Buzko

For what it's worth, a more detailed walkthrough:

I don't know where the magic boots come into it, but maybe I'd collected the boots on my earlier journeys through those regions.

Grand, thanks.

14 hours ago, Randomizer said:

The pain is from doing them in the wrong order except for one that gives a prize if you have the right mechanics level. You probably aren't far enough in the game to find the first one in the correct order.

 

good luck with them.

Hmm.  I've found a few of them and am really not sure what order I'm supposed to follow.  I've been bouncing around the island a fair bit and think I'm pretty far into the game - I just stole 

3 minutes ago, alhoon said:

Hmmm? I don't remember those pylons. Where  are they?

They're listed in the Atlas as "bare" spot or patch.  Drayk's Vale, Diarazad, Western Wastes and Valley of the Wind.  

I keep poking pylons with bare spots and getting a pain in my arm.  I don't think I've found an explanation of what they are in-game.  Could I get a hint about what they do?

Thanks!

Hi all,

I've only been playing for a few hours, but I haven't seen any of the secret door buttons in Mutagen like I did in previous Spiderweb games.  Are there any?  

There was a lever in one of the early areas (either docks or quarantine) which didn't seem to do anything.  Am I missing something?

Also, do sell prices ever improve significantly?  

Thanks!

@alhoon Thanks, I had contacted Spiderweb when I made the post, wasn't sure how long they would take to respond.  I now have a Mutagen key and have been playing that instead.  Yay customer service! 

Thanks both.  Probably wasn't the best use of my time, but it was a useful demonstration that I should never ever let my Shaper get into melee range

Hi all,

Just started playing Geneforge 1 because I can't find my Mutagen key email.  There's a mention in the manual that people will get annoyed if you kill their livestock.  Is this actually implemented in the game?  Do the people in Vakkiri notice or care if I clear out the ornks in the first couple of areas?

Thanks.

Thanks for all the interesting replies. 

I'd forgotten about Bernie and his Chart.  I think he could be read as having delusions about disparate things being interconnected, or religious beliefs that are outside the mainstream, or having done too many psychedelics, or even just an exotic philosophy that he has difficulty communicating.  I agree that it would be consistent for the Empire to banish people for having a mental illness.  

Forgot to say, thanks @Randomizer for the link.  Per Sade: 

Quote

Blessing of the Caves: 3% to all resistances except Mental.

 

Neither Crystal nor Runic Blessing grant any resistance increases, or any other readily visible effects for that matter, so both of them probably simply give small damage boosts.

10 hours ago, The Almighty Doer of Stuff said:

It's permanent. Also, there's no cure for mental illness in real life, and nobody seems to be studying it in game. It ultimately comes down to the sufferer to learn to cope rather than have someone else fix it for you. In real life therapy is often available, but there are no therapists in Avernum that i'm aware of, and in the Empire people with mental illness end up in Avernum as well.

I guess.  If you're going to have trauma in the game, I don't know that I like it having an instantaneous, self-originated solution.  It has the flavour of the characters just deciding not to be ill anymore, which is an unrealistic expectation often imposed by real-life neurotypicals.  Mental health professionals can help because the strategies people improvise or learn from society (repression, aggression, self-medication etc) are often so counterproductive.  They don't "fix" people, but they can provide insight, safety and a more systematic approach than most people could manage on their own.  That said, I suspect we are using different words to describe the same thing.

I'm not suggesting Jeff should script out a full therapy session for the player, but there could be a quest to seek out one of the many sage or healer NPCs because they have an interest in treating non-physical injuries.  I'm also conscious that this discussion is already longer than the total text on Dark Thoughts in the game

I remember various characters that appeared to read as damaged (the Cotra refugees, the Avernite captain who couldn't wait to torture prisoners, the drunken scout), but don't recall a character being thrown into the pit for having a mental illness.  Do you have an example?

7 hours ago, The Almighty Doer of Stuff said:

Someone on the Spiderweb Software Discord server (I'm sorry I forget who) told me Dark Thoughts adds 1% Mental Effect Resistance. It's also a really cool way to include mental health concepts in the game; it is essentially PTSD, and the benefit comes not from the dark thoughts themselves but from the mental health coping skills the party had to teach themselves in order to get by from then on.

Huh.  I would have thought gaining a debuff from the trauma and then some sort of quest to manage the symptoms would have been more fitting (get a healer to cast EMDR!) but I guess I don't play Spiderweb games for the realism. 

Is the Dark Thoughts effect permanent?  

Hi all,

Does anyone know what the mechanical impact of the various blessings (Runic, Of The Caves) or Dark Thoughts are?  Do they stack?  Do they affect different things?

Thanks,

B

On 11/9/2019 at 11:17 AM, Edgwyn said:

 For mage spells if the total of your armor's to hit penalties is greater than 20%, you cannot cast the mage spells at all.  SwordMage raises the maximum by 5% per level of SwordMage.  So with one level you can have armor with a total of 25% of to hit penalties.  With two levels, 30%.

I don't think those figures are correct, at least for AEftP.  I have run into problems with any penalty greater than -5%.  I was relying on this thread and got very confused until I checked the in-game help. 

Note that the total is "net" of any bonuses to hit, so if you equip a +5% to hit bow, you will be able to wear armour totalling -10% before being told you can't cast mage spells.  I haven't tested how it reacts to increments of less than 5%.

Sorry to necro, but just wanted to share the 30k cap is still in place.  I'd been waiting to splurge once I'd got Kyass's prices down.  Don't do what I did :P

Hi all,

I'm on my first playthrough of Avadon 1, considering what to do about Shima's quest.  The Shadowwalker loot they give is nice for my PC, but I'm not sympathetic to Shima's cause.  I wasn't very sympathetic to Natalie either, but the downside of attacking loyal Pact servants looks worse than murdering a drake who'd already opposed us.  Which I guess is the point of this storyline.  

I'm nervous of long-term consequences, especially as I'm planning to play Avadon 2 and 3.  On the other hand, I recognise Spiderweb is a small studio and may not be able to have multiple major paths through the main storyline in this game, let alone subsequent ones.  I'm aware from various thread titles (and, well, FORESHADOWING) that there's an opportunity to fight Redbeard and keeping Shima happy will lead to him helping out later.  I'm interested to know if siding with Shima has any other consequences.

So, 

1. Does siding with Shima (or not) have broader consequences in Avadon 1?
2. Do the choices I make in this game carry over to the next?

Happy Holidays!

Buzko

Hi all,

Sorry to necro, but for those wondering about how to complete the quest without turning a (probably) innocent guy over to the totally-not-torturers in Avadon's dungeons, you need to go to Watcher Harissa in Zhethron's Aerie and talk to her about Ryozo, then choose the second option, which includes destroying the papers.  That removed the quest from my log.

Hope that helps.

I also assumed there would be a way to report this to Heart Miranda or Redbeard, but such is life.

Cool, thanks all.

I did find the big carrot, which was fun, but otherwise the stone thingy stayed quiet, so I guess I must have cleared all the relevant dungeons before I got the Watcher's quest.  I might do a victory lap of those locations (after looking up where they are!).

Just finished the game.  Really liked the way it respected my time and allowed me to feel like I was making meaningful roleplaying decisions in dialogue.  I also really liked the revelation that, despite the Queen telling us that the dreams were a terrible idea, she had tried them herself.  I love that the name of the game itself is a hint to how she dealt with the Nisse back in the day...

I'm pretty comfortable with the choices I made - I could have avoided more bloodshed in the Owen rebellion if I'd forced them to be merciful, but I felt the Mascha well and truly earned their vengeance.  I think I did just about every quest except the Ahriel ones with the spear and whatsisface Ten-Fingers.  

I'd be interested to know whether any of my decisions had a direct impact on the Queen's health, particularly my killing of the fragment of her spirit (or whatever it was called) in the Tower of the Nisse.  The message when the spirit asked me to kill it said the Nisse were angry, but I was wondering if this was yet another trick, and doing that caused her to look so ill when I returned.  Or does she always look like that?

I'd also be keen for recommendations on which Spiderweb game to check out while I wait for the sequel, bearing in mind that I found the inventory streamlining and free respecs to be big pluses, not minuses.  I don't suppose there are mods that bring those features to the old games?

Another useful thing that I recently figured out is how to save mid-combat.  If you can get your characters far enough away from them (summons and slows work well for this), you can click on the combat icon in the bottom left (or press f) to get out of combat.  You can then save your game.

You'll still probably need to fight your way through, but at least this way you don't have to do the whole extended fight in one hit.

Good luck!

Thanks for the responses; didn't mean to restart an argument.

That quote from the developer does indicate to me that stacking bonuses to Hit Chance counters Evasion.

Others can probably answer this better, but I think the enemies scale with you, so level doesn't matter as much?  I think I was about level 16 when I got through there (also on normal). 

Which enemies are you having trouble with?  What's your gear like?  I tend to spec my characters so that everyone can summon at least a skeleton to block enemies from getting into melee, then hang back and use bows/wands to focus people down.  Giving everyone at least one point in Blessing and using all of them to buff before each fight helps a lot, as does aggressively stunning casters and archers.  

Sorry if this is super obvious.

Hi all,

I've read through Randomizer's Queen's Wish: The Conqueror - Game Advice page, and while a lot of it is very helpful guidance, I'm a bit confused by the Combat section.  Specifically, how +% Hit Chance and Evasion interact.  

Does stacking  +% Hit Chance runes and rings counter an enemy's Evasion stat?  I assumed that was the case, but the discussion in that thread makes it seem like they're separate things.  

Thanks!

Buzko

Thanks for the reply.  Oh well, it was a good exercise in making do with less.

Heh.  I've been wandering around grabbing resources and not building anything, so I'm constantly at the resource cap.  I hope that the excess gets shipped home, not wasted.

Hi all,

I've been cautious about rebuilding the second forts before visiting the capital in each region, in case it makes negotiations more difficult, but as far as I can tell, none of the other parties comment on that decision.  I'm aware that rushing into building too many shops in forts can cause resource shortages, and that rebuilding the second fort will up the theft chance in that region.  But does the choice of rebuilding or not rebuilding the second fort in a region affect negotiations with the local authorities?

Apologies if this was covered elsewhere, but I couldn't find the answer.  

Thanks in advance.

Buzko