Just started playing this weekend....What a blast!!!!!!
macdog
blast. Brings back many memories of sleepless nights playing
Wizardry...calling in sick to work and playing 48 hour marathons. Of
course I'm not doing that again...too old. ;) but this is SOOOO much
better than Wizardry. I've started with a mostly demi-human party,
only two human fighters. Now that I've made a few levels, it's time to
start replacing the characters with an all human party. I love the
magic system with its spell points. Auto-mapping makes mapping a
breeze. I'm running it on a IIe with a cf adapter hard drive with an 8
mhz zip chip. It seems a bit sluggish at times....Boy...I'd hate to
try and play this on a stock IIe on floppies. Regards. Macdog.
Jeff
Silvern Castle has evolved quite a bit since the mid '80s. Because my
main development platform has been an Apple IIgs with Zip GS 8Mhz
accelerator and hard drive connected to a RamFast controller card, my
code tends to rely on a similar setup for best performance, since I
mainly wrote Silvern Castle for myself without regard to stock
configurations.
Of course the main performance issue is that Silvern Castle is written
almost entirely with AppleSoft BASIC, which is not noted for its
speed-although for me the biggest issue is media speed, not processor
speed. I find playing Silvern Castle on a 4Mhz Apple IIc+ and 3.5"
drive to be extremely sluggish, but running on a stock 2.8Mhz Apple
IIgs with a hard drive to be almost adequate.
Thanks for the feedback and I hope you continue to enjoy playing
Silvern Castle.
-Jeff
Bruce Baker
Bruce Baker homepage: www.hal-pc.org/~bbaker/
blog: www.xanga.com/brb4311
The lord is my shepherd I shall not want.
macdog
>
> Silvern Castle has evolved quite a bit since the mid '80s. Because my
> main development platform has been an Apple IIgs with Zip GS 8Mhz
> accelerator and hard drive connected to a RamFast controller card, my
> code tends to rely on a similar setup for best performance, since I
> mainly wrote Silvern Castle for myself without regard to stock
> configurations.
>
> Of course the main performance issue is that Silvern Castle is written
> almost entirely with AppleSoft BASIC, which is not noted for its
> speed-although for me the biggest issue is media speed, not processor
> speed. I find playing Silvern Castle on a 4Mhz Apple IIc+ and 3.5"
> drive to be extremely sluggish, but running on a stock 2.8Mhz Apple
> IIgs with a hard drive to be almost adequate.
>
> Thanks for the feedback and I hope you continue to enjoy playing
> Silvern Castle.
>
> -Jeff
Hey Jeff. Thanks for the reply. In regards to speed, my IIe is pretty
speedy, as i am using an 8 MHz zip chip and a compact flash with IDE
adapter as a hard drive. The computer boots up Prodos 8 in under a
second, so it's a pretty zippy machine. ;) (pun intended) I wonder how
it would play on my IIGS that has a CF with adapter as a hard drive and
an 18 MHz TWGS. Can I copy my saved game to another computer?
In regards to my comment that the game is a bit sluggish in
places.....I mean to say that there are only two places that I see a
slow down. The first is when the screen draws the map using the
automap feature. The second is when the program is generating the NPC
party for an encounter. Elsewhere, it seems very fast. In fact, it is
almost too fast in other places. When you go up a level, the screen
flashes by so fast, I can not read what happened. Also, during combat,
the combat messages...you know....who hit who for how much.....goes by
much too fast to actually read what is happening. Is there a setting
where I can slow down the screen draws in these two instances? On the
gaining level display, maybe a feature you could think about
implementing would be that you would gain your level...or not...and the
screen would say...hit any key to continue..that way you could take
your time to read what happened if you actually made a level.
On the combat screen readout.....i am not a coder/programmer and i know
that there are many different speeds and configurations....maybe a
setting could be available just for combat results where you could
assign a delay of 0 to 100...or something like that, so different
machines could tailor the combat speed readout...maybe this is already
a part of the game...I have not seen it, though.
All in all, I am really enjoying the game. This is just very minor
nit-picking.
Macdog
macdog
Bruce Baker wrote:
> That is so cool macdog. I'd like to hear about major discovers and such.
>
of party are you running and what level are they and what level are you
in the game? Macdog.
Jeff
Actually there are settings you can change to do exactly what you want
to do.
At the title page, choose the Extra's option by pressing <SPACE> and
select the set preferences menu item <2>. Set the following options
after browsing to the second page of preferences by pressing <TAB>:
Time Delay: Increase to about 2000
Cache Automap images: Y
Set the other options to whatever you prefer. Then hit <ESC> to save
the settings.
You can also adjust the time delay while in the maze by pressing <T>.
If you want to cancel the timed message delay feature, press any key
when a message is displayed. Conversely, you can pause any message by
pressing CTRL-S (although if the message delay is set too fast you have
to be pretty quick to catch it!).
Hope that helps!
-Jeff
Bruce Baker
and notes. But it's been so long ago I really don't remember details.
Right now, by Jeff's kind help I can run SC on my pc in an emulator. But
I also have it loaded on two //gs's which I don't fire up too often.
My characters are pretty super and include two or three mystics. You'll
love mystics.
Bruce Baker homepage: www.hal-pc.org/~bbaker/
blog: www.xanga.com/brb4311
The lord is my shepherd I shall not want.
Bruce Baker
Bruce Baker homepage: www.hal-pc.org/~bbaker/
blog: www.xanga.com/brb4311
The lord is my shepherd I shall not want.
On Tue, 23 Jan 2007, macdog wrote:
macdog
Bruce Baker
already occured to you?
Bruce Baker homepage: www.hal-pc.org/~bbaker/
blog: www.xanga.com/brb4311
The lord is my shepherd I shall not want.
Jeff
by setting the "Fast Equip" preference to "Y".
This will cause the program to skip from giving each monster/NPC a
unique set of weapons and armour from all possible combinations, and
instead will equip each similar monster/NPC with the same pre-selected
weapons & armour.
> -Jeff- Hide quoted text -
>
> - Show quoted text -
macdog
http://picasaweb.google.com/bigdog128/0212072ePictures
Macdog.
Bruce Baker
Bruce Baker homepage: www.hal-pc.org/~bbaker/
blog: www.xanga.com/brb4311
The lord is my shepherd I shall not want.
macdog
perfectly on the 17" LCD monitor. I was thinking about buying a 15"
LCD monitor in hopes that it would look a little bit better than on
the 17" monitor. All I have right now are 17" and 19" LCD monitors.
Macdog.
Bruce Baker
have. Do you have female characters? Is Ariel a female? So they are all
now human. You must have some characters of other races? Do you have a
"second string" group?
One guy has 401 HP. Wow. How many times did you change his/her
occupation? The others must have been "reset" at least once.
Do most of these guys have attributes over 18? Have you figured out about
wishing wells or other specials of this kind?
macdog
find a well. All my characters have at least one 21, and several have
two or more stats higher than 18. Actually the character with 401 hp
is Ariel, a girl. I created her after my mage got turned into ashes
after failing to be resurrected . I do not remember how many times
she has changed class, but it is a lot. I have no second string
guys. I only have the demi-humans I started with that were replaced
with humans. Except for a character called holder, which i use to
hold items. one way i have been raising stats is to buy a higher stat
by lowering some and buying a higher stat. Then, I change class and
go up to about 8th level or so and do it all over again.
What kind of hit points do you need to survive on the 9th and 10th
level? Should everyone be over 400 hp? 500? I remember in the old
Wizardry game having over 1000 hit points and just slaughtering Werdna
and crew without breaking a sweat.
I have not found any great weapons, yet. Long sword +1 is the best I
have with all my fighters, and a couple of +2 quarterstaves and a +2
mace for the back row.
No great spells, yet, either. I have Protection +1, Silence +1 and
light +1 which are nice, but my main Druid has almost 3000 spell
points, so I never run out of spell points, now.
right now I am mapping out the 8th level, and have made a short run
down onto the 9th level to check it out. No maze demons, yet.
Bruce Baker
little luck and some healing rings or amulet or whatever it is. Everyone
should have the ability to heal.
Have you done dragon lairs? That is what is needed there. One or two
attack and one or two heal the others.
When I first did it the weapons could get to amazing levels. I'd have to
go back but several of my guys had super weapons of one kind or another.
There were super spells such as a fireball + 7 and striking +3.
Bragging here: one guy has flaming sword +5. another has long sword +9,
bastard sword +4, war hammer +5, flaming sword +4, 2-handed sword +3,
holy avenger +2.
These things are harder to find now. But I had two parties. Each one had
a guy who could cast a spell that would defeat the strongest party in one
pass. Except for dragon, maze demons, and the final fight.
In the final fight you need a little luck. I don't think hit points are a
total salvation to you. But the guys you have look to have enough AC and
HP's to win. Now do you have good enough weapons and spells?
macdog
just had the first guy crack 500 hit points. No super weapons, yet.
My fighters all have +1 weapons......sigh.....No super spells yet,
either. Best is a fireball +1 that I found.
Bruce Baker
about all you can expect. You probably have to save money and buy higher
enchantment levels.
Dragonlairs occur in 2 x 3 rooms. When I reset and go back to an explored
level I always check every 2 x 3 room before moving on.
They are more likely on higher levels, 8, 9, and 10. The dragons will be
tougher there.
You do not have to go beyond 500 HP. But to get a character up to all
21's might be easier by resetting the character every so often. Still
you'd like to get upper class guys into the 15 to 20 and more levels.
Bruce Baker homepage: www.hal-pc.org/~bbaker/
blog: www.xanga.com/brb4311
The lord is my shepherd I shall not want.
Jeff
the deeper levels.
The best sources are NPC parties, lair treasure chests, and random
specials like statues, etc. Of course Dragon Lairs are the mother lode
of treasure troves, but are rare, but you should find a few if you
troll on the deeper levels for lairs.
You will need to turn the fast equip preference to "N" to allow the
program to generate all possible combinations of enchanted items,
otherwise most monsters and NPC's will only carry mundane stuff.
For example, a 5th level NPC fighter might carry up to +2 armour.
An 8th level NPC fighter might carry up to +3 armour and +1 weapons.
On the other hand, a 10th level NPC fighter might carry up to +3
weapons and +4 armour.
Treasure chests are usually the best sources of enchanted items. The
chance to find higher enchanted stuff depends on the maze level, the
base level of the item (use your cleric or druid to determine), type
of item, and chance.
In most cases, a level 1 or level 2 weapon (i.e. short sword or long
sword) in a treasure chest on the 5th level of the maze has a 10%
chance to have an enchantment of +3, while the same weapon in a 10th
level treasure chest has a 33% chance to have an enchantment of +3, a
10% chance for +4, and around 1% chance for +5 or +6, with the
remaining being +1 or +2.
Other items are similar, for example on level 8, if a treasure chest
contains a fireball scroll, there's a 30% chance it will be +1, 9%
chance for +2, and 1% chance for +3, while 60% will be normal. On
level 10, the chance would be 53% normal, 27% +1, 15% +2, 5% +3, and
1% +4.
It is true that earlier versions of Silvern Castle would generate
higher enchantments, generally up to +10 (although in rare instances
up to +32, but I don't recall anyone finding stuff higher than +15 or
so). If I ever release v9.3, it raises the upper limit on item
enchantments to +12, but those items will still be exceedingly rare to
find.
Of course I'm not telling, but there is place in the maze where it is
more common to find enchanted items more often than anywhere else.
-Jeff
> > >>>>> Macdog.- Hide quoted text -
macdog
here. ;) I guess I'll have to go deeper to try and find better
weapons.
Macdog.
Bruce Baker
finding one every one or to floors, well esp. on 8 or above.
Are you getting to levels 9 and 10? You should have the ability to
survive there. If you are worried about getting killed, I reccomend
saving before going into level nine. Then if you party gets devastated,
heck if I lost a player I would do this. If someone gets killed simply
reboot the game and you come back where you were.
It's a cheat but not too awful.
You can still add enchantment to weapons. I found some good special
weapons. Dragon swords etc. were cool for rangers to have as second
weapons for dragon lairs.
Bruce Baker homepage: www.hal-pc.org/~bbaker/
blog: www.xanga.com/brb4311
The lord is my shepherd I shall not want.
macdog
am still changing class with people. My guy with the most changes has
over 600 hit points, now. He is two changes away from his final
class. I will take some screen shots, soon and post them on my google
pic's site. I'll post here when I do, and if you have any
suggestions, let me know. I have been enchanting weapons, also. I
have a +2 sword, and a +6 quarterstaff.
Macdog.
Bruce Baker
stop changing them and let them get more advanced. You really don't need
mystics, just let it happen. But you need guys to get up towards level
20. Then the last two levels will not be insurmountable. Again, I
suggest frequent saving and rebooting if catastrophe happens.
Bruce Baker homepage: www.hal-pc.org/~bbaker/
blog: www.xanga.com/brb4311
The lord is my shepherd I shall not want.
macdog
fight....what a haul!!!! Is there a cheat so I can find nothing but
Dragon Lairs? ;) Just kidding. Anyway, just one dragon and around
seven dragon pups and assorted other baddies.....I think it took me
around 20 minutes to finally kill that dang dragon. Fortunately, no
one died. I did this on the 8th level. I'm thinking that dragons
must have hit points in the thousands......Lots of treasure and magic
items were found after the battle.
Man, this is a great game. Continually blows Wizardry away....and I
used to think that Wizardry was the bomb.
Macdog.
Bruce Baker
Good for you, that was a great adventure.
I kept a list of dragon types somewhere. Some are immune to certain
weapons and spells. That makes it more interesting. (!)
Yep good money and sometimes cool weapons/spells/armor.
I return a lot and sell my hauls. In a dragon lair I probably have to
throw some fairly good stuff away.
In a dragon fight one guy's sole purpose is to heal the others. Sometimes
two people have to do it.
No matter how many HPs your characters have they need to get up close to
level 15 or so to be safe in upper levels. But as Jeff said the best
lairs for treasure will be in levels 9 and 10. Go for it!
Bruce Baker homepage: www.hal-pc.org/~bbaker/
blog: www.xanga.com/brb4311
The lord is my shepherd I shall not want.
Jeff
> Seems like there is a setting where you can see remaining HP's
Yep, it's one of the preferences.
> I kept a list of dragon types somewhere. Some are immune to certain
> weapons and spells. That makes it more interesting. (!)
There are 3 categories of monster immunity: spell, weapon, and
special.
Spell immunity can take the following forms: complete immunity (no
damage), and partial resistance (half damage). Conversely, monsters
that are immune to cold or fire (but not both) are vulnerable (double
damage) to the inverse attack (i.e. Red dragons are immune to fire,
but are vulnerable to cold attacks).
The types of spells that monsters can be immune/resistant to are
damage based attack forms: fire, cold, lightning, acid, energy; and
condition spells: poison, paralyze, stone, sleep, and fear (i.e. most
undead are not affected by sleep, but most dragons are resistant).
As most magical items are spell-based they are bound by the same
rules. One exception is if a silence spell is cast by the monsters, in
which case they will be temporarily immune to all spell attacks-but
not magical items.
Weapon immunity is the lowest enchanted weapon that will affect a
monster (unless the monster has zero weapon immunity, in which case
the monster can be affected by mundane weapons). For example, many
undead are only affected by magical weapons with an enchantment of +1
or higher. Of course there are many special weapons that many monster
types are highly vulnerable to.
In addition, some monsters are immune/resistant to monk critical hits.
Other special immunities-like the ability of the undead to resist a
dispel attempt-depend on the character's level, skills, and other
factors.
Furthermore, while on the subject of strategies to defeat dragons, you
may wish to review the spell list. The stun spell can be especially
helpful-even better would be a magical item that casts stun.
Bruce Baker
is like another person wrote all those messages.
http://webpages.milwpc.com/finkjc/silverncastle/downloads/tomeofarcana.pdf