UFF

Posted: **Sat Jul 09, 2011 5:28 pm**

Mayest thou pass...

  TTTTT H   H EEEEE       L     AAAAA SSSSS TTTTT      GGGGG AAAAA TTTTT EEEEE 
    T   H   H E           L     A   A S       T        G     A   A   T   E     
    T   HHHHH EEE         L     AAAAA SSSSS   T        G GGG AAAAA   T   EEE   
    T   H   H E           L     A   A     S   T        G   G A   A   T   E   
    T   H   H EEEEE       LLLLL A   A SSSSS   T        GGGGG A   A   T   EEEEE

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DOWNLOAD
http://thelastgate.srb2.org/download/thelastgate.rar

When you first run TheLastGate.exe, you will be presented with a small pre-game window, offering a selection of options prior to your being able to join the game.

Please refer to the image file, "Character Setup.png", to aid in the discussion below.

(1) Create New Account Button
This button, when clicked, will create a new character account for you. It will prompt you to triple-check if you have SAVED(14) your character prior to clicking it. If you haven't made a character yet, the prompt will still occur, however nothing will happen.

(2) Account Name
This is a block of unchangeable text that tells you the name of your character as it is defined in-game. This will only change after either logging in once, or having your name changed by an admin in-game.

(3) Character Name
This text box is where you may enter your characters name while creating a new character. When entering a name, it must NOT contain any spaces or non-letter characters. If the name DOES include spaces or non-letter characters, or if the name is left blank, your character account will receive a randomly generated name upon creation. Note that changing the character name after the account name is set will have no barring on the character/account name until a new account is created.

(4) Password
This text box will determine a password for your account upon creation. It must be re-entered every time you re-open the game prompt. Note that nobody should be able to acquire your account any way other than client-side, as they cannot manually change the account name to yours. If left blank upon account creation, no password will be set.

(5) Description
This text box will allow you to enter a description for your character, to be shown to any other in-game player who looks at you. When entering a character description, it must contain at least one instance of your character account's name. Note that upon creation your character's name will remove all capital letters other than the first one, so if there is any difficulty in setting a description, make sure it matches the ACCOUNT name.

(6) Character Race
The game offers three major starting "races" (classes), each of which can be upgraded to one of two more powerful races later on in the game (which at the moment is unavailable, but I'll worry about that after enough people run out of available in-game quests).

The starting races are named as follows:

TEMPLAR
-------
The Templar is the primary fighter class of the game, boasting excessive maximum in their fighting skills, and an excessive minimum in their magic skills. They can achieve a very high position of fighting power on their own without the need of any sort of external spell cast upon them - which is just as well, as they cannot regenerate mana automatically. The Templar is a good choice for new players who prefer a straightforward killing spree.

HARAKIM
-------
The Harakim is the primary magician class of the game, boasting excessive maximum in their magic skills, and an excessive minimum in their fighting skills. They are combat-evasive tacticians, and can use their spells to summon ghost companions, strengthen their allies, and make things explode from afar. They are very quick to regenerate mana without the need of potions, but tend to be extremely fragile on their own without quick thinking and stealth. The Harakim is a good choice for new players who enjoy making things stop in their tracks and explode from across the room, or those who enjoy aiding and healing others in a group.

MERCENARY
---------
The Mercenary is a sort of middle-man between the two above, boasting balanced stats across both physical and magical abilities. They can be whatever they like from combat artisans to supportive sages. While they cannot use the advanced spells or heavier equipment that the Templars or Harakims can, they have the full opportunity to mix and match whatever they like. The Mercenary is a good choice for new players who enjoy taking their time and trying new things, while not afraid to take risks and a slightly steeper difficulty.

Note that the remaining race bullets are races that can only be EARNED while playing the game itself, and cannot be selected. You cannot change your race after your account is created.

(7) Character Gender
Selects your character's gender upon account creation. This cannot be changed after your account name is set.

(8) Login Status
After STARTING(12) the game, this box will tell you the current login situation. Errors may include one of the following:

| ERROR: Could not establish |
| connection. |

Check your internet connection. If your internet is working correctly, the server itself may be down. Check online at

http://thelastgate.srb2.org/cgi-bin/info.cgi" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

at the bottom of the page to see if the server is presently down or not. If it is, you may email me at ZarroTsu(at)hotmail(dot)com to inform me of the server status, or inquire if it is down for maintenance.

| Server demands exit: |
| Invalid password. |

The password you supplied was incorrect. Alternatively, the character account may no longer exist on the server. Check online at

http://thelastgate.srb2.org/cgi-bin/list.cgi" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

to see if your character still exists, if you are unsure.

(9) Alpha Setting
In all honestly, I'm not entirely sure of the purpose of Alpha in the game. I know it is specifically related to the graphical quality, however I do not see any difference between the three settings. You may toggle between the three if you feel there will be a difference in performance and/or quality, however I personally leave it set to "Full Alpha".

(10) Shadow
Toggle the shadows seen under characters.

(11) Sound Effects
Toggle sound effects played while on the game.

(12) Start
Clicking this starts the game with the settings you have applied above. Be sure to double-check everything before starting!

(13) Load
Clicking this loads a previously SAVED(14) character. Note that unless the current account is saved, it will be lost forever.

(14) Save
Clicking this saves the currently loaded account. The account will only be correctly saved once an account name is given, so it is very important to have entered the game as the character at least once before saving.

(15) News
Clicking this will open a link to the home page of the The Last Gate website.

(16) Help
Clicking this will open a link to the KZEACH forums, wherein The Last Gate's forum resides.

(17) Quit
Clicking this will close the window, having the same effect as the X in the top right corner.

The game is a point and click type of tactical MORPG, and there unfortunately isn't much of any alternative to moving around due to the source code stupidly wiring all the keyboard keys to the text box, arrow keys included.

Moving around is the simple action of clicking a box where you want to move to. The game takes a moment for your character to start moving (this will be fixed as soon as I can find where this stupid delay is stored...), so give it a second and your character will walk the shortest direct route to your destination. Regardless of death pits, trap triggers or enemies along the way. (Of course when something attempts to hurt you, you'll retaliate automatically)

Interacting with objects is done with the SHIFT key held, and interacting with NPCs or other players is done with the CTRL key held. Clicking normally will directly interact, either 'using' the item, or 'fighting' the NPC. Right clicking will allow you to examine the object or NPC, so you can have a vague hint of what the item is, or who the NPC might be (and what their rank is).

Inventory management is similar to overworld item interaction. Simply click an item to use it; right click it to examine it, and SHIFT+click it to pick it up under your cursor, or put it down from your cursor (This is used for equipping items). If you interact with an overworld item or NPC with an item under your cursor, the item will be used on the selection directly - thrown in a trash can, or given to an NPC (important for completing quests).

To interact with a shop, simply CTRL+Right-Click the shopkeeper, and a menu should open. From here you can click what you'd like to buy, or drop an inventory item into an empty space to sell it (if the item is similar to the shopkeeper's type of wares). At the bottom of the screen is the BUY/SELL price for items, displayed when your cursor hovers over an object's space. There is a skill in the game that can help get a better opinion from shopkeepers regarding their prices, however you'll have to learn it first.

Graves are much the same as a shopkeeper menu, however you can take whatever you like for free (of course). You cannot, however, place something you already own into the grave.

If you have a spell that requires a target, or can be cast on someone other than just yourself, you can select a target with the ALT key held. Your spell target will be highlighted in green for easy recognition. If you wish to deselect them, simply select them a second time.

One of the more off-putting aspects of the game is its massive interface. This is unfortunately something that will remain unchanged until the game is given a massive code overhaul.That said, it's up to you whether you love or hate the interface as it is.

Please refer to the image file, "Interface.png", to aid in the discussion below.

(1) You and your surroundings
This is your character and the view of the world around you. He, or she, will stay in this location on the screen at all times, the world itself moving around you as you walk to your destination.

(2) Chat Window
This is where a majority of your attention may be held to. Conversations between players and NPCs, as well as a large selection of commands will all be shown here.

(3) Your Character/Account Name
Just in case you forget it, I suppose.

(4) Your Rank
The game's method of a hard 'level' scheme is in the form of military ranks. The rank name will be displayed under your character/account name, while the rank image will be shown in the upper window.

(5) Your Inventory
All items you possess will be shown here. You can scroll between your total of 40 inventory slots using the arrows on the scroller bar to the right of the 10 shown slots.

(6) Your Equipment
Your currently equipped items are shown here. If an "X" is shown over the Left Hand slot, it means the current right-handed weapon is two-handed.

(7) Offense/Defense
Your weapon value and armor value represent how hard you hit and how much you can take a hit, respectively.

(8) Experience
Your total experience points are shown here.

(9) Physical Wellness
Hitpoints, Endurance and Mana are shown here. At the top of the screen are rough estimated bars, while to the left are the fractional values.

(10) Skill List
This massive chart presents a list of all the skills and spells you know. This can be split up into a multitude of sections. Each column represents:

| Skill Name | Base Score | Modified Score |+|-| Experience Required to raise |

Each section, highlighted by a color on the image, is as follows:

GREEN
-----
The topmost section of the skill list are what I would call your 'base' attributes. These five stats are important, as they not only determine what you can equip, but they also modify all other ability scores as well. These can only be modified by various equipment and spells.

BLUE
----
Underneath the base attributes is a small section for your hitpoints, endurance and mana. It is unwise to spend any experience on these attributes until you have leftover experience in the excess of a couple hundred.

PURPLE
------
This section is the most important, as it will show you the skills that directly affect your character. You can scroll this portion of the list up and down with the scroller bar to the right. It is wise to spend a good amount of your experience on the specific weapon skill(s) used for your character's weapon.

ORANGE
------
This small box indicates how much EXP you have available to spend on the above skills. You can toggle between the + and - boxes next to any of the above skills to spend the points as you see fit.

WHITE
-----
When all is said and done, you must click the "Update" box to apply all changes to your skills. Note that the changes do not affect your character until applied, and note that once applied the changes are permanent.

(11) Minimap
This will show an overhead area of the locations you have explored during the current session of your gameplay. The minimap will reset to a black image once you leave the game.

(12) Shortcuts
These twelve boxes will start as empty, however you can right click any skill name from your skill list, then right click an empty box, to set a shortcut for that skill/spell. Simply clicking the shortcut box, or using the key command it tells you once it is assigned, will have your character use that skill/spell instantly. No need to scroll frantically through your skill list!

(13) Minor Settings
These settings effect the game in a small way. They are as follows:

FAST/NORMAL/SLOW
----------------
These toggle your character's movement speed. While fast, your character moves and fights at an increased speed, at the cost of a faster endurance decrease, as well as hindering their stealth. While slow, your character moves and fights at a decreased speed, while at the same time making them harder to see by enemies. Normal is, of course, in-between.

HEALTH/NAMES
------------
These will toggle if you see character and NPC health and/or names over top their heads on your view window. You can turn off names during a very crowded location, or you can turn off health when posing for a screenshot.

HIDE
----
While hide is ON, it lowers any walls by graphic that are not northeast of the character. While hide is OFF, all walls will display as normal. Turning it on is exceptionally useful while in much more enclosed rooms. There are not many reasons to leave it OFF, unless you enjoy the authenticity of it.

EXIT
----
This is an emergency exit button of sorts. It will warn you when you press it the first time of its side-effect, then work perfectly well the second time. The cost for leaving the game this way is one-tenth of your character's inventory money. It is instead suggested that you leave the game by entering a tavern.

(14) Compass
A small reference guide for direction.

(15) Quick-money
These 7 boxes are used for quickly taking a tenth-power worth of money out of your purse and under your cursor. You can remove the money from your hand by dropping it back in your inventory, or by giving it to an NPC or player.

(16) Quick-movement
The four red tabs on each side of the view window will enable your character to auto-walk in that direction after being clicked. To stop auto-walking, you can either hit the ESC key, or click somewhere else on-screen.

(17) Current Spells
This will show the current spells and other magical effects applied to your character, displayed in the form of an image for reference. As the spell's power weakens, the image will become darker in color. When the spell runs out, the image disappears.

1. Behave. Treat others as you'd REALISTICALLY want them to treat you. Do not directly insult someone for no reason. If you feel they are behaving poorly, you may ask them to stop. If you feel they are less educated with the game than you are, you are entirely able to help them out yourself.

2. Language is a privilege, not a right. Do not spam a vulgar statement because you think it's funny. I would like if the game could remain at a PG-13 state of mind.

3. Do not multi-log. Multi-logging is wherein you log in with two or more characters at once as a means of falsifying a group to make the game easier. If you feel the game is empty, you are (hopefully) entirely capable of inviting a friend you know to join you, even if you don't think they'll like the game.

4. Do not lag-out of combat. While I'm sure you don't want to lose your inventory to the vicious grips of the rogue-like, there are plenty of alternatives, such as preparing yourself prior to combat, asking friends for help with your task if they're able, or simply accepting the death and trying again in the future.

5. Do not help new players with any quest beyond the first two. The Thieves Guild is a good place to help them with learning the game, and the Ghost Apartments may stump them with its simple puzzle. But beyond those two, you must allow them to go in alone, or consider creating a new character to join them in a group, if you wish.

6. Do not abuse anything you might consider a bug, that presents some form of character gain. Bring it up with a more experienced player as to whether or not it's a bug, and if they too are unsure, email me at ZarroTsu(at)hotmail(dot)com to inform me of the bug, and I will reply with whether or not it is.

7. Do not spam. Spamming is the act of repeating the same line multiple times, or outright advertizing something and then immediately leaving the game.

8. Do not troll. This falls under the same category as rule 1 does, however it still stands to be mentioned, even if repeated. Doing something as a means of ruining the game for other people for your own benefit of a cheap laugh will quickly result in a swift kick to the face.

9. Respect the staff and their decisions. They are on staff for good reason, and good staff is hard to come by. While it's okay to question their methods, and recommended to report their rule breaking to another staff member, do not directly insult them for any lapse in judgement they may have, or simply because you hate "the man". All players should be treated equally, no matter their position.

10. Do not attempt to profit off of the game. This includes selling a character for real money, advertizing 'trainers', or posing as a member of the staff wherever it is possible to do so. This will be quickly and immediately banned, above all else.

Note that not all of the game changes since server birth have been recorded. Below the assigned dates within recent memory are the other additions that the game began to present in the past; the exact time is simply without memory. With this new 'Recent Changes' Section to the manual, I will make a better attempt to record game changes here immediately, as to better organize the time of addition.

July 9, 2011
* Added better keys per sake of making the items easier to see and
organize

June 2011
* Added the ability to complete quests within a group
* Nerfed the quest difficulties again
* Added subquests for the "Identify" and "Guardian" skills
* Changed the interface to include skill BASE scores on the skill
list, to the left of the original MODIFIER values
* Added a lot of quest-related TALK.C code to assure ease in
completion
* Added "Bone" weapons as a mid-step (for some) between bronze and
steel
* Re-added the quest weapons as mid-steps between higher weapon tiers
* Nerfed the effects of the Belt of Hitpoints and Amulet of Mana
* Added the final "Titanium" tier of weaponry (per sake of completion)
* Redid the rings (slightly) to give the ruby ring some use
* Fixed the potion graphics to try nullifying the 'invisible
highlight' bug.
* Redid the god weapons to better differentiate between colors.
* Added several miscellaneous NPCs with no quests
* Added the ability to ask non-quest NPCs for a quest, resulting in them pointing you in the direction of the next quest from a list of
a generic 'order' for new players.
* Redid the armor sets a bit to better balance them.
* Made the first few ranks of grolms unarmed as to make it MUCH easier
for low-rank players to pent.
* Removed the "Youth" and "Youngster" FirstKills from Lab 2
* Changed the names of all the Quest Bosses to better differentiate
between them and the lackies.
* Nerfed the Sword-in-Stone strength requirement

Early 2011
* Server crash required the entire server to be rebooted, the website
lost in the process
* Altered player walk speed to be a little faster to encourage new
players, rather than boring them to death with the slow speeds
* Added and arranged the 'god' unique weapons
* Specifically boosted/nerfed ghost companions in such a way that
Necromancers are the only ones who can achieve the most powerful
companion rank
* Nerfed/Fixed some of the weapon requirements and modifiers to better
suit the weapon type
* Nerfed the quest difficulties again
* Fixed the 'tick overflow' bug with a (bad idea) reset-to-0 chunk of
code, for as soon as it overflows

Everything earlier than 2011
* The server was born
* The town was remade from scratch (save for pents and RD)
* Added the 'Dual Wield' skill
* Added the 'Bash' skill
* Added the 'Sap' spell
* Added the 'Smite' skill
* Added the 'Obliterate' spell
* Added the 'Berserk' spell
* Added the 'First Aid' skill
* Added the 'Leg Sweep' skill
* Added the 'Pickpocket' skill
* Created 'Berserk' and 'Heal' spell scrolls
* Redid the spell scroll tiers by multipliers of 2 (32, 64, 128, 256)
* Added all the town quests, dungeon/houses and NPCs
* Assured that the underground would be 256 tiles west of the town
* Added the 'Underground' mega dungeon
* Redid the Mines
* Added the 'Abandoned Prison' grind dungeon
* Added the forest area
* Redid LAB 1
* Redid LAB 2
* Redid LAB 3
* Redid the way that the Random Dungeon works
* Added the "Koblin Mound" to the forest as a quest for HEAL
* Added the '/weapon' and '/armor' commands and their subcommands
* Added the three gods
* Redid as many instances as could be found of "Skua" to "Hyrmona"
* Redid as many instances as could be found of "The Purple One" to
"Pandimonium"
* Redid all the special armor types, including a LOT of new suffixes,
and a few new prefixes
* Added a money value modifier in addition to the prefix/suffix on
armor.
* Redid all the weapons and armors to accommodate to the races using
them.
* Added the 'magic armor' sets to better suit spellcaster characters
* Added all the different weapon types to give options to character
builds
* Added shields
* Added the Necromancer and Paladin archraces as new choices for
Templar and Harakim arch-types
* Rebalanced everything like crazy
* Nerfed Ratling Potions
* Nerfed Greenling Potions
* Added 'Darkling' eyes and potions in back-end
* Nerfed the quest difficulties
* Changed the way "/gold" works, to allow silver withdrawal
* Added the "/rank" command
* Added Silver belts and Amulets to follow the same rules as emblem
armor (Making them technically the best accessories in the game,
determined entirely by random)
* Made it so that more potent emblem prefixes and suffixes appear
(much) less often than the less potent.
* Added negative modifier emblem armor prefixes and suffixes.
* Added an easier potion-making "system", with more outcomes.
* Redid all the client-side flavor text for skills, to better explain
to new players what the skills actually DO.

Whatever else I did, I cannot remember. It may have been obvious things, or it may have all been back-end code nobody notices. If you're that interested in what I forget I did, then by all means jog my memory.