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I'm nearly finished with my nostalgia-driven E3 playthrough (Windows version), and I've begun to feel like there's some stuff very different about it than how I remember, just in terms of basic engine mechanics. Evil Acolytes cast spells (I remember them being unable to); Major Summoning seems to summon monsters marked for Weak Summon sometimes (I don't remember this being the case); the biggest difference I can think of, though, is that Ghasts and Quickghasts now have a special called "Paralyzing touch", but which, on connecting, says "Stuns!" and attempts to slow; this makes Ghasts more or less duplicates of Ghouls. (Dark Wyrms and a couple of other things also have specials that read as "Paralyzing touch", but actually try to paralyze on touch.)

 

Rentar's special has been changed to "Highly Protected".

 

This is all, if it's actually different, a difference between an earlier Windows version and the one on the SW website. (Or maybe a later version, for all I know.) It's not a PC/Mac thing.

 

Also, three things that I'd call "oddities" which as far as I know are not different from either BoE or earlier versions of E3:

  • Hyperactivity isn't marked on the status bar, but seems to make the whole party magic resistant. I haven't experimented with it extensively but after I cast it, stoning attacks seem to have become dramatically less effective, although not totally ineffective.
  • The same monsters do significantly more damage to PCs than to monsters, apparently due to a level-based saving throw.
  • Splitting only works if there's a space without a magical field within 2 squares for the splitting monster to spawn a copy in.
  • Dispel Fields has a chance (maybe the same chance, if so experimentally around 25%) of dispelling quickfire or antimagic in each square in its radius. It's almost impossible to imagine fighting quickfire this way, but this can be a way to defeat monsters generating antimagic fields (altho most of them have heavy magic resistances anyway).

Also also! I was struck by how intense the mixup over dragons' pronouns was. The same nodes or dialogue trees talking about Athron giving birth to a brood also call Athron "he". The hintbook calls one of the caves there the Caverns of Motrax, but obviously he died in between games so that must have been changed.

 

Plus, a tiny little nitpicky thing almost nobody probably noticed: there's a town somewhere (I think) in the northwest where you can meet an evil priest in a shop - he's hostile by default, but if charmed he has dialogue. Not too interesting, but there's stuff about him being nearly blind that suggests it was intentional, or at least retroactively justified by writing. I sort of had to roll through the rest of the game trying to find out if anyone else talked when charmed (and I really hope I didn't miss anyone :<)

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In Blades of Exile, Hyperactivity appears to give the party negative levels of sleep, making them seem resistant to sleep spells, but that's all it does... nothing about resistance to magic.

 

I think that feature of Dispel Fields exists in BoE.

 

I remember that evil priest and thought it odd he attacked me in a friendly town. You could ask Ishad Nha if there's any other hostile-by-default NPCs that have dialogue when charmed; he probably has the means to find out, at least.

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Yea that evil priest attacked me to, he did it upon me opening the door, also makes no sense as the guards would go into the room and kill him but they dont,and u get nothing for killing him, i never searched any of the bookshelfs, u probably get a book or some item from the room but he also probably attacks you becus u broke i to the room(even tho it aint locked)

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Also also! I was struck by how intense the mixup over dragons' pronouns was. The same nodes or dialogue trees talking about Athron giving birth to a brood also call Athron "he". The hintbook calls one of the caves there the Caverns of Motrax, but obviously he died in between games so that must have been changed.

http://encyclopedia.ermarian.net/wiki/Talk:Dragons#Re:_Dragons.27_gender

 

The note at the bottom is accurate but puts the dragons in a different order, so actually AEFTP simply seems to be using the Avernum 2 dragon genders.

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why does that evil priest attack you in taht city anyways, makes no sense still

 

It's probably a bug. In BoE, their default AI is set to hostile, so they'll attack the party on sight unless they were specifically set to be friendly instead. E3 probably works the same way.

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ok, but it also could be because you broke into the room, like once in another city i opened a unlocked door and the game had a pop saying, you walk into the room,you see aq knight eating at a table, and has has noticed you walked in unwelcome and decides to teach you a lesson, and then he attacks me and i killed him, and the door was UNLOCKED, just like the evil priests door was to,so yea

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ok, but it also could be because you broke into the room, like once in another city i opened a unlocked door and the game had a pop saying, you walk into the room,you see aq knight eating at a table, and has has noticed you walked in unwelcome and decides to teach you a lesson, and then he attacks me and i killed him, and the door was UNLOCKED, just like the evil priests door was to,so yea

 

We'd expect a message of some kind like in that case, though, if the behaviour were intended.

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yea if you charm him he will talk to you and will identify your items for you, also will buy everything thats identified from you to, and also when u leave town and go back he no longer is hostile so you dont have to charm him again so its probably not a bug at all, the evil acolyte is hostile by default at first on purpose, so its like a secret that your supposed to find out about actually so no bug, was purposly for you to discover charming him would make him talk so yea

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also when u leave town and go back he no longer is hostile so you dont have to charm him again so its probably not a bug at all,
What if you leave town, visit four different towns or dungeons, and then return? Is he still not hostile? (Or leave town, save, open in character editor, select "make towns forget you", save, reopen in-game, re-enter town. I think that should have the same effect.)

 

I was going to test this myself, but I couldn't remember where the town in question is. (I tried Delan and Delis, as well as a few others... I remember it was accessible in the demo, so it can't be as far north as Sharimik...)

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What if you leave town, visit four different towns or dungeons, and then return? Is he still not hostile?

 

I would be incredibly surprised if that were the case. For one thing, it'd require the E3 engine to be able to record information that the BoE engine definitely can't. That's not quite impossible (there are examples of E3 features that are removed or dummied out in BoE, like the job system or Anama membership), but it would be deeply weird for it to exist for the sake of one obscure NPC in one town who's far more easily and logically explained as a bug.

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It could've been encoded as an SDF, though. However, I agree that it's unlikely, and unless it is in fact the case that the charming persists through town reset, I'd be more inclined to explain it as a bug than as intentional behaviour. By the way, can anyone actually tell me where this town can be found?

 

Speaking of Anama membership... I know it prevents you from casting mage spells and also (to judge from some commented code in BoE) boosts your Ravage Spirit spell. Does it have any other mechanical effects?

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Ill tell u what town it is after i get home tomorow, also im a member of the the anama chruch and im still able to castle mage spells, im just not able to level up my characters mage skill, unless i dare to go against my pledge and lose the anama rings. so how come im able to cast mage spells still then, is it from having the anama rings?, cus i dont get expelled from the anama when i cast them in combat or outdoors

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I never joined the Anama, so I could easily be wrong about how it prevents you from casting mage spells.

 

The Ravage Spirit effect is controlled by stuff done flag (4,0), according to the BoE code (where it persists as a commented-out relic); someone familiar with the Exile III save format could probably find out whether the flag remains set if you leave the Anama.

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Im a member of the the anama chruch and im still able to castle mage spells, im just not able to level up my characters mage skill, unless i dare to go against my pledge and lose the anama rings. so how come im able to cast mage spells still then, is it from having the anama rings?, cus i dont get expelled from the anama when i cast them in combat or outdoors

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wandering with injured characters, feodoric dead, michael poisoned, adrianna paralyzed, with frr,thissa and jenneke diseased i joined the anama chruch, and after i learned ressurrect. Resurrected feodoric and for some reason arent expelled for casting mage spells, idk where the anama churhc was i forget, was a long time ago

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You hit an exploit for retaining a mage. The Anama conversion is only on live character and betraying your oath is tied to raising your level not using spells.

And the Anama are located on the island of Bigail on the left of the map about a third of the bottom. It's only accessible by ferry in the surrounding towns.

 

 

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Oh, well ive stumbled accross the lairs of sulfras and anthron(or athron). I know they couldnt be hostiles, as according to the witch in the tower of magi said the dragons aided the exiles in the empire war, so how do i get in by sulfras, as a trap blocks me from fire walking to the source. And also a ghosy spoke of a key in blacrag fortress and of a side entrance to blacrag fortress. So i go back and cant seem to fibd any secret passages at all,.

i really just need help with this dragon lair mystery

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Oh, well ive stumbled accross the lairs of sulfras and anthron(or athron). I know they couldnt be hostiles, as according to the witch in the tower of magi said the dragons aided the exiles in the empire war, so how do i get in by sulfras, as a trap blocks me from fire walking to the source. And also a ghosy spoke of a key in blacrag fortress and of a side entrance to blacrag fortress. So i go back and cant seem to fibd any secret passages at all,.

i really just need help with this dragon lair mystery

iirc, you're only able to get in when the dragons invite you to come in. you get that invitation from finding evidence implicating the dragons in the roach factory, and showing it to the usual people in fort emergence

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Oh ok well that factorys done anyways and sulfras opened the metal doors or whatever they are called

 

anyways what about the ghost who spoke of a key in blacrag fortress and of a side entrance to blacrag fortress. So i go back and cant seem to find any secret passages at all,.

i think that's the thieves' guild entrance?

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oh well hmm then, how can i get shayder to let me in, like get them to like exiles so they wont attack me if i try entering shayder(or if its sharmik idk)

Sharimik should be open to you if the dragons are - they're supposed to let you in once you've solved one of the plagues (either slimes or roaches, both also fine). Same with Lorelei. I dunno if you can get into Gale before dealing with one of the plagues but it never "opens" - you have to get in by a side entrance. I think the contact you need to ultimately get into Blackcrag is in Lorelei.

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