T H E G U I D E Part I Part II Part III Next Page Home Page |
[ step by step ] Alright, so you've successfully entered a name and password (and e-mail, if you feel as though you might forget your password); you can now start playing the game. The first thing you'll notice is a grid comprised of nine squares, with you right the middle. It's fairly self-explanatory -- click the "Move Here" links to move your character from square to square. In the green sections right above those links, you will see a word and a number; this is the street corner that tells you your location. For more detailed information, click here; you can return to this part of the guide in a moment. There is a definite system to how the city is laid out, both numerical and alphabetical. From North to South (top to bottom), the streets run from 1st to 100th. Once these are reached, you will see a section of blue-out squares that you cannot pass through; these mark the City limits. From West to East (left to right) the City is divided into two sections. The first half (western portion) goes from A to Z (with the exception of "X"), with each street being named after an animal or tree (Aardvark, Alder, Buzzard, Beech, etc). The adjacent half follows the same general A to Z guideline, although the streets are instead named after stones and moods (Amethyst, Anguish, Beryl, Bleak, etc). In the upper left-hand corner, you will see the words "Action Points: 35/35". Every action you take (biting, moving, robbing, attacking, etc.) will decrease the left-hand number by one. The right-hand number denotes the maximum amount of Action Points (AP) you have. This amount only increases in one of two ways -- gaining more blood, and gaining the powers of Stamina (more on this later). Your current amount of AP will recharge at a rate of one per thirty minutes, although this amount of time can be decreased with the powers of Celerity. You will see other players, represented by a name and number; the number being their blood count (Blood Points/Pints, abbreviated as BP). Unless you have a power called Second-Sight, that will be all that you will ever see... but we'll get into that later. When entering the same square as another player, a "drink" option appears underneath their name. Click it, and you will take one BP from them and add it to your own count. While the basic point of the game is generally to get your blood count up and get powers, in the beginning it's best to stick to exclusively biting humans. Unsurprisingly enough, they are represented in the grid with the word "Human." You will get a random amount of blood (1 to 3 pints) and coins (0 to 100+) from humans, as opposed to vampires which will give you 1 BP and nothing more, but beware -- sometimes humans are Vampire Hunters. Vampire Hunters will shoot you with a crossbow for a random amount of damage (10-50), and then usually proceed to run to a random adjacent square. If you have fifteen or more AP available, chase them. Sometimes they will stop after hitting you once, and sometimes they will run for what seems like forever. The worst I've gotten ran me for about 50-60 APs worth of movement. So as you can see, the more AP you have on you the better, though on average a vampire hunter will move 8-10 times. Upon catching a Hunter, you will get a random amount of blood and coins (just like a normal human) with one big difference: the amount of each is greatly increased. Occasionally the BP gain will exceed 300, and the coins by four to five thousand. In the beginning, it is extremely profitable to hunt down Vampire Hunters. So you have all these coins on you, and you're getting low on AP. What now? Easy: you find a bank to safely store them in. The not-so-easy part: actually finding the nearest bank. You could get lucky, and stumble across one by accident, or you could spend 5 AP to ask a Human where the nearest one is. The latter is very undesirable, as you're wasting valuable AP that could be put to better use. The best thing to do is have a map of the City handy, where you will know your location. Downloadable programs (such as LIAM) are generally preferred, because they automatically show things like that for you. Maps will make the game a LOT easier on you. And why bank your coins? Because some people (with a certain power) will steal them from you. Like biting, it's just part of the game... so don't get mad about getting bitten or robbed. After you've banked your coins, move away from the bank. Not only will you get bitten to death, but people hate anyone that clogs up the bank -- there is only a set amount of vampires that can stay in one square and you may not like what happens if you stay for too long in a building like a bank. Now you have some blood, and what looks like a fair amount of coins. The obvious thing to do next is get powers. I have already offhandedly mentioned a few, so I'm sure you're curious as to more details regarding them. One last thing to remember, though: if you do not log in and do something for a long amount of time (2-3 weeks) your account will be automatically deleted for inactivity. That's important to keep in mind, if you plan on making any progress in the Dark Alleyway. There is a way around this, which is to have the power of Second-Sight; go on to the next section to read more. |