TriRodent

You probably want to load an old save game from near the end game & putz around for the 20 days just to see it at least once. Easy way of doing so. Get a book, load game, hold down space bar while reading book, occasionally check to see what day it is... (save when you get close so that you don't accidentally blow through the assorted notifications/story bits)

There's a stickied thread up in A3RW Strategy Central. Not sure how much help it will be, but hopefully...

If you're talking about the chamber underneath/in between the giants & trogolos ... yeah it doesn't ever end if you stay in the chamber. Fight off the initial rush while making a break towards one of the t/g exits (I usually head towards the giants as I've already cleared out their temple to get the map to reach the tunnel. Once you get out to either the giant or trogolo side you can then go back (in case you didn't get something earlier...) and the only foes there will be the ones that were left behind when you ran out before (I think, it's been a while). (if you want to go clear out the upper trogolo castle, that's a good way to get back into it.)

Each of the major releases by Spiderweb (Avernum, Geneforge, Avadon, & Queen's Wish) are all set in unique worlds/universes with deep background stories to set up the game. All of them rely, more or less, on 'classic RPG' tropes (magic use, a nobody growing in power to become an all powerful hero, etc), but to me anyway, they're great to play. Best I can suggest is go to Spiderweb's website, download the large demos for each of the games & see if any one (or more) of them grab your interest. They aren't for everyone, but for those who do enjoy one of the games, they seem to tend to like 'all' of the games from Spiderweb (& I suppose that the converse it true as well). Good luck, I hope that you stick around & find that which has entranced most of us for several decades.

Jeff usually doesn't come to the forums much unless/until a new game is released & then it's generally only in that specific sub-forum. However all is not lost, you can always email support@spiderwebsoftware.com to get a message to him. I'd provide a link to this thread so that he knows what you're talking about. That's the good news. The bad news is that I doubt that he'll put out a patch/fix for a game/s that have already been out for a few years. But it can't hurt to ask. You also may want to wait a couple of months as with the remake of Geneforge 1 coming out in a couple of weeks...he may be a tad distracted with that. Glad that that one (demo anyway) worked for you with little issues. And finally welcome. There's a box over yonder that you're supposed to leave your sanity in. However there has been pilferage recently by some of the assorted reprobates around here with their attempts to appear more sane...so...up to you if you drop said sanity off or not...

Personally I like the green as it tends to blend into the forest/grass backgrounds better - but the blue does look nice.

Brodus maybe as he's supposed to be the best of/in charge of the guards/local militia. Khobar though, I wouldn't expect that (unless he became ruler by beating everyone else up). Think of the US President (or most any other world leader for that matter). 'If' you can get to him, he wouldn't be 'that' hard to hurt/kill, but you're going to have a hell of a time getting past all the highly competent & highly pissed off Secret Service agents to make your escape.

Probably for intimidation/making you rethink doing something dumb/violent within 'x' village/area, because if you do you're going to have a dozen guards (each of which alone could easily kill you) converging on you. Or at least intimidation right now, you might have a reason to come back later once you're much stronger to do something violent.

I don't know the mechanics of QW so I can't say for certain...but, I think you hit on most/all of them. The Nisse probably do have one depending on how you treat them/choices you make at the end game (maybe if you buy dreams?). Other than that though, I doubt there are as things would start to get really complicated really quickly for any game moving forward if those are used in the new game (as Jeff wants to do). As it is right now there are at least 5 populations (the three tribes, Nisse, & yours) with at least a couple of reputation settings for each (who you supported (& in the Ukat there are four (?) possibilities (only two realistic ones I realize)) & how you ruled). So if you have ten 'a' or 'b' choices (5 tribes with two each) & you have to pick one from each that gives you about 50 (? doing this in my head with looong ago learned math) different combinations. Adding in further nuances would just make the number of unique choices go up exponentially. So a really long way of saying 'I don't know'. I am intrigued though on how Jeff (with driving himself into bankruptcy) is going to incorporate all those decision points into QW2 moving forward.

You put Ian Anderson into the game? Cool. (only flute player I could think of really quickly... is it standing on one leg?)

His wife/office manager, & probably the power behind the throne...

I knew it sounded familiar... 'we' were talking about it this past summer... And like I mentioned in that thread, a lot of the zones are just providing a vehicle for you to both gain experience & provide filler while you're traveling along to 'x'. So, program the terrain, put the wandering monsters/traps or mines in the way, toss in some loot & move onto the next section. Those would go fairly quickly while programming the 3 (+?) villages & everyone in them would take some time. Averaging a section/day seems (& apparently was) quite doable.

I wouldn't read too, too much into such things as finding a Shaper body right near the start. In most any/every game out there, the start is set up to introduce your character to the universe & give him/her enough gear to survive. An easy way to distribute such gear is 'hey, look over there, a body that you can loot to get most of what you need...' That's not to say that Jeff (probably) didn't carefully think about what's presented in the start ... so it 'might' be significant that you can identify a body as that of a Shaper all these years later. Hmmm Or it could be like the first dozen or so chapters of The Stand & you're going to be hip deep in bodies no matter where you go... Time will tell I suppose

I had a memory of that too, but thought it was 1-2 days per section. I just went & looked through the Kickstarter updates but no mention of the time frame per section, just of the need to completely rework the terrain & dialogue to incorporate the changes to the world. So somewhere there's a mention but I've got other things to do today than dig around. So if anyone 'does' want to look around for said quote/mention, you can exclude those updates.

Ian, as I mentioned in the other thread, enjoy your journey as you only get to see Avernum (or Geneforge, or Queen's Wish, or Avadon, etc) for the first time once. If the timing of finishing up A1EFtP works out where you finish it up around the release date, you may want to move onto GF1M next rather than QW. I say this because, with the release of a new game the boards will get busy with chatter about that game for a month or three. That would allow you to join in on the discussions/fun 'live' as it were. Just a thought. Going in blind shouldn't be a problem as the whole universe/situation is explained in the intro/first part of the game. A completely different situation/universe than Avernum but just as detailed in the world building. It's an enjoyable journey through those chapters of the story as well. Also, (info for everyone...) if the timing is such that you finish up soon, go ahead and start on the demo as any saved games that you have 'should' transfer over to when the full game is installed. So continuation of the character that you're playing shouldn't be an issue.

Jeff/SW posted on Facebook a little while ago that the 24th will be the full release date... however he also said that the demo is available tomorrow (now?) on Steam if people want to check it out.

Then you should really like Queen's Wish (I can't believe I forgot to mention that one - on my list, stick it in after Geneforge). While you running around doing your thing within the game is on the tactical level, the whole premise of the game is doing strategic things for your mother the Queen. So outside of the actual thumping on monsters, most everything you do needs to have at least in the back of your mind, "what will 'this' do on the strategic/broader picture" level because what you do in 'x' will possibly have an impact over in 'y' (you'll understand once you get playing). If you're on Steam or GOG, they fairly often put Spiderweb's catalog on sale so you can reasonably cheaply get them all. Avernum 1 EFtP, A2 Crystal Souls, & A3 Ruined World are all remakes of Avernum 1-3 (which in turn were remakes of the ancient Exile series), the rest are all unique games (until GF1Mutagen comes out next month anyway). Or if money isn't 'that' big of an issue, you should be able to order them from Spiderweb's website in which case a higher % would go to Jeff. Regardless, you should be able to get several hundred hours of entertainment for under $50 all told. (there's 6 chapters/games in the Avernum universe, 5 in Geneforge, 3 for Avadon, Queen's Wish is projected to be a trilogy (I think), & Nethergate is a stand alone game (although there really are two different games within it), so you have lots of hours of fantastic storytelling/gameplay ahead over you.

As an also 54 year old (sigh, where did the time go) sitting here deep in the middle of flyover country, let me toss my welcome in as well. I'd love to be able to go back in time to be able to see the assorted Spiderweb games for the first time all over again (mainly because it would be nice to not have my body falling apart...but the games are great too). Anyway, enjoy the games. You're in for an incredible ride through the playground of Jeff's mind. (as to the PS, I've been around since the Exile 2 days so I've seen most everything as it came along. Avernum is probably my favorite series. Geneforge a fairly close second (the remake of GF1 is supposed to come out towards the end of next month (Feb (I think that's what Jeff said)), so keep your eyes out for that). Then Nethergate & Avadon bringing up the rear (not that Avadon is a 'bad' game/series, it's quite fun to play - I just personally didn't get mentally absorbed into that universe like I did the others)).

If you've done everything except the chitrach infestation (& I'm assuming the stuff in the various side tunnels up by Erika) ... you're more than strong enough to go out & bask in the sun/thump some surface monsters. I doubt that it will take 150 hours, but probably over 100 as A3RW is 'huge'. You certainly don't have to do/explore everywhere to finish the game, but even a streamlined run through will take quite a while. Enjoy as it's a great story/game

Also bear in mind that with a magic heavy party (the way I usually play btw), until you can build up your endurance a bit, they can't take much damage. Hit & run for dungeons (not outdoor encounters though) is a good strategy. Go to surface, find the unicorns, go in, kill a few & run back to Ft Emergence to heal, rinse, lather, repeat until you reach the point where you would get slaughtered now & come back later. Go find & wipe out some of the wandering slimes. You get a (very small) bit of experience for discovering towns/dungeons so go explore a bit while avoiding fights if possible. Friendly towns have doors & chests that can be unlocked for xp, etc. The beginning is tough while magic heavy, but once they can start really dealing damage then things will get much better/easier. Daze is vital. Use your first mage to blast the monsters & then the 2nd to stun them into missing a turn. One big change to be aware of is that area of effect spells effect 'everyone' in the zone, including your guys. You'll need to offset the rear guys to miss zapping your frontline guys too. At the top of the forum is a link to 'Strategy Central'. There's a lot of good advice in there about how to survive (also a bunch of spoilers so bear that in mind too if it's a concern) Have fun, it 'will' get better (& if you absolutely can't get past 'x' & you can't come back later - you can always reduce the difficulty through game options & then reset it once you get through that spot)

There are three dragons there, walk past the closed gates to get to a ramp that leads to the next dragon. I kind of like the bullet points as they get me to the right area without (usually) spoiling exactly how/what I need to do to get there. That sill lets me play the game without just following "go to 'x' & press 'y', after that you head to 'z' & talk to 'a', from there go to 'b' & do 'c', etc.. 'those' I save for when I'm really stuck & can't figure things out. The door next to him sure, but there is the other set of doors that you can go through to get to the throne room. I wonder if they're keyed to the same 'you need to have done three plagues' before you can get in that way. The contrarian in me usually enters that way even though I would get in if I asked his permission. It's more so I can (mentally) say to him on the way out "Permission? But I've already seen her..." and watch the confusion

Have you found the assorted dragons yet? (I'm 'not' knocking your asking the question - really - but at the top of every game's forum there's usually one or more stickied "Strategy Central" links that take you to threads that talk about "How do I get/do 'x'?", discussions of if 'x' skill is better than 'y', and other random ... well, strategy ... discussions. An amazing resource if you dig into it (lots of spoilers too so beware))

When I play A3RW I generally skip the Golem Factory just because it 'is' so tedious/annoying. Unless you're an 'OCD/got to complete everything' type of player, don't quit the game, just bypass this plague & head for the source/start of the end game. So I'm no help with your actual question other than to point you towards the "Strategy Central" at the top of the page where that might be covered (or a search out in the wider internet will probably turn up a walkthrough or two for the game) ... which is probably a better solution/help than my above 'just skip the dumb thing...'

Hmmm, I wonder if you can get in with two if you do the 'bypass the guy at the door & go up & around' way into Prazac's throne room. Of course to do that you would have to be a decently high level just to have the tool use/dispel barrier/etc to go that way so you probably were strong enough to defeat the giants anyway.

I know that it's not four because I've finished the game before without doing all of the golem one. Usually by the time I'm strong enough to head that far north to see her I've done/wrapped up the troglo/giant so that would make three. Maybe, if I remember, in a year or two when I decide to play again I'll try to see if I can get in to see the princess with only two plagues solved.