ZorroDragonslayer

A lot of files in there! Thanks for your hard work and for sharing!!

1. The Fyora. Upon entry to Freegate a pop-up box of text complains about Zora needing to leave. To be precise, "Zora stops you. _I'm sorry, Shaper. This is farther than I can travel with you. I need to return to my post. I wish you luck._ After a brief farewell, she leaves in a hurry, heading back to Drypeak.". (From text4dialogs entry 71.) Then the pop-up closes and the first companion in the lineup (the Fyora) disappears and two seconds later it repeats, removing the first companion left in line at that point which was Zora. Poof! Gone! I went back to a save from just before I entered Freegate and changed the 2 helpers' party order making Zora first. Upon entry to Freegate, a few seconds later, it happened again but only took Zora and left my Fyora alone. When Zora originally joined me she was the second helper in line and always was the straggler at the back end, hence my comment on how fast she walks.

2. The modifications. Only with script file changes. The name Zora only occurs in five script files. (Z6mines, Z6minesdlg, Z11smarshdlg, z12stunneldlg, and text4dialogs.) The scripts to specifically remove her from the party were modified. Also there are several areas of invisible bunched up hotspots that walking through makes her complain about being there. Those dialogs were modified.

I believe her part in Jeff's story line was primarily meant to be local to the Drypeak area. The fact that we like her so much provides incentive to have her along farther into the game. There were other Spiderweb games in the past that had a lot of banter between companions and players. Sometimes too much in my opinion. I modded some of it out to make the games go smoother. But in this case the companions are mostly doing work along with the rest of the party. Unfortunately most of them aren't worth having around for very long. Maybe some day we will be able to treat them similar to our own management adjustments like training and item use. There's so much item material laying around that we need to use more of them with our helpers! One can but hope.

Other details: Playing Guardian on Normal, full purchased game v101, non allied, in the early game so no major bosses slayed yet and no abusive comments to leaders, only met the Shaper leader so far. Update: Playing v101 standalone Mac app.

I've been through five more zones. She is a good companion. I'm hoping there will be more. I did hit a hardcode popup notice box at Freegate and it took away my lone Fyora creation after the popup, then popped again and took away Zora. She doesn't naturally walk fast enough to stand second in line. She is at level 5.

I posted too early......I have solved it and cleaned out the Secret Tunnel and went back to drypeak. All is well so now I'm on to some other places to continue testing. I haven't polished my solution up yet but its still good. Only with Zora, not the Abandoned Thahd. It doesn't look like a companion I would want to be following me around.

Nice mod. Thanks for your work with it and polishing it up!!

The primary trouble with some recruit companions is the overwhelming fear of combat, followed by running off. I buffed Zora nicely with this mod and then went to The Secret Tunnel and she ran off shortly thereafter complaining about the dangers. Never had a chance to fight and try out the improvements. Any suggestions on overcoming this obstacle? I've modded here for about 15 years (scripts, graphics and quests) and published about 3 extensive mods over the years, and offered custom mods for anyone, so feel free to give an advanced pointer to solve this new circumstance. Any pointers are appreciated. Thanks!!

Zuniga in Drypeak quest up to 50 bars of iron......not quite accurate. If you sell him bars and you HAVEN'T YET met the 50 limit, when you hit the sell button he will reward you for ALL the iron bars you have in your pack. Then you can't sell him any more on the next try if you are over 50 at that point. On the second visit to sell bars, after collecting these forever (91 bars) I went back to clean out my pack and thought he would stop at the 50 mark but all bars were gone and a promotion and money were received.

Yes. Both Rhakkus and Easss were dead at that point. The text then was very misleading about joining a group. Later I did join a group and nobody complained that I already was pledged elsewhere. Thanks for the details Slarzahl !

I went to Zhass-Uss for the first time and it was hostile and I was to told that since I joined a group they were going to kill me. I’ve been very vigilant the whole game about not allying myself with any faction. How is that possible and how do I check which faction “drafted” me without consent?

Another tip is getting the hint book. Its very useful in so many ways.

Singleton on torment works too.

With any strategy its a tough battle because the usual methods you've been playing with aren't as effective and you have to react to each turn and see how effective the last strategy was and adjust your thinking to meet the needs of the next turn.

Not that we have discovered.

Look at it as a learning curve that improves with each playthrough.

On a future playthrough you can look at the links here to see which resources are available where and how to get them. That will help with planning. It will also show you where the "easy money" is so that you get the most for the least effort or least battle challenges. When you get ahead on resources its less stressfull. Also you can determine which buildings mean the most to you and your selected crew at the beginning and ignore the low-return buildings until you have an overload of resources later in the game. You can choose to only have a few building types and still do well in the game. Every new game can be totally different so that you can play for years without a duplicate. You set your own goals and strategy at each start. So manu options, so many choices, just like the dialogues and their outcomes.

Interesting....and bizarre. Thanks for sharing!!

On 10/20/2022 at 8:31 PM, Genernumlover said:

 

............Delia seems to be what she says she is, but there is the potential for conflict with her storyline. Especially since Sutter has already been shown to be angry and jealous of the player for getting the queen's approval. If a group of Haven nobles actually put Delia forward as a contender for the throne in light of her more reasonable personality and seeming political skill, then Sutter would likely turn on her. That scenario could occur while Delia is openly supporting Sutter. That's all speculation about a potential conflict, of course.

Delia could be the wild card here. Her story line has kept her mostly unnoticeable in the major events of the kingdom, playing the role mostly of social support for her family. Secretly she is using her position of head spy and information gathering for the queen to rise to power and is biding her time and garnering support from the lords and maneuvering into a position where she can obtain the throne if the rest of her family all meet their demise. Mom is on the edge and likely to be gone soon and Sutter is quick to spark a fight if he isn't coddled as the favorite one. He expects the throne no matter what and won't let anything get in the way. Every version of QW shows this behavior on his part. This all supports Mechcalibur's comment on Oct 18: "I guess it would have to be Delia after Sutter and I kill each other."

On 9/21/2022 at 7:51 PM, Randomizer said:

Fool's Shot is physical damage and the Ice bow and Dragon Defender are magical damage, so check those bonuses on the character. The bonuses make the major difference.

The down side on some of the special weapons is that there is a speed penalty. This makes me think twice about picking them up. The Dhagan Defender has a 35% speed penalty which is hard to ignore.

I want to back but don't like being forced into opening an account with another privacy black hole to learn about.....

They are all fantastic. It is money well spent. Many of the games can be played nearly infinitely. After you play through completely, try a new one with a different character. Try signing on for each of the philosophies and complete a game with that philosophy. Try the game backwards, like go to the forge first and work your way back. Make friends or enemies and complete a game with their support or anger. Skip visiting certain characters. Play at a harder or easier level. Try with no companions or a few or the max. Try cross-combinations of skills and weapons, more magic or more brute strength or both. After you know where to get certain hot weapons or hot spells go there first or as early as you can. After a few dozen complete play throughs invent some new weapons by making a mod. Also reuse your saved games. I have one right before going into a very hot battle and when I want a class brawl I load it and fight for an hour. Revisit the battles and try different strategies. I saved the dock battle and tried many different strategies. I also discovered a major secret there that I did not notice the first 15 playthoughs. Doh!

All these reasons, and many many others, add up to a five star game rating in my book. The decades of joy have been great!! Thanks to Jeff Vogel 😍

I've used a group of three of them in some battles. You have to get them as early as possible. I started a new game with that specific goal in mind in order to get them. I started w one and as I got stronger kept adding and stopped at three. Having a group makes up for the weaknesses of a single cockatrice. When they are near each other the combined effects of their passive abilities can be quite effective. I frequently used essence shields and first aid, especially spores, when in challenging situations. They are also good as a lure so when one gets surrounded the rest are free to wreak havoc on the enemies. That was an awesome play-through for me. Brilliant colors all round.

The next best thing I have found is to assign the closest button to a spell that you want to use the most. Then it is right there when you need it.

On 4/19/2021 at 8:02 PM, Ociporus said:

Thanks for confirming. That is a weird game decision -- Using the Charmed Plate enables one to DOMINATE when they cannot otherwise. Oh well.

I am unable to reproduce the circumstances where the Charmed Plate enables DOMINATE. Any information on how to do that?

Thanks in advance!!

A good thing about Jeff's games, and I've played them all, is that they are so versatile. Not everyone wants the same thing in an adventuring game. There are nearly infinite possibilities in how you play the game. Probably very very many you have not thought of. And the methods are mostly by your choosing. You are given a choice of difficulty level, which items to wear, which path to take, which areas to cross or not, which spells to use, style of battle, to fight or run, who your friends are, who and how many companions you want. Where to save the game and so on. When to go back to a save and pick it up again. Customizing through training points gives versatility. After all these combinations of characteristics of the game and after a lot of playthrough the ultimate customizing can be done by modding some of the game characteristics. Within the hard code parameters, you can invent new weapons, change graphics so you look like a dragon, customize potions, have someone in one of the cities train you in exchange for certain things, have someone trade you shaper books for shaper equipment, endless possibilities. Its not like you are locked into a straight line experience.

Yes there are potentially frustrating events but rising to the challenge is a part of the game. How you use creative thinking and problem solving determine your success. If the game was so so easy you didn't need any of these thinking skills would it be that interesting? Would it be any more entertaining than reading through the story line or watching a video of the events?

Just my two cents anyway...............

Well it turns out it was forever. I couldn't stop them even getting down to 2 so after 400 I ran for the exit. After going somewhere else I went back down and the mage was still alive. It had hidden in the back and I never killed it. Maybe that is a factor. I spoke to the mage again and the battle restarted so I killed the mage and six more and it stopped. Too many hours on a battle.

Continued checking, I'm at 90 and counting. I find if I allow 5 to continue and just attack the sixth then it will respawn. Only shooting at the Stealth Sholai. Those seem to be the respawners.