Feel free to comment and discuss this game here. Also, if you have any useful tips or tricks don't hesitate to share them with the others! Thanks!

Review and Download (if available)

Although crack is enough to start this game, it seems that it is not possible to load saved game... :not_ok: ...codes anyone?...or other solution?...
TIA.

If that is true I feel I've done a poor job reviewing it - I played the game straight for 6 hours, and felt I had a good feeling of the game, so I didn't try to load my game again......well - hope it's just a malfunction on your computer (that sounded rather mean - sorry).....Fight on! :ok:

/Raasted

You can get around the problem with the crack (for a while) by starting a new game, quickly making a single character and beginning a new party, then reloading your old game.

But after a few hours of game play, I have found that the crack fails. Whenever I restore my games the game accuses me of piracy (I guess that's kind of true), renames all of my characters "pirate", takes away everything, and essentially makes the game unplayable. This happened with one saved game; I reloaded an earlier saved game, but it happens to that one too now.

The piracy message reads: "Steel.exe CRC failure" and then some more about piracy. Reinstalling the game from the zip file does not fix the problem.

Suggestions? I would suggest taking the game off the download list (it feels like quite a few hours of wasted time once the game fails), finding a manual, or fixing the crack.

This crack problem is *very* annoying!! It seems that if any of your attributes goes beyond 180 in a saved game, the game refuses to load your saved game! Under 180 is fine.... This is a very devious hacking detect routing.

Where can I find a fully and *properly* cracked version of this great game?? I've looked all over the net... All versions are as badly cracked as this one!

The 180 limit seems to hold for a while, but my saved games still started doing the piracy crash thing even when I held the skills at 180 or below (at 180 seemed to work okay). Maybe it is linked to getting too far in the game or too much experience, etc. Oh well.

It does look like a very unstable game when it comes to the save/load-function.....I havn't found any solution - except luck :crazy:

/Raasted

I've spent hours searching for the proper version, but no luck - this is the one and only pc release of this game, badly cracked and unplayable.

Years ago I played it on my atari ST, spend countless hours on it, because this game had a few intersting features, for example ability to conquer and manage provinces of the isle or detailed combat system (called shots and critical shots).

Still no luck...searching internet doesn't help...I'm afraid the only possible solution now is finding manual...somewhere...:(...or we can still try to guess codes in non-cracked version... :crazy: ...

Anyone out there good at cracking games, or fixing this one? I'm no hexeditor, but maybe the giveaway code is in the .SAV files or .CHR files and can be erased or changed, or maybe it can be erased from STEEL.EXE? Or are the answers to the copyright in there (although this wouldn't fix saved games made so far).

We need a 1990's programmer!

Yes it would be nice to have someone with expertice in this area to look into it....try to post in the troubleshooting/compatibility/programming forum :ok:

/Raasted

Still working on this one... It seems that there is a strict CRC checksum routine in the STEEL.EXE file itself. If even one byte of that .EXE is modified, the game brings up the message about piracy and makes the game unplayable. Hence any attempt at a proper crack will need to first disable that checksum routine first. It appears that the savegames themselves are secondary- There is, furthermore a built in time bomb and / or attribute bomb which activates when any attribute goes > 180.

Without SoftICE or another good debugger, we can't even attack the first problem (CRC checksum)... We know some handy 0x90 hexcodes must be written within the STEEL.EXE file to bypass checksum routin, but where???

Alternately, does anyone know where there may a legitimate vendor selling this game with a CD / MANUAL ? A longshot, I know.

Need a good DOS cracker who could properly crack this thing in under 5 minutes flat.

Well, a possible solution might be altering the checksum that the program compares the calculated one to. Just don't ask me how.

I know this counts as cheating, but I did want to see how the goes for the long haul, so I hexedited my characters to make them (I hope!) unkillable. You have to change skills/attributes within reason (not going over maximums for attributes, for example) or it will freeze. But so far it has been stable, and the game does get pretty interesting down the road (you get control of towns, for instance). Of course, if I die it is all for naught.

So this is a solution for anyone who wants to finish the game but has no ethical qualms about cheating. I wouldn't do it if I could just save my game!

It would be interesting if you could upload one of those hex-edited savegame files. Which bytes did you modify within the savegame file?

How did you make your character unkillable if no attribute can go above 180 and the savegame still be loadable?

The savegame hex-edit cheat is an interesting idea, but still is only a roundabout solution. Another might be if there was ever a trainer made for this game. That, if it exists, would also get around the 180 problem.

I changed the attributes/skills, but I still couldn't save my game. So I just kept it open by minimizing the DOSBOX when not playing. And since I couldn't save the game, I can't upload the game file. Sorry-

This all being said, the game still managed to screw me. I discovered two problems that make saving often REALLY important:
1) When I tried to STEAL in town but failed, I was prohibited from entering ANY building in EVERY town, not just that one. I saw no way to be "forgiven" for my attempted crime.
2) In 3-D dungeons, you can get into fights where the monsters are behind walls that you can't get past. Sometimes you are also stuck inside a space from which you cannot flee. Thus, the only way to end combat is to surrender, which kills everyone, because the monsters will not always flee themselves.
This is especially a problem when SECRET DOORS are involved, since they show up in the 3-D screen as walls and cannot be walked through. So my super-character game actually finally ended when my guys got stuck in an inescapable room and combat couldn't end.

Let's hope the crackers can do something with that checksum.

Isn't there a manual for this game because I've already checked <a href=\'http://www.replacementdocs.com/\' target=\'_blank\'>Replacement Docs</a>, and they don't have an available copy of the Disciples of Steel manual? Home of the Underdogs would've had it if their website hadn't mysteriously shut down. :help:

Besides, there aren't many Disciples of Steel FAQ/Walkthroughs posted on the internet anyway. :cry:

HOTU isn't shut down. Just swap the ORG for INFO in their URL.

Really? I was unaware of that. :blink:

Is this link you're talking about? *LINK REMOVED*

Yep, that's the one, allright.

Sorry, I had to remove it because for certain reasons linking to HOTU is a bad (...bad...) idea in these parts.

OK, I've found two cracking programs which list this game as being one possible to De-protect. The first one is NEVERLOCK from Spring 96 and the second one is LOCKSMITH PC 7/94 edition. They both claim to have de-protects for Disciples of Steel.

HOWEVER, the problem is we now need a fully *uncracked* version of the STEEL.EXE file to test these programs out on! I tried it on the three versions of the program I've been able to find online (1. here, 2 HOTU and 3. STARE.GRY), the version of STEEL.EXE is 759,404 bytes in all three of these. The problem is the game has already been "cracked" (the RAZOR 1911 611 byte crack.com file is included in each of the three archives).

Both unprotect utilities fail because they can't find the bytes they need to modify in STEEL.EXE because it is already "cracked" (namely, our infamous 180-attribute limit bomb). As a hint, it appears NEVERLOCK attempts to modify two byte streams. The first one it actually successfully locates in the "cracked" STEEL.EXE file. It fails to find the 2nd set of bytes to modify, and aborts the crack... Unfortunately, it doesn't tell us *which* bytes it's modifying so we can't go in and do a manual hex-edit!!!

So, we need an uncracked version, *or* we need to know which bytres the CRACK.COM file included in the archive is modifying, and reverse those changes manually, *then* apply the cracks in NEVERLOCK and/or LOCKSMITH. I think we have a GREAT chance at getting this game playable if we can do this!!

WOW!! I think I've finally got a working cracked STEEL.EXE. I figured out there are four locations to modify. Two of these are checksums. Replacing these with NOPs seems to fix it. Now no message about "CRC failure" comes up. The other modification was made so that savegames are no longer checked and corrupted if CRC mismatch occurs. To crack the game, perform the following modifcations to the STEEL.EXE file at these offsets. The file should be exactly 759,404 bytes:

0x0464A0: 74 06 FF 46 B6 E9 05 00
to: 90 90 90 90 90 90 90 90

0x069B30: 75 09
to: 90 90

0x069EA0: 75 09
to 90 90

0x06F710: 7E 03
to 90 90

It is now cracked! Test this out to make sure I haven't missed anything. Hopefully the game should now be able to be completed normally.

Forgot to mention above that attributes can now extend well beyond 180, in fact the range is a 16-bit signed integer, so enjoy hacking your characters to have 32,000 strength, etc. The practical limit seems to be around 900, for aesthetic purposes, the bar graphs corrupt the display at ranges much higher than 900 - 950! Save games no longer crash the game if attributes are > 180.

Hey, that crack worked great! So has anyone else played through the game to the point with some lame giant talking mouth that asks you a question? I can't find anything in the game to answer it, and this game barely seems to exist on the Internet!

So if you know that answer to the mouth, help me out! I killed the hermit to get around his question, but the game won't let you kill the mouth.

Thanks

Has anyone tried using the crack posted above? When I modify those locations, the game gets stuck when I start it up in DOSBox.

Hi guys, oh I wish one of you had found a full solution!

Those of you playing the game now should read this, it's important.

I once had a cracked version of this game that I managed to play to completion. What I do know is that in addition to the manual copy protection at the beginning of the game, and the resume game copy protection, and the CRC mismatch thing, there is mid-game manual copy protection.

Roughly mid-way through the game, there is a critical quest that requires you to enter a particular cave. Before you can enter that cave you are presented with another request to enter word x from page x of the manual. From very hazy memory, it asks different sets of questions than the manual protection encountered earlier.

I believe that I passed the copy protection simply by entering fairly random words in response to the copy protection question, and eventually being lucky. Once I got lucky, I could rely upon the same word being requested again in order to get past subsequent checks. If anyone else uses this method with success, then I hope they will post it here.

Good luck everyone :titan:

I would love to find a copy of the manual for this game....I have the original floppy disks for this game and haven't played it in quite some time because the manual came up missing. I encountered all of the same problems that everyone here have experienced with the downloaded cracked version as well. Dissapointing to be sure. The game is old and outdated, but it is fun; I have played and completed it several times.

The mid-game copy protection does indeed exist, but not as described in the earlier post; the quest does not require you to enter a cave. Rather, it is a Dwarven town located roughly in the center of the map. The town has shops that contain quality armor and weapons (some magical), and there is a Dwarf lord that you must speak to and perform some quests for.

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(captain_crunch_muncher @ Jun 29 2006, 04:01 AM) [snapback]240367[/snapback]</div>Ah thanks for correcting me Captain, I should not have relied upon my faulty memory.

I've completed the game too, and although this game was denounced in pretty much every review I've ever read of it I really appreciated the turn based combat, high difficulty, open-ended world to explore and the attempt to mesh party based RPG to large unit combat (although I wish the last item had received more emphasis).

I remember loving the damage descriptions too, things like "your head spins off in a pinwheel of gore & blood", classic!

i hade to download from anather site in order to get it to work.

Hi,

If anyone is still reading this, I have just signed up and have the original diskettes & manual, as well as the following handwritten notes:

1) Briek's Mines --> Mimax
2) Frost Giant Outpost --> Garden
3) Terrine Mouth --> Peace
4) Only in Unity will you find Variz

I never completed the game; I recall believing that the cave where Variz is supposed to be seemed buggy. So, I'm extremely happy to hear that people have completed the game.

I checked the email notification box. If anyone replies and tells me how, I'll be more than happy to scan my manual & upload it.

grassBlade
***********
Where the World Once Stood
the blades of grass
cut me still

I uploaded the manual to Kosta. He should make available as soon as he can.

Is the manual available yet? I would enjoy playing this game again.

The powers that B have it. I assume they will make it available as soon as it's collated into pdf format.

I'm really a newb here, so I don't know how long things actually take.

are there any other games almost exactly like this game cause i really feel like getting back into a game like this again... i love this game for some reason and havent found a game like it. so anyone know of any games like this one?

what about the manual? please make it available.


<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Guest @ Feb 23 2007, 01:35 AM) [snapback]280571[/snapback]</div>wizards crown, natuk, nahlakh, helherron

Hi all. I managed to get this game working on an Atari St emulator (Steem). The manual is included with my download. I have gameplay questions

1) Where do I find thieves' tools? I have been exploring for awhile now.
2) Where do I get the quest for the tower dungeon in Farnus?
3) How do I complete the quest in which I need to collect tribute from the city of Cartha, the capital city of Denias? Do I need to conquer Cartha in order to get tribute? Or do I need to complete the Cartha quest, which requires that I complete the Dwarven quest?
4) I can't seem to get the letter of peace from Denias to give to the Dwarven King in the territory of Tobruk. Sorry I can't give a more detailed description, but I am not at school right now and don't have access to the game.

Thanks

Rob

Hi,

Please can someone let us know the situation with the manual? It seems that the crack idea has reached a dead end, but there must be someone out there with a manual that can be scanned and uploaded? Frustratingly, I threw mine out a couple of years ago in the midst of a big clear out of old games, but would love to play this one again.

Cheers,

Chris

Game is now playable in 4 easy steps:

1. Download the main program zip from this site & install it
2. Do NOT run the crack file, just delete it
3. Download the 1.013 patch zip & apply it (if you cannot find it, message me, I'll email you it)
2. Download the manual from this site (essential, unplayable without it)

The manual is needed because without it you cannot get past the manual copy protection built into the game (the supplied crack doesn't remove all the protection) & the patch is needed because the main executable file has already been 'cracked' even if you don't run the crack supplied, which triggers an additional copy protection measure that will cripple your game after about 6 hours of playing.

I've now been playing for quite some time, it's just as I remembered it, sort of.

In answer to the question about the theives tools above, I cannot say for certain, but there is a theives guild in a tower inside Teal. Theives tools may be inside, but presently I cannot fight past a band of cutthroughts to progress beyond the very beginning of that tower.

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Guest @ Mar 13 2007, 07:34 PM) [snapback]283446[/snapback]</div>1. From the Theives Guild in Teal, located in the Tower to the north west of the garrison quarters. There are two sets in a room on the second floor, to the right hand side after going down the stairs. To get to them though, you will need to be able to kill multiple groups of cuttthroats & assassins (skills will need to be around 200, and with good equipment)

2. Don't know yet. What I can tell you, is that it does not come from the quest line of Aragual, Constantium, Hollengard or Kitara, since I have completed those.

3. There are two tribute quests for Cartha. One given by Pallasade, the other by Rathadon. To complete the latter you must first complete the first Hollenguard quest. The second Hollenguard quest then becomes shipping mithril to Cartha, which satisfies the first Cartha quest. The second Cartha quest is then to take tribute to Pallasade.

Where I am stuck, is with the first Farnus quest, which is to find a survivor of the battle of Unthor in Teal. Cannot find him anywhere. Not being able to find him prevents completion of the first Teal quest too, which is to get a tribute of some kind from Farnus. It also prevents a Demata quest, the 3rd one I think, which is to retrieve a sword from Teal.

If anyone has completed that Farnus quest. Help would be welcome. I've searched every square of Teal to no avail.

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(captain_crunch_muncher @ Nov 29 2006, 06:19 PM) [snapback]269272[/snapback]</div>Seems they finally put up the manual. Don't know when; don't even know if it's the one I sent, but it is there.

On 3rd June. And yes, that's the one you sent.

Hello. Newbie here and I'm hoping to get some info on this game. I started playing Disciples of Steel almost 15 years ago but never got very far, and just recently picked it back up. I'm pleasantly suprised to see others giving this game a shot too.

1. I see the tip about the Thieves Tools being in the tower in Teal. What constitutes good equipment? Is banded / plate as good as it gets?

Related to this, I find it very odd that casters can equip heavy armor. Most RPGs don't allow that. Does it hurt their ability to cast?

2. Is it possible to kill things like Death Knights and Earth Elementals? I think my party is relatively strong, but I can not even touch several monster types in combat. Is this normal? Am I just too weak yet?

3. Does the quality of work really matter for weapons & armor? I've noticed that upgrading from, say, adequate ring mail to terrific ring mail does give slightly better protection, but just by a few points. Is that all the difference there is?

4. Does anyone have some basic combat strategy suggestions? I find myself only using one or two mage & illusionist spells, none of which do substantial damage. Meanwhile, the majority of damage is done by my melee specialists. I also haven't had much use for ranged weapons, instead having my ranger wield a footmen's flail. Is the combat just that imbalanced, or am I missing something? Maybe it balances out as casters gain power?

Many thanks in advance to anyone who shares their thoughts.


P.S.

I'm also stuck at the point of finding the Survivor in Teal. I searched pretty much the whole island and could not find him.

Hi there,

I'll try to answer your questions below. Also, I've now finished most of the town quest lines except for Farnus, Teal, Demata & Rathadon. The last I cannot continue because I attacked one of the Rathadonian villages (which is a quest in itself). The other three I cannot make progress on because without being able to find the survivor I cannot open up any of the other quest lines.

I've also cleared all but three dungeons. I cannot answer the question asked in the Lair of the Wind inside the Temple of Terrine, meaning that I cannot get through a door. I cannot provide the magic word to the Hermit in the dungeon where you find the Seal of Farnus (the island east to that of Teal, with no settlements) and I am currently part way through the Rifts under Fire Mountain.

1. To be capable against Assassins, you probably want to:

Be making 3+ attacks per round with your main fighters (200 skill points)
Be using at a minimum weapons like Halberd+20, Longsword+10, Heavy Crossbow+50
Have armour & body skills at 200 for your tanks, with Full Plate armour
Have your mages able to cast 'Deathstrike' for an instant kill

One of the best weapons you can get in the game is the Backstab Dagger used by Assassins. To the east of Farnus on the road just before it turns to the North there is a Lair (you will not find it if you simply walk onto the square, you need to 'search') which you can attack, which should contain an Assassin. Equipping your edged weapon fighters with backstab daggers is a very good idea.

2. Yes, they are possible. Both will go down immediately to a mage deathstrike. There is a Deathknight lair a couple of squares south of the SW corner of Teal. I recommend hunting for Deathknight as soon as your mages have 'Deathstrike' in order to equip yourself with the best armour (Dark Mail) and the best weapon (Sly Sword) I have seen in the game.

The forest north of Farnus also contains at least one 'Jax', who wears Light Mail, almost as good as Dark Mail.

At the point of the game I am at, with fighting skills above 300, wearing Dark Mail & using +50 weapons, I can kill off Earth Golems pretty easy. A Death Knight could probably still take my entire party if it were not for my mages Deathstrikes. I believe Living Trees are the most powerful enemies in game, as I still cannot even hurt one with an aimed shot.

3. The quality has a massive impact. I think the quality of the weapon acts as some kind of multiplier to your weapon skill. At the top end, 'Perfection' weapons outperform 'Terrific' weapons by a huge margin. Sly Swords, Backstab Daggers & named weapons (like Balen's blade) are always perfect I think.

4. My approach is to:

Develop my mages with Bow skills & Essence until they can cast Deathstrike. Deathstrike allows them to kill off any one mob, even those that your fighters cannot harm. Using bows allows them to set up for aimed shots whilst being more or less out of harms way themselves. I have two invisibility rings & phasecloaks for my mages now too, which means they almost never get hurt.

Your priests will become your most powerful characters once they have the spell 'Wrath of God', which simply kills off 95% of mobs instantly in any combat no matter how many you are facing. You need 104 Wisdom & 250 Karma for this spell.

I have two warriors that have armour ratings into the high 200's & early 300's take up blocking positions & then move my blacksmith, priests & rogue into flanking positions where they can aim from relative safety.

I also found about halfway through the game that switching to aim for the head, instead of the torso, made fights far easier.

Once you have weapons like backstab daggers & sly swords, along with weapon skills above 200, your main fighters can kill things like Rathadonian Soldiers with one attack.


<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(doublejack @ Jun 29 2007, 09:09 PM) [snapback]297153[/snapback]</div>

Thank you very much for the information! It was most helpful.

I'm progressing well and with your advice my party is fighting much better. I do have one other question though. The second quest in Rathadon is to enter Mimax's tower and find his scepter. I cleaned the tower out and did not find it. Is it there? I ask because

A. I didn't know better and cleaned out the tower before I was given the quest. So I may have accidentally sold the scepter to a vendor not knowing what it was. I doubt I would have done that, but it's possible. More likely I'm thinking the quest has to be triggered before the scepter appears. I'm not really sure, but I think I remember opening an empty treasure chest.

B. I got several messages in the tower indicating recent footprints. Does that mean the scepter was already plundered by someone else and it's possible to find it elsewhere?

I'm half tempted to start a new game / party just to see if the scepter was there to begin with.

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(doublejack @ Jul 12 2007, 03:55 PM) [snapback]299120[/snapback]</div>Hmm, there are definately some hidden doors in the Mimax tower, and you have to go through at least one to find Mimax himself. Mimax is at the end of a fairly long straight corridor. You encounter & fight Mimax at the very end of the corridor, after which there is another secret door immediately afterwards that leads into a single cell treasure room.

The sceptre is on his corpse, and it is a pretty good weapon, so you may even decide not to give it to Rathadon.

I reloaded several times before/after the Mimax fight, and on one occassion he was not where he was supposed to be, so along with the possibility that you have not found the hidden door is the possibility that Mimax has not spawned. If this information does not help you, I can probably do a screen-grab of the Mimax tower map to show you were he is.

When moving through any dungeon, because of the common presence of hidden doors, you simply must move against every single wall. I step forward, then move against each wall, turn back & move forward again, move against each wall etc etc.

Hi there,

First of all, thanks for getting the manual uploaded, that's a great help.

Unfortunately though, I'm a complete beginner when it comes to debugging etc. Anyone able to give a quick guide as to what I have to do to apply these modifications? Do I need any specific software, or can this be done in Dos?

Cheers

Ferris


<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Guest_zyzzle @ May 20 2006, 11:15 AM) [snapback]231429[/snapback]</div>

the game shoud be fine now. try just running start.bat (run the game in dosbox)

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(ferris @ Jul 15 2007, 09:43 AM) [snapback]299465[/snapback]</div>
There's a procedure to get this game up & running without any hacking or crack. The availability of the manual makes cracking the copy protection (which has yet to be fully defeated) a moot point. Here's how to get the game working:

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Svend Karlson @ May 8 2007, 06:21 PM) [snapback]289645[/snapback]</div>

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Svend Karlson @ Jul 12 2007, 06:51 PM) [snapback]299137[/snapback]</div>I loaded a previously saved game and Mimax was there. Looks like there's a possible bug where he's missing sometimes. Either that or I just overlooked his room the last time.

I am thinking of keeping his scepter. It's nice, and I get the feeling I shouldn't be helping the Rathadonians.

Now I'm stuck in a few other areas. I found the Elven Burial Grounds, but not the staff yet. I'm having trouble locating Gothard Henrin for a Cartha quest, big area to search for him and I'm still working at it. And finally, I can't seem to find the entrance to the Barelk mines - although I haven't looked that hard.

I've been playing a lot lately, and have noticed huge gains in my party's strength. I love Deathstrike. I also have 3 characters that can successfully strike Living Trees - a Knight w/ a Sly Sword and > 400 skill in edged, a rogue using the same also with more than 400 skill, and my ranger can with an aimed shot and a bow skill of 350. It takes a while to go through the trees and they don't give good loot, but the experience isn't bad. I found a trick when fighting them. Have most of the party hide, and the trees will waste their limited movement revealing them. They will do this over and over while you hack away.

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Svend Karlson @ Jul 1 2007, 11:21 AM) [snapback]297411[/snapback]</div>I have found the survivor! Outside of the walled area, just south of Teal proper (but still within the city) there are several residences. The survivor is living in one of the yellow-ish hut looking ones. Attempt to enter them, and when you get the right one a dialog will appear.

The patch seems to be just what I needed and it's all looking good now! Thanks Doublejack (and everyone else), hopefully I'm there now!

I bought this game years back, played it ALOT.

Sold my old computer, forgott to make a backup of the saves before formating AND lended the game to friend who lost the CD...

But now, 12 years later, I'm back on track!!!!

Thanx a lot for all the posts, and I think I have some old notes from game in a drawer somewhere..

Just today I finished this game. I won't post any spoiler info unless someone specifically asks for it, but I did want to share two things that may be very helpful.

1. Conquering the various cities and towns is completely optional. There may be a way to end the game via that means, but I did not find it. I ultimately took control of all 23 cities and towns in the game, and the only thing I got out of it was money from taxes, and experience points from killing countless guards. I felt it was important to state this because I spent a considerable number of hours assassinating lords and reagents, and if I were to play over again I'd skip it.


2. Someone in an earlier post stated that as they got near the end of the game they found it to be buggy. This is 100% accurate. However, once I was able to ascertain what was happening it was no longer a problem. In other words, the bugs don't impede you in winning at all.

Here's the deal: The final dungeon is designed in such a way that you can actually get OUTSIDE of the dungeon's walls and into the void that is around it. This was evidently done deliberately by the level designer, as there are multiple gaps in the walls. This is the case on more than one level of the dungeon. There are a couple of odd behaviors that result from this ability.

First, there are staircases that you can approach from "the back side". When you go up or down a staircase from the opposite side it was intended to be used, you pop into the next level of the maze also on the opposite side. So it's easy to get disoriented if you do this, and in some cases the auto-mapping feature will cease functioning because you are outside the confines of the dungeon.

Secondly, if you are in the void and you walk too far away from the dungeon, you will literally walk off the map (or grid). When that happens you don't fall :) Instead, the game becomes corrupted. The text on the screen becomes garbled, you can't click on the buttons, some buttons disappear, etc. Basically, really weird things start to happen. Eventually the game will lock up completely and you have to re-start DosBox. So avoid this by staying close to the dungeon's walls and not walking off into space.

Now, I believe the reason the level designer put the gaps in the walls was to let you walk around the perimeter of the dungeon. Once you do that on a couple different levels, it will become very obvious where secret rooms are hidden. The final dungeon is massive (much larger than any other in the game) so if you had no other way of knowing where these rooms are, it could take hours and hours of checking for secret doors.


That's pretty much it. Overall, the game is a lot like I remembered it so long ago, and I'm very pleased to complete a journey that I knew one day I would finish. I think it was worth the effort.

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(doublejack @ Jul 18 2007, 10:11 PM) [snapback]300096[/snapback]</div>[/b][/quote]


If anyone happens to have the 1.013 patch for this, I would love to have it, seeing as how I cannot find a reliable link to download it from. Please email it to me at [BEEEP]@hotmail.com
Any help is appreciated.

For those of you who want to play this game without the crack woes!!

I am a friend of one of the designers of this game. If there are still enough of you wanting to give Disciples of Steel a try then ill locate my friend and ask him to help us!

yay, be sure to keep us updated then

Whoa...
 

Whoa, never knew that people still played this game =D. I played it when I was a young brat and I'm already a graduate engineer now. Hmm, I remember I only used one character till the end with a spare blacksmith and priest for out of combat stuff. For assassinating regents etc, I just used a wrath of god to clear all the troops and a deathstrike to finish off the regent. It's a quick solution ^_^. You can end the game by winning against the 'demon' army with a stronger army, but since I was stingy, I chose to simply fight them with my party, bring lots of mushrooms (to refil mana for priest) and wrath of god till kingdom come and you're done =D. As for bugs to abuse, one I don't think they fixed was there is a date where you are notifed of the end! Gee, just stay on either the elf island or the demon island and time won't move. You can occupy cities before that and make your army in the elf city till you're content. By the way, most of the time you don't even need to assassinate regents, doing their entire quest chains more often than not gives you the entire kingdom, except some which either pledge to join you against the demon army or forces you to assassinate them. Well, good luck! So grateful there were people who also enjoyed the game like me. The only tips I can give are, get annihilate for magic, kill your first death knight with annhilate + maxed magic bolt. Get death strike, go zap-happy, get wrath of god, show them who's God =D. *6 hours later* have 300-1000 for all skills. Nice huh?

P.S: Sorry for the huge wall of text. Was just excited to see humans who played this game too. My manual had literally fallen apart on me. I even wrapped it >_<;

Hmm, changes
 

Hmm, lots have changed, sound works, you start with 1000 exp, cap for skills tend to be 500 unless you save up a lot of exp and push it beyond the cap in a mini-bug. Enemies are somewhat easier than before, yeah, started a while ago and am now exploring the Lost City of Terine. Bugs still in place, and seems I can still bypass certain quests. However am pretty lost for Demata's quest chain >_>; meh

Umm, this is embarressing but for the hermit who guards the Light-forged armor, what is the "Speak the magic word, or go away and come back another day"? I used to kill him but want to know what it is =P

Hi fellas,

I'm glad some of you enjoyed the game even after all this time.

I wish i could have afforded a real QA squad to polish the game from start to finish. But not much of that existed back then, just a group of guys making a video game! I finished the Atari version in late 90 and got it boxed up in '91, and then ported it to the PC that year. I had no idea the simple anti-crack and anti-cheat i added to the game would cause so much trouble. Sorry so many of you wasted your time on that.

I'll look through my stuff and see if i have anything to contribute to the site. Most of the original digital art and whatnot has since gone to data heaven (i still have my 4 color negatives for the original box art assuming the heat hasn't destroyed them in my garage).

I just have to say "WoW", thanks for some of the kind words here and the fact that someone(s) were interested enough in the game to keep it alive is fantastic.

Martin "MrFurious" Kruse, Lead Programmer, Cartographer, Level Designer, Graphics placeholder maker, and Feeble storyteller.

And to Boxleitner for embarassing me with "did you know he wrote a game..." stories to my customers.

CD version
 

I have had the CD version for several years but never completed it. It would seem that when you reach certain extremely high levels, the game would freeze (with patch). I gave up in frustration and never finished the game. Lately I have been hacking in, but still and severely frustrated at not being able to complete more than a few quests. Due to its age and bad PR reputation it had at the outset nothing beyond Hex and hack information have ever been put up on the net. Frankly I have never found a walkthru for it or any hints for that matter. Would some Kind person here please put up a walkthru for those such as myself which have "problems" completing the game??

Help Needed
 

I am having some severe problems solving the second quest given by the King of Pallasade, namely the "Wild Jabberlings" quest. I can't figure out where they are, to say nothing about destroying them to proceed to the next quest. Any ideas??

I've located them more or less directly west of the road from Pallasade. Maybe 3 or squares into the forest there's a hidden cave entrance to the Jabberling village. My issue is, I've killed everything in the dungeon and the king still doesn't want to give me the completion.

Anyone have any ideas?

Patch 1.013
 

Does anyone have the 1.013 patch? I have the original diskettes for the game but they are corrupted and can no longer be used. I have the original manual and spell lists. I have played the game to final battle many, many times. But I really want to play it again. If anyone can help, please let me know. Thanks!

There are secret passages in the jabberling village and once you find them you will come across a room with the 'leader'. I think its just a rathadon captain possibly an elf. Once you kill him and collect the treasure in the room you can talk to the king and finish the quest.

Help
 

Hi,

just found this game and enjoying it... Could someone give advice with third Farnok quest (kill leader of orc raiders in lone mountain)?
I am pretty sure I have found him (orc in regal clothing on 2nd level of dungeon), but king does not accept his remains...

The leader is hidden on the north part of the dungeon in the middle of the map there's a series of secret doors that lead to him. I had a hard time finding him at first too! He's a big hill giant type monster. :)

Hello,

I'm curious if anyone is having the same troubles with repairs as I am. At first I had a problem where it would say, "Cannot repair corpse" and a million other things and you had to keep clicking to get through this MASSIVE list of items that you werent even trying to repair? like +4000 shields and such... Now I'm having a problem where you click done to repair and it just goes straight back to the main vendor page without repairing..

How to save with all your best characters ?
 

I have good news for Disciples of Steel fans:)

I discovered that when you start the game with new characters, you can save the game with no problems.

Then, when your charaters make progresses in experience, skill etc... you have less and less chance to make a successful load of the game with experienced characters. You do have no problem to save, but the CRC error appears when you load a game with advanced characters.

Here is what you have to do to avoid the CRC error when loading a game with experienced characters :

1- Dismiss your characters and keep them in the rosters

2- Create a new characters, whatever you want, even the name doesn't matter. Make a formation of your "team" ( with only one person ). Again, it doesn't matter where you place your newcomer.

3- Save your game


Now, if your characters are all dead, or if you quited the game, and want to go back where you were you must :

4- Load your game ( where you have only the newbie )

5- Dismiss the character, and put back all your 8 most prized characters.


You can make a new save if you need and you should have no problem when continuing the game. Remember that, if you want to save your game, follow carrefully the first 3 step or you will end up in redoing all the beginning of the game or most of it each time.

It may look like annoying, but it works for me. And you can continue the game that way and you shouldn't have to redoi the game over and over again :).

Hope I have explained carefully how you can save without redoing the game all over again. If someone else could test all the steps I've told about, it would be kind to confirm it works and also confirm if I was clear or not about them, and reword my explanation if needed.

Also, if it works, maybe it could be added to the review.

I have found a very simple way to bypass the copy protection, no executable modifications required.

The game stores all its passwords in steeldat/steel4.mk1 file, which is the only purpose of said file. Although the symbols are encrypted via symbol substitution (except the first line, which states the total number of passwords - 108), it is otherwise plain text. Each password is a block of 4 lines - password itself and its page, line and word numbers (the order of these three might be different, but it doesn't matter).

Well, remember the game offers the first letter of a password at copy protection prompt? So this is what you have to do: open steel4.mk1 in notepad, change the first line from "108" to "1", in second, 4-symbol line delete all symbols but one, ignore lines 3-5, and delete everything starting with line 6 till the end of file. And that's it, now the game always asks the same single password, which is one letter long, and this letter is graciously offered at the password prompt. In other words, just hit enter when asked for password, and you're in.

On a related note, I found the 1.013 patch here:
http://www.ag.ru/files/patches/disci...hagan/7568/agc

(direct link is http://minifiles.ag.ru/patches/1735/steel113.zip , but it might not work, referrals and all that crap).

It doesn't touch the passwords file, so the workaround should be effective on any version.

ive searched and searched for this hill giant ype guy in the lone mountain outpost but still cannot find him ive searched the entire 2nd floor bumping into everywall incase there was a secrect room and also for the bottom floor. on the right side the cartographer made a funny by spelling death. but i havent bumped into everywall on the main floor yet so if someone could just tell me what floor the leader is on i would greatly appreciate it thank you.

Hello, sorry you've been having trouble finding the leader! He's located on the main floor that you come in on, not the bottom floor or top floor. Strange that you don't have to take any stairs to get to him. He's in the Top Left area of the main floor behind 3 secret doors. I'll see if I can load some screen captures I took of his location. Hope that helps! :hello:

amazing people still playing
 

This is Kevin Henderson - Martin Kruse and I wrote this game. I stumbled on this thread and some others and just thought I'd at least say 'hello' and thanks for playing.

To all of those who are trying to get past the copy protection I have a solution. First of all this game doesn't like frontends too well. If you use a frontend I suggest that you don't click the box to close dosbox after game exit. First you use the crack to crack the game. When it says game is cracked press enter then type start. Press enter and the game will start. When it comes to the copy protection screen just press enter. You must always start the program through the crack in order to get through the copy protection. Don't use start.bat or Disciples.exe to start the program. Always use the crack.

I rather enjoyed this game in part. It was an ok modern version similar to wizard's crown but it certainly was buggy. There were some battles you got no treasure or xp for. Mispellings and other little things.

The quests could be annoying. If you ended up killing some preset encounter before getting the quest then you couldn't finish the quest. I liked the idea of slowly building up alliances for the final countdown army confrontation at the end.

I didn't have a whole lot of allies but still managed to win. I'm uncertain if there were multiple endings to this game. I played on a 486 with the disk versions (lotsa disks).

This game is freaking hard! AAAAAAHH

Kevin!
 

Kevin, nice to see you're still out there! You still developing games?? -N

Patch?
 

So i've read all the posts here, done some looking around and can't find the patch to 'uncrack' the game. Is there any fix to this?

Link for the patch and manual
 

hi sorry that im late , but i im also enjoying this game ; played it on atari st ;and my old "_- based pc , now playing it again on dosbox ;
here are link for patch+manual and text document of almost all existing quests
https://rapidshare.com/files/2463687...chAndManual.7z
all is compressed via 7zip

i cant get the game oin dosbox i have windos 7 64 bit i love this game can some 1 help me

i mean i cant get it to worke on dosbox

Okay, what have you done so far, what commands have you entered in DOSBox and what - if any - error messages you have encountered (post screenshots of the error messages if possible).

i get stuck at the game loading part the hour glass part

And this still tells us nothing in how you are running the game, which is the first thing we NEED to know to be able to troubleshoot your problem. Are you using a frontend? Are you using the drag & drop method? Are you running DOSBox on its own and entering all the commands? Are you actually trying to run the game in Windows and expecting DOSBox to start on itself (we had users who genuinely expected that to happen; it doesn't)?

i run dosbox thats it i have windos 7 i tried like 4 versions of dosbox and get stuck at loading part dont know what to do could it be my pc is to fast???

*sigh*
If you answered this, your problem would have been solved a week ago.

It appears you've ignored the note at the end of the review - the game must be ran by first entering crack and then start . Starting the game by running steel will freeze the game with the exact symptoms you've described.

There is a great, ongoing, Lets Play thread for Disciples of Steel going on over at RPGCodex right now. It has prompted me to re-install and I'll be replaying shortly.

http://www.rpgcodex.net/forums/index...f-steel.66921/

I have this game working on a 64 bit Win7 installation via D-Fend Reloaded v1.21 by the way for anyone interested. I would never ever use the crack because I believe whilst it will enable access to the game that the crack does not fully remove the copy protection, and your game will be interrupted/terminated as a result some hours in. I could be wrong, but I'd recommend not using the crack, which is anyway not at all necessary given the availability of the manual.

What one does need is the 1.013 patch. That can be tricky to find and DL, but I have it. If you cannot find it. Do post here (I'm subscribed) or PM me.

There is suppose to be a cd version of the game. Could someone upload that please?

Great News! I finally bought off of Amazon a used copy of Disciples of Steel. Its the cd version and you don't need the manual for copy protection because the cd version doesn't have it.

Could you possibly scan and upload / send me the Spell List catchaserguns? I don't mean the spell list with description in the manual, but the separate spell list which indicates what level of wisdom and karma is required for priest spells, and the mage and illusionist equivalents. This info can only be found in that spell list.

I'm sorry but the spell list was only in my manual. I didn't get a separate card for the spell list.

DoS - Early Farnus quests
 

Hey all. I'm reliving old memories playing this game again, but am completely stuck on the third Farnus quest, where you have to go to the caverns under Lone Mountain to kill a leader who's raided a Farnus outpost. I've killed a wolfwarrior who appeared to be part of the raiding party as well as an orc in regal dress, and taken the remains back to Farnus, only to be told that I haven't got what they're looking for.

Anyone have any ideas? Thanks guys.

I've solved this now thanks - completely missed the previous refs to this in the thread. Eventually found the secret door.

I heard there was a clue book for this game. Does anyone have it?

I've just got done 3 quests and I'm already having to face the wizard and his hordes. Is there an easier way to finish this game?

Howdy, do you mean that you've reached the time-limit which triggers the end-battle, having completed only 3 Town-Quests?

I've completed the game once, by winning that end-battle. I have 2 other partial play-through's where I did not complete.

There is no way, as far as I know, to gain more time, but I have found it possible to be well along the power curve and be ready to fight the overland tactical battles. The tips I can offer will seem basic, they are all I have:

1. Be aware that you are on a timer, so be mindful of the efficiency of whatever it is you are doing in terms of gaining experience and earning coin

2. Ensure that you have at least 2 priests on their way to developing enough wisdom and karma to be able to cast the Wrath of God spell, because each casting will let you easily win any 1 tactical combat, no matter how many opponents, and therefore rake in cash.

3. To make efficient use of time, consider the following:

# Use the Priest Transport spell early and often to avoid lengthy travel times, which really eat into your hours and days
# Pursue multiple town-quests all the time, keep notes on how to complete them, and complete as quickly as possible those you are capable of
# Avoid aimless trips around the wilderness by keeping a record of key locations, for direct travel when needed
# Spend time 'harvesting' mobs you can cope with where they are in good supply. This often means a dungeon, since random encounters are common in dungeons and moving around takes very little time compared to wilderness travel
# Pay for healing whenever you visit a town to sell-off looted gear, it really helps your combat effectiveness to remove bruised ribs and whatnot
# Be selective about what you loot, go for the higher value items and don't fill up your limited inventory with low value items. It takes quite a chunk of time to move back from a Dungeon to a Town to convert your loot into cash so you should do so only with a higher value haul

4. After completing any quest-line available, consider conquering some towns of your own for the taxation income (I think there is already at least 1 quest-line which requires you to do this anyway)

It's been a lot of time but... does anyone have the copy protection manual?
I can't get it anywhere, the page offers the game manual but not the codes to play.

thanks

Howdy, the copy protection for this game requires the input of words from the Game Manual. There is no separate Copy Protection manual. I am absolutely certain of this.

Quoting myself (as Svend Karlson) much earlier in this thread - the game is playable in 4 easy steps:

1. Download the main program zip from this site & install it
2. Do NOT run the crack file, just delete it
3. Download the 1.013 patch zip & apply it (if you cannot find it, message me, I'll email you it)
4. Download the manual from this site (essential, unplayable without it)

The manual is needed because without it you cannot get past the manual copy protection built into the game (the supplied crack doesn't remove all the protection) & the patch is needed because the main executable file has already been 'cracked' even if you don't run the crack supplied, which triggers an additional copy protection measure that will cripple your game after about 6 hours of playing.

Here is a Google Drive folder open to all that offers the Game Executable, 1.013 patch and the Game Manual, everything needed.

I will remain subscribed to this thread forever and am always happy to help if I can. This happens to be among my favourite games of all time! :OK:

. . . . and I have reinstalled it, and am playing it again. Woohoo!

I am setting myself of the challenge of completing it via the most difficult of the three ways to 'win' the game. I do not know of anyone that has ever done this, with everyone that I have ever read of completing the game doing so via method 1 or 2. Method 3 for me!

1. Winning the single strategic combat initiated by Rathadon with the benefit of ally support. This combat is triggered by a given date and your deployment includes lots of garrison and ally-loaned troops in addition to anything you have raised yourself.

2. Completing the final dungeon and killing the big-bad

3. Conquering Rathadon via strategic combat, which is very different to #1 because this needs to be done only with troops that you have raised directly yourself.

I am far from sure that #3 is even feasible given the enormous cost of raising and maintaining armies. I am starting out with 2 Priests targeting Wrath of God spells so I can seriously harvest high level enemies and their loot.

I am new to dosbox and I am having problem installing the patch. When I try to install the patch I get the message "Disciple of Steel does not exist in this location"

I named my game folder dsteel and when running dosbox I mount it in "c:" using the command mount c: d:\dsteel

I can play the game unpatched but just can't seem to get the 1.13 patch to run.

Appreciate any assistance that can be provided.

Try
and run the patch from the game directory.

That worked perfectly. Thank you very much :OK:

I am having a lot of fun with this game. It is difficult but the joys of building up your team is immense.

Too bad this game was so under appreciated. The crappy manual certainly didn't help. Without this forum, CRPG Addict and CRPG Codex, playing the game will be really really tough.

Currently in (I estimate) early mid-game. I received a huge combat and equipment boost when I blundered into 3 Assassins (and a Thug) who surprised me. Ended up with 5 dead but I won the combat thanks to my Priest (caused blindness) and my human knight and half-troll warrior. I also lucked out in that my illusionist managed to stun one of the Assassins before he was filleted. Three +10 backstabbing daggers is a huge plus to my inventory (for my knight, thief and illusionist - who is turning into a decent swordsman).

Now I am tempted to go after the Deathknight for his gear (I tried much earlier and he handed everyone their heads) ... getting a bit greedy hahaha

Absolutely! This plus the open world is what has compelled me to play this game more often than any other since the first time shortly after release.

Also the Spell Reference Card, very important because it gives you the stat requirements for higher powered spells is completely lost - no digital version.

The other big negative which led to me aborting my most recent re-play is the frequency of hidden doors in dungeons and necessity to bump into every wall, every single wall, to find them.

I completely ignored Illusionists until my most recent (aborted) replay. Their Stun is massively useful to help take out enemies that would otherwise be too powerful for your team. Awesome progress there!

I do like the open world but I am happy for the various sites which gives more details on game elements. It would have been quite frustrating trying to figure out that you can ask or deliver quest items until the other party request or offer items. I know I would have been tearing my hair wondering why I can't get or ask for Mithril from the dwarves. Or worse, killing wandering quest creature and thinking it was a random fight.

The spell reference card would have been a big help.

My Illusionist has been such a big help. I went up against the Fire Giant a tad early (ie. I overestimated my team) and in a fit of bad luck, it and two (out of three) of its Ettin buddies started right next to my team. If it wasn't for him stunning the Fire Giant and one of the Ettins, it would have been all over for me really fast. As it was, ended winning the fight with all but my ranger dead. Fixing up my party cost me a pretty penny lol.

Oh, killed the dreadknight and he turned out to be armed with the +20 Sly sword and not the +25. Still, not complaining. Just cleared out the dwarf mines and now prepping myself to go back to Terine.

DoS; how do I enter cities?
 

Hello if anyone is still here,

My question is this: There appears to be a city right above where you start the game. I can move my party all over the city on the map (eventually running into a random encounter if I move elsewhere) but I cannot enter the city to look around for shops, quests etc. Is there a key I need to press which is undocumented in the manual?

I am always reachable via PM but check in rarely hence . . . this reply mainly for others, I am sure you figured out how to enter towns.

It is true, the starting location is very close to Farnus, which is a major town and the source of initial quests. Entering any location can be done either via right click > enter or, from recall, using the actual Enter / Return key. Neither are documented in the Game Manual.

FYI Random encounters can occur within city tiles on the overland map. They are not 'safe' tiles.