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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?

You need Dosbox to play 95% of the tames here at Abandonia.com...
one of our Dosbox guides

If you're still having problems and you *are* using Dosbox, it may be worthwhile starting a thread in "Troubleshooting" 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
Registration Requests

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.

Setup

[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!

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

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.

Originally Posted by The Fifth Horseman

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]

Originally Posted by Calenth2

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?