Dungeon Siege Adepts v0.9
By Irwin Ryan
(iryan@unimelb.edu.au)
July 17, 2004
=====================================
I. Requirements

  Dungeon Siege LOA (version 1.5)

II. Introduction

  Dungeon Siege Adepts is a modification for Dungeon Siege(TM) by Gas Powered Games, Inc.
(TM). It is primarily for singleplayer but will work in multiplayer.

 This modification attempts to improve the gameplay of Dungeon Siege by making a number
of fundamental changes. As the name suggests, characters and monsters are far smarter than
normal and this leads to some pretty intense and spectacular battles, rather than a long, drawn
out brawls against solo monsters and small mobs.  It is also a lot harder than normal play, and
some forgotten aspects of RPG's like resurrection and spell healing make a comeback and are
an essential part of gameplay (potions are still available but provide more of a support role
than being the main avenue of healing characters).

 Please refer to the Gameplay section for important information about how the a.i. now reacts
to your commands as you now communicate to your characters by where you left click on
the ground, in addition to the default party controls.

  Dungeon Siege Adepts v0.9 Features
  ============================
     - Supports Kingdom of Ehb, Legends of Aranna & Legends of Utrae
       . Gameplay alterations will probably work on many other 3rd party maps
     - Monsters are far stronger, tougher and regenerate health
     - Monsters are smarter and will call for aid from even species different to their own 
     - Monsters will flee if hurt too much
     - Unconciousness is now very rare/Death more frequent
     - However characters won't drop their equiped gear, so once they're revived, they are
       ready to continue fighting
     - Experience gain is higher 
     - Spells that could never be found in singleplayer games now drop (eg Meteor Storm)
     - Most Spells have had their damage, level  & mana requirements changed
     - Storekeepers sell rings, amulets and backpacks
     - Throwing weapons like spears, axes, knives, tomahawks & shrukikens have been added
     - Robes are more affordable and provide more protection so mages can look the part
     - Max Gold increased to 99,999,999
     - Summons now operate as auto casted attack spells and regenerate health
     - Glyphs now give the proper experience
     - Packmules & Tragg are now ignored by the monsters
       . this makes them a viable alternative to anyone who dislikes having to continually
         pick up spilled inventories after they or characters die (it'll happen often)
       . as long as Tragg don't bother the monsters, they'll leave them alone. However Tragg
         are subject to cross fire and can be killed quite easily
     - Stun is now less frequent (was far too powerfull before)
     - Dwarf, Half-Giant, Skeleton, Goblin, Snake Woman & Utraeans selectable in singleplayer
     - Health regenerates very slowly
     - Mana regenerates very quickly but consequently spells generally use more mana
     - As long as healing spells or scrolls are in one of the active spell slots,  characters will 
       autocast the spell without it being selected, while still using the  selected spell for 
       mages and fighting normally for melee and ranged characters 
     - As long as resurrection spells or scrolls are in the spellbook, any character will autocast
       the spell or scroll without it  being selected, it doesn't even have to be in either of the 
       active spell slots. If characters don't have enough mana they'll use a scroll if available
     - All characters can revive and heal others, which makes training melee characters to at
       level 1 in Nature Magic a viable tactic
     - Characters will autocast most buff spells using the autocast mod by Flam (see docs),
       which together with the healing & resurrection spells, makes multiclass characters a viable
       alternative and improves the existing magic classes
     - Lokiswaq's BufUI has been incorporated into Adepts so you can see what your characters
       are casting upon themselves (see docs for usage)
     - Characters will try to support and defend each other. This goes as far as characters
       disobeying movement orders to run off to heal or revive fallen companions and even
       showing grief and paniking if prevented from doing so 
     - Characters will try not to stand on each other when attacking (more visually appealing)
     - Mini Map shows more area (fog of war still remains)
     - Fog has been reduced on the three supported maps

  III. Installation and Usage

  Just place Adepts.dsres into the DSLOA folder where you installed the game, or use a
mod manager. Make sure that you remove any prior or alternative version of Adepts.

 IV. Removal

  To remove this modification, delete Adepts.dsres from wherever you installed it.

 V. Compatibility & Known Issues

  This mod requires Dungeon Siege: Legends of Aranna and while it'll run on the original
Dungeon Siege v1.11.1 and even allow you to save and load games around Elddim, eventually it'll 
probably cause an exception error and crash. This mod will conflict with other mods that modify
the base templates (probably all of them). 

 The only mods to be tested and work correctly with it are Zhixalom's inventory mod,  LoA inv 
by Rheingauner and Diable fonts by Mechacthulhu. 

 Characters will still drop their equiped items if killed while transformed. 

 After being revived, mages will occasionally not re-equip their staffs properly. Just use the
control groupings to restore their proper setting or click on the spell icon (this is an inbuilt
bug in DS).

Rarely the inventory will lock up and you won't be able to select anything in it. Try getting
the character to pick something else up and the bug should disappear (another inbuilt bug
in DS that occurs even in the normal game).

Somethings shields will seem to disappear from the inventories of characters using the
throwing weapons (this can also happen to bows & crossbows and is another inbuilt
DS bug). They can also be unequipped yet their benefits still show on the character and the
character still carries the shield in-game. Some things to do if this occurs;
1) If you are trying to equip a shield, instead of right-clicking it, pick it up and drop it into 
   your equip slot.
2) If you are trying to unequip a shield, pick it up and drop it into your inventory (or on the 
   ground), then select your melee weapon again.
3) If you have had a shield disappear (and/or apparently have two shields stuck in the shield 
   slot), pick the visible one up and drop it to the ground, then select your melee weapon.
   Repeat to retrieve the second shield and drop it on the ground. Then choose which one you want 
   to have the character actually use. 
Tips courtesy of Xaa. 
If you don't muck around with the shields too much (just replace them as you find a more powerfull 
one), this bug probably won't even be noticeable to you.

 Rarely a character will get knocked unconcious (yes it's still possible but uncommon), get 
healed but remain stuck on the ground. Just change one of the field command settings and 
they'll jump up again (should be fixed in this version ). 

 Early in the game you have to be carefull when using resurrection scrolls. The computer will 
instruct 2 or even 3 characters, if they're not busy doing something else, to try to revive a 
dead comrade  wasting valuable scrolls (with the added benefit of the revived character being
revived with full health). Later on in the game this just results in wasted mana  if using spells, 
but early on in the game could leave you short of resurrection scrolls. This is why all characters 
can now learn resurrect at a low level. 
 
 While the auto-resurrection code is quite reliable, there are rare occasions when it can fail and
characters will continue to attack or just stand around doing nothing (if no monsters are around).

 VI. Gameplay

 This mod is primarily focused for play on Legends of Utrae V2.0, but both Legends of
Aranna and Kingdom of Ehb can be used as well. 

 Healing spells will only be autocasted if they are in one of the two active spell slots. This
is so you can 'turn them off' if you want to. After all do you want your melee fighters 
stopping in the middle of battle to try to heal themselves? That's the job for your mages.
Teaching your melee fighter to cast healing spells is only usefull so they can learn
resurrect at level one nature magic, or if you want to duel or multiclass them.

Resurrection spells & scrolls will be autocasted from anywhere in the spell book as they
depend on the spell's range for their effect and don't create the problems of healing spells.
If you want your characters to autorevive each other just keep them close together. This
works 99% of the time. It is possible for it to fail however and you'll have to manually cast
the spell.

Even if your party is almost decimated, I encourage you to try to continue to fight by
regrouping the survivors and using different tactics. It is very satisfying to save a very
perilious situation rather than resorting to quick loading. Plus even when dead your
characters will regenerate mana.

 As well as the field commands, the player now communicates with the party ( especially the
mages ) by where they left click on the ground when moving the party. Left clicking the mouse
outside of 16 game metres of a character basically orders that character to move near that 
position regardless of what the character may want to do ( ie heal or revive). So if you need 
to make the party retreat after taking a beating ( especially if 1 or more members have died ) 
just left click as far away as you can and they'll respond as best they can. Otherwise they'll 
ignore your commands, to help their injured or fallen comrade (often to their own demise).
Note that this distance includes the range of the current healing spell, so that a mage when
ordered to retreat will actually cast a healing or resurrection spell 10 metres from where you
clicked for the party to retreat to.

 Left clicking on the ground also creates a zone of control for the mages ( of about 16 game 
metres plus the range of their healing spells). While they'll freely move outside of this zone 
to attack, if they or another character gets hurts or another character dies, they'll then 
panic ( running back and forwards ). Melee fighters will often relentlessly pursue monsters all
over the place leaving the mages behind and causing them to panic. If this occurs just left 
click near them and they'll resume acting as normal ( plus it'll reel in the hot headed melee 
fighters). 

Using control groupings and field commands can help immensely in controlling the behaviour of 
your party members. Also buying a backpack as soon as possible to store valuables in is a good
idea. That way you just need to hit Z. Also Alt is very usefull so you can actually see the
battleground at times.  Even better there's now a very good reason for purchasing a pack mule to 
store all the loot, saves pressing alt and z all the time, but lose a party member (Pack Mules now
can't be killed).

While summons lack the durability of the normal game despite their health regeneration, the 
ability to autocast them makes them invaluable when retreating or if the melee fighters have hit 
the turf. 

The autocasting of buffs can stress out your computer if you have a large party. The solution is
to either only have a couple of buffs in the spellbooks, and/or have smaller parties.
Most buffs in Adepts are less usefull than in the normal game due to the increased difficulty, ie 
the small benefits that magic armor gives you are ineffectual against these monsters. However some 
buffs are still very usefull, ie the orbs and especially haste & group haste (who wouldn't want an
increase of 20% to their attack and movement rate!).

 Many tactics will have to be abandoned and new ones found. Some obscure spells may be more usefull
in Adepts than in normal DS. Experiment.

 VII. Credits

 If I forgot to directly credit anyone here I apologise. There has been many usefull posts in the
 forums at Siegenetwork & Siegeworks which has helped in the development of this mod. Also sincere
 thanks to all of those players who have emailed me or posted about previous versions of the mod.
 All feedback has been helpfull in trying to create a fun and interesting mod.
 
 Francisco 'Omniscient_Colossus' Athens
 Jason “Unkle-Ernsie” Ernsdorff 
 Jason 'Ikkyo' Gripp
 Richard Ballantyne
 Maa-Jussi
 Tomcat39
 Jeff Kretz
 Icemage
 Hamcat
 Foxfire
 Myros
 Xaa
 Zig
 
 And also for Lokiswaq for his BufUI and Flam for the autocast mod. These are worth downloading
from Siegenetwork and using on their own or with other mods!

 IX. Legal Rhetoric

  All code and art contained herein is the intellectual property of the author, Gas Powered 
Games, Inc., and all other persons who work contributed to this mod.  You may modify and/or 
redistribute this work if you properly credit the authors for the work they have done. Dungeon 
Siege is a registered trademark of Gas Powered Games, Inc. and Microsoft, Inc.

Irwin Ryan

