Betrayal at Krondor

[The Fifth Horseman]

All mounted drives should use successive letters. Unless you already have a D and E mount, you should mount the drive as D.

[Mocker]

YES! It finally worked! The trick was to mount the cd as E -t cdrom with the KRONDOR label. I have no idea why, but it worked.

[Mocker]

I'm sorry for the blatant double posts, but does anyone have tips regarding the sound settings? The music is lovely, but it gets "hiccups" every three to five seconds, as well as every time another sound is being played. Is it possible to have several sound channels in order to avoid this, and if so, how?

Once again, thanks for taking the time to help me rediscovering Betrayal at Krondor! :D

[The Fifth Horseman]

If your cycles in dosbox.conf are set to auto, set a distinct value instead. If core is set to auto, set it to dynamic instead.
There are a few tweaks to the buffering that could help as well, but I don't have them on hand right now. Will post them later.

[Mocker]

Thanks, got most of the kinks sorted out now! :)
The only bother now is that the music fades out after a minute or so. Maybe it's not supposed to loop like the MIDI does.

[shadeemry]

Thanks, got most of the kinks sorted out now! :)
The only bother now is that the music fades out after a minute or so. Maybe it's not supposed to loop like the MIDI does.


thats normal, back in 93 thats what it did, however the music you hear isn't midi its the actual cd track, and since their is 54 plus tracks they are all about a minute to 2 long at best.

[shadeemry]

thats normal, back in 93 thats what it did, however the music you hear isn't midi its the actual cd track, and since their is 54 plus tracks they are all about a minute to 2 long at best.


And yes, i bought this when it first came out , $54.95.. danm good price back then.

[Astaldo711]

I never got into this game. It was one of those that I'd install, play a little and then uninstall. A little later I'd try it again, play a little more and lose interest.

[Capo]

I started this game some days ago and looks pretty hard.
Any suggestion is welcome :unsmug:

[Borodin]

I started this game some days ago and looks pretty hard.
Any suggestion is welcome :unsmug:

It really isn't that hard. :) Combat follows simple logic: keep your magic users to the back, and remember, if they're next to an opponent, they can't cast--but that applies to enemy magicusers, too. As magic is very powerful in the game, try to take mages out in battle, first.

While you can toggle to follow the road, stepping off the road to the sides will often yield interesting results: hidden caches in the ground, ward chests, sometimes NPCs wandering around, etc.

The word puzzles on chests are really very easy. Often the answer is a pun that solves a riddle, so think first along those lines before spinning the wheel dials. I think I figured out every one of them on my first try.

The thing about traps is that if you have trouble lining things up, send your party member with the highest hit points through. After they get hit by a lightning bolt or fireball, and gotten to a safe area in the trap, have them stop. Wait several turns, and watch their strength build up. Only when that process is finished should you move them ahead, again. All you need to do is get one party member out the other side--not all.

In every chapter check out as much of the land as you can, because things will change for the next chapter, and you may miss secondary quests, as well as interesting items. Some things won't change, but others definitely will. Revisit buildings you've been to, before. Closed houses may become taverns, and shops may reopen that have been closed.

Don't barrel through the game at high speed. You'll find yourself getting ambushed, as well as missing hidden stuff on the ground.

Lockpicking isn't an absolute figure, but uses a value from your party member along with a random roll against the lock number. So if you don't succeed on your first try, you may on your fifth, or tenth. However, you may also break your current lockpick. Fortunately, they're very cheap, and stack in your inventory. Also, your lockpicker gains a bit of skill whether he/she succeeds, or not.

Save regularly. The combat options are slim, but that means the AI has fewer concerns, and it's usually very, very good. There's never any cheating involved, but Be Prepared is a good motto.

You'll eventually find and be able to buy both elemental-flavored attack enhancers and protection. Use both liberally. Your characters' knapsacks are very limited for space, and it would be a shame to leave some of that stuff behind, when it helps so much in combat.

Check every building, but save first. Save before you accomplish the final objective for a chapter, because you may end up with completely different characters for the next one. That means different inventory, and something you really liked (such as an amulet that assists in opening locks) won't transfer.

Watch for images forming in the road at the distance. They're probably attacks waiting to happen. Save, then enter, and see if you can ambush them. Even if not, you may have to deal with them, and it's better to approach and slowly and be aware.

Besides hastily covered pits and chests, two other sources of hidden objects are dead bodies, and tree stumps. Be sure to check all of these for items.

Read all the text about items you find, because not everything that looks the same, is the same. If the text says that food you've found doesn't look or smell right, for example, take it seriously. It's probably spoiled, or poisoned.

Magic is handled differently in BaK than in many other games. You find, are given, or purchase scrolls that are then learned by a magicuser in your party. They don't get them through the grace of the airwaves by making levels. (And I find this much more realistic, personally.) You'll find a monastery or something similar to it on a trail to the left as you head towards your main goal in chapter one--and a monk tending a farm on the main road directly after that trail. Walk through the farm area, and a dialog with him will pop up. He'll give you a very useful free scroll, and offer to sell you another. Agree.

You raise skills through use, but you can designate for each party member a few skills to go up quicker than others. I suggest giving one party member weaponcraft (repairing weapons), another scouting, etc. These skills don't gain for being spread across your party. On the other hand, everybody should have accuracy, which affects melee as well as ranged and magical attacks.

Books are very useful. You will find them, buy them, and receive them as quest rewards. Each party member may read the same to their benefit, but first, be sure you have plenty of food handy. Because a lot of time passes while reading, and a party that goes a full day or more without eating and sleeping is going to be very tired and starved when it finishes with a book.

You can deposit objects in chests/caches, and another party you run in a later chapter will find them there. This means you can place a book, extra weapon damage enhancers, etc, in a chest for future use. This is a tradeoff with selling for cash, however, so you have to be the judge.

Make a record of all the prices on selling and buying at various shops, because the differences are very considerable.

In chapter 2, you will find that the town of Romney is under siege. While that's in progress, you can sell anything you have for an enormous amount of gold there. (Don't buy from there, obviously. Buy elsewhere.) This can make you tons of money--until you solve the guild crisis, which involves approaching a guild master's house further south on the main road. I suggest avoiding the main quest, and checking out all the sidequests, selling stuff there, until you are really ready. Because after the crisis is solved, and the guild boycott is ended...? Prices return to normal.

When venturing through dungeons and mines, always carry rope. Portions of corridors may simply fall away, and your party will fall to their deaths without rope. You will use a portion of rope for each time your group has to cross a chasm.

Ask about anything else, and you shall be answered as well as possible. ;)

[Capo]

Wow, a lot of suggestions, so i have to explore the entire world map every chapter ?

Then i havent understant how the healing work, i have sleept all night but havent recovered a single stamina point.

Last thing: In combat there are a lot of misses even when the attack % is good :omg:

[yoga]

Cheer up, Caro Capo!:smile2:

YOU can. You did so much difficult games!

BoK is not so hard as Dungeon Master, for example.

My only hard moment was when some strange fat enemies grown up from the earth.

I wish YOU luck!!

the brave
:smile2:

This is the best RPG after Baldur's gate saga, believe me.

[Borodin]

Wow, a lot of suggestions, so i have to explore the entire world map every chapter ?

No--I'm only suggesting that you do so. :) Because if you do, you'll encounter a number of helpful side quests. It's like many other good RPGs in this respect. You can rush through it and only do the main quest, but what's the fun in that? So you walk around looking for other things. You don't have to do any of that. But you can, if you want to, and get rewarded handsomely for it.

Then i havent understant how the healing work, i have sleept all night but havent recovered a single stamina point.

I think I know what happened. In BoK, as long as you're camping out, you can only recover a certain amount of your party's health. (It's a lot, though.) If you want everybody to be at full health, you'll have to sleep at inns or in government buildings. Inns are pretty expensive, and I'd generally avoid their use. Plus, your party may be pickpocketed while you're staying overnight.

Last thing: In combat there are a lot of misses even when the attack % is good :omg:Sounds like a run of bad luck. There are ways of raising your chance of hitting:

1) better weapons (be sure to check for their accuracy ratings by clicking to look at them),

2) magic that paralyzes or severely harms an opponent,

3) enhancers like Redweed Brew that make your attacks temporarily more likely to hit,

4) developing the Accuracy value for each character (most important of all),

5) choosing attacks that have a greater chance to hit but do less damage--thrust, don't swing,

6) giving characters weapons that are designed for their races (but this is less important than giving them very good weapons),

7) reading Dorcas' Treatise on the Animation of Objects,

8) Paying Tad Questor at Questor's View to raise each of your party member's Accuracy permanently.

In the early days of the game, you start poorly. That's expected. Be sure to select Accuracy for each of your party members as one of the few skills they can train better than the others. This is essential.

[Scatty]

Wow, a lot of suggestions, so i have to explore the entire world map every chapter ?

Then i havent understant how the healing work, i have sleept all night but havent recovered a single stamina point.

Last thing: In combat there are a lot of misses even when the attack % is good :omg:
Exploring everywhere would be optimal, but you can't enter every area in every chapter, some become open in certain chapters, some can't be entered again on another chapter, but mostly you will be able to visit many locations each time, which you really should if you got the patience.

If you rest simply outside, you will recover health completely, but stamina only up to a certain amount, something more than a half of its full value. Also you will recover them slower than if you rest at an inn. In the inns you can recover health and stamina completely.
Aside of that there's a healing spell, takes stamina at casting as every spell (or health if there's not enough stamina) and heals a characters health and maybe stamina also, don't remember exactly enymore.

Enemy's (or your) armor value is taken into account for chance to hit, so you mostly won't hit each time, but more often the better you are with the weapon and the better the weapon is / the better (if) it's blessed.

[Borodin]

Exploring everywhere would be optimal, but you can't enter every area in every chapter, some become open in certain chapters, some can't be entered again on another chapter, but mostly you will be able to visit many locations each time, which you really should if you got the patience.

That's a very good point. The game looks a lot larger than just about every chapter is, because there are some artificial limits on where you can go. But there's a great deal to explore, and I see that as an advantage. I've never been a fan of the JRPG "you can go anywhere to explore in this game, just as long as its down this one corridor" approach.

If you rest simply outside, you will recover health completely, but stamina only up to a certain amount, something more than a half of its full value.

We're going to confuse Capo. ;) Health/Stamina measure parts of the same thing, though the manual isn't all that clear. Basically, your Stamina goes down if you're hurt in any way, and once it reaches 0, your Health goes down. Once your Health reaches 0, you're critically injured. It's as though Stamina were the top portion of a mountain peak called Health. (In this case, Stamina has nothing to do with fatigue.) You do not recover Health/Stamina completely when resting in camp--you can get the Health part back, and then 80% of the Stamina part. To get all the way to 100%, you need to rest at an inn, go to an official building, or take a healing potion.

[Capo]

Many thanks Borodin and Scatty :OK:

Yes wise Yoga, if you suggest this game i will try to complete it.

[Capo]

I think i will leave this game, i have two characters -near dead- and i cant find a temple, i tried north but there is a mage that i cant beat, i tried east, assassins everywhere, i tried sud, there a group that block my pass that i cant beat, already used all the restorative to beat another group of assassins :sucks:

[Borodin]

The mage is in the barn, isn't he? That's the first major battle you face in the game.

I'm guessing you took the direct route to him. What you wanted to do was work your way around and investigate more, turning off into other roads, building up your skills in battle on lesser opponents. He's meant to be the boss of the first chapter.

Up to you, of course. :)

[Capo]

The problem is that i have tried every possible route and every one ends with a fight i cant win with 2 pg at 1 life point.

I will try lands of lore 2.

[Borodin]

The problem is that i have tried every possible route and every one ends with a fight i cant win with 2 pg at 1 life point.

I see what you mean. Didn't save before your last fights? Not enough food to rest up in the open and regain your party's health?


I will try lands of lore 2.

Think! You have a future, friends, youth. Don't throw it all away by such a...desperate move.

;)

[Capo]

I see what you mean. Didn't save before your last fights? Not enough food to rest up in the open and regain your party's health?

Pg at 1 hp dont heal sleeping, the only way is a temple but i havent found any.


Think! You have a future, friends, youth. Don't throw it all away by such a...desperate move.

;)

Is a bad game ? I've started it and look pretty cool :omg:

[Ironlion]

Though this game is for sale at GoG, a certain version of it is actually freeware; Sierra gave it away free way back in the late 90's, to promote their new, "amazing" sequel, "Betrayal at Antares".

There is a version ~10mb, and that is entirely free and legal :p (should go on AR).

[hunvagy]

Though this game is for sale at GoG, a certain version of it is actually freeware; Sierra gave it away free way back in the late 90's, to promote their new, "amazing" sequel, "Betrayal at Antares".

There is a version ~10mb, and that is entirely free and legal :p (should go on AR).

Which as many times discussed on the GoG forums, was for a limited time, and only from certain sources. It's by no means freeware anymore.

[yoga]

Which as many times discussed on the GoG forums, was for a limited time, and only from certain sources. It's by no means freeware anymore.

BoK was my first love,
till i met Morrowind and Oblivion.
I am surprised to know that some well respected gamers of AB
name this game - crap.!?
I strongly recommend BoK to every dedicated fan of RPG.
..and beware of some unfriendly fat gentlemen who raised from the earth..

[Borodin]

Pg at 1 hp dont heal sleeping, the only way is a temple but i havent found any.

There should be a list of temples in the GameFAQs strategy guide. I remember one being in the north-south road leading from your starting position to the capitol. Once you find additional temples, always be sure to go in and click to speak to the leader. Choose the teleport option, but don't teleport--just do it, to get a look at where the various temples are that you already know.

Is a bad game ? I've started it and look pretty cool :omg:

BaK? No, it's great. I reviewed the thing when it first came out, and its two successors. It was innovative in several respects.

1) First genuine 3D RPG. The third dimension wasn't for anything other than visuals, but still.

2) The wordlocked chests. No other development team has thought its player base intelligent or literate enough to spend time figuring these out.

3) The trapped land system. Very clever, and also something that I don't recall seeing much of, subsequently.

4) A series of mini-plots that actually move ahead on their own, chapter by chapter, whether you become involved in them, or not.

5) A magic system that fortunately avoids all the AD&D cliches. That's not innovative, but it's nice. :)

6) Plots within plots, and for once, evil types who really aren't selfishly evil, but simply want the best outcome by standards that differ from your own.

As a sidenote, the development team got into a really heated debate with the Sierra VP appointed to oversee their project. The day after the game was released, they were literally all fired by him. He in turn was fired soon after he reasoned that anybody could make a similar game, appointed a few programmers to lead Betrayal at Antara, and it was treated by press and players alike (for good reason) as a bomb.

[Ironlion]

This is a fantastic game! Most of the complaints are probably due to its age, more than anything. I think a vast majority of people who didn't try it when it was current weren't even born yet when it was new.

But it was truly a wonderful game, and a classic. It is not action-oriented, so if you want your FPS with an RPG veneer (I'm looking at you, Bethesda), then just keep on walking.

What it does offer is an incredible story line in a fully-fleshed-out world. It is easily on par with other classic PC epics such as Albion. It beats far better-marketed and better-selling games, at least of it's time.

I found no better RPG until the days of Baldur's Gate came and then all other RPGs from that day forward would be compared to it and be humbled; but still I remember this one as a real gem. It's a shame that it hasn't aged as well as it's contemporaries.

[Borodin]

This is a fantastic game! Most of the complaints are probably due to its age, more than anything. I think a vast majority of people who didn't try it when it was current weren't even born yet when it was new.

Oh, this makes me feel so good. :wacko:

[DSpector1966]

I remember how excited I was buying this game when it was brand new!!! Great story, awesome graphics (for the time)

[LordOfMagic]

The thing that most impressed me about the game is how much they added for you to find on your own. Most RPGs drag you around by the nose. BaK actually lets you go almost everywhere and do almost anything. If you just go and follow the "main" plot directly, you miss out on over half of the side quests and stories.

Though its combat system is not totally unique, it is far from common. A tile based, 2d isometric, turn based combat system was done very, very rarely.

What I also found impressive was the writing. It is placed in Raymond E Feist's Midkemia, but Feist had nothing to do with it. Basically just licensed Dynamix to go nuts. They managed to write a story that felt perfect within the setting. I had never read a book from Feist, but this game inspired me to do so.

[Borodin]

What I also found impressive was the writing. It is placed in Raymond E Feist's Midkemia, but Feist had nothing to do with it. Basically just licensed Dynamix to go nuts. They managed to write a story that felt perfect within the setting. I had never read a book from Feist, but this game inspired me to do so.

Exactly. Feist accepted a fee for the use of his setting and characters, but he had no involvement in the writing or the world. When he did get involved, with Return to Krondor, it turned into a pretty routine, average lookalike RPG with a standard template of AD&D-style magic spells you auto-chose from as you leveled up. There's no leveling in BaK, as you know: instead, your skills increase as you use them, and if you highlight specific skills, they'll increase faster. The catch is, the more you highlight, the slower that extra boost becomes, since it's spread out.

I recently started it up, again. Still played damn well. And the little in-jokes--like the Inn called The Green Cat--are fun to catch, too. I remember asking the chief developer if he was a Fritz Leiber fan (novel called The Green Cat), and he laughed, and said I'd got him. We were both Leiber enthusiasts. :D