The Best of Select: Games Special 4/THE BEST OF SELECT Games Special 4 (Select CD-ROM)(1996).iso/tips/cheetcht/3mberstr.txt

Text File | 1995-02-06 | 58KB | 1,232 lines

~Amberstar

Solution obtained from The Adventure Probe BBS.

`                   AMBERSTAR - Thalion
`                 Playguide by Brian Burke

Part 1 - Introduction, General Information and Hints

~Introduction.

Amberstar is a large, colourful and enjoyable RPG. The
programmers' objective was to out-Ultima the guys at Origin.
Having never played an Ultima game whether they've succeeded or
not I don't know. What I can say is that the control system is
excellent once you've sussed out that the manual, though seemingly
comprehensive, does not provide all the answers to which icon does
what. You can't beat a bit of hands-on experience.

I understand that folks trying to play off floppies on the Amiga
have had a problem but the guy I spoke to at Thalion in Germany
seemed to think all was OK now. Playing off a hard drive with only
1 meg you'll need to use Control-D to cut out Workbench loading.

The task is to find 13 parts of the Amberstar and join them in a
special place to allow the party access to the Fortress of
Godsbane and thus smite down the nasties. Piece of cake!

The Graphic presentations come in four types of display.

The opening scene finds your character in Twinlake Graveyard in an
Ultima style scene. Some interior scenes replicate this such as in
a house, a Guild or an Inn. Scrolling is a joy throughout.

Entering a town or a cellar etc brings up a scene that's a cross
between SSI and Dungeon Master. Until a Compass or the Staff of
Direction is obtained the only way to tell which is North or South
is to use the auto-mapping facility.  In Cellars and underground
locations the auto-mapping will not work unless a Torch is
activated.

Leaving a Town, Cave or Tower brings an overhead view reminiscent
of Faery Tale. The game map is very large and whether your Party
is walking, riding, sailing or flying you will encounter dawn,
day, evening and night changes. This is reflected by the amount of
map that you can see on screen. Time can be accelerated by use of
the "Zzz" icon.

The final scenario is the Battle mode. The less active amongst us
will be delighted to know that this is not realtime. Actions, such
as fight or cast magic spells and movement can be planned on a
character by character basis and a single icon press will carry
out those instructions. You just sit back and drink your coffee
whilst the hapless protagonists slug it out crying such
encouragement out as "Hit him, you twit" and so on.

~Character Set-Up.

Although the game starts with a single character who becomes your
alter-ego you do need, in time, to fill all six character slots up
with a selected group. The character stats need to be created
prior to starting the game proper. Be patient and keep the dice
rolling until you are satisfied with the figures.  Subsequent
promotions will enable such attributes like Strength, Attack and
Parry prowess, Read and Use Magic scrolls, Swimming, Pick Locks,
Find and Disarm Traps to be increased.

~Movement over the Map.

At an early stage it is advisable to buy a horse from the Stables
in Twinlake.  This means that you only lay out 150 gold for your
single character. Subsequent additions to the Party all clamber
upon the back of this poor creature without detriment to its
performance! If you've two characters when you buy a horse then
it's 300 Gold and so on.  Having a horse means that Rivers can be
crossed without losing Life Points by not having sufficient
swimming skills. You'll also not be allowed to enter Lakes or the
Sea.  To enter Woods and Forests though you must be on foot so
will have to park Dobbin in a place where you can find him (her)
again.  Think I'm joking? - this is a BIG game.

Twinlake offers Rafts for sale but two of these are to be found
for free. One at the end of a jetty on the western shore line and
another in the north west of the map. A Boat, on the other hand,
you have to buy at some point. As these cost 5000 Gold it'll be a
little time before you acquire one. Whilst this sum of money can
be found in Crystal I recommend that you use that to fund other
purposes first. Boats can be bought in Crystal or from an
extremely remote island in the north west.

Later in the game a "Blue Disc" can replace the horse and best of
all the ultimate way to travel is via your own tame Eagle - shades
of Questron (no gambling in this game though).

Finally there's a method known as "The Windgates". These are
croquet type hoops that transport the Party, from a central island
to the south of Twinlake, to locations that are close to points of
interest.  Before the Windgates can be used the artefact that
enables them must be obtained. There are two of these to be found.

~Fighting & Character Promotion.

As usual sending the baddies to their version of Valhalla is the
only way to gain Experience. Entering each relevant Guild gives
your character information as to how many points are required to
reach the next level. Each promotion costs so have your purse
available.  Some classes cost more than others.

At each promotion you are invited to allocate points to the
disciplines I described above. Briefly these should initially be -
Warriors - Attack/Parry skills
Thief - Pick Locks
Paladin - Read and Use Scrolls OR Attack/Parry
Wizards - Read and Use Scrolls
There are also Monk and Ranger classes which I did not employ but
who are available in the game.

Misreading the manual I mistakenly thought my Human character
could enter a multitude of classes so when I'd acquired 30
experience points I beetled into the Warrior Guild for my extra
skill points and to receive my extra Life Points. When I then
tried to enter another class and was turned away I was
inconsolable. In the event I was well pleased as I set up my
Battle formation with a Warrior at either side of the first row
with all four weaker characters on the back row.

The Warriors cannot advance beyond the second row of the grid.
The enemy come down the screen towards your team and can only be
hit by the front men if they are adjacent or directly in front of
your characters.  Black Wizards are the guys with offensive
spells. They can cast spells on any retreating baddies in
individual or group mode dependent on the type of spell. White
Wizards are the Clerics and Grey Wizards cast defensive spells.

~Healing and Defence.

It's as well to cast Anti-Magic spells as soon as you enter battle
and follow that up with Armour Protection and Weapon Power in
subsequent turns. Healing your folks when they are poisoned, go
mad, blinded, stunned or made ill is a pain and expensive. Some of
those ailments take your character out of a battle scenario so be
warned.

Herbs can be bought that offer an "on-line" cure mode. There's a
shop in the north west of Illien, the Elf Village that sells -
Dolden - use to heal Poisoning.
Blueplant - use to cure Madness.
Redplant - reverses Ageing.
Drelben - cures Paralysis (stun).
Packets of Herbs - cure Sickness (disease).
Using these is much cheaper than the Temple healers.

Potions are also available that do the same job. Again there's a
shop in Illien to the south of the Herb shop and the Monks Guild
also stock a good many. I can't replicate all the Potion symbols
due to the limitations of my keyboard but hopefully you'll
recognise which is representative of what from those below -

M = Healing 5 potion.  This is the preferred one.
N = healing
D = cure Poisoning
1X1 = replace spell points _
X = Replace Spell Points This is the preferred one
< = cure Blindness
The same with an additional half a chevron = cure Disease(sickness).
P = cure Paralysis (stun)
There's also one for "Treat Weapon with Balsam". Go on - get the edge.


~Weapons and Special Objects.

As your Party root and loot their way through dusty crevices and
rusty Chests they come across all manner of goodies. Practically
everything is worth taking as this is the way to fill your purse
with Gold.  The bad news is that you are limited by the strength
of each character as to just how much weight each can carry. There
is