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Queen's Wish: The Conqueror - Game Advice


Randomizer

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An Advice Guide to Queen's Wish: The Conqueror

 

What You've Seen Before

Some things in this game are based upon previous Spiderweb games:

 

The calendar with holiday effects from Avernum 1.

Augmentation of items from Geneforge and Avadon.

All characters go up in experience at the same time even if not being used from Avadon.

Experience from finding map locations from Avernum.

Can only have one summoned monster for each party member, but improves with caster's level from Avernum 5 onwards.

90% cap on resistances.

Blessing can be cast multiple times and is broken like in Exile. There is a 5 limit for buffs, curses, bleeding, and poison.

Back to additive effects or at least that's how they are shown on character pages.

Reputation from Geneforge, but this time there are 8 of them.

You can pick your position at the game's end from leisure to ruler.

 

Differences from Other Games

 

You can't farm experience by going back and killing respawned monsters. You only get experience from discovering new World Map locations, doing most quests although sometime you need to nag to get it, and a few other specific actions in certain locations.

You no longer have the four stats, but augments will give you the benefits that you used to get from those stats.

You can remove augmentations from items and move them to new items or sell them off for money.

Combat system is a bit different from other games with greater emphasis on using abilities to do more damage per attack.

There are only physical and magical attacks.

Reclaiming forts and building shops. 

It's better to buy items from shops then finding them as loot in exploring.

Can only get rings, necklaces, and charms from found loot except a shielding band.

Some containers and their contents will be gone if you haven't emptied them before doing the boss fight and leaving the zone.

You start with healing potions and can get an alchemist to change them into other types that will refill when you are at a fort with an alchemy shop.

No trainers for abilities.

 

Biggest difference and here's why you want to finish the game, your decisions allow you to start the next Queen's Wish game with how the world exists from your actions instead of default choice.

 

 

Character Building

 

You can retrain any character in a fort after your meeting with Chief Miranda to recruit warriors. You can start with the three pre-generated characters or get generic Haven soldiers at Fort Haven. As you reclaim forts in the other lands you can get generic soldiers from each land with different cultural abilities to replace existing recruits.

 

There is no best party build, but some things make it easier than others like have a mix of physical and magical attackers. There are monsters that take much more damage from an attack type and you will want to have area effect abilities. Also monsters have different armor and evasions to attack types.

 

You will want to retrain characters during the game because in the endgame area certain abilities are nearly useless from monsters having high resistances to stun, mental attacks, and some curses.

 

You get no skill points past level 20 so that means 22 skill points at level 20. The game effectively caps character levels at 23 when you run out of ways to get significant experience to make level 24.

 

To retrain a character, click on the ? icon next to the character. Or in a Haven fort when you see a green + indicating that you have available skill points. Then click on the ability to remove and click on the one to add. The green circle(s) next to an ability indicates the level in that ability and a red circle indicates no level with it. You may have to remove higher tier abilities if you want to change lower ones. You need two ability levels in the tier below before you can get one in the next tier.

 

When playing above normal difficulty it is useful to retrain the fighters to get Steelskin to reduce damage and curses.

 

After getting level 2 or 3, consider getting Steelskin for all characters. Support character should get Magery for the +20% to blessings and healing as well as extra energy.

 

After a few levels consider getting more abilities outside of your character's specialty. Support abilities give 5% evasion for each of the first three tiers so Healing or Inspiring Cry (2 levels), Curing (2 levels), and Healing Wave or the passive ability Haste will give +15% to a character's evasion to attacks which helps avoid damage. Get Haste and a tier 4 ability to have +20% to speed. You also have more characters that can provide healing/curing/blessing during and after combat. 

 

From Magic abilities get Magery for a bonus in other abilities and Call Bones (summoning skeleton) adds more targets for your enemies that can't be charmed. It is more useful doing this for a Support character to gain extra energy.

 

Arcane weapons that do magical damage require having Magic abilities to use. Some armors shields and helms need Combat abilities and better robes, orbs, and cowls need Magic abilities to use.

 

 

Abilities

 

You need two levels of an ability or one level in each of two abilities before you can get an ability on the next tier higher.

 

The second level of an ability will give a bonus effect and is usually +10% unless noted.

 

You only get the tier bonus once.

 

Combat Abilities

 

Tier 1 - +2 Health and can use Tier 1 armor/weapons

 

Brutal Blow - causes extra damage and bleeding 

-- level 1 +25% extra damage, level 2 +50% extra damage

Disarm - causes extra damage and weakens you foes damage

Steelskin - passive ability gives 20% resistance to bleeding, poison, stun and mental effects

 

Tier 2 - +2 Health and can use Tier 2 armor/weapons

 

Whirlwind Attack - does physical damage to all enemies near you (2 tile range)

Stunning Shot - extra damage, stuns for a round, and slows for several rounds 

-- level 1 +25% extra damage, level 2 +50% extra damage

Cheap Shot - increased speed and blessing for several rounds

 

Tier 3 - +2 Health and can use Tier 3 armor/weapons

 

Knockback - extra damage, knocks foe back, and ensnare

-- level 1 +10%, level 2 +20% and added turn for ensnare

Shield Shatter - extra damage, and makes foe vulnerable for extra damage for several rounds

Hardiness - increases maximum health by 10%

 

Tier 4 - Melee damage +2 bonus

 

Bull Rush - jumps your character next to target, extra damage and stuns for 1 rounds

Bludgeon Senseless - slow, weaken, and confuse enemy

-- level 1 +25% extra damage, level 2 +50%extra damage

Terrifying Scream - fear attack on nearby enemies

 

 

Magic Abilities

 

Tier 1 - +1 Energy and can use Tier 1 Arcane items

 

Shock - inflicts strong magical damage on one foe

Fear - terrifies one foe

Magery - passive ability gives a 20% bonus to all healing, blesses, and curses you cause

 

Tier 2 - +1 Energy and can use Tier 2 Arcane items

 

Icy Wave - cone shaped magical damage

Weakness - weakens foe damage in a circular area

Call Bones - summons a skeleton to fight in a place you pick

 

Tier 3 - +1 Energy and can use Tier 3 Arcane items

 

Poison Rain - magical damage and poison for several rounds in a circular area

Time Warp - slow foes in a circular area

Raw Power - increases your maximum energy by one per five character levels

 

Tier 4 - Magic damage +2 bonus

 

Fireball - magical damage in a circular area

Shockwave - damages and stuns foes in a cone shaped area

Build Construct - summons a construct to fight in a place you pick

 

 

Support Abilities

 

Tier 1 - +5% to evasion

 

Healing - heals a single ally

Inspiring Cry - gives blessing for increased damage to allies in 6 spaces for 4 turns

Hide in Shadows - passive ability to make nearby enemies less likely to attack you

 

Tier 2 - +5% to evasion

 

Curing - cures a single ally of poison, bleeding, and curses

Speed - provides 12 turns of haste to one ally

Teleport - teleports one character or foe to a nearby spot

 

Tier 3 - +5% to evasion

 

Healing wave - heals all allies near the caster

Disruption - removes 6 turns of blessings ( haste, bless, spell shield, etc.) from the enemy target

Haste - passive ability to haste you by 10%

 

Tier 4 - +10% bonus to speed

 

Restoring Rain - heals and cures nearby allies

Battle Frenzy - hastes (+40%) and blesses all nearby allies for 5 turns

Silence - silences a foe preventing it from using abilities

 

 

Other Recruits - Cultural Abilities

 

Royal Havenite (personal character - PC)

 

Haven's Might - hastes and blesses allies within 6 spaces for 5 turns, level 2 adds 4 turns

Haven's Mercy - heals and cures allies within 6 spaces, level 2 increases both healing and cures

Haven's Command - passive - damage bonus to allies within 4 spaces, level 2 doubles damage bonus

 

Ukatish Runner

 

Steel Darts - cone shape physical attack that causes bleeding, level 2 gives more turns of bleeding

Barbed Lance - single target physical that cause heavy bleeding, level 2 gives 3 more turns of bleeding

Vicious Strikes - passive - gives 10% chance to cause bleeding for all allies attacks, level 2 adds 10% chance

 

Free Vol 

 

Spellshield - provide +50% magical evasion to an ally for 3 turns, level 2 increases by 2 turns

Evasion Charm - provide +50% physical evasion to an ally for 3 turns, level 2 increases by 2 turns

Tower of Might - passive - provide 5% to all nearby allies to evade magical and physical attacks, level 2 adds 5% 

 

Ahriel Blessed

 

Mindsteal - charms a foe for 2 turns, level 2 adds 1 turn

Freemind - frees an ally from mental effects, level 2 removes 3 more turns

Raidance - passive - 15% chance of freeing an ally from mental effects, level 2 increases chance by 15%

 

 

Augmenting Equipment

 

This is an easy way to boost damage, healing, evasion, resistance to damage, stun, and mental attacks. As your equipment improves you can remove augments to move them to new equipment or sell to buy better versions.

 

Runes go on melee weapons, helms, and cowls. Augments go on armor, robes, helms, cowls, shields, orbs, and necklaces.

 

Removing runes and augments costs a fraction of their price. This means it's cheaper to transfer them to new items.

 

When adding augments that help physical/magical armor place them in order of greatest chance of absorbing damage from necklaces, armor/robes, shields/orbs, and helms/cowls.

 

 

Combat

 

This game is different from the others in how damage is blocked by armor. While it seems similar, the differences are important in how you want to fight.

 

Weapon and shield or orb is still better than two handed weapon just for damage prevention and with better equipment your having more augmentation slots. While a two handed melee weapon will have a chance of cleaving an adjacent foe, the extra damage isn't as helpful in the long run. Still on any difficulties you can still use a two handed weapon through out almost the entire game if you don't mind taking more damage.

 

An attack is done with the to hit chance and I've rarely an attack miss even on torment difficulty versus a boss monster. Then evasion versus the damage type of physical or magic. Then if the attack lands, the damage is then checked against armor and each piece of armor (main torso, helmet, and shield) has a percentage for reducing damage and will block versus physical and/or magic type damage. Anything left over penetrates to the target. Poison (magic) and Bleeding (physical) are not blocked by armor, however you can resist them. 

 

Edit - Increasing to hit chance with runes and items seems to reduce evasion chance of foes.

See Hit chance and evasion

 

It pays to upgrade your weapon and use damage increases like Inspiring Cry, Haven's Command, and attack abilities to get more damage past being blocked. Also these buffs can stack to increase damage with multiple castings. For fights in the last part of the game consider having 3 to 5 Blessings. Each Blessing gives bonus damage of 2 plus one third of your level. Battle Frenzy on the middle of the game and on to the end will also increase your speed even if it last less time.

 

There is a limit of 5 to blessing, bleeding, poison, haste, and slow. Haste and slow don't increase with multiple castings, but they do count when being removed by their opposite or disruption. Haste increases speed so you go earlier. Slow can cause you to miss a turn.

 

Evasion is powerful to completely avoiding damage. I've seen a monster evade 5 attacks in a row so it pays to increase it using the passive ability Tower of Might, Support abilities, and evasion augments which can get it over 50% . Also Spellshield and Evasion Charm or their potion versions can be helpful for the closest character to your foes since they give +50% for a few rounds.

 

Edit - Spped (haste) on your party and slow on you enemies can give more attacks before they get their attacks. Speed is capped at 65%.

 

Consider having your Support character use Inspiring Cry or Battle Frenzy in the first round to increase everyone's damage. Indoor combat sometimes allows you to cast it to trigger combat or if far enough away not even triggering it.

 

Charming a foe with Mindsteal helps keep your party from being targeted. However it works against you so getting an Ahriel recruit or very high mental effects resist is useful. There are some items that will remove mental effects or allow you to cast Free Mind to remove mental effects.

 

Overall, keep your party spread out to prevent cleaving attacks and area effect attacks like Poison Rain, Fireball, or Steel Darts which foes love to use. However you want them near each other to benefit from passive abilities that have a 4 tile range or within 6 tiles for healing and buff in of groups.

 

Range attacks still do less damage than melee attacks, however enough foes are melee attackers only to make this an effective early attack to wear them down and kill them. Consider taking out their range attackers first especially ones that can cast spells. Circular area attacks like Poison Rain and Fireball will give you slightly extra range over normal range attacks.

 

Melee attacks will do more damage and if not evaded will end the fight sooner. It depends upon what you face since their melee attacks will also do more damage. Also some boss monsters have special attacks that only happen if you are close.

 

Bleeding and poison will do that little bit of extra damage if you don't kill them the initial round. This just might kill them. Later in the game having them stacked on a monster can give it significant damage every round.

 

Abilities can also help. Stun will keep them from attacking. Knockback may entangle so a melee attacker can't reach you. Bludgeon Senseless may cause other effects like confusion, silence, and weakness to reduce their damage.

 

Bonuses from melee weapons will work on range attacks.

 

Don't neglect getting potions that can be used in combat from healing, monster summons, and poison. Summoned monsters are all immune to charm and fear mental effects which makes them very useful to send against some foes. Poison potion is best used in a major fight with a character using area effects abilities since it has a chance against every target.

 

After combat you get back some energy starting at one every other combat for low levels and increasing every 5 character levels. After playing for a while to get used to the system, you can figure out where to use abilities so you don't use all your energy before the final fight.

 

 

 

Rebuilding Forts

 

After reclaiming Greatport you start rebuilding Fort Haven with getting a Smithy and Apothecary. After that consider a Carpentry to get better bows, shields, and wands. Every fort that you reclaim and replace shops will improve resources collected, better equipment, and better attack and defense bonuses.

 

Don't stockpile resources too much because there is a 50 cap on any single resource when you have all 7 forts and it is lower with fewer. So when you get above 30 you should consider selling some for money. The two best to sell are quicksilver and stone. Also you can only sell about 60 coins at a time. You always need iron and wood is close behind.

 

I don't know what the money cap is, but it exceeds 5200 coins and that only happens if you are waiting to build or buy items.

 

When you have rebuild all 7 forts and all their shops your upkeep cost will exceed your resources. So building mills, distilleries, and bakeries makes a difference.

 

Giving Favored status to a faction will increase the resources and money from that land.

 

You need shops for three things:

 

1) Smithy (weapons, arcane weapons, armor, helmets), Apothecary (potions, runes, augments), Carpentry (bows, shields, wands, staves), and Weaving Room (robes, cowls, increases slots in backpacks every other shop) provide better equipment than you will usually find or buy from merchants. Every other Apothecary provides a healing potion.

 

2) Upgrade Fort (increases resources from that fort), Barracks (attack bonus), and Guard Towers (damage reduction bonus) as well as reducing thefts from that land. Killing off bandits on the roads and monsters also reduces thefts. Base theft chances increase with game difficulty level from 20% to 30% on torment. Reclaiming a second fort increases theft chances by 20%. Your choices when picking a faction in each vassal land will also increase theft rates so consider delaying that until you are done with all 7 forts.

 

Buying a new barracks gives bonuses to either melee or missile/magic, not both. (So the max bonus is 4/3, not 7/7)

 

3) Mill, Distillery, and Bakery provide money to spend for equipment and constructing shops. You need a Mill to make money with the others.

 

After Fort Haven, save resources so the first thing you do when reclaiming a fort is Fort Upgrade to increase resources and reduce thefts.

 

Every two days you will get a report of resources produced in that land. Keep going back to Greatport every four days to request iron bars and see if they came in on a ship. Iron is always in short supply and needed for building and upkeep of shops. By the third fort you will be running low and have to delay construction, and by the fourth you will be short and need to be careful in what order to build them. Also building everything in the fourth fort means upkeep costs will exceed resources for iron until you reclaim more mines in Utak.

 

By the final 7th fort the upkeep resources cost will exceed what you gain and will come out of your money.

 

If you don't have enough resources to pay for upkeep, then you will spend money to pay for missing resources. However you can't go negative with money or have shops removed to pay for the missing amount. (Next time - Queen's Wish: The Moneylender who will help you out at a high interest rate.) It is very important that you reclaim mines, quarries, and places for resources if you don't want to be broke all the time and unable to build shops and buy better equipment.

 

You can buy some resources, but don't unless you have lots of money.

 

Wait until the end to rebuild the portal home since that drains resources.

 

 

Where to go when exploring

 

Keep visiting Chief Miranda in Fort Haven for advice on where to go and you will be asked occasionally to make judgements. On harder than normal difficulty this becomes important on visiting places at your party level. On normal difficulty you can wander around and clear areas before getting quests to do it. You want to reclaim places that will provide resources for shop construction and upkeep.

 

Also some places give you choices on how to do the boss fight where you get the same experience either way. What changes is money and items that you get by doing the harder fight and your reputation. Having certain reputations in each vassal land will determine getting into fights with locals and may let you get certain options.

 

Most areas will need to be done in several trips and some monsters will respawn when you return before killing the boss monster or crossing the zone. Save before entering and make different saves as you explore. If you kill the boss monster and leave the zone, then some containers will be gone when you return. So make sure you fully explore before doing the last fight. On normal difficulty you can usually do the whole area in one trip if you are the right level and have good equipment.

 

Most zones have 6 fights in them with harder zones having more and/or monsters with more health and evasion to a damage type.

 

Some zones require you to go through them in one trip, but you can skip fights if you don't mind missing loot.

 

Locked doors are there for four reasons. To force you to go a certain way through the zone. You need to find a key in the zone (Scorpion Pit and Realm of Thar'shyss). They unlock after you reach a place (Shadow Mine). You need to pay the inn keeper for a room to rest.

 

After Greatport, the next places are Tainly Mines (crude bow), Kelleran (shop for better helmets), and the Serpent Quarry. The next level harder is Mugret's Mine, Niell's Manse, and the Barb's Bastion (hardest of the group). Next are the border regions in order of difficulty: The Vol Gates, Mirefangs, and Ahriel Thicket.

 

The choice of which lands to visit works best to reclaim mines for resources. So Utak for iron, the Vol for stone, and then Ahriel for quicksilver is the best order. It helps to only do part of each land and save the hardest places for later on harder difficulties. Some quests are easy to get quick experience to go up a level like Taking Root in the Vol and reclaiming forts. You may want to shift vassal lands to gain resources on harder difficulties.

 

Note, you can explore in any order especially on normal difficulty, but it makes it harder to get the resources you need to build shops in the forts and have money to buy better equipment. The only limit on where to explore is how quickly you die.

 

For torment difficulty consider after leaving Haven Lands going first to the Utak and doing the Gellum Ruins, the mines for iron, and then Mist Maze. Then the Vol to clear the quarries for stone. Finally the Ahriel for quicksilver up to Pikket's Brake. Then return to the Utak to reclaim the second fort before doing the rest of the Vol for another fort, better equipment, and more levels. By level 17 you can finish up most of the Utak. Finally you can finish the Ahriel.

 

Postponing picking sides allows those wanting to see different endings to minimize having to replay the game.

 

The endgame appears after getting a treaty signed and sending in the troops in all three vassal states. This area is optional, but if you want a better ending then you need to do it. You don't need to go everywhere unless you want some different equipment and the final fight gives you options to take a deal and avoid the harder fights. To go all the way you will need to bring consumable scrolls to heal and buff.

 

The Dragon's Lair is an expert dungeon and is the hardest fight just because of monster health and higher evasion to attacks. You need to use different tactics here and will need to come fully prepared with consumable scrolls and potions. It is doable on torment, but expect to use everything.

 

 

Reputation

 

Like in Geneforge, you get reputations for your words and actions. This can range from brutal to friendly and can be different for each land: Haven, Utak, the Vol, and Ahriel. There is also the reputation for how much you follow the Queen's wishes. These reputations when negative will cause you to get into more fights with wandering soldiers and block you from getting into some places. Or they when positive help you to avoid fights and get better receptions when dealing with leaders. In the three vassal lands, you will eventually have to pick a side to support against the other to fully reclaim the land.

 

So you can be a harsher conqueror or a friendly ally while reclaiming the lands. Some choices are relatively neutral and won't produce a big shift in your reputation. Also you may not be able to do things with a certain reputation like buying the Vol Contract in Vitasa when you are too pro-Owens. However being very pro-Owens allows you quicker access to the Owen Council without having to do a major fight clearing a zone.

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6 minutes ago, Randomizer said:

Most areas will need to be done in several trips and some monsters will respawn when you return before killing the boss monster or crossing the zone. Save before entering and make different saves as you explore. If you kill the boss monster and leave the zone, then some containers will be gone when you return. So make sure you fully explore before doing the last fight. On normal difficulty you can usually do the whole area in one trip if you are the right level and have good equipment.

 

 

You don't need to fully explore before getting to the boss fight (although finding him will tend to make you check out most everything along the way), but DO, after killing him, explore the entire map (assuming that you're in a condition to survive some smaller fights) as in most dungeons (generic term for areas outside of forts...) there are chests with lootable items that are worth picking up.  Most areas will remove those monster chests once you leave the area.

 

And after clearing an area and going out to the main map, immediately reenter it.  If you've reclaimed 'x' quarry (for instance), generally friendly people/troops will have moved in & the leader needs to be talked to to confirm that the output of that quarry will be sent to the nearest fort.  Also many of the chests/boxes/vases that were filled with monster loot now have friendly loot in them (if you feel like stealing from them).

 

Other random thoughts:

 

Equip everyone with some sort of distance weapon.  You can generally get 1-2 turns of shooting at the baddies before they can get to you.  Once they are in melee range/next to you, then switch to your melee weapon (switching weapons costs movement points so you can't switch, move a square or two, & then hit - let them come to you)

 

Monsters don't weaken as their hp gets low.  As they're closing in on you, have your archers target one collectively (usually the most dangerous) to kill him.  Having a horde of 'x' closing in on you at half hp is more dangerous than 3-4 at full (& their companions bodies littering the field behind them).  The exception to that is if you plan on hitting them with an aoe spell later in the round/next round.  'Then' you do want to try to injure as many as possible with hopes that the aoe spell finishes them off/reduces their health enough that your frontline guys can do so in the next round.

 

If possible try to arrange your combat in places that form a choke point with the terrain.  If you're in a passage that's 3 squares wide & facing say 4 monsters that take up 2x2 squares each, only one will be able to get within melee range at a time (most of those bigger monsters have some form of ranged attack so bear that in mind).  While the frontline guy/s are beating on the near monster, the guys in back can be hitting the monsters in their back hard  with distance (bow/wand/spells) attacks.  This is a real good way to wear the area boss down a bit before you have to face him up close & personal.

 

Helmets can take both runes & augments.  ONLY use runes in them as they improve damage.  There are many more slots available for augments (in armor/shields/necklaces) than there are for runes (helmets & weapons/wands/staves).

 

Casting 'cure' during combat only costs four mp, leaving you one more.  Your support guy can cast that at the start of his/her turn on someone who's poisoned/bleeding/etc and still be able to attack.  Having someone poisoned/bleeding/whatever will chew up their health quite a bit over a few rounds, it's worth curing them quickly if possible.

 

Energy management (especially on Veteran or Torment) is critical later in the game during the harder dungeons.  After most fights you will get 1, maybe two points of energy regenerated, if you used 5-6 energy on all those various cool abilities during the fight... you won't have much available once you do reach the boss monster.

 

Having everyone be able to heal/cure isn't a bad use of skill points.  Doing so allows your magic user/s save their ep for the bigger damage spells.

 

Group heal is a good spell during combat if everyone has taken damage as it's only two ep (compared to 1 for an individual heal). group heal with curing is also only 2 ep so get that top tier spell for your support guy to both heal & strip off some of the negative poisoning/bleeding/etc.

 

If your melee/non magic uses's ep is near full, when all the monsters are dead, BEFORE ending combat heal everyone.  If say your melee guys are at full ep, let them cast 1-2 heal spells each (see suggestion two up...) on the others.  THEN after ending combat you will probably get those 1-2 points back (allowing the same 1-2 points also go to the mu/support guys who probably need them more than the melee guys).  If everyone's used more ep than they will regenerate after ending then it really doesn't matter, but getting into the habit of healing before ending combat isn't a bad thing.

 

When traveling on the main map, if travel time to 'x' is two hours (the minimum for quick travel), you're better off walking there normally (as it may take less than two hours to get there).  For three hours or more, using quick travel takes roughly the same amount of time as walking there on the map (confirmed by Jeff).

 

Always have a standing order for resources (iron generally for me) at the docks/with the dockmaster north of Ft Haven (not near the computer with the game on it & can't remember her name, sorry).  You only get one of that item every other day, but every little bit helps.  It's generally not worth specifically going there to claim it, but if you're in the neighborhood anyway...

 

Many of the later dungeons are at the end of a guarded path to get to them.  If you fight the guards you'll generally be drained of hp/ep before even starting the dungeon.  However if you can sneak through/avoid them to the point where you 'discover' the dungeon, you can then later use the main map to travel right to the start of the dungeon when you're at full health (bypassing the assorted guards).

 

You generally don't get many/any xp for say path guards (as mentioned right above)/random monsters while out on the main map.  They may have some loot, most don't.  Depending on what you're doing next/where you're going, evading them to keep yourself at full health isn't a bad thing.

 

Keeping theft % low is important (especially if your resources from that area are low to begin with).  Do the assorted things/builds to keep it as low as possible.

 

Keep building Weaver's shops as you need your inventory bag to grow.  There are lots of potions/scrolls (neither of which stack)/charms that you're going to want to carry around all the time along with keeping a few slots open for the assorted loot that you do find along the way (I tried to have 1-2 empty slots per person when leaving a fort/going back out).

 

As with pretty much all SW games, talk to anyone who has a 'name' (rather than 'townsperson').  They usually have something to say/important info.

 

(more later I'm sure...)

 

 

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Other than mom (the Queen) grumbling about you farting around rather than reclaiming 'her' lands, I don't think so.

 

But then I tended to do things relatively straightforward in one area until it was cleared out, not doing 12 hour bouncing back and forth between the areas unless there was a good reason.

 

But like Randomizer mentioned, the longer you're out doing things the worse resource management will be. So don't treat your time there as a holiday from Mom and your siblings... 

 

I 'think' there's a medal for getting to/finishing the endgame before 100 days (not near my laptop to check), so that gives you an overall target to keep in mind.

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The only other time based thing is a medal for doing the game in 100 days. You can do it on even torment difficulty, but you may skip some minor things to finish quickly. The first time through you shouldn't hurry. Going back to cleared dungeons can lead to some fun dialog talking to the locals that take over places (Scorpion Pit).

 

Jeff did make it so that resources stop if you sleep too many days in a row. This was to block an exploit to build up wealth doing nothing. 

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2 hours ago, Randomizer said:

Back to additive effects or at least that's how they are shown on character pages.

 
Good God, please tell me the displayed UI data for character stats (resistance percentages, modifiers, etc.) aren't incorrect compared to actual game mechanics like they were in the bad old UI pre-Avernum 5 days... please.

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Ha, I just hope we're not seeing e.g "poison resistance" of "132%" (which was actually probably 60%) or something nuts like we used to see in Avernum 3... it is 2019, so I would think by now Jeff has figured out how to create accurate UI data!

And oh yeah, thanks for all the work, as usual! Love seeing the Strategy Central go up 20 seconds after the game is released (though I expect 19 seconds with Queen's Wish 2... you can do it).

Edited by mikeprichard
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34 minutes ago, Par Compensation said:

Any comments on what effect the various reputation-affecting questions have?  I'm poking around now and see... little to nothing material.  Which I'm pretty OK with.

You'll probably see the most impact on your reputation down in the Vol as they have an active rebellion going on.  Being nice to one side tends to piss off the other.  But it takes a while to build up significant animosity.

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50 minutes ago, Par Compensation said:

Any comments on what effect the various reputation-affecting questions have?  I'm poking around now and see... little to nothing material.  Which I'm pretty OK with.

The Vol is the main area where reputation matters. You get attacked there if you are too pro-Mascha, can't pass through Smoky Peaks, and can get the Vol Contract to make money. It's suppose to make a difference in the Utak with negotiations and you get advice not to insult them.

 

I think it affects the final texts when the game ends with how the Queen acts towards your decision. Other than that I gave up checking the scripts for points with reputation checks.

 

I gave up trying to find a way to list all the reputation places very early in the game since some didn't seem to make sense.

 

17 minutes ago, Par Compensation said:

Randomizer -

 

"I've rarely an attack miss even on torment difficulty versus a boss monster."

"I've seen a monster evade 5 attacks in a row so it pays to increase it"

 

These seem to point in different directions... any thoughts?

The game makes a series of checks for each attack: to hit, evasion, and chance of blocking damage.

 

It took a long time before I was sure that I saw a missed to hit chance so I never bothered with items to improve that. Even when blind at -40% to hit chance, I rarely had that as a reason an attacked failed.

 

Evasion is the most common reason that an attack doesn't do damage just like in Avadon.

 

Blocked damage mostly applies to attacks against you until the late game where you face monsters with high armor.

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1 hour ago, Par Compensation said:

Yes, you do.

 

image.png

 

From looking at the scripts, I see nothing to suggest that hit/miss calculations are handled differently than in the past.  The stats are different but to-hit modifiers are still there.

Correct, there are runes that you can find/buy early on that will give you a +5% chance to hit (changing the bonus picture you had).  I tended to drop one into(onto?) everybody's weapon until I could get the better runes... following the 'I guess it can't hurt' theory.

 

 

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Making Money

 

Money starts out a bit scarce in the game compared to item prices. So you want to make money to buy things.

 

The traditional way is go into homes and poke around in containers to see if there is anything worth acquiring. You may need to kill the things around the containers since they will object, but that shouldn't bother you.

 

You get some money killing off humans that automatically gets placed in your money.

 

You can shake people down for bribes or more money for doing their jobs. Just like Avadon you keep your hand out and palm up.

 

Then there are the new ways like building mills, distilleries, and bakeries which cost some money, but every two days you get money and building enough shops will make you richer. There will be a chance of thefts from forts so make barracks, guard towers, upgrade forts, and kill off bandits to reduce theft chances.

 

You can sell resources in Greatport, but only sell ones that you have a lot of and won't need like stone or quicksilver when you have over 30. There is a daily cap on how much can be bought of 60 (63 if selling stone).

 

Finally if you support the Mascha over the Owens in the Vol you can get the Vol Contract in Mascha by buying shares for 100 and getting about 50 back every two days when you stop in each time to ask.

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Holy wow.  Speed bonuses really do give you turns more frequently, just like the tooltip says.  It's not a question of acting "earlier in the round" -- you act more often, period, with a similar frequency.  Rounds are no longer the primary measurement of time.

 

Things just got a little deeper...

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7 minutes ago, Queen's Vlish said:

Holy wow.  Speed bonuses really do give you turns more frequently, just like the tooltip says.  It's not a question of acting "earlier in the round" -- you act more often, period, with a similar frequency.  Rounds are no longer the primary measurement of time.

 

Things just got a little deeper...

Yeah, keeping your armor light (no speed penalties) may make you get hit for more damage, but if you've buffed speed on every item that will take it...you can deal out some serious damage to them...

 

(you can also put both a 4% & 6% speed bonus on the same item (at least in the beta, haven't tried on the release version). You can't put two of the same augment on any one item, but I guess they are technically different)

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3 minutes ago, TriRodent said:

(you can also put both a 4% & 6% speed bonus on the same item (at least in the beta, haven't tried on the release version). You can't put two of the same augment on any one item, but I guess they are technically different)


Interesting - I wonder if this is an intentional choice on Jeff's part, or if he's planning to nerf this to ensure no two augments of the same type (regardless of magnitude) can be applied to the same item with the next patch. I have no problem with it staying as is, assuming the situation here is unchanged from the beta; allowing two augments of the same type on one item is an example of broader customization options, which are always a plus (now that he's stolen our pants).

Edited by mikeprichard
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Just using Battle Frenzy on top of everyone getting +20% speed from Support passive Haste ability and a tier 4 Support ability puts you ahead of most monsters until you face ones that cast haste and blessing on themselves almost every round.

 

The opposite is using Slow and Bludgeon Senseless for the slowing of boss monsters so they miss rounds. Although they now recover from slowing faster.

 

Jeff early on in beta testing blocked having two identical augments on the same item to prevent excessive stacking of +6% speed. You could still do a +4% and +6% speed since it wasn't quite as bad an exploit.

 

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Occasionally, while you're wandering around outside, you're going to come across what looks to be a small stack of crates/boxes*. Make sure that you go into that square at they most often give you a unit or two of some resource/gold.

 

*at least with my monitor/my old eyes they can be tough to spot/blend into the background, so if you're in a new area look around a bit.

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Some other answers to common questions:

Random outdoor enemy encounters:
-Don't respawn after they're killed (unlike enemies inside "dungeon"/hostile indoor locations, which will repeatedly respawn upon reentry to the dungeon until the dungeon's "boss" is killed and the dungeon is thus "cleared")
-Don't award experience when they're killed (but they sometimes award loot, with human encounters more likely to award money; also, defeating bandits in Haven Lands and certain other enemies in other lands reduces the chance of theft from your forts)

Companions and leveling:
-XP of new recruits always equals your main character's current XP
-XP is awarded equally to companions both within and outside your current active party
-Therefore, as noted in the original post of this topic, all of your allies will always level up at the same time

Edited by mikeprichard
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6 minutes ago, Queen's Vlish said:

BUG / TOOLTIP ERROR

 

Tower of Might only affects Physical Evasion, not Magical Evasion.  True for both levels.  So much for the Vol...

That was the biggest reason to recruit in the Vol. The other cultural abilities aren't worth the energy cost with their short duration.

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OK, while we're at it with corrections, the following errors also appear above:

 

Avernum never had Quick Travel

 

Magery is +20% not +30%

 

Ability list - Some abilities in the list state added status duration at level 2, others also have this but do not say so

 

Ability list - Bull Rush stuns for 1 round, not 2

 

Ability list - Battle Frenzy's Haste is the regular +40%, not +50%

 

"I've rarely an attack miss even on torment difficulty versus a boss monster" - I guess this isn't technically an error but I find this pretty hard to believe

 

The explanation of armor pieces having "a percentage chance of blocking" appears to be incorrect - see armor thread

 

Haste reduces the time between turns, it does not give you a chance of a bonus turn.

 

Slow increases the time between turns, it does not cause you to miss a turn.

 

Reputation - this is not quite right.  There are 8 reputation scores.
- In each of the 3 vassal areas, there are two different reputation scores.  The distinction in which is used often feels a little arbitrary to me, but one of them seems to be more of a local kindness indicator, and one of them is specific to the factions in that area
- The "Haven" scores are actually global and are affected by things everywhere.  One is a kindness/harshness indicator - how do you treat people who are at your mercy - and one is affected by supporting or eroding Haven's power in Sacramentum.  In many cases, the same action will move BOTH scores, so it is a little trickier to be a kind imperialist than it is to be a brutal imperialist, for example.

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3 hours ago, Queen's Vlish said:

OK, while we're at it with corrections, the following errors also appear above:

 

Magery is +20% not +30%

 

Ability list - Some abilities in the list state added status duration at level 2, others also have this but do not say so

 

Ability list - Bull Rush stuns for 1 round, not 2

 

Ability list - Battle Frenzy's Haste is the regular +40%, not +50%

Some of these changes were tweaks from when I wrote this and final version. I corrected more that you haven't seen. I see  corrected some in one place, but not both. A few with duration I used Jeff's text at the time and I've seen different amounts for each party member for the same casting.

 

3 hours ago, Queen's Vlish said:

"I've rarely an attack miss even on torment difficulty versus a boss monster" - I guess this isn't technically an error but I find this pretty hard to believe.

This is a result of hundreds of hours of game play. Compared to almost any other Spiderweb game, the number of attacks where there is no hit where the reason is not evade or blocked is closer to 1 in 100 and not 1 in 20 which came from the 5% fumble in D&D.

 

3 hours ago, Queen's Vlish said:

Reputation - this is not quite right.  There are 8 reputation scores.
- In each of the 3 vassal areas, there are two different reputation scores.  The distinction in which is used often feels a little arbitrary to me, but one of them seems to be more of a local kindness indicator, and one of them is specific to the factions in that area
- The "Haven" scores are actually global and are affected by things everywhere.  One is a kindness/harshness indicator - how do you treat people who are at your mercy - and one is affected by supporting or eroding Haven's power in Sacramentum.  In many cases, the same action will move BOTH scores, so it is a little trickier to be a kind imperialist than it is to be a brutal imperialist, for example.

I counted 5 in the scripts I read before giving up trying to list reputation. So I concede missing 3 of them that weren't in those scripts. I did see places with 2 changes with one being Haven and another like land or Queen.

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"I've rarely an attack miss even on torment difficulty versus a boss monster"

"the number of attacks where there is no hit where the reason is not evade or blocked"

 

OK, maybe I'm just confused by your terminology here?  You're not counting swings that end up being dodged or blocked, as misses??

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No I'm looking for, out of total attacks, the number that are listed as no damage (misses) that don't have another reason meaning it has an evade or blocked message. They are fairly rare and should be higher when you are facing a boss monster or have significant negative to hit modifiers like being blind. Evade and/or blocked are ones that hit and did no damage for those reasons.

 

I've played enough Spiderweb games to tell that misses from to hit are much lower in Queen's Wish than in other games.

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As discussed in another topic, glad to see confirmation that the tired ol' one-size-fits-all D&D to-hit chance dice roll is largely being obsoleted in favor of more individually tailored monster evasion/block statistics. Anyway, as a game mechanics nerd, I appreciate this thread. I would still be grateful if Randomizer could please update the top post here where needed to correct/clarify these points, since that's the first info dump everyone will read when linking from Strategy Central, but it is what it is.

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I did fix them, but skipped the edit notice.

 

The reason for my original comment on to hit is from the game's start you get runes to increase to hit (surest rune) that are useful only for money. I know you are being nudged into using them, but there isn't any time where you need to use any improve to hit item.

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Again, in the spirit of not creating urban legends, it is not at all clear that there is now more than one hit/miss roll being made.

 

It's certainly possible.

 

But I would also point out that we are used to hit rolls that end up near the upper limit, especially for PCs -- and those rolls got there largely on the backs of stats that do not exist in QW.  The old system, for physical attacks, was basically "start at 50% and adjust from there."  Therefore, if QW used exactly the same system as previous games -- with one roll -- we would still expect to see far more occasions of a weapon not connecting, than we are used to.  This is particularly true because evasion bonuses are actually more common than accuracy bonuses.

 

Until somebody tests (or Jeff divulges) we won't know.

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  • 2 months later...
On 9/11/2019 at 4:32 PM, Randomizer said:

Tier 4 - Melee damage +2 bonus

 

On 9/11/2019 at 4:32 PM, Randomizer said:

Tier 4 - Magic damage +2 bonus

 

I'm just flagging up a small error in this, in the interests of transparency. The damage bonuses that arise from training to the top tier of the skill trees aren't actually flat increases, but instead vary depending on your level. Every sixth level, they increase by 1, starting at +1 at level 1. So, for instance, the bonuses are:

Level 1: +1
Level 6: +2
Level 12: +3
Level 18: +4

 

It's not a huge change, but it ensures that the bonuses remain a little more relevant as your party levels up, and does more damage on average!

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