Talk:Darkstone
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[edit] Additional info
There were two versions of Darkstone released, European and North American.
The final version number is 1.05b. To apply the patches you first need 1.0 to 1.03 then 1.03 to 1.04 then 1.04 to 1.05b. This patch supercedes 1.04 to 1.05. The 1.06 patch is mentioned in the readme for the 1.05b patch, but it was never released. If you have used a "No-CD" hack, you can't apply the patches. You'll have to reinstall the game, apply all the patches, then if you want to play without the CD, use the hack for 1.05b. No-CD hacked games do not work with the "trainers" and other cheat programs. DarkStone uses the popular SafeDisc copy protection system.
Delphine made significant changes with each patch, including increasing the difficulty quite a bit. Try a run through v1.0 then do it again with 1.05b.
The North American and European versions have their own versions of the three patches. Since all of the official sites for the game are long gone, you must search to find the patches. It's not too hard, several sites have them.
Once you have the game patched to 1.05b, there is a Quest Editor to download as well as other quests made by Darkstone players. The final patch includes a new quest file created by Delphine. The Quest Editor was to be included with the 1.06 patch, but was released seperately.
Other downloads include character skins, new objects and enemies to use in creating your own quests, and some utilities to backup, edit and rename your characters so you can use them on other PCs running Windows. For some reason the game stores the current computer name (from Windows networking) in the character file and if the name changes in any way (including character case) your characters no longer work without editing them.
If you get really stuck, there are several walkthroughs on the web that tell you all of the goals in all of the crystal quests. The Town Quest items pop up randomly in the dungeons in barrels, crates etc. Just note who asked for what to make it easier to get them to the right people.
And yes, there's even a "trainer" for v1.05b that'll let you cheat and cheat big. There are other trainers for previous version numbers, but forget them. Go for updating it all the way.
Go ye forthe and seeketh the patches, editors and other downloads.
On the demo:
If you're playing the demo version (still available to download at several sites), the only walkthrough ever made for it has been offline for quite a while, so I'll just post some general tips on it.
You can only create Warrior and Sorceress characters. The Warrior comes with a decent Sword and a cheap wooden Shield. The Sorceress comes with a rather lousy Staff and a Magic Missile Spellbook. Read this immediately then set the spell as active in the spell slot. The Sorceress can be a very good backup for the Warrior by dragging the white line at the top of the blue Mana meter down a bit. As long as she has a line of sight to monsters (and you keep the Warrior out of her way) she'll fire Magic Missiles at them until her Mana level drops to the white line. You may want to turn this off at times or your Sorceress will level up faster than your Warrior. The computer AI is very aggressive.
You're restricted to the first land and first two dungeons, which are always the same. The Village Quest is always the Horn of Plenty. Getting your characters to enter Level 1 can be a bit difficult so when you find the entrance (a ladder in a hole in the ground) use F10 to switch to the overhead camera and click the ladder. F11 switches back to isometric view. This dungeon is chock full of things to pick up, so much that you can fill up both characters' inventories at least twice. There's a Magic Door spellbook in there plus several Magic Door scrolls, so don't bother buying one in Town. You definately need to complete this dungeon first, obtaining spells, armor, potions and other useful things.
I found a couple of Helmets that add to various attributes, as well as a very nice (but bad shape and very costly to repair) Axe. I also found a club with +3 Life but the Sorceress doesn't have the Strength for it. Like any roleplaying game, choosing the best equipment for your characters is a game of tradeoffs.
If you try to skip the first dungeon and jump right into the second, you'll just die over and over. The two spiders in the first room aren't too bad, especially if you manage to kill them without either character getting poisoned. The second room, which is accessed via a teleport plate, has several red bats that do major health damage very quickly. It's a very good idea to save up gold to buy the +8 Armor rags or Neophyte's Cape in town. You may find one of these in the first dungeon but it'll be in bad shape so save it until you can get back to Town and get it repaired. The same goes for other good but damaged weapons found in the first dungeon. Keep the best weapon and helmet you've found for each character, along with those +8 Armor rags/cape/robe and if you don't find a shield for the Sorceress, buy her one in Town to boost her Armor class.
The eight character types don't have to use the "official" weapons for their classes. They can use anything they have the stats for. Since I haven't found a "wizard" weapon better than the poor default Staff, my Sorceress is currently weilding a +3 to hit Club with a better damage range than her original Staff.
Enter the second dungeon and have fun. I haven't got there yet in the demo. (My third time starting with fresh characters after finally figuring out how to get into the first dungeon!)
Town Quests: You'll get several requests from Townsfolk to find things for them, and you'll find some of the items in the two dungeons. Remember who asked for the item! The NPCs who asked for Quest items can usually be found standing near one of the NPCs that stand still, like Gunther the Blacksmith, Perry the Publican, Elmeric, etc.
You'll notice other things aren't available in the demo, but it's enough to find out whether or not you want to find a copy of the full game. Just remember that the full game, patched to 1.05b, has the difficulty increased in several ways.
I don't know if characters from the Demo can be used in the full game. It'll be nice if they can. I'm going to get the full version and have fun!
(If anyone wants to move/add any of this info to the main Darkstone page, go right ahead!)
