Dark Sun: Shattered Lands is fucking great

[Sceptic]

Is it a good idea to import your Shattered Lands party? I read that this will make enemies have double HP, I wonder how annoying that would be. HP bloat is generally a pretty annoying way to increase difficulty.

AFAIR importing just sets the default difficulty in Ravager to maximum; you can always reduce it yourself. Regardless, your imported party will come in at higher level (fresh characters start around level 7; your imported party will most probably be maxed out at level 9), and with most of their equipment intact, including El's Drinker, Phrain's Now, even the +4 Dragonsbane you get at the end of SL, and of course all the spells and psi powers you've learned. Armour doesn't do as well but you still get to keep some of the better items. All in all you're at a big advantage compared to a fresh party, and besides it's always more fun to carry the same group through multiple games.

 

[visions]

Speaking of difficulty, I wonder what does it exactly do in these games, just increases enemy hitpoints? Improves their other stats as well? I lefit it on default (Balanced) in Shattered Lands because I usually prefer to play D&D games on default settings.

 

[Sceptic]

I think it's a simple HP increase and nothing else. I usually leave it on Balanced as well because fuck HP bloat.

 

[visions]

Wasn't playing Dark Sun for a few weeks, now I'm back at it.

Does anyone know what the Wand of Metal Detection is good for? I've tried using it in a few areas and it has so far been completely useless.

 

[Darth Canoli]

No idea, i didn't finish it either yet, not that i was bored, on the contrary, i feel like the game isn't very long and i'm trying to savor it, enjoying every bit by playing some 30 minutes to one hour sessions every now and then.

 

[Removal]

Wasn't playing Dark Sun for a few weeks, now I'm back at it.

Does anyone know what the Wand of Metal Detection is good for? I've tried using it in a few areas and it has so far been completely useless.

it affects a quest/scene and you can use it to find material for making an end game weapon

 

[visions]

I must have missed it. Reached the final battle now and didn't notice anything like that. I guess it's time to read the hint book now, to see what I missed in the game.

One quest I knowingly missed was the fire eel one, since I was about to wrap up the game and couldn't be arsed to go looking for fire eels at that point anymore.

EDIT: Won the game. Final fight had good difficulty, it was the only fight in the game I had to pre-buff for. I've won the fight 3 times now, each time went better than the last. First time only my Half-Giant Gadiator survived, third time my whole party was standing at the end. Still haven't managed to keep any of the allies alive so far.

 

[fantadomat]

Yo,i have seen this game getting a lot of praise in the codex but had never played it. Does it hold up this days? Don't care about looks much but more about UI and keybinding practicality. Also does it have any side quests,good writing and exploration or is just linear enemy smashing?

 

[CryptRat]

Yo,i have seen this game getting a lot of praise in the codex but had never played it. Does it hold up this days? Don't care about looks much but more about UI and keybinding practicality. Also does it have any side quests,good writing and exploration or is just linear enemy smashing?

Exploration is very non-linear past a medium size beginning area, you're exploring an open world then. It's along the lines of Baldur's gate regarding enemy smashing to dialogs with choices ratio. I think the writing is very good and part of the charm of the game, rightfully over-the-top not unlike Wasteland, Fallout and the likes. I had no problem playing it a few years ago and think you won't have any problem either.

 

[Saduj]

Also that beginning areas is one of the best you’ll see.

 

[luj1]

I played Dark Sun a few years ago for the first time and had a blast. Surprisingly accessible game, it felt pretty modern to me.

 

[Krivol]

Even begining is quite cool - it sticked me next to the screen even if I started playing it with 'meh' attitude. Prison break is a fine quest.

 

[Cael]

It is weird. I have had more crashes with Shattered Lands in a single 2 hours session than I have ever had with the years of playing Wake. Yet, people tell me that Wake is worse and more buggy than Shattered. I completed Wake every single time. Never ran into a game breaking bug of any kind.

 

[Darth Canoli]

It is weird. I have had more crashes with Shattered Lands in a single 2 hours session than I have ever had with the years of playing Wake. Yet, people tell me that Wake is worse and more buggy than Shattered. I completed Wake every single time. Never ran into a game breaking bug of any kind.

God is punishing you because you don't deserve to play Shattered Lands.

Yo,i have seen this game getting a lot of praise in the codex but had never played it. Does it hold up this days? Don't care about looks much but more about UI and keybinding practicality. Also does it have any side quests,good writing and exploration or is just linear enemy smashing?

It's as good as it gets for a pre-ToEE cRPG.
Some bugs but it's not that bad if you don't use win10, just don't interrupt NPC's scripts (leaving areas and such).

The quest design is really good, the settings would be unparalleled if not for Planescape and even the combat holds up.

Of course, you'll have to be lenient on some flaws due to its age, mostly, almost no encounter design with some exceptions.

 

[Cael]

It is weird. I have had more crashes with Shattered Lands in a single 2 hours session than I have ever had with the years of playing Wake. Yet, people tell me that Wake is worse and more buggy than Shattered. I completed Wake every single time. Never ran into a game breaking bug of any kind.

God is punishing you because you don't deserve to play Shattered Lands.

Meh. If God is that petty, a lot of people would be dead already, starting with much of China.

 

[ERYFKRAD]

God is that petty, a lot of people would be dead already, starting with much of China.

They're already Chinese though, further punishment ain't such of a much.

 

[Cael]

God is that petty, a lot of people would be dead already, starting with much of China.

They're already Chinese though, further punishment ain't such of a much.

Well, He would have let the great starvation, sorry, Great Leap Forwards to the Stone Age continue for another 40 years. That should be punishment enough.

 

[marek]

it affects a quest/scene and you can use it to find material for making an end game weapon

Could you tell me more about the endgame weapon? I know it can be used in the spring area to prove to the templar there is no metal around, but i didn't find the second use (unless you mean the sky metal in the lava area, but that doesn't require the wand and the weapon isn't exactly endgame).

 

[Ol' Willy]

the settings would be unparalleled if not for Planescape

This really perplexes me: Dark Sun setting has just three games and Planescape only one, despite both being very interesting and quite non-standard.

 

[RPK]

the settings would be unparalleled if not for Planescape

This really perplexes me: Dark Sun setting has just three games and Planescape only one, despite both being very interesting and quite non-standard.

Dark sun had 3 games? Shattered Lands, Wake of the Ravager. what was the 3rd? i've only played the 2 i named.

 

[Darth Canoli]

Dark sun had 3 games? Shattered Lands, Wake of the Ravager. what was the 3rd? i've only played the 2 i named.

Dark Sun Online: Crimson Sands

Crimson Sands is an interesting game, though its aged poorly. Most of what is truly special about the game comes from its development. Intended as a competitor for Neverwinter Nights, it was going to be hosted by AT&T’s proposed Interchange network. When that project was scrapped, SSI went alone with development until the game was released on the Total Entertainment Network. The game was eventually scrapped in 1998, but not before becoming one of the first fully-graphical MMOs. It also had features like player chat and unrestricted player-vs-player combat, which would be embraced by later titles. As it was, though, it stands as an idea that was just a little bit ahead of its time.

Athas Reborn
Perhaps ironically for a game series that was meant to compete with Neverwinter Nights, Dark Sun has found its greatest persistent success within the remake of that same game. Athas is a persistent world built with the tools found in the original release of Neverwinter Nights. Athas Reborn was as close to a new Dark Sun MMO as players are likely to see, though it’s had its own ups and downs over the years. It’s amazing what the creators were able to do with a system that simply wasn’t made with Dark Sun in mind.

 

[Zed Duke of Banville]

the settings would be unparalleled if not for Planescape

This really perplexes me: Dark Sun setting has just three games and Planescape only one, despite both being very interesting and quite non-standard.

Planescape: Torment was released in 1994, by which time a financially-precarious SSI had already embraced the Dark Sun setting as the core of its final attempts to achieve commercial success with D&D-licensed CRPGs. SSI released Shattered Lands in 1993 and Wake of the Ravager in 1994 (with the Crimson Sands game being a later online spinoff), but by the time the latter appeared in stores TSR had already broken its alliance with SSI (announced in Dragon Magazine #207 July 1994). Interplay soon acquired the license for games set in the Forgotten Realms and the new Planescape campaign setting (announced in Dragon Magazine #211 November 1994), and Brian Fargo was so enthusiastic about Planescape that three different Interplay games for that setting were in development at various points, but ultimately Planescape: Torment was the only one completed. With the realization that conventional fantasy settings sold much better than unconventional ones (and that nothing was more conventional, generic, and bland than the Forgotten Realms), there was no possibility of further games developed for either the Dark Sun or Planescape settings. Even if a computer game developer were willing to take the risk, Hasbro, the eventual owner of TSR's intellectual property, would have no interest in such an effort.

 

[fantadomat]

So is the thief of any use,also where the mage???

 

[marek]

So is the thief of any use,also where the mage???

Thief is sometimes used for secret doors & lockpicking, but those instences are rare and you can normally also find the key or bash it open. However, as a multiclass a thief is really amazing with backstabbing. In the game, it doesn't matter where the enemy is facing: You have to attack him from one direction with another character, then with the thief from the other for a great damage multiplier.

Preserver spells are great, with haste you essentially double your party strength since everyone affected doubles the # of attacks. Slow on the other hand haves the enemies attacks. Almost a bit too good. Stone skin and mirror image render you almost invulnerable. In general, buffs are best, direct damage is fun but inefficient. Also, i wouln't pick pure preserver: a fighter/preserver will hit hard while using all those buffs to hit even harder/more often/being harder to hit.

My party:
Fighter/Druid/Thief (Mul)
Ranger/Preserver/Thief (Elf)
Fighter/Psionic/Thief (Dwarf)
Fighter/Preserver/Thief (Half-Elf)

 

[fantadomat]

LoL i laughed my ass off when i saw that you can't be a cleric with an elf buahahaha ok nigga.