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Old 07-01-2005, 04:53 PM   #11
MasterGrazzt
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I read that Microprose said that sequel bit to a gaming magazine. I wish I remembered which magazine and where I found the mention of it. Perhaps they were just supposed to be expansion packs.

And I'd like there to be new HAND DRAWN graphics.
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Old 07-01-2005, 05:05 PM   #12
Kon-Tiki
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I'd say more quests too. It's mostly the mines with dwarves vs gnomes, a dragon or some demons occupying a cave. After a while, you know each one of them by heart. 'bout the list of saints... well, can indeed make your own. Maybe that'd be better, but it'd mean more time spent to research, making the development take longer, while all research's been done already. Then again... until you've got that game cracked open and retreived all lists from it... might take just as long. Might want to attract todays kids to it by making the graphs anime-ish (big style-break there) or gothic like modern mainstream gothic. Then again, it'd make the game into an abomination, killing part of the historical accuracy. I just say that it has to be made over, with graphics fit to the game itself, then get it known and played by todays kids through PR (which is how those FPS games that all look and play the same nowadays are so famous in the first place)

'bout the sequel to Darklands... that one's been mentioned on several places, and I remember reading 'bout it in a readme.txt from Microprose that came with Darklands.
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Old 07-01-2005, 05:33 PM   #13
Borodin
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Quote:
Originally posted by MasterGrazzt@Jan 7 2005, 04:53 PM
I read that Microprose said that sequel bit to a gaming magazine. I wish I remembered which magazine and where I found the mention of it. Perhaps they were just supposed to be expansion packs.

And I'd like there to be new HAND DRAWN graphics.
I wonder when Microprose mentioned a sequel, then? After its release, they had a corporate fit over all the patches it required. Nowadays, seven is above average but hardly worth much comment, but then, it was horrific. Even their PR person at the time dissed the game to me repeatedly. But then, by that time, Spectrum Holobyte had taken control of the operations, and their PR was not notably supportive of Microprose's style of business.

I agree, hand-drawn graphics would be the way to go. Otherwise, cities would all tend to look alike.

Might want to attract todays kids to it by making the graphs anime-ish (big style-break there) or gothic like modern mainstream gothic.

The problem with this is marketing. Either the game goes for the intelligent RPGer with the hook that it's genuinely based on Teutonic folk legends of the period, or the game goes for a young audience that's hooked on anime, and has zilch interest in the period and place. I don't see a compromise possible, because if the graphics are anime-style, the older crowd will avoid it in droves; while the action-oriented, linear RPGs of consoles prepare kids poorly for this kind of game.

It's a hardcore RPG, no doubt about that. I think you may have just hit on why nobody's picked up the title for a redo: few people with the money to do them believe these days in hardcore RPGs. Look at the dumbing down of BG2 in the KotoR series, for instance.

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Old 29-01-2005, 09:16 AM   #14
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if anyone needs a list of the saints, what they do and virtue requirements, i've got a list of them here from the manual. the manual also has large sections on germany at the time, weapons and their skill required to be used and so on and other little tit bits of handy information
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Old 29-01-2005, 02:38 PM   #15
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Quote:
Originally posted by Mr. Barman@Jan 29 2005, 09:16 AM
if anyone needs a list of the saints, what they do and virtue requirements, i've got a list of them here from the manual. the manual also has large sections on germany at the time, weapons and their skill required to be used and so on and other little tit bits of handy information
Much thanks for your offer, Mr. Barman, but the manual is not, alas, completely accurate about saints. To quote the clue book: "The original manual was printed considerably in advance of the final game code, and has some inaccuracies. In case of conflicts, you the [saints] information below."

I'm glad I kept that clue book. It's one of the deeper games I've ever played, and remains among my favorites. I'm willing to help out with individual saints, if somebody has questions of specifics (how they affect attributes, etc).
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Old 30-01-2005, 04:13 AM   #16
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in regards to the stats, ill make a list of all the stats and their acronyms later cause im too tired right now

For a starting i like to head straight out to the scenic grove (usually you can go straight there from the main street but sometimes you have to go to the side street before the scenic grove), once there i rest till nightfall and head back into the side street. one of the options at the bottom is "Other Locations You Remember", this is a great place because it doesnt lead anywhere but you have a super high chance of meeting some bandits. keep killing the bandits until morning or until the limits of your group. doing this not only makes you respected in the town (depending on how many you kill) but it also provides you with a fair amount of loot. the bandits at this stage of the game usually only have V (Vital, Torso) leather armour and a club or falchion. the bandits with the falchions are best because the falchions sell for more than the club by a substantial amout.
one warning: DO NOT pick up clothing, it cant be sold and just turns into baggage that you cant get rid of except through dumping it on a dead body (in one of my first games of Darklands i once left a dead body with around 60 items of clothing ). once its morning head to the "Side Alley of Arms and Armour" and go to any of the shops and sell the stuff, in this alley of arms and armour are the local proffessional blacksmiths etc. and will usually have better quality merchandise than the foreign traders in the main market place. Once you have sold your loot and bought some stuff for your group you can either head back to the grove and do the exact same thing again for more loot and rep, or you can head to the market place (Main Road -> Market), here you can buy almost everything you need (e.g. a rope is very useful as is a lockpick if someone as artf - artifice) but you can also enter the Guilds of the Hanaesetic Leagues, the Medici or the Fuggers. The Medici and the Fuggers are banks and can store money for you but also they will often have jobs for you to complete (rewards depend on the quest but for minor quests its around 5 florins while major quests like Robber Knights can be around 10 florins ( 1 florin = 240 pfennings 1 grotchen = 12 pfennings )), the Hanaesetic league is a place for adventurers to grab jobs just like at the banks. And so once you have a job you might as well head out of town and get to it (dont forget to write down the job details, i usually write down 1) the reward 2) the job type 3) where to go 4) where the job came from). But dont think that once you have the job you have to do it a.s.a.p., the jobs will usually stay active for a long time so you can do some wandering around germany, in particular, if you have the option to save a group of merchants who are under attack, save it and go to their rescue, not only does a successful rescue improve local rep. but they give you a gold floring and an item of superb quality.

and finally, with the armour thing, when you buy/acquire something it will be in your inventory, but you wont be using it until you have equipped it. simply open your inventory, click and drag the item you want onto the small bar to the right that has your equipment details. once you have done that the armour/weapon should have been equipped. The two people you couldnt see didnt have any equipment at all being used and thats why you couldnt see them.

hope that clears a few things up for you

(im going by memory here so some of these area locations may not be totally accurate)
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Old 06-02-2005, 08:56 AM   #17
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>>>problems getting the voice part to initilize in the dosbox running of darklands? This is where you hear churchbells in the opening as the gargoyle flies by, and the girl saying "welcome to darklands, ...welcome" <<<

If I remember correctly, you only get these sounds (and certain other sounds during gameplay) if you're using the "Soundblaster" setup - you won't get it with Adlib, etc (I could be wrong though - not sure). When I installed it on my latest computer (XP), I could not get it to run properly using DOSBOX. So I tried running it on VDMsound and it works great - full sound support, no crashes, etc.

By the way, regarding sequels - the following is from the original manual:

QUOTE:
SEQUELS: Darklands was designed to permit sequels. It is possible to have some additional adventures in Germany. More importantly, it is possible to create entirely new games elsewhere in Europe. The system not only allows moving "saved game" files back and forth, but also allows you to load multiple games onto your hard disk and move back and forth between the nations, in a sort of giant adventure. Let us know what you enjoyed in Darklands, what you would like to see in a sequel, and what setting you prefer. There are plenty of possibilities: the Emperor in Germany has many political problems and intrigues, England and France are busy finishing the last half of the Hundred Years War, after which England falls into civil war (the War of the Roses). Meanwhile, Italy is at the peak of its warring city-states era, Vlad the Impaler appears in the Balkans (the historical figure who ultimately became Dracula), Tamerlane is conquering Central Asia, and much more. What's your preference?

Arnold Hendrick, 1992
ENDQUOTE

Ah, if only...

And finally, the graphics are fine, the music is beautiful (given it's digital limitations), and the game is great - the best ever.

                       
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Old 22-02-2005, 04:44 PM   #18
Galadrin
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Quote:
Originally posted by marko_river@Oct 1 2004, 03:07 PM
Small tip: Strength can be increased. Just spend very very much time wandering through the countryside. You will sooner or later stumble upon the "woodman" (or treemen), sometimes they attack, but sometimes Hellhounds chase a poor one. Save position and try to hide him/it for the chase. If you succeed he will offer you a strange fruit. It gives you 4 strength.
This game is truly great, one of the few open-enders that were made in this era... and I have a small hole to add on to the tip (though this worked in the disk version that I had, and don't know about this version) THIS IS A CHEAT!


If you save immediately after you pick one of your characters to drink the juice, when the tree-man says thanks and runs away, you can increase your strength to 99 on all your characters. I think this will work, but am not sure.
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Old 08-04-2005, 03:42 AM   #19
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I remember this game! I used to have it forever ago. I never was very good at it. I didn't understand anything that was going on. I'll bet it'd be different now. I'm older and wiser and whatnot. I'd love to play Darklands again but... it won't run for me. I double click the DARKLAND.EXE file but it says it can't find the EMS Memory. Does anyone know how I might cure this? I'm running Windows XP on a pretty spiffy computer. I dunno the specs on it but I had it built only a year ago for the specific purpose of playing the more modern games so I imagine it's really rather decent. Any ideas?
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Old 07-05-2005, 03:06 AM   #20
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Darklands is one of my most favourite RPGs. The gameplay is awesome, however the graphics are a little out-dated now. I think now would be a great time to finally make the sequel. How about we get onto the creators and ask them to make a new one?
                       
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