BetrayalAtKrondor

Here is my likes/dislikes after finishing game.. Interface + Overall user interface is very easy to use. - Not being able to click on the TAB-map!!!! - Would like more items to stack in inventory. Any generic item (i.e.doesn't have charges or special enhancemnet, etc.) should be able to stack. For example, 4X deep runestones, 4X steel shields, etc. Skills + Overall liked orginality of the skills in the skill tree and scarabs. + I liked how you regained health and abilities after batttles. - Even though it seemed you had alot of choices, it seemed like it boiled down to only two choices left-middle columns or middle-right columns. - Skill tree worked well for blademaster / shadowalker, but seemed more contrived for sorceress / shaman. Compared to Avernum 6 and other rpgs, I kind of miss being able to build up a spellbook and learn spells. - In some cases, it was not obvious which trait affect which skill. For example, I had no idea some of the shaman skills like earthshatter rely on DEX rather than INT until I read it here on this forum. - Not intutive which trait affected scarab's power. If I understand it right, if my blademaster has dark bolt scarab, then the power is influenced by STR. It seems a little strange that the scarab was powered by a diffferent trait depending on your character class. - Should not cost 2 points to get first level in a skill. This confused me for awhile until I figured it out. What is the point of this? All it does is slightly slow down how fast you get new skills. Should just be 1 pt = 1 level always for simplicity. Combat + Turn-based combat worked well as usual for spiderweb games. - some of the spell animations were too slow Story + Overall story and writing was good. Favorite parts: ++ Black Fortress lower levels, including running into Redbeard in catacombs with tombs of the keepers -- creepy... ++ Zhoss Mindtaker first battle where you have to fight mind-controlled Kellem warriors. ++ Bandit lair in Beraza pits. ++ Nicodemus magic items - Story seemed too linear to me. I enjoyed Avernum 6 non-linearity more. I didn't like how new areas only open up after story triggers. - Alot of the companions were annoying. Natalie was annoying but interesting. Others were just annoying. -! You could have had a short pre-chapter for each companion where you play as Natalie, Jenelle, etc., before starting as your main character. For example, you could play chapter as Sev when he goes on a mission and gets ambushed by Cahil. - There was all this talk about all experienced Hands are out on missions, and hands are getting killed, etc., but this is all second hand. There was little first-hand evidence of this. -! Story would have beens strengthened if you met some of the experienced hands early in the story, and then later found them dead, or you went on a mission with some of them and saw them get killed in an ambush, etc. - Late in the story when the Duke says that Avadon is weak, etc., and that's why he joined Tawon Empire, the dialog is confusing. Apparently his peace overtures with his neighbors was a smoke screen, and he had already decided to ally with Tawon Empire, but his dialog said he was really trying for peace, and Tawon Empire was his backup plan. But then, why did he double-cross Shigaz and me even before he met with the peace envoys? I was half-expecting him to be possessed by some Tawon charm to explain his actions, but no. - Plus, when the Duke said Avadon was weak and crumbling, I was like "Dude, haven't you been reading the news? Avadon [me] killed the ShadowBeast, trashed the Titan Keep, killed a crazy wizard, flattened Dhorl Stead/Oghrym’Tor, cleared out the pit and the bandits of your beraza woods, killed a dragon, and now I'm gonna beat your ***." Part of this goes back to earlier comment that there wasn't alot of firsthand evidence about how Avadon was crumbling. -! The issue is that the story is linear with no branches until the very end. It would have been interesting if based on your actions in Beraza woods, you succeeded in furthering the peace and so the Duke commends you and keeps his dealings with Tawon Empire secret, or you failed in Beraza woods, and so the Duke sets up the ambush as it plays out as it does now. You could have had a branch without impacting the larger story. Black fortress could still have been attacked by assassin's from Tawon Empire at the end. Also in Avadon 2, the Duke could have still ended up aligned with Tawon Empire. But I guess if the Duke played nice, then that would have shortened the whole game by a several hours if you skipped the Beraza Deep Woods/Hand Gavin/Attacking the Castle. Or you could have still been allowed to meet Gavin and learned that the Duke was passing notes to Tawon, and then confronted the Duke about that. - Pet Peeve: Monitor Shigaz waves off my healing, because he wants to die? That seemed forced. You should be able to heal him and let him join your party at least while you break out of the castle. For that matter, after you kill Lord Carstal, why can't I resurrect him, then haul his *** back to Avadon for questioning? - The whole story arc about how Avadon can be cruel and maybe you should challenge Redbeard seemed kinda of forced, esp. since the alternative of the wayfarer/Tawon Empire seemed even worse. Since this was first game in a new world, I think it would have been better to not even allow you to fight Redbeard. Jeff could have saved that for a future game. -! Instead of letting us fight Redbeard, we should have been able to fight that punk Zhethron. - Pet Peeve - Why couldn't we explore the area around Black Fortress? I suppose there wouldn't be any monsters camped outside the fortress, so maybe nothing there, but I thought it funny that the only way to leave the Fortress was through the portals! I was expecting there to be a city built up around the fortress that you could explore, etc.

Originally Posted By: Dikiyoba Also, it's clear that Redbeard is complacent and most failed assassinations were the result of just one or two people or brought down early on by someone with cold feet. Five determined Hands is a stronger force than anything Redbeard has faced in a long time. Storywise, he should be beatable. Not easy to kill, but not impossible either. I agree with this comment. I think the difficulty is over the top; It seems very hard on normal with 5 chars maxxed out at 30. I spent about 30 min getting Redbeard down to about 25% health, killing about 20 of those soul jars, but then I started having problems because some of chars ran out of healing potions, so I gave up. I think I can finish it if I take time to split consumables amongst everyone, but I don't really feel like going through the whole battle again. This fight was very annoying for a number of reasons besides being very tedious. * Why are soul jars immune to shaman's spirit attack? Doesn't seem to make sense. I would think they should be more vulnerable to that. * Soul jars were also immune to some of the sorcercess attacks. Corruption and dark bolt scarab -- don't remember for sure. Not sure why all the immunities. I could fix this by adjusting the scarabs. * The distance between soul jars on each side was such that my melee chars wasted a turn running from one to the other. * IMO Redbeard should lose some health each time a part of his soul breaks off to form another soul jar. Or else, there should have been some limit to the soul jars. * Also, it would have been cool if Shadow Tarkas/Wayfarer could be added to your party, but if you choose that dialog path, Redbeard insta-killed him in one shot. The Redbeard fight seemed like a rehash from earlier battle with the dragon Zephrine who had 4 guard sentinels, except Redbeard's guard sentinels were limitless.

Ah, I went back again and was able to fight Beloch. I think the problem I had before is I thought I had clicked Beloch, but I had clicked the portal instead. Once I clicked Beloch, I got dialog and was able to fight him. Thanks,

I read on the forum you could kill Beloch, but when I went back there it just said something about the portal Beloch was stuck in, and then said I stepped back. There was no option to fight Beloch.