PLAYING DARK SCEPTRE: All play in Dark Sceptre is indirect; like a true commander, you have no direct control over your warriors' movements. They use their own skills and personalities in carrying out your orders. Nonetheless, their strategic thinking is poor and without your commanding intelligence, they cannot complete their quest. You must choose your orders carefully, bearing in mind the nature and personality of the warrior in question. To give orders to a warrior, first get him in view. Then select PLAN - this enables you to "contact" the warrior. He will tell you his current orders and you can then change his orders or issue further ones. You can select from a large variety of orders, any of which can be given to any warrior. Some can only really be carried out by certain warriors, however; the magical orders, for instance, can only be carried out fully by those with magical powers.
THE ORDERS: There is a large number of orders available, which should fit virtually any situation you encounter: FOLLOW warrior - attach yourself to him as helper PROTECT warrior - attach yourself to him and guard him in battle STALK warrior - go wherever he goes, a few paces behind HARASS warrior - follow and get in his way as much as possible AVOID warrior * - stay out of his way FIND warrior * - find him and do no more KILL warrior * - find and kill him BEWITCH warrior * - find and magically turn him into your spy PETRIFY warrior * - find and magically turn him into stone CURSE warrior * - find and magically change good qualities to bad CHARM warrior * - find and magically recruit him to your company RELEASE warrior * - find and magically release him from the effects of bewitchment, petrification or cursing THREATEN warrior * - find and take what he carries by threat of force CHALLENGE warrior * - find and recruit him to your company by theat of force PERSUADE warrior * - find and recruit him to your company by persuasion BRIBE warrior * - find and recruit him to your company by gift JOIN warrior * - find him and join his company GIVE TO warrior * - find and give him what you carry BEFRIEND warrior * - find him and give him a message pledging friendship of your company to his INSULT warrior * - find him and give him a message ending any friendship of your company to his WAIT FOR warrior * - wait until he arrives AMBUSH warrior * - wait until he arrives and then attack him TRACK object - find it, do not take it, but follow it if it is taken elsewhere GUARD object - find it, do not take it, but let no others take it SEEK object - find it but do not take it TAKE object * - find it and take it but do not use force GRAB object * - find it and take it by force if necessary USE object * - find it, take it by force if necessary and use it BLOCK place - go to place, stay there and let none pass DEFEND place - go to place, stay there and let only friends pass WAIT AT place - go to place and wait there GO TO place - go to place ROAM - wander around at will WAIT - wait wherever you happen to be Where "warrior" is marked with an asterisk (*), the order can also be chosen to refer to "friends", "enemies" or "anyone". Where "object" is marked with an asterisk, the order can be chosen to refer to "anything". When an order has been completed, successfully or not, the warrior will automatically follow his next order; if he has no further orders, he will go into WAIT mode. Thralls are simple souls who can only remember one order at a time; other warriors can remember a number of orders.
RANKS: There are eight basic ranks of warrior - all have the same body (a programming cheat!) but can be distinguished by their headwear: THANE - Wears a crowned helmet. The commander; without a Thane, the members of your company are more likely to desert. MYSTIC - Wears a pointed wizard's mask. Possesses magical powers. HERALD - Wears a winged helmet. A messenger and a fighter. ASSASSIN - Wears a turban/headscarf. A hunter and a killer. REAPER - Wears a skull-faced mask. The executioner. Strikes fear into others. FOOL - Wears a crown. A charismatic talker, not as foolish as his name suggests. SAVAGE - Wears a wolf's head. The wild man of the woods, tough and resilient THRALL - Wears a cowl. An underling, a pawn. Being simple people, thralls do not have complex personalities - they are however numerous.
FRIENDS AND ENEMIES: Six other companies of warriors are at large. During PLAN mode, you can specify whether an order is to do with friends or enemies. The purpose of this is so that you can refer to friends or enemies in your orders without being long-winded. However, friendship pledged by a BEFRIEND order is different. If you attack a pledged friend, you will be marked for the rest of the game as treacherous and other companies will be wary of you. To avoid this, you must officially signal the end of the friendship with an INSULT. This may anger the offended party but you will still be regarded by others as an honest dealer. The BEWITCH order turns someone else's warrior into a spy for your company. Even so, he remains a member of the other company and behaves as such. You cannot give him orders but you can watch him as he goes on his travels and see what he does. This can be a valuable source of information. You can be kind to others in a number of ways - you can give them objects, send warriors to join their companies or simply pledge friendship. In return, they are likely to be kind to you. The motto is: scratch my back and I'll scratch yours for you. There are seven teams in total. Their colours are: UMBRARG'S (the Shadow Lords) - Red VERDAN'S - Green TYRIAN'S - Purple KUANO'S - Cyan AURIC'S - Yellow GRISUL'S - Grey YOUR OWN - White
USEFUL TIPS: Some (possibly) useful information: 1) Only Mystics can successfully CHARM, CURSE, BEWITCH or RELEASE. 2) You will hear the sounds of any fight which one of your warriors is involved in, even if it's off-screen. Pressing fire during WATCH will get you straight to the fight. 3) You will hear a snatch of music whenever any warrior changes sides, even if he's off-screen. Usually this will be someone joining your side; if you want to find out who it was, check on your warrior's orders. Warriors with orders you haven't given will be the new recruits. 4) Petrified warriors will not move off or take new orders. However, they will fight if forced to and can kill or be killed. 5) Warriors en garde are either in a fight or about to fight. They will ignore further orders until the fight is over. 6) No more than one fight is in progress at any one time. This allows you to keep a better eye on what's happening. 7) Warriors will chivalrously not attack a warrior who is already in a fight or waiting to fight. This sometimes means you can find a whole bunch of warriors standing by near a fight, all waiting their turn to try their luck! 8) The outcome of a fight depends entirely on the qualities of the two warriors. There is no random element. If both warriors have exactly the same fighting qualities, the attacker wins. 9) Just setting off to KILL ENEMY or GRAB DARK SCEPTRE without preparing the way first is simply suicidal!
Redefinable