Minion

A bit late to the party, but I thought I should share my experience of Shubael on Torment.

I lined up everyone just outside the point where Shubael initiates conversation, then I started the fight by summoning a couple of golems next to Shubael and started hitting her with ranged weapon attacks. I continued summoning golems to keep Shubael and her brood distracted while I kept pummelling her from afar (my party had the Support ability that makes enemies target you less often, and I think it works). Despite my best efforts to keep up the summons, the dragonlings kept spilling over and eventually started hitting my party with Weakness and Blind, though I made sure everyone had anti-curse augments, but I was eventually able to reduce Shubael's health enough to force her down to the second floor without expending more than about half my energy and at most a few scrolls and health potions. Then I simply retreated from the top floor and left the brood to make their own way into the world. Defeating the weakened Shubael and a few salamanders was easy enough with all the energy and consumables I had left.

1 minute ago, madrigan said:

 I think what I'd like right now is a character editor like in A5, so I can play around with different ability combinations and see how they work out.

Are there any non-customizable abilities in Queen's Wish?

PS: Aside from special bonuses like from the Nisse dreams.

I would not recommend playing on anything above normal unless you want the tactical challenge that comes with the higher difficulties. I started the game on Veteran, but switched to Torment after Sutter's spiders and the first few raiders felt too weak. To conserve health and energy, a challenge I find wonderfully refreshing, you will need to consider all combats carefully and use tactics like hitting the foe with missile weapons while retreating to maximize damage and minimizing hostile contact and the subsequent drain on your limited resources (this particular tactic is extremely effective, possibly too effective, against enemies without ranged attacks). You can also maximize your speed with augments (even the 4% ones make a huge difference) and daggers, though I have limited myself to only using skills and items with speed bonuses, because the augments and daggers were making Torment too much of a walkover. Then there's summoning and charming, which can completely distract your enemies, allowing you to deal with them piecemeal.

As for the narrative, it is very different from previous Spiderweb games because you are no longer a lone adventurer or a single agent on a mission, but an actual political leader and powerplayer, albeit a junior one at the moment, with goals and ambitions to match. You frequently have to make political decisions rather than merely moral ones, and your moral decisions have an outsized impact. It simply requires a different roleplaying mentality than previous Spiderweb games, and most computer roleplaying games for that matter, and once again, I find that I like it and that the narrative and the different story branches are very well written.

And as for the graphics, you could try playing Realmz for a while (it should be available on the web somewhere) and see if that helps you feel better about Queen's Wish. If nothing else, Realmz can be pretty fun too (or at least it was, if you grew up in the 90s with only a PowerMac that couldn't even run Diablo I properly, let alone Baldur's Gate).

30 minutes ago, ladyonthemoon said:

No, this is normal, the inventory has been designed like that. The visible slots once you have left the fort are outlined with a darker colour than the other ones. The extra slots make improving items with runes and augments more practical, I think.

Thanks for confirming that.

For some reason, when I enter a Haven fort my inventory has room for 14 items, but when I leave them my inventory only has room for 11 items, and the items are rearranged or become unavailable depending on how many items I have (though they become available once I enter a fort). I moved the Weavers in some of forts after placing them, could this have something to do with it?

On 4/20/2018 at 6:57 AM, Celtic Minstrel said:

Doesn't the Wand of Carrunos turn townspeople hostile though? It's supposed to be a cursed item and is functionally an attack item, so I'd expect it to turn them hostile.

Better late than never, I suppose, though it's not really related to Exile. The Wand of Carrunos is used on the hostile NPCs/monsters to help them rampage through the friendly NPCs, not to make the friendly NPCs better meat-shields. The point of this tactic is to kill or soften up NPCs that you will want to kill later, like the Selkies in Selkiehome or the Rose Lady in the Hollow Hills.

The difference between pits and the fog of war that clears up as you explore a location is that pits have straight, sharp edges, while the fog of war has fuzzy edges.

As far as I can tell, Jeff managed to implement the code suggestions that were made by some very helpful members of this forum, because my installation of Queen's Wish no longer causes the processor and fans to go into overdrive.

I tried removing all Speed bonus augments from the party's equipment and stopped using daggers, and the battles feel a lot more normal again with my party not taking multiple turns each for every enemy turn. I recommend this simple measure for anyone else who wants Torment to be more of a torment.

I suggest placing the four shops in the open houses, since they are the only ones you will be visiting frequently, and placing the other upgrades in the closed buildings that you have to enter. I assume that Jeff intentionally made exactly four spaces accessible directly on the town map for this very purpose.

Seeing as how my Tormented party just killed a very big lizard who mostly stood there, stoically accepting arrows and blades with only the occasional spell and poisonous breath, I am of mind to suggest that all Speed bonuses from equipment should be halved for future games (and maybe Daggers should be dropped entirely, considering the massive Speed bonus they provide with no skill requirements whatsoever). Is anyone else of a similar mind?

The new dungeon system is absolutely brilliant. Having to carefully conserve your available resources, including your hit points and ability/spell points, makes every single battle a challenge both in terms of immediate tactics and your overall strategy for clearing the dungeon. I have actually had to pull back from dungeons when I overreached to build up my forts and re-equip, instead of just giving everyone healing magic and quaffing abundant potions to force my way through. I should add that I've been playing on Torment from the start.

To add some fuel to the fire, the seal of Haven is a scroll, but as seen in the opening shot when you start the game, the seal on that scroll is a crown, which happens to be seal of the Empire in Exile/Avernum. I'd say that seals the deal.

I started with Ukat, but as soon as I had cleared the first few quests to open up more mines for Fort Muck, I went to Vohl and then Ahriel and repeated the process in order to have at least one fort in each region, which has been a real boost to my resources, allowing me to upgrade all four forts under my control to stone forts, and giving me access to party members from all regions. However, I have only actually contacted the Ukat, I simply bypassed the cities in the other two regions and went straight to the fort.

I'm playing the game on Torment (I've been playing Spiderweb games since Nethergate, so that helps with keeping the F4s down), and I would recommend equipping all of your characters with ranged weapons like bows or staves. That way you can engage your enemies at a distance, and keep walking 4 steps away every turn as long as you can and down as many of them as possible before they close in on you. Naturally, if the enemy has ranged weapons or spells, you will have to adapt your tactics,  but this trick helped me get as far as the Barbs and Fort Muck with only what equipment I started with or found in chests.

Quoting from the top post in the Kickstarter FAQ:

Quote

Will We Be Able To Get Steam Keys? GOG.com?

 

That is the plan. Steam currently allows us to send keys to our backers. If this policy doesn't change in the next year, we have every intention of providing Steam Keys.

As for GOG.com keys, I would like to send those out too. I'll talk to them when the time comes and see if I can make it happen. Again, I can't predict their policies as of a year from now, but I'll do what I can.

Last updated: Thu, May 31 2018 10:49 PM CEST

The most constructive course of action appears to be to lobby pester GOG to support keys for Kickstarted games.

As someone who has played a lot of Realmz and Civilization II, but whose gaming memories are largely from an isometric perspective, I find that Queen's Wish tugs at all kinds of half-forgotten nostalgic memories. I think Jeff has done a great job of combining the two, after all, the sprites can overlap their squares and each other (and have animations and everything, what will they think of next!).

6 hours ago, Grimm said:

 

You'd think at some point in the intervening years one of those would have been dug out and turned into a trade route.

I can't claim to be very knowledgeable about either geology or mining, but I wouldn't be surprised if it was a lot harder to clear a tunnel if you have thoroughly destroyed and undermined the surrounding rock than it would be to dig a tunnel through relatively stable rock (and likely utilize natural tunnels and caves on the way).

It's been a while since I played, but what about your key items? I'm pretty sure that there is at least one or two mysterious packages that you pick up from shady characters for delivery to even shadier characters in Lorelei (like the head of a certain covert guild?), and which turn out to contain Skribbane if the guards and their dogs get a chance to search you.

Just a thought, but might the use of quest hubs be something of a natural evolution as Jeff has grown as a game developer and become better at planning and streamlining his games and work process, whereas Exile 1 is the child of his formative and chaotic early years when everything was new and magical and he had the boundless energy of a twenty-year-old on caffeine.

I keep notes in a text file of all locks, barriers, boulders and other impediments I can't pass when I first encounter them so I don't forget to return once I have the right spells or gear.

19 hours ago, FacesOfMu said:

Ya, did compatibility mode (Windows XP, service pack 3) but no luck. I looked up what solutions others had done but I wasn't willing to go so far as virtual PCs and such.

Might be worth giving it a try. If you consider the relative computing power of a PC back when Exile was released compared to your average PC today, simulation should seem less daunting.

18 minutes ago, FacesOfMu said:

 

I tried installing the old Exile games but they naturally don't work on modern OS' (Windows 10, 64 bit here). I'm wondering if Jeff will ever make the old games open source so us die-hards can update and recompile it?

Have you tried the compatibility mode feature or suitable OS emulators? I have classic Nethergate for Mac running on Sheepshaver in Windows 10 (I bought if for Mac on CD way back when).

It is mentioned that shaping prior to the discovery of the gene and the creation of the Geneforge is an imprecise art where the Shapers bombard living organisms with magical energy under controlled circumstances in order to induce mutations, which may or may not be beneficial. This means that without advanced tools like the Geneforge and a detailed understanding of genetics, Shapers are likely unable to effect specific changes in themselves without the risk of, say, growing extra limbs or developing malignant tumours.

Radiation-induced mutation is an actual method of genetic manipulation, and one example is exposing a large number of plant seeds (like wheat or rice) to radiation in order to induce mutations in the plant that may be desirable for a particular set of conditions, like rice capable of growing in water with high salt levels. Naturally, the chances of any one seed developing a beneficial mutation is infinitesimal, but if you radiate millions of them, you might just get one with the right traits. This is likely why Shapers use healing spores and pods, since it would be easier and less risky to irradiate fungi and other microorganisms to create useful medicines to combat a variety of diseases or illnesses, including, say, cataracts or degenerative brain conditions, than irradiating countless persons in the hope of finding the right wavelength and exposure to induce mutations that counteract any given disease.

On 10/1/2018 at 1:45 AM, dave s said:

Which is a shame, because I find the game unplayable in current form and I'd really like to experience it.

If you have some issue with the remake, have you tried the original? You can at least find the demo floating around on the web, and maybe if enough people enjoin him loudly enough, the arch-developer himself in his subterranean lair may pay heed, and verily, may release the hallowed original for us to emulate on or modern computational engines. My original CD was probably lost when I moved out of my parent's house, but I plan on revisiting classic Nethergate one way or another for the 20th anniversary (which means I am running out of time).