Contrasted Vistas

The LoU scenery really is smashing.. I've just completed it..
I'd love to do the next difficulty level,
but it keeps giving me error messages when I start via DSLOAMod..
I'm following the ReadMe to the letter, but it just won't work
- I'm sure there's a simple solution, but I haven't found it, yet..

- in the attachment - that's high up on the cliff near the beach in DS2, isn't it?
- is that the portal to the mainland down on the beach, there..??
- it's a very pretty walk down from the Kilrathia caverns entrance to the beach..

Hi, Blondin.

Yes, yes, and I agree (but "Kithraya," I think). :thumbup:

I've never played LoU, although I would like to. The hassle is the fact that I'm on a dial-up connection, and downloading large files, even if I could manage to stay online long enough (I seem to get booted fairly often, even with my settings to avoid any idle-related disconnect), would take a huge amount of time. In fact, I've tried to download the latest version of Abstraction a couple of times, and kept getting booted. However, I have a solution for that, when I finally get over to the city again --- I'll get a friend with a high-speed connection to download it and put it onto a disk for me.

Kithraya - the hives an' all!!

- don't forget to ask your friend to get any relevant patches, etc - as well..
- have you got Mageworld and Land Of Hyperborea..??

- they're both brilliant mods on the original DS1..
- they both underwent significant updates as well, so there's quite a bit to search for

- Xaa's site still has all the details, though..

I do have LoH, but not Mageworld. I haven't played LoH in some time, though, because I was annoyed that even something described as "fairly innocuous" (an inventory-expanding mod like Zhixalom's Inventory) is disallowed from use in the game, because I tend to be a packrat. In fact, I have the inn in DS2 full (except for one slot), with alternate party members and pets storing extra gear for future use (mostly reagents and individual parts of various sets that I haven't completed yet, but also some things that I will want to look at when I finally start attempting to mod DS2). I was also annoyed with how ridiculously long it takes for an Elf to level up enough to make it through the Drow cavern without getting killed.

There are tricks to level up in LoH insanely fast... after a certain point. Get the flaming sword, the ranged exploding potion, a damage-per-second spell (like flame ring) for each magic type, and possibly the dwarven hammer (the flaming sword is better IMHO). For melee it also helps to have a way to do multiple target hits per swing.

With this stuff, take your team to the experience intense regions (giants, cemetary, dragons, RoF...) and do repeated runs until the levelling slows up (i.e. time to move to the next higher exp. rich region). If you have a weak team member you want to boost quickly, then have them be the only offense with everyone else set to healing. Just remember not to destroy the corpses of the high experience mobs... you want them to respawn multiple times to milk them again and again for experience points.

Note: you need to use invisibility and speed to get some characters to certain regions without making everyone mad at you... but it's worth the effort for sure.

- in LoH, I've got a summoned skellybones, a donkey and a squawk in my current party..
- each one has an inventory - and the summoned skelly lives a very long time before he needs recasting..

IIRC, Xaa hacked the DS engine to make some things work, rendering the use of most mods impossible..

snippage

Unfortunately, getting through the Drow cavern is the first real challenge in the game, and until you level up enough, you've got no chance if you're a Light Elf, so you wander around killing wolves, deer, and bandits for what seems like an eternity before you move on to the actual meat of the game, so to speak. That becomes rather monotonous pretty quickly. Sure, I could play something other than a Light Elf, but I want to play a Light Elf. To be honest, the way I finally was able to do it without becoming supremely bored was to use Kane's XP Spells (and I think I had to get the character out of LoH and move into UP to even do that -- I don't recall for certain, as it has been some time) until I was of sufficient level to get through there without dying almost instantly (and I believe even that required invisibility).

~~~
Giovanna

If you played through in SP with the human start character you get a Dark Elf join your party who is quite welcome in most of the Drow cavern. The human is encouraged to wait outside while she gets what she needs, and then the two of them move on to the bandits etc., with her having a CM arsenal (including the summon skeleton minion spell, and she can buy you one too.) A party of four with the skellies as tanks does quite well until you can pick up the other equipment Sharkull mentioned.

In MP, you may have to go to other places first if you choose a character that one side or the other hates, and picking a Hyperborean and going for NM is the hardest, because almost nobody will sell him spells. Your choice of Light Elf means going to their town early and getting the spells and equipment you need there. What you can't buy, you can craft if you can find and buy the right skills/training, or you can trade with another player of the right race. A light Elf doesn't have too bad a set of restrictions, as she can trade with Dwarves for Combat magic. Dark elves have a harder time getting NM spells, until you reach IceMage.

I've played through LoH with each of the main races, and a couple of the elemental mages, too. No experience hacks are needed if you get good equipment/spells and use them in the right places. I did get a Valkyrie to buy my Hyperborean a hat from the dwarf lady, just so he'd look good, but he didn't really NEED it.

Oh, and Sharkull's point about not burning bodies is an SP thing. In MP, you'll want the Corpse Transmutation spell when you can use it, so you can get your mana back AND keep your retreat clear by preventing respawn. When you run out of mobs to kill in MP, you just quit and restart.

Don't get me wrong, I kill the respawning for the main paths too (for faster running around)... but some mobs are simply too good for EXP growth that I don't ever destroy their corpses.