Darklands Character creation

[Saxon1974]

For any Darklands players out there.....Is it better to just take one occupation and start your characters at age 20, or to take 2 or 3 and start them at age 25 or 30 and have better skills.

Does time progress fast? If I start them at 30 will age become a factor quickly?

 

[Wyrmlord]

I think time progress physically weakens your character.

 

[Balor]

But gives you boosts in metal department.
However, only time spent during chargen does so - when you rack up years during play, you'll get only penalties.

 

[someone else]

Take professions that boost your attributes that will make up for your loss in age. Starting at 30-35 is good. Only exception is your alchemist where it will be easier to start with high alchemy, high virtue is also useful.
You should combine your speaker with alchemist as the interacting with other alchemists also requires speaking skills such as charisma and speak common as well as alchemist skills. This I got from running tests.

 

[Zomg]

If you walk on roads when possible and don't completely waste time (training is fine), you can probably finish the main quest in 2-3 game years and do everything there is to do in the game at least once in 3-4, and everyone on your team will probably be a serious hardass no matter how old they were at the start (well, as long as you focused on strength and endurance, which are much more important than all the other stats put together).

The absolute most powergame-ed party would probably start everyone off at age 20, because a 20-year-old character that's being played will get waaay more skill and stat improvement from running around in Darklands Germany by the time he's 25 than a character-generated 25-year-old. There are little problems with a party of 20-year-olds, like the low virtue causing monks to turn you away and being unable to talk to alchemists right off, but they're surmountable.

 

[Korgan]

I made a 20 year old "brute" type who was the main fighter and a bit of a thief, a 30 y.o. paladin/leader, a 35 or 40 priest/fighter and an old alchemist. Worked OK.

 

[someone else]

You guys actually play long enough to suffer age penalties ingame? I thought I didn't get any age penalties ingame but that was many years ago. Most of the time I don't last 5 years.
The hardest and most fun part is the begining when you don't have unlimited potions that can be used anytime, instantly. The game lets you earn florins till they are coming out of your ears from selling alchemy.

 

[LCJr.]

If you search here you should find several threads on character creation.

My advice is make weapons skills your lowest priority. Only raise them if you have points leftover. With all the combat they'll go up fast through use. A lot of skills like Religion, Alchemy, Artifice, etc... can be raised by hiring trainers. Play the game some until you figure out what can be learned/bought and then start a new party and focus on the skills you can't buy.

The archetype party is a Face(high speak common, decent charisma), a Tank, a Religious Type and an Alchemist.

I usually try to make a group with one person good at speak common. Someone with a high perception and woodcraft, to avoid ambushes and possibly deal with animals.. One with intelligence to eventually become an Alchemist. I don't worry about Alchemy much in the beginning but usually have the future Alchemist take a profession(like Oblate) that gives them a formula. You can buy or sometimes trade for more formulas later. One with a high healing skill. IIRC at healing 50+ you'll recover 3 pts. a day resting. At 60 or 70 something it goes up to 4 pts a day which is hard to reach without your character being pretty old. Can't remember the exact breakover points.

Look at the different professions and watch the effect on stats and skills. I usually job hop a lot but stay focused on giving each character a specific skill set. I used to do to do the Nobility>Knight type for my face character but found out I could get a character with good stats, high speak common, perception and woodcraft by going the Peddler and Laborer route. For age I usually go for 25-35 and sometimes up to 50 for the healer. Hermit profession helps a lot there. Experiment and enjoy.

You can find a lot of helpful utilities here but I recommend avoiding the spoilers.
http://www.darklands.net/

One last piece of advice. Buy some javelins. Most of the time you'll recover them after the fight and it makes the early combats easier if you can take one of the enemies before melee.

 

[Unradscorpion]

I found a bug that allowed me to progress my characters up to 100 years.
I know you need to press esc. key at some point to make it work...

I made a 100 year old man entirely focused on speechcraft, I was able to save my sefl from any situation imaginable all until I met a pack of wolves. I surrendered there, but they sort of ate me.

 

[Zomg]

My starting tip would be to get a fast weapon like a dagger or shortsword for everyone and use the aggressive type of attack. It's not in the manual, but the time between attacks is something like "weapon delay + attack type delay", and the aggressive attacks (I think it's either flurry or berserk in the game) make the attack type delay = 0. So with a quick weapon and aggressive setting you swing 2-3 times times as often as street thugs. Later on you can keep doing the same thing with either poniards or military hammers which can penetrate some types of sub-plate armor. The big slow weapons like mauls and polearms are generally only good for taking on guys in plate armor, but by the time you have to fight more than one plate-wearer at a time you'll probably have alchemy potions that can let most weapons blow through plate easily. Don't feel like you have to diversify your weapons skills among your guys, either - you almost always buy the best stuff rather than find it.

 

[Saxon1974]

Thanks for all the replies.

I think I will stick with my new game I started with all characters at age 25, I have the typical party with 1 fighter\talker, 1 tank, 1 alchemist and 1 religious healer.

I would have used the Search function if it didn't return 400 random results....

 

[Saxon1974]

This game is rather difficult to get started, I am having to save alot because a keep getting a character killed.

Why is it so hard to regain your strength? Only healing 1 point per night of sleep?

Decent learning curve to all the ins and outs of this game, which I like....I wonder if a game like this could succeed if it came out now since it takes a while to figure out how to play it.

 

[Zomg]

You have to sleep at the inn (or outside, or in the slums if the town is big enough to have some - not recommended) and have your guys "regain strength" to get the benefit of a character with the healing skill.

I find it easier to just go to the healer guy in the trade guilds and get him to heal me over and over - unless you're unlucky, and he's a quack, and his "healing" will actually hurt a character, in which case I just hop on a boat to a different town. It's expensive but eventually non-magical healing will become obsolete so I don't create a specialized healer.

 

[someone else]

This game is rather difficult to get started, I am having to save alot because a keep getting a character killed.
Why is it so hard to regain your strength? Only healing 1 point per night of sleep?
Decent learning curve to all the ins and outs of this game, which I like....I wonder if a game like this could succeed if it came out now since it takes a while to figure out how to play it.

Do you have access to a manual?

You get 1 point cos your heal skill is too low.
Did you take the default starting party equipment? Good armour makes it easier and they start with good equipment.
Start combat with javelins and bows. Use shields, make sure encumberance is at most moderate, agil is your dump stat.

Its hard cos you start with a bunch of weak 25 year olds, a strong party is 3 fighters/clerics + 1 alchemist/face. All with near max Str and End so they can wear full plate with little encumberance(which affects agility and attack speed). Your alchemist can have medium Int and Chr and still dance in full plate.

Best overall weapon is military pick but you dont' need them against street thugs.

 

[Saxon1974]

This game is rather difficult to get started, I am having to save alot because a keep getting a character killed.
Why is it so hard to regain your strength? Only healing 1 point per night of sleep?
Decent learning curve to all the ins and outs of this game, which I like....I wonder if a game like this could succeed if it came out now since it takes a while to figure out how to play it.

Do you have access to a manual?

You get 1 point cos your heal skill is too low.
Did you take the default starting party equipment? Good armour makes it easier and they start with good equipment.
Start combat with javelins and bows. Use shields, make sure encumberance is at most moderate, agil is your dump stat.

Its hard cos you start with a bunch of weak 25 year olds, a strong party is 3 fighters/clerics + 1 alchemist/face. All with near max Str and End so they can wear full plate with little encumberance(which affects agility and attack speed). Your alchemist can have medium Int and Chr and still dance in full plate.

Best overall weapon is military pick but you dont' need them against street thugs.

I do have a manual, I like that this is a game that you really do need to read the manual....

Im considering starting over and making my alchemist my talker, right now I have 1 of my fighters as the talker.

So 2 tanks, 1 tank\cleric with religion and healing ability and 1 face alchemist is the way to go? Hate starting over but Im not that far so I think I will.

I think Im going to make most of my characters start at age 30 instead of 25.

As far the heal skill, its as high as I could get with a 25 year old character but apparently still too low.

I assume I took the default equipment since I didn't know it was an option not to....

Don't put any points into Agility at all then?

 

[LCJr.]

You don't have to abandon the party you have. If you're happy with their stats you can train them to be whatever you want. Grind the thugs in town to improve your weapon skills, cash and raise your local fame. When you have the money find a good doctor and have him train your healer character.

Like I said it's been awhile since I played but the healing skill goes something like 2 pts. healing at 30+. 3 pts. at 50+ and 4 pts at 70+ which is very hard to reach. I've used a Novice Monk/Nun to Monk or Friar then Hermit. IIRC the Hermit only gains 7 pts. healing per career but the stat boosts offset the aging process a good deal.

Oh by default equipment I think they mean adding the default characters to your party. Give their equipment to one of your characters then retire them. Repeat until you have all of it. Kinda of an exploit but whatever works for you.

 

[Saxon1974]

You don't have to abandon the party you have. If you're happy with their stats you can train them to be whatever you want. Grind the thugs in town to improve your weapon skills, cash and raise your local fame. When you have the money find a good doctor and have him train your healer character.

Like I said it's been awhile since I played but the healing skill goes something like 2 pts. healing at 30+. 3 pts. at 50+ and 4 pts at 70+ which is very hard to reach. I've used a Novice Monk/Nun to Monk or Friar then Hermit. IIRC the Hermit only gains 7 pts. healing per career but the stat boosts offset the aging process a good deal.

Oh by default equipment I think they mean adding the default characters to your party. Give their equipment to one of your characters then retire them. Repeat until you have all of it. Kinda of an exploit but whatever works for you.

Hmm, don't wanna use an exploit, ok thanks for your advice.

Cool game, has a nice atmosphere to it.

 

[kenney bounces]

I started with a bunch of 16 year olds with some equipment, then earned a buncha gold and trained almost every skill to 100 within about 2 years of constant training.

 

[someone else]

I assume I took the default equipment since I didn't know it was an option not to....
Don't put any points into Agility at all then?

Starting equipment depends on your starting professions, youngsters tend to start with clubs and leather while older knights start with metal armour.

You can have your point man have medium/high perception to spot traps, 1 char can have medium/high agility for agility checks, remember to strip off his armour.

 

[Saxon1974]

I continued on with my current characters and Im doing ok now.

I did start using Javelins which were a huge help. I just got attacked by some guards and amazingly was able to slay them. It rewarded me with a few scale suits of armor, nice....

Also, I would recommend when fighting to build characters to stay near a small village because resting it way cheaper there.

This game has so many nice little touches to it.

 

[Saxon1974]

Well I was doing ok till I ran into these Gargoyles along the road....Cool screen, they took 1 of my uncontious characters away.

Walking around in the snow....

I then encounter these bad boys....who quickly routed me.

I think this is a cool shot too..

 

[LCJr.]

Have you been studying up on your saints lad?

 

[Saxon1974]

This game is codex approved correct? Went back to playing it this weekend, I love the simulated Medieval world (Since Im kind of a medieval buff).

I thought there was a VaultDweller review of Darklands wasn't there? I can't seem to find it as the search brings back 334 matches....

 

[asper]

'Codex approved' is an understatement; it is one of the best cRPG's ever made. Definitely the best sandbox RPG. I'm not aware of any VD review though.

 

[Balor]

Only thing I really miss it is 'evil' path... where you'll study demons instead of saints and side with Baphomet. That would be p. cool.

Otherwise it's pretty close to being perfect.
I cannot imagine how much fun should be playing this game when it came out... given that even graphics were considered 'great'.