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BlackDragon

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Everything posted by BlackDragon

  1. You need to go to the Control-room and hit the button that says something like 'Release cleaning-crew', or words to that effect. It will open a bunch of otherwise-inaccessible chambers next to all the park-like areas. Those chambers are filled with Shambler-type enemies, of course, but they also have interesting loot and, I believe, a spellbook... ...or maybe I'm remembering wrong, it was a while ago. >_> Well, if you haven't checked out the 'cleaning-crew' chambers, it's almost certainly there.
  2. At the bottom floor of the Remote Cavern, there's several messed-up textures - layering issues. Mostly platform-walls that overlap nearby stairs. In fact, I suspect that it's a general issue with stairs leading up to platforms... I took a screendump to illustrate.
  3. ...ah! I finally figured it out. It wasn't the rotation of the map - that much is painfully obvious since you really aren't given a choice when it comes to where to start. Rather, the layout of the room had tricked me into assuming that every arrow on the map represented TWO steps, since otherwise, the bit where there's just ONE arrow would see you walking into a pillar. Except, as it turns out, the actual path takes you through both of the points where a pillar is mysteriously missing from the regular pattern... Assumptions are dangerous things.
  4. I'm stuck at the 'pathfinding' puzzle too... what do you mean 'orientation'? There's only one place where you can START your path, so it's pretty obvious what direction the map's supposed to be read in. Plus, there's a huge triangle inscribed on the floor, there, to match the large triangle on the map. It all seems pretty clear, really, except for the bit where the shown path doesn't work. When I follow it, I trigger an 'acid goo' trap halfway through, and if I finish it... well, nothing happens, at all.
  5. Well, the obvious answer is that you haven't BOUGHT the two 'basic' levels of the Barrier Break spell... they're pretty expensive, so if you didn't have enough gold the first time you visited the guy who sells it, you might only have gotten the one.
  6. You're at the wrong door, mate. The front door doesn't even HAVE a keyhole. The key is for the BACK door. You need to go through the nearby barracks, into the walls, and around to the rear of the library.
  7. Actually, I was wondering... they only ever seem to talk about Nephilim, but what if you've got no Nephs but DO have a Slith? Do they just switch to being racist towards lizards instead of kitties? >_> Anyway, yeah, I DO find it odd that Squiggus - a random backwater town - is able to instantly tell who killed their patrols, while Lorelei (and several other cities whose patrols may attack you on sight because you've got a Slith) just seem to count them as 'mysteriously missing'...
  8. I am SO glad I'm not the only one who has a problem with this... >.<
  9. Guess I defeated that demon before it got the chance... ah well. Guess even cheat-codes won't help - there isn't one for getting rid of Dread Curses, and you can't de-hostilify Shayder even with the code that's apparently made for that purpose...
  10. Huh. Okay, where exactly do you pick those up? >_> Just curious. I don't remember running into those back when I played through Exile 3, and I certainly haven't run into one during this playthrough either...
  11. ...what's a 'death curse'? I don't recall ever running into something like that... you SURE it isn't actually for Dread Curses? 'cuz if so, I could totally use that... shame the letsbefriends code doesn't actually work for calming down Shayder and thus Ahonar, otherwise that would be an option too. If freemymind DOES work for clearing Dread Curses, well, I suppose that solves my problem. I can just use that - maybe go talk to some suitably holy character first, and drop something valuable on the ground in front of him to roleplay being cured. (Wait, do the cheat-codes disable achievements? I've heard no mention of this, but it seems likely...)
  12. Sssh, don't spoil it for me... I never got into Geneforge back in the day, but I've been low-key hoping for a remake so I could give it a chance. >_>;
  13. Eh, the ONLY one who actually uses the Dread Curse for theft prevention is the wizardly hermit near Gale... and he doesn't really have anything worth protecting. Rooting through his sock-drawers is more a matter of curiosity than greed. In the case of the Drakes and the Church of the Divine Lucre, it seems to work more like a Dreseden Files-style Death-Curse. And the spellbook in the Tower of Zkal is just... well... cursed, basically.
  14. Bah. I will carry to my grave the firm conviction that there should be at least one other person - somewhere in Valorim, Upper Exile, or the Tower of Magic - who could deal with Dread Curses, however morally or amorally they were acquired. =_=
  15. A wise choice, my friend. A very, very wise choice. Also, don't forget to do that one minor quest in Shayder you can only do while you're a (real or fake) Anama-member. It would be really foolish to raid their vault before doing all of that!
  16. I don't feel like walking all the way back there to quote the full text, but they definitely make it clear that their well-fed state is the only reason they aren't attacking you on sight, and suggest that you'd best be gone before they get hungry again. How would YOU interpret that, exactly? A setup for one of those "You are not you when you're hungry" Snickers-adds?
  17. Have you looked in the Shayder sewers? The Anama are a CULT of anti-magical extremists who routinely persecute and, apparently, bury alive any who dare stand against their agenda. Robbing them might not exactly be a GOOD deed, but I daresay it's morally gray at worst. Which just makes it all the stranger that their charismatic leader is the only one with the chops to help you with Dread Curses...
  18. Ya know, I'll give you the whole 'bedroom invasion' bit... that's basically a classic 'sucker trap', and you are indeed warned. But the fight with the Lucre-cultists can very easily happen by accident. If you run into the nearby patrols, they demand a 'toll' for passing through 'their' lands - classic banditry, basically. And if you refuse, they'll attack you. If you kill them, the remaining patrols will attack you on sight... and if you subsequently approach the compound (to complete the quest), THEY will attack you TOO. And bang, ya got a Dread Curse. Which, yes, DOES make a sort of sense, but what DOESN'T is that there's nobody besides Ahonar who can help you with that. And like I said, fighting a group of self-admittedly man-eating Drakes hardly seems evil OR foolish, any more than trying to learn the third tier of a mid-level spell is...
  19. Well, since I pissed off the Anama ages ago, it's not an XP-penalty for me, but rather a permanent penalty to EVERYTHING. Only a small one, but enough to make you consider whether the stuff you can get out of that encounter is really worth it. Ultimately, 90% of what you do in a game like this is about increasing your combat-potential, right? Acquiring new spells and gear, collecting gold to buy new spells, gear and training, earning XP to level up and get stronger... a permanent Dread Curse is a step BACK in that regard. And thus you have to ask yourself - is it worth it for the sake of leveling up a spell I'm probably never gonna use? Is it worth it for getting THIS much gold, or THIS much, when there's so much other gold to find? Is it worth it for getting a unique Chaos Halberd when I'm on my way to pick up the presumably-better Black Halberd anyway? So you wind up having to decide between doing something that's ultimately counterproductive, or just NOT DOING STUFF, which is the exact opposite of what a game's supposed to be about. Plus, running into, like, FOUR things that's cut off from me by the threat of a Dread Curse, rather quickly after each other, kind of ratcheted up my frustration. First time, it just seems like an anomaly. Second time, it starts to get annoying. Third time, you're grinding your teeth. Fourth time... yeah, that's when you start to feel like swearing at the screen. Ultimately, my problem is this: Early on, a Dread Curse is an understandable penalty for doing something stupid. Praying at a Dark Altar instead of Sanctifying it, leaving a vampire's tomb without making sure he's ALL the way dead... stuff like that. And that's perfectly fair! But lately, it seems like it's just a penalty for DOING STUFF, period, with the only way to AVOID it being, as previously mentioned, 'not doing stuff'. But, sure, I probably wouldn't be so frustrated by it if I still had a way to get RID of the Dread Curse. But I don't. Because in this huge world of clerics, archpriests, wise hermits, wandering healers, reclusive mages, master wizards and diverse charlatans, there is exactly ONE GUY who is willing and able to fix a Dread Curse for you, and you have the option of permanently pissing him off really early in the game. Frankly, my entire complaint would be rendered invalid if there was just ONE OTHER GUY (or girl) willing to do it. They could even charge you for it, so that losing access to Ahonar (who does it for free) remains a penalty. (Oh, and the Drakes are in the mountains just west of Dorngas... I found them while I was basically just exploring it east-to-south. You have to fly to reach them. They're nonhostile, but make it clear that it's only because they're currently well fed, and suggest that you'd best be gone before they get hungry... so that they can prey on some poor Empire-patrol or a helpless peasant or two, presumably. But if you elect to fight them, hep, Dread Curse! And a unique Chaos Halberd, and some gold.)
  20. Seriously, towards the end of the game, these things are being handed out like candy on Halloween. Seems like every time you turn a corner, somebody's putting a Dread Curse on you. Read a spellbook? Dread Curse! Step into somebody's bedchamber? Dread Curse! Complete a quest you picked up to deal with a hostile religious faction? That's good for a Dread Curse, all right! Oh, did you piss off the Anama ages ago? Then enjoy your PERMANENT DREAD CURSE! It's ridiculous. ESPECIALLY when there's only ONE, EASILY-LOST WAY to clear them, and even then it costs you XP. And it's only made worse by the fact that the priest in the Tower of Magic outright says that he COULD decurse you, if he felt like it, but he won't because he needs to 'conserve his strength'. For what, eh? Just in case some nutso wizard decides to summon a powerful demon-lord to the tower (again)? Yeah, fat lot of good your precious 'conserved strength' is going to do you at that point. Methinks you'll need the help of a group of powerful, demon-slaying adventurers at that point, but ya know what? They might just be busy somewhere else! Might need to 'conserve their strength' for important stuff like, I dunno, SAVING THE WORLD?!? EDIT: Woops, found another one... deal with a band of man-eating drakes? DREAD CURSE!
  21. Well, they ARE a Cult, no matter what they say. Ahonar talks a good game, but the more you poke around, the clearer it becomes that they've got a lot of skeletons in their closets. Or, ya know, walled up in the sewers, as the case may be. Which, of course, totally justifies raiding their vaults.
  22. Similar problem in the Pit of the Wyrm. The name, and the giants' obelisk-carvings of giant worms, no longer make sense since it's all Deepstalkers with a boss Deathstalker at the end. There's a couple of Phosphorescent Worms hanging about near the end of the dungeon, but it's pretty clear those aren't the centerpiece... Much like the way the left-behind horse-traders who all have some vague reason not to sell you horses, it's an unpleasant reminder of all the stuff that's been cut out of the game for the remake...
  23. Yeah - the Troglo/Giant quests aren't actually mandatory. Doing them won't actually help resolve EITHER plague, and the actions that DO (finding the Concealed Tunnel and destroying the Crystal there) are entirely independent of both. Probably why the scripting isn't more robust around there - you're allowed to mess up the Troglo Diplomacy, with permanent consequences, because it actually won't affect your ability to complete the game.
  24. AFAIK, there's no permanent consequences of buying the Fake Anama rings, other than the 2500-gold pricetag. You won't get access to EVERYTHING that way - specifically, the spellbooks and the altar at the main Anama-church in Shayder will recognize that you're faking and reject you (rather violently) if you try to use them. Regardless, once you dispose of the rings (by talking to Ahonar), any effects the rings had will seize - you won't get the cold shoulder from certain mages anymore, and it's even possible to join the Anama for REAL afterwards. Mind, if you use the Fake Anama Rings to gain access to the Anama Vaults in their main temple in Shayder, THAT will have some fairly permanent consequences... namely, making that entire city permanently hostile to you, including Ahonar, which means that you can't use him to get rid of the rings, genuinely join the Anama, OR curse you of any Dread Curses you might pick up. (You can still use the rings to access the second floor of the temple, then dispose of them by talking to Ahonar, THEN rob the Vault and escape - but you better make damn sure you won't need Ahonar's help ever again before you do something like that!)
  25. ...dude, if you pick up any more Uranium, I'd be less worried about minor radiation-damage, and more worried about accidentally reaching Critical Mass and setting off a nuclear explosion. You're supposed to SAVE the world, not start a nuclear war!
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