Let's Play Dark Sun: Shattered Lands - completed

[Zomg]

Were Wake of the Ravager and EoB III done by the same developer/team? They seem like they were fucked up in parallel ways.

 

[Elwro]

Wait I have questions! What happens to Aposs? I could never do anything with him.

Nothing interesting. If you find his heart (hidden in the dragon's eye), you can bring it to him. He's freed and starts to wreak havoc. I killed him; don't know if there's more about him.

 

[VentilatorOfDoom]

I could never finish DS2, gamestopping bugs...

 

[Andhaira]

Great job with the LP.

 

[dolio]

Boy, Wake of the Ravager really shafts newly made characters compared to what you can import. Each character gets a single +1 weapon (which, for a ranger/psionicist appears to be a few +1 arrows), and you don't get to pick any of the powers/spells you get. Oh, and it gives you 5,000 ceramic pieces.

I read somewhere that importing a party causes the game to double the hp of all the enemies in the game, which the person remaked as being weird, since being level 7 versus level 9 isn't much of a difference, but I guess it must also be making up for the fact that imports have vastly superior starting equipment (although there's probably no difference by the end of the game in that regard, so it screws you).

 

[ghostdog]

There is a patch for DS2. You can find it here : http://www.patches-scrolls.de/

 

[Jim Cojones]

I can't patch the game:

I'm sure the version I use is a floppy one but I tried to use also patches for CD and jewel case versions and everytime I have got the same result. I downloaded the game from another source. Nothing changed.

 

[ghostdog]

I can't patch the game:

I'm sure the version I use is a floppy one but I tried to use also patches for CD and jewel case versions and everytime I have got the same result. I downloaded the game from another source. Nothing changed.

Hmm, could it be that it's already patched ?

 

[dolio]

Well, I get the same error (pretty sure) trying to patch the copy I found, but the in-game info says it's version 1.0.

Amusingly enough, in my searching, I saw a website that purports to provide a fully patched copy, but only if you sign up to be a paying member. For free, you can only get an unpatched copy (although I failed to do even that, for reasons I can't recall).

 

[TheWorstBanana]

I saved a couple of screenshots of the final sequences when i managed to finish DS2 - anyone wanna see em?

 

[VentilatorOfDoom]

Jim, how did you execute the patch - from DOSBox? I could patch my <a href="http://www.oldgames.sk/en/game/dak-sun-wake-of-the-ravager/">copy</a>.

 

[dolio]

I've been running the patch in dosbox. I get the same error from the copy you linked.

Is running it in dosbox the right or wrong way to do it (if it's the wrong way, that's going to be a bit of a pain for me)?

 

[Jim Cojones]

I tried both ways. Running patch in DOSBox seemed natural way so that's what I did first. After failing to update I checked it without emulation with the same result. And I did use the copy from OldGames.sk too. I have even tried to download a game on my friend's PC and copy it to mine after patching and again encountered the same problem.

 

[ghostdog]

You could always try patching it through the command line window.

 

[VentilatorOfDoom]

I tried both ways. Running patch in DOSBox seemed natural way so that's what I did first. After failing to update I checked it without emulation with the same result. And I did use the copy from OldGames.sk too. I have even tried to download a game on my friend's PC and copy it to mine after patching and again encountered the same problem.

I dont know... file not found - sounds like it doesn't find the file, huh? You have for instance copy your C directory from DS1 install to DS2 DOSBOX install if you want to import the characters... you also must name the paths correctly DOS-style e.g. max 8 chars like DARKSU~1. I don't have other ideas what could cause this...

 

[dolio]

So, fooling a bit more, and actually paying some attention to the error message...

I actually got at least one of my copies to partially patch. I don't get an error about CHARSAVE.GFF like Jim does. That file patches successfully if I use the jewel case patch.

However, both the jewel case and floppy patches fail on DSUN.EXE. If you look at the error, it says that it found a file with that name, but it wasn't the right file. Both the copies I have appear to have some crack applied (note the presence of CRACK.COM in the folder). The copy I originally had has an OLDEXE directory, but the patch doesn't recognize that DSUN.EXE as valid, either. And the one from oldgames.sk doesn't appear to have a backed-up exe at all. So, this may be a dead end, unless someone can point us to a pristine copy.

It also isn't due to the games already being patched. If I run the jewel case patch twice, it recognizes that the patched CHARSAVE.GFF is present, and doesn't error out due to that.

 

[dolio]

I decided to play some without the patch.

You can tell they tried to improve upon the first game. The initial town has more people walking around and such. And on the road outside, you'll see random groups traveling. The character sprites have a some more detail, as do the NPC portraits.

But man, the game is a hog. I had to crank dosbox up to cycles=30000 to get it not to lag unacceptably in some areas (I think 9000 is the recommended maximum). The walking animation seems to pause on every square, which makes things feel very clunky. And I've found at least one area which, upon entering, I appear to be simply stuck in. It looks like an ordinary (fairly empty) room with a table, but apparently I don't have line of sight or a path to walk anywhere.

Some of the quest design is kind of weird, too. I talked to some halflings, and they expressed interest in some pool of heroes. So I searched some caves, and thought I found it. I ran into a talking snake nearby, and could ask him about the pool... But I could also ask questions regarding people I'd never heard of before.

The game seems like it could have some more interesting combat, though. The first game was, I'd say, very easy once you get the hang of it. I defeated almost everything through straight physical combat, with perhaps a little dominate or hold person thrown in. Only the final battle really warranted a significant use of magic to even things out.

However, searching for the pool, I ran into a group of mind flayers, umber hulks and intellect devourers that forced me to do more than just a straight beatdown. Hopefully the game has more fights in that vein.

 

[Jim Cojones]

If the game doesn't run well, turn the animations off. It helps a lot. I will probably also play without the patch but I'm not planning to start very quickly (I think I'll begin at the end of August) so maybe I'll find a version that I will be able to patch before. Or maybe someone has the patched game and would kindly upload it somewhere?

 

[Waterd103]

The version of wake of ravager you can download from the download section in this site works fine for me

http://dso.zidev.com/

 

[dolio]

The version of wake of ravager you can download from the download section in this site works fine for me

http://dso.zidev.com/

Well, this is excellent. Thanks. I wish it would have come up in a fucking google search (looking at the wikipedia page now, I see it links to that website; but I don't expect wikipedia pages to link to downloads of abandonware).

My only remaining question is: is this fully patched? The in-game version says 1.1, whereas the patches scrolls patches say 1.10. But then the patches scrolls downloads are named things like "wakejc11.zip", and I have doubts that there were 10 patches.

If the game doesn't run well, turn the animations off. It helps a lot.

Yeah. That looks kind of lame, though. I'm pretty sure the source of the poor performance is the smooth map scrolling, not the character animations. I wish you could just turn the former off.

 

[Kereminde]

Say, ran into something while playing this game through myself for a FAQ writing. I registered in order to ask you, since you seem to have played this game about as much as me and my brother . . .

The expanse of desert SOUTH and WEST from the Elven Caravan has a group of slavers who are meeting "Dagger" and want to deliver a slave. The slave does not follow you out of the zone, and if you leave he just stands wherever he had been and is unresponsive.

I'm seeing also some things which you missed, but they're all optional anyway. There's a lava field SOUTH of the dragon-painted desert you can run through for some loot.

 

[Elwro]

The lava field is also one of the few instances in which your thief can actually spot a trap... if you tell him to examine a certain object. The trap is actually surprising.

(There were many traps in the city you go to right before the final battle, but I could never figure out how to tell my thief to check the floor in front of the party... I could only tell him to examine objects.)

 

[GarfunkeL]

The patch for DS2 doesn't fix everything and brings extra bugs. The game can be finished, patched or un-patched but it is EXTREMELY buggy so keep as many different saves as possible. There was a fan-patch project going on but I guess it died.

 

[dolio]

I couldn't figure out how to get the thief to be useful there, either. However, if you cast the 2nd level priest spell 'detect traps', and put that character in the lead, every trap you walk over just shows up as a little sprite and does no damage. You just have to check periodically to make sure the spell didn't wear off.

Also, in the lava field, if you stick stones in some geysers, a meteorite will pop out of a large geyser, which you can take back to Teaqetzl and forge into an axe.

I don't think Jim ever bought the giant scorpion, either. If you talk to the salt guy wandering around the dragon painted area, he'll sell you a bag of salt. You can then use the salt to purchase the scorpion from the animal trainer. But, it runs away when you leave the area (or, it did the one time I tried), and if you go back to complain (he has 'another' scorpion with him by then), he just tells you to fuck yourself, and leaves.

I never came across the slave delivery guys, though.

 

[Elwro]

If a thri-kreen is your leader when the purchased mastyrial runs away, she hears a sound of a frequency imperceptible for other races: the sound of a whistle (?) which the dishonest seller uses to make mastyrial run from your party.