Californian

A different opinion here. I've always bought the hint books. They save lotsa time if you're seriously frustrated. Yeah, you can find the answers on the forum, but having the hint books means you don't have to exit the game and wait for somebody to help you--or take time to search the forum. I also use them for taking notes, and I tick off the minor quests so that I can find them all. Plus, I like to support Jeff's efforts. And they have good maps. Having said that, I got the digital copy of the Avadon hint book, but I don't want to print it out because it's in color, and color ink is too expensive. (I have a Lexxmark printer that has black ink for less than $5.00, but the color cartridges are more like $50.00) Anyway, that's why I buy hint books.

Dunno why this happened, but I tried the Turtle's cheat in Strategy Central to make lockpicks and switches go sparkly. The result was that I crashed the game, basically. It loaded great, but when it got into the playing screen it almost froze. It was working at about one percent speed. Was able to exit with multiple command-Qs and escape clicks. I restored my backup, clean scripts and the game went back to normal instantly. I'm running OS 10.6.8. I think what I did wrong was typing in the added lines to the scripts, although I was super-careful, but I'm scared to try it again (even though I know I can restore the game, or even download again). But I really want sparkly lockpicks and switches! Should I copy and paste? Any advice? Thanks!

Sounds like you'll love the Avernum series. Jeff is redoing the first installment.

Just learned that the potion lady near the corrupted stone circle doubles her prices if you intimidate her. I tried it both ways. So there are consequences. Thought so. Typical of Jeff.

Thanks all! Nice to keep the prices down.

Just started the game and am wondering how to deal with the merchants outside of Avadon. I get a dialogue choice to tell them that they'd damn well better give me good prices. Sounds like an easy call, but is there a penalty for it? Does the town start to hate me after awhile, for example? Or would I be a sap not to demand the cheaper prices? Probably a dumb question, I know, but Jeff does like to make these little trade-offs. Thanks!

Just downloaded the demo, and the first thing I noticed was that the typeface was way too small for me to read comfortably. I can read it, but I have to lean into the screen to do it, and that will absolutely limit my gaming time. Setting the resolution to the second choice seemed to help a bit, but perhaps that's just wishful thinking. I'll try playing the demo and if it's too much of a problem for me, I'll wait for the next version. If Jeff can fix it, that will be a great thing for me. Fortunately I'm still playing the Romans in Nethergate Resurrection, so I have something to do!

Ah well. Saves me some time and effort then. Very unusual for Jeff to do that. Still, I guess we can allow him one oversight in all these games.

You're right about the sliths inside Formello, but if you run into that little temple (after killing the guards around the pylon) and stay in there they will not spawn. You can kill the temple attendants, grab the loot and flee. You have to be completely inside the temple, though. You can't fight them with even one of your party members outside--then you will get spawns. I've done it several times. No spawns. Also, you can reach that mandrake inside Formello just west of the pylon quite easily. There are no spawns if you stay on the pylon side. I'm wondering that if you're lucky enough to reach the guards on the south bridge to Formello without triggering spawns then that might be the trick (if that's even possible). You'd have to be lucky, though. But even then, it looks like there's a waterway between the south gate and the button, so maybe not. I didn't know about the west gate. Never tried to get that far. Will try running through Formello and see if I can reach it! Mind you, I'm fairly sure you're right that the treasure is unreachable. I just find it hard to believe that Jeff would have put a lovely treasure completely out of reach. It's such a lovely treasure, though, that it would have to be difficult to earn.

Here's my guess on the Formello unreachable treasure. There must be a second switch somewhere that allows you to reach the switch in the photo. It's just that nobody's found it yet. However, approaching from the south only gets you into what appears to be spawning sliths. Or, perhaps they're not spawning, just lots of 'em. That would make some sense, as that's a pretty hefty treasure. You would have to do quite a lot to earn it. I was able to find another mandrake root inside the Formello walls, just to the west of the pylon, btw. Was looking for a switch, and got that instead. Plus, if you enter the little temple--first building nw of the pylon, the sliths won't spawn. There's a ruby and a few other items there after you slaughter the temple attendants. Then go back the way you came (through the tunnels) and you won't trigger any spawns. Entering any other building starts spawns.

What if you did the Darkside Loyalists and the Scourge? That's two. Then save and go for the rest, or would those two affect the endgame? I've read on this forum that those two are the ones people choose.

Gotta ask: OK, I understand that Jeff is all into choices. However, I want to play The Whole Game, not just most of it. Just when should we go back and do Gladwell's missions if we want to do them at the end of the game, then, hopefully, kill Gladwell? And I'm not happy about leaving half of Melanchion's missions undone. (Not happy about just choosing two of three missions earlier in the game either, but at least if we do all of those missions it doesn't change the ending--I guess.) So, in order to play The Whole Game, I'm wondering just when I should save before doing the rest of the optional stuff. I'm guessing that it's after you've done two of Melanchion's missions. Then save. Then do Gladwell, kill him, and then the endgame. Then do Gladwell without killing him and the endgame. Then go back and do the other two Melanchion missions and the endgame. Then, perhaps, do the last two Melanchion missions, then kill Melanchion (if I can), and the endgame. Will that get me all the endings, or should I do something earlier? I might be lucky that my computer crashed and I had to start over. When it crashed, I'd done three of Melanchion's missions, so I guess I'd already changed my ending. Now perhaps I've left myself better options. (And, um, no, please don't tell me what the endings are, although I'm guessing that one of them is Melanchion taking over.) Thanks!

Originally Posted By: Serene Tempest the spells could be considered jealously-guarded secrets that were invented by that particular wizard (a well-established aspect of the world). Indeed. Just personally, I want X's anvil spell. I covet it. He should give us his anvil spell as a reward. Avernites would be unbeatable with X's anvil spell. But (sigh) I suppose the game wouldn't last as long then.

Only his followers? Hmmm. Sounds like something to try. Yes? No?

Addendum: for those who haven't paid Wilkie the 500 coins for the key, don't. A tinker's crystal will get you into the mine. Even if you have to buy one, they run about 200 coins.

That's the toughest encounter in the first part of the game, with the possible exceptions of Gladwell's quest and the lich under Patrick's Tower. The ghost won't appear unless you move far enough into the cave, so perhaps that's the problem. Once you kill the ghost, it makes four more ghosts. Then four more. Then four more. Very tough to beat 'em without lightening spray. The fight yields lotsa goodies though, including a wisdom crystal. Just save it for later.

There has to be a way. Jeff just doesn't put things in impossible to reach places. There's always a way to get there, although sometimes it's pretty tricky. Having said that, there's another area just to the west of the tunnel into Formello that I haven't been able to reach. It's just to the east of a little house, and has "trees" blocking the way to it. I haven't been able to find a switch (unless the switch is on the other side of the wall--haven't tried that yet). Hmm. Maybe Jeff just got distracted while making Formello? Naaahhh. There has to be a way.

Best bargain in gaming, imho. Jeff gives you your money's worth.

I feel the same way. But hey, I've already wiped out several innocent parties, such as the poor guys trying to kick skribbane back in the western reaches tunnels (they had a wisdom crystal, after all). So I guess I'll slaughter the poor guy. He is kinda tough though.

Take heart. I had to start over when my hard disc crashed. Was almost finished with Melanchion's quests. However, I built a stronger party and am having plenty of fun on my mostly-a-replay. Plus, it goes faster because you will remember lots of stuff. I'm almost finished with the Eastern Gallery--only have to kill the lich, if I can at this stage (she, he, it is a toughie).

You can use either piercing crystals (orange) that you'll acquire all over the place, or the spell. Once you finish the retrieve-the-papers-from-the-portal quest, you'll be able to buy the dispel barrier spell at the Tower Colony. Trust me, you need that spell. Works better and better as you get stronger.

Much later. Keep collecting them. Just keep adding to your stack.

Well guys, just to get you up to date (I found I couldn't wait another few days to restart the game. I started.) I think you're right about having two advantageous traits even with the experience penalty. Yeah, I got a bit frustrated with the slow leveling up at first, but now that I've reached levels 11 and 12 it's smoothing out nicely. I'm down at the Great Portal now, ready for the action there. I'm having loads of fun with my semi-replay. But this raises another question. I've often wondered why the characters level up at different rates. My spellcasters always go higher than my fighters, yet the whole party is supposedly getting XP at the same time. Why is that?

I've always bought Jeff's hintbooks and find them very useful but not completely comprehensive. There are always obscure little difficulties you'll encounter in the game that you either won't find in the hint book, or will find only a general hint. For those you come to this forum. For example, Jeff just doesn't put usable things completely out of reach. There's always a way to get to something that looks inaccessible if you look around or try a different approach, but he doesn't waste space on little things like that in his hint books. However, the hint book has lots of great maps with walkthroughs saying, for example, go to "H" on the map, fight the monster, then go to "L." Jeff also encourages you to use the information if you get frustrated--he wants you to have fun with his game and doesn't make you feel like you're cheating if you want a hint. He'll often tell you the best strategy for defeating a boss. The book gives you general walkthroughs for all of the major quests and briefer information on the side quests. For every quest in the game there's at least a brief answer telling you where to go or what to do. It also lists important resources in the game, such as who sells powerful spells or makes potions. I've found that I haven't used the hint book very much in A6 (I got almost to the endgame before my hard disk crashed). Keep your eyes open, use the "u" key to find switches and other usable stuff and you don't need it. But I'm not too proud to say that I darned well will use the book when I reach a level of frustration that isn't fun anymore. So yeah, I think Jeff's hint books are well worth it. And yeah, you need to buy the game. Best deal in gaming, actually, by far. But no, you can't respec your party as far as I know. It's OK. I usually play with the default party (although for my replay I've buffed 'em up). They're plenty strong enough to get you through the game. Might even be more fun that way. I've alway bought Jeff's hint books that you get through the mail. They're like a little printed pamphlet. I dunno if he's got 'em in PDF format.

Save for crafting: Fine leather Focusing Crystals Fine Steel Eyestalks (from eyebeasts you kill) Mandrake tincture Demon's bile If you keep all your Mandrake Roots and Energetic Herbs you'll be able to get 50 knowledge brews at about mid-game. You can sell rubies, gold bars, beautiful, lovely, and flawed crystals, and anything else you want to sell. (There may be one ruby used for crafting--can't remember.)