Anybody ever played/finished Disciples of Steel?

[kofeur]

I remember at the time this game had got really bad reviews, but I found it quite interesting to play. They had a detailed injury system in which you could suffer major injuries and get limbs useless, and you could also target which part of the body to attack.

The rule system was quite interesting, you had classes but everybody could learn everything. The only difference is that each class had different experience points depending on skills. So an archer would require 4 points to raise bow skill but say 8 points for sword. A warrior had the cheapest cost for axes, etc...
And the absolute limit to skills was defined by the attribute the skill was dependant on. So the stronger your warrior was the better with the axe he could become. When you rolled a character you would get current stats and potential one. And you could train all your attribute to the max which was the potential one. Raising attribute was extremely expensive of course.

It's one of the rare game that had an interesting unarmed combat system. When unarmed you did very low damage but you had high chance of stunning opponent (I'd say too high). So the monk was the perfect boss killer because he could keep him stunned while other characters tried to finish him, but was not very useful against grunts: having no armor and requiring quite a few hits to kill one he was much less efficient that the warrior or the knight.

So why all of this? I never finished the game, got blocked and lost interest at the time. Thought I should take it up again and wanted to see if I could find another person who played it

 

[octavius]

I remember it being a game that sounded interesting, but sadly it wasn't released for the Amiga, so I missed it.

 

[kofeur]

Well you can always give it a bash now.

Just checked on it, it was actually released in 1991 on the Atari ST and DOS but not Amiga. I wonder why... I think it would have done reasonably well on the Amiga, I would have certainly picked it up earlier as I had an Amiga back then.
I played the DOS version which came out in 1994, remember hearing about it for the first time in a CVG ad. Never knew it was actually older, it makes sense as it was bashed for having 'outdated graphics' by the magazines of the times.

Graphic whores were already well established back then...

 

[octavius]

Well you can always give it a bash now.

It's on my (long) to play list.

 

[Morkar Left]

Never played the game but stumbled over it some time ago and was curious. I looked into the manual, but it isn't saying much about the rulemechanics. Is there a better source available somewhere?

And what is it about the strategic part of it? It was described as a rpg with some strategic part mixed in (you could conquer towns).

 

[MichiK]

Played it on the PC. I remember feeling like it was only half-done.

 

[kofeur]

Never played the game but stumbled over it some time ago and was curious. I looked into the manual, but it isn't saying much about the rulemechanics. Is there a better source available somewhere?

And what is it about the strategic part of it? It was described as a rpg with some strategic part mixed in (you could conquer towns).

No the manual is the only source of info you'll likely find for now... Never found anything relevant on that game so far.

The strategic part kicks in later in the game. In the game your goal is to take control of the whole kingdom in order to prepare it for an evil invasion of some sort. You can do that by doing quests for the different kings or by trying to take them over by force, which I wasn't able to do in my game. Once you're king you can chose to invade other kingdoms, etc...

Played it on the PC. I remember feeling like it was only half-done.

Yeah I had that feeling too but I don't remember encountering any serious bugs... Just got blocked in several quests. One of which I couldn't find a key in a dungeon...
So that's why I wonder if there's anybody who finished the game. And, anybody played the Atari ST version? I wonder how it compares to the DOS version.

 

[Fowyr]

I finished it. Very enjoyable game. It have some bugs in the final dungeon, though, but nothing game breaking. And I remember finishing all quests.

 

[Morkar Left]

@kofeur

Thanks for the information. How is the troops part? Is it just you and your party storming a castle or is there actually an army you manage and some strategic battles?

 

[Fowyr]

No, it's more like battles in the Spelljammer. You have your party and many low level units.
You can outfit them with basic weapons or something, can't remember now.
BTW, Spelljammer. THAT was buggy game. I tried to complete it three times and always encounter game stopping bug - Neogi Mothership never appeared.

 

[Morkar Left]

I was worried it comes down to storming a castle against hordes of enemies with your uberparty. Many lowlevel units you can outfit sounds fine by me

 

[kofeur]

I finished it. Very enjoyable game. It have some bugs in the final dungeon, though, but nothing game breaking. And I remember finishing all quests.

Finally found someone who finished it, I knew the codex wouldn't disappoint me :D
Do you still remember the game well enough? I remember in the final quest for the king of the first town, you had to retrieve an item from a long dungeon. I remember finding a locked and never finding the key. I did check the whole dungeons for hidden walls back then...
And another quest in which you had to find a specific orc that travelled a certain road, and never finding him...

Do you remember what your party was composed of? Did you use the monk?

You played the DOS version correct?

No, it's more like battles in the Spelljammer. You have your party and many low level units.
You can outfit them with basic weapons or something, can't remember now.
BTW, Spelljammer. THAT was buggy game. I tried to complete it three times and always encounter game stopping bug - Neogi Mothership never appeared.

The Neogi mothership was this huge ship that looked like a massive rock? Full of umberhulks? After you killed them all (which was a tough battle, you don't want to mess with a crew where umberhulks are the low level units), you got massive loot, but you couldn't take the mothership as your ship. And nothing happened after that, no ending, no extra missions, nothing.

I was worried it comes down to storming a castle against hordes of enemies with your uberparty. Many lowlevel units you can outfit sounds fine by me.

Even with a high level party, it's not that easy if I remember correctly. The king was generally a heavy hitter and he had an elite guard

 

[Fowyr]

Do you still remember the game well enough? I remember in the final quest for the king of the first town, you had to retrieve an item from a long dungeon. I remember finding a locked and never finding the key. I did check the whole dungeons for hidden walls back then...

Final quest for Farnus was slaying of Jax.
Hm, maybe returning Thydra's Cross from the dungeon on the small isle? Silver (?) keys, three or four doors to the altar rooms. I think one of the keys was not added to the inventory and I hex edited it. Or maybe not. My memory is fuzzy. I think small dungeon in the swamp have something with Thydra's Cross. Maybe it have one of the keys?
Or you remember returning papers from fortress NW of Tabruk?

And another quest in which you had to find a specific orc that travelled a certain road, and never finding him...

Hollengard? My notes says "Ogre" and "crossroads to the east".

Do you remember what your party was composed of? Did you use the monk?

No, I never used him. My most valuable party member in the late game was cleric with his Wrath of the God
:D

You played the DOS version correct?

Yes, v1.013

The Neogi mothership was this huge ship that looked like a massive rock? Full of umberhulks? After you killed them all (which was a tough battle, you don't want to mess with a crew where umberhulks are the low level units), you got massive loot, but you couldn't take the mothership as your ship. And nothing happened after that, no ending, no extra missions, nothing.

Strange. I disguised my ship and met Neogi captain who gave me coordinates of the mothership. They lead to the common Neogi Deathspider.

 

[mondblut]

Finished it back in the day. The evil overlord's dungeon was broken alright, lots of missing walls, so I went for an army battle ending.

Game mechanics were kinda broken, the most uber weapon was a fairly generic assassin's knife IIRC.

One of the few games I actually managed to overcome password protection all by myself, by finding the password storage and altering it.

All in all, an excellent entry among the goldbox-like type of games.

 

[kofeur]

Final quest for Farnus was slaying of Jax.
Hm, maybe returning Thydra's Cross from the dungeon on the small isle? Silver (?) keys, three or four doors to the altar rooms. I think one of the keys was not added to the inventory and I hex edited it. Or maybe not. My memory is fuzzy. I think small dungeon in the swamp have something with Thydra's Cross. Maybe it have one of the keys?
Or you remember returning papers from fortress NW of Tabruk?

Yep Thydra's cross. I couldn't find the key for the fourth door. I had gotten the key from the swamp if I remember correctly, it was the mission just before that one.

Hollengard? My notes says "Ogre" and "crossroads to the east".

Yep, that's the one! Never found the ogre on the crossroads

No, I never used him. My most valuable party member in the late game was cleric with his Wrath of the God
:D

My most valuable party members were the fighters. But then again I never got as far as you did.
I remember when you had 100 in pickpocket, you had an almost 100% success rate in stealing items from the low quality weapon shop. You would then sell all the useless equipment so you could afford to buy excellent quality gear from the other shop that was almost impossible to rob. You then sent your warrior or knight on their own on a 'training mission' in the dungeon full of low level orcs. (the one which was linked to one of the Farnus missions), Your XP would be huge because you only had one character. Wasn't really viable for mages though and took longer with the monk because dodge < armor skill

Yes, v1.013

Don't remember which version I played. The boxed version. I'll hunt for v1.013.

Strange. I disguised my ship and met Neogi captain who gave me coordinates of the mothership. They lead to the common Neogi Deathspider.

Yeah I remember, I had to try several times, and quite often it wouldn't work. I think I reloaded quite a number of times to get the proper encounter.

 

[kofeur]

Game mechanics were kinda broken, the most uber weapon was a fairly generic assassin's knife IIRC.

Was that the strongest weapon? It wasn't available at shops. I found one in the dungeon from the last quest of Farnus. It turned my knight into a fearsome character who could kill a giant in one hit!

Should maybe try the Atari ST version to see if it's any less buggy... What's a good ST emulator?

 

[Fowyr]

Yep, that's the one! Never found the ogre on the crossroads

Afair, I just traveled back and forth. It was random encounter.

My most valuable party members were the fighters. But then again I never got as far as you did.
I remember when you had 100 in pickpocket, you had an almost 100% success rate in stealing items from the low quality weapon shop. You would then sell all the useless equipment so you could afford to buy excellent quality gear from the other shop that was almost impossible to rob. You then sent your warrior or knight on their own on a 'training mission' in the dungeon full of low level orcs. (the one which was linked to one of the Farnus missions), Your XP would be huge because you only had one character. Wasn't really viable for mages though and took longer with the monk because dodge < armor skill

Interesting, should try it. Basically fighters (and archer's called shots to the head) kicked ass until you started encounter assassins and vampires. Then mages ruled supreme with their Deathbolt. With the help of Deathbolt you can acquire Dark Armor from Death Knight on the big isle (Demata?). Due to it fighters started to kick ass again until your cleric learns Wrath of the God. This spell on the second magnitude - death for every trash monster in the encounter. It simply awesome in the final dungeon where trash encounters awaiting behind every corner.

Yeah I remember, I had to try several times, and quite often it wouldn't work. I think I reloaded quite a number of times to get the proper encounter.

Thanks, maybe I will finish it someday.

The evil overlord's dungeon was broken alright, lots of missing walls, so I went for an army battle ending.

What have you done? Conquered all Rathadon cities? Never tried "strategic" ending.

 

[mondblut]

Was that the strongest weapon? It wasn't available at shops. I found one in the dungeon from the last quest of Farnus. It turned my knight into a fearsome character who could kill a giant in one hit!

Not in shops, but I looted shovelfuls of those from many encounters.

What have you done? Conquered all Rathadon cities? Never tried "strategic" ending.

Yup. It ends with a massive battle between the big bad's army and the combined army of your cities. Not that difficult really.

 

[kofeur]

Afair, I just traveled back and forth. It was random encounter.

Need to restart the game, I don't have my old save. I guess if you encounter and kill the ogre early. You can't complete the mission.

Interesting, should try it. Basically fighters (and archer's called shots to the head) kicked ass until you started encounter assassins and vampires. Then mages ruled supreme with their Deathbolt. With the help of Deathbolt you can acquire Dark Armor from Death Knight on the big isle (Demata?). Due to it fighters started to kick ass again until your cleric learns Wrath of the God. This spell on the second magnitude - death for every trash monster in the encounter. It simply awesome in the final dungeon where trash encounters awaiting behind every corner.

Never needed magic to acquire dark armor, I just stun locked the death knight until he died with my monk. I actually did the mission with only the monk so that he could reap all the experience as he was harder to level up than the warriors. All you needed to do is get sufficient skill level to be able to hit the knight, and constantly stun him, I think you needed a skill level of 150 or 200. The monk was extremely effective because unarmed is probably the cheapest skill to raise. So he was always the most accurate striker in my team - at least low to mid game - because the half ogre has the highest skill potential having the highest strength limit. So the monk made a lot of monsters 'accessible' to a low level party.

 

[Fowyr]

So Monk is more effective than Daze spell. Definitely it is a good asset to party.

 

[Galdred]

Finished it back in the day. The evil overlord's dungeon was broken alright, lots of missing walls, so I went for an army battle ending.

Game mechanics were kinda broken, the most uber weapon was a fairly generic assassin's knife IIRC.

One of the few games I actually managed to overcome password protection all by myself, by finding the password storage and altering it.

All in all, an excellent entry among the goldbox-like type of games.

How good was the battle part of the game? Is it worth playing it over other goldbox games for the battle part? How well does it compare to Birthright for instance? Is there any other RPG/ warparty commander hybrid you know of?
I liked the battles in BR, but they felt too different from the RPG part.

 

[octavius]

How good was the battle part of the game? Is it worth playing it over other goldbox games for the battle part?

It has both combat system and encounter design that is on par or better than the Gold Box games, IMO.

Very good game. I can't remember any broken game mechanics, and in the final dungeon you can avoid the buggy area if you are conscious about avoiding it.

 

[oldmanpaco]

What do you think happened to ol' kofeur? This was his first post here (after 11 months of lurking). Last seen back on 2016. Were are you know buddy?

 

[mondblut]

How good was the battle part of the game? Is it worth playing it over other goldbox games for the battle part?

Good enough.

How well does it compare to Birthright for instance?

Well, Birthright is a strategy game with a dungeon crawling minigame thrown in as an afterthought. This one is the other way around, sort of.

Is there any other RPG/ warparty commander hybrid you know of?

Challenge of 5 realms, maybe? By the end you field like a dozen of combatants some of which are units of 10 soldiers.

Kenshi in terms of simple scaling, you can run 5 characters, or you can run 205. JA2 can have up to 32 modded.

Mount & Blade obviously, but I never considered it an RPG.

 

[Galdred]

How good was the battle part of the game? Is it worth playing it over other goldbox games for the battle part?

Good enough.

How well does it compare to Birthright for instance?

Well, Birthright is a strategy game with a dungeon crawling minigame thrown in as an afterthought. This one is the other way around, sort of.

Is there any other RPG/ warparty commander hybrid you know of?

Challenge of 5 realms, maybe? By the end you field like a dozen of combatants some of which are units of 10 soldiers.

Kenshi in terms of simple scaling, you can run 5 characters, or you can run 205. JA2 can have up to 32 modded.

Mount & Blade obviously, but I never considered it an RPG.

Kenshi was an awesome suggestion. It is the fort building RPG I always wanted (even though it is a bit wonky).
I had assumed it was some kind of post apoc MnB on foot before, but it is much more than that (and the RTwP works well here given the number of things you need to multitask).