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Incline Dark Heart of Uukrul Discussion Thread

Deuce Traveler

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Grab the Codex by the pussy Divinity: Original Sin Torment: Tides of Numenera Shadorwun: Hong Kong Pathfinder: Kingmaker Steve gets a Kidney but I don't even get a tag. Pathfinder: Wrath I'm very into cock and ball torture
The Codex only has four threads where Dark Heart of Uukrul is discussed, two of which are Let's Plays, one a discussion on the avatars in game, and the fourth a retrospective. We did not have a thread in the General RPG Discussion forum where we could talk about experiences with the game and banter about character generation as well as other aspects of the gameplay, so this post seeks to address that.

I've been playing Dark Heart of Uukrul off and on for about a month now, but have only gotten part of the way. This isn't due to any struggle with the interface. In fact, the game runs quite well in DOSBox and is intuitive enough to pick up and play. Instead it is because I'm taking detailed notes and making my own maps, so I can only play when I have some dedicated time and writing space. The game itself has an automap feature, and I use it, but I can write more extensive notes in my graph paper book and I find it easier to refer to my own work and compare it to the ingame map.

This game is pretty tough, and I recommend making a backup save you can restore from when you go into a sanctuary. I find this to be a necessity, actually. Although you can pick up NPCs in case a starting character dies, I want to complete the game with my own party that I created. So far I've had to reload from a backup twice due to near TPKs and bring a character back from the dead once. Bringing characters back from the dead can be quite costly in money, experience points, and attribute drops, so loading from the backup save is a good idea. The game punishes you for mistakes you make in combat, though I do find the enemy's AI to be lacking sometimes, as some of the enemy are slow to close into melee, allowing your sorcerer to pick at them from a distance.

Anyway, I'm enjoying myself with this game, but status effects have caused me the most grief. One of my reloads from a backup came after some plague rats diseased two of my characters. I was keeping them alive just fine on the way back to town to get healed, but the party was weakened. A pack of orcs we would normally trounce jumped us, and my weakened characters couldn't do decent damage or defend themselves, leading to a slaughter. Right now I'm in an area with respawning enemies in order to level up and get some better gear before pressing on, as I feel the game is getting a little too challenging for my 2nd level characters. I'll probably grind a couple more levels before pressing on.

uukrul_001.png
 

octavius

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Uukrul is a great game that deserves more love. Too bad it was delayed, hardly advertised and released on DOS only (EDIT: No, also Apple), thus ensuring it not getting the attention it had deserved. I can definitely see myself replaying it some day, when I have forgotten most of the details of the game.

Personally I liked the save only in Sanctuaries system, as it made the game more nerve wrecking, and with the highly irregular shapes and sizes of the dungeons you never knew where the next sanctuary would be.

I didn't do any grinding myself, for two reasons:
1. It's boring
2. I like challenging fights. There was only one area where I wished I had grinded, but I finished it as quickly as possible without exploring everything.

Have you met any Black Orcs or Assassins yet? I think they were the first enemies I dreaded meeting.
 
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Deuce Traveler

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Grab the Codex by the pussy Divinity: Original Sin Torment: Tides of Numenera Shadorwun: Hong Kong Pathfinder: Kingmaker Steve gets a Kidney but I don't even get a tag. Pathfinder: Wrath I'm very into cock and ball torture
No, I finally caught up with two spies that kept setting traps for my characters which I couldn't seem to avoid. The bastards. I've run into red orcs and chiefs, but not black orcs or assassins. When you level up it seems your characters get a lot tougher. I keep having to go back into town to fix weapons and purchase food. I'm glad there are teleporters in the game to make this an easier process.
 

Deuce Traveler

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Grab the Codex by the pussy Divinity: Original Sin Torment: Tides of Numenera Shadorwun: Hong Kong Pathfinder: Kingmaker Steve gets a Kidney but I don't even get a tag. Pathfinder: Wrath I'm very into cock and ball torture
Thanks. I'm still trying to wrap my mind around the magic system. It seems my priest is able to cast any spell, and everything he has is quite effective but also has a high chance of failure. The sorcereress can cast only spells corresponding to her level of expertise, but I can't recall any time her magic failed her. Both have spells that heal and damage. It's an interesting system.

Edit: Which spell creates food? I just went through the manual again and didn't find it. The spell descriptions are awesomely wordy, however, so I may have missed it.
 
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HiddenX

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Prayers to Fshofth is necessary under certain situation.
NULAMIR will attempts to silent the enemies. TULAR is only
answered at an altar. If successfully invoked, it will increase
the party's food by 200 units. RULASAIR is similar to TULAR but
can be cast anywhere, however the increase is only 100 units and
is more draining than TULAR. EMANUI is usually answered in a
santuary, it give growing health. KUURAOTH is only needed to wake
up the dark vision from the mirror that can tell the future of
Eriosthe. LAIRIAN is needed to light the beacon.
 

Deuce Traveler

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Grab the Codex by the pussy Divinity: Original Sin Torment: Tides of Numenera Shadorwun: Hong Kong Pathfinder: Kingmaker Steve gets a Kidney but I don't even get a tag. Pathfinder: Wrath I'm very into cock and ball torture
Prayers to Fshofth is necessary under certain situation.
NULAMIR will attempts to silent the enemies. TULAR is only
answered at an altar. If successfully invoked, it will increase
the party's food by 200 units. RULASAIR is similar to TULAR but
can be cast anywhere, however the increase is only 100 units and
is more draining than TULAR. EMANUI is usually answered in a
santuary, it give growing health. KUURAOTH is only needed to wake
up the dark vision from the mirror that can tell the future of
Eriosthe. LAIRIAN is needed to light the beacon.


Ah.... this makes sense now:

TULAR Gaunt Dreams

Fshofth, at an Altar there is a glade,
Green leaves and colored monkeys,
Fruit drop from the vines, and lie
Rotting on the ground.
 

octavius

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Figuring it out yourself is part of the fun...
Although I must admit I had little patience for a couple of the puzzles in the game.
 

Deuce Traveler

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Grab the Codex by the pussy Divinity: Original Sin Torment: Tides of Numenera Shadorwun: Hong Kong Pathfinder: Kingmaker Steve gets a Kidney but I don't even get a tag. Pathfinder: Wrath I'm very into cock and ball torture
I thought I'd be done this week because of how fast I zipped through the first few dungeons and found two of the McGuffins early on, and reached level 5 (out of a manual maximum of 15) in just three days of play. But the caverns and a maze after the caverns really slowed me down, with lots of battles but few significant XP rewards, resulting in me just reaching level 6 after finding a third McGuffin. I have to admit that I also suffered some experience drain during some fights with undead, but the drainage wasn't so bad. I may have lost 1000xp for the character who suffered the worst. The reward system seems unbalanced to me, as I struggle in some battles against black orcs and get little XP out of them, but then I fight an easier battle against a single witch and am rewarded with a much larger amount.

Mapping can be a challenge, too, as the map function sometimes is disabled and there are spinning tiles that change your direction, but do not give a hint to the fact, meaning it can be a challenge if you aren't taking account of your heading. I wish you were allowed to drop worthless items to help in such places. Ultimately, I am still having a lot of fun but I do think that the Gold Box games did a better job of pacing their dungeon encounters with character advancement.
 

TigerKnee

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Oops, wish I saw this thread earlier but at least it's only been a week?

Yeah, the Arcane/Divine spellcasting differentiation in this game is... unique I suppose. Unlike in most games, it's Arcane magic that's "steady" while Divine magic is inconsistent, which probably makes more sense considering deities are known to be huge assholes. This kind of makes Divine Magic scale oddly though. I think most would agree that Priests are mostly worthless dorks early game who spend half of the time getting smited, but I don't think I ever agree that he becomes the "most valuable"/"strongest" character by the end (I'm not counting out of combat utility because there's no real "party building" in a Wiz sense)

(I think the Summoning messages should really give better feedback rather than just "you failed to summon", if I hadn't read the LP I would probably not have tried summoning after the first 10 times or so when I failed as a level 1 priest)

I think you can still find my thoughts on Char Gen near the end of the LP, but the general summary is that while I love the concept of "personality quiz" char gen, it doesn't particularly work in this one because the effects of stats aren't transparent, and the general problem of dump stats in char systems anyway. I guess on the good news, unless you're intentionally sabotaging your character by answering the most OOC choices in Char Gen, you're bound to get a good character, but if that's the case you might as well just skip that part and go straight into the game.

Now, if builds like High Intelligence Fighters or combat Priests/Mage were somehow supported then maybe the Char Gen would be more interesting but they can't so shrug.
 

Crooked Bee

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The Priest was definitely the best damage dealer for me in the end game.

I also love pretty much everything about this game and I think it's just the best CRPG I've played, period :P But I guess you guys knew that already.
 

octavius

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In my game the Priest was the overall most effective character, judged by the different amounts of XP my characters had. So don't underestimate the Priest.

Regarding char gen, I think the only thing to aim for is to get high Strength, since there are Strength restrictions on the best weapons.
 
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Jack Dandy

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I started playing this a little while ago. From what I've seen, it was really damn good, I was especially impressed by just how functional and friendly the UI was, considering it's age.

I'm a bit busy at this time, but I'll definitely get back into it someday soon.
 

Monstrous Bat

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DHoU is awesome. It's not that hard though, so I'd recommend not savescumming unless you managed to lose one of the party members permanantly. I believe DHoU was balanced around the ironman play style, and is best played such.

My fighter and paladin had the most headcount in my playthrough. Priest is probably the best damage dealer in the midgame, while the magician is the most powerful killing machine in the late game. The fighter and paladin are consistantly useful for pretty much the entire game.

Also, the manual is fucking great. Especially the spell descriptions. :love:
 

TigerKnee

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Hmm, I wonder if I forgotten most of the puzzles by now so I can give it another play. It'll never be the same fresh unless I develop amnesia but it might be good enough.

What a shame that this RPG's design ethos will probably never be followed up upon. I like its unique mechanics.
 

Photokoi

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I have no idea if this thread belong here but there is a serious need for the game Dark Heart of Uukrul to be on wikipedia. Has anyone played it? Its truly incredible. Here's what I've written so far. Those who are interested should write on the article, expand it. Sorry, cant write more right now...

Here:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Dark_Heart_of_Uukrul
 

Photokoi

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Just put it in yourself, its wikipedia for pete's sake. Cant you just do that?
 

Old Hans

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I am working on a Dark Heart of Uukruk kickstarter to finish the wikipidia page. It will have branching dialogs inspired by Baldur Gates
 

Photokoi

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Sorry to hijack the thread but anyone know where I can get a boxed copy of this little gem?
:hmmm:
I would be interested in this as well, so good question.
 

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