Lords of Darkhall

[tseckington]

Has anyone played this RL besides me? It was featured on the front page a couple weeks ago and I've really enjoyed it since then. Attempts to contact the author have met with no success.

I'm wondering if it's still indev, despite the warning that he's letting the project die. I thought it showed a lot of potential and I really enjoyed its accessibility.

[Brigand]

redacted

[tseckington]

I'd love to. I had never heard of your game until I saw it on the release wire here, so that had something to do with my silence.

Also: I do like the skill tree and you do need to change the way ranged combat works. TAB to select a target and Space to fire is the only non-intuitive thing you've got going. F for "fire" and then the arrow keys to move your targeting around (or TAB to cycle targets) would feel better.

[Lavastine]

I left a comment for one of the new versions you posted to your site, but no one responded to my response so I kinda figured nobody read it. I was hoping to see it continue.

[corremn]

It seems to me that roguelike players dont realise it is their duty to encourage the developer to continue their hard work 

When ever I play a RL for the first time I tend to write an email or respond to a thread to give encouragement.  It was only after I moved to sourceforge that I realised people where actually downloading my game. 

Darkhall showed promise as do most new roguelikes and it is sad to see development stop but as long as you keep programming and keep the passion alive it does not matter if you never finish your first attempts because eventually (hopefully) you will create something great. Unfortunately no one will tell you it is great and you will probably abandon that aswell

[Brigand]

redacted

[Adral]

Since I've read this thread, I decided to give Lord of Darkhall a spin.

I had to wine the game, but I get a performance which is ridiculously slow, so I don't think I am gonna play the game again.

Anyway, I have seen great ideas on the little time I've played: for instance, the "skill tree" approach is certainly cool. I also like how you get to pick up where to spend your points at level up, as well as the relations between attributes and game factors like mana, health, etc. I have not liked the graphics much, since I am more of an ASCII person, but I could live with that just fine.

What I really didn't like was the way to manage your inventory... I don't like having to use the mouse for roguelikes. Maybe I didn't pay attention and there is another way of handling items, though. Also, the same "no mouse policy" applies to the skill tree screen and the level up screen.

Anyway, good work, and I hope you keep being a roguelike developer!

[Maelstrom]

All is good, but message "Run-time error '50003': Unexpected error" pops up right after the splash screen, and then program shuts down.

[Brigand]

Since I've read this thread, I decided to give Lord of Darkhall a spin.

I had to wine the game, but I get a performance which is ridiculously slow, so I don't think I am gonna play the game again.

Anyway, I have seen great ideas on the little time I've played: for instance, the "skill tree" approach is certainly cool. I also like how you get to pick up where to spend your points at level up, as well as the relations between attributes and game factors like mana, health, etc. I have not liked the graphics much, since I am more of an ASCII person, but I could live with that just fine.

What I really didn't like was the way to manage your inventory... I don't like having to use the mouse for roguelikes. Maybe I didn't pay attention and there is another way of handling items, though. Also, the same "no mouse policy" applies to the skill tree screen and the level up screen.

Anyway, good work, and I hope you keep being a roguelike developer!

Thank you very much for the reply! In response to your 'no mouse policy' - everything in the game is actually already completely hotkeyed. You can use cursor keys and enter on the inventory screen instead of the mouse if you prefer; tab functionality works just like a standard windows application, moving you successively through the controls. On the same note, the cursor keys work similarly in the shop; you can press B to buy and sell to sell (with or without the standard alt key combo). I've tried to make things are easy as possible to play, though I can see exactly why you would assume you had to use a mouse. I'll add a comment to the inventory screen to make it clearer. Again, thank you for taking the time to post.

[Brigand]

All is good, but message "Run-time error '50003': Unexpected error" pops up right after the splash screen, and then program shuts down.

Hmmm....never seen this before....What OS are you using?? Anything older than Windows 2000 (maybe 98) might need a download of the common VB dlls (like the common dialog box); most of this stuff is included automatically in Windows these days. I'll put up a standard SetUp.exe program that also installs these automatically if they aren't included (they are very small, and easily deletable if you don't want them  on your system.)

[Maelstrom]

Windows XP.
VB 6 installed.

[Brigand]

That's really strange; I did a little research last night and found that the error is indeed a VB6 DLL error. Somehow something on your system must have gotten renamed, or moved. This is a short version of what I found:

"f you get the error 'Runtime error 50003. Unexpected error' after trying to run the new version, you will need to upgrade the file tabctl32.ocx.   This file normally resides in your Windows\System directory.  Search your computer for this file and download the file to the directory where the file exists replacing the current file. "


It may or may not be specifically tabctl32.ocx(dll); more likely it's  Comctl32.ocx or Comdlg32.ocx, as I am pretty sure I use those in my program.

Hope this helps!

[mariodonick]

An old thread, but anyway ...  Well, I just played Lords of DarkHall and besides some minor things, this could be a major roguelike one day if developed further. Much effort went into everything, and there are more possibilities than one recognizes at the first glance.

Although I died soon while swimming through water (I think), a short overview on what I liked about the game:

• Character generation
• The town dialog where the game starts has a nice picture
• The interface concept in general - it's very streamlined and I like the mouse support
• The skilltree and the many possibilities one has

Some things to work on:

• The performance is really bad. This should clearly be optimized, as this is the only thing that has negative influence on enjoying the game
• The grey color of the dialog boxes and the Arial or Sans Serif font used is not very atmospheric; perhaps change the color or apply a nice background texture, and change the font to Times New Roman or Georgia or something fantasy-ish
• I'm not against graphics at all, but there is room for optimization, too

Besides these points, I really enjoy the game. The only real issue is the performance.


Mario

[Perdurabo]

Yeah, its a shame this is apparently no longer in development. It had much potential.

[Brigand]

redacted