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madrigan

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Rotghroth Rhapsody

Rotghroth Rhapsody (10/17)

  1. I appreciate all this detail. That chitrach thing was pretty bad but I suppose it did convey that the infestation was serious. I once stayed in a house that had a flea infestation and you could barely take a step without then hopping onto you. I will always love A4. I even like the weird creepy music.
  2. I didn't realize I could be stopped at of those gates, because it never happened to me, so I guess I had always completed the necessary quest. But it seems more open than A5, for example, where you're really locked into the single storyline and in a certain sequence. I think once you get to the Great Cave in EFTP you do have a lot of freedom to move. Plus the game never actually ends, which is a feature I don't think any of the other Avernums has. (The first QW has this, though -- you can just go back through the teleporter and walk around forever. QW1 is such a beautiful game -- the game world just makes sense and your decisions really make a difference.) I seem to remember that A4 was developed during a difficult time for the company, so perhaps for that reason there's more that Jeff would do differently now. I was not familiar with A3 when I played, so the plot was new to me. The only thing I remember not liking in A4 was that it was a really long walk between the starting fort and the first quest area and it was a drag going back and forth. Well, that and getting through Rentar's fortress was really tedious if you did not realize that spending points on Tool Use was going to save you about an hour of fighting on that map.
  3. I read that we might get a remaster of A4, which was my first SW game, so I went to play it again but for the first time ever my computer is too new to run something rather than too old. So I played A1 again and it was so much fun I almost immediately played it through again. I played on Casual and just built up my characters however I liked it, which works fine at this difficulty level, but I read Slarty's minmax guide and what they say about a character being good at two things is true. I had an A4 character who was a sorcerer/archer and I tried to recreate them in this game, but without the Natural Mage and Deadeye traits it really didn't work. They ended up an ok sorcerer but a very marginal archer. I hadn't looked at this game in a decade but on my first replay I'm sure I found 2-3 maps I had never seen before, and on my second replay I found 2-3 more. The game world is really gigantic. If I recall, A4 still has the open world even though the plot is more linear, and I also recall than Jeff said he's not doing the open worlds anymore. I'm ok with that but it is cool being able to just jump ahead and then return to the Mertis spiral at a really high level and slaughter everything. One thing I did not like was the final gauntlet where the lights go out and you have to feel around with no clue where you're supposed to go while altered giants appear from nowhere and attack you. This gimmick is also used in Drath's crypt and personally I found it annoying. I tried carrying a lantern into the area thinking maybe that was the trick but it didn't do anything. I like the reputation system. In my first replay I got to 47 and in my second I got to 48, the difference being delivering a message to the barkeep in Silvar or maybe Cotra. I enjoyed the idea that after I had killed two demon lords, assassinated a tyrant, and found an escape route from a gigantic underground prison people still appreciated that I was willing to be a courier. Btw killing Kyass and Meena doesn't lower your rep, but if you kill Kyass and return to that map later, everyone including the merchants attacks you. Whereas if you kill Meena and her guards and come back later it's like nothing happened. I think the best thing about this game is that you're really a total nobody at the start, while in the other five Avernums you're already in the army. I'd like it if I could have opted to go into politics or opened a shop, but this isn't that kind of game. I've probably written this on this forum before, but I would like it if when I clear an area and return later, something has changed. The first Queen's Wish was good with this. I go to Fort Remote and it's peaceful, then I go back and it's destroyed, but after Grah Hoth is dead there's so sign of rebuilding. I kill every living thing in various Slith fortresses which are apparently impenetrable by the regular military, but later on the Avernite military hasn't taken them over. I do appreciate that if you're at a certain reputation and you go to some cities a message tells you there's a parade in your honor, and if you happen to return to the kitchen at the Castle after you're famous, the chef who ignored you earlier insists on feeding you. I love these little changes, it makes the game world seem more alive. Finally, I love the boats and they would have been really useful in A4 so I wonder if maybe the new version can have boats. If there is a newer version. Well I hope there's a new version.
  4. Thank you, I figured that is what you meant. The window in Windowed Mode is too small for me in A2, but A1:EFTP has a bigger window for who knows what reason so I have decided to be satisfied with that. I actually set out to replay A4 for the sixth or eighth time, not realizing it would not run on this Mac. Now I am really anticipating a newer version of A4, which was my first Spiderweb game.
  5. Do you mean Windows Mode or Windowed Mode? Because I'm not sure what Windows Mode is. Is that a thing?
  6. Hello all, I just redownloaded this game from Humble, it is version 1.1. I have a Mac Mini running Big Sur, version 11.7.3 (20G1116). My monitor is a Viewsonic VG2228. I have played this game on this computer and monitor before, but that was who knows how many OS updates ago. I have an Intel Iris GPU. The problem is that the game area extends below the bottom of the screen, so that I cannot move the map in that direction. Even in combat, the area near the bottom of the screen is hidden and I cannot target enemies there. I would rather not play in a window because it's harder for me to see that way. I Googled around and have not been able to find this exact problem solved. As I said I've played this game on this hardware before, but I do try to run software updates regularly so perhaps I have introduced an incompatibility. Thanks.
  7. Well, both. I should have noted the specific quests that bothered me. But they just seemed to be a bit too 1979 D&D, "hello I am a local man, there is a monster near here that has treasure, bye." This issue was much less annoying than the feeling that my actions throughout the game made no difference and the Ro were all terrible.
  8. I should have clarified, I'm fine with the overall difficulty on Casual, but I found the difficultly uneven. Usually there is a pretty steady progression of difficulty as a game goes on. In this game, some quests are suddenly over and you've barely done anything, while other quests are appropriately difficult.
  9. Hello all, I finished QW2 a few days ago and I can't decide what I think of it. I loved the first QW, I finished it at least six times and I was so satisfied with the outcome of my last playthrough that I still have the savegame just so I can just go stroll around in there a bit. I don't know if I will play QW2 a second time. I do enjoy the moral ambiguity of SW games, and I knew there would not be a completely satisfying ending. I ended up with the Ro liking me fairly well and my family considering me a complete bozo, which is fine. But in QW1, there were a few major decisions that seemed easy to make and had a real impact on the game world; I was never going to support the Mascha, for example, and my decision completely flipped the power structure in the Vol. In QW2, everyone is so hostile and/or unpleasant that I didn't really want to be there, nothing really changes, and the war happens no matter what, so what was the point? I understand that the mission is a frustrating chore for the character, but it shouldn't be a frustrating chore for the player. I play on Casual, because I don't like to minmax and I don't have the attention span to fight the same boss half a dozen times just to figure out the right tactics. But some of the quests seemed too easy even for Casual, as if they were thrown in to provide busywork or plot advancement but had no tension of their own. These parts of the game seemed rushed. I do not like the puzzles, at all. I am bad at puzzles, and some of them I couldn't figure out even with the diagrams in the hintbook. In QW1 there were far fewer puzzles, so it was less of a problem. I'm not sure there are any that you have to solve to complete the main quests, but you do need to solve some for some of the cooler optional quests like the Harvester I think. I really just want to see the story and I would prefer a puzzle override control that just assumes my super-educated character figured it out. I really wanted to see my decisions play out in the game world to a greater extent. The character's decisions about the governors are supposed to be one of the two most important quests, and I was really anticipating booting out Yvette, but even after my victory at Prova Krug she is still there, dismissing my efforts. You don't really find out about the results of these decisions until the endgame, but I wanted to actually see them. I feel like in QW1 you could actually see your efforts pay off sometimes -- you clear a mine and then later on there's someone working the mine. You decide to support the Trench Towns, and then there's at least an indication that a transition of power has begun. I know Jeff is one guy and he can't write dialogue for every single thing you do, but I found this very unsatisfying. So I don't know, it is an interesting game but the payoff did not seem to justify the effort that I put in playing or the effort that the character put in adventuring. This is a game I play for enjoyment. I don't need a game I play for enjoyment to remind me that most of the time the death machine just rolls on despite the efforts of individuals. I don't need every game to make me an Avernum III-level hero, but I'd like my character's efforts to clearly matter in the game world.
  10. I think the key to this series, as well as Avadon, is that your character is the bad guy. You can make better or worse moral choices, but in the end you're still an imperial elite who relies on violence and fear to accomplish your goals. I'd love to be able to join the rebels and overthrow the monarchy, but that is obviously not going to be an option. In Avernum you nearly always end up the hero, in Geneforge it can go several ways, but in Avadon and Queen's Wish you are just a tiny gear in the death machine no matter what your title. I've finished all the Avernums, all the Avadons, a few Geneforges and both QWs and I think my favorite ending is Avernum V. You're still working for the Empire, but you can make things a little better, and you live out your life in Avernum which is ultimately a freer place than the surface world.
  11. Ok, I've entered the Ruins from the west and entered the crypt. I've destroyed, I don't know, 75+ angry shades. Is there something I'm supposed to do cut them off, or is this the way the encounter is supposed to work -- I just stand there killing the same creatures for half an hour?
  12. Thanks. Botan's quest took 5 minutes and didn't require combat, so it wasn't bad. I would have been super irritated if I'd got stuck doing Nathalie's quest against my will.
  13. Hello all, I don't use all the companions. I choose two in the beginning and use the same party throughout the game. In this playthrough I have Rudow and Nathalie, and Nathalie has disappeared to Svar's Peninsula. I'd like to go there with Rudow and complete Nathalie's quest, but I can't, because when I arrive Botan is standing there forcing his way into the party. Is there a way to mark Botan's quest completed, or push him off a cliff, or anything? I tried to tell him I didn't care about his quest but that did not work, he showed up anyway. If I can't get Nathalie back I can't finish the game. I've been through this game several times and I don't think this has happened before. Thanks.
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