Am I strange?

[Xaiya]

In this game, and in others too, I do some strange things.

 

I only use the wisdom crystals for mages/priests and the knowledge brews for warriors/archers.

 

I also like to hoard certain items. I will sell common things, but I will keep rare/one time only things.

 

I also have problems with getting myself to buy things in the game. I like to hoard the gold, too.

 

Does anyone else have weird habits in this game and/or in others?

[Sleeping Dragon]

I used to keep one time items as well. Back in older Spiderweb games, when unique or powerful items were a bit more rare, I would keep them all in a special place, like they were on display or something. Now there are all types of magical items throughout the game, so it is difficult trying to decide which ones to keep. I usually just sell them, so sad.

 

One strange thing I tend to do is I wear whatever items are worth the most money. I usually have a hard time deciding which items are the best (I'm not a strategist or number cruncher like many people on here are) so I just keep whichever sells for the most cash. This doesn't always mean I end up with the best item, but I play on easy mode so I usually survive and am able to please my OCD at the same time.

[Hansel & Gretel & Ted & Alice]

I've been collecting grain sacks. Or mushroom flour sacks, whatever is in there. I have 106 of them so far. Someone is going to bed without dinner.

 

I know from playing through before that no-one wants them. Not like the "20 sheets of paper" quest. You would think that Highland or Muck would be all over them.

 

In Morrowind, I collected paper lanterns. I filled my house with them. It was really bright in that house. Lined the stairs with them and balanced them on the bedposts. I also collected skulls. But hey, everybody collects skulls.

[Toby-Linn]

I keep paper and sacks of meal and ore and iron bars in all the Avernum games, because of the various quests being related to them but I even save them even when there's no quest, like in A5.

 

I also have a bad habit of not using my potions or herbs and saving them for an 'emergency'....well by the end of the game I have 12 potions or 20 uses of graymold and I still haven't used the items!

 

Sleeping Dragon, I also have a habit of doing this as well, but for weapons I just equip the weapon that does the most damage.

 

I also like giving an alternate weapon to the party members that have a specialized sword -- for example, in A5 my main fighter had 3 swords - the ice sword, the flame sword and the sword from the Dragon's keep that I chose as my reward. The flame sword and the ice sword wouldn't work against specific resistant monsters so there would be a backup.

 

I don't think in A1-A3 it worked like that, but I'm giving my characters a backup weapon just in case while I'm playing A1.

[Tcheedchee]

I don't yet know which habits are strange and which aren't, but I keep a weapons collection for my fighters out of the same reasons as Toby-Linn. My magically abled persons have a collection of several capes and robes. I'm always waiting for the moment, where I'm getting into trouble in a task where bulky items are a nuisance. Like having to pass through a bog and being in danger of drowning in a fight with some strange swamp-thing… Won't happen though, I suppose. Would be quite a surprise. I also collect belts although I havn't changed them for quite a while.

For a while I kept a whip, because there was a reference to it in some dialogue round Highground or somewhere. I'd kind of like this realistic, if somewhat tricky approach, that you'd have to be more aware of the possibilities of using such items.

Meanwhile (being in the last third of the game) I really do have too many things in my inventory. Sometimes I can't pick up loot anymore. That's when I realize, I can sell these things; money is always rare or at least not enough…. Also I start getting 'stuck' on 'minor' potions and elixirs. Sometimes I feel, they 'waste' APs. Hm. Maybe I'll sell them…

I've got a great collection of sticks at Static Field,'cause I had been really curious on the wands, that could be bought. But now, that I've passed the anama lands long ago, I found them a minor dissapointment as you can't buy the really interesting ones… Still I'm quite tempted to go on collecting sticks. Same with the sacks of flour. I tried to give some to the people on the Northern Isles to help them with there scarce supplies. Didn't help though. They never reacted to it. Those unthankfull buggers!

 

[Randomizer]

A whip and enough nature lore in the party allows you to control scuttlers (Hrickis mentions it in his notes) but otherwise it just irritates them.

[Xelgion]

Sleeping Dragon: I hoard all magical items too, keep em in me favorite place in the game; the Titans Pit, nice and safe there.

[nikki.]

I equip my priests with only whips, shackles and poison...

 

More seriously, I collect potted plants and pillows for Hawkes Manse.

 

 

[Dikiyoba]

Originally Posted By: Nikki

I equip my priests with only whips, shackles and poison...

Don't their feet hurt after hiking hundreds of miles barefoot? Or is that the point?

I collected pillows and fine furs in A2, then took them to the rakshasi lair at the end of the game. My adventurers should be able to retire and live out the rest of their lives in luxury, right?

Dikiyoba also loots everything in an area. Yes, even the trash. In A2, it got dumped outside, gone forever. In the Geneforges, it got dumped in a specific zone. In A5, it just got dumped wherever the party happened to be when their inventory was full.

[Sudanna]

Nalyd always has two characters/creations that will either kill themselves or do nothing if the other dies. Sometimes he has multiple pairs.

[Firecage]

I always keep all crystals, Magic and No-magic. I hoard them all through entire game.

[nikki.]

Originally Posted By: Dikiyoba

Originally Posted By: Nikki

I equip my priests with only whips, shackles and poison...

Don't their feet hurt after hiking hundreds of miles barefoot? Or is that the point?

I think it's what all priests want, deep down.

[Sudanna]

Not since the Flagellates died out.

[Retrospecter]

Originally Posted By: Dikiyoba

Dikiyoba also loots everything in an area. Yes, even the trash. In A2, it got dumped outside, gone forever. In the Geneforges, it got dumped in a specific zone. In A5, it just got dumped wherever the party happened to be when their inventory was full.

In A4, I kept a character slot empty so I could create/delete a character to dispose of trash items, among other things.

In A4, I also collected every stick and rock in the game (I think), the former in several large piles around the game, the latter in one stack. I ended up with 900-something rocks. Don't ask.

[The Mystic]

Originally Posted By: Iffy

I only use the wisdom crystals for mages/priests and the knowledge brews for warriors/archers.

I also like to hoard certain items. I will sell common things, but I will keep rare/one time only things.

I also have problems with getting myself to buy things in the game. I like to hoard the gold, too.

That's basically what I do, except wisdom crystals and knowledge brews are for anybody, and I don't use them until I have the same amount for every character.

I take everything of value that's not nailed down--and a few things that are. Anything I don't sell and have no immediate use for ends up in a large pile somewhere. I only sell rare things when I need a lot of cash quickly. I hoard gold like you wouldn't believe, but then use it all on spells/training.

Originally Posted By: darkmatter

I ended up with 900-something rocks. Don't ask.

That's fine, I don't think I want to know. Too bad you can't use them as missile weapons.

[Xaiya]

I just now remembered. In A4, I hoarded all the food I could find.

 

In A5, I did the same for the first play through. I shook it off on the second.

[Thrasher]

Yes food hoarding was my beginners mistake as well.

 

One I continued to make. You should be able to sell it!

[Brock The Archmage]

I always save every single usable potion, crystal, pod, whatever and use all but the most useful like crazy, as soon as i need them. I also buy them all. I haven't tried doing that in the new Avernums though. I do the same thing with thorns and thorn batons. I will shoot them empty, then sell the extras. I throw all javelins, use all crystals, etc.

 

I keep every single magical and shaped item in my vakkiri/drypeak/mobile G3 hoard, and I pick up every single item i find in the game, and the unsellables end up in a separate hoard. I keep all food, and i buy out every single store that has weapons that can be 'used up'. I also save all shaping supplys until i hit collection quests, and all other collection items. and before buying out shops, i buy training. By the end of the game I am so well equipped and powerful, i clear every area. YAY!

 

EDIT: on the rare occasion i need cash really badly, I sell duplicate pieces of equipment, like shaped boots that there are usually several of etc.

[Callie]

-I always hoard food on my mage.

 

-My characters always have the same names

 

-In E3 I had a character who only picked locks, disarmed traps, made potions, and accumulated mage and item lore, though he sometimes threw poisoned darts.

 

-In E3, every one of my characters could cast Divine Thud.

[Pig Catapult]

In A1-Blades, I always had the same party setup, and I always sorted my inventory the same way.

 

-Char1 is my Slith/Pole/Tank, who carried all of my "To-sell" loot

 

-Char2 is my Nephil/Archer/Theif, who usually just carries lockpicks and as much ammo as he/she can, and occasionally loot that Char1 doesn't have room for.

 

-Char3 is my Human/Priest, who carries around all the food I hoard but never end up using, and is the only one who ever uses the Rit. of Sanct. He is usually the guy saddled with items for collection quests.

 

-Char4 is my Human/Mage/Apothecary, who I always give the Cordelia graphic, and carries all of the herbs I find, along with any unique items that I carry around (She carried the Xian Skull, Orb of Thralni, and Jewel of Return in Av3, for example)

 

Also, as of late, I've taken to naming my party Peyn, Grefe, Deth and Tackses, for the lulz

[DrRorschach]

Originally Posted By: Iffy

I only use the wisdom crystals for mages/priests and the knowledge brews for warriors/archers.

I hoard all the wisdom crystals and knowledge brews I can find, (though I'm sure I've missed some...) and have only used 1 so far. I also hoard skill points, and don't train my characters until they have a boatload of experience to work with. I currently have 23, 40, 45, and 56 points.... (The 23 is my priest and he needed three more levels for divine retribution....) I often did this in the Exile trilogy simply because I forgot to train my characters and lost track of the skill points, and would go to a trainer, and have 50-odd points. But now in Avernum, (my first non-Exile game) I find that the ability to train whenever, wherever is great, but the sliding scale for cost of a skill is killing me. Don't get me wrong, it makes sense, but my party has a guy with a 13TU skill, and 40 skill points, Plus those 7 wisdom crystals and 5 knowledge brews I've been lugging around.... But all that experience is not enough to get him close to the 30 needed to get to that damn anama spellbook!

So thats how I'm weird.

[Sudanna]

You aren't supposed to ever get 30 Tool Use- doors like that are meant to be opened by other means. Like quests or joining the Anama.

[Randomizer]

It was only in Avernum 4 that you could create a reasonably playable character that could unlock difficulty 90 doors. I know Slarty did.

[DrRorschach]

Originally Posted By: The Limper.

You aren't supposed to ever get 30 Tool Use- doors like that are meant to be opened by other means. Like quests or joining the Anama.

I know, I know.... But I wants it....

[Evnissyen]

Well, in A5 you can edit your character and just give yourself 30 in tool use.

 

Of course, that would be cheating... but... honestly, it's a minor cheat. I say go for it.

[Paroxysm]

I don't do anything like that. You're all freaks.

[Thrasher]

Heretic! Someone find a stake (I've got lots of rope).

[Toby-Linn]

Takes one to know one!

[Evnissyen]

You know, I'm normal, too. I swear I am.

[Brock The Archmage]

Originally Posted By: Yelbis Eceer Nalyd

Not since the Flagellates died out.

Speaking of them, I have been playing a game called Dominions 3 a lot lately and I keep getting Flegellants joining my army out of the blue due to a "religious fervor".

That's bad because I have to pay to feed them, and they are really weak because they often are missing body parts and are not very experienced warriors.

[Sudanna]

Just recruit a generic Commander and march them into certain doom ahead of the army you like and use. Or if you have some extra Leadership, use them as cannon fodder.

 

That's why Nalyd always play Ermor, Ashen Empire.

[Brock The Archmage]

I do do that Nalyd, but that doesn't stop me from pouting about it. Maybe I shouldn't always play with level 3 luck and level 3 turmoil

[Sudanna]

You mean like Nalyd does?

 

That gives you more zealots. It's counted as a good event.

[nikki.]

Give them all whips, poison and shackles.

 

Job done.

[Sudanna]

Actually, you can do that.

[nikki.]

Duh, I'm right about everything.

 

You'll all realise this one day.

[Sudanna]

And then you can have them go seduce enemies. Well, not with flagellants, but you can do that.

[Brock The Archmage]

Yeah, I like using Arcoscephale for that, their unique unit that is really expensive does that AND is a mage, hehe nice.

 

I need to get around to registering that game....

Also, i need to get around to registering G4, A4, and A5....

[-=microphage=-]

Originally Posted By: Iffy

In this game, and in others too, I do some strange things.

I only use the wisdom crystals for mages/priests and the knowledge brews for warriors/archers.

I also like to hoard certain items. I will sell common things, but I will keep rare/one time only things.

I also have problems with getting myself to buy things in the game. I like to hoard the gold, too.

Does anyone else have weird habits in this game and/or in others?

I still collect flour sacks, paper and iron. I like to arrange my inventories so all same items are neatly grouped together. Even rearrange each time I get some more. I allocate specific items to certain characters. I use my lead character to have all crystals, ingredients and such found in caches so that storage for stackables is pretty much automatic. I also edit scripts to make unsellable items sellable. (Anything with a value of 13 or more thats stackable is sellable, 13 or more for single items as well.) And I write topics that encourage workarounds or even cheats. I even refer back to them on replays. I wait impatiently for the next Spidweb release. (Hmmm, maybe that's not so strange.)
-=microphage=-

[Hecate]

Well, my weirdest thing is that I like to play good guy. I drop food at the sad farms, even though it has no game use at all. But I don't need 63 lots of mushrooms or meat, and it amuses me.

[Washington Irving]

I always play with the same characters. When I played Exile 1-3 my characters were called "John, Paul, George and Ringo" with "Mick and Keith" if I decided for 6. Now I call my fighter "Alwan" and my female spellcaster "Greta". How many others?

 

I do a lot of these things. Especially collecting junk and dumping it now that there are no weight limits on items in your pack. That is totally unrealistic, but helps playability. I find it easier just to pick up everything by rapid fire "a" and dump later. Helps too if you think you might have missed something later.

 

Since you don't know at the start of the game what the silly collectors quests are, you automatically save junk like metal bars, cloth, even pipes and teacups.

[Rowen]

Rowen has been in every Exile/Avernum game that I have played with Nixak showing up as his pole weilding side-kick. They are immortal in my mind.

[steveo80]

No, you are not (that) strange, but yeah, I'm a total nerd with this as well. I always hoard everything. Not sure why. I guess I just wanna know how much of something I can get. I never sell the rare items just for the fact that they are rare. I guess I'm one of those people that likes to complete the game and have everything in their inventory thats possible to get just to say I made it 100%. (You probably don't even want to see my Final Fantasy 12 save file , yet somehow I still kinda have a life ) Anyway, if I don't need to sell something I don't. For instance I have, currently, 364 beautiful crystals and 41 bars of gold (among a million other things). And I hang on to the [censored] for no reason. My beautiful crystals stopped being worth something after 30,000 gold, so the more I collect now it doesn't do anything, but I still collect them anyway. I even have a character who does not hold anything but my excess hoarding. He holds nothing but all my items I collect. I have no idea why I do it, but I guess thats the way I roll with games like this. Did the same for Eschalon Book 1, if you haven't played that yet, you'll love it. Same type of game...anyway, peace out...

[Terra Alcolyte]

Shaper Andrace dose alot of the same things, but one of his favorite things to do is kill everyone in the entire game after he beats the game.One thing he did recently in a play through of geneforge 4 was making an safe haven for geneforge users, by forcibly evicting Uchitelle and his creations from his grove; To make it his new home for him and all his warped wronged friends. Then he filled it with skulls pillows blankets and just about everything he could find.

[iolanda]

So I carry plenty of sacks of grain with me for nothing? D'oh.

 

I only tend to give one person special items. My priest gets all the gold and iron, my mage gets the crystals etc. That's not very special, I guess

[Toby-Linn]

I do the same thing!

 

One character gets gold and iron bars, one gets crystals, one gets potion ingredients, one gets furs and et all. Potions, food and wands are spread evenly among all.

 

Yes, and I also carry sacks of grain with me just in case. In case of what, I don't know.

[Ohtar]

I tend to name my fighter type Alexander... largely a result of A1's default being philip.

 

Back in Exile, I would always have a fighter, an archer, a thief (who always used daggers), a mage, a priest and a "sage" (who had all the weird black sheep skills like alchemy, item lore and stuff like that). I always named the sage after myself.

 

My brother, back in Nethergate, would decorate his house, and always dressed up nicely before meeting the chief.

 

EDIT: I just remembered. In A2, I would use the hidden Imperial Base as a hide out. After wiping all enemies out, I'd load all the stuff they dropped into crates and push it into the water, and then set things up there to my liking.

[Øther]

With my characters I tend to just delete the letters of their names until they are something short and easy to say, and then that will be their name.

 

I am very picky with items: I hate useing potions and crystals ( that includes knowlegde brews and crystals), so I always end up with a lot of them, and for picking up items to sell, I got in the habit ( somehow, I don't know why) of storing all my loot in my first character's inventory. Even if it got full, I hardly ever put the loot in the other inventories.