afford (all of which can be acquired at the Hamburg pharmacist's stalls, unless it changes from game to game - but they're common regeants anyways and you only need one of each for a potion);

3) Head to an inn and brew away.. the regeants cost much less to acquire than the potion sells for. This is one of the most profitable potions to brew and its so easy to get a hold of the ingredients. Instant Florens!

But don't do it! Cause it's cheap :P!

[Talkie]

I started playing this for the first time in my life.




The beginning is really hard. Imagine: the first couple weeks I didn't realise that items looted could be resold. So I just took items that could serve my group. Duh?

People say this game is great but let's be critical. They are many downsides.

The painted images are fabulous but too repetitive. All villages look exactly the same.
I wonder why not make the group able to walk while in village, just like in combat mode, and
THEN when you arrive at a door, you see the painted image. I realise there are way too many cities
to make them unique, but just a certain random layout with cloned architecture could have done.


Then there is the list of "stupid things about darklands" on the FAQ


I do not agree that there is no plot in this game, or that no-plot games are more interesting.
Most games need a plot to be good. This game's plot is "trying to be famous", and there are many
subplots to reach that goal. So what some people here seems to appreciate are multi-plot games, games
that offer different paths to get towards the main plot. That is different from being a non-plot or
anti-plot game. Multi-plot games do exist these days but are rarely made for one single home-playing.
I like a good home-playing game once in a while, I hope not everything will turn online, so if Darklands
was re-made (a total possibility if the owners are up to let young artists recreate it), I'd like that it
remains a home version (with a possible on-line addition). Why I think a remake is possible is I think
people will crave for historically-binded games in the future. Be there where things happened.
The options are endless and it's as fun as it is educational.


I have technical questions about Darklands:

When in combat mode, if the group kept constantly fleeing, how far can they move on the 3d map?
How is that map calculated? Do you get the same map for every cities and woods? Do they connect?
Is it an alleatory map? What is the superficy of maps? I can never explore the maps when in city combats.
It only ever happens in castles. (basically, if someone read and understand the code, maybe they have an idea how it works)

Fame: what is the total amount of fame one can get? when does it start to count, say when you have respected reputation in a few cities? (is it better to do max reputation in one city, or try get respected in many cities?) Does reputation in cities die out when you leave for a long time?

Are hamlets geo-historically-tied or alleatory? I think one guy in an hamlet told me the name of the hamlet.
How many hamlets are they? (about 2 per city? 1 per city? less ?)

If cities and their churches, universities, etc, all stay the same from game to game, what parts are changing from a game to the other (apart from characters)? Are the quests, hamlets, monasteries being set in an alleatory manner?

Do reselling prices of loot alter from city to city? Say, a club is 1pf, will it remains 1pf forever?
(sounds like they are similar item less worth than other depending which loot it was from)


Addendum (edit):

Other questions:

About time: How old can people grow? What happens after you reach 1499? Does he game end? Do you go back to 1400?

Also, when you have gone all through a mine that you can't defeat, and must come out of it, do the enemies that were killed remain killed when you return, or do you have to start allover again? (I know the "light path" must be redrawn back)?



I might have other questions later on, but that is enough for now.


Cheers,

Talkie


Ho, errr, by the way....Did anyone else ever noticed that on any downloadable Darklands manuals
from the Net, the page 27 is always missing? (no, it wasn't just a drawing). Looks like the one
same bad source got transferred everywhere.




-------------------------------------------------------------


Edit 2:

Have found some of the aswers on my own since yesterday.

I realized while playing that you can go at the edge of any field, and press shift when you see an arrow, and stroll along the edges of the "battlefield", which of course you can also exit. (I guess I had read the manual too fast). I still don't know how these battlefields are set up, they seem to be very similar from places to places. My guess is that there is a certain amount of battlefield maps, which are selected in random fashion. The castles or mine maps could be set randomly at the starting of the game, but they seem to remain the same when you come back. Only someone who played many times could tell.

Also, there is a list of all places on the Darkland FAQ which I had mistaken for a list of cities. When you take out
92 cities, there are about 251 names left (roughly, I'm not recounting). Since I have been to an hamlet named
Limbergh and a monastery named Traffur, I assume this list comprehend about half hamlets, half monasteries? I've only been to castles yet named by whoever inhabit them.