Disciples of Steel: Honing the Blade

I'll be back in a few more hours.

    

All right, let's talk about skills. There are 22 in the game, and all of them are available to every character. They break down into:

• Defensive skills: Armor, shield, dodge, body, resistance
• Weapon skills: Edged, crushing, axe, spear, bow, open hand
• Combat skills: Backstab, hide
• Survival skills: Track, disarm/pick, perception, haggle, first aid, steal
• Magic skills: Karma, essence, power

As with most things, the manual doesn't have a lot to offer about what some of the skills actually do. Take the magic skills. Mages use "essence"; priests use "karma"; and illusionists use "power." I can tell that increasing these skills directly improves those spellcaster's pool of spell points, and it also increases the number of spells available. What I don't know is whether a higher skill increases the chances of a successful casting (spellcasters often fail because they're "unable to concentrate") or improves the spell's strength.

For weapon skills, the manual explicitly states that the number affects the number of attacks per round, the possible damage, the probability of a critical hit, and the chances of parrying incoming attacks. I wish it was so descriptive for all the skills.

Each character starts with a certain number of points in each skill depending on attributes and class. These same considerations seem to affect how many experience points it takes to increase the skill by one point. When I first started the game, I paid too little attention to the second consideration and too much to the first. For instance, my warrior started with a skill of 50 in "axe" and a skill of 36 in "crushing" weapons. It makes sense to focus on one weapon type per character, and I figured since he started out highest in "Axe," I'd just keep leveling that. What I should have noted is that "axe" took 8 experience points per level and "crush" took only 6. Simple math would have shown me that after spending around 220 experience points on either skill, my "crush" investment would out-perform my "axe" investment, but I went with "axe" instead. (The specific math doesn't quite work out because the number of points you need to raise a skill increases slightly as you get higher, but the principle is the same.)
   

My knight improves her "edged" skill.

    

Similarly, my rogue started with a really low score in "disarm/pick"--I think maybe around 11 or 12. My illusionist started with a really high score, around 35. However, the rogue only takes 6 experience points to increase a point in the skill and the illusionist takes 18 points. Clearly, the rogue is the better investment in the long run. Fortunately, I caught that one early.

Basically, since experience points are so precious and the early game is so difficult, it makes sense to develop a kind of skill development plan for the characters. This is the kind of thing that I might have worked out with a complex spreadsheet, but instead I went with a simpler system: I identified 2 or 3 primary skills for each character and 3 or 4 useful secondary skills. Every time I amass a couple hundred experience points, I allocate points to both sets of skills, with primary skills getting three times the points as the secondary skills.

When I first started the game, "body" was a lower skill for every character, but now I've made it a primary. It directly affects hit points, and ever since I started prioritizing it, I've done a lot better in combat. For warriors, the second primary skill is their chosen weapon, then "armor"; for mages, it's their prime magic skill and then their weapon. (Spell points go fast, and a spellcaster needs to be at least partly useful in melee combat to be useful at all.) My rogue is the toughest. There are so many things that feel like they ought to be primaries--"disarm," "hide," "backstab," "steal," "perception," his weapon--that I've just been giving everything equal increases for him. "Dodge," "armor," and "shield" seem to be useful for almost everyone, so everyone gets them as secondaries (if not primary).

My biggest question when it comes to skills is "resistance." The manual says that it governs how well the character is able to resist certain types of magic, like sleep and charm. The manual also says that it's a "natural ability of each race" and "can never be increased." This sounds great except every character starts at 0 in the ability and can put points into the skill--at a hefty cost of around 16-18 experience points per skill point. So should I be increasing this skill or not? I've been reluctantly tossing an occasional point or two into the skill so that I'm not caught with my pants down when I start encountering spellcasting enemies, but I could be completely wasting those points.

The game translates the number of points invested in a skill to a textual assessment of where the character stands:

• 0: "Totaly inept"
• 1-24: "Initiate"
• 25-74: "Novice"
• 75-124: "Adequate"
• 125-???" "Competent"

    

In this game, being "adequate" at something is a real superlative.

     
I'm sure there are higher classification, but I haven't reached them. Apparently, the maximum skill level is 5 times the character's level in the governing attribute, so a character who has an 80 constitution maxes out at 400 in "body." Clearly, I'm a long way from that point, and even then you can increase attributes for 1,000 experience points per point.

One thing I like about the game is the way experience points are earned, which is based on successful action rather than just a "kill." I spent some time in a recent battle trying to figure out exactly what I was getting for each action. For all I know, the numbers vary considerably given the type of foe and other considerations, but for my battle with a couple of ogres, my characters seemed to get:

• 2 experience points for every successful regular attack against a foe
• 6 experience points for every critical hit against a foe
• 1 experience point for every successful casting of a spell per points put into the spell, so for a 15-point "magic bolt," I got 15 experience points. What's also cool is this applies to defensive and healing spells, too.
• 35 points for each kill

   

Boom! 6 points!

    

I didn't see anything awarded for successfully blocking or dodging, and I couldn't get "hide" to work in the battle, but I suspect it awards points, too. I also suspect that successful flanking and backstabbing attacks give more points than regular attacks.

If you want to, you can stop and increase your skills right in the middle of combat. I suppose for some combats, that might make the razor's-edge difference.

I do like the overall system. No long waits between "levels." You can save up your experience for a while if you want the satisfaction of a large boost all at once, but otherwise every battle makes your characters a little stronger. I like the choice inherent in customizing a character--the ability to make a guy who's really good at a couple of things or a jack of all trades. I like that I can give even warriors and rogues a few levels in illusion or priest magic so they have an extra tool in tight spots.

In trying to research the "resistance" issue, I found something that might explain why I had such a difficult time at the beginning of the game. On a couple of sites, I found mention that new characters start with 1,000 experience points to allocate as the player sees fit. My characters didn't. They started with 0. An initial 1,000-point boost would have made an enormous difference; it took me maybe 25 successful combats to amass that much--which, coincidentally, is about the time the tables started to turn.

I have no idea how to account for the discrepancy. It might be a platform issue (the game originally came out for the Atari ST; I'm playing the DOS version), or perhaps there's something peculiar about my copy. Either way, perhaps the early-game difficulty I experienced isn't the norm.
   

The King of Farnus sends me off on the next quest.

   
To recap the "plot," such as it is, my party of Disciples has to unite the bickering kingdoms of Lanathor to drive out the evil that threatens them all. It appears that they're going to accomplish this by solving a series of quests for each of the continent's kings. So far, there's been no obvious order to the quests except for one imposed by difficulty.
   

When I last blogged, I had just killed an orc bandit for King Leonidas Krassus of Farnus. He rewarded me with some experience and copper and gave me a new quest: Destroy the leader of some forces from Rathadon who had recently kidnapped emissaries from Farnus to Pallasade. They're apparently striking from a cavern "north of Carta." Again, we turn to the manual for some background. Rathadon is "the evil domain of Krighton Krigg," controller of "the most powerful army in the civilized world." It was Rathadon that was behind the orc invasion of 20 years past. It occupies the northwestern section of the island, across some mountains, but Cartha is more in the middle of the continent, not far from Lone Mountain where I defeated the orc leader. 

Pallasade, meanwhile, is the capital of Constantium in the southwest. It is ruled by Lord Maxwell Romanus, who prizes organization and efficiency and has a vision of a united Lanathor in which order prevails. We know how that usually ends.

I looked at a map and decided to make a long circuit out of the trip, going northeast along the coast, skirting the southern border of the "Serbian Wastelands," heading south to solve the quest, and then getting back to Farnsu via several other cities in the middle and southern regions. I figured I'd visit other lords along the way and see what quests they had in store.
   

Plotting my trip around the continent. My party is where the white box is. We came from the delta to our south, and we're going to continue looping around until we reach Cartha.

   

It mostly accomplished what I intended. There were lots of random encounters along the route. My success rate these days in combat is about 60/40, and I can generally predict from the selection of foes in the enemy party whether I'll be successful. I can handle a lot of jabberlings, a moderate number of orcs, and only a few wolfmen and ogres. Assassins are still way out of my league.

The next three minutes: "A single cutthroat! Ha! This ought to be pretty easy! Ha ha ha...heh...heh...hey!.. wait!...stop!...oh, come on!"

    
I stopped in cities along the way to sell accumulated goods. The regent in Brittney Bay, just like the one in the other Farnus city last time, didn't want to see me. In fact, all the regents in non-capital cities had no interest in seeing me.

    

How rude.

   

Things got tough on the outskirts of Serbia. I got massacred a few times in a row by ogres and hill giants, and I ended up taking a shortcut to get out of there.

In Cartha, capital of Denias, Lord Euthor Ennig was happy to see me. The appropriately-named Denias is described in the manual as weakest of the lands of Lanathor, "pitifully defended," and its king as "weak and plotting." When I asked him for a quest, he indicated that he had recently been ripped off by "those money grubbing dwarves to the north." He wants me to go to Tobruk, the  "ancient underground kingdom of the Dwarves" and get the mithril he was promised. He warned me that the dwarves are "strange people" and that I might have to "befriend them first."

Finding Hollengard in the mountains.

   

I had already passed Tobruk's capital, Hollengard, on the way south. Given that I knew where it was, I decided to go back there first. (Tobruk is supposed to be a vast underground kingdom, but Hollengard is on the surface.) Visiting the king, Lord Firbin Redforge, put us through some kind of skill check that we apparently passed, because he asked us to help find the missing half of the Hammer of Balen, which had been shattered during the Battle of Unthar. He believed it was in possession of an orc tribe to the north. Nothing on the mithril quest, but I assume I have to do a few quests for him first.
   

Octavianus, the dwarf, is even more skilled.

    

I found a promising cave a bit to the northeast of Hollengard. After a couple of easy battles with orcs, it was clear that I was going to be outclassed by this place. I kept encountering soldiers from Rathadon, frost giants, ettins, and other tough creatures that I could barely touch. I returned outside and resumed my loop, aiming to at least finish the Farnus quest.
   

This battle ended poorly for my party, starting with my strongest fighter.

    
I leave you in a cavern to the north of Cartha, where I'm trying to destroy the Rathadon forces that prompted my departure from Farnus in the first place. I'm on my second level, and the combats have been hard but not impossible. The bigger issue has been traps--they go off immediately when you walk in their squares, doing a couple of dozen points of damage to each character. And they reset when you transition between levels. I can only assume my "perception" skill isn't high enough, because I'm getting no warning about them ahead of time.
    

   

Miscellaneous notes:

   

• I've been screwing myself by not understanding how "haggling" works. When you go to purchase or sell items, you designate a "haggler" for the team; obviously, you want the person with the best "haggling" skill. I assumed that with that person active, I was being offered the best price for everything I sold. Only when I noticed that my high-skilled haggler was getting the same offers as any random character did I realize you have to keep hitting the "Negotiate" button to activate your haggling skill and get a higher rate. Ugh. Selling stuff takes long enough as it is, what with having to "accept" the price for each individual item.

    

Through "negotiation," I ratcheted up this price from an initial offer of 530.

    

• Time passes pretty slowly. In the 16 hours since I started the game, only 3 weeks have passed in game time. You can walk across the continent in less than a day. I expected food and water to be a big issue, but the meters hardly move at all. 

• I've been stingy with money since the game began. The shops sell slightly better weapons and armor, in some cases, than what I'm carrying, but I've been reluctant to buy anything until I have a solid financial base (and buy my own ship). My hoarding created a problem when suddenly the game informed me that my characters couldn't pick up any more gold. (It seems to treat monetary encumbrance different from regular encumbrance, because they still had plenty of weight free.) I had to return to Cartha and store my money in the Disciples' Guild vault. The guilds in the different capital cities share a vault, which is really convenient.

     

Dumping money in our treasure vault.

     

• Combats with a few enemies, like bats, are easy enough that I'm starting to wish for the "quick combat" option that Wizard's Crown offered. This is a minor concern, though, because if I set the message delay really fast, I can usually blaze through the easy combats in a minute or so.

• When you start the game anew, or transition between some screens, you get a copy protection question that asks you to type a word from page X, line Y, word Z of the manual. Although it's a little annoying, I appreciate that the game helps you out by giving you the first letter of the word so you don't accidentally mis-count lines or words. 

    

Without this, I might have forgotten that the header counts as line 1. The answer was "Index."

    

• I've started finding +5 weapons and armor. This seemed like a huge leap, with no +1 through +4 in between, but then I remembered that statistics in Disciples of Steel rise into the hundreds. A sword +1 in Dungeons & Dragons is a big deal because it improves your accuracy and damage by 5% on a 20-point scale; you need much higher pluses with higher scales.

   

These weapons would be like +0.2 in D&D.

        

• Each land has a capital city and a handful of additional ancillary cities. The non-capital cities all have the same layout and same selections of shops.

• I mentioned last time that I was hesitant to over-use my own blacksmith's "repair" ability because it might take a day or more to repair my party's equipment after a few combats, and the game is on a time limit. Well, it looks like I don't have any choice. The shops have some kind of bug where they insist that they can't repair an item, and you get locked in an infinite loop of this dialogue and have to kill the emulator and restart the game.  

   

I wasn't even trying to repair "remains."

   
The game has good and bad points, but overall I honestly like Disciples of Steel. I was prepared not to like it, given that it appeared on Computer Gaming World's "worst" list a few years later, but that's bollocks. In an era full of games trying to do their own thing, and doing them badly, Disciples offers a classic RPG experience with all the traditional mechanics. I like the open-world setting, the non-linearity, the quest-and-return system, the skill system, and even the difficulty (now that I'm over the biggest hump). I like that I have to figure some things out for myself, and that the game doesn't hand-hold you. You can blunder into deadly areas right off the bat if you feel like it. I like that even with skills in the 100s for some of my characters, the meter suggests they have a long way to go. They're going to be epic by the end.

Other than Wizard's Crown, I don't know exactly what previous games the developers played, but Disciples plays like a game meant to correct things that were wrong in other games. It simplifies the combat tactics just enough to make the Wizard's Crown system more palatable. It has some of the descriptive text and encounters of Gold Box games, but in the actual game instead of in a separate journal. It adopts some of the logistics of a game like Knights of Legend but without the interface annoyances that made Knights so difficult to like.
   

Little bits of atmosphere like this are so much better than just encountering a bunch of monsters.

   
There are two things that Disciples could do wrong, and unfortunately I suspect it's going to do both. I'll be pleased if I turn out to be mistaken. The first is to drag on for too long. I'm about 17 hours into the game right now, and my party still feels like a bunch of novices. I've explored a couple of dungeons and cleared a couple of quests from a couple of kings. There are many more dungeons, kings, and quests to go. The second thing is to never pull together a cohesive story. So far, the quests have been rather disconnected and not clearly leading to a main plot--again, something it shares with Knights of Legend.

But I'll hope the game surprises me and manages to resolve both issues. In the next post, I'll talk a little more about equipment, and I really need to start experimenting with spells beyond "Power Word: Stun" and "Magic Bolt."