Deliantra-Client/pod/faq.pod

=head1 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.

=head2 Meta - About the Game and the Client

=head3 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.

=head3 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):

=over 4

=item * B<Video Mode> should be set as low as possible (e.g. 640x480)

=item * Enable B<Fast & Ugly> mode

=item * Disable B<Fog of War> and C<Map Smoothing>

=item * Increase B<Map Scale>

=back

=head3 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).

=over 4

To do that, on Unix:

   rm -rf ~/.deliantra/client-*

On windows:

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

=back

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


=head2 Generic how do I...

=head3 X<faq_igniteandthaw>How do I thaw icecubes? Or: How do I ignite a torch?

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

An alternative would be to use the L<mark|command/mark> and
L<apply|command/apply> commands like this:

   mark icecube
   apply flint and steel

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

=head3 How do I cast a cone spell all around me (burning hands, holy word etc.)?

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


=head2 Playing Together

=head3 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
C<Return>, e.g. C<chat hey guys, what's up?>. If you have a I<tab> open
in your message window you can also just type a text in there followed
by C<Return> (this is especially handy as C<Return> also activates the
current chat tab as well).

=over 4

=item chat <message> (short: C<c>)

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

Example:

   c uh, that anchovis almost killed me

=item shout <message>

This is like C<chat>, but "louder". Everybody will get your message in red
in their C<Chat> tabs.  You should not use C<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?

=item say <message> (short: C<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!

=item tell <playername> <message> (short: C<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.

=item gsay <message> (short: C<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.

=back

=head3 Can I form parties? Which benefits does party-play have?

You can form I<new> parties using the C<< party form <name> >> name
command, and you can join I<existing> parties using the C<< party join
<name> >> command. There are other party commands, use C<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!


=head2 Magic

=head3 How can I summon a specific monster with C<summon pet monster>?

Higher levels of L<skill_description/summoning> 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 I<archetype name>
after the command, i.e. to summon bees you would use the C<cast summon pet
monster bee> (short: C<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

=head2 Praying, Gods and Cults

=head3 X<how_tp_pray>How do I pray?

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

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

=head3 How can I summon a specific monster with C<summon cult monster>?

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

=head3 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
L<skill_description/praying>. Eventually, the god will recognize
you.

=head3 How do I change gods?

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

First you should pray long enough to your god, until you gain 95%
resistancy 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.

=head2 Exploring

=head3 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, cna 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 leve) 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.

Revision:	1.13
Committed:	Sat Apr 5 16:25:42 2008 UTC (16 years, 3 months ago) by root
Branch:	MAIN
Changes since 1.12:	+13 -2 lines
Log Message:	* empty log message *
#	Content
1	=head1 FAQ, Tips and Tricks
2
3	Here are some questions you might asked yourself over time.
4	Also some nice Tips and Tricks are listed here, which you may find informative.
5
6	=head2 Meta - About the Game and the Client
7
8	=head3 What is the relation between Deliantra and Crossfire?
9
10	Deliantra was originally a Crossfire server, but by now most of the code
11	has been rewritten. Still most maps are very similar or identical to
12	Crossfire maps, so the games share a lot.
13
14	The major differences are a better client, better graphics, a stable
15	server (i.e. no crashes every few hours with players and maps getting
16	reset) and the ability to let more players play, by using less resources
17	and having a fully asynchronous design, and full support for sound effects
18	and background music.
19
20	=head3 The client is very sluggish and slow, what can I do about this?
21
22	Most likely, you don't have accelerated OpenGL support. Try to find a
23	newer driver, or a driver from your hardware vendor, that features OpenGL
24	support.
25
26	If this is not an option, the following Setup options reduce the load and
27	will likely make the client playable with software rendering (it will
28	still be slow, though):
29
30	=over 4
31
32	=item * B<Video Mode> should be set as low as possible (e.g. 640x480)
33
34	=item * Enable B<Fast & Ugly> mode
35
36	=item * Disable B<Fog of War> and C<Map Smoothing>
37
38	=item * Increase B<Map Scale>
39
40	=back
41
42	=head3 My client doesn't start anymore/graphics are corrupted!
43
44	Sometimes you hit a bug in the client. To reset the state of your client
45	you can delete your client database directory (your client will have to
46	re-download music and images and you will lose your minimap contents).
47
48	=over 4
49
50	To do that, on Unix:
51
52	rm -rf ~/.deliantra/client-*
53
54	On windows:
55
56	Do C<< Start => Run >>, enter F<%APPDATA%>, press return, and in the
57	window that will open, first open F<deliantra>, then delete the directory
58	starting with F<client->.
59
60	=back
61
62	Alternatively you can delete the F<.deliantra> or F<deliantra> directory
63	itself, but this will also delete your settings and keybindings.
64
65
66	=head2 Generic how do I...
67
68	=head3 X<faq_igniteandthaw>How do I thaw icecubes? Or: How do I ignite a torch?
69
70	The right-click context menu in the playerbook inventory has an entry
71	B<ignite/thaw>, which will ignite something or thaw icecubes. You will
72	need a B<flint & steel> L<$ARCH/flint_and_steel.x11> for
73	this to work!
74
75	An alternative would be to use the L<mark\|command/mark> and
76	L<apply\|command/apply> commands like this:
77
78	mark icecube
79	apply flint and steel
80
81	You can bind these commands to a key and invoke them repeatedly.
82
83	=head3 How do I cast a cone spell all around me (burning hands, holy word etc.)?
84
85	Use the C<5>-key on your keypad. This will cats spells "onto yourself"
86	which has the desired effect with cone spells.
87
88
89	=head2 Playing Together
90
91	=head3 How can I communicate with other players?
92
93	There are five commands you can use to talk to others. All of them can
94	be entered by just typing them in, followed by the message, followed by
95	C<Return>, e.g. C<chat hey guys, what's up?>. If you have a I<tab> open
96	in your message window you can also just type a text in there followed
97	by C<Return> (this is especially handy as C<Return> also activates the
98	current chat tab as well).
99
100	=over 4
101
102	=item chat <message> (short: C<c>)
103
104	The most-used communications command. Whatever you I<chat> will end up
105	in the I<Chat> tab of everybody else who is currently logged in.
106
107	Example:
108
109	c uh, that anchovis almost killed me
110
111	=item shout <message>
112
113	This is like C<chat>, but "louder". Everybody will get your message in red
114	in their C<Chat> tabs. You should not use C<shout> unless you are in an
115	emergency or there is something really important to be said, otherwise you
116	risk being ignored by people.
117
118	Example:
119
120	sh I am stuck! can anybody let me out?
121
122	=item say <message> (short: C<s>)
123
124	This command can be used to talk to NPCs (without going through the NPC
125	dialogue window), but all players anywhere on the same map can hear you as
126	well.
127
128	Example:
129
130	s good that schmorp cnanot hera us here!
131
132	=item tell <playername> <message> (short: C<te>)
133
134	This is your prototypical two-way, private, chat channel. You can talk to
135	any other player that is currently logged in, and only he can hear you.
136
137	=item gsay <message> (short: C<gs>)
138
139	The group say command sends a message to every member of the party/group
140	you are in. This is useful when playing in a team, to avoid cluttering the
141	chat channel.
142
143	=back
144
145	=head3 Can I form parties? Which benefits does party-play have?
146
147	You can form I<new> parties using the C<< party form <name> >> name
148	command, and you can join I<existing> parties using the C<< party join
149	<name> >> command. There are other party commands, use C<help party> to
150	find out more.
151
152	The main benefit of party-play is sharing experience: All experience you
153	gain is distributed to all party members accoridng to their level (people
154	with twice the level as you gain twice as much experience).
155
156	This is great for training skills you are bad in, but somebody else is
157	good in, and of course vice versa!
158
159
160	=head2 Magic
161
162	=head3 How can I summon a specific monster with C<summon pet monster>?
163
164	Higher levels of L<skill_description/summoning> give you access to higher
165	level monsters, but not all monsters have equal abilities. Instead of
166	summoning the highest level monster allowed by your level you can also
167	summon any other monster you had before by adding its I<archetype name>
168	after the command, i.e. to summon bees you would use the C<cast summon pet
169	monster bee> (short: C<cspm bee>) command.
170
171	Level Monster
172	1 bat
173	3 bird
174	4 spider
175	6 killer_bee
176	7 pixie
177	8 skeleton
178	9 stalker
179	11 devil
180	13 beholder
181	15 dark_elf
182	17 skull
183	20 angel
184	25 vampire
185	30 spectre
186	35 lich
187	40 demilich
188	50 hellhound
189	60 unusual_kobold
190	70 chicken
191	80 gr_hellhound
192	90 dave
193	100 laoch
194	105 snitchangel
195
196	=head2 Praying, Gods and Cults
197
198	=head3 X<how_tp_pray>How do I pray?
199
200	First enter the "praying mode" by readying your L<skill_description/praying> skill
201	(by default bound to C<Alt-P>, or by typing C<rspraying>), then hold and keep holding
202	C<Shift> and a direction key (e.g. C<Shift-Up>).
203
204	You will now pray as long as you keep pressing the keys.
205
206	=head3 How can I summon a specific monster with C<summon cult monster>?
207
208	You can't, your god selects the monsters for you.
209
210	=head3 How do I join a cult/become a follower of a god?
211
212	That is simple, just find an altar of a god of your choice and start
213	L<skill_description/praying>. Eventually, the god will recognize
214	you.
215
216	=head3 How do I change gods?
217
218	That is far more difficult: gods really hate it when you defect
219	them. Expect to lose a lot of L<skill_description/praying> experience in
220	the process.
221
222	First you should pray long enough to your god, until you gain 95%
223	resistancy to god power. Then quickly go to the altar of your newly-chosen
224	god and pray on her/his altar. Your old god won't make it easy, but if you
225	are persistent your old god will let you go at one point.
226
227	=head2 Exploring
228
229	=head3 What areas are there to explore?
230
231	First, you should explore Scorn and find the port pass (and maybe also the
232	gate pass). Make sure you don't miss out the old city of scorn, many
233	a dangers, but also many treasures, cna be found there.
234
235	When you finished most of the quests in Scorn you should investigate how
236	the pirates escape from the prison. This will lead to a number of nice
237	quests in and around Port Joseph.
238
239	Another nice series of quests, from low to medium level, can be found in
240	the King's Palace in Scorn. Who wouldn't want to meet the princess in
241	person?
242
243	The areas you can reach through the various transportation modes in Scorn
244	are Pupland (which has a lot of puzzles and quests from very low to very
245	high level), Stoneville and Santo Dominion (low and medium level quests,
246	also nice shops), and the Aldwulf Archipelago (which is more dangerous).
247
248	Through the gate you can reach Euthville and Santo Dominion to the north,
249	Brest (medium level) and Lake Country (medium to high leve) to the south,
250	and Navar (medium level quests) in the east (a long travel).
251
252	From Navar you can travel to Darcap in the far north (medium level
253	quests), near the mystical country of Azumauindo, to Wolfsburg somewhere
254	on the ocean, a rather dangerous area with many thieves and pirates
255	(medium level quests) and Valleynoy to the south, with medium and high
256	level quests (did you find the southpole yet?).
257
258	Also, it is said that Navar somehow has access to the mystical City
259	de Clouds, the biggest city ever seen (high level and very high level
260	quests). There are rumors about lands beyond (St. Bartholemew and other
261	cities) and other even more mystical places, but little is known about
262	that.
263