/vr/ - Retro Games

[Anonymous No.1625413]

DARKLANDS

-Share advice and tips
-Show off your valorous adventurers
-Discuss your adventures in medieval germany

[Anonymous No.1625416]

Darklands is set in a time before pants were invented according to the box art.

[Anonymous No.1625420]

>>1625416
Microprose games usually had great box art. Dunno what went wrong there.

[Anonymous No.1625424]

Just started, played for about 3 hours and managed to defeat my first robber baron.
It took several attempts that all ended in getting slaughtered, but then suddenly it clicked and now I've got a much better feel for the combat.

[Anonymous No.1625435]

>>1625416
>>1625420

>no praising glorious medieval tits

fucking plebs

[Anonymous No.1625440]

Some things Ive noticed:
Only the leader haggles, so if you make a character with high charisma and speak-common, make him the leader.
This might also apply to diplomacy/persuation but I don't know for sure.

Weapon skills go up fast, so you're better off getting other skills as high as possible at chargen.
Healing is very important, for example.

Strength is more important than endurance and agility is only useful if you wear light armor.

Ranged attacks are very slow, so always get a melee weapon as well.
Fire off a shot and then engage close combat.

[Anonymous No.1625827]

After having fought several robber barons the party stumbled over a village of pagan demon worshipers.
After killing most of the heretics the demon itself appeared and was slain aswell.

[Anonymous No.1625835]

Did anyone name themselves Hitler because they were a kid and it was funny?

[Anonymous No.1625854]

>>1625440
Some very minor corrections:

You can actually convert any of the characters into the party leader, by using a button in their char sheet. This way, you can actually have one guy specializing in common language (for dealing with most people) and another character specializing in Latin (for Universities: Saints and alchemy ingredients and formulae).

Strength is like health, but Endurance is as important, because with a low endurance just a few hits will make you go unconscious, which in most situations (especially when dealing with wild animals) is pretty much a death sentence.

By the way, did anyone notice any significant change when riding horses as opposed to walking around? Especially in the world map?

Also, make written notes of places and dates, both for quests (from traders, the Medici, mayors, etc), and witch covens. The game won't keep track of it for you.

[Anonymous No.1626007]

>>1625854
You're right.

As for horses, it seems they are only good for situational purposes like running away more easily.
But I expect you might also need them to pursue someone in certain encounters/quests.

[Anonymous No.1626051]

>>1625416
>>1625420
That cover is fucking awesome. But what happened is that they were releasing a role playing game, competing with SSI for market share and, as such, put cover art similar to what D&D's best art of the time was looking like. It's a family-friendly, Vallejo knock-off.

>>1625854
Haven't played in a while but, if I remember correctly, horse movement does not speed up your apparent movement speed. Instead it slows down the clock that shows the day-night cycle in the top right of the screen. Haven't played this in years, so maybe that's just walking on roads that does that, but I was pretty sure horses did it, too.

[Anonymous No.1626257]

I've followed local rumours of a dragon attacking villages to a dragon worshipping cult near cologne,
but instead of a dragon I keep running into witch covens that kick my knightly butt.

[Anonymous No.1626515]

I've encountered my first dragon and he killed two, knocked out the others and ate the female knight afterwards.

Also being pestered by the Wild Hunt sucks.

More advice: Never gear your characters up to a heavy load and always check the qualty of your armors and weapons.
After a long time of traveling you should consider selling off most of your equipment and gear up with new arms and armor.

This one really took me by surprise as it's only indicated by a stat called q (quality) beside the item's name.

These old rpgs can be quite frustrating due to their complexity combined with confusing interfaces.

Btw, does anyone know how to get a fifth character?
I've seen screenshots with 5 party members (pic related) but can only recruit 4.

[Anonymous No.1626520]

forgot pic

[Anonymous No.1626587]

>>1626515
The fifth party member (as far as I know) is only available as one of the town leaders. They'll stay on for a few months, maybe a year, but there's no warning before they leave again and take everything you gave 'em.

[Anonymous No.1627049]

I really like Darklands, but ended up having to print a copy of the manual since in the UK the only way to get a hard copy is one seller on ebay who seems to think it's worth £500. I like to send him abuse every so often.

I could drop about $30 to import a copy from the states but customs charges and international tracking give me a bit of a headache.

[Anonymous No.1627270]

>>1627049
ebay.com/itm/Darklands-Perfect-PC-3-IBM-PC-Game-Big-Box-RARE-Complete-map-/221423298082

[Anonymous No.1627314]

I was thinking about playing this when I saw it while browsing gog. Looks pretty neat. What's it like?

[Anonymous No.1627401]

>>1627314
It's a sandbox without a mainplot, so you're pretty much going to travel from city to city, looking for quests, fame and loot.
At first you'll probably be killing thieves in the docks at night, to get some skillpoints and loot, but once you get used to the somewhat crude controls, you'll probably want to try your luck with one of th local robber barons.
Checking all shops at the surrounding cities if they are willing to pay for the robber baron's head can earn you quite a sum.

On your travels you'll run into many dangers from wolves and bandits, over witches and mythical creatures to villages inhabited by satanic cults or plagued by demons or dragons.

The game gives you many different options to solve your problems making use of a wide range of skills.

[Anonymous No.1627428]

>>1627401
Actually, I just found out I'm wrong as there really seems to be some kind of main plot that catches up with you once you gain enough fame.
Not gonna spoiler anything though.

[Anonymous No.1627524]

>>1627314
It's amazing, but I was put off by its many bugs.

I remember one in particular, in which being pretty famous and acclaimed through the world, I payed a visit to the Netherlands (or Belgium, whatever), and the guards started shooting at me and arresting me, without having done anything at all.

Also, fuck the mines.

And dark knights.

[Anonymous No.1627578]

I wish I was smart and disciplined enough to enjoy an RPG like Darklands. Looks amazing once you get into it/over the learning curve.

[Anonymous No.1627687]

>>1625413
beeg rpg tts

gret... gret...

[Anonymous No.1629870]

Does anyone know how you can increase attributes?
I only get skill increases.

Also is it viable to play without alchemy at all?

I'm currently playing a pure combat group,
with one character that could potentially use saints,
but I haven't read into saints and how they work yet.

[Anonymous No.1629907]

Is it better to start your characters at an early age (20 / 25) or aren't the old-age penalties that severe?

I noticed that something like 2 less strength can make quite a difference.

[Anonymous No.1629939]

>>1625413
Holy shit, I recognized that cover instantly.
I got the complete box (not sealed, but has everything in it) from my uncle.
Worth playing? Will it need DOSbox?

[Anonymous No.1629978]

>>1629870
I don't know if it's your first playthrough, but in mine, I tried your approach of not using alchemy, and barely using saints. It didn't go that well for me...

SPOILERS (just in case I fail like an idiot with the code)

[spoilers] I basically had to quit at one of the templar monasteries. I had some trouble with the normal templar knights but nothing a little bit of cheesing and tactics couldn't solve. The problem came with dark knights. At that point you are basically expected to have VERY GOOD weapons and armor AND enough alchemy and potions to damage your enemies or at least heal yourself during combat. [/spoilers]

END OF SPOILERS

>>1629907
Personally I found that the best age at which to start is 30. If you start out earlier, a simple bandit ambush will kill you. At 30 though, I think you still don't have any penalties, and if you do, they are completely insignificant compared to having gone through either 15 years in the same trade or a combination of trades.

>>1629939
You do need DosBox. The game is very immersive and incredibly advanced for its time, but is hard as fuck and has some mean bugs.

[Anonymous No.1629985]

>>1629939
You most certainly will, but since you own the original anyways you can just pirate the GoG (which comes patched and pre-configured for Dosbox) version off of pirate bay.

I haven't encountered any bugs as far as I can tell, after hours of playing this version.

[Anonymous No.1629989]

>>1629985
Yeah, after reading that it's on GoG I was thinking of using that instead to save me the setups (and having to copy from those floppies).

Just checked my box again - it's too bad that today's games barely include anything unless you shell out $$$ for the ULTRA LIMITED EDITION that doesn't include the actual game disc (looking at you, Drakengard 3).

[Anonymous No.1630002]

>>1629978
I have very little problems with my no-alchemy no-saints group.

I started killing robber barons quite early and haven't ecountered a creature that could kill any of my characters (not counting knockouts) except for a dragon that simply wiped me out.

Are you keeping track of your characters eqipment load and quality?
A heavily burdened character fights much worse and this can happen quite fast once you take a few wounds.
Also you need to check the quality of your equipment and regularly exchange it for new gear.

Artifice and Healing are two of the most useful skills and I highly recommend getting minimum 30 in them if you want to start traveling.

[Anonymous No.1630007]

>>1629989
It's getting worse each year.
Check out Elder Scrolls Online.
50$ for the game, 15$ a month to play,
and an additional 20$ for the Collector's Edition
to be able to play the imperial race and get a horse which you fucking need to get anywhere.
Otherwise you have to farm 15k gold or buy a horse for 15$.

Sorry for offtopic, but, man ...
I'm so glad I prefer older games.

[Anonymous No.1630029]

>>1630007
I don't and will not ever give a shit about TES: Online. That's one hell of a mess, though.

Just tried the floppies now. Time to make image files out of them.

[Anonymous No.1630142]

>>1630002
I could smoke anything that got in my path, but as I said, templar monasteries were a pain in the butt.

I had one knight guy with a two handed sword, a specialized soldier with a two handed flail, a huntress with a halberd, and the alchemist with a warhammer and a shield (since he wasn't that effective with two handed mauls and it seemed retarded for him to use such a weapon). All of them were wearing 30q plate mail for vital parts and limbs, and were using ~33q weapons, so the quality of my equipment was out of question I think. It's true that I could have been using some of the legendary items (which seem to be the only ones with which you can take the dragon down), but they're very hard to come by.

Dark knights just hit too hard, and take incredible amounts of damage before they go down.

[Anonymous No.1630318]

>>1630142
I'm not sure if shields influence two-handed weapons.
If they do, I don't notice a difference, so you might try giving everyone shields.

Also, if you're ganging up on 1 opponent have everyone that isn't attacked use berserk attack mode.
That way they do much more damage.

There are some saints that seem quite vital.
There's one that makes you resistant against fire, some that heal endurance and strength and some that boost your stats.

Also if nothing helps you could also set the difficulty to basic.

[Anonymous No.1630605]

>>1630318
I appreciate your advice, but the part I'm talking about has you climb up a flight of stairs, only to find yourself in a small room with 3 to 4 of these dark knights, and nothing to use as a barricade or to have your team gang up on a single guy at a time without them getting poached themselves.

Might have to give it another try sometime though.

By the way, how long can it take to finish one of the mines? I remember in one of the updates they had to actually include the possibility of saving your game while in a mine...

[Anonymous No.1632516]

I'm about to start. Any quick start-up tips or recommended procedures?

[Anonymous No.1632560]

>>1632516
Yeah. Read the manual and cluebook.

[Anonymous No.1634368]

>>1627401
Super delayed response from me, but thanks for the information. Sounds awesome. Exactly like something id want to play. Are there any games similar to it as well? Modern rpgs are so watered down, and ive beent trying to make a list of game to play through with aspects like this.

[Anonymous No.1634612]

>>1634368
Well regarding the freedom of action and in some way the setting (medieval/fantasy) you might want to check out Daggerfall or even Morrowind, if you haven't done so already. However you only get to play with your main character, and it's from your POV.

[Anonymous No.1634876]

>>1634368
The Elder Scrolls and Baldur's Gate series were influenced by it.
Baldur's Gate is to Darklands, what Fallout is to Wasteland, kind of.

The thing with newer games is that their engines are too complex for those kinda games.
You can't really make a world this big and offer so many options to solve problems without an abstract engine.
You'd simply never be able to get rid of all the bugs of a game that complex in a contemporary engine.
That's why you feel that newer games are watered down.
The more restrictions the less potential problems.