TriRodent

The gloves are the only things charged in the pools (I think). There's a sword that needs three charges to be fully charged, but that is done differently I don't think I ever bumped into the lance. Where did you find it?

My suggestion would be to email support@spiderwebsoftware.com also. Explain the situation, provide the Steam key (as proof of purchase) & ask if they could give you a GOG key/a DRM free copy. Can't hurt to ask anyway & welcome to the forums, always room for another odd person around here (which if you're deeply into SW games...odd is pretty much a given...)

Pondering this a bit more... It might be cool if you could also bring over some/all of your party with you (at the new L1) so that you could have their racial traits from QW1 available too (I'm assuming that you'll be able to pick up some new sidekicks in QW2 with their own traits). Maybe even racial animosity/pleasantry towards who you brought over with you from some of the new people you meet (like having a slith in your party when you go to Gnass in A2 or the hatred if you have a nephlim up on the surface in A3*). Time will tell *that always amused me about A3, that you're this (very pale) party that's supposed to be sneaking around the surface & trying not to be noticed too much ... but you could fill members of your party with races that the Empire is actively trying to eliminate

(good time to swing by the forums - two minute response time.... (buffs fingernails on chest...)) I have NO knowledge of what Jeff is planning... that said... I doubt that you'll be importing your characters...only because he would have to make QW2 balanced for 'everyone' importing their characters & that is probably beyond the scope of what he wants to do. My guess (& it is just that, a guess) is that you 'will' be importing your prince/princess to the new game, but will be essentially starting over again (maybe you'll be more competent in some things than a typical L1 player). I have a feeling that mom/the Queen will be sending you off to a different part of her kingdom to deal with 'their' local problems. So the way you played your character (who you supported in the various regions, if you were harsh or a soft touch, etc) will be imported/factored in to how people react to you. Also the larger strategic issues (who was supported in each region, if you wiped out the Nisse or not, etc) will be factored in. That would be my guess, but again, I really don't know. Keep your ending code/s (plural if you played more than once) handy though (I put mine in a text file with a note as to which factions I supported, etc & then saved it into the QW folder).

Hey, I just got promoted to Wingbolt...I'm so proud...

From what (admittedly very little) I know, the developer sets the price - at least initially. After 'x' amount of time Steam?GOG probably can cut the price/put it on sale. As to what % it gets cut by, that's probably up to the developer too (to a point). Smaller developers (such as SW) may not want to deeply cut their prices until the game is several years old, while a big developer may just want to wring the last little bit out of a game (with a deep discount) before their next three games come out in the next couple of months & will dilute any buzz over the new games. (or they've completely moved on from anything to do with that game/universe & any further sales are just a nice bonus that really won't impact the bottom line all 'that' much). Take SW as an example (& I know NOTHING about how Jeff sets this up with S/GOG). Fairly often we get new users stopping by & saying that they just discovered SW games & are looking forward to exploring the back catalog. Jeff probably has discovered, over time, that he would make a little more money with those people who just discovered his games (with a smaller discount) than with a lot of people buying a complete collection of say Avernum that's 90% off once. EA otoh knows that there aren't a whole lot of people out there left to 'discover' them & be willing to pay 70-80% of retail for older games. For them, getting a few cents from a lot of people is probably the better option.

I completely agree ... but ... let's refine it a bit. Talk to everybody with a unique name. Talking to generic town guards or farmers beyond the first time just to see if/what amusing thing Jeff put in as their dialogue. Beyond that though, they don't give out quests or impact the game other than background color. * There's no day counter/time limit to the game & foes tend not to repopulate an area (for most areas anyway). So use that to your advantage. If clearing a zone is too hard at the moment, nibble away at it with hit & run tactics. ALWAYS make sure that you have a clear path back out of the zone & then try to isolate one of the zone's monsters & pour damage onto him/her/it. Kill it, get a little experience & run like hell to the exit, go to the nearest village to recharge & then go back & do it again a little deeper into the zone. (but like Ranomizer said, some zones just aren't possible at this point in your game so don't worry about them for now). * I too tended not to join any particular sect. That allowed me to play the "hmmm, let me think about your ideas' card without having to align myself with anyone/annoy the others. *think of the zone map as a series of concentric circles radiating out from the arrival docks. You should be able to clear/survive the immediately adjacent zones. From there you can do the next adjacent zones, etc. As long as you stay more or less within the expanding circle, you should be able to keep going (the exceptions will immediately be obvious). Driving too deeply in one direction without doing the adjacent zones (say going north out of Pentil 4-5 zones in a straight line) will eventually get you in over your head. Have fun

No, each head would be at the same 'level' as each of the others. If a regular fire fyora could do a maximum of say 20 points of damage with their fire attack, then each of the hydra's heads could have the potential of say, 40% of that damage (8 points). So if all the heads hit, you could do 24 damage...theoretically. However each head would also have to roll the proverbial dice to see if it hit, so at least while the to hit % was lower/early game, you probably are looking at 16 max damage instead. The power comes later on when you're adding 3 (or 6) more heads as then the potential damage (compared to the same fyora - who for sake of simplicity is still at the same damage level as is each of our hydra's heads...) would be 48 (or 72) points. There would probably have to be some quantity limits on how many you could have so that you don't wind up with a Shaper strolling along with six hydras, each with nine heads, getting 54 attacks per turn... that might unbalance things just a tad... And now, after rereading your question while proofreading my answer... Do you mean to make a hydra you would have to have one level in fire shaping, two in magic, & three in battle to build the next level? No, that wasn't my thoughts. It might be interesting though that if you do want to make this powerful creature, you have to have a level/point in 'each' of the respective disciplines before you can shape it (& then a 2nd point in each to raise it to the 6 headed version)

Oooh, I like that idea. ****** One thing to bear in mind for everyone compiling wishlists, Jeff is just one person. Every new creation needs to work on all four difficulty levels without throwing the game balance completely off/have to work as part of your creation army with other creations. The more complex it gets, the longer it's going to take to write/test everything. For someone who's business model has been to put out a game every 12-18 months, even with a (presumed) solid Kickstarter backing, I can't see him putting 'that' much effort into really changing the already designed system. Tweaks sure, but a completely new shaping class is probably beyond what he'd want to do (and fwiw, I have zero idea what his thoughts are on this matter...so this post may age really badly...). ****** That said, how about a hydra. You could have multiple types of attacks from the different heads (fire, cold, acid, etc). Perhaps not as powerful as a dedicated fire breather (for example), but combined they could be similar damage levels. As it goes up in levels you would add an additional head per damage type (1st level, one each of fire, cold, acid. 2nd level, 2 each. Etc)

Been a while here too but iirc it's down towards the bottom right of the map square

Deliver a golem, or deliver parts of one? Most monster jobs are 'go kill 'x' monster & deliver the requested (automatically harvested) parts to 'y' '. In which case you killing most any golem should satisfy the job (unless it was to deliver a golem gem, in which case you may need to kill a few to get one - it's been a looong time since I've played the original A3 so some details may be a bit off). If it is the golem gem, I think there was a room in General B's camp that had a bunch just laying around. Or that city south of Gale with the ambush usually generated at least a couple of them (plus you'd have help fighting them with the town guards joining in)

Note, I have zero knowledge of Jeff's thinking on this (or most any other subject...). That said, probably. The others seem to have been well received & provide a lot of up front money which tends to be useful. As to when? Memorial Day is probably a bit soon. Labor Day is probably too long a wait. So during the summer sometime would be my guess for an announcement/actual Kickstarter (I'd think he'd want most of the game at least mentally mapped out so that he was fairly confident in meeting the goal dates).

'Which' pools are you trying to dip them into? The charging pools are generally under specific zones, & there are other pools here & there that don't do anything but damage you if you mess with them. If you get to one of the correct pools, say under Pentil Woods, if you've got the gloves or bracer in your inventory (or wearing), there should be an option in a pop up dialogue to dip one of them into the pool. Select that option & it's done. Then repeat in the other zones that have the pools (such as in Diarazad)

One thing I did/do as a time saving workaround was, after one trip to/from the dungeon in question, if my health or mana was low enough to the point where I would normally go back to town, I would retreat back to the start of the dungeon but not go outside (to avoid resetting doors, gates, etc). Once there I'd use the appropriate cheat code to recharge my characters & head back into the fray (under the somewhat dubious mental justification that as if the way to the dungeon from town was clear...the way back would be too). In those places where "Are you 'sure' you want to go that way, you probably won't be able to return..." was a rather blatant warning that this was a one way journey, the cheat code gets put away & heath/energy potions get used instead. Shrug, technically a 'cheat', but it does reduce the tedious things that 'are' within the rules of the game (nibbling away at a dungeon - QW takes away that option). Try bumping the difficulty level up one notch. You seem to have the basics of the harder levels without wanting the time consuming perfection of torment. Things should still move along relatively apace but still not be a complete walkthrough for you.

Again, it's been a few years so grain of sand & all that... (also I tend to play on hard/veteran but it applies to torment too) Friendly fire can be really nasty if you aren't careful, granted. However this is a turn based game so use that to your advantage. You have time to study the game board/battlefield & position your spell casters where they won't take out/hurt your front line guys (or make them with massive endurance so that they can absorb a big hit of friendly fire or two). Also one of the things I tended to use more than the other were the grenade (for lack of a better term) kind of spells rather than a cone. With using zone type of spells you can toss/position them right in front of your forward guys without hitting them (such as, iirc, ice spray or fire strike (priest spell)). Cone shaped spells worked really well for me if I could get my caster off to the side of the main fight & cast it along the line of baddies facing my front line guys (essentially perpendicular to the way everyone was facing (or the base of an L shaped ambush if you know infantry tactics)). Also, before casting a spell it shows the area of impact. Use that knowledge to 'test' if you're in the right spot to not damage your own guys. If not, cancel the spell & move over a little bit & try again. Again, you're not trying to fight in real time so take a little time to make sure that you're getting the most out of each spell casting... because on torment you're going to need that slight edge There's no shame in not wanting to play on torment. Jeff makes that level as a serious challenge for the really anal types who insist on min/maxing everything. Personally I don't have the time available/patience to make sure that 'everything' I do is the 'perfect' way to do 'x'. Veteran/hard is still challenging without needing to be perfect. But torment can be done if you're willing to really work at it.

If question one's answer isn't more arcane lore, you may have to go do an errand or two for Patrick... (or ... that may be A2s way of making things readable ... it's been a few years). Q2: I'm pretty sure damage bonuses get added after the damage calculation

Yeah, going from memory here, it's the difference between short & long bows. The long bows have the critical hit bonus, short do not. So it's like an apples to pears comparison here, close but not exactly the same. IIRC there's lemonwood longbows later in the game that you can make a more direct comparison to.

Scroll down a little bit to the "Spiky Silver Orb" thread...

Essence is (kind of) like the seating capacity in your car. At any particular point in time it's a fixed size/maximum that you can have. You get more maximum essence whenever you level up & you can increase that by buying, with skill points, essence mastery. So leveling up a few levels is like going from a sedan to a minivan, instead of four passengers you now can carry six. Your creations each take 'x' amount of essence to create/keep alive (depending on the different abilities you give them). Having creations is having them take up passenger space in your vehicle. So, in a sedan, instead of having four spots available, if you have a couple of creations, you only have enough essence/room for up to two more creations/passengers. If, because it's spring, you need to haul home a few bags of mulch for your flowerbeds, if there's room in the back seat for the mulch, great. If there isn't then you may need/want to kick out/absorb a creation to create enough maximum essence/room for the mulch. Once the mulch is home/the need of the extra essence available is passed, you can always go pick up/remake the creation that you left at the garden center. Otherwise, you do some quests, kill a few monsters, etc & level up/go buy the minivan which gives you room for both your creations & the mulch. Not an exact comparison (as there are nuances in both creation making & vehicle shopping...), but hopefully it helped a bit.

With QW2 as the next Spiderweb (planned) offering, yeah GF2 improvements/ideas are probably pretty flexible at this point...and while I can't wait, sadly I'll have to (of the first GF trilogy, #2 is far & away my favorite). But on topic (sort of), I really can't see a whole new shaping class being offered for the cockatrice or other future creations as that would really throw the skill point distribution out of balance. If there were say four shaping disciplines moving forward, you would need to make more skill points available to be able to really let the shapers train in the assorted disciplines/opening up the higher level creations. However ... those additional skill points would also be need to be available to guardians & agents... both of whom would probably dump them into melee or magic respectively & making them somewhat more powerful at 'x' level than a similar experienced shaper. Time will tell...

Is everything out in your meat life logical & consistent? Say you're going to meet two friends, Bill & Jim, at a park & only one shows up. That's all you know right now, Bill showed up but no Jim. However Bill knows that Jim needed to stop at the Post Office while he was out & will be there in a few minutes. Jim not showing up at the exact time you expected is not a bug, it's just what's going on & you don't have all the information that you need to understand why he isn't there at that exact second. I'm honestly not trying to be a jerk here, really, but you should just roll with things as they come along. Gather information from various sources, put it all together & see if a pattern emerges. If something conflicts with what you think is going on, reassess your collected info. Maybe 'you' were wrong in your initial suppositions. However just because further incoming information doesn't fit with your (incomplete) world view, that doesn't make it a bug to drag you out of your game immersion. Stop overthinking things & just enjoy the game. I'm not saying don't try to understand what's going on, but you don't know all the pieces of the puzzle yet. Again, not trying to be a jerk, but you've stated in many threads/thread titles that you want zero spoilers to screw up your game... and yet here you are wanting a discussion/clarification on something that sounds like it might or might not be a fairly good sized plot point... If you don't want spoilers, roll with it, keep exploring, & stop thinking that Jeff may/may not have screwed something up. Or ... if it's stressing you out 'that' much where you can neither sleep or continue on with the game...say so & we can talk about what Trakjov's been up to before you arrived on the scene.

There's also the "Mungo just a pawn in the game of life" thickheaded option of just (slowly) walking through the minefield & healing yourself as needed... (which works much better once you find Essence Shield). However there are enough spore batons around that you should be able to get through most everything using them. Be aware that there are three different colored mines, grey & green are the most usual ones but there are also red ones too. There's usually a pop up description of what you're facing before you actually walk into the field.

That was a response with an early interview/welcome to the fortress talk with Redbeard, but he liked your honesty so that's probably not it.

I tried to talk Jeff into allowing answers like that for tactical or self preservation reasons - "Hello big strong leader who hates me & is looking for an excuse to start a fight, (even though I think you're an !@#$!!~! & despise you...), love what you're doing with the place..." (lie) - or - "Hello grieving servile, even though I think you're a moron for your Shaper worship, your mate didn't die in vain..." (lie). Etc Something that you could answer but wouldn't swing your reputation around wildly if you answered like you would in real life instead of being forced to consider game impact by responding how you want your reputation to shift towards. Ah well, maybe off in the future.

No, there's about 15-20 of them patrolling around though. What are you playing as as that will impact tactics? As an agent I usually stood around where the 4 turrets were near the entrance, fully buffed (recasting when they got down to 1-2 turns left) & waited. The instant one appeared off in the distance I'd go into fight mode which would usually cause them to use their turn running at me. That would most of the time bring them within range/close enough that moving 2-3 spaces towards them if needed would still give me the chance at another turn. Then, if I had it by then, airshock to stun, or if not searer to burn them if/when they ran away. Occasionally another one would come up on the ongoing combat which could get interesting if the other one wasn't dying quickly enough. Clearing the zone requires passing through the locked door ... something that 'really' requires airshock or other serious aoe damage. Not impossible, but not easy until after at least the mid game. Beyond 'that' is where you'll meet the unending spawners... (iirc)