Timed Events in A3

[eccentricflower]

This is a little premature, since I am just now finishing A1 - but I know the signs of addiction when I see it, and I figured I might as well go ahead and install the others.

 

Anyway ... I see that Avernum 3 has some timed events. In fact, I went to some of the walkthrough pages, and it looks like it's about as bad as it could be: Not only do certain events happen when a fixed amount of time has elapsed, but with at least one major event, you only have a certain amount of time to deal with it.

 

*I hate quest games that have time-driven events.* Hate hate hate hate hate. It means I am scared to let my characters rest, scared to take my time exploring every little nook and side tunnel as is my way, and so a great deal of the fun of the game is removed for me because I'm always wondering what's happening if I don't watch the clock.

 

I see that you can play around with the game-day counter in the editor, and I may have to do that if I'm going to play A3 at all. (Or I may skip it when the time comes and go straight to Blades, unless that has elapsed-time-driven events too.)

 

What I'm looking for with A3 is a list of things which happen, and roughly how long you have to go before they happen. I like these games a lot and I want to play A3 if I can. If I have to keep setting the game back to day 159 over and over (to give the obvious example) so I feel I have the freedom to explore, so be it. I just need to know where the key times are so I can try very hard never to let the clock get there until I'm good and ready. Anyone have any information that can help?

[Kelandon]

Buy horses right off. Use them whenever you travel anywhere. Without rushing in the least, I finished the game on day 110, having done every single quest in the game (and I checked the hint book to make sure).

[vahnatai_hell_fyre]

dont be dumb.the game is toooooo short by my point. am jus waitin for day 160 and its takin blimin ages.

[Alorael at Large]

The only critical event is the one around day 160. Incidentally, I don't think fiddling with the date will prevent catastrophe once you get the first message warning you that the world is about to go to hell. There's an option in the editor to turn of the timer, though.

 

Other than that, there's a steady progression of minor decay. Nothing is game shattering, but a few minor quests can become unobtainable or impossible to complete. If you hate timers, just turn the clock back to day 1 every once in a while.

 

As far as Blades of Avernum goes, whether or not there are day-dependent events depends entirely upon the whim of the designer. Some choose to use them and some don't (or some did and some didn't in BoE).

 

—Alorael, who abused the A3 editor himself until he was ready to deal with day 160 (which happened on day 162 or so). Being rushed isn't fun, and games are supposed to be.