Questions from a newbie....

[Gavindale Marchovia]

Drakensang looks good so far!! I have some questions about though. First, what is the gameplay like? How is character creation and customization? I tried to make a character, but for some reason, all of the character stats are already chosen for me, which is a bit disappointing. How do I customize my own characters? Is there much grinding involved? Is loot - found/won/bought - randomized or predetermined? When out and about, is there a keyboard key that will highlight/indicate objects the player can interact with? Is there anything else a newbie should know before playing Drakensang?

[Clarity]

When you start and chose your character, make sure to click on 'expert mode'. This enables you to lower certain stats and talents (dark arrow pointing down) to free up some exp which you can then spend to your liking on other things.
Grinding in the classic sense is not involved (or even possible). You will do (side-) quests and face plenty of enemies along the way and get more than enough exp for it.
Loot is not randomized or only to a small extent when it comes to junk for selling.
The mini map will show enemies, plants, NPCs and quests. The mini map's radius showing these indicators is based on your Perception skill.

[Gavindale Marchovia]

Thanks, Clarity! Another question - I see that with some skills, I can lower and raise, but other skills cannot be manipulated. Why is this?

[NavFamG]

Unless you're familiar with the Dark Eyes RPG rules, you're better off using the basic character creations. The Dark Eye game system is a little like D&D, but more complex; for example casting a spell doesn't just involve having points in that spell, but also having points in various attributes like intuition, intelligence and constitution. Same for pick pocketing; points in it AND dex, courage etc.... (Hint: Float your cursor over everything and read what it says.)

Once you get the basics down (and a good read through the game manual will help with that) than using the expert mode is doable. One thing I always lower on all of mine is dagger and brawling. I KNOW I'll never use them so I'll pull as many points out as I can to use elsewhere. It's knowing which elsewhere part is the hard part.

Gameplay is click and move. You'll click on a spot on the map and you're group will move to that spot. For combat it's kind of tactical in that you can tell each member where you want them to go and what to do (and they even do it most of the time! :) ). You can either just let them do their thing once the fight starts or you can use the space bar to pause it after every combat round and give orders to your group.

Grinding; not in the sense that you mean. I guess you could call it grinding when you want to gather either planets or animal parts to make stuff with. Plants and animals will respawn after you leave the map / log out and then go back in.

Also a useful method of getting starting money is breaking barrels and crates (why people hide stuff in them I've no idea) and picking pockets. Neither of those will respawn, but having to clear a map of anything breakable and picking everyone's pocket does get a bit mechanical at times.

Loot, with the exception of what's in the crates and pockets it's pretty set, and even then some npc's will have items you really want, vice just vendor trash.

There's no keyboard key to highlight stuff, you'll have to look for everything. That includes the quests. I'd recommend going to GameBanshee and using their Drakensang: The Dark Eye walk though to ensure you find all the quests.

For the plants you can pick, you'll need points in that skill and then perception and survival? skill (you have streetwise for in town and one for out in nature).

Depending on your class / race some skills are just 'set in stone' and don't allow you to change them.

All in all a great game. You pretty much have total customization control over all the members of your party and you WILL need a balanced party to get through the game; fighter(s), trapper, healer etc.... so spend your points wisely as you play.

[Clarity]

Originally posted by Gavindale Marchovia:

Thanks, Clarity! Another question - I see that with some skills, I can lower and raise, but other skills cannot be manipulated. Why is this?

I think it has to do with them being 'minimum' skills for that particular character class.

[Oneeyed]

In addition to what the others said:

- you can fully play the game with WASD and mouse instead of point and click for moving around

- loot contains like barrels, animals, plants and so on are generated before you enter a map so reload doesnt give you different results. But you can reload before you enter a map but then all loot containers have different loot not just one

- you cannot grind very much because the higher your level the less XP you get from killing monsters but you can of course grind to some extent.

- in the first Drakensang plants do not respwan at least not in my version. Not even if you leave a map and come back. The only respawn in The River of Time but not in this one

- its pretty easy to spot what you can loot or what you can use. Plants are shown on the minimap depending on the leading characters plant lore skil. The minimap shows more area the higher your wildlife skill is. And also it shows hostile monsters and animals. If you have a dwarf in your group than it also shows hidden areas if the dwarfs "dwarf nose" skill is high enough. Lootable containers are easy to spot. And things you can use the mouse curser is changing and they are all big enough for me. I never had to pixel search for something. Overall all the side quests are very very easy.

- Some of the mini bosses are hard and the end fight is very hard in my opinion so skill your characters well and specialize every one of them. Dont skill more than 2 weapons, always have willpower skill maxed on everyone because it decides if a charcter gets wounded. And try to increase your strength, dex and constitution up to max for all your characters after you got to level 10.

[NavFamG]

Originally posted by Oneeyed:

- in the first Drakensang plants do not respwan at least not in my version. Not even if you leave a map and come back. The only respawn in The River of Time but not in this one

I don't craft so I never paid alot of attention, plus the fact that once you finish a map you can't come back to it after you leave the area, but I KNOW that the 'transit / random' map's you hit while traveling always respawn (I think it's a new map each time per AI thinking) as I collect stuff just to sale and those always produce for me.

I'll have to remember to check some of the maps on my next play through.

Which version are you using? As I'm on the old CD.

[Oneeyed]

Yes boxed version with 1.11 applied so I could try out The Eye of the Goddess mod.

And I go back and forth to sell stuff before I finish a map quite often especially at castle grimtooth before I enter it because there is no trader there but also I went back to Ferdok from the swamp and the blood mountains before I entered the ruin.

The only place where plants respawn for me is my own house, though.

Originally posted by NavFamG:

Originally posted by Oneeyed:

- in the first Drakensang plants do not respwan at least not in my version. Not even if you leave a map and come back. The only respawn in The River of Time but not in this one

I don't craft so I never paid alot of attention, plus the fact that once you finish a map you can't come back to it after you leave the area, but I KNOW that the 'transit / random' map's you hit while traveling always respawn (I think it's a new map each time per AI thinking) as I collect stuff just to sale and those always produce for me.

I'll have to remember to check some of the maps on my next play through.

Which version are you using? As I'm on the old CD.

[NavFamG]

Originally posted by Oneeyed:

Yes boxed version with 1.11 applied so I could try out The Eye of the Goddess mod.

Ok, you have the same as me then.

Originally posted by Oneeyed:

The only place where plants respawn for me is my own house, though.

That must be what I was thinking of. That and the travel interruption maps.

[NavFamG]

Bit of advice: Down the road about Chap 8 (going to the Dwarf city) there's a bug that shows up from time to time where your main save will become corrupted. Make sure you're always saving; either updating the save or hitting quick save. The mantra is save, save and save again.

Also keep the latest saves in the system, don't delete them. That way if the main save does go bad you'll have the continue game and quick saves to fall back on.

[Oneeyed]

Originally posted by NavFamG:

Originally posted by Oneeyed:

Yes boxed version with 1.11 applied so I could try out The Eye of the Goddess mod.

Ok, you have the same as me then.

Originally posted by Oneeyed:

The only place where plants respawn for me is my own house, though.

That must be what I was thinking of. That and the travel interruption maps.

Oh yes the random encounter maps. If you get to one again then all the plants are there ag ain. Can you force it by travel back and forth and get there more than once? I never tried it,

[NavFamG]

Originally posted by Oneeyed:

Oh yes the random encounter maps. If you get to one again then all the plants are there again. Can you force it by travel back and forth and get there more than once? I never tried it,

I never have either, pretty sure from the options you get to leave, each is a one shot thing while there, so no farming.

[jack_was]

When you leave a map called 'Travelling' (each time your travel is interrupted) you can pick Flee to return to your starting location and go to your destination again. If encounter happens and you decide to fight all plants and enemies are back again.
It's harder to tell me if it applies to chests as well because it seems true when we talk Avestrue - Ferdok route but looks different while traveling to Blood Mountains. What puzzles me are invisible chests - one containing a magic ring is close to the waterfall but it doesn't appear from the very beginning - something causes it to become visible from the other bank.