Drakensang:RoT Drakensang: Phileasson's Secret

Dark Savant

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"Phileasson's Secret" continues the popular Drakensang franchise with an epic new chapter. Phileasson is one of the most important characters in the world of "The Dark Eye" and his story is very popular among pen & paper fans, fitting perfectly within the Drakensang series.

Ending some weeks before the events of 'River of Time', the "Phileasson Campaign" enjoys a similar setting and atmosphere, creating a great opportunity for expanding the adventures of the famous Thorwaler Phileasson.

"The River of Time" has already introduced the river itself, dubious pirates and many secrets which can be connected to the "Phileasson Campaign", making this 'Add-On' very authentic and a natural continuation of the unique world of Aventuria.

features:
Powerful new weapons and items to discover
New monsters giving the player extra challenges
A huge new location with a completely unique setting
Many new quests, supported by top quality cutscenes
Several new unique characters


It is out on Impulse with stupid NA limit.
 
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I just noticed this too, that the English version was released on Impulse. Gamersgate still shows the 16th.

If I didn't have so much else on my gaming plate right now I'd grab it but I'll probably still get it at some point.
 
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So I have the bloody thing but I can't see how to start it!

Anyone?

Google's first suggestion is that it opens up from the main game somehow? Can that be true..? Any German-speakers like to help me out?
 
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Can you start the game with the Drakensanga.exe ? Maybe that will help. You can see that the Installation works when there is some viking-ship on the "start-screen".

IIRC the Drakensang.exe starts a game without the AddOn.

If you can't get it to work you will at least be spared from the biggest disappointment of modern gaming :)
 
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The Add-On installs itself - as far as I know - seamlessly into the game : It's contents become available as a new quest.
Which branches, once you have started it.

You must speak or listen to someone in the harbor area, as far as I know.

Since I STILL don't have it, I jut can't say for sure.

The "viking ship" is the ship of Philleasson himself and his crew : These are the usual ships of Thorwalians of which Philleasson (in short : "Philly" by TDE players) is one. ;)

What I do *not* know (at all) is, what happens of you decided to end the game after the final fight - rather than just playing on. ;)
 
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Thanks, I get it. That's quite a nice effect on the intro screen now, with vikings lounging about. I think it's also updated to main game's start icon to a viking longship. But I have to restart a character. Does that mean this thing is only appropriate for certain levels..? Oh dear.
 
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I really don't know.
 
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I was able to play the AddOn after I finished the Main-Game and choose to travel on.

The AddOn adds two Quest-Chains, one low to mid level and one highlevel. Both are bad.
 
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I bought and installed the complete Drakensang pack from Gamersgate. It's a good deal (TDE, ROT & Phileasson for $30 US) but ROT and Phileasson comes with no documentation whatsoever. Not even a short text file. I installed the expansion and got the ship on the title screen, but with no manual, no new icon on the desktop and no text stating Phileasson's Secret at the title screen for a new buyer of the game (like me) it's hard to know whether the expansion installed or not so I am glad I came here to look.

I'm putting off playing it until after TW2, but I'm kind of curious about who did the translation since the company is out of business. I hope it is not Google translated German to English. :p
 
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The first Quest-Chain is started when a female cartographer approaches you at the harbour and offers to sell you a treasure-map. The second is started if you agree to keep watch for a sleepy Guard at the harbour. I don't remember if the cartographer only appears after you did the Guard-Quest - I try to forget the shameful end of the series…
 
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Thanks. As I make my 6th attempt to download The Witcher 2 from D2D I might need something to occupy myself.
 
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I don't remember if the cartographer only appears after you did the Guard-Quest...
She shows up as soon as you first pop into town. However, I'm pretty sure you need to chat with the sleepy guard to get it to continue.
 
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Hmm…I guess I should post it here too:

Hi there;I thought to offer some advice. If people bought Phileassons' secret like me from Gamersgate (I couldn't find a retail version in my country) and maybe this goes for Steam too - in any case as a download, thus… they could experience some problems where the download doesn't, or doesn't fully, work.

The cause I think, lies in the fact that the downloaded version of the expansion is not entirely compatible with the retail version of Drakensang TROT, at least the one of the Benelux (maybe others too). I have found that the problem is small and can be readily solved. Gamersgate always tries to install it at a specified path in programfiles. Which is, normally, the right place to do so, if you installed by default. BUT…it does so under the wrong name, even if you DID install it by default. (Thus, one gets another, different folder installed). When you click on the new .exe in the new folder, it gives you an error, because it doesn't find the files of TROT. If you click on the original exe in the TROT folder, the regular TROT starts up, without the expansion.

Note that, even if you manually direct it towards the correct pathname, it STILL makes a subfolder within your parent folder, which causes the same problem. Now, to remedy this, you can either copy/paste the whole shebang within this folder in your parent TROT folder. Or, more simple, you first remove the '-' in the name of your parent folder of TROT (which the Benelux version installs). Yes, it is "Program Files/Drakensang - The River of Time" and the expansion installs it for "Program Files/Drakensang The River of Time". You see, only the "-" is the difference. Delete that ("-") out of your folders'name (of the original TRoT install), and then install your Gamersgate-download-version of the expansion, and everything will go smoothly.

I dunno if it's in every version like that, retail or as a download, but it occurred with me in officially bought versions, so I guess others have (or will) encounter(ed) it too, so I thought to share this. Feel free to share it to others as well, I'm placing this under CC, share-alike. If you found it helpful, donate some blue coins to me. ;-p
 
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Steam has issues with it, too. If you try to install the expansion before you have at least started the main game once, it will bug out and crash every time you run. Also, once it is installed correctly, it will put a file in your directory called Drakensanga1.exe and run that instead of the main game. Unfortunately, if your video driver is using the exe name to figure out what profile to use, that will break it and leave you with no profile.
 
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Steam has issues with it, too.

I tried it at steam at first, but - while it had it - it wasn't 'possible' (?) to download it in my country. A bit strange; isn't there a free exchange of goods in the EU? And what's worse; I actually wanted a boxed retail version. But that is no-where to be found in the Benelux. In contrast, you could get TROT even long before it came out in the US. I just don't get what the publisher is doing. No retail versions, and even the download versions are difficult to come by; how are people supposed to buy it, then? I have a godchild who fancies drakensang also, but there is no way for him to buy it on his own.


Now, about the expansion itself; I have seen many harsh criticism about it by some; that it doesn't have many puzzles or riddles, is geared towards fighting, that there is not much to buy new stuff, etc. Now, those are partially correct; it IS more geared towards fighting, and it doesn't have all that much new stuff to buy in it, but people....it's just an expansion. A medium expansion at that - or a large DLC, depending on how you look at it. You can't want the same thing of an expansion as of the game itself. Compare this to the horse-armor of Oblivion, and ask yourself if it's really that bad, then. ;-p And frankly, while I just started, thusfar I rather like the expansion. It doesn't have to have much riddles; some battles/fighting is nice too, for me. And I already have a lot of stuff bought, so it isn't really a hindrance that you don't get a zillion new things. And...well, it 's just pretty no-brainer-popcorn-fun, as of yet.

It *IS* true that, compared to the original game, I almost paid as much for the expansion as for the game, so one could complain about that. Both cost less than 10 euro's, but the expansion is far smaller, true. But then again, I guess the game was in its second life cyclus, or I got it really cheap here, for some reason or another. But to be honest, less than 10 euro was a bargain for the game; it's worth much more. So: if you're not really into Drakensang, or have huge expectations of the expansion, or think 10 euro's is much: don't buy it, or wait until the price drops. For those who enjoyed it, want to play more, and aren't focused on getting riddles and large amounts of new stuff, I would recommend it. The expansion is quite all-right, actually. Not superb, but not crap either, IMHO.
 
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The expansion is 29 Euros here, originally.
 
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The expansion is 29 Euros here, originally.

Really? Where's that? The US? I don't understand the price-differences myself. At Gamersgate you can buy it for less than 10 bucks. Me thinks *you* can buy it there too? As I've read on the Net, in theory one can buy it for 19 euro's as a retail in the Benelux, but the problem is, it's no-where to be found in any shop I've looked.

And even for the TROT game itself: some shops sell it for 8,95 euro (like where I bought it - needless to say that was a real bargain) for a boxed/retail version, and others sold it at the same time for 14,95 euro. And even now, after several additional months, I've seen it being sold at 19,95 euro.

I just don't know where they keep coming with those strange price-settings. Sure, each shop can differ a little bit, but from 8,95 to 19,95…. seems a bit steep, for a profit of a shop….

To be honest, unless you really are a hardcore fan, 29 euro seems a bit much for the expansion. It's a good deal for <10euro, but at triple the price…

I think 30-40 euro seems a reasonable price for the full game (when newly released), not just only the expansion. But I even heard you could get a 'gold' or 'complete' boxset in Spain for less than 30 euro, with Drakensang1, 2, and the expansion combined. Now, THAT's an interesting buy. But alas, nothing like that here.

Who can figger out the strange reasonings and sell-mechanics of game-publishers, heh?
 
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Really? Where's that? The US? I don't understand the price-differences myself.

Germany. *Everything* is more expensive here !

Full games usually cost around 40-45 Euros, Collector Editions more, naturally.

In the U.S. there seems to be THQ the local distributor or/and its daughter company ValuSoft.

Apart from that, dtp is the responsible publisher.

Look here for more : http://www.rpgwatch.com/show/newsbit?newsbit=17684
 
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Germany. *Everything* is more expensive here !

Full games usually cost around 40-45 Euros, Collector Editions more, naturally.

In the U.S. there seems to be THQ the local distributor or/and its daughter company ValuSoft.

Apart from that, dtp is the responsible publisher.

Look here for more : http://www.rpgwatch.com/show/newsbit?newsbit=17684

Yes, I thought it would be Germany, after I looked at your (nick)name. ;-)

Now, full games of big names usually cost about 50 euro's here too (for PC, for consoles, add another 10 euro). Personally, I think that's too much for a game, unless you can get hundreds of hours out of it, like with an Elder Scroll game. That's why I think TROT was at its second life-cycle, because otherwise it would be impossible to buy it for 10 euro or less for a retail/boxed version. The thing that surprised me, though, was the huge differences between shops at the same time. Normally, you don't see that.

Is that dtp's fault? I dunno. I already read that they were the publisher, but frankly, I have the impression they didn't do a very good job on this. I'd never even heard of Drakensang, before I found a single, lost copy when checking out the budget-section in a shop. And I usually keep an eye on RPG's. The same for TROT; at its release, almost nothing was advertised. In fact, you see them *more* now than at their release (maybe word-to-word is spreading?). It's a shame Radon went bust. I was looking forward to a third edition.
 
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DraSa2:pS was a boxed release in Germany.

dtp was the publisher who secured the funding for all Drakensang games and directly released in the German speaking countries. All other territories were licensed to partners, simply because dtp doesn't do direct business outside of GAS.
Observation hints that this took a lot of time, retail prices were low and retail visibility near zero. DDL also took forever and why partners were needed to get on these services is unclear.
 
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