none shall pass

Discuss anything about the original Dungeon Master on any of the original platforms (Amiga, Atari, etc.).
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sucinum
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none shall pass

Post by sucinum »

i arrived at that door and my best fighter had 49 strenght beeing a novice fighter (hard to get fighter levels without warcrying :(), but he still wasn't able to bash that door with a sword-swing. im used to need only 40 str for that from dm.
my fault?
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Post by Ameena »

I dunno if "Swing" works...try "Chop" or something. Failing that, chuck a Fireball :)
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Post by sucinum »

he cannot chop (where from?). ill return there later after i did the level below. im not used to have such low levels :(
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Post by George Gilbert »

To knock down a door you must meet two requirements:

1 - To have sufficient strength to do it.
2 - To have a sufficiently sharp or heavy weapon and the fighter levels necessary to use it.

My guess is that you're failing on count 2. If you come back when you can use the additional options on your weapons then you should be able to knock down the door...

If you still can't; it's probably a bug ;-)
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Post by Ameena »

Fireballs still work though, don't they? If you don't have the levels to have gained the "Chop" ability on a sword (or "Melée or one of those), or the strength to do the damage, a low level Fireball or two should do the trick :)
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easiest way to handle a door

Post by kaosthafeared »

just KICK IT! Seriously ... even with some wussy str mage I took down a door in 1 kick. Who needs weapons anyways!
If it moves, KILL IT!!
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Post by PicturesInTheDark »

Hmm. Probably gets you a bloody foot if your mage is not strong enough...

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Post by sucinum »

Ameena wrote:Fireballs still work though, don't they?
and guess, where the ir-rune is ;)
ill try kicking, if it fails, ill return later :)
but in DM i was able able to "swing" it open with 40 str, thats for sure.
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Post by cowsmanaut »

yeah, I was thinking about that.. I seemed to remember the rune needed to make fireballs in the first place is beyond that part.

moo
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Post by Ameena »

Ohh you playing the RTC version, blech...couldn't go that long without Fireballs! Apart from Magic Torch, Vi potion, and Vi Bro potion, it's abuot the only spell I use!
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Post by cowsmanaut »

the point is that when you first played it.. unless you cheated and learned spells from a friend.. you wouldn't know any of those spells to have used them. So, what the RTC version does.. is forces charcter knowledge on you. Rather than you as a player knowing all the spells going ahead and doing something you shouldn't know about.

It's a way of bringing back that part of the challenge. So I always find it funny when people complain about it. Since really, did you complain about it the first time you played.. "damn, I don't know how to do a fire ball" I should just be able to hit the buttons and have it just come out" :P

oh well, :)
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Post by Ameena »

Heh think we had the guide book from the start - lists the spells in it :)
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Post by cowsmanaut »

it lists the symbols.. not the spells. Nice try though. :)
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Post by Ameena »

No, I have the book open here and there is a page listing all the spells. Perhaps you have a difffferent book or something, but this page looks like this - On one side is has Priest Spells, the other is Wizard Spells, and it lists the symbols (with names underneath each one) and the name of each spell. At the bottom of the page it has the Power Symbols - Lo to Mon, and it's there that it says that even casting a meaningless spell or power symbol helps their mana :) Bottom right of the page has the Chaos face symbol that's on the door at the start of DM. There's also a couple of typos - on the Mana Potion, the symbols are those for "Zo Bro Ra", but the symbol names read "Zo Bro Kath". The "Kath" has been written over to say "ra" in messy writing so it was probably me. Also, on the Fireball spell, the word "Ir" is missing from beneath that symbol. That's been added in in somewhat neater writing so was done by my dad :)
So we DO have the spells in the guide book...what I can't remember is whether we had the book when we first started the game :roll:
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Post by cowsmanaut »

all you have is the black book that says Dungeon Master on it.. inside it it shows you the interface, tells you a short story written by Wayne's wife, and has a listing of the Symbols with a little bit about each and what they represent. There are no spells. This is true for the Amiga, and ST for sure. I'm reasonably certain it is true for the Appple IIe as well as the others.

If you are talking about the brown guide book you could buy as a cheat list with tips and tricks.. then no. It didn't come with the package. I hope you didn't pick it up with the game.. 'cause you seriously robbed yourself of half the challenge. Doesn't that book have the maps in it too?

moo :)
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Post by Gambit37 »

There are about thrity or so official and unofficial guides to DM (!). It sounds like Ameena has the semi-official guide written by S.A.Swanson, that could only be purchased from FTL.

Check here for details: http://dmweb.free.fr/DMAdventurersHandbook.htm
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Post by cowsmanaut »

That's not the one I saw.. but yeah same idea. The one I saw looked like aged paper. I always hate when they make the cheat/solution books like a week after they are released.. GamePro is really bad for that. Some company releases the game and they've been playing it like mad to figure everything out.. so by the time you pick up the game they have the solution there waiting for you.

I know that it's up to the individual to choose if they want to rob themselves but some people seemingly can't help it.. the temptation is too great. They convince themselves to get it just incase they get stuck.. I mean you don't want to have to run to the store in the middle of the game right.. then it sits beside them as the play.. next thing you know they are skipping ahead and at the end of it they feel cheated..

As a game developer I would be seriously incensed by a company like GamePro doing that... I'd want people who are playing the game to have that struggle. To make it past the puzzles and levels and say "hah! I made it past.. it was tough but I did it on my own" not "bah, the game was boring.. yeah I finished in a day" (notice there is no mention of the use of the cheats and solutions there.. like always)

end of rant :)

moo
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Post by PicturesInTheDark »

If you want competition, give Paul Stevens' 3DMaze or the latest 1D2D3D a try - am still caught in there and can't find my way through the 2D one... ;) Can be found at the Encyclopedia (CSBwin forum) - anyone else trying it but me... could do with some experience exchange... :o

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Post by Ameena »

Yeah my book is by "S.A. Swanson", but it doesn't have that front cover...it's black and white, and has like a stone archway filling the page, the interior of which is entirely black and contains (in white) the title, author etc...I really have no idea when we got this book, bearing in mind that I was like six years old or something at the time...I just played the game and used the book. But I'm sure it still took us months to finish for some reason...less than a week the first time I played the wonderful downloaded version from GG :)
Still the only things that bug me are mobs' inability to be grouped, and the fact that Thieves are annoyingly capable of stealing from both hands rather than just the left...
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Post by Gambit37 »

I must admit, I don't understand your gripe about thieves abilities. You've mentioned it a few times before. I think that was one of the more silly things that FTL designed in DM. These little guys are thieves; they're not just gonna come to you and nick stuff from one hand then politely leave the rest of your stuff. In my experience, thieves take whatever they can get, from wherever they can get it!
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Post by Ameena »

Well, such a "silly thing" was in the original FTL version so why not have it the same in this version? Or at least in DMO...you could have them able to nick stuff from both hands in the RTC version. Anyway, maybe the logic is something like if you were in a dungeon wandering around with a sword and shield and some little harmless bloke comes running up to you, you'd probably lift up your sword to chop him into little, quivering, blue-armed pieces and maybe not watch your shield so well, and then the little bugger grabs said shield and legs it...?
I dunno...it's just one of those things, I suppose. Heh, I could still be moaning about the fact that mobs don't die when they fall down pits, but the reason behind those deaths having been explained to me, I get it now (but if you're being realistic, mobs should still be able to hurt themselves if they fall down a pit, or at leat dent their armour or something ;)).
Hmm...can't remember what the original topic of this thread was, but I think we may have wandered off it a bit...
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Post by cowsmanaut »

well, you might think of it all this way.. George is fixing things that were either poorly done or limited due to the hardware of the time. Little things that didn't make practical sense.. like monsters not following you up and down stairs for instance. Or poofing into nothingness if they fall into pits. The reason these things happened is because of the limitations. There are many more and you can find them through out these forums of suggestins about fixing something that never made sense.

To tell you the truth.. I don't understand why that can't nick things from anywhere on you.. hands or otherwise. I used to check everything after an incounter with one of them.. simply because I thought they might be able to get into my back pack or something.

Sure, it's not 100% like DM.. but if you really think about it.. chances are if they could have changed it.. they would have. It's just logical.

moo
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Post by PicturesInTheDark »

Just copying the original with no changes would not justify the amount of work. Since there is still the possibility to play the original version with RTC there is no reason on earth why the improved version should not contain fixes for logical errors such as described above. And I'm still not content with coins taking up the same space in a chest as a helmet, for example... :D

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Post by Gambit37 »

If you don't think of those little grey boxes as being the same size, but merely as "locators" for the objects in the chest, it's perfectly logical! ;)
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Post by PicturesInTheDark »

I'm aware you only have some 23 posts left, but that was ... a strange reason. Anyway, I've learned to live with it ;) Just barking a bit...

Regards, PitD
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Post by Lunever »

PitD: LOL. Seen "23"? I like that film, it makes me remember my early computer times.
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Post by kaosthafeared »

PicturesInTheDark wrote:Hmm. Probably gets you a bloody foot if your mage is not strong enough...

Regards, PitD
This was done with TIGGY of all people.. lol (with no skills either)
If it moves, KILL IT!!
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Post by PicturesInTheDark »

@Lunever: I did not watch 23 - maybe one day, but I know of the number's meaning assigned by R.A.Wilson.

@kaos: better try Stamm or Darouu next time :D

Regards, PitD
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Post by Lunever »

PitD: It's a german film based upon a authentic story about some young hackers who managed to hack a lot of systems just for fun in early computer times. They too read Wilson's books and got rather obsessed with them. But to connect to any network you had to make a normal phone call in those early times of computering, so they usually worked at night to reduce cost, and to better be able to stay awake every night they sniffed more and more cocain, which was expensive too. To be able to afford that style of life, they started to sell hacked informations to KGB people in eastern Berlin. After they had been caught finally, they sold their story to the STERN magazine, which was probably their last mistake. Most of them found a rather nasty end. The main protagonist died on a 23rd of May (don't remember the year) under mysterious circumstances.
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Post by PicturesInTheDark »

Yes I knew it was a german movie, but I did not know as much about the plot - thank you. To be quite honest, I once started the "Illuminatus"-trilogy but gave up on it after 50 pages and are still of the opinion that I did the right thing - either I'm not sick enough to read it or it's just not my kind of humor. Monthy Python any day, but this was just an alien concept.

Regards, PitD
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