Finally bought DD today

[free_fall]

Price finally dropped, so I picked it up today.

Am currently playing Prince of Qin, but have installed DD and will poke around at it a bit.

Any advice/tips for the new player to keep in mind? No spoilers, please. TIA.

[fable]

Yeah: set the length of this category to "since the beginning," and check out the earlier threads with all their advice.

Then ask if you have specific questions.

[free_fall]

>fable

I had looked over the threads (there aren't that many, after all) and most seemed to be either help with specific problems or what's the game like questions - no general tips, except perhaps the skills thread.

It seems like an interesting game. I played til I got stuck trying to figure out how to open the second of the two locked crypts in the big dungeon under the statue. I've set it aside and will come back to it when I finish up Prince of Qin.

[fable]

I was thinking along the lines of that skills thread, because there really isn't much else to offer in the way of general advice. The game has a very low learning curve; but if you do need help, don't forget to ask, here.

[cjdevito]

Any advice/tips for the new player to keep in mind?

use the warrior for your character class. The special ability they have is actually very useful, regardless of what sorts of skills you plan to develop.

Plan out what skills you want ahead of time.

Many skills that are =great= throughout most of the game are useless in the end-game. Digging through old threads here will touch on that, and it's worth keeping in mind as you plan your character.

Turn up the game's gamma setting. You'll need to if you're going to find all the levers and stuff in the dungeons.

None of the quests aside from those linked to the 'Missing Merchant' sequence are hard to figure out, so you shouldn't have much trouble there.

[free_fall]

Thanks for the advice, guys.

Go with a warrior, huh? I normally do tend to the fighter types but, for some reason, I had gone with the thief on this one. I was thinking maybe I would just start over anyway, as I won't be done with PoQ for another 3-4 weeks it looks like and will have forgotten what was happening in DD by then.

I'll give the skills thread a more thorough going-over before I start back in and get back to you if I have specific questions.

Thanks for the gamma tip - I was thinking that it WAS kind of dark down there and some of the switches were easy to miss.

[cjdevito]

I had gone with the thief on this one

Unfortunately, there is no use -at all- for the thief's 'crouch' ability (there's a seperate skill for sneaking, and the two cannot be used in conjunction).

The warrior's swirl attack can be combined with a variety of skills (envenom weapon, stun, etc) to create a very strong attack. Compared to the utterly useless thief 'crouch' and the nearly useless mage 'trade-places-with-an-NPC-mini-teleport', the warrior's special ability is leaps and bounds better.

[Skuld]

That's where you're wrong. The Survivor's "sneak" ability(crouch to you), is used if you wanna loot someone's house and not get noticed. If you go taking things from their houses, like taking things off of tables, shelves, and out of chest(especially locked ones) you might get caught, and asked if yoou wanna buy it if it's a shop. BUT if you ahve the sneak(crouch) skill enabled you can srawl around and pilfer to your little heart's content.

[fable]

I'd still agree about the warrior's spinning attack being superior. If you have the fatigue and healing potions to handle the damage, that's one powerful and easy way to clean out a nasty dungeon, and quickly.

On the other hand, the mage's special ability is virtually useless, IMO. Remember, you can create a warrior and still give them all sorts of bonus magical benefits.

[cjdevito]

The Survivor's "sneak" ability(crouch to you), is used if you wanna loot someone's house and not get noticed

Only if you're far enough away. OTOH, the embrace shadows skill suffers no such limitation and is available to every character.

[Skuld]

But you must also take into consideration the adjustments for each character type. I don't know them off the top of my head, but if you search the Larian boards I know you'll find them.