Doctor J

No, you just have to chat with him.

 

Oh, right. I was thinking about about Erik's quest. Anyway, i went back to Kenny and just asked him nicely so he unlocked the door.

@Ishad Nha: as unbelievable as it sounds, i did actually try that before begging online.

 

@Kelandon:thanks, though i was afraid someone was going to say something like that. I guess i took the wrong reward from Marsh, so i'll have to go back to a previous save file.

In "A Small Rebellion", i'm siding with the rebels. I couldn't find a walkthrough for this scenario, presumably because of the effort it would take to write for both sides. Anyway, i need to deliver a mysterious box to a statue in Zaskiva in order to pass the test. I think the statue is in the guarded area marked "Entry by keeper permission only". I further suspect the Keeper is in the other guarded area, the palace. I've walked into every wall i can get to with no effect. Can i get a hint, please?

Fortunately, that fight is optional. As long as you don't mind fighting endless wandering undead.

 

Since i'm essentially at the end of the campaign, stopping future supplies of undead isn't much of an incentive...

 

I seem to remember that you have to get lucky and kill him in the first couple of rounds or not at all.

 

Short of using an editor to beef my party up, i just don't see how this can happen. It'll take a few turns to mow my way through his platoon before i can get my fighters next to him. The spell-casters don't yet have any serious battle magic, so they're relegated to support. Anyway, i guess i'll just skip it and go on to the next scenario.

Is there a way to beat this without cheating? My fighters only have 66 hit points, and it's fire blasting me for 120 points each. The couple of spells i've picked up are no match, either. I've done everything in the campaign before going into the Major Waste Repository, unless i've missed something.

D'oh! I forgot about that. Thanks!

So i finally moved from my trusty/rusty G4 running Tiger to a MacIntel running Snow Leopard. When i double click on the "Avernum 2 v2.0" icon, the program doesn't start. Instead, the binary executable is loaded into TextEdit. Has anybody seen this before? Things worked fine on Tiger...

Interesting. Is there a table somewhere matching the item name with the 'x' value?

Alright, i'm sorry to be so dense, but i'm stuck AGAIN. I've dealt with the first cave and gotten the so-called map. Looking at the map doesn't help, so i've concentrated on the notation: "swamps to north". I don't see any swamps near the first tower, so i've looked around the Honeycomb. Do i need to talk to Bevan or Abbey again? If not, from the first tower what direction is the second tower??

In the interests of learning how to fish for myself, how should i do this? GREPing for 'feathered token' finds nothing. Indeed when i search the file directly for 'token', i only get the lines of dialog where Syros hands a token over. Manually looking at the lines relating to that trash barrel [i only recognized it because i had recently seen the message in-game] shows the operative word was 'feathers' rather than 'feathered'.

So what i'm really asking, is there a better technique i could be using? I'm barely able to find things that i know exist, much less prove a negative...

Hmm. My problem is that i'm getting the snot beat out of me at the Hermit Crossroads, and the token i need to get me by is on the other side of those patrolling Drayks. I guess i will try my luck with the Infected Crossroad instead.

Matt P's walkthrough [in the Northern Pass section] mentions "can be obtained ... searching the area to the south". Does that mean it's in the Barrier of the Winds area? I certainly didn't see a token in the south part of the Northern Pass.

Oh, *that* east. For some reason i was saying 'east' but heading west at Fort Duvno. What's worse, i had already been by that little tower with the Ice Drake and Ice Puddings, so i was almost there.

Thanks for the warning. However, i've taken the river all the way to the Giant Infested Regions and i still don't see a lake. Can i get a clue as to what map i should be looking in?

Is there no answer to this question? Matt P's walkthrough [in the Northern Pass section] mentions "can be obtained ... searching the area to the south". Does that mean it's in the Barrier of the Winds area? I certainly didn't see a token in the south part of the Northern Pass.

I have the quest from Mayor Bevan. Is that who you're talking about?

Edit: never mind, i see the walkthrough specifies to talk to Abby. However, having talked to him still leaves me lost. Paddling north then east leads me to the Central Sea, yet i still don't "see a tower across a pit." Am i anywhere close?

Thanks for the post, but i'm already looking at Matt P's version 1.9 walkthrough [newer than the 1.7 version that zeviz1 has htmlified]. If it weren't for him, i wouldn't even know to look on the river for these caves.

I read that these two caves are supposed to be on the river north of Almaria. However, i've been back and forth and never found them. Can i get a better hint, like maybe how many squares north i have to go from Almaria?

Hmm, i don't remember which game. Mighta been A2, i had a party that was still too low-level to handle the action in the Dharmon/Patrick's Tower area. I figured as long as i stayed out of any of the dungeons i'd be alright. Wrong: I ended up running into a band of Gremlins that wiped the floor with me. Worse yet, i had saved just before running into them. No matter how many times i reloaded, i couldn't avoid them. I finally ended up using the character editor to give myself a boost long enough to withstand them. I don't remember now whether i ended up raising my resistance directly through stats or if i just gave myself some potions.

 

P.S. What is the proper name for a multiple of Gremlins: herd, tribe, profusion? I rather like calling such a group a 'panic'.

I'll speculate that 'DOOM' is what happened to gaming. No new game comes from a major developer these days unless unless it's a 1st person shooter. There are a few exceptions like Civilization X, but that points to the other half of the problem: namely that the big boys are unwilling to try anything new. Every game released now has to either be a sequel to an established title, or dreadfully similar to every other new game coming out. For an extreme case, look to Fallout 3: not only did they piggyback off a popular series, but they changed from the isometric viewpoint to FPS. Oh, they also jettisoned the humor that was a hallmark of the originals. About the only thing the new game has in common with the classics is that it also has lots of bugs!

If you're talking about cheating, it's easier to install the editor and give yourself more money when needed. I've done it, even though i'm not proud of it... It beats all the running back and forth lugging javelins and all the other junk to make a few coins, now i just leave that stuff. My rule of thumb is to not bother with any 'loot' that is worth less than my character's level.

Oozebeast comes with its own [maybe bitter] sauce!

Okeh, there are three ways to get from the main hall to Phariton's apartment. I've already tackled the path of the cryodrayk, and the path of nasty bushes. Just for sheer obsessiveness, i'd like to also conquer the path of the mines. I've turned off the mines along this path, but can't seem to get into the many doors along this hall. Do i need some key, or is there a hidden lever somewhere, or???

The Huge Roamer is, IMHO, the best recruit in the first half of the game [that's as far as i've gotten], and the only one that's lived long enough for me to really like it.

The Abandoned Vlish will only join you if you have enough Magic Shaping to communicate with it. However, even if you never put a point in it [you Guardians and Agents], Sharon's Bracelet gives enough to complete the deal.

Items worth collecting:

Zuniga the smithy [in Drypeak] has an infinite amount of money for buying Iron Bars, and he also gives some XP with each bar you bring him.

Lora the traveling merchant [in Medab] acts like Zuniga, only she wants Shaper Equipment - both kinds.

Hawke outside Fort Muck has an infinite amount of money for buying gemstones and emeralds, but no XP. You probably want to set aside an emerald or two for use in recipes.

Both mined crystals and puresteel rings are useful later in the game for recipes and to barter. Matt P's walkthrough mentions collecting research notes, but i haven't yet determined what good they are. Steel items [breastplates, swords] are semi-rare and used to make Shaped items. Strange named items like Demon Bile all have specific uses.

Okeh, for the record there's a Steel Breastplate on a body in Mountain Base.