Difference between revisions of "40d:Adventurer mode"

In '''adventurer mode''', you pick a race ([[dwarf]], [[human]], or [[elf]]) and start out in either a [[Site|town]] of your race or in a previous [[fortress]] you played on. You can receive [[quest]]s, venture into the wilderness to find [[caves]], abandoned towers and other [[Site|villages]]. You can even visit your old [[Fortress|fortresses]] and find whatever riches were left to be guarded by the [[creatures]] that sealed the fate of your [[fortress]].

When it comes to picking a race, there is difference in [[skills]]. [[Dwarves]] cannot wear [[human]] sized [[armor]], and are somewhat limited in the [[weapons]] they can wield due to their size. [[Elves]] have a slightly different set of [[skills]]. [[Humans]] are generally fairly well-balanced, and are the easiest to acquire quests from. Each race fares differently in combat; you may wish to look at the races' pages for the finer details.

Basically, if you want to start with a [[weapon]], you need to avoid having the most points spent in unarmored/[[wrestling]]. If you, for example, choose to start out with most points in [[swordsman]], you will start out with a [[sword]]. When you have chosen your preferred set of [[skills]], you can press {{key|Enter}} to embark. The higher the [[skills]] in [[weapons]]/[[armor]] determine the quality of the equipment you start out with.

All the [[skills]] you see CAN be improved through use in game, so don’t worry about spreading them out completely evenly. In general, pick the [[skills]] you think you’re going to use. The [[skills]] are pretty self explanatory but its recommended that you put at least a few points into [[shield]] / [[armor]] and into a type of weapon. Be warned that [[weapon]] [[skills]] generally take a while to level up, so placing a good deal of points into a single weapon may be to your advantage. Also keep in mind that your skills determine what kind of equipment you have in the beginning, ie high sword skill means you’ll start with a sword. For information on the weapons and the other aspects of combat, please check the combat section. It might also be a good idea to use a point or two for swiming, otherwise you might end up drowning in a puddle.

If you chose human, you will start out inside the Mead hall. Up on the second floor, you will see a flashing Weapon Master who happens to be the local leader - press {{key|k}} and talk to him/her, then choose 'services' for a possible [[quest]].  You can talk to the Citizens and recruit them to your party for some additional combat aid if they feel like it (note, people with no combat skills are unlikely to follow you, and the leader and town guards never will.) If you choose dwarf, you start out in a region just outside the entrance to a given fortress.  There is a [[mayor]] or the [[king]] himself inside the fortress.

Congratulations, you’ve created a character and are now about to embark on your fantastic adventure! For now, lets focus on the bare bones of staying alive shall we? First things first, you need food and water. If you’re a human you start with some, but barring that you may need to find a waterskin. These can be bought in human towns, specifically at the shop. DO NOT STEAL THESE OR ANYTHING ELSE. Do not pick anything up and walk outside the store before you trade for it. Why? Because you are currently weak and your neck is currently arrow bait. After getting the water skin, simply find a water source and hit (Shift+I) to interact with the object. Press the letter of the Water skin and you should be able to fill it from the water source. After it’s full press (e)to open the Eat menu and select the water. Food can be acquired from stores eaten in the same way. Beware, you won't be able to swim if you are hungry, thirsty or if you haven't slept for a day or two. If you get drowsy, just find a bed in a city or just find a good place to sleep. Avoid sleeping in an hostile place, if you don't want to have a bit too much fun.

Now that you know how to work your mouth we can move on to miscellaneous tips for survival. Firstly, you are very tasty and chances are (unless you’re an elf) the wildlife will soon be attempting to eat your face. A bear or cougar isn’t too much of a problem because there’s only one, the real problem will be wolf packs.

A single wolf is easy to dispatch, but a dozen or so can prove very problematic indeed. Beware large packs until you’ve gained a little experience. Secondly, do not piss off the towns folk, as they tend to have guards. Lastly, beware of taking quests or attempting things before you’re ready, as you will more than likely have tons of [[fun]].

Elves live out in the forest, literally.  Although defined to specific regions on the map, they have no structural wealth whatsoever.  Some trees are named.

Humans live in towns comprised of buildings and often a paved road.  Human villages are highly modular.  The small 5x5 buildings are citizen houses and are marked with an "H" on the town auto-map.  Medium buildings are stores, marked with a symbol that indicates what they sell - weapons, armor, food, clothing, trinkets.  As of the current version, you start in the mead hall which is marked with an "M" on the automap.  There are one or two apartment buildings buildings which are two stories, with six rooms a story; they are also marked with an "H." There are two really large buildings - the "T"emple and the a fort-like building that is marked with "K." Temples tend to have two or three levels, and a pool of water, while the "K" buildings are three or four floors high and are almost entirely empty (they will occationally contain random smatterings of clothing though, if you're looking for things to sell.)

Dwarves live underground.  Their entrances are large square pits with stairs around the perimeter, and a row of leading down into the fortress halls at the bottom.  The main halls are wide and have pillars near the walls, long and occasionally turn corners.  Different levels in the fortress are marked by a row of ramps with two pillars on the side (walk towards the side of the ramp that has the pillars) and, although the number of floors in a fortress can vary, they are usually little and only become deep if the lay of the land above is variable.  There are one 1-tile wide hallways, empty rooms, and scant Dwarves in these pre-fab fortresses.  It's obvious the computer is playing a completely different game than you are in [[Fortress Mode]]!

In towns you can find merchants inside some [[buildings]]. Talk to them to trade with them. After buying an item, you must pick it up manually from somewhere in the shop.  {{K|l}}ook around for an item without $ signs around it.

You may also pick up the item before buying it, but you should never walk out of a shop carrying an unbought item, as that is theft. It is punishable by death if you are caught, and excommunication if you are not. On any occasion when you have stolen goods from a store, ie goods bounded by the $$ signs, the game requires you to exit the site ''and'' travel a considerable distance before allowing you to travel. This may make a getaway more difficult if your adventurer is not already faster than anyone else. This only applies to goods in stores; killing townsfolk and taking their personal things, including those of the shopkeep still only requires exiting the site. The moment you are out of sight, you will be able to warp out as usual. Theft and murder remain within entities; even depopulating one country and stealing all its things will not generate ill response in another country.

A few goods are strictly superior to all forms of coinage as a store of value, most commonly giant cave spider silk items. A suitably sneaky (or powerful) adventurer can murder a few dwarves for such items for trade and sale for human goods. Giant cave spider silk is a non-renewable resource in a given world. Please harvest sustainably.

[[Weapons]] and [[Armor#Shields and Bucklers|shields]] are handled differently. There is no explicit equipment command. Instead, they are automatically equipped when you either {{k|g}}et them from the ground or {{k|r}}emove them from your [[backpack]] - provided the hand that would wield them is free. So in order to change [[weapons]] or [[Armor#Shields and Bucklers|Shields]] you would need to {{k|p}}ut your equipped weapon into your [[backpack]] and then {{k|r}}emoving your new desired weapon. You do not need to drop weapons and equip new ones etc. Simply remember the {{k|r}}emove command and the {{k|p}}ut into container command.

You can walk around the whole world tile by tile if you wish, but given the size of the world, you might want to consider using another method. Pressing {{key|T}} will let see a very zoomed out map of the surrounding area. Moving about on this map is much faster, as well as it heals your adventurer, keeps him from starving, dehydrating, or getting tired. To exit this screen and explore the area you've reached, press {{k|>}}.

If there is more than one feature such as a [[Site|town]] or group of [[creatures]] on that map tile you will get to choose which one you want to arrive near.

Also while traveling on the world map, there is a chance that your adventurer can get randomly ambushed by enemies.  When that happens, you must survive by either fighting them off or hide from them.

Jumping off [[Cliff|cliffs]] is not normally advisable; however, it is possible to do so by holding {{key|Alt}} while pressing the appropriate movement key. Jumping off [[Cliff|cliffs]], depending on how high you jumped, will most of the time cover your eyes in blood, which lessens visuals.

At this present point Quests can only be taken from people of leadership in an organization.

Human Weapon Masters: No matter what time of the day, human weapon masters will be in the mead hall, where you appear. However, if it is late they will immediately head for their homes so you may need to intercept them before they reach the door. The human capitals are not very different from the normal towns; humans have no central leadership so each weapon master is only a local leader of their own town, even at the capital the weapon master only rules the capital itself and not the other towns. Ignore the keeps; unless you're playing with a mod like LL no leaders hang out in the Keeps.

High Priests: Humans and Goblins will often suggest you ask the High Priest for quests but in all my times of doing this all this will do is allow you to join their religion. If you want to join the religion, the High Priest, as long as it is a reasonable time of day, should be wandering around the temple. Worth a visit at least as Temples are often the most interesting parts of a town/dark fortress because there are so many different kinds.

Dwarven Mayors/Kings/Queens: Hit and miss finding them, you'll generally find them on the outside of the fort but sometimes they move around; some have been known to run out of the fort and became a migrant unable to give out quests. Both Mayors and Kings/Queens can be found and both will assign Quests, which is nice. If you can't find them outside the fort you shouldn't really bother as mountainhomes take forever to search. As one might imagine the Kings/Queens can only be found at the Capital.

Kobold Weaponmasters: Often hanging around the middle of a kobold cave camp; however, these guys cannot talk to you and as a result cannot give you a Quest (although you can use them to train your Sword skill)

If you start an adventure in a world with one or more abandoned [[Fortress|fortresses]], you can take your adventurer to see the sites of your previous endeavors. When you find one of your old [[Fortress|fortresses]], you will find that everything is a mess. Items are scattered about, things are smashed up and there are probably new hostile inhabitants that you will need to fend off. Visiting your old [[Fortress|fortresses]] might prove to be rewarding, since you can find [[armor]] and [[weapons]] you made (if you made any). The best thing to be found in your [[fortress]] would probably be any left behind [[Legendary artifact|artifact]] [[weapon]] or [[armor]]. This is also the only way to get [[Legendary artifact|artifact-quality]] [[weapons]] and [[armor]].

=== Combat ===

== The Weapons ==

Weapons are basically divided into axe, sword, spear, pike, mace, whip, bow and hammer, with various versions of these taking up the gray area.  Swords are your jack of all trades weapon, doing reasonable slashing damage. They come in short, long and two handed varieties, with the two handed doing the most damage and the short doing the least. Axes are similar to swords and do slashing damage as well. They come in 3 types, battle axe, great axe and halberd.  The battle axe does slightly less damage than the long sword while the halberd does the same damage as a two-handed sword. The Great axe is generally too large to use, but it does slightly more than the halberd in damage. The spear does piercing damage and is ideal for damaging internal organs and causing heavy bleeding and unconsciousness. It has no variations. The spear is much more likely to become stuck in its target, which can be a great benefit if used right and a curse if not. The Pike is, for all intents and purposes, the same as a spear. The mace and the hammer are generally the same thing, simply a big metal thing to club your enemies over the head.  As expected, they do high damage but their bludgeoning attacks tend to be slower and less effective , if more hilarious, ways to dispatch your foes. The Maul, a hammer, is the highest damaging weapon in the game. The last weapon is the whip, which does gore damage. Its relatively weak but has its uses. The bow throws arrows, which act as tiny spears. Basically, a bow and crossbow is like having a very slow, long range spear.

 

Sword: Once again, your general fall back weapon. It’s good against almost everything, if not being that great against almost anything. Works well against both living and non-living enemies as it actively dismembers them.  

Ax: Pretty much the same as a sword, though some people believe it hacks off limbs more commonly. Good against organics, acceptable against anything else.  

 

 

 

 

== Non-weapon tactics ==

Wrestling: Wrestling can be performed by standing next to an enemy and pressing (Shift+a) and then (enter) to switch to wrestling. You can wrestle any enemy, however things such as wolves, bears and big cats do not allow you to perform the more advanced moves. After catching hold of a body part you can perform a lock, which allows you to further sprain, break or cripple an opponent. With a free hand you can perform even more advanced moves, such as gouging out eyes or stealing weapons. To gouge eyes grab a head with an open hand, to steal a weapon, grab the weapon and then check your inventory with (Shift+I). press the button corresponding to the weapon and then press a to gain possession of it.  

Throwing: Throwing is the skill of…well basically throwing shit. And vomit. And bugs and spears and rocks so on. Just about anything can be thrown, sometimes with devastating results. While it seems like weapons (and arrows) tend to be more reliable in their damage causing abilities when thrown, just about anything can potentially be lethal. Picking up a worm and hucking it right through a dragon’s skull is not only possible, but has been done on multiple occasions. A warrior with a high throw skill is often times more dangerous with an arrow than a trained archer is.  

=== Wounds ===

You or your enemy are going to get hurt in the course of your adventures and its pretty useful to know exactly what’s happening when you are. Here’s a quick guide to the various aspects of wounds.

== Wound indicators ==

Wounds come in several colors and are indicated on the status screen (press z to see your own status screen while pressing (l) to look at your enemy’s). The status screen will list your body parts in different colors to indicate how damaged they are.

Light gray-slightly damaged, think a nasty scrape or cut.

 

 

 

 

== Wound effects ==   

Hands: Damage to the fingers or wrists can cause you to drop your held items, but usually only with yellow level damage. Losing a hand entirely gives you a serious handicap, which will more than likely lead to [[fun]] in the future.

Legs: Similar to feet, though often has increased bleeding and pain effects. Loss of one will usually result in death by bleed out. Even if you survive, you’re more than likely on your way to death. Severed legs do make a lovely club though.  

Head: Contains the brain, ears, mouth, nose, eyes and throat. Ears, nose and mouth are officially useless and can be cut off in an effort to appear cool. The brain, eyes and throat are however less disposable. Damage to the eyes results in loss of vision, permanent if the eyes are removed, and terrible pain. It's usually not possible to bleed to death from eye loss, though. The throat is highly sensitive and damage causes both extreme bleeding and suffocation effects. The brain is the most important thing you’ve got, and damage to it is an almost instant death. Any wound it receives will more than likely cause instant unconsciousness and severe bleeding.  

Upper body: Contains the heart, lungs, upper spine, liver and kidneys. Both the kidneys and liver have similar effects; namely, heavy bleeding and pain upon injury. The spine causes nervous system damage, which can have several, sometimes permanent effects. The lungs control breathing, so piercing them can cause suffocation. The heart is the main organ of the circulatory system and damage to it is almost always fatal through bleeding.  

== Attack types and their wounds ==

Pierce-dangerous to organic creatures, you included. Often times objects with the pierce effect will become lodged in their target. Removing the weapon from its lodged position causes both increased pain and bleeding but often times can alleviate certain symptoms the piercing has caused.

== Dealing with wounds ==

In adventure mode your wounds will heal if you travel (shift + t) and they’ll recover just about anything except a lopped off limb. If you can’t travel the best thing to do is try and run from battle if you’re badly wounded, since running will give you time to stop bleeding and suppress the pain. Beware dropping your weapon and make sure to pick it up before you make a run for it. If an arrow strikes you in the chest its best to leave it there while an arrow to the extremities can be removed.  

=== <s>Living Shields</s> Companions ===

To recruit someone into your party, press tal{{k|k}}, move the cursor over them, and press {{k|enter}}. Then in the conversation that follows, simply pick 'Join' from the list of options to ask them to accompany you. [[Children]], the Mayor, and [[Guard]]s don't want any part of this silly adventuring malarkey, but the occasional peasant will be bored enough to join you.

If the prospective meat shield considers himself more skilled than you are, he may rebuff you with, "Ha! Such enthusiasm from one such as yourself."

This can be remedied by training your skills until he judges you a bit more skillful than he is.

Another reason for someone to refuse to die protecting you is that you already have the maximum of 12 companions, and they will rebuff you by asking, "With a band so large, what share of the glory would I have?"

But look at it this way, at least your total party size is 13 when you count yourself! Now that's lucky!

Another possibility is to asked your old, retired adventurers for help. They'll never say no unless your party is too big and they should be pretty capable since you trained them.  

Edit: You can ask the prisoners of goblins to join you, and they will almost always say yes. Just go to the respective Dark Fortress and find an NPC marked as a "Prisoner". They make good distractions.

==== The Perils of the Wild ====