Realms of Quest V FAQ/hints/walkthrough?

[Ghislain]

So I implemented a feature where a plus sign (+) appears next to the Ally command if said player happens to have an ally. Hopefully it serves as a reminder that the player can use it. However, I had to use all of the remaining free memory allocated for the combat module to implement this.

The manual will describe this feature as follows on page 32 of the manual:

If a player has an ally (+), it can perform an action in his or her stead. Any kills performed by an ally will give credit to the player in terms of gaining experience.

[ral-clan]

Sorry to have to make you implement that that way. I understand the tight constraints.

I think an "ally" icon might been more useful than some of the other icons present. Like the alignment icon. I don't think the player really needs to be constantly notified of the each character's alignment on the "front page" like that - an Ally status icon might have been more useful (if bytes are limited).

I also was wondering why you didn't make keyboard shortcuts for everything (like "C" to cast), etc. After all, the VIC-20 has a full keyboard, unlike a console.

I guess I'm just used to the keyboard shortcuts of Ultima.

I'm enjoying the game. It is a little difficult in terms of opponents, but that's what you wanted. I noticed that the cloth map doesn't name the woods or other geographical places mentioned by the in-game people you meet - was that intentional, or is there a more detailed digital map with places labelled on it?

As for my experience using floppies: I did choose to play with floppies on purpose as I wanted the original experience - and to get some use out of my neglected floppy drive (I also have an uIEC). As you can imagine, there is a lot of disk flipping (I have one drive), but as my sessions are not that long it's been okay.

If I downloaded the new 1.2 version you made, I would consider playing it from the uIEC though, now that I have experienced the floppy method. Can it be run from a .D81 image? Also, can the save game files from the floppy version be migrated to the .D81 image version of the game?

Oh, and I never got a notification from the publisher that 1.1 was available.

Thanks.

[JavaJack]

[As for being able to know which players have allies with them during combat by way of a marker or symbol next to the character name, that would be difficult to do because there is no screen real estate left to allow this.

Possibly it could be done by recoloring one of the existing characters.

[ral-clan]

[As for being able to know which players have allies with them during combat by way of a marker or symbol next to the character name, that would be difficult to do because there is no screen real estate left to allow this.

Possibly it could be done by recoloring one of the existing characters.

Yes, or using reverse text on the player's name.

[JavaJack]

an indicator beside the party members icon to show if he/she had an ally or not.

I'm playing on emulator so I just keep a spreadsheet up on the side to track this

Also using this for mapping the dungeons but it's a little tedious because I'm being very conservative and methodical about going space by space.

[Ghislain]

Sorry to have to make you implement that that way. I understand the tight constraints.

I think an "ally" icon might been more useful than some of the other icons present. Like the alignment icon. I don't think the player really needs to be constantly notified of the each character's alignment on the "front page" like that - an Ally status icon might have been more useful (if bytes are limited).

I just came up with the following solution for displaying whether a player has an ally or not:

A "+1" will appear to the right of the player name when they have an ally with them. This will also serve as a visual clue when the ally dies, because this symbol will disappear. The only drawback using this is that if the player's name is 10 characters long, then the 10th character is replaced by this symbol.

I also was wondering why you didn't make keyboard shortcuts for everything (like "C" to cast), etc. After all, the VIC-20 has a full keyboard, unlike a console.

I guess I'm just used to the keyboard shortcuts of Ultima.

Realms III and IV used a combination of menu commands and shortcut keys to issue commands. This was fairly easy to do with those games as the number of commands was limited. With Realms V, there were many more commands--especially in terms of commands that begin with the same letter--and this would cause conflicts. Plus, I had tried to combine shortcut keys with menus in this game, and I did not like the results. So I decided that Realms V would be entirely menu-driven with the use of direction keys or joystick. But I did implement allowing the use of the number keys (1 through 0) to select the player character.

I'm enjoying the game. It is a little difficult in terms of opponents, but that's what you wanted. I noticed that the cloth map doesn't name the woods or other geographical places mentioned by the in-game people you meet - was that intentional, or is there a more detailed digital map with places labelled on it?

That was intentional--the player will have to explore and discover these things. For example, there is a clue that refers to an island that has a name. Well, the island in question has a village (that is not printed on the map) that happens to have the name of the island as its namesake.

As for the difficulty of the game--I find it far too easy myself. Realms of Quest IV was actually much harder

As for my experience using floppies: I did choose to play with floppies on purpose as I wanted the original experience - and to get some use out of my neglected floppy drive (I also have an uIEC). As you can imagine, there is a lot of disk flipping (I have one drive), but as my sessions are not that long it's been okay.

If I downloaded the new 1.2 version you made, I would consider playing it from the uIEC though, now that I have experienced the floppy method. Can it be run from a .D81 image? Also, can the save game files from the floppy version be migrated to the .D81 image version of the game?

Oh, and I never got a notification from the publisher that 1.1 was available.

Thanks.

In the 8-bit days, it was not uncommon to swap disks when playing Ultima or Pool of Radiance, so I wanted to provide that experience for the VIC-20 enthusiast But yeah, the recommended setup is using an SD card reader or 1581 disk drive.

Yes, you can transfer the savegame files (SAVEG1 thru SAVEG4) to the disk image (D64 or D81) of the new version of the game, and it will work. In fact, the D81 version of the game is perfect for playing with the SD card reader.

As for getting version 1.1 of the game, just PM me with your email address and I'll be happy to send it to you.

[Ghislain]

I've changed "+1" to the Unicode Symbol for "join" -- ⨝. Meaning that an ally/companion/monster has joined the player in question.

I did this to avoid confusion with the plus signs (+ and ++) that are used to indicate when players gain enough experience for level advancement.

[ral-clan]

If I downloaded the new 1.2 version you made, I would consider playing it from the uIEC though, now that I have experienced the floppy method. Can it be run from a .D81 image? Also, can the save game files from the floppy version be migrated to the .D81 image version of the game?

Yes, you can transfer the savegame files (SAVEG1 thru SAVEG4) to the disk image (D64 or D81) of the new version of the game, and it will work.

I noticed there is a SAVEG5 file on my "A" side of the first floppy. What is that (since there are only four save slots)?

[Ghislain]

I noticed there is a SAVEG5 file on my "A" side of the first floppy. What is that (since there are only four save slots)?

The file SAVEG5 is specifically for the "Quick Start" party.

[ral-clan]

PS: I was successful in transferring all my SAVEG files from the real floppy to a .D81 of version 1.2 on my uIEC.