Dan Z

I'd prefer not to bug people with questions that could be answered by a simple JPEG. But now that you mention the hint book, I know why there are no maps posted anywhere. Man's gotta make a living...

Been playing with Rhian for a while. She helps out a lot, although her Craft Circle skills are not so good, and she can't train in them as a Roman soldier. Once I learned the required spells from quests, it got a lot better. So now all I have to do is map out all the old dungeons I already went through in order to find all the hidden rooms I missed. Not as bad as I thought. But could be better. How about an "Engineering" or "Architecture" skill for the Romans that allows them to guess what a building design looks like?

I've been playing for a while now, and one thing that's always bothered me is how much I'm getting lost. I'm getting lost trying to get from quadrant to quadrant, and even within dungeons, because the "overhead" map doesn't fit on one page and scrolls as the party is moving around. The quadrant (outdoors) maps are worse, because they don't scroll as you move but as you reach boundaries, and then the map jumps all of a sudden. That really, really sucks. Does anyone have any maps, or any way to extract them from the game itself? Wouldn't it be better to have a map we could all look at then to constantly have these discussions that go something like: "... and then go left a little ways, and then up, and then down, and then forward, but not all the way, just part of the way, and somewhere around there is a hidden passage, and then..." That's not much better than: "... and then poke around for a few hours and try running into every wall and eventually you'll find it." Heeeeeeeeeelp, there has to be a better way!

Umm, sorry. What did I do, exactly? Are you referring to a "resurrection" of a dead topic? Didn't know that was a bad thing. I figured, if there's a topic for something, use it, don't reinvent it! But anyways, the mapping out of a whole area and bumping into every bit of wall that borders a "black" tile on the overhead map is EXACTLY what I find annoying when I play as the Romans. You did suggest a workaround which I didn't think of: buy a bunch of scrolls and cast them when you need to. But that's a LOT of scrolls, and the Romans have to cart around too much junk, anyway. Piercing crystals, special healing potions and scrolls, and the hated javelins - heavy AND numerous, oh joy! Things like this really take a bite out of the fun aspect for me. It's enough to make me cheat and give my Roman healer the Craft Magic tree

With enough patience, killing things and solving puzzles isn't a problem. For me, the deciding factor boils down to 1 spell, the Craft Magic spell that lets you see through walls. How else are you going to find all those secret passages? Every time I tried playing as the Romans, I gave up in disgust after hours or walking around dungeons, bumping into every bit of promising-looking wall. It was such a pain in the arse! The alternative is not to bother with the passages, but then I'd miss out on most of the special keys and, therefore, most of the interesting items. That just bugs me. I simply can't stand the fact that the only way to experience the whole game as the Romans is to try and walk into every stupid wall!