Helherron - a very addictive Nahlakh-like game

[Binary]

Any links for Naklah/natuk/pows related sites (other than the forum SkeleTony posted)? I can't find any info nor download links for them even googling.

And Ranger in Helherron truely sucks donkey cock. Can't stay alive with him no matter how hard i try. And I't feels somehow wacky that he is a spellcaster.

Thanks for the tip. Any other class/race recommendations/don'ts ?

 

[Andhaira]

Golem barbarian (dUh!) DO!

shaman (summons are useful! DO


Masturbate while playing? DONT

 

[SkeleTony]

Any links for Naklah/natuk/pows related sites (other than the forum SkeleTony posted)? I can't find any info nor download links for them even googling.

And Ranger in Helherron truely sucks donkey cock. Can't stay alive with him no matter how hard i try. And I't feels somehow wacky that he is a spellcaster.

Thanks for the tip. Any other class/race recommendations/don'ts ?

Troll Fighter(or Barbarian. I only say Fighter because I would be taking a golem but if you are taking two of each then make him a barb too). Regen helps early on and even into the late game a bit, plus they can see pretty good(not like orcs but better than others)

Golem barbarian. The last word in tanks.

Lizardman Monk. Decent wisdom and and good attributes all around, plus they have some good resistances.

Dwarf Fighter. Gets an axe bonus and a blacksmithing bonus.


Elf Bard. Actually A number of races work for the bard, including Lizardmen who may even be the BEST bards, but I like to mix it up a bit. The bard's song starts out inconsistent and often weak but they gain experience faster than ANY other class and that song soon becomes very useful. Until the late game where it is less useful but by then your magic skills are decent enough to provide some support and they can pick locks and haggling is second only to merchants.


Fairy Priest. Their Wisdom bonus, ability to fly(and thus not have to deal with being in water/drowning), and their much better(than elves) willpower amke them superior to elves for priests and mages. They cannot take a lot of damage or get the toughness skill or carry much but if you are playing right they should not be in combat anyway and you have golems and/or trolls to carry stuff.

Fairy Mage. Like the priest, they are just too superior to elves to not take them.

Orc shaman. There ability to see in dark like it is daylight helps when summoning creatures to keep enemy spellcasters and such occupied. Shamans can cast spells from BOTH schools(priest and magic) of magic so they perform a dual role. They are the best summoners in the game as well(get a +25% bonus).


NOTE: I usually replace the fairy mage myself with a halfling thief OR a merchant(depending on my mood). The reason being that I can get through the game without a mage, using my orc shaman(and bard secondarily) for that stuff but this is not recommended for complete noobs necessarily. Also it is good to have a dedicated archer in the party and the thief is awesome! When enemy casters summon critters behind your party the thief can put the bow away and commence to backstabbing them(or just shoot them all in one turn if they are not too close).
Give the archer a bunch of quickness items and he becomes a fucking juggernaut!

 

[Fenril]

Just got into the game I downloaded the latest version from the "official" website. Is it true that it is that buggy? Can anyone give me examples?

This game does seem to have the makings of a good combat intensive rpg...with proper turn based combat. Everything else is secondary and I can stomach the graphics ok.

Will wait for a reply here to decide if I should switch for an older version of helherron or not, by the way how does hellerron compares to nakhala or what was the old titles name?

 

[SkeleTony]

Just got into the game I downloaded the latest version from the "official" website. Is it true that it is that buggy? Can anyone give me examples?

This game does seem to have the makings of a good combat intensive rpg...with proper turn based combat. Everything else is secondary and I can stomach the graphics ok.

Will wait for a reply here to decide if I should switch for an older version of helherron or not, by the way how does hellerron compares to nakhala or what was the old titles name?

In the Windows version there are several bugs but the one that is most annoying is hte "Monster horde" bug. Anytime you get into a combat with a large number of enemies, no matter which types of enemies they are or if those enemies are invisible or not, this bug occurs where if ANY of those enemies manages to attempt an attack on ANY creature, the game will crash. This includes them accidentally attacking their own allies(via sliding on ice into one or being confused or charmed etc.).
The only way to circumvent this bug is to use 'mass destruction' type scrolls, wands, bard songs or spells to kill them off(ALL of them. If you leave even one alive and he attacks you the crash occurs) BEFORE ANY of them can attack anything. This is not all that difficult to do since enemies typically start off far away from the party but you have to keep a stock of scrolls/wands etc. to do this.

You will encounter this bug in the goblin caves, the orc caves, etc.(don't want to spoil too much for you).

There are some other annoying things in the newest version. Apparently one of the best dungeons(for loot) is now unreachable. In the older versions you could reach it by standing at a certain spot then teleporting over to it but due to some change in the LOS code or something you can no longer see the dungeon entrance to be able to teleport over.

On the other hand there are a few bugs from the old version that are now fixed in this version and there is also the new quest, character class, backstabbing skill implementation etc.

Helherron basically borrows a LOT(the entire UI almost) from Nahlakh but is in many ways much better. The magic/spellcasting system is better, even if more generic. Nahlakh/Natuk etc. suffer from some horrible balance issues due to spellcasting draining from "Strength", the same attribute that represents Physique/Brute strength. SO everyones mages/priests end up being just as strong as the warriors which is kind of wonky. This is much worse in Natuk where attributes can be raised with experience and Intelligence determnines how much experience you receive from combat and such. By the end of Natuk it is pretty typical that everyone has the same values for each attribute...super intelligent warriors, super strong witch doctors, etc.

Nahlakh has some cool features in combat, such as aiming for specific body parts which Helherron lacks but Helherron has some features that kind of make up for this(tactics disposition etc.). Nahlakh is much harder than Helherron and I believe it is much larger in terms of stuff to do(but Helherron is plenty big itself). Whether you prefer Nahlakh's 'Improve skilss by using them' method of experience or Helherron's system is a matter of preference I suppose but I am sure most will prefer Nahlakh's system.

Helherron has a much better character creation system though in terms of races and classes that are qualitatively different from one another(whereas nahlakh just has cosmetic differences in the icons you can select) but also has some balance issues(Rangers are kind of weak, Elves are slightly gimped, humans are pretty lame(but I hate humans anyway so this doesn't bother me).

 

[Andhaira]

And where is the patch for the latest windows version to fix that crashing bug? (don't care about the dungeon loot bug, since I play this for the combat and pc development, not the loot)

 

[Binary]

And where is the patch for the latest windows version

The patch for the latest windows version is called "Linux"

 

[Andhaira]

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!

But really, wheres the patch?

 

[SkeleTony]

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!

But really, wheres the patch?

There is none. That is what we are telling you. The game is no longer being developed. The only relatively bug-free experience you can have with the latest/last version is to use Linux.
If there WERE a new patch then the bug-ridden version we keep calling the 'latest' would not be the latest.

 

[Vitriol]

With all the pointless necroing going on lately, might as well do a relevant one instead of making a new topic.

Just started playing Helherron and it's the best damn game I've played in a long time, a must-play for anyone who enjoys dungeon crawling with a large party and turn-based tactical combat. From the very beginning I keep getting raped by enemies, which is awesome because it makes eventual victories all the more meaningful and satisfying. Shame that the author doesn't work on it anymore, but even in its current state it's fully playable and incredibly addictive.

I have some questions for the 2.03 version:

Is there any point in training lockpicking? My golem barbarian has been able to simply kick everything open so far.

Are +0 items (hats, shoes etc.) of any use? Can you improve them in any way, or are they just a waste of inventory space?

 

[FeelTheRads]

So, how about the crashing bug? Has it been fixed on Windows?

 

[Vitriol]

Don't think so, the game has been abandoned by the author. Still, apparently the crashing bug is only present in the 2.04 version. I'm using 2.03 and everything works fine.

 

[PorkaMorka]

The dude who made it moved to asia and became a Buddhist monk, leaving the most recent version with a crash bug so bad that you'll have to devote most of your strategy in certain fights to avoiding it and the most recent version without the crash bug missing a lot of features (like Shamans and good icons for your characters).

It's a shame as the encounter design was really superior to other similar games.

I recommend just playing the early crash free version without trying the most recent version, so you don't know what you're missing.

Downgrading once you've played the most recent version is pretty irritating, although playing around the crash bug would seem to be much worse.

 

[Stabwound]

Supposedly the Linux version doesn't have any of the crash bugs, so I'm downloading Ubuntu right now and going to try playing it via virtualbox.

 

[FeelTheRads]

Yeah, gonna just go with a live CD.

 

[Stabwound]

Does the game have music/sound? It's working well under Ubuntu/Virtualbox but I don't hear any sound whatsoever, although it is working in other applications.

update: Nevermind, it works now.

 

[Zeus]

Don't think so, the game has been abandoned by the author. Still, apparently the crashing bug is only present in the 2.04 version. I'm using 2.03 and everything works fine.

Where can I get a copy of Win 2.03?

 

[Stabwound]

I'm not Vitriol but this is supposed to be 2.03: http://www.hotud.org/component/content/ ... -Helherron

 

[Zeus]

Sounds like 2.03 also had some bugs, so I'll probably try the 2.04 Linux version.

But I still like to get each version, so thanks for the link.

 

[Carlos' Bitch1]

Ah yes, another excellent game in the vein of Proudfoots brilliant entries. I played the 2.04 version on an earlier system that didn't suffer the crash bugs.

 

[SkeleTony]

Yeah 2.03, for us Windows users is still buggy but the bugs are relatively minor(a merchant who cannot be used or he may crash the game, gladiatorial arena fights which cannot be progressed past, etc.). The downsides are:

1)I did a bunch of new graphics for 2.04 which improved a bunch of things...player icons, some terrain and monsters, etc. and these are not available for 2.03 of course.

2)The Shaman class(which I sort of created) is not available in 2.03.

In 2.04 the 'monster horde' bug that crashes the game whenever you get into a combat with a huge number of enemies and one of them is able to attack ANYTHING(and sliding on ice into his own guy counts as an attack here) causes the game to crash. The only way around this is to take out all of the enemies before any can attack. if even one is left alive and manages to attack someone, the crash occurs. You will usually need scrolls of mass destruction-type spells to avoid this.

Also, on some systems running Widows Vista I have encountered random lock-ups and crashes for no apparent reason with 2.04(and possibly 2.03 as well).

 

[Stabwound]

Question: is there a way to change party members after you start the game?

 

[SkeleTony]

I'm not Vitriol but this is supposed to be 2.03: http://www.hotud.org/component/content/ ... -Helherron

That is funny. if you scroll down the page you will find my review and if you keep scrolling down there is a guy posting in French that he cannot figure out how to apply my registration name & code. I do not speak French so I had to use Babblefish to try and help him in a long back and forth.

 

[SkeleTony]

Question: is there a way to change party members after you start the game?

You can re-order them(Ctrl + r ?) and change icons(ctrl + i ?) but you cannot replace already created PCs with new ones.

 

[theverybigslayer]

Hi, any tip or hint for Helherron 2.03? I cleared the first two levels of the goblin cave, but I can't win a fight on the 3rd level so I can't advance further. I am attacked by 5 goblin priests and 5 archers and 5 giant rats. Can I somewhere else gain experience and shiny loot? Should I grind in the forest fighting random fights with wolves and bunnies? Also I can't leave the beginner area because of the bandits at the bridge, they kick my ass. I have a level 1 party.
Troll fighter
Dwarven fighter
Golem barbarian
Lizardman monk
Elven bard
Fairy priest
Fairy mage
Halfling thief

P.S. This.is.a.great.game.