Darklands

[Tom Henrik]

Feel free to comment and discuss this game here. Also, if you have any useful tips or tricks don't hesitate to share them with the others! Thanks!

Review and Download (if available) (http://www.abandonia.com/en/games/194)

[Azradul]

This game is one of my all time favorites, I would have given it a 5, but I can see the logic behind the 4 rating. I just happen to be a huge fan of freeform RPG's, it's a pity they don't seem to make any anymore.

[marko river]

This truley is one of the greatest RPG ever. Offcourse there are no fancy graphics but everything else is here. As for the quests, well what kind of quests do you espect expect take that/kill him? Maybe to conquer the town or sabotage the construction of nuclear device? Besides, point is that you wander around the country and se what happens. And things do happen. You can raise your reputation in different cities, search for satanic villages, destroy black masses and gatherings and such. There are mines, caves, monasteries, towers, othe spots, you can stumble upon cotagge, nice tree, bands, knights, merchants, save somebody, fight demons etc etc etc etc etc etc
Beside fighting agains creatures of hell everything else is like in real life. You can work, attack (you can gain negative reputation as well) or steal, buy and seal, train and study, and everything is without limit. Offcourse sooner or later you'll find out as much as about everythings and will get bored, but tell me, what game actually kept you FOR YEARS ALL THE TIME????? (except Elite :D :bleh: B) )
Offcourse, you get enough, then after some time you want some more and so on.
So please, this game definitly deserves 5 because of what it provides. Noone said that everybody will like it.
I cann't believe that I didn't wrote nothing about this game till now. I really enjoyed playing it.
Small tip: Strength can be increased. Just spend very very much time wandering through the countryside. You will sooner or later stumble upon the "woodman" (or treemen), sometimes they attack, but sometimes Hellhounds chase a poor one. Save position and try to hide him/it for the chase. If you succeed he will offer you a strange fruit. It gives you 4 strength. If you fail to hide him/it you can fight Hellhounds but they kick ass.
So long :)

[Kon-Tiki]

And it's one hell to crack, too. When I first played it, I kept getting killed, so I brought out my trusty old Hex Editor and tried to boost some money, HP and strength, as those seemed to be the important ones to start out with. Took me twice as long as usual. After that, that game got me hooked for weeks, until the events started to repeat themselves a bit too much. Great game, all by all. Complete freedom in the gameworld. Which game can claim that as well?

[Gambit]

I think this is a cool game :ok:
I had lots of fun with it in the past.

But as I tried it again, I noticed that there's a copyright protection :ranting: . You'll be asked at random time to quote a part of the manual. Sorry for my bad english, but I think you all know what I mean. Is there somebody who has also got (a scan of) the manual or even a patch?

And I have a question which doesn't belong here :ot: , but I'll post anyway. About DosBox: Is there a way to get it configured to run smoothly on Win XP? I have always the stuttering, which slows down gameplay to a very boring, yet enervating pace. I think I better look in the right forum, but I'd be happy to get a quick answer at first, like yes or no...

Enjoy! :Titan:

[DBear]

over at this site (http://www.the-underdogs.org) you can download the manual. :bye:

[Camarada]

One of the best games ever made!

Easily the best RPG in this site...

The characters can work, they get old, you can do what you want, go to where you want, be what you want.

Besides it, the game have a great tactical combat - similar to Baldurs Gate.

It deserves a 5... or a 6.

[Borodin]

Originally posted by Guest@Dec 29 2004, 05:40 AM
[COLOR=blue][SIZE=7][FONT=Times] The Darklands web page for patches add ons and all the crap you need to play the game ---------> http://www.darklands.net/
[COLOR=blue][SIZE=7][FONT=Times] The Darklands web page for patches add ons and all the crap you need to play the game ---------> http://www.darklands.net/

I suspect the version up here is the final: version 7.0, I think. Frankly, 1.0 was unplayable. I didn't review it until something like 4.0, and even then, I had to call into Microprose tech support.

I do suggest amending the review regarding saved games: you can save anywhere, and there's no problem with old data. The only place you can't save is during combat. But really, it's not much of a review. This game had so many innovative features for its time:

1) A thoroughly researched basis in actual folklore and pseudo-science of the early Renaissance in Northern Europe.

2) Realtime with pause combat, that allows you to issue a host of commands to your characters.

3) A full alchemy system, that cleverly substitutes for magic.

4) A full prayer system, that substituted for clerical spells.

5) A clever combat system that took into account wear-and-tear, back attacks, and group attacks.

6) Strongly randomizing elements to the world that renewed gameplay, while keeping the same basic linear plot which appears part-way through.

7) An attractive soundtrack based on early Renaissance music of France, Italy, and the Law Countries (by the guy who now runs GOD games--we both like Guillaume de Machaut).

8) Go anywhere, do anything kinda play, but strong game balance.

9) Innovative character development based on choosing training paths as characters age. I've seen nothing as good, since.

This is one game that has almost never been off my computer. And it's there, now.

[MasterGrazzt]

What's sad is that MicroProse were originally planning to make this a series, with sequels in Britain, France, Russia and the like. Oh well.

I do think this is one game that requires a new commerical revision, with no changes except maybe graphic enhancement (I don't know about you but I think the drawn graphics are lush and help give this game life, though) just to get it's name and the ideas into the minds of today's gamers. Also, an in-game record of your missions would've helped A LOT. You don't know how many reams of paper I've used writing down what I had to do.

Unfortunately, it doesn't tell you what to do with a big neon sign, which would turn off a lot of today's kids.

[Borodin]

Originally posted by MasterGrazzt@Jan 7 2005, 03:30 PM
What's sad is that MicroProse were originally planning to make this a series, with sequels in Britain, France, Russia and the like. Oh well.


Are you sure about this? The reason I ask is that Microprose's creator and first CEO, "Wild Bill" Stealey, was notorious for several things: very un-PC, undiplomatic behavior, and an unwililngness to followup blockbluster hits with successors. Even Microprose's best-selling title, Civilization, didn't get a successor for five years, until Stealey had left. I was also in touch with the original Project Director for Darklands several times after its release--Arnold Hendrick, a very nice guy--and he was quite bitter about the product. He said that Microprose had disposed of all his code, so that if they'd ever intended to do a followup it would have had to be done from scratch. -Not that this wouldn't have been a good idea in any case, given the lapse of time.

I do think this is one game that requires a new commerical revision, with no changes except maybe graphic enhancement (I don't know about you but I think the drawn graphics are lush and help give this game life, though) just to get it's name and the ideas into the minds of today's gamers. Also, an in-game record of your missions would've helped A LOT. You don't know how many reams of paper I've used writing down what I had to do.

Graphics would have to be the first thing to go. Personally, I'd like to see a greater variety of incident in the surrounding landscape, and more variety among the city services. Remember those useless Cloth Guild screens? They were intended to offer the possibility of high quality clothing for sale, which would boost your reception by nobility. It apparently didn't make the final cut. I'd like to see many different Guilds, and more variety among the quests.

Unfortunately, it doesn't tell you what to do with a big neon sign, which would turn off a lot of today's kids.

And it wouldn't provide swords that flare with electricity, or 120 varieties of unique monsters, all in AD&D books. Yep. :D

[MasterGrazzt]

I read that Microprose said that sequel bit to a gaming magazine. I wish I remembered which magazine and where I found the mention of it. Perhaps they were just supposed to be expansion packs.

And I'd like there to be new HAND DRAWN graphics.

[Kon-Tiki]

I'd say more quests too. It's mostly the mines with dwarves vs gnomes, a dragon or some demons occupying a cave. After a while, you know each one of them by heart. 'bout the list of saints... well, can indeed make your own. Maybe that'd be better, but it'd mean more time spent to research, making the development take longer, while all research's been done already. Then again... until you've got that game cracked open and retreived all lists from it... might take just as long. Might want to attract todays kids to it by making the graphs anime-ish (big style-break there) or gothic like modern mainstream gothic. Then again, it'd make the game into an abomination, killing part of the historical accuracy. I just say that it has to be made over, with graphics fit to the game itself, then get it known and played by todays kids through PR (which is how those FPS games that all look and play the same nowadays are so famous in the first place)

'bout the sequel to Darklands... that one's been mentioned on several places, and I remember reading 'bout it in a readme.txt from Microprose that came with Darklands.

[Borodin]

Originally posted by MasterGrazzt@Jan 7 2005, 04:53 PM
I read that Microprose said that sequel bit to a gaming magazine. I wish I remembered which magazine and where I found the mention of it. Perhaps they were just supposed to be expansion packs.

And I'd like there to be new HAND DRAWN graphics.

I wonder when Microprose mentioned a sequel, then? After its release, they had a corporate fit over all the patches it required. Nowadays, seven is above average but hardly worth much comment, but then, it was horrific. Even their PR person at the time dissed the game to me repeatedly. But then, by that time, Spectrum Holobyte had taken control of the operations, and their PR was not notably supportive of Microprose's style of business.

I agree, hand-drawn graphics would be the way to go. Otherwise, cities would all tend to look alike.

Might want to attract todays kids to it by making the graphs anime-ish (big style-break there) or gothic like modern mainstream gothic.

The problem with this is marketing. Either the game goes for the intelligent RPGer with the hook that it's genuinely based on Teutonic folk legends of the period, or the game goes for a young audience that's hooked on anime, and has zilch interest in the period and place. I don't see a compromise possible, because if the graphics are anime-style, the older crowd will avoid it in droves; while the action-oriented, linear RPGs of consoles prepare kids poorly for this kind of game.

It's a hardcore RPG, no doubt about that. I think you may have just hit on why nobody's picked up the title for a redo: few people with the money to do them believe these days in hardcore RPGs. Look at the dumbing down of BG2 in the KotoR series, for instance.

[Mr. Barman]

if anyone needs a list of the saints, what they do and virtue requirements, i've got a list of them here from the manual. the manual also has large sections on germany at the time, weapons and their skill required to be used and so on and other little tit bits of handy information

[Borodin]

Originally posted by Mr. Barman@Jan 29 2005, 09:16 AM
if anyone needs a list of the saints, what they do and virtue requirements, i've got a list of them here from the manual. the manual also has large sections on germany at the time, weapons and their skill required to be used and so on and other little tit bits of handy information
Much thanks for your offer, Mr. Barman, but the manual is not, alas, completely accurate about saints. To quote the clue book: "The original manual was printed considerably in advance of the final game code, and has some inaccuracies. In case of conflicts, you the [saints] information below."

I'm glad I kept that clue book. It's one of the deeper games I've ever played, and remains among my favorites. I'm willing to help out with individual saints, if somebody has questions of specifics (how they affect attributes, etc).

[Mr. Barman]

in regards to the stats, ill make a list of all the stats and their acronyms later cause im too tired right now :D

For a starting i like to head straight out to the scenic grove (usually you can go straight there from the main street but sometimes you have to go to the side street before the scenic grove), once there i rest till nightfall and head back into the side street. one of the options at the bottom is "Other Locations You Remember", this is a great place because it doesnt lead anywhere but you have a super high chance of meeting some bandits. keep killing the bandits until morning or until the limits of your group. doing this not only makes you respected in the town (depending on how many you kill) but it also provides you with a fair amount of loot. the bandits at this stage of the game usually only have V (Vital, Torso) leather armour and a club or falchion. the bandits with the falchions are best because the falchions sell for more than the club by a substantial amout.
one warning: DO NOT pick up clothing, it cant be sold and just turns into baggage that you cant get rid of except through dumping it on a dead body (in one of my first games of Darklands i once left a dead body with around 60 items of clothing :D). once its morning head to the "Side Alley of Arms and Armour" and go to any of the shops and sell the stuff, in this alley of arms and armour are the local proffessional blacksmiths etc. and will usually have better quality merchandise than the foreign traders in the main market place. Once you have sold your loot and bought some stuff for your group you can either head back to the grove and do the exact same thing again for more loot and rep, or you can head to the market place (Main Road -> Market), here you can buy almost everything you need (e.g. a rope is very useful as is a lockpick if someone as artf - artifice) but you can also enter the Guilds of the Hanaesetic Leagues, the Medici or the Fuggers. The Medici and the Fuggers are banks and can store money for you but also they will often have jobs for you to complete (rewards depend on the quest but for minor quests its around 5 florins while major quests like Robber Knights can be around 10 florins ( 1 florin = 240 pfennings 1 grotchen = 12 pfennings )), the Hanaesetic league is a place for adventurers to grab jobs just like at the banks. And so once you have a job you might as well head out of town and get to it (dont forget to write down the job details, i usually write down 1) the reward 2) the job type 3) where to go 4) where the job came from). But dont think that once you have the job you have to do it a.s.a.p., the jobs will usually stay active for a long time so you can do some wandering around germany, in particular, if you have the option to save a group of merchants who are under attack, save it and go to their rescue, not only does a successful rescue improve local rep. but they give you a gold floring and an item of superb quality.

and finally, with the armour thing, when you buy/acquire something it will be in your inventory, but you wont be using it until you have equipped it. simply open your inventory, click and drag the item you want onto the small bar to the right that has your equipment details. once you have done that the armour/weapon should have been equipped. The two people you couldnt see didnt have any equipment at all being used and thats why you couldnt see them.

hope that clears a few things up for you

(im going by memory here so some of these area locations may not be totally accurate)

[THE DUDE.]

>>>problems getting the voice part to initilize in the dosbox running of darklands? This is where you hear churchbells in the opening as the gargoyle flies by, and the girl saying "welcome to darklands, ...welcome" <<<

If I remember correctly, you only get these sounds (and certain other sounds during gameplay) if you're using the "Soundblaster" setup - you won't get it with Adlib, etc (I could be wrong though - not sure). When I installed it on my latest computer (XP), I could not get it to run properly using DOSBOX. So I tried running it on VDMsound and it works great - full sound support, no crashes, etc.

By the way, regarding sequels - the following is from the original manual:

QUOTE:
SEQUELS: Darklands was designed to permit sequels. It is possible to have some additional adventures in Germany. More importantly, it is possible to create entirely new games elsewhere in Europe. The system not only allows moving "saved game" files back and forth, but also allows you to load multiple games onto your hard disk and move back and forth between the nations, in a sort of giant adventure. Let us know what you enjoyed in Darklands, what you would like to see in a sequel, and what setting you prefer. There are plenty of possibilities: the Emperor in Germany has many political problems and intrigues, England and France are busy finishing the last half of the Hundred Years War, after which England falls into civil war (the War of the Roses). Meanwhile, Italy is at the peak of its warring city-states era, Vlad the Impaler appears in the Balkans (the historical figure who ultimately became Dracula), Tamerlane is conquering Central Asia, and much more. What's your preference?

Arnold Hendrick, 1992
ENDQUOTE

Ah, if only...

And finally, the graphics are fine, the music is beautiful (given it's digital limitations), and the game is great - the best ever.

[Galadrin]

Originally posted by marko_river@Oct 1 2004, 03:07 PM
Small tip: Strength can be increased. Just spend very very much time wandering through the countryside. You will sooner or later stumble upon the "woodman" (or treemen), sometimes they attack, but sometimes Hellhounds chase a poor one. Save position and try to hide him/it for the chase. If you succeed he will offer you a strange fruit. It gives you 4 strength.
This game is truly great, one of the few open-enders that were made in this era... and I have a small hole to add on to the tip (though this worked in the disk version that I had, and don't know about this version) THIS IS A CHEAT!


If you save immediately after you pick one of your characters to drink the juice, when the tree-man says thanks and runs away, you can increase your strength to 99 on all your characters. I think this will work, but am not sure.

[Lonemind]

I remember this game! I used to have it forever ago. I never was very good at it. I didn't understand anything that was going on. I'll bet it'd be different now. I'm older and wiser and whatnot. I'd love to play Darklands again but... it won't run for me. I double click the DARKLAND.EXE file but it says it can't find the EMS Memory. Does anyone know how I might cure this? I'm running Windows XP on a pretty spiffy computer. I dunno the specs on it but I had it built only a year ago for the specific purpose of playing the more modern games so I imagine it's really rather decent. Any ideas?

[Mad Adam]

Darklands is one of my most favourite RPGs. The gameplay is awesome, however the graphics are a little out-dated now. I think now would be a great time to finally make the sequel. How about we get onto the creators and ask them to make a new one?

[darklandsjunkie]

The computer programmers who are members of the Darklands
Yahoo Group, have been working/wrestling with the challenge of
creating a sequel for quite some time. Progress has been
exceptionally slow.

Microprose was acquired by Hasbro, which in turn was acquired
by Infogrammes. The various corporate owners have been approached
repeatedly and do not wish to either produce a sequel, nor re-issue
Darklands with modern graphics. It probably would not be
"cost-effective".

[Jay]

I just discovered Abandonia, and after browsing through some oldies, went straight and searched for Darklands, my favorite of all times. I remember playing this for hours at night. I might have played nothing but this for at least several months, after which I finally got bored with my party who had all maxed out and the saved game state which had finally gotten too bizarre. I must have played several hundred hours on this.

I can still remember the background music that gets played in the countryside and in the cities. A forlorn and slightly creepy little flutish tune in the countryside, a joyous and lively tune in the market, and so on...

[Borodin]

Originally posted by Jay@Aug 11 2005, 01:54 PM
I can still remember the background music that gets played in the countryside and in the cities. A forlorn and slightly creepy little flutish tune in the countryside, a joyous and lively tune in the market, and so on...
The countryside tune was probably L'homme Arme, a folk tune best known through its setting by Dufay. My favorite was a contrapuntal, anonymous satarello (a form of jumping dance) used for the Universities. I know most of the tunes because of a lifelong interest in (and collection of) classical music. Some of the same material also showed up, by the way, in Microprose's M:TG.

[Solara]

I just started playing and I think I'm in love! :wub:

I can't believe this didn't get a higher rating or a more indepth review...if I hadn't read such glowing recommendations on another site I might have missed this one entirely. I'm a huge fan of open-ended gameplay, and in a way Darklands reminds me of the Elder Scrolls.

*sigh* Why don't think make games like this anymore? Can you imagine an RPG with this amount of depth and better graphics and UI on top of it? It's just a pity Microprose won't let anyone can't get their hands on the code, it's not like they intend to make any more money from it, and I bet dedicated fans could do amazing things with updates or sequels...

[Mateus]

BEST GAME EVER!!!!

seriously, it shiver me timbers just to think of it. Really glad <guy whose name I don ´t recall> uploaded it. thanQ.

Just remembered my money trick. Which isn´t really a trick, is just a "put your character to work for a year, at one of the largest cities" at 11 pfenings per day - or something, i don´t quite remember, it was 10 years ago. You had to have some experts in your party, so they could find jobs such as professor, or blacksmiths, and let them work for a long time (I used to put a paperweight on the S key, so I could go to lunch or whatever, and let them "spend the day doing the above").

After a year or so, I had 100 florins.

couldn´t do it very often, thou. My good alchemist was a very old chap, so I couldn´t afford spending years in a city, just working for money - real life?- and the young warrior was always ranting about not killing any cuthroath thieves.

I still have the original map, on a drawer. oh, and the manual, also. the manual stands alone as a great, enjoyable reading. Best manual ever. heh.

no plot? omfg, that´s just offensive to give a 4 rating to the gratest game of all times, in it´s genre.

See what a great game? You could just settle down, work and get rich. from time to time, spend some hard-earned money at the local inn, with some good food and some 6 hours of sleep. no risk of getting yourself killed. From time to time you could just stroll down the central square, to hear the latest gossip, like some freelancers hiring, or something.

augh, best game ever.

[punch999]

This was by far the best rpg ever!

[Rocker]

Definitely one of the best CRPG. The game really sucks me in, and is quite immersive, even with the extremely old school graphics.

The best character generation EVER. Period. Addictive as hell too.

Morrowind is my fave CRPG, but this is way up there.

[Borodin]

Right on all counts. It's another one of those great Microprose titles that inexplicably has never been remade and updated.

[DR4296]

Thanks for posting the game!!

I haven't fired it up yet, but in looking at the file dates, I'm thinking this is an early, unpatched edition??

Any idea where I might find patches and other updates to this?

(Revision History: http://www.darklands.net/faq/7.shtml )


Thanks!

-= Dave =-

[Borodin]

Captain: Character must have Per 20+, Int 20+, Chr 20+, and have prior experience as a veteran, captain, knight, schulz, courtier, manorial lord, or bishop.

Abbot: Character must be a male with at least Per 25+, Int 20+, Chr 20+, and Religion 15+. Character must have either a) spent the last 5 years as a noble heir, courtier, manorial lord, priest, abbot or bishop; or B) spent the last 10 years as either a monk and/or professor. A female abbot (abbess) is possible.

Bishop: Character must be a male with at least Per 25+, Int 25+, Chr 25+. In addition he must have spent either a) the last 5 years as an abbot or bishop, or B) the last 10 years as a courtier manorial lord, and/or priest.

Monk/Nun: Any character can enter a monastery except those who already have sufficient religous status, education or experience. A character can do this only once per lifetime.

Knight: Character must have a virtue of 16+ and either a) be a noble of age 20+; B) have just finished an occupation as a captain, courtier, noble heir, abbot, or bishop; or c) have any experience as a manorial lord or knight.

EDIT: Those :max: smilies were meant to be "b," but the forum insists on changing them. Oh, well. :)

[whatshisface]

hmm. Great sounds? loved the game and i didnt even know that. Problem is now that i cant get it to work. Help please?

[jesse]

:sos: umm i am getting into this game..and it is really good..i think i remember a friend playing this A LONG LONG TIME ago..and its great..but...i keep getting far and after a battle EXPECIALLY out side.. a screen comes up asking me to define a symbol..4 CHOICES..and if you choose wrong...the game resets and goes back to dos box..I just want to know..are those symbols in the game..or do you need the ORIGINAL INSTRUCTION BOOK to find out the answer? it really sux and i want to finsih playing dammit.


THIS IS FROM MARK
Howdy. I'm trying to install Darklands and I'm using DocBox. I've followed the tutorial and have everything in place. When I run the install program, I note where the install files are and where they should go. Then the program asks me to insert floppy #1 in drive '*' and push Enter. I push enter and nothing happens. I have tried every alternative I can think of but I can't seem to figure this out. Please help, I'd love to play this game soon!

I got the same thing...but you see once you get to that part of the setup just exit out and you should go straight to dos box..and it will say set up complete. and the game is ready to play..

[aaron]

i downloaded this but i can not figure how to install it or play it if there is some ideas let me know thank you

[Guest]

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(aaron @ Aug 17 2006, 12:10 AM) 249062</div>
i downloaded this but i can not figure how to install it or play it if there is some ideas let me know thank you
[/b]

Are you using an emulator? You should download DOSBox - this game needs DOS or a DOS emulator, it doesn't run on modern systems (in particular WinXP).

[Guest]

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(jesse @ Aug 14 2006, 09:22 PM) 248613</div>
:sos: umm i am getting into this game..and it is really good..i think i remember a friend playing this A LONG LONG TIME ago..and its great..but...i keep getting far and after a battle EXPECIALLY out side.. a screen comes up asking me to define a symbol..4 CHOICES..and if you choose wrong...the game resets and goes back to dos box..I just want to know..are those symbols in the game..or do you need the ORIGINAL INSTRUCTION BOOK to find out the answer? it really sux and i want to finsih playing dammit.
[/b]

No problem, you do need the original instruction booklet, but it's available for download on Abandonia, just go to the Darklands page and the link will be on the "sidebar" on the left (next to the link to this forum).

The symbols are spread throughout the manual. You'll have to copy them all down to avaoid long delays every time the copy-protection question comes up - the good news is you only have to answer the question once or twice per group of adventurers you play with and then it leaves you alone for the rest of that game.

[Guest]

The alchemical symbols are the bottom right-hand corner of different pages scattered between pp. 43 and 83, in alphabetical order.

Annoying, huh? :wallbash:

[Mr. Barman]

So how did everyone set up their teams?

I generally have this:

1 - Fighter/Leader, focuses in Edge Weapons, Bow Weapons, and as much Speak Common as possible. Usually this guy is a career army guy, Recruit -> Soldier -> Veteran, or sometimes i go for a Knight for 10 years if i feel like i need the extra weapon skills and slighty better armour at the start

2 - Fighter/Divine, Focuses in Impact Weapons, Bow Weapons, Virtue, Woodwise, Religion, maybe some Speak Latin. This guy is usually a Monk for atleast 10 years, gets alot of Points and alot of good skills.

3 - Alchemist, Focuses in Pole Weapons, Throwing Weapons, Alchemy, Speak Latin, Healing. This person is usually older than the other characters cause i find its hard to train someone outside of the character creation screen

4 - Thief, Focuses in Edge Weapons, Throwing Weapons, Artifice, Street Wise, Stealth. A thief for most of his life until it starts to cause his Strength/Endurance to deteriorate.

And when it comes to Strength/Endurance, how many points do you guys give them? I always make sure my characters have atleast 40 of both and then spend the remaining points on one other attribute so that the team together has each one covered

[pandapung]

Hi there,

Anyone can help me, please. Coz everytime I got a battle, the game suddenly freeze and there's nothing I can do. I did try to raise cycle up to 15000 or more, but somehow it just freeze and no response at all.

Second question to kon tiki. In what column and row I can edit the money value with Hex editor?

Thank You very much everyone

-regards-

[The Fifth Horseman]

Kon Tiki cannot answer your call, sorry.

To locate the offset where the money value is stored, I suggest you acquire a pretty hefty quota ingame (over 255, preferably also over 4096), use the Windows calculator to convert it into hexadecimal values, and use the Search function of your hexeditor to locate that value in the file.

The freeze problem may be a corruption issue. I reccomend you redownload the game or, if that fails, try to find a different copy.

[pearle]

Wow!


I remember being addicted to this game in the early 90s. It sill have fond memories of it and I have been wishing for a sequel ever since I first played it.

I'll definitely download this and give it a go tonight to see if it lives up to my great memories.

[pandapung]

Hi fifth horsemen,

Thank you for your tips. I'll try to redownload it right away, sigh...

Regards

[pandapung]

Just to make a recheck concerning darkland file in this site. Is it 12.311 kb large? I wonder what file I'm missing in this game, coz the battle zcene won't come on and somehow i got myself stuck. It's just that....nothing happen.

Are there any alternative sites to download this magnificent game? Gee, I'm wondering too, are there anyone of you could get rich and roaming the land, without any single battle? Must be an expert, eh....

[pandapung]

it's me again, everyone

Hi, I think I find something weird inside darkland.zip file. There's file named 'battle.img', and the size is only 21 kB. Is that file contain battle scene images? If it so, well, I jump in my conclusion that this file had a bad corruption thing in it. If it's not, so why would on earth I got myself stuck whenever the battle scene start? :whistling: :whistling:

:sos: :sos: :sos:

[The Fifth Horseman]

I think I've got a copy of Darklands on my HDD. Will check that file.

[pandapung]

Originally posted by the_fifth_horseman

I think I've got a copy of Darklands on my HDD. Will check that file.


So, how was it, fifth horseman, have you check it? Btw, are there any alternatives to download this beautiful game elsewhere, but not direct download? I can't direct download coz I'm under proxy and the admin block all kind of torrent sites and MiRc <_<

THANKS

[V4n]

Well as far as I can remember, this game actually HAS A PLOT. It's to send of the devil (Baphometh) from this plane of existance. After some adventuring, you come across more and more sophisticated sabats which will ultimately lead you to some awfuly long to beat dungeon, and the spoken devil himself... Another fact is that you can play the game after beating him.

[Guest]

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(V4n @ Sep 19 2006, 12:56 AM) 255953
Well as far as I can remember, this game actually HAS A PLOT. It's to send of the devil (Baphometh) from this plane of existance. After some adventuring, you come across more and more sophisticated sabats which will ultimately lead you to some awfuly long to beat dungeon, and the spoken devil himself... Another fact is that you can play the game after beating him.
[/b][/b][/quote]

Can you help me v4n? I had problem with darkland, it's game were freeze everytime I enter the battle scene (since the very beginning of the game, when night patrols caught me in the side street). I've tried to check the files inside, and I found that the battle.img file is actually contain NOTHING. Is it the cause of the this problem?

Thanks

[Eeeeed]

As a note, to run Darklands if you get the EMS Memory error:

use darklands /o (o is for override). You'll get a warning that you may run short of memory, but otherwise, it works.

[pandapung]

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Eeeeed @ Sep 24 2006, 01:28 AM) 257015
As a note, to run Darklands if you get the EMS Memory error:

use darklands /o (o is for override). You'll get a warning that you may run short of memory, but otherwise, it works.
[/b][/b][/quote]

Thanks for your tips, I'll try it A.S.A.P

[daquack]

I fell in love with this game when it first game out. ran across it today and will probably try it again to see if lives up to my memories.

this and Elite/Elite Plus are the two games for the PC that turned me into a computer addict.
(oh and Pirates for my old C-64)

[Squalid Blaze]

I hadn't seen this game before but agree with all the raves about it above. I got it several days ago and, thanks to a cold, have had the excuse to be obsessive about it. Unfortunatly there are some bugs, minor and liveable with, and missing files which are more annoying. As I'm not sure if these are due to the zipped file here being incomplete or the transit or something at my end ( like using the very useful game tools from the darklands site ) I'll tell you what happens here. On trying to buy from traveling caravans the game exits to dos with a no such file or directory message in dosbox for pics\xkntdemo.pic, the same happens when wining in the mines quest with the missing file being pics\xmobglad.pic. The last one was really irksome as due to the large map the game really slowed down and it had taken hours to crawl through even with the cycles up at over 2,000. But that's just technical errors, as someone who hates the corridor type dumbed down games which seem to be in fashion at the moment the game is a superb find. Oh I've found a rather silly way of pumping your reputation in this game with an utterly gratuitous miracle, call for a saint who gives the gift of flight to get in or out of town when it's crowded. Even if you don't need the reputation it's worth doing once each for each saint that does it as the text is amusing.

[Kaar]

I've had a problem equal to that, only that was when i was trying to sneak out of a church at night. Is there any way to fix this?

[Japo]

I've done a search and got no matches for my problem. This is the first time I play this game, and during combat my archer can't use his bow for some reason, and the bow is equiped and appears in the character description picture. During combat the option "use missile (m)" is disabled. He can attack in melee all right just like the others. I presume it's not a bug, that I'm missing something?

[harleqwyn]

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Japofran @ Nov 5 2006, 06:04 AM) 265391</div>
I've done a search and got no matches for my problem. This is the first time I play this game, and during combat my archer can't use his bow for some reason, and the bow is equiped and appears in the character description picture. During combat the option "use missile (m)" is disabled. He can attack in melee all right just like the others. I presume it's not a bug, that I'm missing something?
[/b]

Are you still having trouble with this? Most likely your character has no ammo in its inventory - arrows for bows, quarrels for crossbows and arbalests, balls for handguns. Stock heaps, because you can recover some but not all the ammo after combat.

A related point which may be of use is, do not target enemies obstructed by party members or other enemies when a character's bow/missile skill is low.

[Japo]

Never mind, I figured it out. In fact lack of ammo was the first thing that came into my mind into the first place, but since one of my characters had started with a bow but without arrows, and still there was a full quiver depicted along with the character in the character description screen, I thought that maybe missiles were supposed to exist along with the weapon. Then I found some at a merchant's and I bought them and everything went fine. But thanks for answering. :)

This game is too cool for school, I've killed a dragon.

http://i102.photobucket.com/albums/m87/japofran/darkland_087.png

[EucherJack]

I think you can only recover ammo if it misses the target. For example: if my character shoots an arrow with his/her bow at a bandit, and the arrow misses, I'll get the arrow back after the battle. If the arrow hits the bandit (and does damage, I think) then the arrow is lost.

Also, thrown weapons can be tricky. If I don't have a thrown weapon equiped when the battle starts, and I select the character with the thrown weapon in inventory, equipt the weapon, then return to the battle, the character can't use the thrown weapon. However, if I select another character, then select the character with the thrown weapon, the character can use the thrown weapon. This may effect other weapons, but it thrown weapons leave the character's hand the most often. Also, thrown weapons are fired using the "use missle" attack.

Thrown weapons are great, since they have low usage requirements and are never lost in battle (from what I can tell).

[Borodin]

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Squalid Blaze @ Oct 25 2006, 01:20 AM) 263427</div>
Oh I've found a rather silly way of pumping your reputation in this game with an utterly gratuitous miracle, call for a saint who gives the gift of flight to get in or out of town when it's crowded. Even if you don't need the reputation it's worth doing once each for each saint that does it as the text is amusing.
[/b]

There are a couple of saints whose miracles do boost your rep--one within a certain region, the other in your current city. I think of them as "quest getters," since grabbing quests from the three local banking/investment branches becomes extremely easy once your reputation goes through the roof. At such times I like to quest farm a series of marketplaces surrounding a known Raubritter. If I'm lucky, I can pick up 60 florins or more, and possibly secure the services of an extra party member from one of the Hansa stations.

[Sunlessdaysrise]

I don't know if anyone has posted this but there is alittle cheat that I figured out. Rather a glitch in the game. Create a character and do all that non-sense and when your done. Add that New Character to the party, Then add the first character on the list of Premade characters. Take his/her Plate Mail and Chainmail leggings. Delete the premade character from the party But don't kill the Premade character because that will make the Plate mail and leggings disappear. Then add the Premade character to the party as many times as you want to get unlimited plate mail and leggings to sell. It's a pretty premo glitch I found it out just today. Anyways this game is defintaly the best Pre-Arcanum/Lionheart Classical fiction/non-fiction RPG I have ever encountered. They should make a new version of it but more in-depth spanning across medieval Europe and The Middle East. Perhaps not so "fantastic" as Lionheart that was alittle more fantasy then need be. But the thought of a Non-fictional, Semi-fiction game is really a revolutionary idea all they need to do is actually make a modern day class game that has some decent features. Also Darklands could be quite the MMORPG if perfected. It has so much potential even for such a classic game. By far revolutionary for it's time.

[humorguy]

I love this game so much, and similar Microprose games, I just bought of ebay Darklands complete, Sword of the Samurai complete and Sea Rogue complete all for under £40/$75!!!! And that included shipping from USA to London, England!

If you love Darklands, you would love the earlier released (1989), but using the same engine, 'Sword of the Samurai' a Japanese Samurai sim of the same detail as Darklands and just as addictive!

Equally, if you love Darklands and you fancy some treasure hunting, then Sea Rogue would be your cup of tea! Lots of options for searching for wrecks and undersea treasure, nasty competitors after the same treasure, boat upgrades, bad weather, and more!

Three of the most original simulations ever released on any format any time! truly a sign of Microprose's greatness back in the late 80's and early 90's!

If you want to have enough fun gaming to last you 'til Spring, these three titles will do it for you! Needless to say, they are all HOTU Top Dogs, which in my book are the best way to say 'get this game and you won't be unhappy!'

(Sword of the Samurai is available on this site and Sea Rogue is available on HOTU.)

[thatmexicanguy]

Boy, talk about a hard RPG. Combat is insane!

[Guest]

Are you sure sword of the samurai is the same engine. The game is completly different....

[punch999]

/\
That guest post was meby a mistake.

[Guest]

Yes, it was the same, but obviously Darklands cam out 5 years later and had updated the engine, but yes it is the same engine, but Darklands obviously is different because of the update to the engine. And while not identical, I do think their styles are 'similar'. :)

[Japo]

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(thatmexicanguy @ Jan 8 2007, 02:50 AM) 273774</div>Boy, talk about a hard RPG. Combat is insane![/b]
There's only one thing you must know in order to get yourself alive out of combat, and it can be summarized in one word:

Armour.

I guess it's realistic. At the start it's difficult because you have little armour. Equipment is determined by the occupation the character had during the last 5 years, and it's good to have at least one character with good starting armour. Check the manual for this but I think Veteran was cool. Anyway at the start you'll be resting most of the time to restore massive health lost in a single combat, but as soon as you take good armour from fallen enemies --it isn't worth buying it--, combat will be too easy instead of too hard, believe me.

[Guest]

hey, i cant figure out how to drink the "essence of grace potions" heh....
what button do i press and such?

[humorguy]

Hey guest - download the manual!!!!

[The Fifth Horseman]

You know they never do.

[Guest]

WELL I DID CHECK 1 OF THE MANUAL LINKS (oops caps) on this page but it didnt work, and i looked around for any other links but didnt find any........

[Guest]

ah well found the manual, downloaded the game 6 months ago so didnt see the link this time
12 minutes to go on download....
this was so much easier than if anyone would just tell me what button to press....christ

/sarcasm off

[humorguy]

All I wish now is that replacementdocs or abandonia had the cluebook for download!!! That would be brilliant! meanwhile I keep checking, but it ain't out there anywhere as far as I can see! :(

[Fenril]

So yeah I decided to get into Darklands, my first impression wasnt the best but I didnt try it long enough and theres just too many people around the web speaking wonders about it.

I have the manual and the hintbook but still a couple of things elude me...

1) What exactly is the usefulness/importance of the Agility attribute? The hintbook seems to indicate its only barely useful and that it can be disregarded but the standard default party seems to have at least 20-25 for each char.

2) What is the right age to start with? Judging from the tables in the hintbook I would be fine with starting a party of 35/40 year olds with the penalties described...question is will I reach 45 years during play?


( I wanted to make a new post, but I guess this is the appropriate place :/)

[humorguy]

Fenril, if you scan and pdf the clue book and put it up on replacementdocs.com or on here, i'll tell you! :)

[Fenril]

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(humorguy @ Jan 27 2007, 09:06 PM) 276753</div>
Fenril, if you scan and pdf the clue book and put it up on replacementdocs.com or on here, i'll tell you! :)
[/b]

LOL Ill do you one better, Ill pm you my msn address in this forum, send you the cluebook .pdf directly, then you send it to the right person to put it up here,if its legal of course. :ph34r:

hehe im kinda in a hurry to start playing, but until I sort out these two issues, I cant decide on a party! :w00t:

[Fenril]

The evil transaction is now complete!

I hold humorguy responsible for sharing it with whomever else wants it!

Now where is my char creation infos??!11 :titan:

[humorguy]

Fenril - don't be pushy and evil - it took just as long to download as it did to upload - I have only just got it!!!! LOL!!!

Anyway, firstly age: You have to bear in mind that the occupation you choose has an impact on when the stats start decreasing. Generally, it's after 35, but for example, as an Academic, your strength will start going down at 20 but as a hermit, it's age 40. So by how you choose your party will depend the optimum ages, a party of experienced 40 year old hermits or a party of 20 year old Academics! :)

My party is made up of:

Leader: Noble heir, recruit, soldier, veteran. High charisma, speak common, and combat skills.
Basher: Recruit, soldier, veteran, veteran: Maxed out str and endurance, the rest in agility.
Priest: Novice Monk, Friar, Hermit, Hermit, Hermit. (Hermit is nice because it severaly lowers your physical stat loss) Max Virtue, Max Healing. (I make him my second best fighter).
Alchemist: Student, alchemist, master alchemist, master alchemist, master craftsman. Max out intelligence, alchemy, and artisan, fill out with missile weapon skills and possibly religious skills.

Agility is the main stat for deciding if and how you hit the target or youe enemy hits you, and if they do then the armour stats, etc decide how much. As I understand it the game take the agility stat for the enemy then takes into account the amount being carried and then takes into account what armour and shield they have. It then does some math on that which I am not too sure about and that is compared with the hit probability. its the difference between the two that decides if you hit them. Of course, it works the other way in terms of whether any of your party get hit by the enemy

As I understand it then, in a simple way, agility decides IF you get hit and then the other stats decide how much damage you take IF you get hit. Agility is what helps you avoid being hit or for that matter the enemy.

In roleplaying, you may as well look up 'agility' in any game and see similar breakdown of the stat. I am surprised there is nothing in the clue book though! I will have to have a good look!

Hope the above helps! :)

[Japo]

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Fenril @ Jan 27 2007, 09:59 PM) 276752</div>1) What exactly is the usefulness/importance of the Agility attribute? The hintbook seems to indicate its only barely useful and that it can be disregarded but the standard default party seems to have at least 20-25 for each char.[/b]
In my experience it's worthless, and my party had a character with max agility (45 I think) and there was no difference with the others. The only thing that will protect you effectively is armour. Try it and you'll see how I'm right.

2) What is the right age to start with? Judging from the tables in the hintbook I would be fine with starting a party of 35/40 year olds with the penalties described...question is will I reach 45 years during play?[/b]
Don't start with old characters. Their skills are great but their Str+End is lousy so they can carry very little weight --armour. Once you're protected by armour a low skill only means that you'll take longer to kill an enemy, but you're killing him since he's not killing you first thanks to armour. And after many combats like this where you don't get injured and don't have to lose time resting, your skills will be trained up in no time. Heck my monk/alchemist ended up with as high a weapon skill as my soldier through experience.

[humorguy]

I agree generally Japofran, but I would say agility is important in the early game, and can make a difference in a way it doesn't have to later in game.

I have said it before, and i'll say it again, Darklands, more than any other RPG to my mind, rewards you if you think of it as real life.

For example: If you don't have good armour, what are you going to have to do? Dodge more! What do you need to use to dodge? Agility!

Now, later in the game, when you have good armour, are you going to worry about dodging as much? or are you just going to stand toe to toe, knowing your armour will protect you?

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'! :)

I am not saying I am totally right, but I am saying generally I look at my party actions and stats in a real-world way, and I find it helps my Darklands gaming - and my immersion! :)

I will say in closing, that this game can be approached from so many ways, and throw so many things at you from different directions, I doubt that any two of us are playing the same game, hence the best we can do is give 'generic' answers! :) But then, to me, that's what makes classic games like Darklands! :)

[Japo]

I agree generally as well, and I guess that's the role of Agility in game mechanics, but it seems its influence is very very mild. In my experience big differences in Agility didn't make any combat difference. At the start of the game, when I had no armour, agile characteres were wounded just as often as the others. The only character who wasn't sliced outright as he entered combat was my Veteran, who wore brigantine; other character with 45 Agility was massacred if put in front of an enemy. All combats were pure butchery and I had to spend days recovering, until I got armour.

[humorguy]

But that's where my last comment comes in. How old were your characters, what occupations did they have, what were the stats, who were you up against?

There are so many variables that without taking away from your experience at all Japofran, can be very different for other players of this game. It is the opposite of the modern cookie cutter games, where we all have the same experience because we are all led by the nose down the same roads. Games like Darklands allow us all to go down different roads and talk about OUR experiences, rather than THE experience we all had..... That's what's lost in modern gaming and that's what exists in retro gaming, hence retro gaming up, modern gaming down! :)

[Fenril]

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 :ok:

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. :sneaky:

[humorguy]

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

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. :sneaky:
[/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) 276876</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) 277512</div>
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(humorguy @ Jan 28 2007, 03:01 PM) 276876
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. http://www.abandonia.com/forum/style_emoticons/shoutbox/yes.gif 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. :)

[Jiawen]

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) 277883</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 (http://www.replacementdocs.com/search.php?q=Darklands&r=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 :)

[Guest]

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.

[Guest]

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.

:titan:


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 (http://http://www.darklands.net/faq/5.shtml#7)


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.

[a1s]

I'm not sure weather this has been posted yet (it wan't when I was playing DL the first time), but there are 4 of the missing .pic files. it would be nice if someone could repack the game to include them, otherwise- simly unpack them into your PICS folder.

ADDED: it seems I can't post 100KB files... oh well. go here (http://www.filefactory.com/file/1d79b7/)

[Talkie]

Well, that was awful... I am merely getting a page with code crap.

Like you have picked the worst upload site ever.

I am very curious about these obscure pics.

Could you upload them somewhere else?

Could you give their names and I can search elsewhere?

Thanks

Talkie

[a1s]

here, try this (http://files.filefront.com//;7325121;/).
and here are their names:
xhound.pic
xkntdemo.pic
xmobglad.pic
xnw77.pic

edit: after some looking around I found that those files are actulay allready in the zip hosted on abandonia :tomato: (they are in the main folder and all I had to do was just copy them into the PICS folder, stupid me.).

[Sorviel]

Hey all

I am delighted to see that people are still playing this marvellous game...


Below are a few of my tips for people new to this game, and in seach for some insight...



1. Character Generation

The first time you play, familiarize yourself with the Quickstart party. When you feel ready for some challenge, create your own guys.

My typical party:

I never use exploits like creating an old alchemist with loads of potions, nor take the equipment of the starting party (with all the Plate mail and stuff...).

I only create 20 year-old characters, therefore the choice of your initial occupation is critical for the gear you'll have.

I play 2 guys, 2 girls (for no reason : I just don't like the monk-looking character, so don't use it...)

1.1 Get the best out of your stats

All your character should have Strength+Endurance above 65. Leader at least 30-37 Charisma. People who intend to use alchemy should have 25-32 Intelligence. One should have 32-36 Perception.


1.2 Get the best out of your occupation

You need several roles in your team : a leader with High CHA and Spk Common // a character with high Healing // One with high Perception // One with High Woodwise // One with High Artifice// One with high Religion // and one with High Alchemy and Intelligence.

Since I play only 20 year-old characters, the choice of the first and only occupation is crucial.
Travelling merchant gives you the best armour (chain/leather), followed by Recruit (cuirbouilli/leather), Noble Heir (studded/leather) and Thief or Hunter (Leather/Leather)

My current team has:

Leader : male Nobility/Travelling Merchant, maxed out Alchemy, Edge, Spk Common, Stealth, Woodwise 30 Int, 32 Cha, 65 STR/END

Perceptive : female Nobility/Noble Heir, maxed out Healing, Woodwise, Religion, Bow/Polearms, Religion, Virtue, Stealth, 33 Perception, 67 STR+End

Artifice : male Town Trade/Thief, 40 Str, 40 End, maxed Agility, maxed artifice/streetwise/stealth/Thrown/Impact/Missile

Religious : female Nobility/Noble Heir, 70 Str+End, maxed out alchemy/virtue/religion/edge/bow/stealth/woodwise


2. Getting Started

Your first goal is to get experience, cash, and armour. The best way to do this is to kill robbers at night. You will quickly get repute enough to have a discount at the inn. (note that the prices from merchants are reduced also when you are respected, then reduced again when you become a local hero)

It is best to experience in a city with a Pawnshop (to buy cheap Brigandine/Cuirbouilli, ideal at starts) and a University. You might want to change towns quickly (after one or two nights of combat), by boat or land, depending on the distance (don't get too ambitious with your first move out though; boating might involve a pirate encounter (easy picking) and a florin reward)

After you have a full team with at least Brigandine/Cuirbouilli, you are ready to venture outside. Get the Hansa to send you on a raubritter mission, so you get the big Henchman with you. A close-by raubritter usually dictates that the city will also send you get rid of him : you can cumulate employers for the same reward.

Note : missions given by the town give you 6-10 Fame.

2.1 Getting the first raubritter

Depending on whether you have the Hanse guy with you, it might be more or less difficult.

My favorite strategy : sneak into the tower after dark + Set fire to the castle. You will most likely fail several times, increasing your stealth skill in the process. Failure also imply some guards sent of to hunt you down, who can provide you with extra loot and experience.

Eventually the raubritter comes out, and you get your first nice TH Sword and plate...

2.2 Use your money well

With your nice reward, you need to buy the following items :

- Lockpicks
- Rope

Then you are ready for some training.

You must train artifice to some level above 20, so you can break into castle chests and locked doors (usually hiding castle lords, see below). 2 ways to do this : sneak at night in the stores at the market place, trying to break into every single room will increase your stealth and artifice in a significant way. Another (more expensive) is to get training from the guildmaster Tinker.

Also, you need to get alchemy above 15, so you can find the alchemist in every town (with a lousy score, you can't find them). Again, 2 ways to do this : either you get lucky and the required score for finding an alchemist in the town you are is under your current level, and you get some cheap training, OR you get university training (use the Load/Save to maximize acceptance as a student).

Finally, you need healing 60 as soon as you can (gain 4 Str per day) This is the long run.... Ways to finance it are described below. University (110 pf/day) and private teachers (60 pf/day) are available for this.


2.3 A few good reflexes to have

Everytime you enter a town, look for the alchemist, and offer to trade formulaes. This way, you can learn every single formulae in the game. The first character in the roaster gets the formula, this is why my leader/alchemy guy is first...

Do the same with monasteries and saints : learn them all if you can. Libraries in a given monastery are available every month.

2.4 Financing your training

Financing your healing training is one of the first things you have to do. Try to train only in your university town (as a local hero, you get cheaper lodging...). Look for castles with evil lords : sneak into them at night, and kill all the guards you can, break into all the chests.... Don't hesitate to enter/exit the castle. You can repeat the process of talking to the Lord (for more virtue, don't forget to switch leaders before demanding the lord to treat the people better, for spread increases), and killing guards/opening chests (they replenish). Doing so, you will increase virtue, stealth, weapons, artifice, and money. The loot from the castles can be saved (arrows), equipped (you can find nice weapons and armours) or sold for cash.

Repeat the training process until you get the 60 healing.

Another way is making potions (eyeburn, essence of grace, noxious aroma, depending on what you get from the various alchemists you visit). This will increase alchemy, and don't hesitate to have 2 alchemists working at the same time ;)


Next step : Taking your first High Sabbat

[Borodin]

Everytime you enter a town, look for the alchemist, and offer to trade formulaes. This way, you can learn every single formulae in the game. The first character in the roaster gets the formula, this is why my leader/alchemy guy is first...

For those who prefer a non-alchemy leader, it's a simple matter to switch the leadership position before entering and after leaving the local alchemist's shop. I typically play with the following:

One extremely charismatic leader, a nobleman with good fighting skills.
One slightly older (ie, attributes a bit decayed) alchemist.
One slightly older (ie, attributes a bit decayed) religious type.
One grizzled veteran with excellent fighting skills. Good at lockpicks, too.

...So I've traded off attributes for a boost to my alchemist's alchemy abilities early in the game. With my best fighters on the ends I can move them forward, flanking, into a battle, and form a single party of the other two who are weaker.

[Japo]

My party was formed by:

- An urban merchant as usual leader, that gives you high Charisma and some crazy (for a non warrior) Edged weapons proficiency, he also had some Artifice and high Perception.

- A Veteran with best weapons skills and brigandine right from the start.

- A monk/alchemist, high Intelligence and Charisma in case he's got to lead in alchemists' and universities.

- The other character was devised as the agile guy, but I later learned that it meant no advantage. He was an all-life hunter, able fighter though.

All were 30 years old I think, the monk/alchemist was 35 perhaps.

[Guest]

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Borodin @ May 3 2007, 01:56 PM) 289160</div>
Everytime you enter a town, look for the alchemist, and offer to trade formulaes. This way, you can learn every single formulae in the game. The first character in the roaster gets the formula, this is why my leader/alchemy guy is first...

For those who prefer a non-alchemy leader, it's a simple matter to switch the leadership position before entering and after leaving the local alchemist's shop. I typically play with the following:

One extremely charismatic leader, a nobleman with good fighting skills.
One slightly older (ie, attributes a bit decayed) alchemist.
One slightly older (ie, attributes a bit decayed) religious type.
One grizzled veteran with excellent fighting skills. Good at lockpicks, too.

...So I've traded off attributes for a boost to my alchemist's alchemy abilities early in the game. With my best fighters on the ends I can move them forward, flanking, into a battle, and form a single party of the other two who are weaker.
[/b]

That is true, but regardless of who is your leader, the first guy gets the formula, IIRC...

I haven't tried parties with characters older than 20, for I like challenges, especially regarding equipment...

[Guest]

I like to make my leader the alchemist, so he can lead in Univ' and Alchemist b/c of his high Intelligenge.

I kinda want to make 2 alchemists in the team, to optimize brewing time.

But let's continue with my tutorial for taking on the Sabbat..


Part Two

When you reach 60 healing, you're team might have ventured for about 1-2 years killing raubritters, and maybe taking on a mine, plus everal castles with evil rulers. You should have average virtue and decent enough alchemical capabilities.

If you want to take the Sabbat all secure, this is what you need:

- 4-6 potions of Essence of Grace per character will be enough
- Each member should be able to invoke a healing saint (Clare, Damian, etc...)
- 2 different sets of armour per character. Why different ? Let's say you have (V)Chainmail equipped. If you have 2 in your inventory and you are hit by some arabian fire or thunderbolt potion, BOTH will decrease their quality. Therefore, take with you a spare suit of armour that is not from the type you commonly use :ok:


To locate a Sabbat:

Find a renegade village (question the priest : if he says that they revere St Elymas or Saint Simon Magus, or question the Mayor and if he says that they "know good from evil", you can accuse them of satanic practices)

Before you accuse them, SAVE YOUR GAME. Because if the calendar date for the Sabbat is too close from your current date, you might be unable to reach the site on time.

After you accuse them, fight the villagers, note the date and place of the Sabbat, cleanse the village. (use transformation potion, religious training, or physically destroy the altar)

Reach the site, and enter the fair at the given date. Try to act as witch-like as possible not to attract attention, or you might be expulsed from the fair.

Visit every activity, and try to convince the people that they are wrong, to get some more virtue. Most of the time you will fail and battle a handful of flail-swinging cultists.

After day 2, prepare a sabotage on the altar, and invoke it so you fight the demon. Defeat it (pretty easy), and then the tought part begins. You get 2-3 waves of witches, that will ruin your armors (hence the 2 different suits noted above). I usually pass the Sabbat with 5 potions per character, 2 or 3 invocations of saints, and 1 spare set of armour.

Reward is pretty neat : everyone gets +4 Virtue, possibly some religious training and some healing, and possibly some Spk Latin IIRC. Party fame increase by about 30, and local rep in nearby cities gets about the same increase.

I usually take about 5 Sabbats before I go to the monastery.


Sabbats are the most consistent way to increase virtue, far better than the exploit with the evil castle lord...

Talking about exploits, you can get unlimited money after you defeat your first sabbat (SPOILER, HIGHLIGHT TO READ : the castle SW of Magdeburg hosts a good witch that gives you a potion of Transformation everytime you visit and talk to her)

[Mousazz]

i don't know? :unsure: i don't like this game, i won't play it. it's easy to get killed.

[Japo]

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Mousazz @ Jun 1 2007, 11:24 AM) 292472</div>it's easy to get killed.[/b]
Welcome to Medieval Germany. :sneaky:

i don't know? :unsure: i don't like this game, i won't play it.[/b]
Wise move. Go back to the Dungeons and Dragons "challenge" and unlimited "adventure".

(All the above in a friendly way. :tomato: )

[Tito]

I just realised something, the manual that has been updated for that game has a curious phrase in its first page, saying that it was scanned and compiled for The Underdogs. I realise that this game's manual is quite important, given its complexity, but I don't feel its fair to provide a manual from another site as if it is kind of Abandonia's property.

[Japo]

Dunno, I guess that if someone wanted to make the manual appear as Abandonia's he would have edited the PDF to erase the mention to HOTU. Someone scanned and uploaded it there, then someone downloaded it from there and uploaded it here, and the mention remains to remember that we all have it thanks to HOTU. On the other hand the property belongs neither to HOTU nor Abandonia, but to Microprose --or whoever has its assets now.

My two cents though, I don't know about formalities in the world of Abandonware. But I bet that it's not the first time it happens and that Miss HOTU doesn't mind --at least as long as the mention isn't erased.

[Kheophex]

To all the users who had the problems with the game freezing on dosbox 0.7 when starting a battle.

I've tried downloading different versions of the game (from here, from HOTU, etc) and they all had the same problem.

I've managed to make it work though.

Find this line in your DOSBox.conf file

xms=true

and set it to

xms=false

It has worked for me.

[fryet]

Here is a summary of tricks that I have found (here and other locations) to get the program to work best on my PC running Windows XP:

1. 4 picture files are in the main directory instead of the PICS directory. Copy all files named *.PIC in the main directory to PICS directory. This will resolve a bug where you perform a certain action and you get an error causing the game to end saying that it can't find the picture file. (This is a really bad error, because after you clear the knockers out of a mine - which takes several hours - you get this error and have to go back to the last time you saved the game).
2. I only need to run DOSBOX to run this program successfully with sound. Here are a couple of general things that I needed to do:
a. at command line type MOUNT C C:\DARKLANDS (that is where I stored the game files)
b. To navigate to the C drive I then typed C: and pressed enter
c. To setup sound, I did the following once:
i. type INSTALL (and then press enter)
ii. Choose Configire/Reconfigure Hardware options
iii. Choose SoundBlaster Pro (later)
iv. Choose Address 220, IRQ 7 , DRQ1
d. to launch the game type DARKLAND
3. Here are some DOSBOX configuration changes that I made. For my machine, it defaulted to 3000 cycles which was a bit slow. I have had better performance with 6000 cycles. You can decrease/increase the number of cycles by pressing ctrl F11/F12 to see what is best for your machine. Once you have found what you like, you can then hard-code that number into the config file:
fullresolution=1024x768 (enter your screen ratio here - I found that default was truncating parts of the screen)
output=overlay
cycles=6000
xms=false
4. Pressing ctrl-alt-enter will toggle between full screen and windowed mode for the game.
5. Be sure to download the manual and map for this game as well. The manual has some information that you will be asked to provide occasionally in order to play the game.

[Hans85]

I cant seem to swallow potions no matter what I do they dont work... I played Darklands on my old 486 when it originally came out and remember beating it then... However I think I did it without consuming essence'o grace and other healing p.. Help anyone?

[Japo]

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Hans85 @ Jul 6 2007, 09:05 PM) 298214</div>I cant seem to swallow potions no matter what I do they dont work... I played Darklands on my old 486 when it originally came out and remember beating it then... However I think I did it without consuming essence'o grace and other healing p.. Help anyone?[/b]
It's in the manual, press the P key while the potion is selected at the inventory.

[Nyxator]

What a lot of times I yearned, reading reviews on magazines about this game, because I didn't have a suitable computer to play it!! And now, at last... sweet satisfaction! :D (thank you so much, Abandonia guys, you've opened wide for us a gorgeous gaming world long gone)
Darklands, just to put it bluntly, is a massive RPG experience, in my opinion. Historically rich, deeply involving, perfectly balanced... and extremely enjoyable to be played! As a seasoned rpg player (on the computer and off it) I haven't noticed difficulty imbalances... on the contrary, I find it realistic but not harsh, deaths-wise. So, absolutely no need to pump up your stats via cheating, mates! Making money and progressing through your XV Century life won't prove too hard, believe me. I'm pretty sure that almost everyone who played Darklands to a good extent... will agree!
Sure, sure... just like every clever retrogamer knows, the Darklands novice shouldn't expect impressive graphics and similar "fireworks"... but let's scratch that surface... a game of great fun and longevity lies beneath.

P.S. and for the Little Daydreaming Corner: ever thought about what a "brushed up" and graphically modern version of Darklands could turn out to be?? :drool: :D

[fryet]

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(fryet @ Jun 25 2007, 02:48 PM) 296292</div>
Here is a summary of tricks that I have found (here and other locations) to get the program to work best on my PC running Windows XP:

1. 4 picture files are in the main directory instead of the PICS directory. Copy all files named *.PIC in the main directory to PICS directory. This will resolve a bug where you perform a certain action and you get an error causing the game to end saying that it can't find the picture file. (This is a really bad error, because after you clear the knockers out of a mine - which takes several hours - you get this error and have to go back to the last time you saved the game).
2. I only need to run DOSBOX to run this program successfully with sound. Here are a couple of general things that I needed to do:
a. at command line type MOUNT C C:\DARKLANDS (that is where I stored the game files)
b. To navigate to the C drive I then typed C: and pressed enter
c. To setup sound, I did the following once:
i. type INSTALL (and then press enter)
ii. Choose Configire/Reconfigure Hardware options
iii. Choose SoundBlaster Pro (later)
iv. Choose Address 220, IRQ 7 , DRQ1
d. to launch the game type DARKLAND
3. Here are some DOSBOX configuration changes that I made. For my machine, it defaulted to 3000 cycles which was a bit slow. I have had better performance with 6000 cycles. You can decrease/increase the number of cycles by pressing ctrl F11/F12 to see what is best for your machine. Once you have found what you like, you can then hard-code that number into the config file:
fullresolution=1024x768 (enter your screen ratio here - I found that default was truncating parts of the screen)
output=overlay
cycles=6000
xms=false
4. Pressing ctrl-alt-enter will toggle between full screen and windowed mode for the game.
5. Be sure to download the manual and map for this game as well. The manual has some information that you will be asked to provide occasionally in order to play the game.
[/b]

I received the following note from an admin at abandonia, so copying files as described above should not be necessary.

Hi!

Thanks for the heads up! I've updated the archive so hopefully it
should be
fine now :)

Cheers,
Kosta

[mercenary]

And when I complaind about missing .pic files almost two years ago, noone listened.

[Guest]

Thanks for the pics info. I had the 4 pic in the main directory! Anyway, this is the greatest RPG, how could the score be 4 - it should be a 6! And as for 3.3 for the user score, well, anything great get's knocked down by idiots, we all know that! This is the only game I would take, if told I could only have one PC game to play for the next year. So quite simply I know therefore that this is my favourite game of all time!

I will repeat here for those that also don't read previous messages that I have uploaded the cluebook to www.replacementdocs.com for those that need help or want to get even deeper into the Darklands interesting mythos!!!! :)

As a P.S. I will also say that in this game if you don't take on the missions quickly enough the world can change. Let's say you take on a quest to kill a dragon in a certain area, and separately you take on another quest that entails travelling to a town within that same area. Well, if you take your time killing the dragon, it will burn down more villages, and so the greater chance that on visiting that village you will not be able to do that quest as all you will find is a smoking ruin! Now how cool is that - that;s what I call a 'living world' that so few, if any games can muster today! And oh, by the way, come back to that area in 20 years and there may be a new village standing where you can get a new quest! :)

[humorguy]

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Guest @ Aug 18 2007, 12:41 AM) 305199</div>
Thanks for the pics info. I had the 4 pic in the main directory! Anyway, this is the greatest RPG, how could the score be 4 - it should be a 6! And as for 3.3 for the user score, well, anything great get's knocked down by idiots, we all know that! This is the only game I would take, if told I could only have one PC game to play for the next year. So quite simply I know therefore that this is my favourite game of all time!

I will repeat here for those that also don't read previous messages that I have uploaded the cluebook to www.replacementdocs.com for those that need help or want to get even deeper into the Darklands interesting mythos!!!! :)

As a P.S. I will also say that in this game if you don't take on the missions quickly enough the world can change. Let's say you take on a quest to kill a dragon in a certain area, and separately you take on another quest that entails travelling to a town within that same area. Well, if you take your time killing the dragon, it will burn down more villages, and so the greater chance that on visiting that village you will not be able to do that quest as all you will find is a smoking ruin! Now how cool is that - that;s what I call a 'living world' that so few, if any games can muster today! And oh, by the way, come back to that area in 20 years and there may be a new village standing where you can get a new quest! :)
[/b]

I agree totally! This is the greatest RPG and the score should have been 5 not 4! Also, I now have version 7 and you can save outside of inns, etc now, I believe. I am not 100% sure because I always role-play which means saving at an inn while my party 'sleep'! If this game could just be re-done with Baldur's Gate or Planescape Torment graphics it would be brilliant, it wouldn't need to be turned into an Oblivion or anything! :)

Thanks so much Abandonia for making this games available for people to see how great they are! I have an original copy, but nonetheless am grateful you exist - thank you, and keep up the good work! :)

[Guest]

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Guest @ Aug 18 2007, 12:41 AM) 305199</div>
I will repeat here for those that also don't read previous messages that I have uploaded the cluebook to www.replacementdocs.com for those that need help or want to get even deeper into the Darklands interesting mythos!!!! :)
[/b]

I tried to download the cluebook from www.replacementdocs.com but I keep getting a 404 file not found error. Has the file been removed?

[humorguy]

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Guest @ Sep 3 2007, 05:11 AM) 308463</div>
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Guest @ Aug 18 2007, 12:41 AM) 305199
I will repeat here for those that also don't read previous messages that I have uploaded the cluebook to www.replacementdocs.com for those that need help or want to get even deeper into the Darklands interesting mythos!!!! :)
[/b]

I tried to download the cluebook from www.replacementdocs.com but I keep getting a 404 file not found error. Has the file been removed?
[/b][/quote]

There is a problem with Planet Mirror. It is not a replacementdocs.com problem. This Planet Mirror problem has existed for a couple weeks now, so I don't know what's going on. I would just check back to the replacementdocs homepage every now and then and read the news section or the message thread on the right hand side.

[Guest]

Someone here claimed that the copy protection would disappear after correctly answering one or two times. In my game that is not the case... The protection shows up after each wilderness encounter (including town departure). Even after twelve events it does still show up. Any idea what I´m doing wrong?

Also, could anyone explain to me what Intelligence is used for? The Manual does not explain this in detail. It just says Intelligence is needed to deal with Intellectuals... which I found not to be very helpful. Does it also increase your chances to create potions or something?

[humorguy]

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Guest @ Sep 4 2007, 05:15 PM) 308811</div>
Someone here claimed that the copy protection would disappear after correctly answering one or two times. In my game that is not the case... The protection shows up after each wilderness encounter (including town departure). Even after twelve events it does still show up. Any idea what I´m doing wrong?

Also, could anyone explain to me what Intelligence is used for? The Manual does not explain this in detail. It just says Intelligence is needed to deal with Intellectuals... which I found not to be very helpful. Does it also increase your chances to create potions or something?
[/b]

I would say intelligence is what helps charisma, and helps learn Latin to talk to people, so I think the number one advantage of intelligence it being able to communicate better.

[Japo]

In Darkland's game system chance percentages are often obtained adding attributes and skills. So, I think I recall, both Latin and Intelligente would add when talking to intellectuals in the universities, and both Alchemy and Intelligence would add when creating a potion, etc. Charisma is for communicating better with everybody, Intelligence is for performing intellectual tasks which include communicating with intellectuals. So maybe both Charisma and Intelligence (and possibly other attributes and skills) add when talking to an intellectual, but only Charisma does when talking to other person; on the other hand it's more difficult to establish successful communication with an intellectual so you get an additional attribute to add to your chance percentage.

The game manual doesn't tell you about the innards of the game system but it provides some hints.

[Guest]

[font=Garamond]<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Hans85 @ Jul 6 2007, 08:05 PM) 298214</div>
I cant seem to swallow potions no matter what I do they dont work... I played Darklands on my old 486 when it originally came out and remember beating it then... However I think I did it without consuming essence'o grace and other healing p.. Help anyone?
[/b]

Here is a list of keyboard and mouse controls that might be of help to you.

F1 - F4 : Opens character screen
+ or - : Increase or decrease attribute (character generation)
ALT X : Quit darklands (if this doesn't work try ALT Q)
P : Drink or use potion
D : Drop item permanently
SHIFT + mouse : Scrolls combat screen
Spacebar : Pause movement
Right click and hold at the top of the darklands screen will reveal the menu bar.

:ok:

[sinDhor]

Hi there,
probably the thread is not that dead...
Anyhow, reading it all - esp. Borodin's deep insight into the several issues around Darklands -, having it one of my decisive favourite, interested in the possibilities in open-ended RPG's storyline and aesthetic/dramatic possibilities (I believe this gender has the greatest potential), and the interest and remembrance to this ancient game, I have the impression that this game would find its gamers.

This question is addressed to those having more insight in game industry and development:

What about the idea of putting the concept into the Open Source Community for dev? I think it is not necessary to point to some of the great Moddings (One very impressing is the Morrowind - Tamriel Rebuild project)
Personally I use Linux where this kind of collaborative work has its long tradition (there are some nice games there too, incl.strategic, and promising projects).
I think the scope of this game, its dense background would much meet a modest (but good!) graphical world. I believe that dropping an announcement at different Open Source projects would recruit a crew to start work on it.

I feel that with such background (I can recall the very detailed, excellent manual on Medieval stuff !!), the atmospheric world it does deserve revival.

[humorguy]

sinDOHR, an update has been attempted a couple times, but to no avail, seems there is code that is hard to get at without conversion software and such. ou would be much better off going to the Darklands thread at Yahoo - when you consider in the last 7 days the Yahoo thread has had 40 new messages and 2 new members it show you that there is still plenty of life in this game beyond this Abandonia thread!!!, which has been going from day one and has some pretty experienced people. I know one guy on there is just finishing a world editor to enable many changes in the game through editing the save file. He has produced lua scripts to make the editing easy and I believe is going further to allow editing via notepad with text files. Anyway, if you want to check it out, along with some of the incredible technical messages that get put up both gameplay wise and program wise!) then go to:

http://games.groups.yahoo.com/group/darklands/

Good luck! I have no programming skills, I am more at the marketing end, and from that viewpoint there is no doubt in my mind that Darklands would be a massive commercial hit if it was just done in the Baldur's Gate engine, never mind the Oblivion or Source engine and such!

[sinDhor]

Thanx a lot for this info.

I hit this forum by accident during a spare 5 minute surfing and I did not know about the yahoo-group. Regarding dev: I think the platform (old MS) is very deprecated - not to mention the occasional backward compatibility problems of MS products.
That is why I think a rewriting should be targeted.
Commercially I think Open Source way is not that successful (being not really commercial), but concerning developing it is often progressive. And it wold worth checking out some GPL-ed engine.
Anyhow, I do not think that a very modern engine is required.
I recall Heroes of Might and Magic: III is more modest than the later ones, but the later ones are less impressive, playable for me.

Baldur's Gate - Was it a Troika game?

[The Fifth Horseman]

Nope, BG was by Black Isle.

[Talkie]

Just to let every know that indeed the Darklands Group at Yahoo is very much alive and astoundingly
considering the game dates back from 1992. They are dreaming for the day when some nerd be able to reverse-engine the game since the source code was apparently lost forever. So please if you are extremely talented in this matter or want to experiment, share you results at this site:


http://games.groups.yahoo.com/group/darklands/





Regarding grades: I think people who don't understand why people can love Darklands so much don't understand that there is not much equivalent as far as an historically-bound game (no one does them nowadays as it costs money to pay the scholars to bring historical data, and most people into graphics and special effects have no clue at all about history).

But the intriguing aspect in Darklands is that it's not so much about history the way that we understand it (the Hussite War was sadly removed from latest version (found here) as it was too glitchy) than about how people perceived their world to be at the time. That aspect is truly fascinating, and it's what brings in all the fantasy part that is quite lovable. And if you hate a bunch of menus, there are actually plenty of places to explore once you start to understand how the maps work. There is indeed a lot of repetition in the game, you need to work around and figure the more distinctive spots.


By the way....About Intelligence:


Intelligence number is part of the calculation in your chances to create a potion (alchemy) and in the speed rates of your school or guild learning. Also, with poor intelligence you will likely be often refused any endeavour provided by city alchemists (unless you got the reputation to compensate? not sure). It is good in Darklands to switch leader every time you come in a situation when a certain character has more chance than another to succeed in interacting with an encounter.


Regarding getting Speak Latin: this provides access to University and understanding of written stuff on a couple rare occasions in the game. But this skill is better learned with Read And Write. They are the only skills that should be learn in duo, because you're much less successful when speaking latin but not able to read it.




Cheers,

Talkie

[humorguy]

Baldur's Gate was Bioware. think the tactical battles in DArklands and moving around the world and having buildings etc like that all the time. Higher resolution, of course! :)

[Forfeit]

Man, I have to say this game impressed me a lot. Its mainly what Morrowind and Oblivion, and many other games, should´ve had been.

And, unfortunaly, I have to say that I started playing this not because of Abandonia, but because of the Home of the Underdogs. While browsing the game here, it didnt got my atention. The review is very bad, and the screenshots are horrible. Someone should do some work on this title, because, in my opinion, its one of the best shareware RPG games avaiable. More people should play it.

And I get money mainly from alchemy. Just buy a ton of ingredients, spend some time working at an in and sell everything. You just need some initial money to buy the first ingredients, and then its set.

[humorguy]

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Demeanor @ Nov 4 2007, 01:35 PM) 318178</div>
Man, I have to say this game impressed me a lot. Its mainly what Morrowind and Oblivion, and many other games, should´ve had been.

And, unfortunaly, I have to say that I started playing this not because of Abandonia, but because of the Home of the Underdogs. While browsing the game here, it didnt got my atention. The review is very bad, and the screenshots are horrible. Someone should do some work on this title, because, in my opinion, its one of the best shareware RPG games avaiable. More people should play it.

And I get money mainly from alchemy. Just buy a ton of ingredients, spend some time working at an in and sell everything. You just need some initial money to buy the first ingredients, and then its set.
[/b]

It's not shareware, it's abandonware, but I agree, it is up there with any RPG you want to name from the last 20 years! It's easily in my Top 5 games of all time and is a game alone in that you can play it forever! If you love this I recommend the other two Microprose titles of the same type: Sword of the Samurai (Think Total War but more RPG with tactical strategy) and Sea Rogue, an ocean treasure hunting simulation/RPG. All three have superb manuals and great, no, fantastic gameplay, all have superb AI and great research has gone into them all! I love all 3 and play them all at least once a year for at least a dozen hours or more!!!!

[Forfeit]

Right now I´m out of time, but Ill definitaly see Sword of the Samurai and Sea Rogue once I´m free.

Also, I´m amazed how so few people know of this game; I had never heard of it until yesterday. Fortunaly the guys over Home of the Underdogs gave this title an award and that made me grab it.

[humorguy]

Demeanor - you'd be surprised at the following of this game - try this forum to see what I mean - gets about 50 postings a week regarding every aspect of the game, and includes downloads of saves, editors and various documents too! :)

http://games.groups.yahoo.com/group/darklands

[Forfeit]

Thanks for the link, Ill take a look.

Btw, does anyone know where is the Freiberg Mines? I´ve searched everywhere, but I only managed to find one near another city that has nothing "wrong" going on. This mine in Freiberg is suposed to be having trouble with "Knockers" but I cant find it.

[Japo]

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Demeanor @ Nov 4 2007, 07:03 PM) 318226</div>Btw, does anyone know where is the Freiberg Mines? I´ve searched everywhere, but I only managed to find one near another city that has nothing "wrong" going on. This mine in Freiberg is suposed to be having trouble with "Knockers" but I cant find it.[/b]
Are you sure the problems haven't "expired"? See if there are still rumours about it, they disappear if unattended for a long time.

PS: http://www.darklands.net/index.shtml

[Forfeit]

Every city I go its the same problem: the mines in Friedberg have problems.

And this mine I found isnt even near Friedberg: its near another city that had a dwarf with a relic in it.

[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):
___________________

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. :D

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!!! :)

[Guest_Mark_*]

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) 319513</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.php?showtopic=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...

[Luchsen]

Look into your CONFIG.SYS and delete the parameter NOEMS after DEVICE=C:\DOS\EMM386.EXE.

[The Fifth Horseman]

Exact text of the error and specs of the computer, please.
Also: are you running it directly from Windows or rebooting into DOS first?

[_r.u.s.s.]

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&safe=off&q=how+to+enable+ems+xms+memory+windows+98&btnG=Search
edit: wops, didn't see luschen's post. that should kinda work

[Slevin]

I've tried run it from DOS and Windows.



Darklands requires 590428 bytes (576k) of convenyional memory.
Your machine has only 564928 bytes (551k) of conventional memory.
Therefore, you need to free an additional 25500 bytes (24k).

[Luchsen]

Change all DEVICE in your CONFIG.SYS into DEVICEHIGH.

[Slevin]

It doesn't seems to work...

[_r.u.s.s.]

if you are not able to make the game work in windows 98, why won't you just use dosbox

btw you could also try using bootdisk from abandonia

[Slevin]

i've tried in win 98 AND in the DOS mode using a boot disk made with a program of abandonia (system_disk, i think). Keep showing the same error message.

[_r.u.s.s.]

i remember that in the windows or system directory, there is a .PIF file somewhere called "ms-dos games with support of EMS and XMS memory.pif" or something like that.

when you edit it (properties), there is a full description of how does it work. i don't have win 98 installed anywhere right now, so i can't tell

hope that helps

[The Fifth Horseman]

i've tried in win 98 AND in the DOS mode using a boot disk made with a program of abandonia (system_disk, i think). Keep showing the same error message.

Definitely not enough free memory in the first 640k.
You might want to modify the config.sys and autoexec.bat of the bootdisk to remove any extraneous drivers and devices.

I remember having a problem like that some years ago with Flashback. I've done some meddling with my autoexec and config, and got it to work, but can't remember the exact procedure (it's been six years ago).

[Slevin]

i remember that in the windows or system directory, there is a .PIF file somewhere called "ms-dos games with support of EMS and XMS memory.pif" or something like that.

when you edit it (properties), there is a full description of how does it work. i don't have win 98 installed anywhere right now, so i can't tell

hope that helps


I made it work! There really is a .pif file called "ms-dos games with support of EMS and XMS memory.pif", it was in the windows directory, so here is my newbie procedure:
i ran that file, and from this DOS mode i could only acess the files in the C:\Windows directory, and i dont know how to come back to C:\ (i mean, i dont know how to go to C:\ from C:\windows, or from C:\games\darklands
to C:\games), so i ctrl+c ctrl+v my darklands directory to C:\windows\games, and ran the game file. And it worked.

thanks everyone

[_r.u.s.s.]

"cd .." :)

[Slevin]

Uh..........:P

[Driderman]

I am having an issue with this game. I'm running it in dosbox, the version here from abandonia. Everything seems to be running smoothly, but after 10-15 minutes of play my game stalls and I have no option but to Ctrl+Alt+Delete to get back to my desktop.

Any suggestions on how to fix this, I'm really interested in playing this

[Mighty Midget]

First: Have you tried Alt + Enter to exit full screen mode, and then close the DosBox window?

Second: Have you experienced the same problem with other games via DosBox?

Third: (if no): Try disableing sound before launching the game, just to see if the game still freezes.

[Driderman]

Games run through dosbox usually works, I've been using it for years so I'm not a complete moron at it... Anymore :)

Okay, I can alt+enter as well, but that really doesn't help with game performance since it's still frozen...

Actually, I enabled sound and that has helped a bit :oh:

[Mighty Midget]

Umm, you ENABLED sound and it helped? Usually, it's the other way around... Anyway, looks like this is out of my league. Stick around and someone might be able to help :)

[Driderman]

Yes, I enabled sound and it helped. I was pretty surprised too. Just had another crash, but if it doesn't get worse than this I guess I can play it as it is

[_r.u.s.s.]

how did it "help a bit"? (you mean it freezes less frequently? or you never run it with sound when it freezed) then, what are your core and cycles settings?

[Driderman]

I enabled sound and now it rarely freezes. I'm cycling it at 12000 and have my dosbox set to dynamic core, if I remember correctly.

Anyone else by me think the copy protection on this game is a bit over the top? I mean, I have to consult the manual every 5 minutes or so...

[_r.u.s.s.]

try setting core to full and increasing cycles. sometimes cores make strange things

edit: oh, from dosbox site

Problems with 0.71
Note for DOSbox 0.72: The game freeze when you enter in combar mode. Play with DOSbox 0.70.

[Driderman]

That's about the only time during gameplay it HASN'T frozen. When I enter combat, that is... Anyway, game seems stable now, even though I haven't done anything. Maybe it just needed to get 'warmed up'

[Borodin]

Anyone else by me think the copy protection on this game is a bit over the top? I mean, I have to consult the manual every 5 minutes or so...

I've found it only happening 2-3 times, before it stops. Whether it pops up at all seems to vary from game to game. But you have to remember that back in the day, game copying was easy, but manual copying took some effort. (And Microprose typically made very full manuals!) So when somebody copied a game, you tried to find different ways around it, and this was a fairly harmless one.

Now, the copy protection I loathed was New World Computing's, that made you look up a page, sentence, and word from their manual, and input it to start a new game session.

[Driderman]

Well, maybe it's because I travel a lot with my band, but everytime I leave or enter a village, city or other spot on the main map, I need to pass the copy protection. At least it means I'm learning them quick.

When I was a kid, my father got me copies of the TSR Gold Box games. I've never fully understood the storylines of those games, since their copy-protection simply was that any plot-relevant exposition was written in the manual and when you got to that point it the game it simply told you what page to look up to get the info you needed. Didn't stop me completing both Champions Of Krynn and Death Knight Of Krynn though :laugh:

[Driderman]

Now this is odd. I got a quest to get some letters from "The merchant in Wismar" but I can't find him anywhere. I've visited all the merchants and craftsmen, every single location in the city I'm pretty sure, but no luck.

Edit: Ahh, sneaky sneaky. I seems I have to pay him a night visit...

[Borodin]

Now this is odd. I got a quest to get some letters from "The merchant in Wismar" but I can't find him anywhere. I've visited all the merchants and craftsmen, every single location in the city I'm pretty sure, but no luck.

Edit: Ahh, sneaky sneaky. I seems I have to pay him a night visit...

Yes, that's a common requirement for quests that involve some shady stealing. You have to enter the relevant merchant's store at night. Just a suggestion: I would avoid the quest. Quoting from the 124 page cluebook:

"Any failure or fighting invariably leads to a serious loss of reputation in the city. Defeat in battle can result in imprisonment.

"Once upstairs, you must break into the appropriate office. A character with good artifice skill and a set of lockpicks can sometimes do it. Otherwise you need either eater-water or thunderbolt potions, preferrably ones of high quality. Even if you get inside the room, there is still a good chance that the mere act of searching for the item will alert the guards.

"Sometimes you can escape from the upstairs with the item and without encountering the guards. Most frequently, though, you will be challenged by the guards. You then must fight past the guards, which sometimes means fighting has a bad effect on your local reputation.

"In general, unless you're very sneaky and skillful, this type of quest will seriously damage your reputation in the city."

Couldn't agree more.

[Driderman]

Well, I actually slipped through by pure luck more than skill, so it all worked all out

[Borodin]

Well, I actually slipped through by pure luck more than skill, so it all worked all out

Now, that's real luck. :D I wouldn't try pushing it too much, though!

The best strategy I've had with quests involves Raubritten. Simply put: when you find a group of nearby cities, see if any of them have a Raubritter quest going. With luck, you may even find 2, or 3 people in the same city looking for revenge on that same Raubritter.

Then go to the other cities surrounding that Raubritter, and see if they'll anty up for his destruction. I've made large sums of cash and items that way, very occasionally. And even when I didn't, I did make out much better than with the single quest/single quest assigner.

[red_avatar]

Those old copy protections were pretty annoying when overdone, I agree.

I bought Eye of Horus on a Prism budget label which came in a small plastic sleeve the size of a 3.5" disk, with the manual in tiny tiny print folded 10 ways or so (it was like 2 by 2 feet when unfolded) so each time I started the game I had to unfold the thing and really search hard. It used like font size 3 or so.

On the other hand, our copy protections we got now will only create serious problems in the future because they're hardware based. Look at the games of old that used hardware based protections: Lemmings, Yo! Joe!, etc. They have serious trouble running on modern systems so good thing we all have cracked versions of those.

Still, I loved code wheels and other ingenious copy protections that actually added value to the game. Sam & Max had you dress them up according to the manual for example.

[Robsie]

Hello,

I have a question regarding strength

So far to equip a bit more my party and get them better combat stats, i have hunted lots of bandits during the night and got additional money from selling the looted equipement.

Once i felt my warriors had enough, i left the city and roamed the countryside. I fought bandits, mercenaries and even boars and got even more loot and money.

Back into town, i sold back every loot and began to buy better weaponry that were out of my price range before.

Then, i was back into the hunt.
There i faced some more enemy and noticed that my party had more trouble. I noticed their strength were lower and lower after each fight.

So back to the city and i was basically resting days and days at the inn to get the strenght in a better shape.

I notice strength go up 1 point after each day spent in the inn.
Well, that's not exactly very good for my aging party, as they all have a strength over 30, and so they are wasting months (and lot of money in the inn) just to rest enough.


So here is my question :
Is there a way to heal the strenght faster without having to use potions ?

[Borodin]

So here is my question :
Is there a way to heal the strenght faster without having to use potions ?

Sure. Get one of your party trained up in Healing. (And only one. That does it for the entire party.) The higher the Healing rating, the more points get healed in strength/endurance per day. You can train Healing at many churches and all universities. There are also healers in many towns who will train you, but their quality differs. Be sure to have your best party healer examine the town healer before spending your coins.

[Robsie]

Thank you a very lot.
I had only 3 warriors in my party, now i perfectly know what kind of 4th will join them as soon as possible ;)

[Borodin]

Thank you a very lot.
I had only 3 warriors in my party, now i perfectly know what kind of 4th will join them as soon as possible ;)

You're welcome; glad to help.

Just as a suggestion--and feel free to disregard this--but my parties typically consist of:

A noble leader who has very good battle skills, is extremely charismatic, speaks and writes fluently, and is streetwise.

A master alchemist, with decent fighting skills.

A ex-abbess with high religion, virtue, and healing. Also, decent fighting skills.

A veteran campaigner who has excellent battle skills, and is decent at lockpicking.

Note that you many want to train your team to have at least 20 or so in religion. That way, even if you never train them in religion subsequently, when you donate large sums of money to a church of your choice, they all receive at least +1 to virtue. Less than 20, and a character receives nothing. With decent religion, they can increase virtue by +3 or more through each major donation.

[Robsie]

Thanks for the virtue hint, i only had my new hired healer and the party leader with a high enough religion skill.

For now, the healer allow my party to heal 2 strength points by day spent in the inn (better than the 1 from before his arrival). I will try to make him learn more for his skill when i will have more money.

So far my party is doing well, based at Posen, i recieved words that the removing of a specific Raubritter would do wonders for my troops.

As they progressed quite nicely in chasing thiefs, getting me a nice reputation in the Posen area, i tried to locate the enemy castle.

Finally, after some weeks of unsuccesfull searches but lots of looting on bandits corpses i finally found it in the north of near Bromberg.

Laying siege of it i got it out of external supply and added more enemy corpses under the castle walls.

Then finally the baron and hit last men attacked.
My party managed to get rid of the bandits, but when we got close to their baron , ouch.
Not only he was heavily armored and so very difficult to wound, but his blows made extremely short life of my 4 warriors (nearly 1 hit 1 dead considering they were not really in good shape already before this final battle).

Well, good thing i saved before :D

Changing tactics, my party climbed on the tower during the night and managed to assault the baron room.
It seems that guy sleep with his heavy armor, as he was in complete armor to recieve me.

The battle was really hard, despite my party was in a better shape than before, the baron knocked out 2 of my warriors (the healer, but this one was not very experienced and the "bow" woman that was not really used to fight in contact and that do not have a lot of endurance) before finally one of my very hurt guy landed the mortal blow.

My leader inherited from the superb plate armor and of the 2 hand big sword.

Too bad his strength is not yet enough as he carry now more than he can (does this has any incident on his fighting capacity ?) .

That's really an awesome piece of game, back in when Darkland was available in my country i was very busy with Arena then Daggerfall and so never got around playing it, but even now it is always a very enjoyable one.

Masterpieces like these seem to be able to stand the test of time as despite the very aged graphics, sounds and interface, you can always play it with great pleasure.

Recently i discovered a witch in her house , dispatched her wolves and knocked her out. To roleplay my devout party, i refused every of the choices and sent her to Posen to atone for her sins and abandon the witchcraft path.

This seems to have not be pleasant to whatever witchcraft authority as they dispatched the Wild Hunt just for me.

I avoided them once (i wonder if my recent fast horses helped, bought with the prize given by Posen for the baron removal) , then found them again on my path, but they were chasing a strange being.
Using my good "wood skilled" Heidi the "bow woman" i managed to lead them into a false prey.

The guy was in fact a naked hairy giant (a Schrat) and he was very happy (i thought i would have to fight him, as just before finding the witch, i was attacked by 4 of them, it was a though fight that got my healer KO again).

He gave me a fruit to eat, the leader being the bravest ate it... and his strength increased , great as he was carrying way too heavy equipment for him.

Unfortunately it is not exactly enough (2 points more would have been better) but that's always nice, especially from those big naked hairy giants that are not as nice when you meet them elsewhere.

Fantastic game.

[Borodin]

The Raubritter will usually wear platemail. This can't be penetrated by most weapons, so while those weapons hit, they don't do any damage. Edged weapons (swords, axes) won't touch it. These weapons will work:

Great Hammer
Giant Cudgel
Two-handed Flail
Composite Bow
Longbow
Crossbow
Arbalest
Iron and Brass Handguns

The great hammer is your best bet, because it gets through, does good damage, and has the best speed of the lot. The giant cudgel and two-handed flail are nearly as good, and the longbow will come in handy while somebody else is at melee. The handguns I'd forget. They take roughly 6 times as long to develop one shot. You should be able to buy a two-handed flail relatively cheaply, and great hammers are often awarded to parties that save attacked ships between towns.

[Robsie]

I destroyed my second raubritter always with 2 warriors in 2 handed swords, and the 2 other with long swords, i should have read your message earlier :D , as it was difficult to penetrate such armor (as this one unlike the 1st i killed was fully armored in plate), fortunately, my 4 warriors were on him and were experienced enough this time, and so the bonus to damage/penetration that occurs when you group attack on a single target helped greatly in taking down that baron.

Not only i got good looting and good equipment, but Posen gave me good money for getting rid of that maniac.

My party adventures have then taken a new turn, as i faced a second time the Wild Hunt. But this time no hidding, i wanted to test my now more experienced and improved party to see if they were fit to their "local heroes" title around Posen.

4 hell hounds attacked, but my warriors prevailed and got rid of those monsters with few wounds and no party member loss.

Again, an happy to be saved Schart (naked hairy giant) gave me another strength enhancer fruit.
It allowed my leader to finally has enough strength in comparison to what he was carrying (being in full plate + 2 handed sword).

I met a strange place while roaming the nearby country, that seemed to be some evil witchcraft worship place and cleaned it after destroying the wolves guarding it.

I guess it did not helped my reputation with the wiches leaders ;) , but that was a lesson for sending their Wild Hunt to try killing my party members.

After some months, the Wild Hunt catched my guys again in the wilderness.
Confident in the abilities of my troopers , they bravely faced the hounds... but there was no hound this time, in the place of those failure as hunters, there was the huge Hunter itself.

He was alone, and his horned appearance was not frightening my brave warriors, the battle was terrible, the hunter was extremely strong and knocked out 3 of my experienced troopers, only the leader was staying on his foot, heavily wounded.

Finally, the hunter was destroyed , but it was incredibly close ... and surprising to see my troopers falling that quick despite heavy armors and better combat skills, it reminded me of the 1st raubritter battle, in which my troops was inexperienced and had no heavy protection and was falling that quickly in front of the madman blows.

It was a miracle none of the 3 fallen warriors of my party were killed, so i could get them back while running to Posen with my horses for healing.

This bought me some time, as the Wild Hunt will return as long i continue to ignore the witches threats.
But now the witchcraft leaders made my party seriously angry, soon we will give them a visit they will not forget ;)

[Japo]

Whoah that was awfully unlikely, that the Wild Hunter lived to knock down all your men but one, and then didn't live to knock the last one.

By the way exploring those pagan sites guarded by wolves is pointless. I don't want to spoil anything but the key to the witches lies elsewhere... (Maybe you've found already.)

[Robsie]

In fact the Wild Hunter knocked down all my warriors that were not in full plate (despite one of those 3 had a upper armor in plate though, got from the 1st raubritter i removed from power) at an incredible speed i must say (even the 1st raubritter did not knocked down my troops as quick when my party was even less armored and experienced)

The last man standing was my leader that had the full plate armor from the second raubritter i got rid of (and the higher edged weapon skill too).

But even if he was victorious, he was very close to eat the dirt himself as each of the blows of the Wild Hunter were very damaging.

Attacking every witchcraft worship place and the wolves guarding them had some kind of impact actually : getting my warriors weapon skills higher ;)

In term of progress, i am satisfied with the achievements of my party.

Finally, the heroes can read, as before they always asked Posen townfolks to help them understand what was wrote on each news boards.

The monks were greatly helpfull in making the brains of those proud warriors functionning in a better way with long teachings sessions while the party was taking residence in the inn.

"Heidi the bow woman" is now very capable of fending through bandits, in the early days of our adventures she was really terrible at this basically she was running around when some enemy targeted her, only her bow accuracy and wilderness knowledge (and charisma) were helping the party in specific situations.

Money does not seem to be a problem anymore when sleeping or healing at the inn, taking out 2 raubritter certainly was a righteous fight, but the result was in righteous amount of florins :D

The tales of those unknow local heroes will soon spread through that haunted german land, at least if those brave warriors survive long enough to tell them ;)

[Japo]

Of course the Wild Hunter is a more powerful foe than a raubritter, for me raubritter are, at the start of the adventure, (unwilling) providers of armor, primarily, :P so no wonder that they're possible to take on with medium armour, otherwise they'd be impossible to take on at all.

However once all your guys and gals have full plate or plate/chain, not even the Wild Hunter will be able to score on them when he's banded by the four at the same time. Well I guess weapon skills are a factor too, but they go up fast and armour's a bigger factor, armour's crucial in this game as I've said before...

[Borodin]

The Wild Hunter does seem somewhat underpowered, once you've goten a few healing potions and fitted up at least one party member with plate. I just put them slightly forward and allow them to absorb the brunt of the attack, while bringing in the rest of my party from the sides. This works equally well if you've summoned a demon at a magical clearing to cleanse it.

[Japo]

Magic is such a poor substitute for iron... :P When I said "score" I didn't mean "kill", but "hit" at all. If the four are in plate and they band forward, none of them will lose a single point of STR against 9 out of 10 Wild Hunters.

[OBMiT]

I actually read a lot of good things about this game, but never got around to playing it.. Maybe some day..

[Borodin]

Magic is such a poor substitute for iron... :P When I said "score" I didn't mean "kill", but "hit" at all. If the four are in plate and they band forward, none of them will lose a single point of STR against 9 out of 10 Wild Hunters.

The problem (as I see it) with having a character in plate is that if they do take a couple of hits, you have to remove the plate and substitute something else. That's assuming they already have the highest allowable strength and endurance combination based on the start of the game. (It's possible to go a pointhigher, later, thanks to an event.)

What's more, if you have a character who can wear plate, then they have to sacrifice something else to get all that strength and endurance. Because if you want an effective alchemist or cleric type, you'll be trading off against strength and endurance--both when you select attributes, and when you decide the length of training that your character goes through before starting out on the world. Sure, you can send on an alchemist with next to no skills. It's just going to be very, very hard to make them amount to anything, in my opinion.

[Japo]

Firstly, from my experience with heavy laden characters and from what the manual itself says, the disadvantages of being so are negligible on their own (since Agility is worthless), and of course compared to the dire disadvantages of not being fully armoured. I did complete the game with four guys in full plate, and of course one of them was an alchemist, another one a cleric, and the other a non-academic "PR" representative, and none of them could be improve further in these fields since long before ending the game. No doubt they couldn't have as much Str and End as the other warrior guy when created, but enough to be no more than heavy laden if in full plate and even somewhat injured. It's not hard to find this spot during character creation. It's only that for an alchemist for instance, in my opinion Str and End are still more important than any other attribute except Int; at least that will make an able warrior of him, without making him any less of an alchemist.

Secondly, when a character is so heavily wounded that he goes from heavily laden to more grievous penalties, even though I don't use magic that much, then of course he's reached the point where healing potions or saints are called for. (Besides if I recall correctly potions heal more points the lower Str and End are, so it's better to wait until characters have serious wounds to heal them.) That's how I see it, combat potions are too expensive when compared with the far more effective approach of four ironclad axe-throwing men, but on the other hand Essence O'Grace and healing saints sure are useful (indispensable in dungeons). And if magic weren't available for some reason then it's of course time to rest.

And as for Alchemy, once you have money it can be improved in no time (same as other skills), and before you have money you won't be able to buy lots of ingredients after all, and you can pray to a saint that increases Alch big time (who were for me some of the most useful saints until the later stages of the game). As I said in my long post, my alchemist had exactly 20 at the start of the game (if I remember right), since that's apparently the minimum rating that you need to even find an alchemist in town to exchange formulas for free. Once you have Alch 20, for a would-be alchemist Speak Common is actually more important, since it can't be raised through study unlike Alch, and it gives a bonus when dealing with town alchemists. When creating a future alchemist it's of course more important the Int attribute than the Alch skill, since the latter can be increased until 99 if you have the money, but the former is immovable. If you add 20 to the bonus that the best alchemist saints provide, you have a decent rating until you can pay for Alch lessons.

The same applies to weapon skills of course, you don't need very high initial values in any of your starting characters, since they will go up relatively fast--and for free, unlike Alch.

[Mousazz]

I don't get it, what is the "questions & answers" extra? did it came with the darkland box, or what?

[Japo]

The only thing I've read is the PDF manual you can download from here, what Q&A do yoy mean?

Oh by the way, I forgot to say that another reason why I can afford the weight of full plate is because I don't use shields--which weight a ton and besides would force me to use puny one-handed weapons--nor bows nor handguns--they aren't worth the cumbersomeness compared to handy thrown axes, 2-5 of which take down a lightly armoured thug if thrown with high skill, and to gain skill you just need to practice with them in actual combal.

[Mousazz]

The only thing I've read is the PDF manual you can download from here, what Q&A do yoy mean?

Oh by the way, I forgot to say that another reason why I can afford the weight of full plate is because I don't use shields--which weight a ton and besides would force me to use puny one-handed weapons--nor bows nor handguns--they aren't worth the cumbersomeness compared to handy thrown axes, 2-5 of which take down a lightly armoured thug if thrown with high skill, and to gain skill you just need to practice with them in actual combal.
Well it's an extra, it's actually called "puzzles & answers".

Also, my trick, is, if you made superb characters or are playing quickplay, to sometimes attack and plunder one city, and destroy that one city all the time. The guard's chain mail can be sold for quite a profit!

[Japo]

Well it's an extra, it's actually called "puzzles & answers".

Your best bet for these extras is www.replacementdocs.com, there are four downloads for Darklands (http://www.replacementdocs.com/search.php?q=darklands&r=0&s=Search&in=&ex=&ep=&be=&t=downloads&adv=0), and one of them is a cluebook (http://www.replacementdocs.com/download.php?view.4722). I've tried and downloaded it, it has a section called "Puzzles and Answers", but that's 20 pages and the whole document is around 120. :)

Also, my trick, is, if you made superb characters or are playing quickplay, to sometimes attack and plunder one city, and destroy that one city all the time. The guard's chain mail can be sold for quite a profit!

I never got to be so evil, :D but at the start of the game I liked to try and evade the guards when caught outside at night in order to train my skills, but most times the clumsiest of my characters wouldn't pass the check and we'd get caught again, and besides having to pay anyway (or fight), I discovered that this reduces local population greatly.

[Robsie]

As it is out of question in my roleplaying of the "good" current party i am guiding in their adventures, i can't test for now.

But as einartass mention evil deeds, i wonder if you play "evil" characters is it possible to actually destroy a city/village/hamlet, or conquer it a bit like what you can do to those raubritter ?

If it is possible, i think once my "good" party will end their heroic adventures, my next run with new warriors walking on the Darkland world will be a rather busy one.

[Borodin]

But as einartass mention evil deeds, i wonder if you play "evil" characters is it possible to actually destroy a city/village/hamlet, or conquer it a bit like what you can do to those raubritter ?

If by evil, you mean a separate path that is purely selfish and allows you to conquer towns and villages, and ultimately make a deal with the other evil forces in the game, then the answer is no. There is no path like that in the game, unlike, say, Fallout 2. You can't side with the bad guys under any circumstances. You can either attempt to kill them, or be killed, or ignore the various quests you're offered.

[Robsie]

Too bad, it would have been nice to replay the game in a complete different mindset with different goals and allies. I will try to roleplay it in my next run, even if the game mechanism will make it difficult.

About the party, my current one is more focused on melee than anything else, is it viable ?
Can you have such melee only / magic only / etc.. only kind of party ingame without being definitively blocked at some point of the game or do you really need variation in the members ?

I imagine a magic-only would have a very very hard time with the early night encounters in town.

[Borodin]

A melee-only party would find life very difficult, almost impossible. While you can get by without alchemy (though it's tough), doing without prayers is much more difficult. They are important in a large range of situations including some that advance the plot. It can be done, but I don't think it would be very enjoyable, given the problems you'll face longterm.

[Robsie]

Thanks this will avoid me to stay stuck on the game when those situations you mention will occur to me, i will try to improve my characters non melee abilities before going to far.
Good i have lot of money to leave them study in cities.

[Borodin]

Just as a suggestion, have one character focus on religion and healing, and another, on alchemy. Initially, get the one focusing on virtue to focus on religion; later, all your characters should learn more. Religion will allow characters to gain more virtue every time you tithe a great deal. (It's something like 4 florins.) With a religion below 20, a character gains no virtue. With a religion above 60, a character gains 3 virtue for every large donation to a church.

Use some of that money to see if you can find an alchemist willing to sell your character with the best alchemy value an improvement on his/her philosopher's stone. Once purchased, it's a great boost to the likelihood of making potions--and making them safely.

[Robsie]

I will try to get my leader focusing on religion as he seems to have the best scores in related skills.

My "bow woman" is unfortunately showing me that bows are not exactly as great as a weapon as i thought, dealing few damage and missing often despite her skill with them is now rather high.
I will get her going to the alchemy path instead, it may prove more usefull as you say later with potions.

[Borodin]

My "bow woman" is unfortunately showing me that bows are not exactly as great as a weapon as i thought, dealing few damage and missing often despite her skill with them is now rather high.
I will get her going to the alchemy path instead, it may prove more usefull as you say later with potions.

Bows are decent enough, but this isn't Baldur's Gate. ;) Be sure to eventually get bows for all your people, because with some skill they can concentrate and take down one or two charging enemies when sheer numbers are against them. And numbers of attackers are important in Darklands, since the more you have on a single person, the worse the defenses, and the less likely that person has of landing a return attack. You can even take down a raubritter in plate with four characters, none of whom has a weapon with penetrative value. That's an extreme example, but true.

[Robsie]

My "bow woman" has a bow skill at 42 , and she manage to land a hit only each 4 or 5 encounters (when i say "hit" i don't mean damages, i mean the arrow actually not flying over the target missing it completely). My other party members have this skill at less than 10.

So certainly bow may not be as good as they can be in another game, but if 1 specialist at skill 42 can't hit an elephant in a corridor, i doubt the other a very lot less skilled can be anything usefull.

Because the problem is not the bow damage in that game, it is the frequency of hits, bow would actually usefull considering their decent damage ... if they hit more. The added bonus of multiple hits on a single target may be nice (as my party took down already 2 raubritters by focusing the 4 party members on him despite his full plate), but if nothing is hitting it is not usefull.

At her current bow skill 42, my "bow woman" can manage 2 shots before the target is in contact, and that if the target is a slow human, monsters are way more quick to come in CQC.

[Borodin]

So certainly bow may not be as good as they can be in another game, but if 1 specialist at skill 42 can't hit an elephant in a corridor, i doubt the other a very lot less skilled can be anything usefull.

42 is actually about average. It's not an exceptional score. Try her again at 80, and see the difference.

But in any case, Darklands factors in distance, unless many other games. It's best to have four moderately decent archers focus on one attacker at close range, than each focusing on a separate target at distant range. You'll do a lot of damage, that way, and usually be able to take out one attacker beforehand. Possibly two, if everybody in your group is well seasoned in the skill.

Because the problem is not the bow damage in that game, it is the frequency of hits, bow would actually usefull considering their decent damage ... if they hit more.

I think it would be rather unrealistic, myself. Archers need to pause and aim. In real life, archers have only been killing machines when they fired en masse at armored foes. A single archer shouldn't be able to take out someone running over the terrain in decent armor. Bows in Darklands take a supporting role in combat, which was the intent of the developers.

At her current bow skill 42, my "bow woman" can manage 2 shots before the target is in contact, and that if the target is a slow human, monsters are way more quick to come in CQC.

Two shots is about right. When her skill gets higher, she'll frequently score hits on both shots. But even at 96 (which is as high as I've ever gotten a character using the bow), they've never managed any accuracy at a distance that would permit 3 shots on an enemy.

[Robsie]

Interesting, i never suspected that the game was sophisticated enough to take distance in account for the bow usage.

I will change the behaviour of my bow woman and will have her wait a bit more before firing the 1st arrow.

Thanks for pointing this, if distance is a part of the shot accuracy calculation, knowing this will certainly improve her usefullness.

I thought 42 was high as a bow skill because it took her nearly forever to reach this, but as she missed tons of shots because i never thought the game used distance in the calculations, that may be why her skill has improved so slowly.

If she can now land more arrows on target after waiting for it to be nearer, her bow skill should improve quicker.

I think it would be rather unrealistic, myself. Archers need to pause and aim. In real life, archers have only been killing machines when they fired en masse at armored foes. A single archer shouldn't be able to take out someone running over the terrain in decent armor. Bows in Darklands take a supporting role in combat, which was the intent of the developers.

In middle age, bows were an incredibly effective weapon, but only because in the middle age the bow tactic was not to fire directly at the target advancing to your lines, but use the "dark rain" tactic, this way shields used frontally became useless .

When William the Conqueror fought the english and conquered their lands, this was his tactic of choice, and when his army went in contact with their opposition in Hastings, this one was already very decimated by the dark rain.

Heavy armor was a problem in later middle age for bows ... but heavy armor was an even bigger problem for the soldier wearing it :
Slow sword/axes attacks and defenses, very exhaustive movement if not on a horse, very limited vision.
And if the horse was killed, like in the battle of Azincourt in which the english bows killed most of the french heavy armored knights horses that were slow moving in the very wet ground, that was leaving the knights stuck incapable to move on their heavy plates while their very light armored opponent just had to come and kill them.

If RPG were really modelled about realism, in Darkland you would really not want to wear plate armor ;)

[milieu]

I haven't played in a while, but missile weapons always worked well for me. The regular short bow is not very effective. You definitely want to upgrade it to the long bow, or, better still, a high quality compound bow.

Crossbows and guns penetrate armor better and do more damage, but they are a lot slower to reload.

Even with a good bow, it will take several hits to down an opponent. If they are unarmored, you can kill with one shot, especially with the guns. Heavily armored opponents are not going to be killed, but you can at least weaken them before the melee begins.

I usually have each party member fire at someone different, unless there's a particularly dangerous opponent that I want to really hurt.

Be sure that your party has a line of sight! Sometimes they will be blocked, either by other party members, or by terrain, and they will stand and wait for a clear shot. Watch what they are doing, and if they start standing still, pause the game and check. I believe the target icon changes to a broken target if they don't have LOS.

I usually have half my group with bows, to take advantage of the higher rate of fire. The other half use crossbows or guns until the enemy is right upon them. Then everyone switches to melee weapons.

Your alchemist needs to learn how to make the Stone-tar potion, and carry as many as possible. Fire that off right away, and put it directly in the enemy path and it will slow the enemy charge to a crawl.

If RPG were really modelled about realism, in Darkland you would really not want to wear plate armor
Actually...you don't. ;) I learned this mistake the hard way. Unless your character is unbelievably strong, you do not want them wearing full plate mail. You'll see it right away too...your character will barely be able to move, and their melee strikes go way down.

Even the strongest characters are better off with plate for the vitals, and mail on the arms and legs. My alchemist characters rarely have the strength for anything more than a mail shirt, and usually leather for the limbs. Otherwise, they are encumbered and slowed down too much.

[Borodin]

Actually...you don't. ;) I learned this mistake the hard way. Unless your character is unbelievably strong, you do not want them wearing full plate mail. You'll see it right away too...your character will barely be able to move, and their melee strikes go way down.

Success to hit does not increase or decrease, depending upon armor type. On the other hand, if your character is over-encumbered at any time--whatever armor they may be wearing--then their to-hit score will decline. Maybe that was what you saw with plate. Since it weighs so much, it's the first armor that's going to encumber a character. I don't even give full plate to my one character that has typically maxed out strength and endurance. There's just too much chance of a wound in battle that takes endurance down below the encumbrance threshold.

[urgent26]

DARN, I was not able to download this for the longest time - freaked out when my last PC died with all the abandonware that I collected.

I'm a pure melee believer in this, although the potions do work magic.

[Borodin]

DARN, I was not able to download this for the longest time - freaked out when my last PC died with all the abandonware that I collected.

I'm a pure melee believer in this, although the potions do work magic.

Don't neglect the value of prayer. While melee works in, well, battle, prayer works extremely well in situations: events that occur along the road, certain sites, and situations where your people suddenly find themselves up against much more powerful forces of Evil (with a capital E). Then, you need that divine support. I'd go so far as to say that there are's at least one instance where you can't win without prayer.

Think: charbroiled.

[Vinius]

Hope you folks can help me out. I downloaded and got the game running. However, I can't get the save menu option to become selectable. It's grayed out, even when camping or at an inn. Any thoughts on what might be causing this? I'm using Vista and running it through DOSBox. I think the directory it's in is actually spelled 'DARKLANDS'. Is it possible the long file name is the issue?

Thank you.

[dosraider]

1) rename it to drklands or so ....

2) On Vista it's advisable to mount a virtual C: that's located in your own folders, otherwise dosbox will be denied writing rights to your virtual C
Example:
c:\users\your name\oldgames
your game folder then should be:
c:\users\your name\oldgames\drklands\
Mount line becomes:
mount c "c:\users\your name\oldgames"
c:
cd drklands

3)I would even advise to install dosbox IN your personal folder, avoids all kinds of problems editing dosboxconf and such ....

[Robsie]

After losing my characters in a streak of unlucky battles, i am starting anew.

But this time i am trying the roleplay a lonesome hero. After getting my character "club-ing" bandits inside of his starting town, i begin to wonder.

I noticed the enemy party size is related to my own, as my hero is so far facing enemy party of .... 1 bandit each.

So does that game adaptation continue all along the gameworld, or is solo-ing an impossible task at some point and the enemy will be too numerous at a same time ?

On a 1 on 1 battle scale i imagine already solo-ing a Raubritter will be insanely difficuly if done early, as in my previous games even with a 4 characters party, before they began to have stronger armors, a completely armored Raubritter was often be able to kill my party all by himself, unless i was extremely lucky.

[Japo]

I never knew enemy party size is related to your own, always played with four. I don't know if that goes for bandits or applies elsewhere--probably it applies to goons at most, not to bosses. Anyway some enemies are impossible to beat without outnumbering them. Raubritters for example but even they're not the most powerful. And the first time you face a raubritter, you'll have far inferior armour, and one on one that means death; unless you bought yours, but I don't know how could you come across that kind of money without killing raubritters, or how long could it take.

[Borodin]

A party of one could probably beat a raubritter if they came armed with several potions. But if they had the potions, they'd be a pretty decent alchemist, and that means sacrificing combat skills--so it would be tough, at best. Party of two could handle it, for what that's worth.

[Japo]

A party of one could probably beat a raubritter if they came armed with several potions. But if they had the potions, they'd be a pretty decent alchemist, and that means sacrificing combat skills--so it would be tough, at best. Party of two could handle it, for what that's worth.

Even thus, how long would it take him to get the ingredients or the money to buy them, and what's more with a one man party? http://www.reloaded.org/forum/style_emoticons/default/New-santa.png

[Borodin]

I was just pointing out that raubritters aren't that incredibly tough if your party, whatever it's size, comes well prepared. The main problem is their armor, but there are ways to counter that, both magical (potions) and mundane (the right weapons, or multiple simultaneous attacks).

[KapuAaka]

This game does not seem to want to load for me. It always closes at the menu. :(

[Borodin]

Are you using DOSBox?

[Pex]

Of all the games I got from abandonia so far, this is the one I've been playing the most.

I used to play the game a lot back in 90s and I have to admit it didn't loose any of it charm since then. Ok, graphics are obviously poor for nowdays standards, but everything else is still there - gameplay, exploration, quests, fun.

Unfortunately, the main fault I find in the game still stands (and why shouldn't it? ;) ) - the lack of classic character levels or something similar that is typical for most of RPGs. What I miss the most is some increas in hit points, which here don't exist in the same way. I know that weapon skills (and all the other) increase the more you use them, but strength and endurance don't. You can buy your character the best equipment (though unless they have high strength and endurance in the first place, they will be under heavy load if you try to put plate armour on them), but when outnumbered by a group of enemies that are of above average quality, they will fare pretty much the same as they would've when you started the game. I was painfully reminded of that the other day when I tried to destroy dwarves in a mine.

I guess that making more healing potions would do the trick, but if it was a real situation, the reward wouldn't have been enough to cover the price of the potions/components.

[jowell]

This game is truly innovative for it's time. Thanks to you guys I was able to relive this game. :) I think the system is pretty logical, as you get older, endurance and strength decreases but skill increases, so it's up to you if you want to keep the old characters (with lower strength and endurace but compensated with high skills) or create new ones in the inns and get fresh young characters. The difficult parts of the quests are probably dragon hunting and Bahomet. I love finding villages I can accuse of witchraft... :P

[WayAbvPar1]

So glad I found this place and this game (again). I have played a bit using both DOSBox .72 and then tried D-Fend Reloaded (which is a front end UI for DOSBox). I can play for a few minutes, but eventually everything freezes and I have to hard reboot my PC to get out of it. I have never gotten any sound to work either. I have tinkered with the different SB settings (sbpro, sb16, etc) through D-Fend but haven't found anything that works.

Anyone have any advice? I see that earlier in the thread someone mentioned disabling sound- I will give that a try to see how that works. Also see that there is a new DOSBox release today, so maybe that will help too. I would really like to get be able to play AND hear it at the same time, but I will suffer with silence as long as I don't get freezes too often.

Running this on a WinXp Pro SP2 box with onboard sound (no separate soundcard).

[Japo]

everything freezes and I have to hard reboot my PC to get out of it.

Update your drivers (graphic and sound).

DOSBox is a simple app that contains no drivers and so is simply unable to cause what you mention on its own.

[The Fifth Horseman]

Try running DOSBox without D-Fend. Frontends sometimes add their own compatibility issues on top of the emulator they are controlling.

[WayAbvPar1]

I installed DosBox .73 and ran it that way. 2+ hours of gameplay with no crashes, no freezes, and no sound :) I can live with that.

[nami88]

Try running DOSBox without D-Fend. Frontends sometimes add their own compatibility issues on top of the emulator they are controlling.
I'm running it perfectly fine in D-Fend Reloaded, DOSbox version .73.

Anyways I have a quick question: I know you can press F8 to camp on the world map, but the manual says you can also camp by selecting "camp" from the party pulldown menu.

Now my party menu only shows "party info" and "change marching order" on the map, yet I can still camp by pressing F8. Anyone know why it doesn't appear in the menu?

[abuassad]

say. does anyone have pages 27 & 49 of the DL manual? Thank you.
:thumbs:

[nami88]

say. does anyone have pages 27 & 49 of the DL manual? Thank you.
:thumbs:
I found this on another site:
http://www.megaupload.com/?d=M3I23RYV

It's a better quality manual, with actually legible pictures. The text is not searchable though, I don't know how to make it a separate layer.

If someone wants to clean this up and fix the text, you can add it to the extras for this game.

[abuassad]

Originally Posted by nami88:
I found this on another site:
http://www.megaupload.com/?d=M3I23RYV

Thank you very much! :3:

[jasonmloh]

Darklands Top Ten List

10 All robber knights look the same ( Always with an eye patch )

9 You don't lose health or endurance for not sleeping for a week

8 You don't lose health or endurance for not eating for a week

7 Whenever a street urchin picks your pocket you are the one that goes to jail ( crime does pay )

6 Merchants will never run out of stock ( They always seem to know how much you can buy )

5 Lockpicks are extremely durable ( they don't break )

4 The number of thugs in every city at night is four ( extra members not accepted until your party is much stronger )

3 Grumpy alchemists will threaten to turn you into toads ( apparently they have something against toads )

2 All the witches you defeat will have blonde hair ( they don't have hair color products during those times )

1 Whenever you encounter pilgrims they always have been beset by bandits twice

Have fun :thumbs:
________
BBW Webcams (http://www.girlcamfriend.com/webcam/bbw/)

[Katana_Geldar]

I have been reading through this thread about people saying agility is useless, it actually isn't as there are some "fetch quests" that you can only accomplish by climbing up a rope to get it.

The tombs can only be cleared by a relic or calling on a saint to cleanse it, as touching it will mean a dungeon crawl with skeletons (I am not making this up!)

[RRS]

Darklands Top Ten List
2 All the witches you defeat will have blonde hair

I always thought witches have black or red hair :3:

[Borodin]

I have been reading through this thread about people saying agility is useless, it actually isn't as there are some "fetch quests" that you can only accomplish by climbing up a rope to get it.

That's if you want to do fetch quests. They often turn cities against you, and I've never seen the wisdom of getting someone an object they want in exchange for losing a potential source of major income.

Besides, if you require agility, you can always pray for it. Quite a few saints increase it temporarily.

[Katana Geldar]

The fetch quests are not so bad when you are low level and a way to get more money than beating up street thugs

[Borodin]

The fetch quests are not so bad when you are low level and a way to get more money than beating up street thugs

How do you mean, "Not so bad when you're low level?"

The way to get good money is to accept a Raubritter quest, then go around to every city in the area and see if the various merchants or houses will offer to pay for the same quest. I've had as many as 5 quests in 3 different cities going at the same time on a single Raubritter. Pray for agility, climb in his window, and attack the guy: you're done. Not only to do get huge sums of money this way, but you also get increases to reputation--and that means a greater chance that more merchants will come up with quests.

[kmkz]

DARKLANDS IS A GREAT GAME AND IS NOT ENDLESS
it seems endless but is not, the main quest apears later on, not at the start of the game. you must raise your fame to learn of the main quest, you will get a vision giving you clues and tou will notice that PREVENT THE APOCALIPSE IS THE MAIN QUEST, while the time passes on and you get fame also, the enemy (any force that worship satan) will get stronger(for example at some time demons will hunt you when you are in the wilderness). the secret to the main quest also can be found at the satanic hamlets.

[kmkz]

ah, also you must raise your skills, virtue is important, to learn about the main quest, also exist a castle where a magician woman gives you clues but i found it accidentaly, the game is filled with side quest and the main quest is somehow hidden because the main quest is too hard, if you want to end the game you must have a full and balanced skilled party, wear powerfull weapons and armor or holy weapons), have a big stock of potions and a the aid of the saints. try first the dragon quest and the knockers quest, if you cannot handle these then you will be crushed like a bug if you take the main quest, and since EXIST A MAIN QUEST THIS GAME DESERVES A 5 OF 5.

[darklandsfan]

I can't seem to get the game to run. when I unzip the file I get a directory called darklands with 644 files in it. in this directory is a darkland.exe but when I run it, nothing happens. I also ran the install.exe but it ends up at a screen where it asks me to insert a floppy to install from. how do I get the tame to start? thanks

[Saccade]

Are you running this tame from Windows explorer (ie, "my computer") or are you, as is said in the FAQ's, readme's, etc... playing it using an essential piece of software:

Dosbox (http://www.dosbox.com)?

You need Dosbox to play 95% of the tames here at Abandonia.com...
one of our Dosbox guides (http://www.abandonia.com/vbullet/showthread.php?t=17476)

If you're still having problems and you *are* using Dosbox, it may be worthwhile starting a thread in "Troubleshooting" (http://www.abandonia.com/vbullet/forumdisplay.php?f=11) to get help.

Of course, you will probably have to sign up, if you haven't already...
We're having problems with the automated system atm, so you can apply here and we'll do it manually for you :D
Registration Requests (http://www.abandonia.com/vbullet/forumdisplay.php?f=140)

[calenth]

Found this forum in a google search for Darklands info. What a great game! I can still remember when the ads for this came out back when I was in grade school, then playing the game in high school . .seems like every five years or so I get an itch for it again.

I do my party setup a little different from what most other people seem to -- anyone have any thoughts?

1) I find it's very useful, especially for mines, to have my first party member be an artificer with high perception. If you start Town Trades family ****Journeyman Craftsman **** Master Craftsman, you can start with fairly high artifice skill (~40), high perception, and good strength and endurance; if you add 5 years of Travelling Merchant, he'll start out with chainmail armor and still be under 30.

2) I like to combine my religious character with my charisma speaker. The two front line fighters need Str and End; religion doesn't need an attribute, so it combines well with the charisma person, who's going to have lower str/end than your front line fighters.

A few additional points:

1) You can move items between party members in the equipment screen by selecting the item then typing the destination member's party #. You can also move a whole stack of items (like 40 zinken or whatever) by shift-clicking and dragging to the party member's icon.

2) Nurnburg does have the best overall armor and weapon quality, at 37, but it doesn't have a full selection -- for example, it only sells plate limb armor, not vital armor. The best plate vital armor I could find was from Nancy, at 36, but it's way off on the left side of the map and may not be worth the journey; Dresden sells 34 quality full suits and is more centrally located. Teschen has great quality short bows and crossbows but no compound or long bows; Leer has quality arbalests. The best melee weapons overall are from Paderborn, at 38 quality, but the tinker's shop in Dresden sells polearms and great hammers at 39 quality. The best source overall for weapons is saving merchant caravans, which can give 43+ quality handguns, bows, and great hammers. I've seen rumours of 37 quality throwing knives but I've been unable to find them. It is worth it to invest in quality weapons because they aren't damaged by acid or fire, but armor, eh.

3) It's worth it to reroll your starting alchemist a few times until you get one that starts with Essence of Grace. Whoever talks to the alchemist when you ask to trade formulae gets the new formula, so make sure your alchemist does the talking in that shop.

4) Anyone in your party, regardless of other stats, can pick up religion, virtue, and saints and do reasonably well with 'em; it pays to spread saints out since DF takes so long to regenerate. Just have everyone train religion up a bit (fairly cheap and easy to do). Edward the Confessor can boost everyone in the party's virtue up to 20 but you'll need one virtuous person to pray to him first.

5) For party composition, I like having a bunch of 30 year olds, for the sweet spot between stats and skills -- an apprentice craftsman/master craftsman/recruit with 39/39 str/end and perception and high artifice for my combat/dungeon leader, a 43/43 str fighter who can wear full plate, a courtier/captain/knight for charisma and combat and some religion/virtue, and a student/alchemist/master alchemist with 40 int and the rest, again, to str/end. That'll get you a party where everyone can get away with wearing at least plate vital armor, if not plate limb armor (plate limbs are heavier than plate vitals).

6) I found a copy of the Darklands clue book online, and it's worth reading. Turns out penetration is key for weapons (this means great hammers are a great weapon), shields just give a defensive skill bonus (good when low skill, somewhat redundant and useless weight when high skill).

7) Superb horses are so worth it.

8) When fighting the wilderness alchemist, duck behind trees so he can't get a line of sight to throw potions at you.

9) Don't mix high risk potions in the inn of towns where you've ground up reputation just so you could use the university.

10) in the mine where you retrieve the relic, don't spend two hours carefully searching past each wall for secret doors when you can't find the relic. It'll just appear in your inventory after killing one or another of the baddies, without telling you it's done so.

11) use boar tusks or clothing to "stop' the bottom of your "i don't want to sell this stuff" inventory and keep your sale stuff below that.

[arete]

You can't edit posts unless you're registered :)

And if you do register, you get to randomly post trivia in our chatbox with us to while away the time...

I can join your two posts if you like. And if you need anything, do not hesitate to scream! :fangs:

*scream in background*
Coming!! We are so busy! :D

[Calenth2]

Yeah, I tried to register but I think the emails are hitting a spam filter or something. You can merge 'em if you want but then our conversation won't make sense! :P

There are a few errors in the above posts -- after starting a few more games, Nurnberg's armor selection is semi-random, and sometimes it does have full plate sets.

I also think I've figured out the "powergamiest" builds possible, though others may disagree. Oblate/Oblate/Oblate seems to be the strongest possible starting alchemist build, since you avoid the str/end penalties from alchemist/master alchemist and still can start with 43 int at age 30, 3 formulas, and enough alch skill to get somewhere. I like that character from a roleplaying perspective too -- a fallen monk, seduced by the alchemical sciences . . .

For a charisma/speaker character, you can start with 39/39 str/end, 34 Chr, and 41 starting speak common at age 30 by going a fairly bizarre route -- nobility birth, travelling merchant, noble heir, knight. I'm still sortof trying to figure that one out from a roleplay perspective.

With healing, if you're limiting yourself to 30 year olds, I don't think you can start with a character that has 30 healing and thus enough to heal 2/day, since healing breaks every 15 points as best I can figure out so far (you might be able to with Physician, but that character wouldn't be good for anything else). On the other hand, a laborer/laborer/recruit can start with 15+ healing and heal just as well as anyone else would. So that gives your 43/43 Ox character something to study while everyone else is training alchemy or whatever. Also hard to make sense of in roleplay terms though (I like to imagine he just got sick of work accident injuries all the time and started collecting folk remedies).

As an aside, I'm really enjoying that the sweet spot for age in Darklands is 30-35. Makes me feel not quite so old when I think about how long it's been since I first played this game :P

[arete]

You shouldn't need to have an email - as far as I know they don't send them anyway. This forum's been borky for some time, but the owner's devs seem busy on other things...

In any case, please tell us the nature of the bug you're experiencing so that we can help you. :)

[The Fifth Horseman]

Just tell me the username you tried to register with. I'll take care of the rest.

[calenth3]

Just tell me the username you tried to register with. I'll take care of the rest.

registered as "Calenth". If the email sender is down then that explains it.

If I start hanging out here more my girlfriend will get even more annoyed with me than she already is for spending all my free time over the past week playing a game from 1992 :P

[Luchsen]

Did take care of it and sent you an e-mail. Can I delete the account calenth1?

[Pex]

For a charisma/speaker character, you can start with 39/39 str/end, 34 Chr, and 41 starting speak common at age 30 by going a fairly bizarre route -- nobility birth, travelling merchant, noble heir, knight. I'm still sortof trying to figure that one out from a roleplay perspective.
Third son of a nobleman with no obvious chance of inherintance or good prospect for marriage decided to build up his own fortune as travelling merchant (maybe working as a guard first, but showing better education then most guards risen to partnership). When both of his elder brothers died (for whatever reason) his father called him back home and made him an heir. Soon after he was knighted as it befits someone of his stature.

In regards to your other post, why some people have so much trouble understanding the charm of playing games from 90ies?

[calenth]

Third son of a nobleman with no obvious chance of inherintance or good prospect for marriage decided to build up his own fortune as travelling merchant (maybe working as a guard first, but showing better education then most guards risen to partnership). When both of his elder brothers died (for whatever reason) his father called him back home and made him an heir. Soon after he was knighted as it befits someone of his stature.

In regards to your other post, why some people have so much trouble understanding the charm of playing games from 90ies?


Ahh, there we go, registered =) thanks folks!

I think some people just get thrown by the first impressions of old graphics. I've gotten my nephews to play some old games, though, and the girlfriend did eventually come around when I showed her the High Sabbat.

Once I finish this playthrough I may write up a guide and post it, there's a lot of mis- and outdated information on the web for this game. For example, the Wild Hunt *can* require a saint your party already knows. There's also a nasty bug (at least in v.07 running in DOSBox) where any fire protection effects (Saint Polycarp, firewall potions, etc.) render your party permanently invulnerable to all strength damage (your party's natural "armor" is set equal to the fire protection armor, forever), which I think is why a lot of people find their parties becoming "godlike" in the late game. Weapon-buffing potions do appear to wear off, though, and with those you can still beat the wilderness dragons (though I can't verify if Hardarmor potions have the same permanent effect or not).

I did eventually find 36q throwing knives in Elberg -- I suspect it's random and connected to the quality of the bowyer in a given town.

[Pex]

I don't know if I mentioned this before, but the thing I would really liked the game to have is some kind of automatic quest log, so I don't have to keep writing down 'Medici from Spayer needs Crown from Shrine NE of Wien' and stuff like that. It tends to get confusing and sometimes I pass a town without realising that there was a quest connected to it.

[calenth]

I don't know if I mentioned this before, but the thing I would really liked the game to have is some kind of automatic quest log, so I don't have to keep writing down 'Medici from Spayer needs Crown from Shrine NE of Wien' and stuff like that. It tends to get confusing and sometimes I pass a town without realising that there was a quest connected to it.

Yeah, definitely. I'm not sure if anyone had thought of that yet though at the time the game came out.

If you look in the file section of the Darklands yahoo group, there's a character editor that also includes a quest tracker -- it scans your recent saved games and tells you what quests you've completed and have outstanding and for whom and where. It can do a lot of other things too, including fixing your character's combat sprites if they get hit with the green hair bug.

[mattokun]

Quoting from the 124 page cluebook:

Which one would that be???

never mind, i got it... sorry.

[Unregistered2]

Does anyone know where to dl the German version of 'Darklands'?

Thx in advance!

erm0n

[_r.u.s.s.]

http://forgottenroots.de/index.php?way=game&gid=527
2 minutes of google...

[Lazy Lion]

Seems great! I´ve read pretty far into the manual and created a party, I can´t wait to explore this game...

Still have a problem with the German version though :( I thought I had it but I can´t get it to work after all... I get a zip with disk1.ima - disk8.ima and I can´t figure out what I have to do with them to get the game installed...

I´ve found one thread about that issue but it goes right above my head:
http://www.gameboomers.com/forum/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=237590&PHPSESSID=34865e2271c09e6

Oh well I guess I´ll have to live with the English version :(

[dosraider]

Oh well I guess I´ll have to live with the English version :(
Not really, will take a look@teh *.ima files later today, if they are valid I"ll install the stuff and post the German version ..... patience.

[arete]

Dosraider, he hath great oldgame juju :kosta:

Just don't get on his bad side, or he will destroy all your kingdoms with much shouting and rains of acid :whops:

[dosraider]

Oh well I guess I´ll have to live with the English version :(
Not really, will take a look@teh *.ima files later today, if they are valid I"ll install the stuff and post the German version ..... patience.

And here ya go:

Darkland_Ger ready to run in dosbox
http://www.megaupload.com/?d=3Y9JCSAB

If you want to do it yourself: dark_ger._install_files.zip
http://www.megaupload.com/?d=XHIWLDDQ
All *.ima files are extracted, mount the dark_ger folder as floppy drive in dosbox and install game on virtual C:\ .