Mah Al Ibara

A problem easily overcome by the vast majority of animate creatures--How to walk (swim, fly, crawl) by other animate beings without bumping into them and stopping dead in one's tracks--remains an insurmountable one for the inhabitants of Spiderweb Software games. Click a spot to walk to, and odds are even that your player character will bump into some friendly townsperson and everything will come to a halt until you, the player, nudge your character on. Jeff even seems to enjoy this feature of his games, because in every fort he will place a squad of soldiers marching back and forth, for no other reason than to trip up your player character who just wants to walk to the damned apothecary in peace. Surely this could be solved with one or two lines of code, since I have never seen another game since 1988 where this has been a problem. Is Jeff really attached to this aspect of his games?

I had actually been thinking of posting a similar review when I found this one. Thinking back, Jeff as never offered simple happy endings, but I think previously (Avernum and Geneforge, and whatever Avernum was called before it was rebooted as Avernum), there were at least "happy enough" endings. In Queen's Wish, Jeff seems to be reflecting on imperialism generally (and I think most people would agree that the Ro is an unsubtle metaphor for Afghanistan, the place that has been breaking empires for millennia), but he doesn't allow for the destruction of imperialism itself. I don't want to be queen. I want to end the Haven Empire. In both QW1 and QW2, whenever the protagonist suggests that maybe empire is bad and shouldn't exist, everyone reacts as if she's spewing gibberish. Considering that even Delia is like "It is what it is; we can't expect ethics or morality," it is hard to imagine the series ever getting to the point where the protagonist can outright fight Haven/Sutter/Sharyn. But shouldn't an RPG leave the player feeling some sense of satisfaction at the end? QW just makes me feel hopeless and frustrated. (I am almost finished my second run.) The real world sucks. Can't we have something approaching an ideal world, or at least something to aspire to, in our fantasies? [EDIT] I have started my 5th playthrough, so obviously I do not dislike the game as much as I did a month ago. LOL I find that by keeping the queen happy, I can achieve satisfactory endings. Twice in a row, I've achieved improved rights for women in the Low Dhaga, and the Queen even let Lawita remain governor. If you antagonize Sutter/the Queen (the same thing, for all intents and purposes), you will end the game with zero influence in the world, and an unsatisfactory ending. There isn't really a downside to keeping the royal family reasonably happy, but there's a huge downside to not doing so. Even if you eventually hope, in future installments, to give Sutter the shiv and take the throne for yourself, or bring down the Haven empire entirely, being ornery now doesn't seem to help you get closer to that goal.

Thank you! I had checked that jar several times, both before and after sleeping in the room, but it seems one needs to interact with the ghost before paying for (?) the third room for the key to appear in the jar.

I slept in the third room. No key. No fight. What am I missing?

Ah! I had forgotten about that cheat! That would have been the perfect solution if I had really been stuck. Thank you!

I entered a room in the upper floor of Haven's hall in Isskale. There was a random townsperson in the room. While I was moving around the room, he moved towards the exit, but then stopped in the doorway. I keep moving around, assuming he will eventually move, but he doesn't. I can't leave the room. I can't use teleport to move a friendly townsperson. I can't attack him. I can't do anything. I would rather not have to revert to my previous save, because I did a fair amount in the interim. What can I do? Is there some cheat code to move or delete a friendly townsperson? https://drive.google.com/file/d/1hAXcLErFhJJa0RJCrag_ayL9uv4Cqsu5/view?usp=sharing EDIT: Never mind! He finally moved. Whew.

Right after I posted that, I figured it out. It hadn't occurred to me to try to get to Upper Icegate through the Eastern Icegate. The Harvester was quite a disappointment. LOL I was expecting nuclear-bomb -level.😆

My own question is how to resolve the Harvester quest. I get to the Upper Icegate and am repeatedly assured that attacking would be suicide, yet I see no one there with whom I could parley. I just gave up and went to Prova Krug to finish the game. There was never another mention of the Harvester.

Oh! I didn't realize teammates could have cultural abilities! I've just been using Havenites this whole time. Thank you for this information!

I just saw someone using a Charm spell on a video, and I'm confused. Charm appears nowhere in my spell choices, and I'm in my second playthrough. I thought there were only 12 actions available for each category (Combat, Magic, Support) and that Charm was not among the choices. Am I playing wrong? Am I completely misunderstanding actions?

Doh! I was mixing up Tarmana and King Borgen. It was Borgen who wanted the written statements from the Vol and Ahriel.

Well, I found that if I went back and said "We will only fight for a vassal," the dialog finally progressed, which is weird, since Tarmana had already made clear he did not want Vol to become a vassal. And if, in the next dialog box, I say "I can't ask you to become a vassal," we end up in the same deadlock. This guy really wants to be my vassal, while insisting he does not want that. This time I saved just before the conversation, so I tried again and said "Mom wants you to be her vassal," and that worked. So now he asks me to destroy the gates of Thabhlen, so it seems I jumped the gun on that one. So I end that conversation, start another immediately, report about the gates, and everything goes smoothly from there. Weirdly, he never asks for the signed statements from the Ukat and Ahriel this time. *shrug*

Thank you. I'm not sure the apology makes any difference, because I apologized last time, too, and it worked out fine. I think I may have given Aquila her orders before reporting the blow up? But when I walk into Madraka, the people all cheer me, so they know about the blow up. Thabhlen Pass doesn't come up in conversation options with Tarmana anymore, so I don't know what I can do at this point to get back on course.

This is my second time playing through, but I've encountered a problem I didn't have the first time. I've sided with the Owen, apologized on behalf of Haven, blown up the Thabhlen Pass, told the Mascha that the Owen must be freed, and given General Aquila the order to fight for the Owen, but Tarmana is acting like there's still a problem, and the deal isn't finalized. I know there's more, because he's supposed to ask me to get signed statements from the Ukat and Ahriel. I say "What is your offer?" and here's how the dialog goes: He says I can enter the Vol if it's to fight the Mascha. "Your cause is just. We will help you now." Tarmana looks worried. "What is wrong?" Tarmana says he's heard we only fight for vassals, and asks if I can really help him. "I might be able to convince General Aquila to help you right now." (In fact, Aquila's army has already marched.) "Go talk to him [actually it's her, dude]. If you really think you can convince him, you should." Debate breaks out, conversation ends. Obviously I did something differently this time, but I'm not sure what. Last time they became vassals, and signed a pact to that effect. There are no longer any conversation options with Aquila that would seem to advance this process. Is this a bug?

It is apparently not enough to just have all five stones on your person. They have to all be visible in your backpack when you talk to Smith Ysbal. I made room in my main character's pack by putting a bunch of extra weapons and such in my trunk back at Fort Haven and putting all five stones in the main character's pack.

Thanks. I started the game over again after the fight with Redbeard was about to begin and I realized immediately I didn't have a prayer of beating him. So this time I'm trying to do some things differently. Dhorl Stead in particular left a bad taste in my mouth.

I'm pretty sure the answer is "No," but I figure it can't hurt to ask. What is the "least distasteful" way to get through the game, in terms of wreaking minimum havoc on the inhabitants of Dhorl Stead?

I can't believe no one has commented on this. Funniest single block of narration in Spiderweb history.

Ack. How did I miss that? I walked all around that central staircase and never went up it! Many thanks.

I was hoping to find out from this thread how to get into Moritz'kri's final(?) stronghold *inside* his tower. I've cleared out every area I can get to, but there are a couple of locked doors that require a key, and one that could be picked if I had enough lockpicks. (BTW, I'm frustrated by the scarcity of picks, potions, etc. that can be bought.) Will picking that one pickable lock get me the key(s) I need to get into the northwest corner of the tower, or is there something else I'm missing? Thanks.

I just tried playing the game for the first time since installing Snow Leopard, and am having the same problem Avery encountered. I tried reinstalling what appears to be the most current version (v1.0.4), but no luck. Has this problem been addressed? I don't know if the game can be played regardless of the glitches, but it sure ruins the atmosphere.

I had the same problem, but just restarting didn't solve the problem. On a hunch, I held down the tab key as I loaded the saved game, and that did the trick. After the game loaded, I released the tab key, and the labels disappeared.

It was entertaining. Maybe it was overkill. I think, like you, I only screwed up the first time, and, like you, the timer ran out just as I was about to re-enter the hall. But I suppose that annoyed me enough that I determined to find the most methodical way my second time around. What I did was save before starting the test, then went in without any intention of finishing on time, with the sole purpose of locating as many trinkets as I could. I noted their location, and when things would start to look a bit tight, I simply started again from where I had saved to look for trinkets I hadn't located yet. Then, knowing the location of at least nine trinkets, I plotted the most efficient course and did the test "for real". Obsessive-Compulsive? Anal retentive? You be the judge.

I agree that switches are better than the earlier invisible walls. There are still hidden entrances, but most require hints from NPCs. It might be a good idea to make it possible to also detect such entrances through high nature lore, arcane lore, or tool skill, since there's always the possibility that you may have prematurely killed the NPC whose hint is required (e.g., Kingsley, in the case of the Mindwarp Chitrach quest).

Originally Posted By: Excalibur It sounds like there's a lot of liking going on. Like, whaddya mean, dude? Seriously, apart from having majored in writing in college, I grew up in a house where the superfluous use of "you know" and "like" (or, heaven forbid, "ain't") invariably resulted in sarcastic rejoinders from either or both parents. (That was in the days before "totally" and "dude" had spread like viruses.) So for me this is like writing in a foreign language. That would include "LOL." Just today I came across a hilarious sticker that reads, "I'm somewhat skeptical you're laughing out loud as much as you claim."