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This is the Omega FAQ. (That is, it attempts to answer Frequently
Asked Questions about the roguelike game Omega.)
Last updated: February 4, 1998
New since last update:
Added question #1a
Updated answer to question #1b
Added question #2c
Added question #5
Questions addressed in this FAQ:
1. a. What is the latest version of Omega?
b. Where do I get Omega?
2. a. How should I begin the game?
b. Which guild should I join?
c. Speaking of the thieves' guild, how do I find it?
d. What should I do after I join a guild and get equipped?
3. What order should I do things in?
4. a. What is the Oracle?
b. How do I find the Oracle?
c. Why do I want to find the Oracle, anyway?
5. I've heard that one can rob the bank. How?
6. How do I find the Archdruid?
7. Where is the Archmage's Castle?
8. How do I become more Lawful or more Chaotic?
9. How do I keep from being slowed down by monsters?
10. Some monsters ignore my attacks -- what do I do?
11. How do I use the Orbs?
12. How do I find the Adept's Challenge?
13. How do I win the Adept's Challenge? How do I completely destroy Death?
14. How do I enter Wizard Mode?
============================================================================
1. a. What is the latest version of Omega?
The lastest source code release is Omega 0.80.2. Some of the precompiled
executables available make bugfixes and other minor changes to the game.
1. b. Where do I get Omega?
The offical Omega distribution site is the maintainer's (Erik Max Francis)
Omega web page at http://www.alcyone.com/max/projects/omega
Source code and precompiled versions for several different platforms are
availe
2. a. How should I begin the game?
The guilds are the key to success in Omega, and joining a guild should
be your first action upon beginning a game. You want all of the
experience you get to count towards advancement in your guild, so you
should join a guild before you disarm your first trap or kill your
first monster or go on the Oracle's first quest.
Some guilds require that you be of a particular alignment in order to
join, and you will need to do one or two things before joining the
guild in order to become of the appropriate alignment. Notice,
though, that there is something you can do in Rampart that will make
you slightly Lawful (Lawful enough to join any of the Lawful guilds),
and there is something in Rampart you can do to make you slightly
Chaotic (Chaotic enough to join any of the Chaotic guilds), so you
needn't leave Rampart before you join a guild.
In addition to joining a guild, you'll need to obtain some basic
equipment, if your guild doesn't provide you with any (some guilds do,
and some don't, so don't buy anything before you've joined your
guild). You should have some sort of weapon and some sort of armor --
there's an armorer in Rampart who will sell these to you. You should
also have a little bit of food on hand when you leave Rampart, in case
you need to eat on your journey -- there's a fast food restaurant in
Rampart that will sell you food. It's also nice to check out the pawn
shop from time to time and see if they have anything you can't live
without.
b. Which guild should I join?
Each player has his or her own favorite guild. The game is set up so
that each guild gives you something good, so all of them are worthy
(with the possible exception of being a priest of Destiny). Which
guild you pick really depends on what kinds of things you like to do
and how you like to play. And part of the fun of Omega is that you
can join one set of guilds this time and a different set of guilds the
next time you play, so your game doesn't get stale.
All of the gods except Destiny give their adherents spells and will
occasionally remove cursed items for you. The god will also sometimes
throw snowballs at monsters that are attacking you. When you advance
to the highest level, you get a holy symbol that recharges your mana.
You must have the same alignment as your god (Lawful, Neutral, or
Chaotic), and you must be of the right alignment every time you pray
to your god. Unlike the sorcerers and the paladins, though, you are
not required to become more lawful or more chaotic in order to advance.
The collegium magi gives you lots of spells, and every time you
research a new spell, you get experience for it. Unfortunately,
sometimes spell research is unsuccessful. You must pay tuition unless
you have an intelligence of 18. Alignment is unimportant.
The sorcerers also give you spells, but not nearly as many as the
collegium magi does. You can join them no matter what your alignment
is, but you must be Chaotic in order to advance, and your alignment
must become progressively more chaotic in order to advance to higher
levels. There is a fee required to join the guild -- the higher your
Power is, the lower the fee is.
The thieves' guild requires that you be Neutral or Chaotic when you
join, but they don't care what you are after that. They'll identify
stuff for you, buy stuff at better rates than the pawnshop, and give
you an occasional spell. You can pickpocket other creatures and open
locks with a lockpick. One must pay dues in order to join; the higher
your Dexterity, the lower the dues.
The mercenaries give you lots of cash and not much else. They start
you off with a basic weapon and armor, but you don't get any niftier
equipment upon advancement. Money is versatile, though -- you can
buy equipment or you can buy time at the gym to boost your stats or
you can buy spell research at the collegium magi. Some of us find
money to be rather a yawn, though.
The paladins give you equipment and a horse. Every time you return to
their headquarters, they feed you and cure you of any wounds or
diseases you may have. In older versions of the game, they also
remove the curse on any cursed items you're carrying, but in later
versions of the game, this feature has been removed. At later levels,
the paladins also give you a spell or two. The paladins' mace of
disruption, which you get when you advance enough in their guild, is
one of those rare weapons that will hit even those monsters that
aren't subject to normal weapons. You must be Lawful to join the
order of paladins, and you must become progressively more Lawful in
order to advance.
The arena gives you free time at the gym, which boosts your stats, one
basic (not very good) weapon, and cash every time you win a fight.
They also give you an extra maneuver (attack or defense), which is
very useful, especially at low levels. If you advance to the highest
level, you win Victrix, a very nifty weapon that has a high to-hit and
also makes you immune to fear. You must have reasonable physical
stats in order to join the arena, but alignment is unimportant.
Most guilds raise one or more of your stats every time you advance.
For example, the collegium raises your intelligence and power, the
mercenaries raise your strength and constitution, and so forth. The
arena doesn't do this, but it does give you time at the gym, which
accomplishes the same thing.
So, if you like to cast spells, you should pray to a god or join the
collegium magi or the sorcerers. If you'd prefer to hack and slash,
then you should join the mercenaries or the paladins or the arena.
Which guild you join may be limited by what your stats are or by
whether you can afford tuition or dues or whatever.
If you STILL don't know which guild to join, then join the paladins.
They take care of you, by feeding you and curing disease and whatnot,
so they're good for a new player who doesn't yet know how to avoid
becoming diseased or how to avoid some of the other nasty things that
the paladins will take care of for you. (This is especially true of
older versions of the game, where the paladins remove curses on cursed
items.) But remember that you'll have to be VERY Lawful.
It is possible to join more than one guild at once, although there are
some guilds that don't work together. For example, you can't belong
to the arena or the mercenaries and also be a paladin. You can't be a
sorcerer and also a member of the collegium magi. When you belong to
more than one guild, any experience you gain is split among those
guilds (with the exception of the arena, where you only advance by
fighting in the arena). This means that the more guilds you belong
to, the more slowly you advance in all of them. Hence, low-level
characters should probably stick to a single guild (or a single guild
plus the arena, if your guild accepts arena members). Once you've
advanced as far as you can go in your guild without completing the
final guildquest, then it's time to join a second guild.
c. Speaking of the thieves' guild, how do I find it?
The thieves' guild is located in Rampart. Remember that you found the
other guilds by walking into open doors. Consider the fact that not all
of the doors in Rampart are open when you start the game. Maybe trying
to open some of those doors would be a good idea...
d. What should I do after I join a guild and get equipped?
Now is the time for you to consult the Oracle for advice about what to
do next.
3. Which order should I do things in?
If you visit the Oracle, she will give you excellent advice about what
order you should do things in. The Duke, who lives in the castle,
will also send you on quests if you present yourself to him. His
quests and the Oracle's advice usually overlap, but if they disagree,
well, the Duke is just a secular authority, but the Oracle's whole job
is being wise....
4. a. What is the Oracle?
The Oracle is a wise person who resides in Rampart and gives advice to
adventurers.
b. How do I find the Oracle?
Since the Oracle is a special and magical person, she doesn't live in
an ordinary house in an ordinary part of town. Seek her where Rampart
is wilder.
c. Why do I want to find the Oracle, anyway?
There are a couple of reasons for finding the Oracle. The game is
lots easier if you do things in the order the Oracle tells you, rather
than just randomly wandering around. The Oracle's initial advice is
especially valuable, since she sends you on a quest that is not very
dangerous but which will advance you from level one to level three.
This means that you will have more hit points and more mana and more
experience to take on the next, more dangerous, quest.
Another reason for finding the Oracle is that there is a place that
you will eventually need to visit that is only reachable via the
Oracle. She will send you to this place when you are ready.
5. I've heard that one can rob the bank. How?
Part of the fun of Omega is figuring out things like this for yourself.
But a hint might be helpful. The bank is an ATM machine - maybe its
program isn't entirely stable. Try typing things that the bank doesn't
expect.
6. How do I find the Archdruid?
The Archdruid is in a temple north of the city. Follow the road
northeast until you come to a village. (You don't need to enter the
village; it's just a landmark.) Explore the forest northwest of the
village, and you should find the temple, which is denoted by an X.
Once inside the temple, you'll need to explore it rather thoroughly in
order to find the Archdruid. Search some likely-looking areas....
7. Where is the Archmage's Castle?
The Archmage's Castle lies to the far northwest. You'll have to
search for it once you're in the right area, just as you did to find
the Goblin Caves. (Um, you HAVE gone to the Goblin Caves already,
haven't you? You're probably not ready for the Archmage's Castle
unless you have.)
8. How do I become more Lawful or more Chaotic?
There is at least one place in Rampart that will give you the
opportunity to become more Lawful, and there is at least one place in
Rampart that will give you the opportunity to become more Chaotic.
Look at the places in Rampart -- what would a good person do? What
would a bad person do?
Once you've left Rampart, you'll have ample opportunities to alter
your alignment. It's easy, in these sorts of games, to fall into the
mindset that monsters are for killing, but think about it for a second
-- does a Lawful person really attack anything that hasn't attacked
him or her first? What other things might a Lawful person do -- might
they not try to reform the monsters somehow? As for a Chaotic person,
it's easy to see that they would kill anything that moves, if it would
be to their advantage, without regard for whether the monster was
hostile or not. But there's another, even more Chaotic thing that you
can do with monsters. Think of something sneaky that you could do to
betray a monster....
The Archdruid will conduct the ritual of neutralization if you ask him
to. If you are a Druid, this makes your alignment completely neutral.
If you are not a Druid, the effect is somewhat different. In the most
recent version of the game, the ritual will bring your alignment back
TOWARDS Neutral -- the less experienced you are, the more nearly
Neutral you become. If you are a very advanced character, it doesn't
work at all. In previous versions of the game, the ritual always
accomplished complete neutralization, so if you're used to the older
version, be aware that it doesn't work that way anymore....
9. How do I keep from being slowed by monsters?
Some monsters will reduce your speed, so that you get fewer attacks
and move more slowly in general. Goblin shamans (found in the lower
levels of the Goblin Cave) often do this, and necromancers (found
around levels 3-5 of the Archmage's Castle) do it, too. Preventing
slowness is much easier than curing slowness, though both can be done.
To keep from being slowed, you need immunity to slowness, which will
show up on your stats (when you use a ring of knowledge or look in the
Oracle's mirror) as "Hasted." You get hasted by taking a stimtab or
by casting the spell of haste on yourself or by wearing boots of
speed. Doing these things won't CURE slowness -- they'll only PREVENT
slowness, so you have to do them before you start fighting the goblin
shamans or the necromancers or whatever. To cure slowness, you can
either wait a really long time, or you can rent a condo for a week of
rest and relaxation.
10. Some monsters ignore my attack -- what do I do?
There are several possible strategies for fighting monsters that are
invulnerable to normal damage:
a. Some weapons will hit monsters that are invulnerable to attack by
normal weapons, and some weapons do more than just physical damage. A
mace of disruption (which the paladins will give you if you advance
far enough in their guild, and which you can sometimes find just lying
around) will hit any creature, even the ones that normal weapons won't
touch. A lightsabre, an acid whip, and Demonblade will also hit
invulnerable monsters. (Be careful of Demonblade, though -- it's
cursed, and it makes you berserk.) A firestar won't *hit*
invulnerable monsters, but it will blast them with a fireball, which
usually damages them. There are some weapons that are special and
LOOK as if they'd hit invulnerable monsters but do not actually do so.
The vorpal sword, Victrix, Defender, Goblin's Hewer, scythe of
slicing, and giant club all fall into this category -- they look
special, and some of them do special things, but they do NOT hit
invulnerable monsters.
b. Use a wand or scroll or spell of dispell -- it'll make the
critters vulnerable to normal physical damage, and then you can hit
them with your regular weapons.
c. Attack them with wands or spells of fire or cold or whatever.
Most monsters that can't be hit with a normal weapon are vulnerable to
wand or spell damage. If fire doesn't work, try cold. If cold
doesn't work, try disruption. Many monsters are invulnerable to one
thing, like cold, but not invulnerable to other stuff, like fire or
disruption. Another advantage to this method is that you can attack
from a distance, so you can kill that astral vampire when you first
detect him, before he has time to drain all your mana.
11. What do I do with the Orbs?
You'll sometimes find an Orb lying around in the goblin caves or the
sewers or the Archmage's castle, but the usual place to find the Orbs
is on the Astral Plane. When you go to the Astral Plane, you should
get FIVE Orbs: the Orb of Water, the Orb of Earth, the Orb of Air, the
Orb of Fire, and the Orb of Mastery. It's kinda hard to get back to
the Astral Plane once you've left, so make sure you pick up all five
of them while you're there. If you find an Orb somewhere not on the
Astral Plane, it's probably okay to activate it. If you find an Orb
in the Astral Plane, though, you should hang onto it. The reason for
this is that you can only activate the Orb of Mastery if you have the
other four Orbs (on your person, not in your backpack). Activating
the Orb of Mastery will burn out all four of the other Orbs.
Orbs are artifacts and are activated in the same way that you would
activate any other artifact. After you've activated it, you will be
asked to choose an action from a list -- which action you should
choose will be obvious. Then you will be asked for a target.
Whatever you choose is about to get blasted, so you shouldn't choose
the square where you're standing!
Oh, and you might want to show the Orb of Mastery to the Duke before
you activate it....
While we're talking about the Astral Plane, please note that there is
a bug in the game such that if you save the game while you're on the
Astral Plane and then restore it, the Star Gem will be gone. This
means that you should only go to the Astral Plane when you have enough
time to play all six levels in one sitting.
(Note: This bug has been fixed in the Macintosh graphical version and
possible some other precompiled versions)
12. How do I find the Adept's Challenge?
If you are a member of the collegium magi or have acquired the spell
of ritual magic in some other way, you can reach the Adept's Challenge
by casting ritual magic in the appropriate room. Which room LOOKS
like it would send you to the Adept's Challenge if you cast ritual
magic there?
If you have the spell of wishing, you can wish for Location and then
ask to be transported to the Temple of Destiny.
If you have the Amulet of the Planes, you can use it to transport you
to the Temple of Destiny.
If you don't have any of these things, you might not be ready to try
the Adept's Challenge after all. If you want to do it anyway, then
you'll have to hoof it to the Temple of Destiny, which is in a rather
inaccessible location....
13. How do I win the Adept's Challenge? How do I completely destroy
Death?
The game itself gives you three hints about the Adept's Challenge,
which are all that should be necessary for you to figure out what to
do and how to win. To get these three hints, make sure you step on
every square of the area where the Challenge takes place (except the
ones that have stuff on them). The area where the Challenge takes
place isn't all that big, so it doesn't take too long to explore it
completely. Step on every square and listen to the three things it
tells you.
As it turns out, it isn't necessary to completely destroy Death to win
the Adept's Challenge. If you've been waiting to finish up until you
completely destroy Death, you'll wait a loooong time. You only have
to kill Death once, to get the item he carries, and then you're ready.
Of course, killing Death is good experience, so you might enjoy just
hanging out and killing him over and over again, but once is all
that's necessary.
14. How do I enter Wizard mode?
Go to the northwest corner of Rampart and bash the wall. You'll feel
like a cheater. :-) Entering Wizard mode will invalidate your score
but will enable you to wish for anything you want (including specific
objects, unlike the spell of wishing). This enables you to test out
spells or objects or strategies. Be careful, though -- having
infinite power with no limits actually gets stale awfully fast, so
Wizard mode isn't fun for very long. And after you've been in Wizard
mode, it's hard to get used to regular Omega again. I'd recommend
that you not enter Wizard mode without a specific reason. If all you
want to do is try something out without getting your character killed,
just copy the file....
Good luck, and have fun!
============================================================================
Copyright 1995 by Cory L. Kerens
updated 1998 by Sheldon Simms - sheldon@atlcom.net
This FAQ can be e-mailed or archived, as long as
1) You don't charge anybody for it.
2) The copyright notice is left intact.
| © Copyright 2001 Steve Register. |
