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[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]

Originally Posted by Japofran

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]

Originally Posted by Japofran

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]

Originally Posted by einartass

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, and one of them is a cluebook. 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, 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.