FAQ, Tips and Tricks

Here are some questions you might asked yourself over time. Also some nice Tips and Tricks are listed here, which you may find informative.

Meta - About the Game and the Client

What is the relation between Deliantra and Crossfire?

Deliantra was originally a Crossfire server, but by now most of the code has been rewritten. Still most maps are very similar or identical to Crossfire maps, so the games share a lot.

The major differences are a better client, better graphics, a stable server (i.e. no crashes every few hours with players and maps getting reset) and the ability to let more players play, by using less resources and having a fully asynchronous design, and full support for sound effects and background music.

The client is very sluggish and slow, what can I do about this?

Most likely, you don't have accelerated OpenGL support. Try to find a newer driver, or a driver from your hardware vendor, that features OpenGL support.

If this is not an option, the following Setup options reduce the load and will likely make the client playable with software rendering (it will still be slow, though):

• Video Mode should be set as low as possible (e.g. 640x480)

• Enable Fast & Ugly mode

• Disable Fog of War and Map Smoothing

• Increase Map Scale

The client doesn't correctly react to keypresses or mouseclicks.

Make sure Numlock is off.

Some Microsoft Windows versions/keyboard layouts do not report modifiers for the numerical keypad keys while Numlock is active.

Make sure no other Modifier is "pressed".

Mircosoft Windows versions have some accessability features that could interfere with games like Deliantra. You might want to switch these off in the keyboard settings. Sometimes modifiers can be "unstuck" by pressing them down once.

Fullscreen switches confuse the keyboard modifiers.

Fullscreen switches on Microsoft Windows sometimes confuse which keys are pressed and which aren't. Doing another switch to/from fullscreen might help.

My client doesn't start anymore/graphics are corrupted!

Sometimes you hit a bug in the client. To reset the state of your client you can delete your client database directory (your client will have to re-download music and images and you will lose your minimap contents).

To do that, on Unix:

rm -rf ~/.deliantra/client-*

On windows:

Do Start => Run, enter %APPDATA%, press return, and in the window that will open, first open deliantra, then delete the directory starting with client-.

Alternatively you can delete the .deliantra or deliantra directory itself, but this will also delete your settings and keybindings.

Game Mechanics

I lose health but can't see why!

Here are the typical reasons why you lose health:

• You are being attacked.

  Sounds obvious, but sometiems you can't see the monster attacking you. Check the Log tab, as you usually get a message when this happens.

• You are out of food.

  When your food reaches 0 you will start to lose health. Eating (good) food will replenish your food level.

• You are poisoned.

  Poison will reduce your health. When your body heals fast enough it will eventually get over the poison, otherwise you should seek professional help such as the House of Healing in Scorn, or a player with the cure poison spell. It is rumored that neko san might sometimes cure poison.

• You have a disease.

  Some diseases have such drastic effects on your organism that you can lose health. Get help in the House of Healing in Scorn, or ask a player who can cast cure disease on you.

• Your stats change.

  Switching items can affect your stats, which in turn can affect your healthpoints. While this is not a regular effect (it only happens when you change items), it can sometimes look as if you are losing health.

I lost an item, how?

Well, we don't know. If you don't know, either, here is a partial list of ways people typically lose stuff:

You accidentally dropped it in a shop (or elswehere).

If in a shop, if it was money, you can just go there and pick it up again: shops do not "buy" money. For other items you will have to buy it back.

Thieves or monsters stole your items.

Yes, thieves and many other monsters (such as demons) can actually steal stuff. They can steal about anything that you don't currently wield, and if they are good, you don't even notice it. Your only chance of getting the item back is to kill the thief.

Many adventurers find that the old road to Navar harbours a lot of thieves and is best avoided by the beginning adventurers.

How can I Prepare/Improve/Enchant Weapons?

This is done in two steps: first you have to prepare your weapon for the desired number of enchantments, then you apply the enchanments (weapons remember how many times they can be enchanted further).

To prepare a weapon, wield it and mark (e.g. using the popup menu in the inventory) some diamonds, as a sacrifice, then read the Prepare Weapon scroll. The square root of the total number of diamonds sacrificed this way determines the number of enchantments the weapon accepts: one diamond for one enchanment, nine diamonds for three enchantments, 100 diamonds for ten enchantments and so on.

After that, you can apply improvement and enchantnment scrolls:

Improve Damage

Each scroll read will increase the damage by five points, and likewise the weight by five kilograms.

Lower Weight

This "improves" the weight of your weapon: each scroll reduces the weight by one fifth (20%). It will not, however, create weightless weapons.

Enchant Weapon

Each scroll read increases the magic by one point.

Improve Stat

This scroll improves one of the basic stat improvements (Strength, Dexterity and so on). For this it needs a further sacrifice in form of stat potions. The stat potions must be of the same type and will determine which stat gets improved.

The number of stat potions you need to improve it is twice the number of stat points the weapon currently gives, plus one (the minimum is two stat potions, however). That is, a weapon which gives no stat bonus needs two (0 × 2 + 1 = 1 which is less than two, so two) stat potion, one that already gives Str +2 and Int +1 will need seven (3 × 2 + 1) stat potions. Negative stats are summed normally, so Str +4 and Int -2 will result in needing five stat potions only (2 × 2 + 1).

Keep in mind, however, that your character can only handle a limited number of weapon improvements, see the skills command. Item power will also increase.

How can I enchant Armour?

Enchanting armour is easy: each time you read an Enchant Armour scroll, the magic value will be increased by one, the speed, armour (physical resistance) and weight are increased by some amount, as well as the item power.

What is this item power business?

In general, the more interesting/powerful items have higher item power values. Your character can handle only handle only a limited amount of power - for each overall level you can handle 1.25 item power points, so if you are level 16 you can handle a total of 20 item power points (see the skills command for your current limit and remaining item power points).

All the equipment you wear adds to this limit, so if you wield a weapon of item power 30 plus two rings of item power 14 each you will need 58 item power (and a level of 47).

Generic how do I...

How do I use range weapons such as bows?

First, you have to apply the bow, then it will show up in the lower right corner in the Range: slot. If it is already shown as (applied) but not in the Range: slot you have to unapply and reaply it.

When you have a bow (or similar weapons like guns or crossbows) applied, you just shoot as with spells or other range attacks - Shift+direction key.

You need to have arrows (shells, bolts etc.) in your inventory or an active container for this to work.

You can influence how you shoot via the Bow Mode in the Playerbook => Settings tab.

How do I thaw icecubes? Or: How do I ignite a torch?

The right-click context menu in the playerbook inventory has an entry ignite/thaw, which will ignite something or thaw icecubes. You will need a flint & steel "flint_and_steel.x11" in $ARCH for this to work!

An alternative would be to use the mark and apply commands like this:

mark icecube
apply flint and steel

You can bind these commands to a key and invoke them repeatedly.

How do I cast a cone spell all around me (burning hands, holy word etc.)?

Use the 5-key on your keypad. This will cats spells "onto yourself" which has the desired effect with cone spells.

Playing Together

How can I communicate with other players?

There are five commands you can use to talk to others. All of them can be entered by just typing them in, followed by the message, followed by Return, e.g. chat hey guys, what's up?. If you have a tab open in your message window you can also just type a text in there followed by Return (this is especially handy as Return also activates the current chat tab as well).

chat <message> (short: c)

The most-used communications command. Whatever you chat will end up in the Chat tab of everybody else who is currently logged in.

Example:

c uh, that anchovis almost killed me

shout <message>

This is like chat, but "louder". Everybody will get your message in red in their Chat tabs. You should not use shout unless you are in an emergency or there is something really important to be said, otherwise you risk being ignored by people.

Example:

sh I am stuck! can anybody let me out?

say <message> (short: s)

This command can be used to talk to NPCs (without going through the NPC dialogue window), but all players anywhere on the same map can hear you as well.

Example:

s good that schmorp cnanot hera us here!

tell <playername> <message> (short: te)

This is your prototypical two-way, private, chat channel. You can talk to any other player that is currently logged in, and only he can hear you.

gsay <message> (short: gs)

The group say command sends a message to every member of the party/group you are in. This is useful when playing in a team, to avoid cluttering the chat channel.

In addition to these, there are a large number of emotes you can use, use the help command to get a list.

Can I form parties? Which benefits does party-play have?

You can form new parties using the party form <name> name command, and you can join existing parties using the party join <name> command. There are other party commands, use help party to find out more.

The main benefit of party-play is sharing experience: All experience you gain is distributed to all party members accoridng to their level (people with twice the level as you gain twice as much experience).

This is great for training skills you are bad in, but somebody else is good in, and of course vice versa!

Magic

How can I summon a specific monster with summon pet monster?

Higher levels of "summoning" in skill_description give you access to higher level monsters, but not all monsters have equal abilities. Instead of summoning the highest level monster allowed by your level you can also summon any other monster you had before by adding its archetype name after the command, i.e. to summon bees you would use the cast summon pet monster bee (short: cspm bee) command.

Level  Monster
    1  bat
    3  bird
    4  spider
    6  killer_bee
    7  pixie
    8  skeleton
    9  stalker
   11  devil
   13  beholder
   15  dark_elf
   17  skull
   20  angel
   25  vampire
   30  spectre
   35  lich
   40  demilich
   50  hellhound
   60  unusual_kobold
   70  chicken
   80  gr_hellhound
   90  dave
  100  laoch
  105  snitchangel

Praying, Gods and Cults

How do I pray?

First enter the "praying mode" by readying your "praying" in skill_description skill (by default bound to Alt-P, or by typing rspraying), then hold and keep holding Shift and a direction key (e.g. Shift-Up).

You will now pray as long as you keep pressing the keys.

How can I summon a specific monster with summon cult monster?

You can't, your god selects the monsters for you.

How do I join a cult/become a follower of a god?

That is simple, just find an altar of a god of your choice and start "praying" in skill_description. Eventually, the god will recognize you.

How do I change gods?

That is far more difficult: gods really hate it when you defect them. Expect to lose a lot of "praying" in skill_description experience in the process.

First you should pray long enough to your god, until you gain 95% resistance to god power. Then quickly go to the altar of your newly-chosen god and pray on her/his altar. Your old god won't make it easy, but if you are persistent your old god will let you go at one point.

Exploring / Quests

What areas are there to explore?

First, you should explore Scorn and find the port pass (and maybe also the gate pass). Make sure you don't miss out the old city of scorn, many a dangers, but also many treasures, can be found there.

When you finished most of the quests in Scorn you should investigate how the pirates escape from the prison. This will lead to a number of nice quests in and around Port Joseph.

Another nice series of quests, from low to medium level, can be found in the King's Palace in Scorn. Who wouldn't want to meet the princess in person?

The areas you can reach through the various transportation modes in Scorn are Pupland (which has a lot of puzzles and quests from very low to very high level), Stoneville and Santo Dominion (low and medium level quests, also nice shops), and the Aldwulf Archipelago (which is more dangerous).

Through the gate you can reach Euthville and Santo Dominion to the north, Brest (medium level) and Lake Country (medium to high level) to the south, and Navar (medium level quests) in the east (a long travel).

From Navar you can travel to Darcap in the far north (medium level quests), near the mystical country of Azumauindo, to Wolfsburg somewhere on the ocean, a rather dangerous area with many thieves and pirates (medium level quests) and Valleynoy to the south, with medium and high level quests (did you find the southpole yet?).

Also, it is said that Navar somehow has access to the mystical City de Clouds, the biggest city ever seen (high level and very high level quests). There are rumors about lands beyond (St. Bartholemew and other cities) and other even more mystical places, but little is known about that.

Where is that damn Goblin Chief?

In his cave to the north-east of the Scorn Gate. It is the one that starts with a random maze (yes, there are multiple caves). Keep in mind that the Goblin Chief's Head is fastened to his body, so you have to find and kill him first.

Where can I find the comet spell?

In the tower of stars, which is almost directly south of Scorn (but not too near to it). You have to talk to people to solve this quest, and it does not involve a random maze.

cpanm DC

perl -MCPAN -e shell
install DC