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Old 24-01-2005, 10:24 PM   #1
Kosta
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Default Amberstar

Feel free to comment and discuss this game here. Also, if you have any useful tips or tricks don't hesitate to share them with the others! Thanks!

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Old 25-01-2005, 12:02 PM   #2
tempblmk
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This was an excellent RPG. Huge, full of character, very nice graphics (on the Atari ST I played it on, well, technicaly a Mega STE but same thing), a joy to play. I can't comment on the PC version, but I guess it shouldn't be too different, so play this game! :-)
                       
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Old 25-01-2005, 01:02 PM   #3
Astral
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The game runs just fine without any problems :w00t: But there is one spot that when you start for the first time on my Amiga back in time, you can create your character to play the game, in this version the "makechar.exe" don't work :eeeeeh: , if anyone try the game and make this 'exe work, please share your knowledge here with as....

Last edited by Astral; 30-05-2008 at 10:47 PM.
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Old 25-01-2005, 01:24 PM   #4
Mad-E-Fact
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Nice review! I was writing my own, but at this speed, it would have been ready sometime next year...

It should be noted that the graphics and especially the soundtrack are much better in the amiga version than this PC port, so if you want to experience this game in its full potential I advise you to download the amiga version and play it with UAE. Same goes for the follow up title, Ambermoon.
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Old 25-01-2005, 03:38 PM   #5
tomas
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i love this game, for me one of the best rpg ever. german always do good job. I played it on ST and played it on PC 3years ago and same good feeling. I downloaded the game from the official site and I think there was no problem with character creation. but I think the game guides you /thalion/ to be a warior so no need to change... play it it s great and also ambermoon! same authors made also albion so when you played it is easy to control the game... t
                       
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Old 29-01-2005, 10:24 AM   #6
Stumpfi
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I played the game recently so I will write a guide here for you (only on a few things) since itīd be shame to forget all that stuff again ( :crazy: ). Hope it helps.

First thing: I donīt know about this version but all those english versions I found have a rather annoying bug. You can find some potions (I think 11 or so) which increase your weapon attack power by 1-3. At the point you use these potions the game crashes usually... Thatīs rather unfortunate since these potions can make the game much easier. Just think of a fighter with 10 attacks per round and a 60-damage-scimitar. Funny thing is that every german version I found has a graphic bug instead. There is a fix out there for those versions but it doesnīt help with the screwed graphics inside sansris temple. If youīre patient and using the minimap frequently this should be no problem though.
Itīs also difficult to create your own character under Windows XP. You will need a proper bootdisk (try the one here on abandonia) in order to run makechar.exe and afaik your HD has to be FAT-formatted. However I really canīt imagine it would be fun playing with the standard character.
Some items are also messed up. The bow of Sobek is one one of those. Actually it would be one of the best bows for rangers in the game if there wasnīt this "little" flaw. The bow uses two hands when equipped, so unless you got three hands you will find it difficult to equip arrows as well. But you can use it in melee combat if you want or you can use the weak combat enchantment on the bow until it runs out of charges and disappears from your inventory. Rings are also weird: you can only equip one ring although there are two slots for rings on the character screen. Maybe this works in the Amiga version of the game.
Most annoying thing about this game is probably the VERY limited inventory and the fact that you canīt store items anywhere. You can only sell or destroy them. Unless you like running back to a shop every five minutes you will probably just want to leave a lot of loot behind. Money also weighs a ton but there is plenty in the game anyways. No need to be greedy... but if you are and it really stings your heart to leave all this nice glittering gold behind you can at least buy some gems for about 1400 gold in Gemstone and carry those around instead (they weigh almost nothing). Those can be sold for half the price again later (for a bit more if you sell them to this moving dwarven NPC in the elven village).

And here are some general hints about the character creation:
------------------------------------------------------------------------

1) Attributes:

Strength: affects carrying weight
Intelligence: affects amount of spell points
Dexterity: affects... uhm... I donīt know... maybe your lockpicking skill?
Speed: affects combat order (important one)
Constitution: affects amount of health points
Charisma: affects barter prices at shops
Luck: affects... erm... same with dexterity... maybe it affects eveything a bit?
Magic resistance: ability to block harmful spells (useless since you can only raise it via the spell anti-magic or with certain items and only to a small degree. Almost every character has a magic resistance of 0. 20 is around the best you will find...)

There are two areas in the game which will trigger events to raise (or lower in one case) your attributes. The affected attributes are:

Strength (max 10 points)
Intelligence (max 10 points)
Dexterity (max 15 points)
Constitution (max 15 points)
Charisma (lowered by max 15 points I think - no gain)

I think there is one more attribute which can be raised by 15 points but I am unsure. The only attributes which cannot be raised in any permanent way are Charisma, Luck and Magic Resistance. I may also be wrong with the exact numbers actually... uhm... The places to raise those attributes are Sansriīs Temple and the castle of Manyeyes inside this whirlpool thing somewhere on the ocean. The problem is that those events can only be triggered once so you may want to visit those places (or at least the direct locations where those events take place) when your group is complete.
There is also another way to raise strength and speed: You can find some red and blue mushrooms in the game which increase one of those stats by five each (blue for strength, red for speed). You can give them to Mera the witch to get this nice bonus (works with every character in your group, just give him/her the mushroom and speak to Mera). Mera can be found in a house near the rangers guild (a long way west of Twinlake). And there are around 12 mushrooms of each type in the game I think.

2) The classes you can choose:

Beside your main character there are also two other characters which do not have a profession yet. Those two are Silk and Gryban. Silk wants to become a thief and Gryban wants to be a paladin. If youīre kinda heartless you can just shatter their dreams and develop them as you see them fit once they have been recruited.
So about the classes...

Warrior:
The guild is very easy to find... Most people will probably become a warrior first time they play the game because they donīt know about the other places yet. Good thing about the warrior is that he gains the biggest amount of HP every level (well depending on your constitution of course) and also the biggest number of attacks per round (every 3 levels :eeeeeh: ). Beside that he has extremely low XP-requirements (only 30 XP more for each level). When your warrior claims level 40 your black mage will probably still be around 20 or so. Another good thing is that a warrior can equip almost everything. He is of the best damage-dealers in the game, especially in combination with a nice upgraded weapon. Much better than a black mage when it comes down to killing single tough opponents. If it were not for the extremely limiting inventory and certain instant-death-situations in the game it would probably be easy to finish the game with a single warrior. However, the big downside is that the warrior has very limited abilities and cannot cast magic at all. But actually you can live with that...

Paladin:
The paladin guild is also very easy to find. Marillionīs ghost will even give you directions (Twinlake graveyard). You can find it somewhere in Crystal, the town north of Twinlake. Paladins are even better at defending than warriors are and can also cast white magic to a nice extent (50 % success chance is quite good actually). A paladin with a parade shield can have a defense skill above 100 % which means that he can block every attack (this is definitely uber, huh?). I think the warrior can only reach 95 with a parade shield, but I am not too sure there. Paladins gain new attacks every 4 levels and have medium level requirements (+50 XP every level). This makes the paladin a capable warrior and an emergency spellcaster if necessary. You will not be able to max out every skill the paladin has though. If you donīt want a white magician or a fighter then choose the paladin. But choosing a warrior and a white mage would be a better idea in regards of efficiency.

Ranger:
The guild is to the far west of Twinlake, somewhere on an island near the shore. Rangers can do everything but they also suck at everything. The ranger sadly has bad combat values. 70 % attack, 70 % defense sound ok actually but it is definitely not enough to replace a warrior or paladin. And why? Because he has the highest XP-requirements (+90 XP each level) and he only gains attacks every 5 levels (which means he will not deal all that much damage). He also sucks at spellcasting (30 % success chance), so he can hardly replace a mage. His only advantage is really that he can learn almost everything. From casting white and grey magic to lockpicking and fighting. He can equip many things.

Mages:
Mages are your specialized spell casters. They almost never fail a spell (95 % base chance once trained), they get the most spell-learning-points and spell points. Grey mages are good for buffs and other helpful spells (light for example), white mages are basically healers (they can also cast stun, sleep, etc.), and black mages are good to destroy many weak opponents at once. You may need this in some situations but normally casting is very sp-intense which means that you will either have to rest a lot or do the fighters do most of the work. Another downside is that they can almost equip nothing. The tower of black mages can only be reached by boat in the beginning of the game. Search the tree in the inn of Twinlake to find 5000 gold to get one, then move the coast down a long (!) way till you reach a desert. There should be some mountains enclosed by deep water further down the coast. Move in there (via the river) to find the tower at the end. To remove those rocks blocking the entrance you will need some item found in one of the flowers in the tavern of crystal (flower room with the gome). The password for the short way was "Nikademus" in the german version of the game. May be a bit to tough to take the long way early in the game. The tower of white mages is located in a forest north-east of Twinlake. The password is "Kasimir" but I suggest you take the long way, since there are some mushrooms to be found behind a secret wall. No dangers here. The tower of the grey wizards is somewhere north of the rangers guild (or east of the elven village), also on an island close to the coast. The long way is dangerous in the beginning (but worthwhile later, as always) but I unfortunately already forgot the password... Maybe it was Landonis.
Level requirements are generally high for mages. The grey mage buffs increase your abilities by 5 % per level of the spell (lvl III is the maximum). The duration should also increase from 1 hour to 6 and 24 hours (again I am unsure...).

Monk:
Same problem the ranger has. Just a little better at spellcasting and slightly worse at fighting. He can only cast grey magic and he gains levels far too slow (+80 XP each level I think). Cannot equip too many things. The temple of Mork is west of the Godsbane (north-west) of Crystal, somehwere in the huge swamp. Say Mork to the riddle mouth to gain entry. You may want to choose a monk if you donīt like grey mages.

Thief:
Useless. Only thing he is good at is leveling quickly and opening locks. However, any character with a lockpicking ability around 40 should not have problems opening a lock in the game (with save/reload that is). Also the silver ring adds 15 to your lockpicking skill. Finding and disarming traps is completely useless, as is the skill listening. But then again, there are some very nice special items for the thief class in the game.

3) Characters:

There are a few companions you can take along. I will list those I can remember (there should be no more, but it could be I forgot one):

Silk: Human no profession, lvl 1, found in Twinlake tavern
Gryban: Human no profession, lvl 1, found in Crystal tavern
Torg: Half-orc warrior, lvl 3-6, dungeon next to Twinlake
Trasric: Half-elf black mage, lvl 3-6, Crystal tavern
Crag: Gnome white mage, lvl 4-6, guild of white mages
Satine: Human grey mage, lvl 4-6, guild of grey mages
Drobanir: Dwarf warrior, lvl 4, Gemstone tavern
Lady whoīs name I forgot: Human ranger, lvl 7, shipīs end (in the area you end up after flushing down that whirlpool - higher level area)
Guy whoīs name I forgot: Gnome thief, lvl 6-7, castle ruins north of the elven village
Another guy whoīs name I forgot: Human monk, lvl 4-6, Snakesign village - island of Sansri (difficult to get there in the beginning)

You may have problems recruiting some of these because you donīt speak their language. Then you will need other characters in your group with those language skills. I am completely unsure about the exact levels of the characters, but this still helps you to see the level area they are in at least. Remember you will probably need someone with the ability to cast white magic and someone who can (at least to some extent) pick locks. If you wish you can choose up to 6 companions. There are no level requirements to recruit one of those (to recruit Satine you must have spoken with Shandra however).

Well thatīs it. I wrote more than I wanted actually... :eeeeeh:
Just two more things: If you canīt find the last two parts of the amber star you prbably missed this guy in the temple of Mork. He will give you some directions. Also try to complete the castle north of the elven village soon to get that gryphon flute (best way of transportation). But thatīs not easy...

Good Luck
                       
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Old 31-01-2005, 08:16 AM   #7
Astral
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Man you just broke my heart , Exellent, exellent
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Old 12-02-2005, 02:07 AM   #8
marmion
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yeah that game really rocked! i probably played through it 10 times or more. last time i used all the weapon upgrades on a shovel... and by the end of the game i had one mean 32 damage shovel-wielding fighting machine... real fun

by the ways if you got any questions i know the stupid game by heart so ask me.
                       
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Old 21-02-2005, 02:33 AM   #9
Joi
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Amberstar is still a great game, but I loved Ambermoon even more. To bad I sold my copy of Ambermoon 2 Years ago with my Amiga 2000
is there a chance we will see ambermoon on this page?

                       
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Old 21-02-2005, 02:41 AM   #10
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Mmm, I once just ran around killing myself to see how long it took for different things to kill me, hard for a game to immerse me that badly.
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