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The Elder Scrolls: Daggerfall Demo Version 1.0 Copyright (c) 1996 Media Technology Limited, all rights reserved Table of Contents 1. Installation 2. Known Hardware Problems 3. Windows 95 Notes 4. Corrections to the Manual 5. Commonly Asked Questions 1. Installation ================ There may come a point where you want to reinstall the Daggerfall Demo with a larger install size. As noted in the installation program, a larger install size can improve performance. The install program can be run with a /U switch to update the existing files, which is much faster than a complete reinstallation. Running INSTALL /U disables the disk space check as well. It is up to you to make sure that there is enough room for the larger footprint of the reinstalled Daggerfall Demo. 2. Known Hardware Problems ================ a) Daggerfall Demo does not work well with disk caching software that uses write behind cache. The Demo will automatically deal with SMARTDRIVE and Windows 95 disk caching. If you are using some other disk caching software, make sure the write behind caching is disabled. b) Daggerfall Demo does not work well with stealth mode memory managers, such as certain configurations of QEMM. We recommend that you disable stealth modes in your memory manager if you are using one. c) If you are using a PS/2 mouse, and you have less than 16MB of memory on your computer, there is a chance that your mouse will lock up or otherwise get confused. This has to do with how the PS/2 mouse works. If this problem occurs, just restart the demo. You can save your current game using CTRL-B to pull up the save game menu. The TAB key will move you from slot to slot. Press ENTER to save the game in that slot. CTRL-SHIFT-X will quit the demo. Alternately, you can try using a different mouse driver. d) Occasionally Ensoniq sound cards will not initialize properly. Restart the demo until you get sound and music. e) We recommend that DOS users with 8MB of memory use a disk cache of 512KB. Anyone with 16MB or more should have a 2MB disk cache. f) Some people may want to switch which speakers are left or right. Rather than physically moving the speakers, Daggerfall will allow you to switch the sounds instead. Daggerfall uses a configuration file names Z.CFG, located in the \DAGDEMO directory. In that file, add a line that reads STEREO 1 to switch left and right speaker sounds. g) In the rare event that the demo does crash, we recommend that you run SCANDISK immediately. It is not necessary to do a surface scan. h) Customer Service: (301) 963-2002 or send e-mail to tech@bethsoft.com Send all comments and suggestions as e-mail to dagger@bethsoft.com i) Users with MS-DOS 6.0 and 6.1 may experience crashes to DOS with a message saying "Daggerfall has encountered an internal error at 0. The error reported was: Error reading faction file." To fix this problem, update to MS-DOS 6.22 or higher, or update your CD-ROM driver (MSCDEX.EXE). j) NextGen and Cyrix CPUs are not fully compatible with the Intel CPUs. Users with Cyrix and NextGen CPUs will experience problems with Daggerfall. The demo works fine with Intel and AMD CPUs. We have had some success with the Cyrix chips when the CPU cache is disabled. However, that causes a noticable performance decrease. k) Gravis Utrasound uses need to turn off MIDI music in the SETUP program. The Ultrasound is an older sound card and is not general MIDI compatible. The LOADPATS.EXE program that loads the instrument banks into the card is only capable of putting 30 or so instruments into memory. General MIDI requires 128 instruments, plus a drum bank. Daggerfall uses just over 100 instruments for it's music scores. 3. Windows 95 Notes ================ a) You must run Windows 95 in a mode that allows for at least 256 colors. b) If the demo crashes when run from a DOS window, try running it from a DOS session. This means restarting your computer in DOS, then manually starting the demo by typing DAGDEMO from the \DAGDEMO directory. Double clicking the Daggerfall shortcut icon runs the demo from a DOS window. c) If you have a 486 computer with only 8MB of memory, Daggerfall may not run properly under Windows 95. Try running it from a DOS session as described in point b) above. 4. Corrections to the Manual ================ CHARACTER CREATION: CLASSES Burglar - The Running major skill listed in the manual should be Short Blade. Rogue - The Climbing primary skill listed in the manual should be Stealth. The Axe primary skill should be Dodging. Bard - The Backstabbing major skill listed in the manual should be Short Blade. The Critical Strike major skill should be Hand-to- Hand. Ranger - The Blunt Weapon major skill listed in the manual should be Archery. Barbarian - Replace the major skills listed in the manual with Jumping, Running, and Swimming. Battlemage - The Short Blade primary skill listed in the manual should be Axe. The Dodging major skill should be Hand-to-Hand. The Mysticism major skill should be Alteration. Spellsword - the Running primary skill listed in the manual should be Blunt Weapon. Nightblade - The Pickpocketing major skill listed in the manual should be Short Blade. Custom Character - The Acute Hearing advantage enables the player to hear sound far away that other characters cannot hear. The Resistance and Immunity advantages are always active. There is no choice for GENERAL, IN LIGHT, or IN DARKNESS. Note: Not all character classes are created equal. Some, like the Spellsword, Warrior, Battlemage, Knight, and Ranger have an easier time. For a real challenge, try the Healer, Nightblade, or Bard. CHARACTER CREATION: DERIVED ATTRIBUTES Dam - Each successful strike of a weapon does this much extra or less damage based upon your character's strength. Max Enc - This is the maximum number of kilograms of stuff your character can carry, based upon his strength. Spell Pts - Spell points are higher for those characters that have a high intelligence. Magic Resist - This bonus or penalty is applied to your character's saving throw vs. magic. It has a relatively minor effect. To Hit - This bonus or penalty is applied to your character's attack roll. It has a relatively minor effect. Hit Pts - Each time your character advances in level, he gets this many hit points in addition to his normal adjustment. Healing Rate - When your character rests, he recovers this many points more or less each hour than he would normally. CHARACTER CREATION: REFLEXES This is basically the difficulty setting for the game. If you choose HIGH or VERY HIGH settings, your character will run, walk, and fight at the same speed. However, your opponents will be faster, creating a higher action environment. If you choose LOW or VERY LOW, your opponents will move and fight slower, creating a more strategic environment. Since having the monsters move slower can be a big advantage, there is a small disadvantage associated with it. Your character's skills will improve slower. Correspondingly, your character's skills will improve faster if you choose HIGH or VERY HIGH reflexes. The change in advancement is not that great, so choose the Reflexes setting that most reflects your play style. EXPERIENCE POINTS Daggerfall does not use any form of experience points. To advance in level, increase your primary and major skills. After second level, your character needs approximately 15 points of increase among these skills to go up a level. This is not an exact calculation, only an estimate. The manual erroneously states that primary skills are easier to increase than major, and major are easier than minor, etc. All skills in all categories use the same basic formula to determine whether or not there will be an increase. INTERFACE The mouse controls contain a button labelled REVERSE VERTICAL. Only applicable in the View Mode, when REVERSE VERTICAL is highlighted pushing the mouse forward makes you look down. The default interface in the manual is identical to the interface in Arena. However, endless hours of beta testing have led the Bethesda Softworks staff to believe that the best interface for Daggerfall uses the view mode and a different keyboard mapping. If you want to see what we liked best, replace the BETAPLYR.DAT file in your DAGDEMO\ARENA2 directory with the VIEWPLYR.DAT file from the DAGDEMO\ARENA2 directory on the CD-ROM. CTRL-SHIFT-X will terminate the demo immediately. SAVE GAME There is a keyboard short cut for saving a game. CTRL-B will pull up the save game menu. You can use the TAB key to switch from slot to slot. ENTER will save your current game in the highlighted slot. MODES OF TRAVEL The manual does not show SHIP as a travel option when you click on the legs icon. When you buy a ship at the bank, click on this button to go to your ship. To return to land, just click SHIP again. FAST TRAVEL MENU Cautious vs. Reckless - Travelling cautiously takes longer, but your character always arrives in daylight, when the city gates are open. Foot/Horse vs. Ship - Travel by ship is faster, but more expensive. The greater the amount of water between your character and his destination, the greater the difference in cost and travel time. If you own a ship, travel over water is free, but you will not be placed on the vessel itself for the journey. Inns vs. Camp Out - Camping out is always free. However, it increases travel time a bit to account for the need to hunt for your food. TAVERNS If you rent a room in a tavern for many days, you can leave your stuff there safely. So long as you return before the time expires, your stuff is safe. When you enter a town, a message appears on the screen if you have a room at any tavern anywhere in that town. Once every four hours you can buy food or drink at a tavern. This will restore a small amount of health. CHARACTER STATUS Each region keeps track of your character's legal reputation. The lower your legal reputation, the more likely you are to be attacked by guards for no apparent reason. Once they attack your character, your legal reputation determines whether or not they will ask you to surrender. INVENTORY When your character readies a new weapon, there is a delay of a few seconds before it appears. The length of the delay depends upon the weapon. If you are firing arrows at your enemies, be sure to leave some time to draw your sword before they close on you! There is no rope item, as described in the section on CLIMBING. There is no HIDE option in inventory. However, there is a GOLD option which is used to drop gold pieces in the unlikely event that you would rather pick up that magical, daedric dai-katana than hold onto a few thousand measly gold pieces. The IDENTIFY function works immediately. You do not have to leave the item with the guild and come back to pick it up. When buying and selling items, a COST bar appears above your character portrait. The first number is the base value of the items being exchanged. The second number is how much gold your character is carrying. Beware! You will never buy or sell items for the price shown here. However, you can find out how badly you bargained or how dramatic the economic conditions of the region are influencing prices. Even in the best of circumstances, there will be a significant difference between the buying and selling prices of items. Items with a green background are used in one of the quests you are currently running. NOTEBOOK Daggerfall does not include a notebook. Dialogue comments are copied to a special section of your logbook. Your character's background is displayed when you select HISTORY from the character sheet. OPTIONS MENU The DETAIL setting on this menu controls how much of the world is visible. If you have a slower computer, say a 486, you can gain a little extra performance out of the game by setting the detail slider down. DUNGEON AUTOMAP You can left click on a piece of the dungeon to make it flash. Clicking on the gray bar at the bottom of the screen produces a cursor. Whatever you type in there is attached to that piece. To see the description again, click on the dungeon piece, and its description appears in the bar at the bottom of the screen. You can right click on a piece of the dungeon to hide it temporarily. If you are having trouble seeing parts of the dungeon, this is a good way to reveal the solution to the maze. GUILDS Each guild judges whether or not a character is worthy to be enrolled. Worthiness is determined by the character's skills and his reputation. If he has moderate ratings in one or more of the skills the guild deems relevant, and the guild has nothing against him, he will be admitted. For example, to get into the fighter's guild, you need to have at least one weapon skill in the twenties. If you believe you have appropriate skills, but the guild will not admit you, try doing some quests for them. This will boost your reputation. MAGICAL ITEMS The manual incorrectly states that magical items can be repaired and recharged. It should state that magical items cannot be repaired or recharged. When making a magical item, it is possible to use a soul gem to increase the magical potential of an item. First, make sure you have a soul gem in your inventory. Cast Soul Trap on a monster. Kill the monster while the spell is still active. Now carry the soul back to a guildhall that has an Item Maker. When making the item, select the special advantage Soulbound. You will be shown a list of available souls to use. SPELLS The following spells from the manual do not exist in Daggerfall: Acidic Field, Flare, Ghost Form, Harbour Air, Notorgo's Curse, Sanctuary. The spells listed below have been added to the game and may not appear in your manual. Fenrik's Door Jam Mysticism A minor door unlocking spell. Tame Thaumaturgy Has a small chance of preventing a monster (living and non- humanoid) from attacking. Quiet Undead Thaumaturgy Has a small chance of preventing an undead monster from attacking. Balyna's Balm Restoration A minor healing spell. Recall Mysticism The first casting places an invisible marker in that spot. The second casting teleports the player to that spot. After being teleported, the marker is removed. The spell must be cast again to place a new marker. Calm Humanoid Thaumaturgy May prevent a humanoid monster from attacking. Charm Mortal Thaumaturgy May prevent a human enemy from attacking. Holy Touch Mysticism Dispel an undead monster. Tongues Mysticism Increases the chances that a monster with language will not attack your character. Frostbite Destruction A minor offensive spell. Must be in contact with the opponent to cast it. Buoyancy Thaumaturgy Increases your character's underwater speed for a time. Wildfire Destruction Sends a fiery blast toward a single opponent. Even after it strikes, it continues to do damage for a short while. 5. Commonly Asked Questions ================ a) Fighting monsters is really hard! What can I do? Different people have different play styles. Those used to actions games where quick, accurate mouse control will find combat easier. Players that are not will have a more difficult time with combat. You have several options to help yourself. First of all, not all the character classes are equally easy. Those that specialize in weapons are the easiest in combat. Those that have no primary weapon skills and no offensive magic are going to be the toughest. The easiest character class to play is probably the Spellsword. Close behind it are the Warrior, Knight, Battlemage, and Ranger. Amongh the most difficult to play are the Healer, Nightblade, and Bard. Your second option is to set the REFLEXES for your character. Setting it to VERY LOW will slow down the monsters considerably. Of course there is a penalty. LOW and VERY LOW cause your character to advance in level at a slower pace. Finally, get sneaky. Not every monster should be slain. There is no shame in running away from some encounters. Only attack those that you need to kill to reach your objective. Even then there are tactics that can improve your chances in combat. Swing and back up is a good one. The monsters have less chances to hit you. b) Why do my saved game pictures have strangely colored skys? Daggerfall dynamically alters the color palette, particularly with the sky. Since there are multiple pictures on the one saved game menu screen, each trying to use a different palette, the palettes for the skies get messed up. In short don't worry about it, your saved game is safe. c) When I switch weapons, why doesn't it appear right away? As discussed above, there is a short delay for equipping weapons to simulate how long it would take to put away your bow and draw your sword. d) I keep running into walls. Why am I having a hard time controlling my character? Try adjusting the TURNING RATE setting, or the HORIZONTAL and VERTICAL mouse sensitivity. You can find them by pressing ESC to get the OPTIONS menu, then click CONTROLS, then MOUSE. If you are using the default cursor based mode (also on the MOUSE menu), try the view based mode. For many people it is an easier interface. e) Why are the sounds messed up in the animations? Any CD-ROM drive less than a quad speed may lose some of the sound when trying to play an animation. For the truly hard core players, copy *.VID files from the CD-ROM drive onto your hard disk to fix this problem. Warning, they will take up a lot of hard disk space. f) I can't ever seem to find a residence (so-and-so's home). Where are they? When talking to people on the street, click on the GENERAL category of places. You will find the residences and palaces under this heading. g) Why am I not getting a new level? To advance in level, your character must use all his primary and major skills. Depending upon your character class, this may mean using a variety of different weapons, casting different types of spells, or even doing more sneaking and running. If your character has skills that you just don't use very often, considering joining the appropriate guild and train in those skills. Some characters start the game with an ebony dagger. This is a rather potent item that is sure to be your character's principle weapon for some time. If your character has Short Blade as a primary or major skill, this is fine. If not, your character may not advance in level. Try using primary and major skills to defeat weaker opponents (rats and bats), and save the ebony dagger for the tougher monsters. h) Why does fast travelling from one region to another take so long? The game is calculating all the global events for each minute of each day of your journey. This can mean a bit of a wait while the days go by on your trip. i) How can I contact Bethesda on the internet? http://www.bethsoft.com j) Where are all the formulas for how things work? In the Daggerfall Chronicles hintbook! k) When I use the SpellMaker to create a spell, I can't seem to change CHANCE, DURATION or MAGNITUDE. What am I doing wrong? Some players have been confused when using the SpellMaker. You can adjust the CHANCE, DURATION and MAGNITUDE by clicking on the top or bottom of the gray box that displays the current value.