Raptor

As we all know, in programming the first 90% of the project takes 90% of the time and the last 10% takes the next 90%.

If you press 't' you'll get the "training" window. When it comes up it shows you the current character's combat skills, and in the lower-left corner it shows how much wood, stone, iron, etc. you have. If you click on the "Magic" tab the lower-left corner shows you the various crafting stuff that you have.

You can heal before you exit the fight. Once it's been won, do your healing, then end the fight. When you end the fight you often get back some energy points, depending on the enemy; this will sometimes offset the energy you spent on healing. That's assuming you have a healing spell; you can also use healing potions, but you don't get them back until you visit a fort or sleep.

Just start the new version. It will pick up where you left off in the demo.

Play on. There's no permanent damage.

If I remember correctly, the Hint Book has the necessary information. I, too, found this part very frustrating.

You have to clear an area before you can move freely through it. Cleared areas are green on the map; areas that you've found but haven't cleared are red. You can go from any cleared area to any area that's adjacent to it, but you can't go through an uncleared area to reach another area. Each area has its own rule for when it's cleared. So look for the green ones!

Yes, but note that "usually" is not the same as "always". As I said, "In some parts of the US you buy a 'box of eggs'."

In some parts of the US you buy a "box of eggs". While that's sort of rectangular, all the indentations that hold the individual eggs make it definitely not rectangular when viewed from the front or the side. (Don't get me started on buying "a dozen of eggs")

Click "Buy Buildings and Shops" and select the entry to repair the portal.

I love the way creatures move during combat. Every time I see one hopping from square to square I smile.

If you’re in a fort you can click in the “Buy Buildings and Shops” button. In the dialog box, if you hover the mouse over the name of a building you’ll get a popup with information about the building. Near the bottom of that popup it tells you whether the current fort has one. Of course, that still means that you have to wander from fort to fort to find the one you’re after.

It’s happened to me twice. After a force-quit the saved file opens fine. EDIT: that was with the demo version. Hasn't happened with the full version after just about as many hours of play.

There are piercing crystals and stoneshatter scrolls in the Slime Pit. You don't need to know those spells to get to the blocked areas. No, there's no particular order required.

If the guards ran away in fear, that suggests that your party was too powerful. I don't know if that applies here, but I've certainly seen it happen with bands of unicorns when I went back to do some cleanup late in the game.