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rabbit

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Posts posted by rabbit

    1. Inventory management: Show me the names of my items; don't make me hover over each scroll, potion, crystal, etc., to find what I am looking for.
    2. Inventory management: Give me a key-combination to drop items from my junk-bag onto the ground. Alternatively, when I "sell all items in junk-bag", delete the actual junk items that have no value.
    3. Characters: Show me the levels of my spells within the icon; indicate to which level the perks apply.
    4. Notes: Let me add my own notes, possibly even attach a note to a quest or saved-dialogue.
    5. Let me search for key-words within my quests, saved-dialogues, notes.
    6. More quick-slots for spells.
    7. Indicate the strength of a pierce-crystal, rock-breaker, etc. Also, the text on a piercing-crystal (A2) implies (to me) that there is some randomness in whether the crystal will be effective. I believe the wording used is "... a chance...".

     

    I saw on the trailer for A3 that pathing is more-clearly indicated when in battle: thank-you.

     

    I've played all the Exile/Avernum games. I enjoy the story, I enjoy the writing, I enjoy the tactical-aspect of combat. The interface sucks.

  1. I fought the "Presence". Reading the post-combat text left me with the feeling that I had "injured" it, but not destroyed it.

     

    Oh-kay... now what? My quest is intact. When I walk into other areas of the game, I am given a message about the scrying crystal being dark. However, when I go back into the Foundry where I fought the Presence, I get no message. Indicating, to me, a [censored]ing error. Because the crystal should tell me one way or the other, yeah? Well, it's not doing either. It's just... doing nothing. So that's cool.

     

    Then there's the trackpad issues. Imagine if 50% of your clicks were randomly discarded. Yeah.

     

    Also, why not indicate the location of NPCs related to quests? I am to turn a quest in to so-and-so. But I don't remember which area that was in. Perhaps that irritation was intended. I should go. Do something other than waste my time with poorly made trite. I suppose this kind of thing should be expected from someone who doesn't actually enjoy programming, but has continued doing so for 20 years.

  2. 40 hours for each? Hmm... doesn't sound right to me at all.

     

    Perhaps it is the way I played, but I found that all three endings are happening within a few hours of each other.

     

    Upon first hearing about the Scimitar I knew what I wanted to do: get revenge.

     

    So I went forward with that in mind. Then I eventually beat the first of the major quests, then the same day and within a few hours beat the second. Now I'm within a few hours of beating the third.

     

    I'm not playing on Steam so I dunno my total time but it's been a good run, and I have enjoyed it immensely.

  3. > There is a rack with a missing scroll to the south of Khoth that it needs to be place into.

     

    I've done that. Nothing changes.

     

    > There is a rack with a missing scroll to the south of Khoth that it needs to be place into.

     

    He never indicates to do this.

     

    I have been through his conversation tree several times; I am quite certain he does not acknowledge I have it.

     

    When I place the scroll onto the pedestal, it is gone from my special items inventory, yet nothing changes.

     

    Thoughts?

  4. > I bet nobody's noticed because you really, really don't need multiple levels of Mass Curing.

     

    Funny. wink

     

    I've had anxiety about spell tomes from the beginning. Without reading anything authoritative on it, I figured that the spell tomes would teach you level 3 only. And that vendors would only teach levels 1 and 2.

     

    After reading the in-game text:

     

    "Can only buy two levels in shops."

     

    I was mildly relieved, hoping that the game would "do the right thing". But it was always nagging.

     

    This morning when I found myself in a situation where I could test whether this was true (with Mass Curing), I was pleasantly surprised. So I tested it. And then a wave of horror washed over me as I thought to myself, I should have bought all level 1 and 2 spells first!

     

    But then I test it with Ward of Steel (also in the fortunate circumstance to test that) and it "did the right thing". So I was confused and posted this.

     

    So... in summary, I should feel confident that I don't have to purchase levels 1 and 2 before jumping for joy that I've found a spell tome. Correct?

  5. Originally Posted By: HOUSE of S
    Yes, the mechanics should all be consistent. It sounds like you bought 2 levels of both spells already.


    Nay. I saved the game into a fresh slot specifically to test this. I saved right before reading the spell tome.

    Before reading the tome, Mass Curing was at level 1. When I advanced Mass Curing to level 2 from the spell tome I was later unable to upgrade it to level 3 at the Tower of Magi.

    I reloaded the game. Left the fort without reading the tome. Went to the Tower of Magi. Paid to have it upgraded to level 2. Went back to the fort. Read the tome and upgraded it to level 3. With respect to Ward of Steel, had I bought two levels of it I would not have been able to buy the third from a vendor. Something is amiss.

    I suspect there is a convention in place with respect to how certain things were coded, and that convention was not thoroughly followed.

    It's not a huge deal; there are many smaller inconsistencies I see that lead me to believe a lot of what is seen is convention rather than protocol. Little things like, some tool-tips having a horizontal bar that separates details about an ability and the flavor text for that ability. Some have it and some don't. Convention rather than protocol.
  6. My priest knows Mass Curing (Level 1). I don't recall how she came about this knowledge; whether she learned it through purchase or learned it through a spell tome.

     

    We found a spell tome in the Slith Fort on an island west of Fort Dranlon. We looked at the tome and it helped us improve our Mass Curing. Now my priest's Mass Curing is at level 2.

     

    We travel to the Tower of Magi and find a healer who also teaches Mass Curing.

     

    The spell-purchase window says, "Can only buy two levels in shops.".

     

    This text leads me to believe that a given spell can only be improved twice via the spell-purchase screen, regardless of the level being learned.

     

    However, the "Buy" button is greyed out, indicating it cannot be bought. (Yes, we have the cash.)

     

    This leads me to believe that the spell-acquisition mechanics are such that: the first two (lower) levels of a spell can be bought, but the third must be found.

     

    However, my priest also has Ward of Steel, level 2. I don't recall how she learned each level, but I assume at least one was purchased. In any event, despite having two levels of Ward of Steel, the third level can indeed be bought from this same healer.

     

    So now I am very confused.

     

    Are the spell-acquisition mechanics intended to be consistent? If that is the case, is it a mistake that they are not?

     

    Whether they were or were not intended to be consistent, the way they actually work means that it is in one's best interest to avoid learning spells from tomes until one has purchased the first two levels of a spell.

     

    Can anyone verify what I have said, or possibly correct my interpretation of all this?

  7. Awesome replies all -- thank you.

     

    Originally Posted By: Randomizer
    This game uses death and quests to go places as hints on where you should go next.

     

    I think that is what I was looking for. Some indication that I shouldn't freak out about not being able to win every encounter upon first encountering it.

     

    @Danny the Fool -- interesting ideas. I hadn't thought of ever running away inside a dungeon, and using summons sounds pretty smart.

     

    Oh, I also found that my problem with not being able to select my first-slot character was my error -- I had overwritten the keyboard shortcut for it. smile

     

    I've started a new party -- two berserkers, one priest, one sorcerer. Still on Normal setting though. I'll apply the advice I gained in this thread. Thanks again all.

  8. I feel like I'm missing something really basic. Or at least, I hope I am. I am going to complain with bullets, and hope something coherent is made in the process.

     

    - I am playing on Normal difficulty.

     

    - My party is level 10.

     

    - There was one encounter in the Aranea cave that took me about 10 tries to complete.

     

    - There is another encounter in the Aranea cave I cannot complete.

     

    - I am presently being slaughtered only a few steps into the Slith fort south of Dranlon.

     

    - My "warrior" deals 17 damage to a Slith warrior.

     

    - My archer with a dexterity of 17 misses a third of her shots.

     

    - "Haste" doesn't haste. (It should be called "Maybe Haste".)

     

    - Most of the time when I am crushed it's because of mind control effects. 2-4 of my characters get dazed and it's all over. Buying and using the first of the mind-ward spells feels like it does nothing.

     

    - If it's not being dazed or ensnared then I am feared, and run off into other groups of enemies and then join in the fun of crushing me.

     

    - Why can I use the 2-4 keys to heal but not the 1 key? (P -> A -> 2 works, but not P -> A -> 1)

     

    - I would love to know that the enemy I am trying to hit is/not going to cause my character to run AROUND some obstacle BEFORE it happens.

     

    - I would love to be shown how close a character needs to be to get a particular shot off.

     

    - I've explored the area around Fort Avernum and Formello and at this point any where I go in those areas crushes me.

     

    What am I missing?

     

    I realize I can (and probably will) switch to Casual mode, but I feel like something is broken. If this is normal, wtf are the other levels like?

  9. Light switches. They can still be missed. There's a difference, too, between playing well and playing like a machine.

     

    Wasn't it Jeff who wrote about cheating on World of Warcraft? Saying that the majority of those using bots to manually level up and gather were doing so because it's so damn tedious?

     

    There's no challenge in manually searching for secret doors or traveling from place to place looking for that ONE last herb.

     

    A solid example of this dichotomy is King's Quest and Phantasmagoria. King's Quest let you click on everything without any hint as to what was clickable. Very frustrating.

     

    Phantasmagoria highlighted your cursor when hovering over something actionable. The game was still difficult, but it wasn't _as_ frustrating.

     

    Games are meant to be fun and challenging. Anything that detracts from those goals by way of unskilled labor (bumping into walls) is antithetical to the purpose of a game.

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