Muscleguy

Agreed, if in doubt destroy pylons. At the Vahnatai trap downstairs I always make sure to go around destroying ALL the pylons before going to talk to Rentar Irno and the Demon in Athron's refuge. I summoned some creatures and let them occupy the demons. My tank advanced to the first pylon and used a scroll of acid on the next one. Second tank same. Hasted mage went up spray acid the first two. Whack! whack! Smite. All pylons gone tanks turn to demon. No point wasting anything other than perhaps a slow spell on him until all his pylons are gone.

What I would love would be a way to edit A4 so like in every other one I can just type a and then the letter of the enemy to attack. It bugs me that A4 is the only one like this. I have dodgy wrists, joint fusion in each hand, and A4 is by far the worst of the games for me physically.

Also in the tunnels under the Eastern Gallery I came up the stair where you get surrounded by chitrachs and again I breezed it despite it being supposedly Torment. I definitely remember doing that in the past and getting creamed. My party is pretty standard for me, they both have two Traits so have not been levelling excessively and I have not boosted them with the character editor. Usually the chitrachs are so hard the temptation to use the Editor to up Hardiness and Endurance by cheating is very hard to resist.

I've forgotten where the Shareware Monster resided. I'm already south of Formello and the comment still stands wrt chitrachs in the lower tunnels. I also remember the slimes in the tunnels south of Draco were much harder in previous plays through. I recall multiple raids resulting in surviving members having to find their way back to safety and recovery. There was none of that, I breezed right through it, killing mamma slime with ridiculous ease.

Disagree, keep the lasers, keep the challenge, challenge the mind. While I'm moving my characters when they are OFF, will they end in one when they come back ON?

No stone weapons on the Surface. I always found this anachronistic. Sure stone in Avernum where metal is in short supply but in the shops in Krizsan with the mines not far the West and Krizsan sitting on the trade route out from them? Does not compute.

You don't say what your Strength or Dexterity stats are, they will enhance your chance to hit for Melee and Missile weapons/spells respectively. Also I don't remember what stat reduces the chance of encumbrance and it is not hinted at. Used to be the Defence stat in older versions. Does Hardiness affect this in A2:CS? Other than that invest in Strength and seek out Strength boosting belts etc and give them to your fighters. Also once you try to start dual wielding you really need to invest in it to hit with both weapons more frequently.

I've been mucking about with A4 on both this laptop running Mac Sierra and also on the iMac running 10.7.5 (I copied the save file over for direct comparison) and I think Difficulty is borked, it no longer works. Doesn't seem to matter whether I'm playing Torment or Casual. I started playing Hard and found it too easy so went to Torment and there was no difference, enemies were just as easy to kill and just as ineffective in dealing me damage. Has anyone else noticed this? Is there anything I can do? Running v1.1.2 on both machines. That it runs on both machines with radically different OS's a testament though so this is only a minor query, not a big complaint.

I also think your strategy of pouring all the basic stats into one primary stat is dodgy. My second fighter is usually a Rogue type rather than an out and out Archer. I give my Priest the Divinely Touched boost and he's a Nephilim which gives a bows boost. He always has the best bow. My second fighter usually is the pole weapons guy, someone needs to be and he's a Slith for the toughness to deal with the lack of a shield. He gets the better armour for that reason. That means I can have two melee fighters either side of a door of a dangerous room, taking them on one at a time. It is a good idea, especially early in the game to hoard your Priest's energy and not try and use his offensive spells very much. He needs quite a lot of Dexterity for Smite to hit very often so when he's not needed to Heal or Protect he can sit behind and fire arrows. One Melee fighter is only viable in narrow tunnels. To hold a door you need two. Also two fighters hitting one boss with some Backstab each really ups the damage count. Because he is not affected by armour my Priest is also capable of Melee fighting lesser monsters so he needs some Strength, Endurance and Hardiness/Resistance. There is no reason for your Priest to be vulnerable like your mage. You are maximising offense and neglecting protection. Dial down the main stat and spread it around a bit. Later in the game my Priest advances up to the melee front, invokes Adrenaline Rush, casts Divine Retribution, fireblast and/or fires arrows or hits someone with his magic elemental sword (my tank has the other one in dual wield). He can go toe to toe with mutant giants and not just survive by kill them.

I've just captured one at Level 32 and level 3 Capture Soul. So go level.

Oh yes, I have returned one Crystal Soul (from Pyrog's) and had a look having finally got level 3 Move Mountains and enough Vanahtai knowledge etc that I am running around searching old dungeons for spell books and crystals I couldn't read/access when I found them. I missed Protection 3 in the Verdant Valley. I've just got the Resistance boost from the crystal in Gaddika's fort after going back. I know have the orb so I need to do all the orb stuff around there too . . . These games are HUGE which is why I love them so. I'm replaying Crystal Souls again in advance of the new Av3 coming soon. I do not know how many times, starting back when it was Exile I have played these. I find new things, new ways of playing every time. I've lost patience with doomguards though. I always now go down to Casual to fight them now. So much to remember, no L3 lightning spray, no acid etc which caused a split every time one feels it, no area spells except very carefully to take out a group of almost dead ones and NO cloak of curses, too much chance of inflicting acid. I think I've earned it from the number I have done HARD over the decades.

In which case it is pretty self defeating to do that in response then. I just had to type ouchouchouch and imdrained a lot. I got all the experience points of killing them too, one of my people went up a level. I honestly don't remember what I did in this game. Certainly a lot less than in other games. His minions always disappeared before. And you get no warning that this sort of thing might happen when you use them, or the editor. Which would make it pretty sneaky and underhand. As the revamped Avernum 3 nears release I may have to reconsider my attitude to Spiderweb games if this is the reason.

Okay so I made liberal use of the cheat codes to kill all of his minions but the question still remains, why did I have to?

So I killed Grah-Hoth and despite previous experience and the text when he dies his m summoned minions didn't disappear. Any ideas? Back to it then.

Thanks, that works, though by the other games and versions of how to use the Orb it is unintuitive.

Is it just me or is the Honeycomb in this version just too easy to wander through? My memory of previous iterations was that there were many more wandering monsters you bumped into when rounding corners etc. I wandered the whole place with hardly a fight in sight, and that on the Hard setting, or does Hard mean 'fewer wandering monsters to level against' or something? Otherwise the game is enjoyable, well done.

I have just got the Orb of Thralni. I've been wandering about trying to see what it does. I cannot fly over water, over rocks in the way, over lava or up or down an outside ledge. So wtf is it good for? I have played every Exile/Avernum game produced and in this one the Orb doesn't seem to have any use at all. Any ideas? It seems to activate and my characters get a wing symbol that last for 3 moves. However they can only go places their own two legs are good for anyway.

I was sure I had tried this before but I made it work this time. Go up the long East tunnel, cast MM, step on the rune, then go up the SHORT East tunnel, step out and take one step west, then you get transported to an area west of the second rune which allows you to get there etc. Phew!

Yes, I have found the secret passage(s) been up the long one, stepped on the rune, heard chains, been back down (nothing) got transported down to start (nothing) and repeat (nothing). I have tried all combinations, can't get close to the 2nd rune. Been back out to the boat, around fought a patrol, gone back again, still no dice.

So I'm nearly finished, got everything necessary, breezed through the first two caves before the portal fortress but am completely stuck on the 3rd. I even checked the walkthrough but I can't get anything to happen. The gates don't open, I don't get transported anywhere new. Please help, very frustrated. I'm going through replaying 1 to 6 while I wait for Avadon and very much enjoying it. Being reminded why I got hooked on Exile 1 all those years ago.