The Joy of Star Trail!

[Jasede]

Eh, it'll work, but you'll miss a bit more often and get hit a bit more than you would with perfect stats. But you have three elves and a wizard, all who can cast healing magic, so, eh...

Oh, this is important: whenever you have the chance to sacrifice something to gain more AE, do so. Astral Energy is real important.

 

[AlaCarcuss]

Anyone know where to download Shadows over Riva? I can't find it anywhere.

Try here: http://www.squakenet.com/abandonwarerin ... dogs.info/

See - even lurkers can be useful :D

 

[Binary]

You know sometimes creating the party is as much fun as playing the game. Is that wrong?

I thought creating the party was usually more fun than playing the game!

BTW Nice tips here guys. I've finished Star Trail a long time ago but never finished either of the two others.

 

[Andhaira]

Every game had its moments in that trilogy. i still remember the water dragon fight in SoR...what a surprise and an amazinging fight. (plus that dragon looked fucking awesome.

 

[Hazelnut]

Er, at the risk of sounding dense, can anyone help me find the armory in Thorwald? (RoA1 BTW) Took me ages to find the 4 winds and then the Hetman, now I have some coupons (?) for the armory - thanks for telling me where it is bud.

I'm finding it hard navigating around the town... lol. Oh, and it took me a whole day (game time) to do the above. Nearly an hour real time. Oh, wouldn't it be nice if someone did a nice modern UI / graphical overhaul since the game seems great.

 

[afewhours]

I'm finding it hard navigating around the town... lol. Oh, and it took me a whole day (game time) to do the above. Nearly an hour real time. Oh, wouldn't it be nice if someone did a nice modern UI / graphical overhaul since the game seems great.

Get used to using the automap and understanding what all those pretty colours mean. I think orange is for temples, black for shops, blue for inns/taverns, purple for healers, and red for signposts. I try to ignore what the first person view is telling me. It's easier to find secret passages using the automap as well!

I thought creating the party was usually more fun than playing the game!

QFT. I have a real fetish for character creation. My brother often jokes that I buy games just so I can either install them or create new characters.

 

[Hazelnut]

I'm finding it hard navigating around the town... lol. Oh, and it took me a whole day (game time) to do the above. Nearly an hour real time. Oh, wouldn't it be nice if someone did a nice modern UI / graphical overhaul since the game seems great.

Get used to using the automap and understanding what all those pretty colours mean. I think orange is for temples, black for shops, blue for inns/taverns, purple for healers, and red for signposts. I try to ignore what the first person view is telling me. It's easier to find secret passages using the automap as well!

Yeah - that's what I spent 9pm - 10pm doing. Now which colour will the damn armoury/arsenal be? Light grey like a show, or deep green like a smith.. or something else?

 

[afewhours]

Wouldn't the Arsenal be red?

 

[Hazelnut]

Groan. You're no help.

Found it - random searching FTW. (absolute crap game design from a modern standpoint)

 

[JoKa]

und which colour is caius cosades?

 

[Hazelnut]

Ha ha ha.

 

[sheek]

Hmm, well I zipped though deciding to use Sheek's suggestion of using a save game editor. Loaded UGE with the blade1 & 2 modules but get nothing useful. To be honest I'm too tired now to continue.

You should probably make basic characters, save them, start a new game, save the game then edit that savegame to whatever needs to be changed. Also make sure you use the right mdl, I believe one is for basic info, name, height, stats and some skills, the rest of the skills, spells and inventory are split into the second mdl.

The savegame contains all characters, and you have to scroll through each character, so you have character #1, the first half of his stats, then character #2, etc.

 

[sheek]

I'm finding it hard navigating around the town... lol. Oh, and it took me a whole day (game time) to do the above. Nearly an hour real time. Oh, wouldn't it be nice if someone did a nice modern UI / graphical overhaul since the game seems great.

Get used to using the automap and understanding what all those pretty colours mean. I think orange is for temples, black for shops, blue for inns/taverns, purple for healers, and red for signposts. I try to ignore what the first person view is telling me. It's easier to find secret passages using the automap as well!

You'll get used to it pretty soon if you have any sense of direction. The actual view doesn't tell you much, ignore it, just look at the compass and remember what the different streets contain and build up a mental picture of the locations.

In Thorwal you have the healer, a tavern, an inn, most of the useful shops (a herbalist in the northern segment near the inn on your left, general store in the south also on your left heading down) and a temple to save the game in all in a single street. It's the second one running North-South from the left of the map (one street east of the one with the black tower/dungeon thing and the windmill I never managed to get into). The only vital services are a weapon shop and smithy, which I believe are in a cul-de-sac leading off the bottom of the next street parallel to the east. The market is in the open space which you find straight east from the central street running from the Hetman's keep. A street leading off south from the market place leads to the docks. You have the arena at the far east, and the armory (where you get credit after taking the Hetman's quest) is somewhere in between that and the central market place.

This I remember from last playing the game over one year ago... scary?

edit:
Otherwise there's a German web-site which has the most complete walkthroughs I managed to find including maps of all the major cities and lists of quests and services available in each city.

That was mostly RoA2, RoA1 has less you'll find:
http://arhiel.blautann.de/roa/roa1/roa1_contents.html
and
http://www.angelfire.com/hero/tjekanefir/arkania.htm
useful.

 

[Hazelnut]

Thanks Sheek, I'd pretty much got most of that by the time I read your post but not all. The dungeon graphics are awful, dungeon master was a lot nicer, and that came years before. Also, the combat is rather clunky. You should have seen my face when I tried shooting a bandit at an angle... what, the manual says straight line of sight - you gotta be kidding me, that means NSEW only? :shock:

Getting the computer to resolve combat, is this a useful option for when you've done the tactical bits and it's simply a case of finishing off or does it act retarded? Also the first battle I had was with 2 bandits, one ran off & we killed the other my party all got 500+ xp. The next two combats were just a single bandit, killed them and only got 50+ xp. Was the extra xp for the extra bandit running off or because there were 2 of them?

I did create all but the two combat chars in novice mode, then edited stats. Couldn't bring myself to go for all 13's - seemed to munkiny for words. So I went for a range of 10-13 with all important for the archetype high.

Lastly, please tell me I can change the character portraits when I import into Star Trail!! I've never seen a shittier selection of portraits in any game ever, and I hate all of them pretty much.

 

[Jasede]

They do mean "straight line", at least in DSA 1. Do not despair, in DSA 2 you can shoot NW, SW, NE and SE too! Whee!

In the DSA system, you only get lots of experience the first time you fight something. When you have the same encounter again, you get ten times less, maybe even less.

DSA 2 has somewhat prettier portraits, but it's advisable you get used to the graphical style. It grows on to you.

Fun fact: in the German version of this game, everyone gets 50 times less XP. Why? Because normally, XP values are really small in this ruleset. You get 10 XP for that 500 XP encounter in the German version, and 1 XP for having it again. 100 XP are level one, I think. So, the level XP barriers are 50 times less too. Why? I am pretty sure this is because you get really very little XP nominally in this RPG system and people overseas wouldn't be used to a system where you only get 1 XP per encounter, so they simply multiplied everything by 50 to make the system more.... USA.

 

[Hazelnut]

They do mean "straight line", at least in DSA 1. Do not despair, in DSA 2 you can shoot NW, SW, NE and SE too! Whee!

Yay, I can hardly wait.

DSA 2 has somewhat prettier portraits, but it's advisable you get used to the graphical style. It grows on to you.

Those portraits will not I suspect, there simply aren't any that look anything like how I want my chars to look. So, can I change them when I import?

Fun fact: in the German version of this game

Do you play the German version then?

 

[Jasede]

Yes you can change your portraits at any time during DSA 2. Sometimes I changed them just because I wanted my wizard to try out a new hairstyle.

Yes I play the German version, but I played the English one of DSA 1, called RoA there for reasons undivinable. I think that 50 times XP thing is really... I can't find the best word to put it.

 

[Raapys]

Ah, everything's bigger in the US, or so they say.

 

[Binary]

Rereading the thread, I see that it is generally agreed that a good party should have 1 Fighter, 1 Dwarf, 2 Elves and 1 Mage.

This however adds to 5. Who should the 6th char be? Yet another elf?

EDIT: Trying to remember the party I used to finish Star Trail... almost sure it was 1 Fighter, 2 Hunters, 1 Elf, 1 Jester (I vaguely remember Jesters having the best female faces from all classes?) and 1 Mage

 

[Jasede]

Having two elves is kinda redundant. But elves are so overpowered it doesn't hurt, of course. It's just... meh. I'd feel bad bringing two of those awesomely powerful guys.

I recommend, for beginners:

1 x Dwarf
1 x Fighter
1 x Elf
2 x Mages with opposing specializations
1 x whatever you want to try out. If you don't want to try anything out, take a Rogue and give him the rogue-skills your dwarf doesn't want to work on. It's good to have a devoted rogue.

Having 2 Mages makes many things incredibly more easy, since you effectively have twice the AE to spare so you can experiment a lot and even screw up without needing to reload. This I consider very newbie-friendly.

 

[Andhaira]

I suggest a thorwalain instead of dwaf..and the final slot for a druid or hunter...or heck the thorwalian. (assuming you took dwarf before). The elf is also good for hunting and finding herbs.

You could also go with 3 warriors (warrior, throwalian, dwarf) and 3 mages each witha diff spei. You will rip through the game.

 

[Hazelnut]

How embarrassing, I'm stuck again. This time I can't find any stairs down from lvl 1 of the starting dungeon. According to the manual there should be a blue square meaning stairs down, but I've been round the whole thing and through all the doors I can find... not a sausage. lol

EDIT: Illusory wall - lvl 1 of starter dungeon - nice. :wink: Six bandits behind it. :shock:

 

[sheek]

Hazelnut, there are sometimes 'hidden doors'. Put your Elves, those with highest perception in front and try using a spell that reveals secret passages, but if you don't have that you'll just have to go all the way along every square of the corridor walking into the walls until you find it. Tip: separations between rooms are always one square wide and I think every map in the game is completely full - ie, there are no empty or unused spaces. If you see a corner of the map unrevealed there must be a hidden passageway or something there.

 

[Hazelnut]

Yeah, but lvl 1 of the starter dungeon... lol. My party survived intact - just. Gotta go rest now.

EDIT: Sorry for turning this into a RoA1 lets play-ish thread, but I just went to an inn to rest up and every single treat wounds failed, so I now have three unconscious party members, one has tetunus as well, plus nobody has any AP.

Fuck.

So I goes to the healer, and he charges (half of) 54s to fuck up the treatment. Then a different one to pay half of 90s to again have them screw up. WTF. Am I being bent over here or what?

 

[sheek]

54 Silver is nothing!

If you have a decent thief you should be able to get 8-10 D (80-100 silver?) from gambling in a tavern, dancing and playing instruments is less profitable should get that money in one night. Risk of cheating is you'll be banned from that tavern forever so don't over do it.

I usually had 50 to 100 D (whatever that type of coin is called) and a bunch more collecting interest in the bank. At the start you'll have to methodically loot all the corpses in every battle and sell it (the starter dungeon helps with that). Once you have a good amount put it in the bank near the center of Thorwal and you shouldn't need to haul around equipment to sell any more.

By the way, some of the physicians are better than others. Some are known to be crooks but I can't remember the genuine ones - anyway there should be several in Thorwal.