Let's Play Daggerfall!

[Elwro]

I wonder what happens when you finally meet opponents with Spell Reflection.

BTW, taking Spell Reflection during character creation means every Lich and Vampire (including the Ancient ones) will blast himself to death and you won't need to do anything.

 

[cutterjohn]

I hate to bring bad news, but it seems I was not meant to play Daggerfall. The game managed to corrupt BOTH my savegames in the King of Worm's dungeon, and fixsave won't work. Hooray!

Anyway, I apologize greatly for it. I was really having a good time with this thread, but it just seems I picked a very unstable game to do. I hope you enjoyed it while it lasted, anyway.

However, you do have another Let's Play thread to look forward to! I'm thinking a more stable game like... Let's Play Wizardry 8. However, I'm taking suggestions. I'm not sure how many of you have played Wizardry 8, but whatever. If I could find my Quest for Glory 4 CD, I'd do that, but eh. So look for a Let's Play Wizardry 8! thread coming soon.

Does fixsave work under qemu or VPC + freedos?

 

[mirrorshades]

Ok... coming to the party a bit late.

BUT.

For those with an itch to play Daggerfall who don't have it, there is a playable demo that basically lets you play the game fully but limits you to one geographic location (the island of Betony). This demo is freely available here:

http://www.uesp.net/dagger/files/dagfiles.shtml

Look for DFBETONY.ZIP, about a third of the way down the page. (There is also another demo that limits you to the starting dungeon, I think.)

I've not tried either demo, but as far as I have heard, they are basically the real game... so you should be able to get in and get your feet wet, at least.

 

[taxacaria]

I'm playing for about a year ingame time, and no crashs and no corrupted save games 'til now. Only the loading times are annoying, and I have much fun in Daggerfall and the dungeons - Necromogham, Shedungent, Direnni Tower, Scourg Barrow...hehehe.
Hours and hours and hours of dungeon crawling with time limits, and no quest markers or quest compass - but with banking and letters of credit, nudity, houses and a ship, and great freedom to build my char and to support several factions.
The generated names are really funny sometimes - "doubtless, you have heard from the wicked mage Bellazausa Yeomcroft...", and the many clothes in hundred of different colors make me shopping at the tailors very often. Some of the books are funny, too - "The lusty Argonian Maid" or "The Bankers Bed" are my favorites.
Some of the generated quests have unexpected random difficulties - and sometimes I had to make decisions between interests of two factions during the quest.
I've noticed that the bug with the zombie messenger from the King of Worms has been fixed in 213 (I still remember that that zombie reappeared every morning in my first DF game '97 '- #%&&§$@).
I made my char slow-advancing, so I have more time to enjoy the game without get bothered by the main quest too soon and too often.
Main skills : Long Blade, Short Blade and Mystizism(because of the expensive mark/recall spells. With this selection I am member of Fighter Guild, Mage Guild, Order of the xyz, a Temple)
Second skills Blunt, Axe, Hand-to-hand
Minor skills critical Strike and the 5 remaining magic schools
I only use long blades and cast a mystizism spell sometimes, so the char advancement is slowed and I have more time for role playing and my amusement.

 

[cutterjohn]

I'm still playing. I got over my over immershuhn in shittu pixealted grafix and have continued to loot and rob my way through the great and glorious city of Daggerfall, although my char is only up to c. 12k gold.

I'd do screenshots + story, but since I don't feel like it, it'd be LOUSY, so I'm not going to ATM.

[EDIT]
Teh cities are too rectangular... Didn't Bethesda hear of irregular polygons?

 

[hakuroshi]

The DF engine was rather outdated even then. Earlier Bethesda sucked at programming but was great in creative department.

 

[OccupatedVoid]

The DF engine was rather outdated even then. Earlier Bethesda sucked at programming but was great in creative department.

Still, they were better than today's Bethesda.

 

[cutterjohn]

Actually, IIRC their terminator games appeared to have a pretty advance 3D engine for the time, although I can't say from personal experience as I never bothered to play them...

Actually part of my problem with pixelation could be that I'm playing it on a 19" CRT which just helps to exaggerate the pixelation even more... (I'm playing it fullscreen, as I don't care for playing games in windows...)

 

[Dementia Praecox]

I made my char slow-advancing, so I have more time to enjoy the game without get bothered by the main quest too soon and too often. [...] I only use long blades and cast a mystizism spell sometimes, so the char advancement is slowed and I have more time for role playing and my amusement.

Blast! Does that mean that the main quests are tied to your level (questionmark)

 

[JarlFrank]

I made my char slow-advancing, so I have more time to enjoy the game without get bothered by the main quest too soon and too often. [...] I only use long blades and cast a mystizism spell sometimes, so the char advancement is slowed and I have more time for role playing and my amusement.

Blast! Does that mean that the main quests are tied to your level (questionmark)

No, actually not, but I guess that you get your first letter when you are a certain level...
and when you get that letter you must find that woman who sent it to you, because if you take too long she will be gone [she'll remind you three times, but after that she'll be gone and the mainquest is gone for good, too.]

 

[AZ]

..and when you get that letter you must find that woman who sent it to you, because if you take too long she will be gone [she'll remind you three times, but after that she'll be gone and the mainquest is gone for good, too.]

I really like this, if the player wants just a sandbox - just give it to him. Even I never played Daggerfall for long because of technical difficulties, seems much more mature and intelligent game than the sequels.

 

[Elwro]

Blast! Does that mean that the main quests are tied to your level (questionmark)

Some quests require a certain minimal experience level. If you go to the Direnni tower quickly, for example, after hours of dungeoneering you might learn that you'll have to come back some other time when you're more experienced.

 

[JarlFrank]

..and when you get that letter you must find that woman who sent it to you, because if you take too long she will be gone [she'll remind you three times, but after that she'll be gone and the mainquest is gone for good, too.]

I really like this, if the player wants just a sandbox - just give it to him. Even I never played Daggerfall for long because of technical difficulties, seems much more mature and intelligent game than the sequels.

Yeah, Daggerfall is the exact opposite of Oblivion.
There's not many people I know who have finished DF's mainquest. I heard the final dungeon was about impossible to finish. And it has quite the multiple endings.

The mainquest actually has more than one case where you're getting time limits. Especially when you've just entered a main quest dungeon with a time limit and realize that your level is too low to survive, you're fucked.

In fact, there're lots of chances to fuck up the main quest. That's why I love it so much, you can just do something wrong and fuck up. T3h sw33tness.

 

[hakuroshi]

Final dungeon is unique. It is not very hard, but bewildering.

 

[Goliath]

I have played Daggerfall for a while now, and I HATE the dungeons. They are very big and labyrinth like, and you have to crawl through such a thing for hours just to find that one giant the fighter guild wants you to kill - and you may not even find him! I have spend multiple hours (at least it felt like multiple hours) in a dungeon to find the quest monster - and I still have not found it! Fun? Not for me, because at least the random dungeons are not interesting at all.

I see a lot of potential for greatness, the character system and many other things are great, but the core gameplay i.e. crawling through those endless dungeons, our riding through a very big city, pointing at every house just to find the one where you are supposed to kill some rats.. sucks donky balls.

 

[Elwro]

Remember that the non-main quest dungeons are entirely optional.

 

[hakuroshi]

While huge random dungeons may be an issue, I don't see any trouble with cities. There is always a good townie who will happily show the target house on your map.

 

[suleo]

The crazy ass random generated 3D dungeons was one "big complaint" that Bethesda took to heart when doing morrowing. The result was craptacular "dungeons".

Main quest dungeons are not random-generated, although their size is still intimidating. I still remember that dungeon with a massive chasm, vampires on top, spiders on the bottom. Great fun.

In any case, if you get really pissed off trying to find the random baddie to kill in one of those crazy dungeons, use the "important points" cheat. I think it's bound to the "[]" keys. in each dungeon, there are about 10 or so of those "important points" and the quest objective is in one of them. Be careful though, most of them contain bad-ass baddies.

 

[Mikser]

The dungeons can be pretty dismaying, and it's easy to get lost. I used to be pretty furious at the game until I finally learned the four cardinal lessons:

1) Use Mark/Recall to get out of there. Trying to track back to the exit is otherwise just a pain in the ass. It's also a lifesaver if you're attacked by something you can't handle.
2) Always try to keep a couple of healing potions, cure disease potions and water breathing potions with you. There's just nothing worse than contracting the plague while being stuck at the very bottom of a difficult dungeon and not having the means to cure it.
3) Use the "wall-hugging method" - follow the left wall, or the right wall. It doesn't matter which one. Due to the properties of being inside an enclosed place you'll eventually go through the entire dungeon this way. And once you find your prey, you can track your way back by following the same wall back.
4) If it seems like you're going through the same intersections over and over again, check the automap to see which way you haven't explored yet. Also, check the automap when crossing long, straight, empty tunnels or entering empty rooms - you can spot a hidden door you might not otherwise notice.

 

[MorningStar]

3) Use the "wall-hugging method" - follow the left wall, or the right wall. It doesn't matter which one. Due to the properties of being inside an enclosed place you'll eventually go through the entire dungeon this way. And once you find your prey, you can track your way back by following the same wall back.

Dude you nearly made me spit the damn water i was drinking while reading your post.
This is one of the most fucked up idea i'ver ever heard of, you crushed my gay-o-meter.

 

[JarlFrank]

3) Use the "wall-hugging method" - follow the left wall, or the right wall. It doesn't matter which one. Due to the properties of being inside an enclosed place you'll eventually go through the entire dungeon this way. And once you find your prey, you can track your way back by following the same wall back.

Dude you nearly made me spit the damn water i was drinking while reading your post.
This is one of the most fucked up idea i'ver ever heard of, you crushed my gay-o-meter.

This is actually a good way to find the exit. I used this in the Dredge in Arcanum.

 

[Jasede]

Actually... this doesn't work with most Daggerfall dungeons. They're 3D, you see. And to top that off, there are situations were even in a 2D maze this method would't work. Also, I didn't even mention secret doors and such yet.

 

[Grandpa Gamer]

The DF engine was rather outdated even then.

Not true at all. The only game with a better engine released the same year was Quake. And Id Software was the bleeding edge engine creator at the time, so comparing Daggerfall do Quake is hardly fair.

... their terminator games appeared to have a pretty advance 3D engine for the time, although I can't say from personal experience as I never bothered to play them...

Bethesda's The Terminator: Future Shock arguably had the best 3D engine around at the time. It came out well before Quake, and was the first game ever (as far as I know) that featured enemies that were made out of polygons rather than sprites. It was a pretty good shooter too.

 

[JarlFrank]

Actually... this doesn't work with most Daggerfall dungeons. They're 3D, you see. And to top that off, there are situations were even in a 2D maze this method would't work. Also, I didn't even mention secret doors and such yet.

It's still better than aimlessly walking around the dungeon and realizing that you have already been at that place, walking back and forth desperately trying to find some door which you haven't walked through yet.

 

[DarkSign]

Whoa. I totally missed this thread. Surgey, I think you've found your calling!!

Register.com says that www.letsplayguides.com isnt taken. You should buy the domain and set up shop! With me as your partner of course

Keep these going!