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The Lords of Midnight seriesGameplay?(17 posts)solved(17 posts)solved
(17 posts)solved
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Posted August 13, 2013
I've been trying to do research on this game to determine if I would enjoy it, but I am unable to determine what the actual gameplay is like. From what I can tell, battles are resolved with no input at all from the player and navigation consists of moving about in the overworld without encountering any obstacles other than geographic features that reduce movement speed and more predetermined battles. I considered watching an LP, but the only one I could find was by someone who hadn't read the manual and was going in cold, so he was just as lost as I was. Can someone summarize what the core gameplay mechanics are and how they work?
This question / problem has been solved by PetrusOctavianusimage
Posted August 13, 2013
Combat are auto-resolved, so it is a strategy game with no tactics.
Results of combat are mostly dependent on the commander's bravery (how much he can withstand the Ice Fear) and how well rested the soldiers are.

Gameplay is turn based. You start with four characters and need to find and recruit more ASAP. Some characters make better diplomats than others and you can eventually control up to 32 ones. You move in a first person perspective and each move takes one to about three hours of in-game time, depending on terrain and if your lord/soldiers have horses. If you don't have horses you can find herds.

Each turn is one day. You move during the day untill night falls, and then Doomdark's forces move at night. At the start of each day you will get rumours about combat taking place in the world of Midnight. Checking your own characters you may get combat reports if they have attacked or been attacked by Doomdark. Some of your lords may have been killed.

When moving you can find lots of places with special features: Waters of Life/Langours of Death will either utterly invigorate or exhaust your units, Cup of Dreams and Claws of Night will either turn time back to dawn (extra movement) or forward to night (end of movement), Shelter (some invigoration) or weapons like Woldslayer, Dragonslayer etc.
Posted August 13, 2013
Do I move my characters one at a time, give them general orders or what?
Posted August 13, 2013
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Tarm: Do I move my characters one at a time, give them general orders or what?
You move them one at a time.

It sort of plays like a multi-party first person dungeon crawler, really.
Posted August 14, 2013
Think I'll probably have to pass on this one. What with the game having not much in the way of a sense of agency when it comes to battle, the rather confusing and pace slackening mechanics that require "searching" each point to be able to find anything, and the fact that an entire half of the gameplay is not necessary to win, it just doesn't seem like something I'd enjoy.
Posted August 14, 2013
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Tarm: Do I move my characters one at a time, give them general orders or what?
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amccour: You move them one at a time.

It sort of plays like a multi-party first person dungeon crawler, really.
Can I group them together to create stronger armies and parties?
Posted August 14, 2013
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amccour: You move them one at a time.

It sort of plays like a multi-party first person dungeon crawler, really.
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Tarm: Can I group them together to create stronger armies and parties?
Yes, in theory the entire army of Doomdark can fight against all the Luxor and his 31 allies. How many hours an army fight also determines how many enemies they can slay.
The max an army can slay seems to be 1275 soldiers, which is also the max size of an army controlled by one of your own lords. But I think only Luxor, Blood and the Utarg are strong enough leaders to get such a result.
Some characters can kill hundreds of enemies on their own.
Posted August 14, 2013
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Tarm: Can I group them together to create stronger armies and parties?
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PetrusOctavianus: Yes, in theory the entire army of Doomdark can fight against all the Luxor and his 31 allies. How many hours an army fight also determines how many enemies they can slay.
The max an army can slay seems to be 1275 soldiers, which is also the max size of an army controlled by one of your own lords. But I think only Luxor, Blood and the Utarg are strong enough leaders to get such a result.
Some characters can kill hundreds of enemies on their own.
Thanks for the reply.
That should make it easier to play. Now I'm really looking forward to playing it. :)
Posted August 14, 2013
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Jonesy89: Think I'll probably have to pass on this one. What with the game having not much in the way of a sense of agency when it comes to battle, the rather confusing and pace slackening mechanics that require "searching" each point to be able to find anything, and the fact that an entire half of the gameplay is not necessary to win, it just doesn't seem like something I'd enjoy.
You don't need to Search; it is done automatically when entering a location.

"half of the gameplay is not necessary to win"
That's up to you. You can ignore Morkin's quest if you want and go for a military victory, concentrate on Morkin's quest to destroy the Ice Crown, or do both.
Posted August 14, 2013
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PetrusOctavianus: You don't need to Search; it is done automatically when entering a location.
Huh. Could have sworn that the LP I watched showed the guy using a "search" command in order to find stuff. If that's not the case, then I might look into this if it ever goes on sale.
Posted August 14, 2013
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PetrusOctavianus: You don't need to Search; it is done automatically when entering a location.
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Jonesy89: Huh. Could have sworn that the LP I watched showed the guy using a "search" command in order to find stuff. If that's not the case, then I might look into this if it ever goes on sale.
I can't find any videos about the remake beyond the official trailers and few short feature videos so you probably watched one for either the Zx Spectrum (there's at least 3) or C64. And searching was part of both as well as the DOS port I just played thru.
Posted August 14, 2013
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Jonesy89: Huh. Could have sworn that the LP I watched showed the guy using a "search" command in order to find stuff. If that's not the case, then I might look into this if it ever goes on sale.
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Petrell: I can't find any videos about the remake beyond the official trailers and few short feature videos so you probably watched one for either the Zx Spectrum (there's at least 3) or C64. And searching was part of both as well as the DOS port I just played thru.
The one I watched was for the Zx Spectrum; I had assumed that the key functions would be largely unchanged, but I may be wrong.
Posted August 14, 2013
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Petrell: I can't find any videos about the remake beyond the official trailers and few short feature videos so you probably watched one for either the Zx Spectrum (there's at least 3) or C64. And searching was part of both as well as the DOS port I just played thru.
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Jonesy89: The one I watched was for the Zx Spectrum; I had assumed that the key functions would be largely unchanged, but I may be wrong.
Considering the remake is for both windows and tablets, they must've changed or streamlined things that could not be easily accomplisheds with mouse or touch screen but I too would be interested hearing exactly what the differences are between the original and the remake. The DOS remake was rather cumbersome to play despite me enjoying most of the ~8 hours it took me to play it thru (failed destroying the ice crown so military victory was only choise left, destruction of ice crown can be accomplished within 10 minutes of play).
Posted August 15, 2013
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Jonesy89: Huh. Could have sworn that the LP I watched showed the guy using a "search" command in order to find stuff. If that's not the case, then I might look into this if it ever goes on sale.
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Petrell: I can't find any videos about the remake beyond the official trailers and few short feature videos so you probably watched one for either the Zx Spectrum (there's at least 3) or C64. And searching was part of both as well as the DOS port I just played thru.
Yeah, I must have confused with Doomdark's Revenge.
Anyway, you need only Search locations with building or features like Lakes, Liths, Henges or herds of horses in them.
The only other time you need to actively Search is if Luxor is killed and Morkin needs to find the Moon Ring.
But I assume in the new version you only need to click on an icon to do it.
Posted August 15, 2013
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Jonesy89: The one I watched was for the Zx Spectrum; I had assumed that the key functions would be largely unchanged, but I may be wrong.
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Petrell: Considering the remake is for both windows and tablets, they must've changed or streamlined things that could not be easily accomplisheds with mouse or touch screen but I too would be interested hearing exactly what the differences are between the original and the remake. The DOS remake was rather cumbersome to play despite me enjoying most of the ~8 hours it took me to play it thru (failed destroying the ice crown so military victory was only choise left, destruction of ice crown can be accomplished within 10 minutes of play).
Gameplay is identical, or at least should be! :)

Additions are the removal of save game and replacing it with a continuing save with controlled undo. This is because just saving and loading would harm the game.

The discovery map because no one draws maps anymore.

Grouping, because controlling multiple characters doing the same thing in a turn based game becomes tedious.

Options for auto-seek and auto-fight

And UI changes of course.
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PetrusOctavianus: You don't need to Search; it is done automatically when entering a location.
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Jonesy89: Huh. Could have sworn that the LP I watched showed the guy using a "search" command in order to find stuff. If that's not the case, then I might look into this if it ever goes on sale.
You do need to search, but there is an auto search option. Beware though, because you don't necessarily want to find everything!
Post edited August 15, 2013 by icemarkuk
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The Lords of Midnight seriesGameplay?(17 posts)solved(17 posts)solved
(17 posts)solved