Wow!

[NUGGIN]

I am a long time RPG gamer starting way back with Wizardry. I saw Dungeon Lords on the shelf and trying to stay away from the online world for a bit, I figured it would be a nice change of pace.

Boy was I wrong!

I have _NEVER_ gone to forums to complain about games before, so you've REALLY REALLY had to push my buttons to get me here.

I played through the first parts of the game a couple of times with different characters assuming that I had done something wrong with my skill selection, etc.

Nope, it's not me, it's definitely you.

Here's some tips for game designers:
1) Don't release a game that has features listed which aren't available in game. That's false advertising and it just shows us that you gave up.
2) It is _not_ fun to die in EVERY fight. RPGs should start out fairly easy to give people a handle on how to play. My first time through, I died TWICE fighting the goblins who guard the door to the sewers.
3) End bosses should not be impossible to kill without cheating. I had to get the trolls stuck in a door way and arrow them to death to defeat them.
4) More is not More. You don't need to swarm me with dozens of bad guys to make it challenging, especially when I can't defeat the main bad guy they are protecting (See Trial of Elders, and Ulm for examples).
5) PLAY TEST!!! Have you heard of it?! You CAN NOT tell me that the version you sold me was play tested by someone who didn't say, "hey, in this one fight, I had to resurrect 12 times, you may want to tone that down."


As it stands, I'm here in the forums not to see what I can do to improve game play, but to find out about a class action lawsuit against the game makers.

[GeorgeKeith]

hehehehehe

[howard]

1) I agree with you, but in this case it looks like the publisher rushed the developer.

2) That's all you Mr. Long Time RPG Player. I beat all those goblins with my very first newbie character...an Elf Rogue with a throwing dagger!

3) The troll IS hard, but not impossible without cheating. Try jumping up on the stage. Also, you don't have to actually fight the troll. Just grab the key and scamper off to the exit if you feel like it.

4) I've failed to find a monster I couldn't take out one-on-one. Lumping them in a group makes you think on your feet. Trial of the Elders is different because those are impossibly hard OPTIONAL bosses that are easily defeated using bugs. Ulm does not enter into this equation because there isn't really a tough boss in that whole place. A couple of named Fathien wimps and a ghost in a purple robe. Use your spells and scrolls wisely to make some of the more massive fights easier (getting the Eye of Vartugg the hard way was quite a challenge)

5) Never have I actually had to revive myself. Use multiple saves so you can go back and try different strategies if things go badly for you. Picking a good combination of classes with overlapping learning bonuses and figuring out how to spend your exp points on skills and stats wisely also helps. Try learning some Nether magic for the summon spells and the Poison Cloud spell. Nether ingredients can be expensive, but there isn't much to spend your money on anyways. Summon some Minotaurs, Trolls, Demons, and Haunts to do most of your dirty work on the bosses and strike the killing blows for the experience. Also, don't forget to hotkey your lesser and greater healing potions on the F menu. Look on page 16 of your manual.

[POQWAD]

I was totally bored by the time I reached the "city" of Skuldoon. And repeatedly beat up the oh-so-great minotaur.

The ONLY challenge this pretend game offers is dodging the multitude of bugs it presents. And there's zero concern about anything with that handy dandy "revive key". Killed? Why just go ahead and do stuff like spend your learning points and then revive...

Spending points on skills while DEAD is perhaps the stupidest RPG "feature" I've ever seen.

It reminded me, oddly enough, of Wizardry 1. And the fact that, if your adventuring party was killed in a dungeon it was D E A D.

There were no "revive keys". Heck, you couldn't even SAVE in dungeons. At that point all you could do was make another party and reenter the dungeon...try to find the corpses of the dead party and lug them back to a healer/priest type and hope they could be revived. Sometimes they could. Other times they were D E A D.

[howard]

WOW! What a suprise! POQWAD doesn't like Dungeon Lords? I would have never guessed! :rolleyes:

Honestly, do you still play the game or do you just hang around the forum voicing your displeasure because you simply don't have anything better to do? If you don't like Dungeon Lords, get your money back and focus your energies on another game that you DO like.

[POQWAD]

Howard...since I spent my $40. on DL, I keep popping in to see if by some miracle they actually produce a patch that's worth something. Then perhaps I'll give DL another try.

I'm currently on my second run-through of Gothic 2 (this one as a Fire Magician. And guess what, bubba...ALL the magic spells actually work!) ...I have Fallout 1 and 2 waiting in the wings.

[Visigoth]

Take some downers and alcohol... you'll feel better in no time. :rolleyes:

[POQWAD]

Hmmmmm...well...DL's enough of a downer for me, Visi...

[phalzyr]

1) I agree...so much
2) You can heal at a press of a button do so :) USe your shield to block attacks. Yep the controls take a bit to get used to and if you rush on towards main quest without exploring you get hit by a horde before you are ready.
3) End bosses... this isn't a hack in slash or a turn based RPG. Strategy can be your freind BTW just get up on stage for first troll and since he is too big to climb...And what the other person said if you don't want to fight them you don't have to.
5) PLAY TEST!!! I agree here but not fro same reasons. The difficulty never bothered me and I am all for easy games myself. Though with 1.3 it is getting annoying due to the knockback being way too high again...There are also difficulty settings... and don't forget to hotkey your potions!

[Visigoth]

Hmmmmm...well...DL's enough of a downer for me, Visi...


Word up, yo.

[chamr]

phalzyr's right: strategy is your friend. One of the things I think DL get's really right is the fun in the tactical combat. I've never played a game that was as much fun in the details of how you beat your opponent in melee combat. Blocking, timing, manuevers (rolls, backflip, etc), swing type (overhead vs. sweep vs. thrust) and so on.

With the troll, try the "running past" attack. Requires some timing, but works OK. If you want a real challenge, try to time rolling under and around his attacks and popping up for a few swings and then getting away before he smacks you silly. Very hard, but very rewarding if you get the timing down.

[Hacknshoot]

Another good type of strategy would be to buy a time crystal and slow everything down. That's my suggestion to you, not mine to me, because I suck at timing until I get the right proportion of slow-timing down. Like whether it slows to 1/4, 1/6, 78/342455...(I think it goes to the second one, but I'm not sure). And the spells stack. :p

Overall, IMHO, the game could use a bit of patchwork(just a bit though, some of my jeans look a lot worse) and polishing(have you seen the CDs at my house lately?), but it's a fun game overall(no sarcastic comment here).