Drakensang - The Dark Eye

[rad666a]

Have any of you tried "Drakensang - The Dark Eye"?

 

Normally, I don't enjoy party based RPGs (one of the reasons I enjoy Oblivion so much = no companions, and I don't use them in Fallout 3 either), but this game I like. It's pretty, and, once you figure out the system, fun to play. I've only just gotten to the first big city (Ferdok I think), but I'd like what I've seen so far.

 

Could use better starting spells for my mage though...

 

Any of you played it? Any of you plan on playing it? Any of you heard of it ;)?

[JimboUK]

I started to get into it but then the difficulty curve turned north at an alarming rate, it was looking promising but as I play games for fun and not self inflicted torture I soon went off it. It's a shame as it could have been good, might still be if i could figure out how to stay alive for more than five minutes. :(

[Halororor]

I'm going to buy it sometime in the near future. I've had my eye on it for quite a while now.

[Varus Torvyn]

I've won the game twice now, but it is difficult. You have to make judicious use of the Pause during each combat round, plus press & hold the CTRL key to queue-up multiple Quick Slots really helps. I queue-up potions, weapons strikes, and spells. Plus you can use both a whetstone & a diamond whetstone on your weapon, which adds more damage points.

 

And you have the luxury of trying to run away from a "no-win" melee encounter. I did that once or twice :P I ran out of a crypt to keep from dying while fighting hordes of undead skeletons. They didn't chase me out into the sunlight, and the rest of my party appeared with me, so I healed up everyone. If I felt I wasn't strong enough to go back in to complete the quest, then I went and did something else to earn some points, and came back to it later.

[JimboUK]

I might give this another try, I must be doing something wrong.

[Varus Torvyn]

I might give this another try, I must be doing something wrong.

Not necessarily, I'm still learning new things about the game.

 

I just discovered that you're not limited to just a standard "Parry" (under the icon for your strike move). When you select "Mighty Blow" for your strike, you can then select any other weapon Quick Slot to be your Parry move. For example, Forgrimm can strike with Mighty Blow, then follow-up with Knockdown in the same round. Gladys could do a Lunge & a Feint.

 

The way you do this is:

 

1. Pause to set up your attacks.

2. Click your Quick Slot for attack choice.

3. Click a Quick Slot (can't be the same one). This will take the place of a standard Parry, and both icons will display next to the character's icon.

4. You can then press & hold the CTRL Key, and set up subsequent rounds.

 

During Boss Encounters, I've strung as many as 6 rounds in advance. You can queue-up a combat strike, a potion (round #2), move the player away from the fight (round #3), heal (round #4), and so on.

 

By pausing before each round, it gives you time to survey the situation. If you see a player needs help, you could switch from Offensive to Defensive (buffs their Parry stats), and move them away.

 

You can switch weapons (except for bows) without penalty. You have to let a bow shot happen before you can switch away to a bladed weapon (& vice versa).

 

During a pause, you can open up your Inventory, and use a Whetstone followed by a Diamond Whetstone on your bladed weapons. No loss of a round, and you get +4 DP. Weapon Balm can sub for a regular whetstone. Right-click your weapon while in Inventory first though, to see if it is in need of new whetstones: if it isn't, placing a new whetstone on top of one still running takes away 1 DP.

 

If one party member is weak from wounds or a status effect, and you want to move him away from melee, you could also move another person to be a "bodyguard", making any needed attacks so the hurt one has time for healing to kick-in. Change the character icons to Defensive so they won't charge off into a melee.

 

Before I get into any melee, I always pause in a safe area, and then I cast the Strength-buff spell on everyone, then boost with a Perception spell, Psychic Focus (if necessary), and magic-users always cast "Fastness of Body" to boost their AR.

 

I like having two magic-users. I usually have my player be a magic-user (spellweaver elf this time), plus either Gladys, Jost, or Arcoron. My other two are Tanks (Forgrimm & Rhulana right now).

 

Say you pause when a combat round has just finished, and you have maybe three more rounds already queued-up, but you see you need to change a party member's actions. You can setup an entirely new queue by entering your first choice - that wipes out anything left in the current queue.

 

Seems like Tanks prefer two-handed weapons (imo), but if I put a one-handed weapon into use, I always have a shield in play in the other.

 

Remember, at any time you can open up your Inventory screen, and switch items around to save a party member. You could have a "Ring of Life" on one member, take it off of them, transfer it to a member who is in desperate need of health, and equip that ring on them (+10 VI). Might make a difference when you're waiting for a healing action to kick-in.

[JimboUK]

That's where I was going wrong, I was putting in actions in real time like I did with NWN2. Thanks for the tips, I might get something out of it now.

[Varus Torvyn]

You're welcome. I've got other items in Quick Slots as well, e.g., potions, Burn Salve, soap (fixes the CH stat when fighting amoebas), unequipped weapons & arrows, locksmith knife for pickpocket, furrier knife for Animal Lore, herb sickle for Plant Lore.

 

Whenever I level-up, I make sure to increase the modifiers under Quick Slots that have spells inside. You can also decrease a Modifier if you don't have enough AE to cast it at the time.

 

You can pause & change your Quick Slots at any point in the game (drag & drop). All 50 slots are in use for my character.

 

Post-melee, you can pause & queue-up actions such as looting, Animal Lore, Plant Lore, etc.

 

Have you run the "Rats in the Cellar" quest yet? *Tip* Leave one rat alive while fighting the Mother Rat (no new wave that way).