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[Robsie]

Too bad, it would have been nice to replay the game in a complete different mindset with different goals and allies. I will try to roleplay it in my next run, even if the game mechanism will make it difficult.

About the party, my current one is more focused on melee than anything else, is it viable ?
Can you have such melee only / magic only / etc.. only kind of party ingame without being definitively blocked at some point of the game or do you really need variation in the members ?

I imagine a magic-only would have a very very hard time with the early night encounters in town.

[Borodin]

A melee-only party would find life very difficult, almost impossible. While you can get by without alchemy (though it's tough), doing without prayers is much more difficult. They are important in a large range of situations including some that advance the plot. It can be done, but I don't think it would be very enjoyable, given the problems you'll face longterm.

[Robsie]

Thanks this will avoid me to stay stuck on the game when those situations you mention will occur to me, i will try to improve my characters non melee abilities before going to far.
Good i have lot of money to leave them study in cities.

[Borodin]

Just as a suggestion, have one character focus on religion and healing, and another, on alchemy. Initially, get the one focusing on virtue to focus on religion; later, all your characters should learn more. Religion will allow characters to gain more virtue every time you tithe a great deal. (It's something like 4 florins.) With a religion below 20, a character gains no virtue. With a religion above 60, a character gains 3 virtue for every large donation to a church.

Use some of that money to see if you can find an alchemist willing to sell your character with the best alchemy value an improvement on his/her philosopher's stone. Once purchased, it's a great boost to the likelihood of making potions--and making them safely.

[Robsie]

I will try to get my leader focusing on religion as he seems to have the best scores in related skills.

My "bow woman" is unfortunately showing me that bows are not exactly as great as a weapon as i thought, dealing few damage and missing often despite her skill with them is now rather high.
I will get her going to the alchemy path instead, it may prove more usefull as you say later with potions.

[Borodin]

Originally Posted by Robsie

My "bow woman" is unfortunately showing me that bows are not exactly as great as a weapon as i thought, dealing few damage and missing often despite her skill with them is now rather high.
I will get her going to the alchemy path instead, it may prove more usefull as you say later with potions.

Bows are decent enough, but this isn't Baldur's Gate. Be sure to eventually get bows for all your people, because with some skill they can concentrate and take down one or two charging enemies when sheer numbers are against them. And numbers of attackers are important in Darklands, since the more you have on a single person, the worse the defenses, and the less likely that person has of landing a return attack. You can even take down a raubritter in plate with four characters, none of whom has a weapon with penetrative value. That's an extreme example, but true.

[Robsie]

My "bow woman" has a bow skill at 42 , and she manage to land a hit only each 4 or 5 encounters (when i say "hit" i don't mean damages, i mean the arrow actually not flying over the target missing it completely). My other party members have this skill at less than 10.

So certainly bow may not be as good as they can be in another game, but if 1 specialist at skill 42 can't hit an elephant in a corridor, i doubt the other a very lot less skilled can be anything usefull.

Because the problem is not the bow damage in that game, it is the frequency of hits, bow would actually usefull considering their decent damage ... if they hit more. The added bonus of multiple hits on a single target may be nice (as my party took down already 2 raubritters by focusing the 4 party members on him despite his full plate), but if nothing is hitting it is not usefull.

At her current bow skill 42, my "bow woman" can manage 2 shots before the target is in contact, and that if the target is a slow human, monsters are way more quick to come in CQC.

[Borodin]

Originally Posted by Robsie

So certainly bow may not be as good as they can be in another game, but if 1 specialist at skill 42 can't hit an elephant in a corridor, i doubt the other a very lot less skilled can be anything usefull.

42 is actually about average. It's not an exceptional score. Try her again at 80, and see the difference.

But in any case, Darklands factors in distance, unless many other games. It's best to have four moderately decent archers focus on one attacker at close range, than each focusing on a separate target at distant range. You'll do a lot of damage, that way, and usually be able to take out one attacker beforehand. Possibly two, if everybody in your group is well seasoned in the skill.

Because the problem is not the bow damage in that game, it is the frequency of hits, bow would actually usefull considering their decent damage ... if they hit more.

I think it would be rather unrealistic, myself. Archers need to pause and aim. In real life, archers have only been killing machines when they fired en masse at armored foes. A single archer shouldn't be able to take out someone running over the terrain in decent armor. Bows in Darklands take a supporting role in combat, which was the intent of the developers.

At her current bow skill 42, my "bow woman" can manage 2 shots before the target is in contact, and that if the target is a slow human, monsters are way more quick to come in CQC.

Two shots is about right. When her skill gets higher, she'll frequently score hits on both shots. But even at 96 (which is as high as I've ever gotten a character using the bow), they've never managed any accuracy at a distance that would permit 3 shots on an enemy.

[Robsie]

Interesting, i never suspected that the game was sophisticated enough to take distance in account for the bow usage.

I will change the behaviour of my bow woman and will have her wait a bit more before firing the 1st arrow.

Thanks for pointing this, if distance is a part of the shot accuracy calculation, knowing this will certainly improve her usefullness.

I thought 42 was high as a bow skill because it took her nearly forever to reach this, but as she missed tons of shots because i never thought the game used distance in the calculations, that may be why her skill has improved so slowly.

If she can now land more arrows on target after waiting for it to be nearer, her bow skill should improve quicker.

I think it would be rather unrealistic, myself. Archers need to pause and aim. In real life, archers have only been killing machines when they fired en masse at armored foes. A single archer shouldn't be able to take out someone running over the terrain in decent armor. Bows in Darklands take a supporting role in combat, which was the intent of the developers.

In middle age, bows were an incredibly effective weapon, but only because in the middle age the bow tactic was not to fire directly at the target advancing to your lines, but use the "dark rain" tactic, this way shields used frontally became useless .

When William the Conqueror fought the english and conquered their lands, this was his tactic of choice, and when his army went in contact with their opposition in Hastings, this one was already very decimated by the dark rain.

Heavy armor was a problem in later middle age for bows ... but heavy armor was an even bigger problem for the soldier wearing it :
Slow sword/axes attacks and defenses, very exhaustive movement if not on a horse, very limited vision.
And if the horse was killed, like in the battle of Azincourt in which the english bows killed most of the french heavy armored knights horses that were slow moving in the very wet ground, that was leaving the knights stuck incapable to move on their heavy plates while their very light armored opponent just had to come and kill them.

If RPG were really modelled about realism, in Darkland you would really not want to wear plate armor

[milieu]

I haven't played in a while, but missile weapons always worked well for me. The regular short bow is not very effective. You definitely want to upgrade it to the long bow, or, better still, a high quality compound bow.

Crossbows and guns penetrate armor better and do more damage, but they are a lot slower to reload.

Even with a good bow, it will take several hits to down an opponent. If they are unarmored, you can kill with one shot, especially with the guns. Heavily armored opponents are not going to be killed, but you can at least weaken them before the melee begins.

I usually have each party member fire at someone different, unless there's a particularly dangerous opponent that I want to really hurt.

Be sure that your party has a line of sight! Sometimes they will be blocked, either by other party members, or by terrain, and they will stand and wait for a clear shot. Watch what they are doing, and if they start standing still, pause the game and check. I believe the target icon changes to a broken target if they don't have LOS.

I usually have half my group with bows, to take advantage of the higher rate of fire. The other half use crossbows or guns until the enemy is right upon them. Then everyone switches to melee weapons.

Your alchemist needs to learn how to make the Stone-tar potion, and carry as many as possible. Fire that off right away, and put it directly in the enemy path and it will slow the enemy charge to a crawl.

If RPG were really modelled about realism, in Darkland you would really not want to wear plate armor

Actually...you don't. I learned this mistake the hard way. Unless your character is unbelievably strong, you do not want them wearing full plate mail. You'll see it right away too...your character will barely be able to move, and their melee strikes go way down.

Even the strongest characters are better off with plate for the vitals, and mail on the arms and legs. My alchemist characters rarely have the strength for anything more than a mail shirt, and usually leather for the limbs. Otherwise, they are encumbered and slowed down too much.