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 four 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 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:	1.12
Committed:	Fri Apr 4 15:23:35 2008 UTC (16 years, 3 months ago) by root
Branch:	MAIN
Changes since 1.11:	+60 -0 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 four 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 I am stuck! can anybody let me out?
110
111	=item say <message> (short: C<s>)
112
113	This command can be used to talk to NPCs (without going through the NPC
114	dialogue window), but all players anywhere on the same map can hear you as
115	well.
116
117	Example:
118
119	s good that schmorp cnanot hera us here!
120
121	=item tell <playername> <message> (short: C<te>)
122
123	This is your prototypical two-way, private, chat channel. You can talk to
124	any other player that is currently logged in, and only he can hear you.
125
126	=item gsay <message> (short: C<gs>)
127
128	The group say command sends a message to every member of the party/group
129	you are in. This is useful when playing in a team, to avoid cluttering the
130	chat channel.
131
132	=back
133
134	=head3 Can I form parties? Which benefits does party-play have?
135
136	You can form I<new> parties using the C<< party form <name> >> name
137	command, and you can join I<existing> parties using the C<< party join
138	<name> >> command. There are other party commands, use C<help party> to
139	find out more.
140
141	The main benefit of party-play is sharing experience: All experience you
142	gain is distributed to all party members accoridng to their level (people
143	with twice the level as you gain twice as much experience).
144
145	This is great for training skills you are bad in, but somebody else is
146	good in, and of course vice versa!
147
148
149	=head2 Magic
150
151	=head3 How can I summon a specific monster with C<summon pet monster>?
152
153	Higher levels of L<skill_description/summoning> give you access to higher
154	level monsters, but not all monsters have equal abilities. Instead of
155	summoning the highest level monster allowed by your level you can also
156	summon any other monster you had before by adding its I<archetype name>
157	after the command, i.e. to summon bees you would use the C<cast summon pet
158	monster bee> (short: C<cspm bee>) command.
159
160	Level Monster
161	1 bat
162	3 bird
163	4 spider
164	6 killer_bee
165	7 pixie
166	8 skeleton
167	9 stalker
168	11 devil
169	13 beholder
170	15 dark_elf
171	17 skull
172	20 angel
173	25 vampire
174	30 spectre
175	35 lich
176	40 demilich
177	50 hellhound
178	60 unusual_kobold
179	70 chicken
180	80 gr_hellhound
181	90 dave
182	100 laoch
183	105 snitchangel
184
185	=head2 Praying, Gods and Cults
186
187	=head3 X<how_tp_pray>How do I pray?
188
189	First enter the "praying mode" by readying your L<skill_description/praying> skill
190	(by default bound to C<Alt-P>, or by typing C<rspraying>), then hold and keep holding
191	C<Shift> and a direction key (e.g. C<Shift-Up>).
192
193	You will now pray as long as you keep pressing the keys.
194
195	=head3 How can I summon a specific monster with C<summon cult monster>?
196
197	You can't, your god selects the monsters for you.
198
199	=head3 How do I join a cult/become a follower of a god?
200
201	That is simple, just find an altar of a god of your choice and start
202	L<skill_description/praying>. Eventually, the god will recognize
203	you.
204
205	=head3 How do I change gods?
206
207	That is far more difficult: gods really hate it when you defect
208	them. Expect to lose a lot of L<skill_description/praying> experience in
209	the process.
210
211	First you should pray long enough to your god, until you gain 95%
212	resistancy to god power. Then quickly go to the altar of your newly-chosen
213	god and pray on her/his altar. Your old god won't make it easy, but if you
214	are persistent your old god will let you go at one point.
215
216	=head2 Exploring
217
218	=head3 What areas are there to explore?
219
220	First, you should explore Scorn and find the port pass (and maybe also the
221	gate pass). Make sure you don't miss out the old city of scorn, many
222	a dangers, but also many treasures, cna be found there.
223
224	When you finished most of the quests in Scorn you should investigate how
225	the pirates escape from the prison. This will lead to a number of nice
226	quests in and around Port Joseph.
227
228	Another nice series of quests, from low to medium level, can be found in
229	the King's Palace in Scorn. Who wouldn't want to meet the princess in
230	person?
231
232	The areas you can reach through the various transportation modes in Scorn
233	are Pupland (which has a lot of puzzles and quests from very low to very
234	high level), Stoneville and Santo Dominion (low and medium level quests,
235	also nice shops), and the Aldwulf Archipelago (which is more dangerous).
236
237	Through the gate you can reach Euthville and Santo Dominion to the north,
238	Brest (medium level) and Lake Country (medium to high leve) to the south,
239	and Navar (medium level quests) in the east (a long travel).
240
241	From Navar you can travel to Darcap in the far north (medium level
242	quests), near the mystical country of Azumauindo, to Wolfsburg somewhere
243	on the ocean, a rather dangerous area with many thieves and pirates
244	(medium level quests) and Valleynoy to the south, with medium and high
245	level quests (did you find the southpole yet?).
246
247	Also, it is said that Navar somehow has access to the mystical City
248	de Clouds, the biggest city ever seen (high level and very high level
249	quests). There are rumors about lands beyond (St. Bartholemew and other
250	cities) and other even more mystical places, but little is known about
251	that.
252