I see! Maybe the trap identification is based on perception? There's a spell in the artisan's guild, but I'm too low on intelligence/wisdom to use it.

Oh, and in case you see a character called Hurold, that's me.

BTW.: I am "Ubivis the Great". The most ugly and dumb Warrior you have ever seen :)
Anyway, he is strong *gg*

Hopefully, I find out soon how to rise stats *gg*

Gosh, why isn't the chat working for me in-game anymore. ;__;

Happened to me as well 2 days ago... I will try to find out. :)

EDIT:
Just found something on the Demise Forum...
You need to press Enter, before you enter your message, and then press enter again to send it.

For the next message you need to start with "enter" again.

Thank you so much! Finally I know how it works. I tried to click on the place where the chat bar appeared/disappeared. :'D

Ah, Demise, I played it a lot in the past. :)

Bad thing: after some patch (was it 1.0.3?) official boxed release was no longer supported and patch needed to be purchased separately which caused me to stop playing. :(

@Chisaku That was a good game lol. We should party up once I hit level 15 or so.

First excuse my mistakes, English is not my first language.

Nice to see new people start playing Demise.
Welcome to ultra-hardcore Dungeon Crawling!

Demise has not that much to do with Dungeon Master/Eye of the Beholder. ... / Legend of Grimrock ... these are 'Real time' Dungeon Crawlers (but absolutely not bad of course!).

But with Demise you are playing a completely 'different beast'!!!:

It is basically early Wizardry with a 'Diablo' play-system on 'steroids'.

I play Demise - Rise of the Ku'tan since 2004, but started new in January 2012 with Demise - Ascension - an expanded version (= roughly doubled size of Demise - Rise of Ku'tan [containing 'Ku'tan'] ). (...and 'Ku'tan' was already the predecessor 'Mordor Depths of Dejenol' gone extreme in size...)

I would say, I'm a 'medicore' player now. :]
The deepest I got in 'Ku'tan' was level 25 or so... I'm now back with 10 (!) single player characters leveled to 'guild master level' and I can go till Level 15 or 16 with '4-character parties' (there it starts to get REALLY dangerous for my combinations in the moment....)
- ...and to 'die' in Demise means 'permanent'...till 'found' and 'resurrected' by other characters or other means (=early Wizardry-hardcore/'roguelike'...). - there are no 'save games' to reload!!!!!!!

About the boxes/chests:...or better - LOOT
Boxes/chests are there, of course, - to 'get loot' (very important!).
But... there are actually 3 ways to get 'loot':

1. You can sometimes find randomly placed items on the floor. (get it with 'g')
(sometimes you can't ...'g'-et ...it) - that is a bug, but think about it as a 'destroyed/rotted' item with no practical use anymore.

2. You get sometimes an item after a fight 'automatically'.

3. Boxes/Chests.
A box is small, a chest is big. Big means there is a higher chance to get 'good/seldom' loot. (Loot depends also on monster types...)
Boxes/Chests can be 'magically sealed', - that means, you must first remove the seal with a spell or item. (...'cast' the spell/'use' the item...).
Sealed Boxes/Chests have an even higher chance to contain 'good' loot...
As always in Demise: The deeper you go in Dungeon Levels, the more harder(deadly!!!) the monsters, but also the more the experience gain and of course the loot.

Now really about the traps of the boxes/chests:
If you stand over a box/chest you get 2 numbers in the right upper corner of the screen.
The first is your chance to identify the trap, the second to disarm it.
What you need for this is your THIEVING SKILL !!!
You can check it in your Character Sheets - it's the one with a 'lock item'.
Different Guilds give different bonus to thieving skill - Thief-Guild is of course best, Artisan/Explorer/Barbarian mediocre, 'Spell Casters'/'Warrior' worst. (don't count me on this, apart from Thief-Guild 'best' and the 'worst ' for pure casters / warriors)

Now comes the 'trick':

If you press the 'party number' of your character ('1,2,3,4'-keys), who should identify the trap, repeatedly - he/she will make a new estimation, what kind of trap it is.
It is very important to know beforehand what kind of trap you face.

So, if the numbers for the box/chest say maybe 30% / 45 % - you have a 30% chance to know what trap it is. Press repeatedly the number key (1,2,3,4) of your character and in 30% of all cases it will show the 'right' trap - (there are 17 different types of traps!).

After you have an (more or less sure) idea, what kind of trap it is, you look on the second number, which tells you your chance of disarming it. You have to make a choice if 'the greed for loot' is appropriate with the danger. Different kind of traps impose different dangers, (which has something to do with the actual 'status' of your character/party)...many different possible cases... you have to decide each time new! (you have to 'know' ''what you are doing...).

As always in Demise - the deeper you go, the more deadly the traps.
But also for 'newbies' on the first Dungeon floors this is important.
It is a good idea to read the full online-manual that you get, when pressing F1.



SPOILER!!!!:



The most 'deadly' trap for low level characters on Level 3 and 4 is the 'Teleport'-trap.
These Levels contain water areas, and if you end up there and don't know how to get out,
your character will suffocate!

@Moyal thanks for the tips. Btw I may be crazy, but isn't Demise real-time? At least, it looks that way to me.

Hey man are you playing now?

Combat is turn-based, but goes automatically.
(Imagine you would have to chose every time your attack-options like in Wizardry/Bards Tale...)
But it is 'real-time' in the sense, that you can always escape a fight, by running away.
That's the genial thing about 'Demise'.
Graphics/Sounds are of course at 'trash-movie'-level ...
- but the underlying game-system is just time-less genial.

Here a google-translated French Blog article about the 'history':
http://translate.google.de/translate?sl=fr&tl=en&js=n&prev=_t&hl=de&ie=UTF-8&layout=2&eotf=1&u=http%3A%2F%2Fblogensursis.free.fr%2Findex.php%3Fbillet%3D375&act=url


And here a Review that explains, why Demise is so genial and has a hardcore fan-scene since 'ever':

READ THIS!!!:
http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?PHPSESSID=028c8d53e5601ca3e3fc733ec257478c&topic=77962.0

I'm just spreading the Cult!

Hey you're right, my bad, it's a turn-based game. I got the impression it was real time because while playing just now, my character would automatically fight the monsters for me. I figured all I had to do was to decide when to run, and leave the fighting up to the game (and its dice). Weird, now I have to manually press F in order to attack. Is it a server setting?

Oh yeah, I recommend you guys not sell your loot. Store them in the bank until you roughly have an idea of what you want to buy, then sell just enough to cover the costs. By doing this, you won't lose too much money when you die.

This can't be right. I bought the boxed version myself and Decklin (the author of the patch and current ISP holder) has sent me the download links for all patches/expansions since.

I tried to get into the game many times(especially after "Ascension" was released) but unfortunately it is a terrible RPG, IMO. The races don't make any sense (for example: why are Yeti's the best SWIMMERS?!), the classes/guilds don't make any sense, combat is just horrible with ZERO tactical or strategic facets.

Yup!

Thank you for your informative posts, Moyal!

You'll have to manually initiate a fight with a peaceful monster/group. If you enter a room with monsters and there's a peace sign spinning at the top of your screen, those won't attack you immediately. Aggressive monsters attack you whether you like it or not.

This is excellent advice!

@ lowyhong: You can 'click ....right(?)' on the character picture .... (second mouse button [!]- when this is 'righ't - I'm left hander...just try) and get a menu. Choose 'options'. Here you can fine-tune how your characters will act in combat (do nothing, attack, just defend or cast spell/use item placed in the quick key 'queue'.

@ SkeleTony: Demise is not for everyone. It is hardcore-extreme to the most.
It is old school par excellence.
Nobody is 'holding your hand' ...it's all about .....'can you solve 'THIS Dungeon' against 'your imbecility', 'dev bitchiness' and ...'code bugs'? (the 'rooots' go back in history till the 1970's... this game is an challenge to separate the 'true' from the 'mass'....
The races/guilds are all 'fine-tuned' in Ascension, just belief me...and read the manual.

To really like it and even 'love' this game, you have to be a 'geek', like in the 'good-old times' (pre-1990's).

This Dungeon is there to kill you,....can you beat it ? [this means years [!] of play-time!].
It ALL makes 'sense' - but you have to invest serious time 'to get' the nuances.
First mission is .... to 'read the fucking manual'!

PS: identify new loot in the shop completely, but cursed item just before one step to the last - that is the way to make nost money in the long run.
'Companions ' just pay to identify the first time to get the info - then just sell them.
In bank store cursed item - for guild quests that will come.
If you have a guild quest for an item/monster you can't find - visit the 'seer' or 'quest board' or just try as long as you need ....
(This game is all hardcore, as said....nothing for pussys.)
Casual gamers will get frustrated... (my kind,.... despises you so mutch....like----j-------)

If you have questions, best idea is to go to:
http://www.decklinsdomain.info/phpbb/index.php
(Be polite and you will get help there)