Demise: Ascension - is anyone else here playing it?

[tindrli]

So I installed the thing from the link I posted above and when I try to start it it only gives me an "Unexpected error; quitting"

Well damn.

Windows 7 64bit btw.

running it with directx and win10 64bit works

 

[Filthy Sauce]

Is the exe safe? both Norton and bitdefender hate it.

 

[tindrli]

Is the exe safe? both Norton and bitdefender hate it.

yes its safe

 

[Dungeon Lord]

I would like try a single-guild party.
What is the recommended and the best party composition?
(For example: thief, explorer, sorcerer, cleric)

 

[Piotrovitz]

I would like try a single-guild party.
What is the recommended and the best party composition?
(For example: thief, explorer, sorcerer, cleric)

Game can be exremely hard without multiclassing, even more than Wiz7 with single-class party.

On a side note, Ascension is almost the same level of scam as Beammutt's EEs - guy added some small fixes (though the original did not have any game breaking bugs afaik) and artificially expanded levels by adding copy-paste areas (as if the original dungeones weren't large enough), and charges like 30 bucks for that.

Revelation on the other hand has also dozens of bug fixes and it's entirely free.

 

[tindrli]

I would like try a single-guild party.
What is the recommended and the best party composition?
(For example: thief, explorer, sorcerer, cleric)

i dont remeber very well but for start you make 4 party and level that frist guld to certain level . i belive its 28 or 30 and then you specialize

 

[tindrli]

there were great tutorials 10 years ago about min maxing but i dont remember where are they. anyway as usual certain races are more suited for certain classes but still you can just play and enjoy the damn thing.
and dont forget to backup that monsters in store file if you plan to randomly buy companions coz there WILL BE some missions to kill some monsters that WILL be almost impossible to find. at least that happened to me SEVERAL TIMES!!!

 

[Dungeon Lord]

Any idea why is the auto backup and renderer chooser config not saved? Every time I start the game I have to choose the renderer and got a mesage about there is no auto backup because an unsuccessful exit. And I have to load a character again to play. Then a message 'because I play Demise for the first time...'
These are minor malfunctions that are irritating.

Windows 10, Demise the Revelation.

 

[Dungeon Lord]

How can I defeat the Gruks? Only the Blade of Sacrifice can kill them but there is only one blade.

If I remember correctly, you can go back and get more sacrifice blades. There are multiple/respawning instances of items (and monsters) in this game, so you should be able to equip four characters when you fight the gruks.

Thank you very much! Now I have got two Blades of Sacrifice! Going for another two!

 

[Dungeon Lord]

Shining Lights
Base Level=10; Guilds: Explorer(18;269mp/clv ?), Magi(10;142mp/clv259),
?Warlock(14)
Required Stats: 16 Str, 17 Int, 12 Con, 15 Dex
NON-COMBAT Spell
The brightest of the Visual Spells, Shining Lights creates one dozen
glowing orbs that constantly surround the caster, thus giving off
extremely bright illumination

What does this mean? Will my party fight better?

 

[Dungeon Lord]

What is the Mythinite ore? I have found one in the dungeon.
Where can I find a Sphere of Seeking? My Explorer needs it for his Level 40.

 

[Dungeon Lord]

You could join guilds from level 1 that will already have that treatise and can teach you the spell early.

I have found a lots of Treatise of XXX books. What can I do with them? Using/equipping/selling etc? Give to guilds?

 

[Zeriel]

You could join guilds from level 1 that will already have that treatise and can teach you the spell early.

I have found a lots of Treatise of XXX books. What can I do with them? Using/equipping/selling etc? Give to guilds?

If you're a member of that guild you turn them in to them ("donate" I think its called in the UI?) and that guild will permanently teach it to any character at a set level on that "server" (your entire play history in Singleplayer, any new character you make will be part of that "server").

 

[Replicante]

I've been trying to get into the game, but I'd rather play the free version (The revelation) before investing 30 bucks on the Ascension one.
So I installed Demise The Revelation. The problem is I've tried almost everything to make it work in win10 64 bit fullscreen, but once you get into the Dungeon screen, it goes black. Tried all renderers and compatibility options.
It does work windowed, but the window is a tiny 800x600 and I don't know how to resize it. External software like "sizer" doesn't work of course.
Just wondering if anyone knows a way to make it work. T'is a longshot, I know.
Cheers.

Edit: I found this webpage with cool addons like full minimap and such. http://ewaldfarms.com/Demise/index.htm
Nothing to fix my problem though

 

[agris]

Any idea why is the auto backup and renderer chooser config not saved? Every time I start the game I have to choose the renderer and got a mesage about there is no auto backup because an unsuccessful exit. And I have to load a character again to play. Then a message 'because I play Demise for the first time...'
These are minor malfunctions that are irritating.

Windows 10, Demise the Revelation.

Sounds like you installed it to your C drive under program files and windows isn’t letting changes made to files be saved. This is common for older games that aren’t familiar with Vista and later era Windows changes to default permissions.

Install it outside the C drive and I bet this problem goes away.

 

[Skunk]

Hello. New member here, just wanted to introduce myself. I created an account just to get in on this thread! Glad to see theres an active community for this game. Been having a blast playing it. I have a couple questions:
1. How do I kill wererats? I'm guessing its a specific weapon, but which one?
2. Something on floor 5 keeps killing me. Im at full health (or mostly full), I walk into a random room of monsters, a couple rounds go by and Im dead. I wish this game had a combat log or something. Any ideas?

Thanks in advance. I'll keep an eye on this thread, and if I find anything interesting, I'll be sure to post.

 

[Skunk]

Just an update on my progress. Seems for the wererats, I just wasnt doing enough damage. Changed class to warrior and now I can kill them no problem. As for what was killing me, some monster was turning me to stone with its attack, so if you are headed to level 5, get resist stone cast on yourself!

 

[tindrli]

Just an update on my progress. Seems for the wererats, I just wasnt doing enough damage. Changed class to warrior and now I can kill them no problem. As for what was killing me, some monster was turning me to stone with its attack, so if you are headed to level 5, get resist stone cast on yourself!

yes.. those would be NASTRUMS!!!! nasty motherfuckes on level 5. and some rooms on level 4 as well..

 

[Barbalos]

Are you guys familiar with Devil Whiskey? I believe it is by the same developer who made Demise / Mordor. I got my hands on a copy and got it all set up and playable (which was surprisingly easy). It looks great and seems really fun from the brief amount I've played so far. Here's a few pics in case anyone is interested:

Spoiler

 

[Martyr]

afaik only the publisher is the same.
Devil Whiskey is a great game though and it's pretty much a modern day version of Bard's Tale, just like Elminage Gothic is a modern day Wizardry, Grimoire modern Wizardry 7, Swords and Sorcery Underworld modern Might and Magic 2 and Legends of Amberland modern Might and Magic 3.

 

[Barbalos]

afaik only the publisher is the same.
Devil Whiskey is a great game though and it's pretty much a modern day version of Bard's Tale, just like Elminage Gothic is a modern day Wizardry, Grimoire modern Wizardry 7, Swords and Sorcery Underworld modern Might and Magic 2 and Legends of Amberland modern Might and Magic 3.

Oh I see, thanks for the clarification. I'm really liking how it looks so far, even the writing for the story is competent from what I've seen. The music is also nice, and the manual gives good enough direction that I'm able to get going at the start without much issue.

 

[tindrli]

afaik only the publisher is the same.
Devil Whiskey is a great game though and it's pretty much a modern day version of Bard's Tale, just like Elminage Gothic is a modern day Wizardry, Grimoire modern Wizardry 7, Swords and Sorcery Underworld modern Might and Magic 2 and Legends of Amberland modern Might and Magic 3.

Oh I see, thanks for the clarification. I'm really liking how it looks so far, even the writing for the story is competent from what I've seen. The music is also nice, and the manual gives good enough direction that I'm able to get going at the start without much issue.

https://rpgcodex.net/forums/index.php?threads/anybody-here-played-devil-whiskey.38056/

 

[Barbalos]

Nice, thanks tindrli . I had already found a site that is linked in that thread:
http://weekendwastemonster.net/crpgs/dw/dw.html
Where you can find some patches for Devil Whiskey, including an unofficial patch, as well as some mods which I haven't investigated and probably won't as I'm enjoying the game as-is. There is also a Bard's Tale I remake or mod in the Devil Whiskey engine, seems interesting and I may check that out after finishing the base game.

 

[Dorateen]

Because I haven't written enough about Demise: Ascension, I recently discovered a back up folder from the computer I used to run Demise. This contained over a dozen screenshots that I had taken at the time. I thought it would be interesting to share these, along with some commentary about the game.

Standard disclaimer, for those unfamiliar with Demise, the graphics are... well, I actually like portraits and elements of the user interface. But the 3D monsters shown in game are infamously bad, like circa 1999 levels of polygon ugliness. But it doesn't matter. Demise is all about the gameplay; dungeon crawling and character building.

Spoiler

This first scene is from Level 1 of the dungeon, in a room that is open to the sky, which I thought was a rather nice touch. As if it is a reminder of the last time you will see clouds before descending further below. Another neat thing is that even though this is presented as a first person dungeon crawler, whenever characters are dismissed or separated from the party, they will appear as a 3D model in the game. The blue guy is our Artisan/Mage, who got lost after we hit a teleportation trap that scattered all members of the party. We had to regroup one by one until we located him here. You can see in the text message log at the bottom right corner, "Somebody else is in the room!" That indicates another player character has been found.

The peace symbol at the top of the screen is used whenever the party enters a room and crosses paths with other creatures. Not all such meetings are immediately hostile (although some are instantly deadly) and sometimes the player can even parlay with inhabitants of the dungeon or monsters might ask to join the party. In this room, besides our lost party member, it looks like we encountered some rock snakes who were peaceful. The second row underneath the party portraits on the lower left corner is reserved for "companions" that can be attached to each character. These are the monsters who join. They usually don't last very long, but some of the stronger ones can be helpful.

Regarding the UI layout, the central mini-map at the bottom of the screen is of high detail, though it can disappear along with coordinates if the party becomes lost. The scrollable information log on the right makes it easy to keep track of the combat, which can fly by pretty quickly. Again, the text window lower on the screen communicates other types of important information to the player.

Now this below is a screen taken back in town. The way towns work in Demise, they are 2D screens represented by various buildings, which you can slide using the left and right arrows at the top. It is very similar in this regard to towns in Wizards & Warriors. Demise works as a roster management role-playing game, where the player can create any number of characters and assemble multiple parties. At this time, I was running our "back bench" team made up of carnival freaks: player races that include Giants, Trolls, and... Elves. They would be sent into areas of the dungeon that were already explored, for the purpose of finding tomes that boost ability scores, or the much valued green gems that were used as a beacon and recall system to navigate the depths. The capture below also shows the character sheet, which can toggle between four different panels of statistics, and the pop up interface for exchanging gold between party members. The town also included a bank, where each character could deposit money and items to be saved for a later time. It was also useful to create "mule characters" for the explicit purpose to dump items that might be cursed, but nevertheless needed as part of guild quests in the future.

Back on Level 1, another example of a party member who was dropped off to wait in the dungeon and available to recruit again. One of the things I enjoyed about the level design, is that rooms were not necessarily featureless. There could be furniture, paintings, statues, satanic imagery... the player could find just about anything, and often more horrible discoveries the deeper they explored. This made the constant backtracking through dungeon floors grow easier as you start to recognize landmarks and commit a path to memory. The combat log below shows the message when a Grael Maggot offered to join the party, and was attached as a companion to the first character.

Level 1, encountering a Tyke, which was a little dog. But further down the hallway is a peaceful Dragette who I think would join the party. The bloodstain on the floor is welcoming. An interesting feature of combat was how XP would be awarded to only the character who landed the killing blow on a creature. This would often be the frontline fighters. So it would become required sometimes to swap positioning if you wanted a character to get more XP, such as if he was close to training. In the text log at the bottom, it indicates a switch of the party leader.

Here is an example below, where we intentionally placed our Mage in the first position, likely so he could pile up more kills and thus more experience. It seems to have paid off, as on level 4 are found the dreaded Ants. According to the combat log, he must have unleashed something that wiped out four groups of seven ants. We also found a Crystal of Healing. The itemization in Demise is top notch, both with constantly finding higher levels of equipment to gear up, or miscellaneous items that duplicate spectacular spell effects.

On Level 9 the party encounters our first dragon, Morgoth, in his lair! Notice the skull and crossbones above. This was not a peaceful encounter.

Elsewhere on Level 9 of the dungeon, a lot of fighting going on. Our party's paladin wiped out three Skuldragls in one turn. The text window says he completed his quest, so that was probably a guild quest to murder bring to justice a Skuldragl. Each class, or guild, would give out tasks at certain intervals that the character had to perform before being able to advance further. These were either to kill specific target or bring back an item from the dungeon. Sometimes, this could be circumvented (Such as if the containment store in town had the monster type for sale, you could buy it, release it in the dungeon and then kill it.) or if it proved to be a hopeless goose chase, the character could surrender the quest, but be knocked back in experience a few levels.

Some encountered monsters were invisible, and characters had to possess either a spell or an equipped item to detect them. Otherwise they would should up in the log as an Unseen Monster.

Moving on to Level 15, and fighting a group of four Conjurers. Our party's Saris Thief must have had a sword at this time with a chance to poison on a successful hit. On the XP indicator at the bottom right, it shows 3,911 TP. That stands for "to pin", which was an interesting concept Demise introduced. At a certain XP total when a character has enough to train, they would not be able to gain any more experience. This necessitated a trip back to the surface to visit the guild. It created a loop of playing where you would try to push as far and deep as you could into the dungeon, but also an incentive for needing to return to town. If the party ever gets wiped out completely, they would lose all their gold on hand, which is a frustrating experience. And also why you store up gold in the bank.

On Level 17, we fight two groups of enemies simultaneously. One is a group of 5 Spellbinders, and they are accompanied by 2 Warlocks. This is where the pause option of the game comes in handy. Hitting the Shift and P buttons on the keyboard, would stop the real time combat, and allow the player to select different groups to target, to select spells or use items. It made the default fluid combat much more tactical.

Down in the text box, a Gredlan Footpad says, "Thanks for the Potion of Invisibility". This is because some monsters in the dungeon could steal items from the party. Cheeky bastard. Although if you catch the scoundrel and kill them, you might recover the stolen item.

Also on level 17, we fight a group of 3 Ethereal Demons and 5 Vetches. The dungeon isn't getting any more forgiving. Thankfully, our thief landed a Backstab and poisoned a monster in the same hit. Nice.

There were a lot of spell casters in these areas. On level 19, another encounter has us face 2 Illusionists amd 2 more Spell Binders. The combat log here shows that Demise used a monster identification system, similar to Wizardry, to properly discern the name of what you are fighting. These two illusionists combined to cast Deadly Harm on me for 121 points of damage. Ouch! That was hot!

Deeper still, on Level 20, this screen shows a Drakul. Actually there were two of them, and it looks to have been the third group of monsters in this encounter. But a Cause Wounds spell from our Mage must have helped wiped out the others, and I see one Unseen Monster fled the battle.

One of advantage of bringing along a thief or Explorer, they could often detect events in the dungeon, such as traps or other peculiarities of a room, giving advance notice to the party.

Things get increasingly more deadly on level 23. According to the information logs, our Paladin was electrocuted to death. When this happens, the character is detached from the party inside the room. This is noted by the message, "You smell a dead body in the area!" The player then has the option to resurrect the fallen, if any other characters have the means to do so. Once revived, that character is then 8 weeks older. Yes, there is aging in Demise.

On a side note, after this most unfortunate turn of events, I notice in the combat log our characters promptly cast Electrical Resistance on themselves. This is good aversion therapy.

On Level 24, we encounter Wizards and Monks of Chan. We apparently had taken a lot of damage previously, and even lost our sense of direction. probably from a spinner trap.

Some more exploring Level 24, and more wizard-type enemies. This group introduces the Apparitionist. If I remember correctly, somewhere around this level sections of the dungeon took on contrasting themes in their surroundings. One quadrant was truly demonic in both appearance and enemy composition, while an opposite side was more angelic. This lead to the area being referenced as "Heaven and Hell". Other features of the dungeon levels in the range of the mid-twenties was a giant pyramid that spanned several floors. Along with graveyards, forests and water levels, these features made a monolith dungeon crawl feel more like a game world.

Even on Level 24, the party can still make friends. This giant looking guy joins up with our paladin. Fight well, brother!

For the last screenshot, here is another example of how intricate the class system was in Demise. In addition to the little quests that character would get now and then as they advance in their respective guilds, at one point around character level 100, they are instructed to go to a guild specific zone in the area. There was one designed for each class, like a gauntlet that only characters of designated profession could access.

This below, is me completing the Warrior guild training. It would be a difficult run for a solo character, however I also had another warrior Giant who was parked back in town. Took him along, and we barely made it through this section, reaching the altar and then using the green teleport to get the hell out of this place.

Sadly, that is the last of the screenshots I could find from when I played Demise in 2011 and 2012. It's a truly massive game that one could return to over and over again. Pushing your characters higher in level and struggling to master the dungeon. It remains a very rewarding experience throughout.

 

[Elwro]

That was a nice read! Thanks!