TriRodent

After the explosion there should now be paths into the woods (iirc with the west bn you go in behind the building). Look near where the mages were working and you'll find a new area/narrow path opened up fairly close by

The explosions don't clear the way through where the assorted battalions are camped, they clear the way 'into' where the battalions are camped. Now you get to go exercise your sword arms a bit...

Not having Steam, take this with the appropriate sized grain of salt... I believe that code will put the game into your Steam library so that you won't have to find today's email sometime in the future if you want to redownload it. Much like the GoG code Jeff is hoping to get to those who want it.

Correct, there are runes that you can find/buy early on that will give you a +5% chance to hit (changing the bonus picture you had). I tended to drop one into(onto?) everybody's weapon until I could get the better runes... following the 'I guess it can't hurt' theory.

You'll probably see the most impact on your reputation down in the Vol as they have an active rebellion going on. Being nice to one side tends to piss off the other. But it takes a while to build up significant animosity.

You may want to email SW/Jeff if you haven't gotten anything. I believe it's Support@spiderwebsoftware.com . If not I'm sure there's a contact link on their homepage

When you can't play any longer...😝

Ah, yes I'd like it there too. But that's way beyond my paygrade. Perhaps Jeff can twist some arms for QW2/Geneforge remakes

? I'm confused (which is pretty much normal). Are you saying you want to play online through GoG (I didn't know that was possible), or just download from them? When I got my email earlier it had a link to Humble. At Humble there was a button to download (didn't even have to log in there to do so). Clicked on it and 125ish mb later it was in my download folder and from there to installed and ready to play. Granted it's not in my GoG library, but I have it and can go go back to Humble later (I think) if I had to re download.

Is #3 your mouse arrow? Slide it over to the side of the screen.

If you have done everything (cleaned out the rogue Sgt) & want to leave back to the main map, just click outside the gate & you'll leave.

Which problem? If you've done everything else then it's time to relax. Go take in a movie, perhaps a play...

Click on the abilities you don't want, that will reclaim that skill point & you can put it where you want. You have to remove any higher tier abilities before reclaiming any lower tier ones/you have to have a minimum of two in the tier below if you have any higher abilities.

There aren't any drops around bodies/after combat*. There should be a chest/box/something you can click on nearby. That's the only way to find loot in QW. You'll have to make your gold by building up your forts rather than pawning slightly used weapons/armor (for the most part). The typical Spiderweb Adventurer 'steal everything that's not nailed down' while in town is always an option too... *on occasional outdoor encounters, after combat you'll get a popup that you got a few gold pieces from them

I just downloaded it to my W7pro32bit... no joy...sigh 64b laptop it stays apparently

Other than mom (the Queen) grumbling about you farting around rather than reclaiming 'her' lands, I don't think so. But then I tended to do things relatively straightforward in one area until it was cleared out, not doing 12 hour bouncing back and forth between the areas unless there was a good reason. But like Randomizer mentioned, the longer you're out doing things the worse resource management will be. So don't treat your time there as a holiday from Mom and your siblings... I 'think' there's a medal for getting to/finishing the endgame before 100 days (not near my laptop to check), so that gives you an overall target to keep in mind.

You don't need to fully explore before getting to the boss fight (although finding him will tend to make you check out most everything along the way), but DO, after killing him, explore the entire map (assuming that you're in a condition to survive some smaller fights) as in most dungeons (generic term for areas outside of forts...) there are chests with lootable items that are worth picking up. Most areas will remove those monster chests once you leave the area. And after clearing an area and going out to the main map, immediately reenter it. If you've reclaimed 'x' quarry (for instance), generally friendly people/troops will have moved in & the leader needs to be talked to to confirm that the output of that quarry will be sent to the nearest fort. Also many of the chests/boxes/vases that were filled with monster loot now have friendly loot in them (if you feel like stealing from them). Other random thoughts: Equip everyone with some sort of distance weapon. You can generally get 1-2 turns of shooting at the baddies before they can get to you. Once they are in melee range/next to you, then switch to your melee weapon (switching weapons costs movement points so you can't switch, move a square or two, & then hit - let them come to you) Monsters don't weaken as their hp gets low. As they're closing in on you, have your archers target one collectively (usually the most dangerous) to kill him. Having a horde of 'x' closing in on you at half hp is more dangerous than 3-4 at full (& their companions bodies littering the field behind them). The exception to that is if you plan on hitting them with an aoe spell later in the round/next round. 'Then' you do want to try to injure as many as possible with hopes that the aoe spell finishes them off/reduces their health enough that your frontline guys can do so in the next round. If possible try to arrange your combat in places that form a choke point with the terrain. If you're in a passage that's 3 squares wide & facing say 4 monsters that take up 2x2 squares each, only one will be able to get within melee range at a time (most of those bigger monsters have some form of ranged attack so bear that in mind). While the frontline guy/s are beating on the near monster, the guys in back can be hitting the monsters in their back hard with distance (bow/wand/spells) attacks. This is a real good way to wear the area boss down a bit before you have to face him up close & personal. Helmets can take both runes & augments. ONLY use runes in them as they improve damage. There are many more slots available for augments (in armor/shields/necklaces) than there are for runes (helmets & weapons/wands/staves). Casting 'cure' during combat only costs four mp, leaving you one more. Your support guy can cast that at the start of his/her turn on someone who's poisoned/bleeding/etc and still be able to attack. Having someone poisoned/bleeding/whatever will chew up their health quite a bit over a few rounds, it's worth curing them quickly if possible. Energy management (especially on Veteran or Torment) is critical later in the game during the harder dungeons. After most fights you will get 1, maybe two points of energy regenerated, if you used 5-6 energy on all those various cool abilities during the fight... you won't have much available once you do reach the boss monster. Having everyone be able to heal/cure isn't a bad use of skill points. Doing so allows your magic user/s save their ep for the bigger damage spells. Group heal is a good spell during combat if everyone has taken damage as it's only two ep (compared to 1 for an individual heal). group heal with curing is also only 2 ep so get that top tier spell for your support guy to both heal & strip off some of the negative poisoning/bleeding/etc. If your melee/non magic uses's ep is near full, when all the monsters are dead, BEFORE ending combat heal everyone. If say your melee guys are at full ep, let them cast 1-2 heal spells each (see suggestion two up...) on the others. THEN after ending combat you will probably get those 1-2 points back (allowing the same 1-2 points also go to the mu/support guys who probably need them more than the melee guys). If everyone's used more ep than they will regenerate after ending then it really doesn't matter, but getting into the habit of healing before ending combat isn't a bad thing. When traveling on the main map, if travel time to 'x' is two hours (the minimum for quick travel), you're better off walking there normally (as it may take less than two hours to get there). For three hours or more, using quick travel takes roughly the same amount of time as walking there on the map (confirmed by Jeff). Always have a standing order for resources (iron generally for me) at the docks/with the dockmaster north of Ft Haven (not near the computer with the game on it & can't remember her name, sorry). You only get one of that item every other day, but every little bit helps. It's generally not worth specifically going there to claim it, but if you're in the neighborhood anyway... Many of the later dungeons are at the end of a guarded path to get to them. If you fight the guards you'll generally be drained of hp/ep before even starting the dungeon. However if you can sneak through/avoid them to the point where you 'discover' the dungeon, you can then later use the main map to travel right to the start of the dungeon when you're at full health (bypassing the assorted guards). You generally don't get many/any xp for say path guards (as mentioned right above)/random monsters while out on the main map. They may have some loot, most don't. Depending on what you're doing next/where you're going, evading them to keep yourself at full health isn't a bad thing. Keeping theft % low is important (especially if your resources from that area are low to begin with). Do the assorted things/builds to keep it as low as possible. Keep building Weaver's shops as you need your inventory bag to grow. There are lots of potions/scrolls (neither of which stack)/charms that you're going to want to carry around all the time along with keeping a few slots open for the assorted loot that you do find along the way (I tried to have 1-2 empty slots per person when leaving a fort/going back out). As with pretty much all SW games, talk to anyone who has a 'name' (rather than 'townsperson'). They usually have something to say/important info. (more later I'm sure...)

You'll also pick up extra potions (that can be refilled when entering a fort/resting at an inn) and healing scrolls (which are single use) while out and about

No problem... (I had a few impassioned emails to Jeff about just that. Apparently to no avail...alas)

You've got the main ways (can get a room in an inn also/random beds in friendly areas). No resting while out and about.

I would assume sometime today (being the release date), but as it's 5am out in Seattle... (Sometime this morning would be my uninformed guess)

Fwiw QW did not work on my (main computer) 32b machine. Thankfully my laptop is 64b and was able to test/play on there. After the initial 'why isn't this working' confusion, I never tried it again on my 32b machine so it 'might' have been downgraded in later beta builds/final product...but I wouldn't count on it. Grab the demo and hope for the best

I don't know, but I would think that directly from SW would maximize the return to them.

There is for skill points (sadly). I tended to bump into it about 75-80% of the way through on my assorted playthroughs (but I also explored everywhere/did everything on my way to the conclusion so that tended to max out the xp available so ymmv). However, re-specing those points is very easy so fixing your build to something else isn't a problem

Like many of Jeff's games, if you read the story as it's unfolding & let your imagination run free, after the first half hour or so you don't notice the graphics/lack of them any longer. And also, like all of Jeff's games, there's a big free demo area. If you try it & just can't get past the graphics, well ok. Your loss but ok. If you won't even try it though, that's all on you. QW is an entirely new universe to go play/fight/live in. You're going to be so busy doing the usual day to day things to keep alive & doing things that have never appeared in Jeff's games before that 'will' impact how the game moves forward that you'll quickly forget the graphics altogether. If you have played Avernum, Avadon & Geneforge then you know essentially what you're going to get with Jeff's games. If you enjoyed them then QW won't be all that different for you.