Lucidus

Curiouser and curiouser. My original party, which was started while I was running V1.0.1, shows the damage bonus as +4 in the training window (although the actual difference, as seen on the equipment screen, is +3, as you noted). My newer party, started after I had upgraded to V1.0.2, correctly shows it as +3. To add to the fun, the training window on page 9 of the instruction manual shows it as +2. Apparently, this is something that has been repeatedly tweaked between versions.

Jeff informs me that after removing a barracks, the damage bonus from that building persists until the end of the current two-day resource gathering period. I have not had a chance to observe this myself. Sorry to burrow so deep into the minutiae; I know this is the exact opposite of how he wants this game to be experienced.

A couple of other minor details regarding the damage bonuses: for my fully levelled-up party, the base damage bonuses were +4 for physical, and +3 for magical, damage. This was what I expected, based on the fact that I had built 7 barracks. However, when I removed a barracks building, the bonus remained. To explore this further, I checked with a lower level party. When I built my first barracks, all my party members gained 1 point physical damage. When I built the second barracks, nothing changed on the character screen. When I built the third barracks, my characters now had +2 physical and +1 magical damage bonuses. I'm not sure why the delay before the magical bonus appeared, but that's minor. Once again, the bonuses remained if I removed the buildings. I don't know if this is significant enough to be considered a bug, but I will report it.

The symbols are the same as those used in the 'Buy' and 'Place Shop' windows. You quickly learn to recognize them. The one for the carpenter looks like an axe (as opposed to the symbol for the barracks, which looks like a poleaxe).

I appreciate your explaining this. I didn't anticipate that the two damage bonuses would be handled differently, since the descriptive language is the same. I thought I had checked the physical damage bonus for comparison, but now that I go back and take another look, I was obviously mistaken. I notice that in the discussion of skills and damage over at Strategy Central, they still refer to it as a +2 bonus, so some of the details must have changed in the latest version of the game. I am always impressed by, and appreciative of, the Spiderweb forums, populated as they are by helpful, well-spoken people. Thanks for your assistance.

As I was upgrading my gear in preparation for the endgame, I noticed that the stats for my spellcaster do not show the +4 bonus to magical damage that he should get from having level 4 Magic skills. His base level is 3 (the same as the other members of my party), and he gets an additional +12 from items and runes, so I think the total bonus should be +19, but the character screen only shows +15. The physical damage bonuses appear correct for all my party members, so I don't think I am misunderstanding the math. Is anyone else experiencing this? I thought I should check before I send it to Jeff.

I understand that I have to do everything in one trip. Fortunately, I always save before entering a 'dungeon,' so I will come back and do the entire thing later. Again, thank you.

Thank you. I will do some more adventuring and come back later.

I am playing the game for a second time, to experience the results of making different choices, and I have tun into an odd situation. I have killed the Nagas in the first 3 buildings in Murkhala, but when I enter the final building, in the NW corner of the map I cannot trigger the encounter. I get a message that I don't have sufficient will power to see through the illusions, and if I leave the building and re-enter, the spacious hall has been replaced by a small shack and the good loot is gone. This didn't happen the first time through, and I'm not sure what it is that my party is lacking. Does anyone know what the game is looking for?

Live and learn. If you bring up the text console (by typing the letter 'c'), text will appear describing what is happening in the game, including the date each time it changes.

It's kind of cool to come back here every few years, and to find that I recognize many of the commenters. Hi, everyone!

Just going to add my own two cents worth here, because I have often made the same type of mistake. I mostly keep my eyes on the combat screen, so I am not usually mislead by my faster characters acting more often. I do have to consciously look over at the party roster to see what effects have been applied to each character, but the situation changes constantly, and I have trouble keeping track of how long those effects will last. So if I am watching the combat, and a character is highlighted, I will then look at the bottom of the screen to select an action. If that character has been stunned, the highlight can move on to the next character while I am looking down. The duration of the highlight is much longer than a 'flicker,' although maybe that varies on different systems. This has been the source of most of my mistaken actions. Going slightly off topic, I am concerned by the relatively low levels of activity on these forums. I am seeing only a handful of new posts each week. This is far less than I remember for any of the Avernum games. I hope this does not mean that there is less interest in the game.

Many commenters seem to enjoy the challenge of building and maintaining the various useful structures in the Haven forts. For me, they have been mostly a source of frustration as I progress through the game. First, I was frustrated to discover that you can only possess a maximum of 50 units of each different building material. You can avoid hitting this limit by making frequent trips to any fort to spend resources, or to Greatport or one of the three remote forts (Fort Darkfen, Fort Mist, or Crossing Keep) to sell or trade resources. But if you do this regularly, you find yourself spending a significant chunk of game time running back and forth. If you don’t do this, you end up either discarding resources or, again, wasting a lot of time backtracking to collect materials you couldn’t carry when you first encountered them. Does it make sense to return to the Flint Pit to pick up 3 wood? It hardly seems worth while to keep track and go back later, but on the other hand, it bothers me to leave resources behind or, even worse, to pick them up when they are just going to evaporate because I am already at the limit. None of these options are satisfying. Second, resource management also requires you to watch the clock - only there isn’t any clock. Every 2 days, you get an accounting of what resources you have gained and lost in the interim. You obviously want to use your resources before you hit the cap (or before they are lost to thievery), but I haven’t found any way of keeping track of the date and time so I can know when the totals are about to be updated. Thirdly, I was frustrated trying to balance my maintenance costs against my resource income. I initially screwed up badly, and found myself seriously short of iron. I corrected that problem and then found myself without any stone for a long time. The game kind of warns you that this is going to happen, but you really have to experience it firsthand to figure out how it works. For me, the learning process was not enjoyable. Finally, I was annoyed to eventually realize that there is a way to get around all the issues that I have just been complaining about, although I don’t think we are meant to approach the game this way. The trick is this: you can build structures at any time, without putting them in place (except for the guard towers and the upgrades to the forts, which are constructed immediately). So you can use your resources without incurring any maintenance costs. You will ultimately need 7 of everything, so go ahead and buy them as you can afford them. Only place structures when you actually need to buy stuff. Even then, you can remove a structure that has already been placed; just click on the ‘Place Shops’ button, then click on the shop, and click on the ‘Cancel’ button. It will go back onto the list of available structures. One limitation to this is that you have to keep enough shops to support any items you have purchased. For example, if you buy a high level weapon, which requires a certain number of Blacksmiths to purchase, you have to keep that many Smithies in place in order to use the weapon. By purchasing your structures fairly early on, but only putting them in place later in the game, you can largely avoid resource bottlenecks. I have a couple of additional tips. The Mill, Distillery, and Bakery each generate 10 gold every 2 days. That’s not a lot but over time it adds up. You should upgrade your forts as quickly as possible after activating them. There is no maintenance cost, and there is a significant boost to resource generation. Don’t purchase too many goods early in the game. You won’t need them for the early battles, and you will need the gold for building.

I believe there is a limit to the maximum number of collectible items that will be accepted. For example, I sold 49 bags of meal on one visit to Ft. Draco. I came back later with a large quantity (84) but Bill only took 51 of them, for a total of 100. I don't think I am going to find enough wine or iron bars to learn whether they have similar upper limits.

I have visited the manse close to a hundred times without triggering the final encounter. I am now ready for the final dungeon, and the ghost meeting, with the chance to pick up the special weapon, is the one thing I haven't managed to complete (as far as I know). I did encounter the ghost in the garden, and I when I tried to talk to him, I got a slightly odd message that he was thrown to the ground. Is this normal? Is there something blocking the event, or some prerequisite that I don't know about?

No matter how many magical items I have crafted, I do not get the medal for having 5 'nice magical items' made. Even if I go to one of the crafters and get 5 items all at once, the game still does not recognize the achievement. Is there something I am missing? (Edit: I had tried this several times, without success - honest! - but as soon as I posted this question, the medal appeared. Perhaps there is a delay for some reason.)

You can buy fine clothes in Stormport for only 56 coins, and make a little more profit.

Another very late post, but the most powerful polearm seems to be missing from this list: the Jade Halberd (8% armor, +10% HER, +10% melee damage reduction, +15% faster fatigue recovery, 60% chance of acid for 3 turns), with high damage to the target and, like all halberds, a chance (50%) to damage nearby targets.

I unequipped every bit of wearable gear, even pieces with no encumbrance, and still got the same message. I imagine that's just what the game defaults to in this unique situation. Hex editors are beyond my competence (which is fine; I only raised the subject of bypassing the Romans' limitations on magic use because several people had posted questions about it.) If you were going to kill Raven for the All Circle scroll, then it would probably make sense to give it, plus the Hagfen +3 scroll, to a member of your original party with Druid Mastery, who could then theoretically cast Health, War, Beast, and Craft spells up to Level 8. However, I still don't know whether a Roman party is ever given the opportunity to learn all those spells.

I wasn't aware of this limitation because I couldn't learn the level 5 and 6 spells until after I had used the scroll. Even when Rhian is not wearing any armor at all, I get the error message that she cannot cast any spells over Level 5 while wearing encumbering armor. As for Druid Mastery, i didn't think it was possible to use the Character Editor on the fifth character in a party. Have you actually done this? Otherwise, I guess I will give the Emerald Helm to my other spell caster.

I got it from the Formorian village outside Goagh-Nar, after a fairly tough fight. My party was around level 12, I think. When I played as the Celts, I couldn't win that fight until my party was much higher in level.

You are correct; Rhian starts with 2 levels of Craft and Beast. What threw me is that Moira in Hagfen will sell a single level of each, but not to Rhian. So after Hagfen, my other spellcaster had 1 level of Craft and Beast, while Rhian still had the 2 levels she started with. With the Emerald Helm and the +3 scroll, she can end up with 6 levels, meaning she can cast Word of Recall and Create Food (which should come in handy in Annwn).

In several threads in this forum I have read that Rhian, the Druid NPC who can join your Roman party in Vanarium, starts out with 4 levels of Craft Circle and Beast Circle spells. Then in the discussion at the end of Synergy's item list, someone says that she starts out with 2 levels. However, in the game I am currently playing, she started with only a single level in both Craft and Beast Circles. Has this changed from earlier versions of Nethergate? Anyway, in Hagfen, you can buy another level of each, and then receive a +3 scroll for one or the other as a quest reward. The Emerald Helm can add another level on top of that. Therefore, it is possible to get to Level 6 in Craft Circle and Level 3 in Beast Circle (or vice versa, but I personally would go for the Craft Circle spells). With the Beastmaster Bracelet, of course, you can get a further 3 levels of Beast Circle, for a total of 6 levels in both Craft and Beast Circles. If you chose instead the +3 Beast Circle scroll in Hagfen, you could end up with 9 levels in Beast Circle and 3 levels in Craft Circle, but it's not clear to me whether those top level spells can even be taught to the Romans. For completeness, I should mention that if you kill Raven, you can also get a scroll which adds 3 levels to Health, War, Beast, and Craft Circles. A couple of people have asked if there was any way to get around these limitations on what magic Romans are allowed to learn. Alorel suggested modifying the scripts, but that is a daunting undertaking for those of us without coding experience. A much easier approach would be to use the Character Editor to give yourself additional +3 scrolls; the item numbers are listed elsewhere in this forum.

Well, that explains that.

Thank you. That was most helpful. Unfortunately, when I step on the indicated space, nothing happens - no message, no indication if any sort - which pretty much explains why I couldn't find it on my own. If anyone cares, I am playing version 1.0.3 on a Mac. My current party is Roman; I have already finished the Celt game. I will contact Spiderweb to see if he knows what's up.