Talk:Drakan: The Ancients' Gates

Some game info

Some tips (may contain small spoilers!)

The first 3-4 hours of play for this game are the hardest. You do not have enough experience to get a decent weapons/spell and the enemies ain't too weak in comparison with those you'll encounter later. This is a crash test for your skills. Thus in Shadowmire you would consider to perform better using bow than a sword. Gaining experience in the beginning, you may want to spent the hard earned points to some Melee and Archery exhancement but upgrading Magic skills later is a must! Please do not forget that you can lock onto any enemy. It may help a lot in some situations and it is the only way to know how mush damage have you already dealt. The lock indicator around enemy will go from yellow (no damage dealt) to orange, red and finally black (almost dead). When fighting skeletons it's better to use the fast sword than any other weapon. Squat down and wait for them coming constantly using your sword. They'll be dead in no time. When fighting with bosses and tough enemies (and most of them are tough in this game) try to trick the weak game AI by hiding behind some obstacles like small rocks, walls, corners, etc. Even when the enemy is visible by 1-2% you can kill it without spending too much of any precious resource (including HP). Running around rocks when using magic is considered a wise strategy. When fighting on the stairs/doorways remember that most of the enemies cannot follow you up or through so hide in small rooms using range weapons or magic. As for the magic spells not all of them are useful. Some like Fireball or Ice Blast are too hard to use with the current control scheme (unless you're locking onto enemy but that's hardly acceptable when they are in groups). Your best friends are Rejuvenate for healing and the spells like Lightning Bolt (you'll get it for free in Andrellian Isles) or Soul Stealer. Time Slow also is a must when you're going to use melee weapons on strong enemies. The easiest way to kill the enemy dragon on the early stages of the game is to use Arokh lighting ability. And this ability will only be available after Andrellian Isles so every dragon battle before will be exremely tough. If you want to try to finish the quest of Khossa Vole before you have this spell it would be extremely hard but still doable. You'll have to lure all four bone dragons one by one and kill them by moving backwards or orbiting them fireing continually. That will keep them in a distance. On the later stages however you may like to use sonic breath better. It will especially be useful against bone dragons because continual firing keeps them away. Locking on them also can help you when you have enough room to maneuver. When fighting with strong dragons like Shaza and Tora (they are unleashed together) that strategy may not be enough. The only safe and sure way to kill them is to hide around the corner of a mountain (so the dragon cannot be seen) and fire your sonic alternative periodically into the area so that it affects the invisible dragon. Alternatively you may want to leave them inside the desert area "visiting" it to deal some damage and retreating to heal yourself. Othewise try your luck in extreme battle in an open air (though it may not last long).

LilyPad configuration

Mouse bindings: Binding 0=0x01010000, 0, 33, 65536, 0, 0 Binding 1=0x02010000, 0, 35, 65536, 0, 0 Binding 2=0x01010001, 0, 34, 65536, 0, 0 Binding 3=0x02010001, 0, 32, 65536, 0, 0 Binding 4=0x00040003, 0, 31, 65536, 0, 0 Binding 5=0x00040004, 0, 24, 65536, 0, 0 Keyboard bindings: Binding 0=0x0004000D, 0, 15, 65536, 0, 0 Binding 1=0x00040014, 0, 12, 65536, 0, 0 Binding 2=0x00040020, 0, 19, 65536, 0, 0 Binding 3=0x00040025, 0, 35, 65536, 0, 0 Binding 4=0x00040026, 0, 32, 65536, 0, 0 Binding 5=0x00040027, 0, 33, 65536, 0, 0 Binding 6=0x00040028, 0, 34, 65536, 0, 0 Binding 7=0x00040031, 0, 26, 65536, 0, 0 Binding 8=0x00040032, 0, 24, 65536, 0, 0 Binding 9=0x00040033, 0, 27, 65536, 0, 0 Binding 10=0x00040034, 0, 25, 65536, 0, 0 Binding 11=0x00040041, 0, 31, 65536, 0, 0 Binding 12=0x00040043, 0, 36, 65536, 0, 0 Binding 13=0x00040044, 0, 39, 65536, 0, 0 Binding 14=0x00040046, 0, 37, 65536, 0, 0 Binding 15=0x00040052, 0, 38, 65536, 0, 0 Binding 16=0x00040053, 0, 29, 65536, 0, 0 Binding 17=0x00040057, 0, 28, 65536, 0, 0 Binding 18=0x00040058, 0, 16, 65536, 0, 0 Binding 19=0x0004005A, 0, 30, 65536, 0, 0 Binding 20=0x00040062, 0, 22, 65536, 0, 0 Binding 21=0x00040064, 0, 23, 65536, 0, 0 Binding 22=0x00040066, 0, 21, 65536, 0, 0 Binding 23=0x00040068, 0, 20, 65536, 0, 0 Binding 24=0x000400A0, 0, 12, 65536, 0, 0 Binding 25=0x000400A4, 0, 24, 65536, 0, 0 Comments: Alt - strafe modifier Use mouse when aiming an arrow (S to enter aiming mode)

Discussion

After trying many, many versions, I have found r985 to be the best for this game. This old GUI version came after the "freezing bug", before the "tree graphics bug" and right after VU Cycle Stealing speed hack was added, giving it very nice speed (way better than more recent versions). I had only one glitch with a corrupt save using the in-game memory card to save so, save often and scatter them around the 4 available memcard slots. 100% speed, no crashing, no freezing, no messed up tree graphics!

I used: PCSX2 r985 from http://emu.crimsonrain.com/2009/04/pcsx2-svn-r985.html Ran from the pcsx2-sse2.exe All plugins from PCSX2 Official Beta 1888 (mid September 2009) The only speed hack required to run at 100% speed was VU Cycle Stealing 2/4 on the slider

My PC: AMD Athlon x2 7850 (dual core @ stock 2.81 GHz) Nvidia GTS 250 (1 Gig) 4 Gig Memory Windows XP Pro 32 bit SP3

If you're gonna test/play it at least to a half of the game why don't we just replace my configuration with yours if it's glitches/crashes free? For now I've added your config as text alternative, please correct me in case of any errors :) --Ngng 05:27, October 6, 2009 (UTC)

Edit: I'll update when I finish the game to let you know if I run into any glitches.

Edit: Done. r985 played all the way through, no major issues. Main page updated with info.

Thanks! :) I've cleared my config replacing by yours, please correct if something's wrong. Left my video card, because it's weaker thus lower the requirements! --Ngng 05:55, October 10, 2009 (UTC)

Couldn't manage to reproduce the game hanging when loading a memory card save after loading a save state made before the save was made but it did stop recognizing the memory card and prevented saving the game but still allowed loading it.