IanthePez
An Unofficial FAQ
Well some of you may have seen the Unofficial FAQ over at the Demizens site. I have updated it and will be posting it to a site in the next month or so. The reason for the delay is that I am taking a class on Web Design and we have to build a page and I am still working on the whole thing. So I am going to cut and paste the info into this post.
Varzil
GENERAL
Q: "When will the full\final version be available?"
A: You can order it here.
Order Demise www.artifact-entertainmen.../order.htm
Q: "When will the next beta version be available?"
A: We are at the DEMISE 1.00r3.1 PUBLIC RELEASE. No more betas.
Q: "How much will it cost?"
A: The price is $49.95 + Shipping in US Dollars.
Q: "What are the minimum system requirements to run Demise?"
A: The minimum requirements are listed on the Download Page. www.artifact-entertainmen...shtml#demo
Q: "Why is Demise so big?"
A: Demise incorporates an advanced graphics engine and includes the graphics data for the engine. 3D modeling takes a lot of megabytes of harddisk space to store and it can only be compressed so far.
Q: "How does the hall of records decide on the deadliest monster?"
A: Unknown. Go ask David Allen the creator of the game. It probably involves hit points, abilities, and att/def of the monster.
Q: "How many levels are there in the Demo? in the full version?"
A: There are 5 levels in the Demo and there will be 30 levels in the final release.
Q: "What are the differences between the Demo and the full version?"
A: The final version has more levels, all the monsters and items, all of the Lord Gherrick Quests and other things as well. Way too many to delve into here.
Q: "If I reinstall Demise, will my characters be erased?"
A: They shouldn't be. However, it is usually wise to make a backup (use the backup utility under game options)
You should also save a seperate copy of your Demisecharacters.ded file to another directory such as your temp directory.
GAMEPLAY
Q: "What are barrels,table,chairs,beds,boxes etc. for?"
A: The barrels are only graphics candy that make the dungeon a more dynamic environment and adds realism. Anything that you can interact with will have some sort of message with it. Anything you can pick up will be accompanied by an audio clue.
Q: "What are the fountains for?"
A: The fountains are for hitpont healing. Just stand by the fountain and damage will be healed.
Q: "What are the orbs for?"
A: The orbs are for Spell Point regeneration. Stand by the orbs and your spell points will be slowly regenerated.
Q: "What is this difference between being stoned and rocked?"
A: Stoning is a monster attack that turns your character to stone instantly if it succeeds. This lowers your raise percentage and guarantees a loss of 1 constitution and raises the chance of complications. Being rocked is something that you do to yourself by teleporting into the middle of solid rock. When you are rocked, no rescuer can rescue you except for another character who has the spell of Retrieve Soul or a Scroll of Summoning (or some other item that casts that spell). Finally, straight from the spell info for Retrieve Soul:
"For the times that an unlucky character teleports or walks into solid rock, the only way to retrieve them is with this. The caster of the (spell) must be on the same level that the Rocked character is, or as close as they can get. If the (spell) is successful, the retrieved character's body will appear at the feet of the caster ready to be carried or resurrected."
Q: "What is the difference in being good, neutral, or evil...or is it just a stupid option"
A: What alignment you are affects a number of things. Certain alignments can not be certain guilds (Paladins cannot be evil for example). Monsters of similar alignment are more likely to join you. Also certain items are aligned and have negative effects if worn or used by someone of the opposite alignment. Whether it is stupid or not is another question altogether best answered by yourself.
Q: "Why doesn't the store hold cursed stuff?"
A: The clerk has a fetish for cursed items and hoards them all to himself. But seriously, the only reasons I can think of to not have the store have cursed stuff are that it makes sashes non-rechargeable and that most cursed items would not be kept by a store keeper.
Q: "Can I pass companions to another player?"
A: The only way to get companions from one character to another is to sell it to confinement and then buy it back.
Q: "Why can't I see some monsters?"
A: These monsters are invisible. You need the spell of "See Invisible" or an item that does it (Amulet of Ultravision) in order to see these monsters. This is very important as you delve deeper into the dungeon as different monsters are much more dangerous than others.
Q: "I died and now my character is unplayable...what do I do?"
A: This is rarely true. People have recovered from complications and can be recovered from being rocked.In fact, right now complications do not seem to come into play. If you can't bear to build your character back up you can always start a new one with the benifits of a nearly full store... Now if you are talking a true bug in the game (such as retrieve soul completely refusing to work after a bunch of tries) then I feel for you, but your only option is to report the bug (very important), and to start a new character.
Q: "Can I change my character's name after I already made it?"
A: No. Choose your character name wisely.
Q: "How come I'm levitating and the pits still do damage to me?"
A: Levitation is not perfect. Its power is based on the spell castors level and will not always prevent you from falling down pits. Magical Flight is a more powerful version that allows you to fly.
Q: "How do I recharge my twisted bracers\sash of shades\etc.
A: The only items that can be recharged are non-cursed, equipable items (ie. all equipable items except sashes currently). To recharge these items, sell the item back to the store with 0 charges and then buy it back. The price difference is the cost to recharge the item.
Q: "There's something in the store or confinement.. but I didn't put it there... where'd it come from?"
A: Some adventurer sold it to the store and the store owner will now sell it back to you for more than double the price this mysterious adventurer sold it for. Now just hope this adventurer finds a large stock of Potions of Youth and decides to sell them to the store...
Q: "Why do some items remain equipped when I change guilds but not others?"
A: There are a couple of reasons why this happens. There are two things that determine whether an item remains equipped, guild level and class restriction. The first case is that the item is class-restricted and your new guild cannot use the item at your current level in the guild. In this case the item will become unequipped. The next case is that the item is not class-restricted. In this case you can use the item any time after one of your guilds is able to use the item. The last case is that the item is class restricted and your new guild is able to use the item at your current level. In this case, the item stays equipped. The reasoning behind all of this is that in order to gain experience in your new guild, you must forsake your previous guild to a certain extent, but some skills are very basic and do not infringe on guild policies (daggers most commonly)
Q: "Why can't I sell some items like Treatise of Draining or Journeyman's Key?"
A: This type of item is a guild related item. These items are to be turned into the guilds as either a quest reward (J-man key) or to get a new spell (all treatises, codexes, and librams). Sometimes the bounty board will have a request for one of the treatises, codexes and librams, then you can turn one of these in for the reward afford.
Q: "What are tome of lies good for?"
A: This item was made to teach the new adventurers the lesson that they must identify items before they use them.
Q: "I asked the seer to find a monster/item... but it wasn't where the seer said it would be"
A: The seer is a bad joke. It tells you a location close to the location where a monster/item of the same type and level as the one you are looking for sometimes appears. It is usually best just to look in the library as to where you last saw the monster or item. A tip, look for the words I am certain. This usually indicates that the monster is either right on the coordinates or somewhere close by.
Q: "How do I get rid of a ball and chain (or any other cursed item)?"
A: You can either uncurse the item at the store or use a Tome of Detachment (the prefered choice for expensive curse removal). Also been reported that if you have a bounty for one, it will unequip when you reply to the bounty.
Q: "How often do the monsters come back into the dungeon?"
A: Monsters seem to regenerate once every 30 to 45 minutes.
Q: "How do I get companions to join me?"
A: The only way to get a companion to join you is to increase your skills or your charisma which is nearly always impossible to do before the monster leaves the area at regeneration time.
Q: "How do I swim underwater?"
Q: "Why do I keep drowning?"
A: The best way to survive the deep water portions of the dungeon is to cast Amphibious Breathing which allows you to survive under water for an extended period of time. In any case, try to keep your underwater excursions short and fly out of any areas if you get in trouble and have the spell of Magical Flight as you have a limited ammount of time underwater and drowning is not fun (although its better than being rocked).
Q: "I keep dying! What am I doing wrong?"
A: The most frequent answer to this question is that you are going too low in the dungeon too early or staying in the dungeon too long or not being careful in general. It is quite possible to be very high level and never die (although stoning and paralysis makes this a rare occurance). For all levels below 4, make sure you have as many protective spells as possible cast upon yourself (Magical Flight, Protection, Charm of Concealment, All Resistance spells that will increase your resistence over its natural value). Keep yourself healed up (morkal spells are best for this) and kill those stoning sistrums, nastrums, etc. as fast as possible (maxed dexterity is very important for this reason). Having compaions or a party of characters helps reduce occurences of death as well.
ADVANCED QUESTIONS
Q: "Is it cheating to pass tomes and cash to a new character I create?"
A: This is a moral decision that should be left up to the individual player. Some will tell you that it is cheating, others will tell you to go ahead and do it. This decision is up to you.
Q: "How do you "charm" creatures?"
Q: "How do you tell what charm spell works on what creature?"
A: Charming creatures can be done with spells of the charm class or scrolls/items that hold these spells. The type of monster that the monster is determines the spell neccessary.
Monster Spell
Humanoids Charm Humanoid
Thieves Charm Humanoid
Mages Charm Humanoid
Warriors Charm Humanoid
Demons Charm Demon
Devils Charm Devil
Elemental Charm Elemental
Reptiles Charm Monster
Dragons Charm Dragon
Animals Charm Animal
Insects Charm Insect
Undead Charm Undead
Giants Charm Giant
All Types Soul Domination
In order to charm the monster, the spell must do as more damage than the monsters current hit points. This damage is calculated the same as damage for normal spells but is reduced quite a bit by Charm Resistance. It is very difficult to charm charm resistant monsters (such as the Goblin Lord). Your only chance of charming a charm resistant monster is to get it down to a very low number of hit points (preferably less than 10) and then attempt to charm is with Soul Domination (the most powerful charm spell in the game).
Q: "How do I get rid of penalty values?"
A: You can never get rid of penalty values but you can do your best to minimize them. Penalty values are based upon what guilds you are in, how much experience you have in those guilds, and how many guilds you are in. Any fighting guild will give large penalties to your magic using guilds although the reverse is not true. Due to this fact, the best ways to avoid penalties are to level up in your magic user guilds as high as you ever want them to go, then level up your fighting guilds or to only be in either fighting guilds or in magic guilds (thieving guilds are somewhere in between, and don't seem to affect either fighters or magic users in terms of penalty that much). Or you can just do what I do, ignore them. I would try to avoid running one guild very high over another one. The potential to need millions of exp to level when you switch back to the lower guild can be disheartening
Q: "How do I play my multiplayer character offline?"
A: The following is step by step instructions to play on your own server offline.
Start up the Demise Internet Server
Click on Configure
Input a name for your server
Input 127.0.0.1 for bound address
Input 26000 for bound port
Make sure Activate Logging and Auto-Start server on Launch are not activated
Make the Master Server Address blank or put 127.0.0.1:26001
Click on Save
Click on User Management and deactivate all Recordings
Activate the Server if it is not already active and minimize the server
Run Demise and add the server 127.0.0.1:26000 to your server list
Highlight this server and connect to it.
You will not be able to resurrect your characters while you are offline.
Q: "How do I start my own server?"
A: The following is step by step instructions to play on your own server offline.
Start up the Demise Internet Server
Click on Configure
Input a name for your server
Input your current ip for bound address (if you do not know what it is, setup your server as 127.0.0.1, connect to it and write down the number before the colon in the address column of the master server.
Input 26000 for bound port (or some other if you wish)
Make sure Activate Logging and Auto-Start server on Launch are not activated
Make the Master Server Address blank or put 127.0.0.1:26001 if you want the server to be private, otherwise put the master server address.
Click on Save
Click on User Management and deactivate all Recordings
Activate the Server if it is not already active and minimize the server
If you made the server private, tell your friends to add your server as (whatever ip you inputed) whatever port number you inputed), otherwise your server should be on the master server list and can be added like any other.
MULTIPLAYER QUESTIONS
Q: "Why can't I connect to the master server?"
A: The current master server address can always be found at the Official Demise Home Page www.artifact-entertainmen...news.shtml under the Oracle. To get a list of current servers, put the ip given there and hit Query Master Server to get the list. To add servers click on the server to add and click on the arrow pointing to the right. The master server is usually up, but occasionally the server will be down for some reason or other. If this is the case, check the Demise Bulletin Boards vnboards.ign.com/default....=5047#5047 at or at Lappen's Demise Bulletin Board at pub26.ezboard.com/bdemise .When the Master is down some of the server operators will post thier servers address at one or both of these locations.
Q: "What are these POYs I keep hearing about"
A: Potions of Youth, more commonly known called POYs, are items that reduce your age by one year as well as your constitution by 1 point. Blood of the Ages is in the full version and reduces age by 10 years.
Q: "What is an aard?"
A: An Aard of Being is a potion that increases all 6 of your stats by 1 point. It is rather expensive but well worth it. They are commonly found on the goblin shamans of level 6.
Q: "Why can't I trade items to my other characters?"
A: This was implemented to prevent easy cheating.
Q: "Are there any differences between the single player and multiplayer versions besides the obvious lack of mp in the single play?"
A: Single player allows you to play parties of your own characters, but does not allow interaction with other people. While Multi player allows you to interact with other people, but only allow you to play one of your characters at a time. Currently the Multi player code makes parties of different peoples characters difficult to keep together and play.
Q: "Can I use a single play character for multiplay or vica-versa?"
A: No.
Q: "How do I talk in multiplayer?
A: Hit the enter key twice while in the dungoen to send messages in multiplayer.
Q: "I was doing a trade...but the other person refused to give me what they were supposed to..and now they left...what do I do?"
A: You never trade with that person again. Also, posting their names on the Multiplayer bulletin board can help. Please do not lie about what happened as we do not want people making false claims against others... This is a very friendly multiplayer game compared to many other games mostly due to the feeling of cooperation that delving the dungeon brings out...
Q: "Why do I have to take my money out of the bank to give it to people?"
A: This helps prevent you from typing too many 0s and giving way too much money to another person on accident.
Q: "Can I play multiplayer with old mp versions of Demise...or do I need the newest version?"
A: if you can find a server that supports your version, you can play on it. However, as most of the servers are upgraded to the newest version within a day of the new release (due to their high speed connections for the most parts), it is usually quite difficult to find a server with an old version running on it.
Q: "How do I play my multiplayer character offline?"
A: The following is step by step instructions to play on your own server offline.
Start up the Demise Internet Server
Click on Configure
Input a name for your server
Input 127.0.0.1 for bound address
Input 26000 for bound port
Make sure Activate Logging and Auto-Start server on Launch are not activated
Make the Master Server Address blank or put 127.0.0.1:26001
Click on Save
Click on User Management and deactivate all Recordings
Activate the Server if it is not already active and minimize the server
Run Demise and add the server 127.0.0.1:26000 to your server list
Highlight this server and connect to it.
You will not be able to resurrect your characters while you are offline.
Q: "How do I start my own server?"
A: The following is step by step instructions to play on your own server offline.
1) Start up the Demise server
2) You need to know your computer name. If you don't then you will find it under the
pull down menu item server -> config -> bound address.
3) Start up Demise
4) Select multiplayer
5) Enter your player name
6) Under personal server address book you will see new and delete. Select new.
7) Enter your computer name and press enter.
If you made the server private, tell your friends to add your server as (whatever ip you inputed) whatever port number you inputed), otherwise your server should be on the master server list and can be added like any other.
BUGS and MAJOR PROBLEMS
Q: "There is a item on the ground...but I can't pick it up"
A: The only items that can be picked up are the ones that your character goes Hmmm when you step on the.
Q: "Why doesn't Demise run on my computer?"
A: This question is a difficult one but make sure you have the minimum requirements for the game and well.. If you have the minimum requirements, and it still won't run, fill out the bug report. Also post a question in either the Demise Forum vnboards.ign.com/default....=5047#5047 or the Demise BB Forums pub26.ezboard.com/bdemise . The players are great about trying to help with problems that they have encountered before.
Q: "Why can't I run Demise at 640x480 or 256 colors?"
A: Due to the graphics engine, Demise will no longer run at 640x480. Merely change your screen resolution to 800x600 by
doing the following:
Minimize all your programs.
Right click on the screen
Click on Properties
Click on Settings
Change the desktop area to 800 by 600 (or higher) and set the color palette to High Color - 16 bit (or higher).
You should not have to reboot. (Windows will tell you if you have to) Run Demise again.
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