After some more time with the Dungeon Lords demo I remain befuddled about some things.
M is supposed to "toggle automap", but doesnt seem to have any effect. Do I need my char to carry a map item for it to work?
The demo is based on the pre-patched code, so it will be the most buggy and be missing the most features. The minimap is one of the latter.
How do you target a particular enemy? The timing of my strikes is distinctly off, and given that the connection of blows dont seem to be totally random I get the feeling I am missing something. Or is there no targetting per se but rather weapons hitting anything that is at a particular distance and within the "swing angle" of the attack move?
The hitting is contact-based, meaning you have to actually hit the baddie with your sword. Make sure your close enough. Try moving the camera to an angle mostly above the fight to see how close you are. That might help you get the hang of it. It takes a bit of practice. One more thing, monsters do have a chance to parry your hit, so if you see a puff of grey smoke, it means your hit was parried and didn't cause any damage.
How do you pick locks and disarm traps? When I try to access a chest and click disarm or bash all I get is a timer and a progress bar on a dialog that doesnt seem to respond to any particular clicking. are you actually supposed to do anything at that stage, or is the rate of failure purely based on the characters skill level?
EDIT: Figured out the lockpicking, but I must say that I dont enjoy that particular minigame. What are the benefits of increasing your lockpicking skill?
The level of the lock/trap is first checked against your inspect traps skill which determines how much of the symbols you can see before the timer bar starts. Once you've started the timer bar, the speed at which the bar moves across the symbols depends, again, on the level of the lock/trap, but this time compared to your pick locks skill. The higher your inspect, the more clearly you'll see the symbols before the bar starts. The higher your lockpick, the slower the bar will move. Of course, you could always just Bash it. The higher your strength in comparison to the level of the lock/trap, the better random chance you'll have of opening it.
Is there any way to assign spells to quickslots?
When in your character screen ('C', I believe), hover over a given spell and hit the number you want it assign to. Once in game, it's a bit tricker and, again, was improved a bit after the demo was released. Bascially, if it's an instant effect spell, such as firing a fireball, when you hit the number it will simply fire away. For other types of spells, you'll have to have the spell bar up (which I think is 'F'). But when you have it up, you can't swing normally. And, in the demo, you can't toggle it off with 'F'. You have to hit another key to turn it off, just can't remember which one off the top of my head.