Prince: Legends of the Forest Country

Once upon a time, when the Titans dominated the Earth, the North was considered one of the most powerful clans. The clan possessed many formidable magic items, and the most terrible of them was the Lord’s bracelet.

To protect the Singing Things, the Titans created a special race of immortal heroes spending time in countless wars. During their sunset, in the hope of a future revival of the clan, the Titans hid a bracelet in the swamps, next to which one of the mortal tribes, the Slavs, later settled. There, in the swamp, the Titans also left one of their dragons to guard this formidable object. Ara, who was half mortal, was appointed guardian of the Titans bracelet. They left Aru an amulet that gave control of the dragon.

Many thousands of years later, the eternal enemies of the Northern clan, the Yellow Dogs, the messengers of the forces of chaos and destruction, discovered a detachment of Ara, hiding in a small fortress. A mortal battle ensued, the forces of the enemies significantly exceeded the Ara detachment, which consisted of only mortals. Already in the first minutes of the bloody massacre from a large detachment, only a dozen warriors remained alive. Ar realized that he had no chance to survive. To prevent the Dragon Amulet from reaching the enemies, he divided it into 3 parts and sent them with faithful hawks to three old friends and associates.

The keeper sent one hawk to Vseslav in the lands of the Slavs, another hawk - to Scandinavia , the Viking Sigurd, the hawk carried the third part of the amulet to Ara's faithful friend, Byzantine Mikhail. The first hawk was shot down by the arrow of a lone Wolf, the only one of the long-extinct clan of the Hunters; he had long wandered around the Forest Country in search of a Bracelet, with the help of which he hoped to revive his clan. The hawk brought the second part of the amulet to Sigurd, but one of the berserkers , seeing a strange bird surrounded by a magical radiance, stealthily sneaking up, viciously cut down an unarmed warrior. Under the guise of a berserker, the old enemy of Vseslav, the hero Dragomir, was hiding. In the morning after the murder, he left the soldiers and went on a great campaign in the Forest Country. Having received a part of the amulet, Mikhail immediately sensed the evil: he realized that something irreparable happened to Ar and that the fate of the Lord now depends only on him. Putting aside all affairs, he hastily set off for the lands of the Slavs.

Soon the paths of the three heroes intersect. Which of them will be the winner? Only the vast expanses of the Forest Country can give an answer to these questions ...

• Dragomir is a Viking, a hero of the Northern clan who devoted himself to military craft. Preparing to get the Dragon Amulet, he collected the best warriors for a long time. Part of the amulet that Dragomir took possession of was intended for the Viking Sigurd.
• The wolf is a Slav, the last surviving from the clan of the Hunters, perfectly owning the bow. For a long time he lived in the forest near the swamps, wandered and hunted. Having received part of the Amulet, the Wolf decided that the Lord’s bracelet would help him revive the clan. This part of the amulet was intended for the Slav Vseslav.
• Michael is a Byzantine, an old friend and comrade of Vseslav. Upon learning that the Forest Country was in danger, he left his business and hit the road. Michael is the only legal recipient of a part of the amulet, since it was he who sent the amulet Ar.

The game is a classic role-playing game in isometric projection . During the game, the player has to travel around locations, complete tasks, destroy monsters. At the beginning of the game, three heroes are offered a choice, then the selected hero must be specified in one of 4 classes and the characteristics must be distributed. Depending on the chosen hero, the player starts the game in one of three settlements. Each of the characters has several unique tasks and dialogs that are not found in others, but basically the storyline is the same for everyone.

The game world is divided into locations, in each of which various monsters live, in some locations there are settlements that are divided into neutral, allied and hostile. During the game, the player is able to capture the settlements, thereby subordinating them to his power. From union settlements, you can take tribute, engage in the construction of certain buildings, appoint people to key posts. Different non-player characters live in the settlements:

• The headman is in charge of managing the village, he can take tasks, take tribute, give orders for the development of the village and appoint specialists, if any;
• The voivode gradually educates the villagers to their level;
• The blacksmith is engaged in the sale and repair of equipment, gradually arming the villagers;
• The medicine man sells potions, and is also able to heal both the hero and his squad;
• The merchant can lend you money at a certain percentage and sell a variety of goods.

With the exception of the headman and governor, all these specialists can be asked to prepare a student, who in the future can be taken to another village where this specialist is absent.

The villages are also inhabited by ordinary people, represented by warriors, brave men, hunters, merchants, children and women. All of them are busy with their own affairs, but they can give the hero a task. In addition, with the exception of women and children, under certain conditions, most of them can be taken into their own squad.

As mentioned above, during the game the player can subordinate the settlement to his will. This can be done in two different ways: forceful and legitimate.

• In the first case, the squad led by the hero is required to kill a certain percentage of the population in the village so that the residents recognize your authority over them.
• In the second case, the player is required to complete a certain task that the village headman can give. However, this possibility is not present in all settlements.

Classes

• Leader - characterized by high charisma.
• Warrior - characterized by high strength.
• Hunter - is highly agile.
• Merchant - characterized by high endurance.

Key Features

• Charisma is a characteristic that affects the number of warriors that a hero can take into his squad. The maximum size of the detachment is 10 people, but under certain circumstances there may be more.
• Strength - a characteristic that affects the damage done to the enemy; important for wearing swords and shields.
• Dexterity - a characteristic that affects the evasion of the enemy’s attack and the chance of hitting the enemy with any weapon or fists; important for wearing bows and helmets.
• Stamina - a characteristic that affects the ability to withstand the attacks of the enemy and the transferred weight; important for wearing armor and ax / club.

Minor Characteristics

• Health - the amount of health that will decrease before the character dies.
• Damage - damage to the enemy. It decreases with injuries (amount of health).
• Armor - as well as endurance, affects the reduction of damage to the character.
• Poisoning - Slowly reduces health until an antidote is taken. The higher the poisoning, the faster the health decreases.
• Gold is the amount of gold that can be spent on one or another purpose. Maybe only the main character.
• Tolerated weight is the maximum burden a hero can carry. If the weight becomes maximum, the hero cannot carry objects. Also, along with weight, the number of items in a backpack plays a role, of which there can be no more than 32 for one character.

Skills

• Fencing is the skill of owning a sword and an ax / club. Rises automatically in battle. The maximum value is 655.
• Accuracy is the skill of owning a bow. Rises automatically in battle. The maximum value is 655.
• Identification is the skill of recognizing magical things. Depending on the skill, the character has a chance to recognize this or that thing. When a character is recognized by either a character, or a scroll, or by a sorcerer, the skill improves by +1. The maximum value is 100.
• Trade - a skill that affects the prices of purchased and sold goods. This takes into account both the skill of the player and the trader. When making any transaction worth more than 1000 coins, the skill increases. The maximum value is 100.
• Sorcery is a skill that affects the concentration of potions that a hero prepares. Rises from Potions. The maximum value is 500.

Despite the general similarity of single-player mode with multi-user mode, the latter, however, had a number of significant differences. On one server, one player can play only one character. The character name matches the player’s login. When creating a new character, the old one is deleted from the server database. At the same time in the game there can be up to 16 players playing for three diverse ethnic groups: Rusich, Viking, or Byzantine.

At the beginning of the game session or after bringing the assembled amulet to the test site, three parts of the amulet appear in the center of locations B3, C2, C3 in the center of the temple. Classes are located in the center of locations D1 - for the Byzantines, D3 - for the Vikings, D5 - for the Slavs and are indicated by a pink circle framed by a cross of pink skeletons.

The game continues until the specified time expires, or until one of the teams brings the assembled amulet a specified number of times to the test position.

The game world consists of 20 looped locations, each of which has 8 teleportation points to neighboring locations. The game saves the parameters of the heroes and their things. When you exit the game, mercenaries are lost. When a character dies, if he is not resurrected and he enters the game through the “new game” button, the equipment that was worn on the character at the time of death disappears. And all the things from the backpack, regardless of the resurrection, are put in a bag that remains lying on the site of death and can be picked up by another player. Thus, the player is fined for the death of the character.

Bonus points raising the rating are awarded for: bringing the collected amulet to the place of credit; killing another player; killing a mercenary of another player.

In total, there are four significantly different versions of the first Prince. Consider them in order of sale.

Prince: Legends of the Forest Country 1999 disk version. The only version to which two official patches were released for a single game and significantly more patches for playing on a dedicated server (last patch 0.71).

Konung: Legends of the North / Legend of the North: Konung 2000 disc version. It differs from the previous one in the presence of a training mode, an additional screensaver for it, not just translated, but also in a different way, looking like a screensaver with game titles. The client for playing on the network did not require a connection to the official server, which was not created for the English version. The only version in which the icon of the mixing slot has a different look.

Prince: Legends of the Forest Country electronic version of 2008. Compared to disk versions, it has a deteriorated quality of game clips, the quality of the music was also deteriorated. Does not contain a training mode and network game. Unlike other games in the series, there is only a Russian electronic version of this game.

Prince: Legends of the Forest Country disk version of 2009. Available only as part of the collector's edition of the game Prince 3: The New Dynasty . As well as the electronic version contains a deteriorated quality of game videos and music, and also does not have a network game and a training mode. The only official version of the game that does not contain copy protection.

In February 2003, the sequel to Prince 2: Blood of the Titans was released . In the second part, a new map was created and ways to move around it, the number of heroes increased to six, more characteristics and skills appeared, the opportunity to play for female characters appeared, the characters learned to run, and on the global map it was now possible to move not only on foot, but also on the ship. However, the graphic part remained at the level of the first prince: the old graphic elements (buildings, monsters, equipment icons, etc.) remained the same, they only became visually smaller due to a change in screen resolution from 800x600 to 1024x768.

A year later (January 23, 2004), on the engine of the second prince, 1C released a prequel to the second Prince, known as Prince 2: Continuation of the legend . The game was an addition, the plot of which preceded the events of Prince 2: Blood of the Titans . On the engine of Prince 2, a new map, heroes, plot and quests were created.

On November 6, 2009, the third part of the game, Prince 3: The New Dynasty, was released . The game was created on the well-known Russian engine of the game Blood Magic with interface elements from the orderlies of the dungeons , essentially being a recycling of old content in 3D. There were 6 heroes to choose from, new characteristics and skills, a new map, quests, plot.

• - the official website of Prince: Legends of the Forest Country
• Khabarov R. Guide and passage on "Prince: Legends of the Forest Country" (Neopr.) . Gambling (August 20, 2001). Date of treatment December 24, 2015.