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[Japo]

I finished it at last. I had played a long game long ago but I didn't finish it. This game is so great, not only as a videogame, the setting and plot are the best I've seen in pen-and-paper roleplaying or wherever.

Some advice (NO spoilers whatsoever):
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I hear a lot about people, even people who write walkthroughs, whose characters are either strong and dumb, or weak and know alchemy or religion. Come on, this is not D&D, let go silly cliches, nobody forbids your wise characters from being strong in medieval Germany. All my characters were able to carry full plate armour, and believe me one ironclad warrior is way way more valuable than all the combat potions which you could waste time in creating. Yes I did make one character as a perceptive leader (with high artifice skill), another as a B.A. Barracus (with high healing skill), another as a religious man, and another as an alchemist. But all of them had strenght and endurance above 30, up to 41.

Same goes for saints. All your characters can pray, at least to saints below their virtue (and your characters' virtue will increase greatly over time), the only benefit of religious training is regaining divine favour faster. So yes you can start with a specialized religious man, but when you have the opportunity to study saints that other characters are virtuous enough to pray to, let the others learn them, so you're using four times as much divine favour instead of relying on one single character's. Some saints are so useful that it's very good that more than one character knows about them, it can pay paying four times for a saint.

On the contrary, there's no point in having more than one alchemist. But remember that skills increase greatly over time, and you'll soon have loads of cash you don't know what to do with, so you could as well use them to train your skills. What I'm trying to say is that it's not important at all to start with high skills (that would mean old age and low attributes), for alchemy the minimum you need to be able to find alchemists in cities is around 20 I think. Until you're rich enough to study there are saints that increase wildly the alchemy skill.

Attributes that are important: endurance and strength for ALL the characters; perception for the leader if you wish --but not very important since you'll activate some of the traps even with very high perception and artifice; intelligence for the alchemist, very important, but for no one else; and charisma for the leader.

Skills that are important when creating characters: alchemy for one of your characters (it's enough with 20 as I said, you can increase it later); religion and virtue, at least for one of your characters; speak Common, for the leader AND for the alchemist if you want to exchange formulas with alchemists for free in cities (yes you want); speak Latin and read/write for asking at monasteries and universities (very important to get knowledge of saints); healing for one of your characters; artifice for one, preferably the perceptive leader who will be marching first in dungeons (don't forget to get him a lockpick); streetwise for one; and woodwise for one.

The most important thing in combat, way more important than weapon skills, is armour. With plate armour you're pretty much invulnerable to almost all enemies, without armour you'll have yourself minced in no time no matter your skill. By the way agility is totally worthless, it protects you somewhat only from missiles, armour gives much better protection against all attacks including missiles (well agility is good for climbing --but there are saints for that-- and for stealing dwarves' hats). If you finish the game you'll see how true this is, both ways: the fiercest demon is way less dangerous than a human enemy in full plate.

At the beginning it's difficult because your characters won't have armour, but I made it till the end without ever buying none (I'd have bought at the beginning of the game when I didn't have any armour, but then I didn't have any money to buy with, duh). Don't take on enemies with armour way better than yours until you've looted some from weaker enemies. Armour quality is only a measure of how much damage it can take from fire and alchemy before it disintegrates, a 01q suit protects just the same as a 47q one, as long as it lasts. So better than buying expensive armour just accumulate plate suits, and maybe chainmail greaves and gauntlets because plate ones are so rare, and there's not much difference at least for the limbs. For some reason in Darklands the weight of items you're not wearing doesn't count, so you can carry as many as you've found in your lifetime; when one of your pieces of armour get destroyed by fire or alchemy, just wear another one.

As for weapons I haven't found any difference either about quality, it doesn't change combat. I guess it's like armour, only that weapons get damaged only when trying to break a dwarven chest open. I haven't found any difference in hitting or damage between a 25q and a 47q great hammer. So don't bother with above-average weapons unless you find them for free. I think it's more important having the most badass weapons: two-handed sword for characters with skill in edged weapons, halberd for polearms, great hammer for impact, etc; if you have a 47q longsword, sell it and use a 25q two-handed sword. I use two-handed weapons and so don't bother with shields, besides I haven't found them useful at all considering their weight.

A great idea is using thrown weapons. I discarded bows and guns (even though I found or was given so many 47q brass handguns) because of their excessive weight (which is much better invested in carrying armour), and also rate of fire. Javelins are nice but thrown axes deal more damage and weight even less (just 1 lb, compare that with a handgun or a bow). You'll never need more than 5 for each character, you recover thrown weapons after each combat. Thrown weapons are great for taking out one or more thugs in light armour before they reach you, that can mean a lot negating them the numerical advantage or even gaining it for your side, and combat in this game is about not letting the enemies swarm you and about swarming them in turn. And don't worry you don't have to give the characters training in thrown weapons when creating them, they'll train the skill from nothing to a high level in no time on their own, just equip them.


Regarding what to do, it's hard to figure it out the first time you play, this game may intimidate people because you can go anywhere and do anything unlike those silly D&D clichequest games. The first thing you should worry about is getting decent armour; some of the characters might have some depending on their last profession during character creation. Start by taking on the thieves in the city you are at night, you'll get shoddy armour, other loot to sell, and training of course. Once you've got at least basic armour you can go out and quest or whatever, and be sure to loot every single thing (what you're not wearing doesn't count towards encumbrance), but until you get heavy armour be prepared to spend a long time healing after each little combat.

Once the lightest armour your characters wear be scale for vitals plus cuirbouilli or studded leather for limbs, you can try and take on raubritters, at least if you know some saint with healing powers or brew some healing potions. The approach I use is besieging them, that will yield lots of loot, and when the raubritter finally confronts you in person you can concentrate on swarming him since the siege will have left him nearly without men, and the final, difficult combat won't be so hard, compared to when you fight the raubritter at the beginning and he brings half a dozen of thugs along. (Still, in any combat use thrown weapons against the thugs as they approach, sometimes you can take all of them out if they start far enough away.)

One nice thing to do when you're about to take on a raubritter, is visiting as much nearby cities as you wish and asking for quests to the Fuggers, Medicis and Hansards: you'll be promised more rewards by different people, and once you defeat the raubritter you can collect all of them! Other kind of quests are only good if they don't take you far from your route, which is very rare, so you may as well forget completely about them, they're not worth it.

The raubritters will be your reliable source of heavy armour. Once all your characters have full plate or plate for vitals and chainmail for limbs (good enough), you're ready for whatever lies ahead. You can quest in mines following rumours, you'll get loads of expensive alchemical ingredients, or you can even hunt for dragons. And of course the point of the game is to vanquish the worshippers of Satan, so stay tuned for strange signs in villages. As the challenges grow, be sure to know a lot of saints, and to brew loads of healing potions (always look for Avicena's recipe since it's the most powerful one).

[Borodin]

As for weapons I haven't found any difference either about quality, it doesn't change combat.

It does. Lower quality weapons don't give you the full value of damage.

I guess it's like armour, only that weapons get damaged only when trying to break a dwarven chest open.

Or when a particular alchemical potion is lobbed at the person holding the weapon. There are some potions that will damage both weapons and armor.

All my characters were able to carry full plate armour, and believe me one ironclad warrior is way way more valuable than all the combat potions which you could waste time in creating.

Potions can also boost the sharpness of weapons and the strength of armor. They can slow down enemies. They can weaken the armor and weapons of enemies, or daze enemies. Given the choice of a dirty big knight in full plate armor or a raft of combat potions, I'll take both.

Attributes that are important: endurance and strength for ALL the characters;

Absolutely. These are the two essentials. I've allowed two of my party, my cleric and alchemist, to begin fading strength and endurance a bit from age in exchange for the bonuses to skills they receive, but they're still quite powerful. The more you can push these, the better your party will be.

With plate armour you're pretty much invulnerable to almost all enemies,

All that's required is 1) an alchemy potion thrown at you to weaken your armor, or 2) a weapon that can penetrate full plate (there are several), or 3) several people pounding on your at once (because that multiples the chances to hit and for damage). I've used the Hanse's full plate-wearing knight offered for various quests several times, and despite his armor he almost always gets beaten up severely in battle.

Armour quality is only a measure of how much damage it can take from fire and alchemy before it disintegrates, a 01q suit protects just the same as a 47q one, as long as it lasts.

I've got the hint guide, a very nice and lengthy one. It points out that armor of lower quality actually offers lower protection than its supposed rating. It does not state what exact rating would be considered appropriate protection for each armor type, however.

Once the lightest armour your characters wear be scale for vitals plus cuirbouilli or studded leather for limbs, you can try and take on raubritters, at least if you know some saint with healing powers or brew some healing potions.

If I get a raubritter quest, I check the other merchants in that town and other nearby towns within range of that raubritter. There's a good chance that at least one other merchant wants the jumped up murderer destroyed, and is willing to pay handsomely for it. I actually hit the jackpot once, and found 5 merchants/banking houses that would pay to take out a single raubritter...! But 2 or 3 is more usual.

[Forfeit]

Ive noticed that the ones that pay the most are the merchants, up to 25 or 30 florins for a bandit. The banking houses pay 10-15, while the lords pay about 10 florins. I only managed to get 4 employers at the same time for the same quest, but I got about 60 florins out of it.

Anyway, damn, the Great Monastery is hard. I already faced two dragons and they were very easy compared to full armored soldiers in the monastery. It took me almost all my ressources to kill 4 full plated soldiers only to find out there were about 7 more in the next room (which totaly kicked my behind). Looks like the main quest is very hard (and I thought I was already owning the entire game).

[humorguy]

Japofran and Borodin - what excellent postings!!! This truly is a great game and obviously attracts great gamers with great insights into their games - thanks a a bunch guys!!!

- And Demeanor - you said it!!!

Hello all-

I recently downloaded the game from classic pc games. The file is roughly 12.2 mb. I also downloaded DOSBox. I am unfamiliar with this program. I try to install the game using the file name 'INSTALL' that came in the game zip. However, it asks me for the disk. Is there a way to get around this? Also, if anyone has some instrux on what to do next, i would be very appreciative!

Thanks,
Mark

[Japo]

You don't need to "install" the game, other than configuring the sound if it's not right. Just drag (or copy-paste) DARKLAND.EXE over DOSBOX.EXE and presto.

[The Fifth Horseman]

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Guest_Mark_* @ Nov 18 2007, 07:35 PM) [snapback]319513[/snapback]</div>

Hello all-

I recently downloaded the game from classic pc games. The file is roughly 12.2 mb. I also downloaded DOSBox. I am unfamiliar with this program. I try to install the game using the file name 'INSTALL' that came in the game zip. However, it asks me for the disk. Is there a way to get around this? Also, if anyone has some instrux on what to do next, i would be very appreciative!

Thanks,
Mark
[/b]

Check the Beginner's Guide: http://www.abandonia.com/forum/index...howtopic=14913

[Forfeit]

Does anyone know where I can find Naphta? I´ve traveled all around germany and I havent found anyone selling it.

Is it a bug? Or hardcoded? I cant create many potions because of it.

[Japo]

It's just rare. Even if I remembered where was it for sale in my game it would be no good, because it changes every game I think. Don't forget to try both at the pharmacist's and at the foreign trader's.

[Slevin]

I love RPG games, and this one looks great. But when i run darkland.exe an memory error is displayed. How do i free more memory?

Win 98, no need of DOSbox...