- Installation:
The following three files need to be synced onto
your Palm Pilot before entering Dark Haven:
- Dark Haven.prc
- Dark Haven.pdb
- Haven Picture.pdb
- Registered and Unregistered version: Your exploration will be limited to the arena complex if you are playing with the unregistered version of the game. For information on registering, click the ‘Register’ button on the About… menu item in the File menu.
- Character Creation: Character creation is a simple process in Dark Haven. The work of shaping your character takes place during the course of the game. Select the new button from the introduction screen; you will be able to select a name and let the adventure begin!
- Saving and
Loading: You can save your game at
any time by using the Save Game... command from
the File menu. There can be at most three
different saved games at any one time.
You can load a previously saved game at any time by using the Load Game... command from the File menu.
When you synchronize your Pilot, your saved games will be backed up into a file called ‘Haven_Save.PDB’ in your Pilot backup folder. If your pilot ever loses its memory, simply install the ‘Haven_Save.PDB’ file back into your Pilot.
- Quitting the Game: Dark Haven uses the Pilot’s hardware buttons for game control. In order to quit, you must tap the Applications silk screen button and launch another application. Once you’ve pressed the Applications button, the hardware buttons will regain their normal functions. Be sure you save your game before changing to another application!
- Moving:
You can move around Dark Haven using four of the
Pilot’s hardware buttons. The up and down
buttons will move you up and down. The Address
Book button will move you left and the To Do
button will move you right. Some terrain is
passable and some isn’t. There are also many
places you can’t explore till you have
completed some quests or gained some prestige.
Don’t get frustrated.
- Character
Information: You explore the city of
Dark Haven through the eyes and actions of a lone
hero. At the beginning of the game, your hero
will be weak, lost, and confused. However, as the
game progresses, you will have many chances to
improve your character, molding him or her into
one of many different personalities, such as that
of a mighty warrior, deadly sorcerer, pious
cleric or an agile thief.
- Statistics: There are eight primary statistics, each of which you will be able to improve over the course of the game. Almost all of this improvement will come from training at guild facilities, but equipment will also modify the statistics. You can view your character’s statistics by pressing the Character Information button (the button with a heart on it in Figure 1).
- Strength (Str):A measure of your character’s physical strength. Its most common benefit is increased damage in combat. It will also help if you ever need to move something heavy.
- Intelligence (Int): Your character’s mental ability. As intelligence improves your character will gain spell points, have access to more powerful spells, cast spells more quickly, have spells resisted less frequently, and be better able to put two and two together.
- Offense (Off): Determines how well your character knows how to attack in combat. A high offense will allow you to score hits more often.
- Defense (Def): Determines how well your character can avoid getting hit in combat. A high defense will let you dance between your opponents’ clumsy attacks.
- Agility (Agil): Speed and quickness. A high agility will allow your character to act more often in combat, and will also prove helpful if you ever need to balance on a ledge or tumble out of the way of a trap.
- Endurance (End): Your character’s durability. As endurance increases your character will gain hitpoints, recover fatigue more quickly in combat, and will be more likely to survive the many shocks and stresses found in Dark Haven.
- Toughness (Tough): A measure of the thickness of your character’s skin, and how well your character can roll with the punches. High values in this statistic will come almost exclusively from wearing armor, but a little skill never hurts.
- Counter (Counter): This statistic is used to determine
how good your character is at capitalizing on an opening
left when your opponent misses in combat. It can be very
potent when combined with a strong defense, but you may
want to focus on other statistics early in the game.
- Hunger, Sleep and
Fatigue:
Exploring a dangerous city is hard work;
if you aren’t careful your character
will get tired, fatigued, sleepy, hungry,
and in a lot of trouble.
Strong physical exertion (like combat) will fatigue your character, lowering the effectiveness of all statistics. When tired enough, the mightiest warrior will fight like a beginning character. Fatigue goes from 0 all the way up to 100. If you ever get to 100, your character passes out and will almost surely die. Dark Haven is a dangerous place; be careful!
Sleep Deprivation and Hunger are directly related to fatigue. They are both added directly to your fatigue and no amount of casual resting will cure their effects. In order to cure Sleep Deprivation you need to spend a night in the inn. Only eating can cure Hunger.
As an example, if your character has 20 Sleep Deprivation, 20 Hunger, and 20 points of Fatigue (perhaps from fighting in a combat) their effective fatigue will be 60, more than half way to total exhaustion.
Regular fatigue (not Hunger or Sleep Depravation related) will be recovered relatively quickly as your character walks around, one point of fatigue for every minute or two.
- Experience: As your character explores he or she will gain experience from fighting, completing quests, and finding treasures. You will be able to spend this experience at guilds to increase statistics and learn spells.
- Items and
Inventory: You will find many types
of items in Dark Haven and you will need them
all. There are weapons (both one handed and two
handed), armor (helmets, shields, boots, gloves,
body armor), items that cast spells (wands and
potions), rings, and quest items (some common and
some rare - you won’t be able to drop the
rare ones).
You can examine your character’s inventory by clicking the Inventory button (the button with the crossed sword and axe on it in Figure 1).
By clicking on any item in your inventory, you might be able to use it, equip it, drop it, examine it, or any combination depending upon its type.
Useable items have limited numbers of charges, so be sure you really want to expend a charge before clicking use. Further, some useable items only have combat effects; you won’t be able to use them unless you are in combat.
You can also rearrange the order that items appear in your character’s inventory by selecting an item and using the up and down arrows to move it around.
Characters will be able to wear one suit of armor, one pair of gloves, two rings, one helm, one shield (if using one handed weapon), one pair of boots, and wield one weapon.
- Spells:
Spells are very powerful and are an important
part of any successful character’s arsenal.
Even warriors will benefit from learning spells;
don’t neglect them!
You can examine your character’s spells by clicking on the Spells button (the button with the magical sparks on it in Figure 1).
By clicking on any spell in the list you may be able to cast it or get information on it. Spells use spell point, some give you fatigue, and some can only be used in combat. If your character is short on spell points, is tired, or isn’t in combat, they may not have the option to cast all their spells.
You can also rearrange the order that spells appear in your character’s inventory by selecting a spell and using the up and down arrows to move it around.
- Combat:
Fighting is an unfortunate fact of life (and
death) in Dark Haven. Each fight is a one on one
contest between your hero and an opponent. Your
character and your opponent act based on their
orders, statistics and fatigue.
By pressing the ‘Go/Stop’ button you can pause the fight at any time. This will give you a break to examine your hero’s condition and change orders. Use the Orders popup menu to select a main order class. Then use the other menus beside it to make detail your orders more specifically. You can also view your character’s statistics at any time by clicking on the Character icon. Finally, you can change the combat speed by using the up and down hardware buttons (up makes combat slower, down makes it faster).
- Orders: Here
are the things you can do during a
combat.
- Run: If things are looking bad, run! But be careful, running takes time (leaving you vulnerable to several unanswered attacks from your opponent) and doesn’t always work (your chance of success is based on your agility versus your opponents’).
- Attack: Attempt to hit your opponent, avoid their blows, and counter when they make mistakes. You have a couple of options when you attack.
- Aggressiveness: Allows you to decide how aggressively you want to attack. When you charge, you hit more often, and attack more often, but you also leave yourself open to enemy blows. When you defend the effects are opposite.
- Power: You can decide to use more or less power. Strong attacks let you do more damage, but have a fatigue penalty. Weak attacks have the opposite effect.
- Rest: Sometimes you will get too tired to fight effectively; it might make sense to catch a quick breather. If your opponent is in good fighting shape this may be counter-productive, as getting hit will fatigue you almost as much as attacking.
- Cast: When you select the cast order, a small label will appear and the combat will pause. Click on the label and you will be able to select a spell for your character to cast. Dark Haven will default to the top spell in your character’s spell list that can currently be cast. Combat will not continue with the cast order selected if your character has no valid spells. The time it takes to cast a spell varies from spell to spell (more advanced spells generally take longer to cast) and is modified by the caster’s intelligence.
- Use: When you select the use order, a small label will appear and the combat will pause. Click on the label and you will be able to select an item for your character to use. Dark Haven will default to the top useable item in your character’s inventory. Combat cannot resume with the use order selected if the character has no useable items.
- Victory: To win the opponent must either run away, be killed, or pass out from exhaustion.
- Orders: Here
are the things you can do during a
combat.
- Other Things:
As you explore Dark Haven you will find many
strange and wonderful things. The following
sections will help prepare you for dealing with
them.
- The Arena: As
a slave, your character will have to
spend a lot of time in and around the
Arena, fighting for the enjoyment of
others. On the bright side, you will be
given some choice as to which type of
opponent your character will meet.
When you enter the arena, you will be able to select which class of opponent to challenge. Different choices will be available based on your character’s prestige and current arena rank. Easier challenges will always be closer to the top of the screen.
If you can survive and acquire enough prestige, you will be allowed to challenge for ranks in the arena. Who knows, one day you may even be able to challenge the arena champion...Ha!
- Inns: It’s a good idea to get some sleep every night, so you should always know where the nearest inn is located. If you rent a room in an inn you will be able to pick how many hours to sleep. Ideally, your character should sleep about eight hours a day (enough to recover a days worth of sleep deprivation). Don’t be alarmed if you wake up with some fatigue; just go get some breakfast and you will be ready for the day.
- Guilds:
Guilds contain the facilities where you
can spend experience and gold to improve
character statistics and learn spells.
Don’t get too excited; before you
gain access to the facilities you need to
join the guild. That isn’t always
easy.
To start you off, the Mercenary guild is in the arena complex. Entrance can be bought with a simple fee, and any character can join.
Throughout the remainder of Dark Haven you will find a Paladin’s guild, a Wizard’s guild, a Cleric’s guild, and the Shadow guild. There is no love lost between members of these four guilds, and with the exception of the Mercenary Guild it is very unlikely that you will ever be able to join more than one of them at the same time. Furthermore, if you quit a guild don’t expect to ever be let back in to it; choose carefully!
- Jobs: You may
want to consider working if you ever run
low on money. Not all jobs are easy
though, and many employers will require
some minimum abilities before accepting
you. If a store won’t hire you on
one day, try going back the next- they
may be offering different positions then.
Remember, working for a living will tire you out. Plan on getting some rest when the job is done. You could also make money in the arena, by completing quests, or by exploring, but jobs are safer.
- Messages and Choices: Throughout the game, your character will be forced to gather information and make decisions. Read the messages closely and make your choices carefully, for they will both have large effects on your chances for survival in Dark Haven. When presented with a choice, pressing the Calendar button will select the option on the left of the screen, and pressing the Notebook button will select the option on the right. When presented with a message, the Notebook button is equivalent to pressing the ‘Done’ button.
- The Arena: As
a slave, your character will have to
spend a lot of time in and around the
Arena, fighting for the enjoyment of
others. On the bright side, you will be
given some choice as to which type of
opponent your character will meet.