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[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) [snapback]276753[/snapback]</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.

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

[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) [snapback]276752[/snapback]</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 k:

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.