Schattenländer - v0.1d released (Feb 10/07)

What sound effects do you want ready for 0.1?

Jeansberg - good question.  Given that my priorities with the v0.1 release are to demonstrate functionality, partly in the hopes of motivating modelers to help with shine and polish, sound effects have not been high on the list for that objective.  I am, I think, content (if it became necessary) to release with only what we've currently got.

The shortlist of SFX which would mesh well with what we have, or hope to have shortly, is as follows:
1) Glass shatter / crack of thunder.
2) Glass shatter / hisssss of escaping gas.
3) Church bells sounding.
4) Clarion trumpet, soprano grace note, or something else - SFX to associate with a successful prayer.  Think the audio equivalent of a golden beam from on high.
5) Voice murmuring prayers in Latin, sotto voce.  This is for the delay between ordering a prayer on the battlefield, and having its effects occur.

Also some voice stuff, which I don't know if you're keen to do or not.  "Guards! Guards!" from one voice (gruff or corpulent or simply basso), "Please! You have to help me! I'll see that you're rewarded!" from another (male, youngish, bookish voice).  But that's for a companion who definitely will not be in the v0.1 release.

Bump - so that folks become aware of the move.  Go see the first post, or just bounce straight here.

Playable alpha release within the week!

I am looking forward to this mod, because it sounds very innovative and it is set in the Holy Roman Empire. Will you add German troops like Zweihanders, Pavise Crossbowmen, Teutonic Knights and Lansknechte?

(Please take that question to the new forum - I promise I'll answer it there, though it isn't a very complicated answer.)

Bump - see the Schattenländer thread for details and download link.  Hot off the presses!

downloading!
darklands is my fav. game for all times. seems to be hella lot of work to convert all the stuff into a mod! is there anything simple forumites can help with? like listing of locations names of every city, random german names, etc.?

Weaver - sorry for being slow to get back to you on that, I've been very busy trying to get 0.1d out the door.  Yes!  Yes, there are things you could help with.

The one which comes immediately to mind is to map out the "daily occupations" space.  It's obviously dependent on the character's skills relative to one another, and probably it's choosing whichever skill will give the best income at the time... but I'd like to know what those skill cutoffs are, and how much you earn with each, and whether this varies depending on the size of city you're in and/or your local reputation there.  Best way to do this would be using the character editor (available at www.darklands.net) to work through it methodically.  Being able to do so with four characters in parallel should speed it up considerably.

Let me know via PM if you want to take on the job.  And don't prioritize that over playing the new 0.1d release - it's not something I need right away!

- Hellequin

I must be a n00b or something, because I can't find how to get entry to the gun shop for example... I can hardly do anything...
Should I speak to someone special inside the cities?

What have I missed?

Ps. I've tried to use the search function to get this answer, but couldn't find anything.

Um... gun shop?

There isn't one.

The greyed-out menu items inside cities are there to give you a glimpse of what will be possible in the full version, but even they don't mention a "gun shop".  You did notice the "0.1" part of the version number, right?  If you're having trouble getting to something, odds are that this is because it doesn't exist yet.  Focus on the huge amount of stuff that is accessible...

That solves a lot of problems! Thanks!

But there was some sort of gun shop there (it was faded grey), and you can have "firearms" as a skill.
Am my eyes playing tricks on me again?

I'll be back after I checked if I'm right or wrong.

*goes away to check it and comes back a moment later"

At least I think I'm right.
When you enter a town, you go to the "darker, side alleys" and there you can find a grey line that says "The blablasomething and Gunsmith"

It's true. Check it out for yourself.

First Impression: It's practically impossible to play without severely cheating. In an RPG the player has 10x the HP and 10x the damage that an NPC does and as such taking on 5 enemies at once is doable. In this you don't stand a chance going up against 5 people. Especially at the beginning. There's just no way to get started.

Only the beginning is hard, once you defeat a Potion "dealer" and his party once and take their armor and weapons it gets pretty easy.

Thanks for the impression, Colt, but I think in part it's an expectations thing.

In this mod (and in the original game), at the beginning you're expected to be doing your best to use any and all skills at your disposal to avoid most combats.  If you have a highly skilled talker you can go a long way, without having to resort to killing things.  Also, losing a fight is not the end of the world; even losing many fights.  Perhaps it will help slightly when "work for a day earning money" is implemented, that's very useful to get you back on your feet again, and also once there are quests for you to devote those talking skills toward... but even now I personally find Schattenlander's individual encounters challenging but hardly impossible, and there's no 'inside knowledge' going into those assessments.  City fighting's a *****, ain't it?  And the alchemist and his guards are supposed to be brutal.  You're always offered the option of surrender...

It will also help once I've put in some more companions for you to recruit.  This is actually one place where Schattenlander is different; in Darklands you got to begin with a full party (that's four) custom characters, always, while here I'm making you earn your friends (beyond the sibling you get for free).  Contrariwise, however, the player-skill element in M&B is such that a flat HP-to-HP comparison means far less than it did there, so IMO it balances out.

"In an RPG" is a highly dubious generalization, my friend.  Perhaps in a specific form of RPG, the console-game-Squaresoft family, that assertion is true.  Maybe in others.  In Darklands, the player was on the same power-scale as all the enemies around; a new PC just shouldn't take on anything that isn't similarly wimpy.  This is old-school gaming; pick your battles, expect to heal between every fight, and expect to lose as many as you win (at first).

But, seriously, guys.  You're evaluating a 0.1 release for degree of difficulty?  Whether you conclude it's hard or easy, you're smoking something.  That it can be evaluated on that scale at all I shall take as a compliment.

- Hellequin

Indeed...alphas hardly have serious gameplay balance and sharpening( actually, they never have it I suppose) so I really don't understand someone giving a first impresion based on that.

I took the time to play it a little a few days ago and it looks promising, by the way 

I think it's a fair impression it just has to be taken with a grain of salt as an impression.  Your reasons for why actually make me want to play the game more, though.  I made a vow not to do any gaming until I am at least pretty far along with my own modding or else I would give it a try myself.  If it comes out in the spirit of darklands then it will be a great thing.

Is Schattenländer a roman mod or a mod based on a old game.?

The latter.  I'm not sure where the Roman idea came from, but Schattenlander is based on the old, but still excellent, Darklands.  Further, they've moved to the MBX forums, so further discussion should take place there.

Hey, everyone.

For those interested in this mod, please see the status post here.

Cheers.

****in' hell.