Dark Lineage Owen Warcraft 3 RPG
Created by TopaZ
Guide by Rayfen Windspear
Basics About RPGs
Warcraft RPGs are fun because you can lvl up and play with multiple people, find items, defeat bossses , and all sorts of fun stuff without having to worry about you base getting destroyed since you don't even have one. In RPGs, if you don't already know, you run around killing creeps and bosses and lvling up with or without friends. There are two different types of RPGs. "Open RPGs" such as Dark Lineage where you can do whatever you want and there isn't much of a real story line or anything but a few odd quests here and there. A "Story RPG" is an RPG in which there is a distinct story line you can follow to essentially "beat" the game, after which it usually becomes and Open PRG.
Based On Dark Lineage Online Game
I really have no information about the original game itself since it's all in korean. I just know that this map is based off this game in some form or another.
Basics For Playing
The first thing you must keep in mind is that if you play on single player you cannot use your save codes in multiplayer games to prevent bigtime cheating. Even starting it in multiplayer mode isn't enough to convice it to switch to multiplay mode. There must be at least one other person in the game at startup. Therefore it is a great game for battle.net. Or if you prefer to play alone and have two computers then you can start a multiplay game and then just quit out with the other computer once the game gets started.
Picking a Character
The original choosing of the character you want to be is mostly just for appearence because while they do start out with different stats, just a few lvls and they could all be the same stats. One thing I noticed though when looking at the choices though is that the orc and the dark elf do 1 more base damage than the other two so I suggest selecting one of those two. I don't think that any class gets any melee, range, or mage bonuses so going for the more damage ones is bests. To select the character just double click it.
Distributing Stat Points
This RPG has a unique way of leveling up. You start out with 3 stat points (lumber) and gain 3 per lvl. To use the stat points there is a special menu when you hit the "esc" key that will allow you to upgrade attributes to make you stronger. I will go through the rest of the esc menu In a minute. The main thing that makes the RPG so difficult to is because upgrading your stats does not upgrade your damage. Each Strength point gives you 10hp and each Intelligence point gives 10mp both give regeneration in their respected stats. I haven't decided if it is a good idea to invest in agility as it only boosts your speed by 0.01 although that does add up. Also with agility each 10 lvls gets you one armor point and whn you first start out your armor is -10. Even though I mentioned that boosting your Strength gives you no damage bonus, once you reach 100 str it will boost your damage by 1.
Leveling Up
Obviously the way way to lvl up is to kill things, there are many weak monsters around the first town that can usually be one or two hit killed and you will notice that the first thing you kill will lvl you up. The low lvl creeps around town are nuetral meaning they won't auto attack you so you must 'a' left click to attack them. In the beginning you level up extremely fast so make sure you get in the few low lvl quests before you get above lvl 15. The leveling slowly gets harder until you hit lvl 35 after which it takes quite a while to lvl further. As your level up remember to keep going back to make sure you don't miss the quests.
Using the Escape Menu and Virtual Inventory
On of my favorite parts about this RPG is that you have an 80 slot "virtual inventory" or Vinventory. The maker of the map used some cool triggers that allows you to store all those items in there and retrieve them when you need them. It is mostly important because once you get a good weapon and lots of armor your inventory will most likely always be full. Which is why they also added a backpack! The backpack is an invulnerable unit that you can summon for free to help you collect items when your inventory is full of equipment. In the backpack skills there's also several neat options. You can make it so that items you pick up automatically go into your Vinventory so you don't have to worry much about space. ***If you set this setting you must turn it off when you need to get an item out of the Vinventory or it will place it right back in*** Another skill the backpack has is that it can sell all the items in its inventory, or sell all the items in your Vinventory wherever you are. Neither of these functions effect the items you have in your players inventory, just the backpack and Vinventory. It is also useful to have it show the game messages by using another button in the backpack so you can tell more of what goes on in the background.
Magic Spells and The Escape Menu
First off, you'll notice that you can only have 7 spells at a time. Luckily they added a spell adjustment menu in the escape menu. In this menu you can lvl up your spells up to a max of lvl 3 using "skill points" that are awarded randomly for casting spells and killing monsers. It costs 30 skill points to get a spell lvl 2 then 130 for lvl 3 so 150 points in all, but dont worry they are easy to get. Ok, so say you have 7 spells already and want to get a different one? Well, in the spell menu you can chose the "remove character spell" button and select the spell you don't need. Then you must use the "remove primary spell" button to fully remove it. The nice thing that when you remove the spell it remembers it in the menu so you don't need to buy the book again. It will not remember the lvl of the skill if you decide to change back but like I said the points aren't hard to get. Now, say you want that original spell back that you thought you didn't before. Do the same thing above to remove one of your current spells and you'll have a blank spot. Now you can go into "register from secondary spell" and find your old spell. This will add it to your characters abilities but you can't lvl the spell again til you use the "register primary spell" and add it to your primary spells again so you can lvl it up. It's a bit complicated but nice once you figure it out.
Need More Damage and Armor!
What makes this RPG different from others is that, as I stated earlier, boosting your stats does not boost your damage. The only way to boost damage is by getting new and better weapons. You can get more armor by boosting your agility 10 points per armor point but there are also many types of armor that will get you above your -10 armor that you start out with. Weapons and armor start at +0 and can be upgraded to +10 all except the ancient armors and weapons. Another interesting thing about the way this RPG is balanced is that the monsters don't do insane damage (well the hardest ones do) to make the game balanced. The maker simply added some nasty regeneration rates to the bosses so that it makes them much harder to kill.
Adena Castle and Taxes
At the start of the game the computer owns the castle and every 20 minutes the doors open for 10 minutes and you can try to take it. In multiplayer games there are 2 factions you can join and it quickly turns into crazy wars for the castle. You can even spend money and hire guards to help you protect the castle once you have taken it. The benefits to owning the castle are great. There is a magic and a weapon shop there but the doors must be open to visit them. The doors will automatically open for you if you are the owner of the castle. The main thing about the castle is the tax that is placed upon all trades with merchants which starts off at 15%. I have yet to take the castle myself in a real multiplayer game but I believe that the tax money is given to the owner(s) of the castle. The merchants themselves also charge taxes of their own, so make sure you know who to sell to.
Contact With The NPCs And Starting Quests
Because the shops can hold way more items than can be shown in a normal shop, the merchants are embedded with triggers for buying and selling things. To talk to and of the NPCs you must 'a' left click them as if to attack them and it will open up their menu, or if they are a quest giver they will ramble some random stuff since they used a maching to translate it all from korean to english. The ones the give quests will say things when they talk to you and to get the quest you must talk to them TWICE and they will give you an offer to consent or decline the quest.. If you do not meet the lvl requirements it will show the required lvls onscreen. They ask you to kill certain monsters and return with what they give you to get your reward. The low lvl 1-15 quests are good because you get a decent sword and some money.
Recipes And Making Items
Another thing that makes this rpg so great is that you can find or buy recipes for making weapons and equipment. It is kinda weird trying to figure it out for the first time but all you need is the recipe, the ingredients, and the create magical item spell which can be purchaced at the starting town for like 53gp. Once you have all the ingredients stated in the recipe in your inventory you just cast the spell and voila, you have a new item.
Any information that is missing would be greatly appreciated. Comments and suggestions are also always welcome.
Email me at rayfenwindspear@hotmail.com