TriRodent

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)

Yeah, he's mentioned in interviews for a couple of years now that he wants to make QW a trilogy & to remake all of GF. Going off his usual pattern QW2 will be next, then GF2 , QW3, & GF3... then it will get interesting. (note, I have zero information on his thought process or business plans, just what I've picked up through various conversations/speculations around here) His usual pattern is to alternate a remake with a new game, but iirc from somewhere, he's also said that QW will probably be the last new series. So we'll see. Years ago the alternating made sense as to keep interest going/money coming in you would need to put out new content & not just constantly remake things (where if not enough people bought the remake you'd be out of business). Now though, with Kickstarter essentially prefunding games... it's an interesting development/wildcard/knowledge of what the market is willing to support. So with Kickstarter (or whatever the new thing is 5ish years down the line...), he can see if people want three straight remakes in a row (GF3-5), of if he's going to have to come up with 'something' new to stick in the mix somewhere (the oft speculated Avernum Zero?). Time will tell I suppose. It'll be a fun ride however it works out though based upon what's come before.

You're probably too high a level right now. Press the 't' key to bring up the text box. It will tell you all sorts of good stuff including if you're too high a level to get any experience (or if you're missing hitting 'x', by how much % you're missing by (good info to know)).

I'm not sure what you're getting at here. The wands reload themselves when they're empty if you have the right type of thorns/ammo in inventory. I only keep one type of each wand & sell the rest (& only carry one wand (I don't use them that much, more a magic user most of the time) & the ammo for it at a time - wand equipped & one slot for the thorns). And the wand reloading here is MUCH better than the original GF. When the wands got to zero thorns, you had to point it at something & 'shoot' a blank shot at them to fill it back with thorns...counting as an attack in combat mode (which I suppose is fair as unless you're Jerry Miculek, it's going to take real time to do so). Anyway, back then I'd carry many wands, trade them out when they got to zero, go to a friendly town, go into combat (saving first...), point the empties at a guard & 'shoot' him to refill them...yeah there was the occasional 'oops' & back to reloading the game to prevent the town from being pissed at me. I much prefer this new way of manipulating wands.

Really because I had to return there later in the game to go down to the basement & the ones that were disarmed before were still that way when I came back (including that really big minefield up in the upper left corner). Maybe some do & some don't, I really didn't pay that much attention (mainly because if I'm going back somewhere it will be many levels later & I'd just walk through & absorb any blasts & redo my shield/heal as needed.)

It doesn't apply in your case, but for someone searching the topic in the future... It could be that you killed him as you were racing around trying to kill the clawbugs/spawners. As you were distracted with the others, you may not have noticed this lone thaad in the middle of a battle. If so you may need to do some wandering around later (coming back into the zone after you discover that you need the orb) to find where you killed him & the orb will be sitting on the ground there (hopefully near his nest, but...) Randomizer: I had success finding him/him coming to the nest without having to go in & out of the zone. Once the clawbugs/spawners were dead & the area was safe to hang out in, I'd put my character as far as possible from the nest while still able to observe it clearly. He won't show up if you are actually within the nest area, but will if you're juuust outside of it.

Slight adjustment to that good suggestion - talk to anyone that has an actual name. Talking to wandering guards/farmers/etc will generally get you a conversation but nothing important (other than atmosphere) is provided & it's the same for all of them. For the most part, in any of the assorted Spiderweb games, if someone has a distinct name you should talk to them at least once.

Jeff's first game waaaay back when was Exile. That was remade 20ish years ago into Avernum which in turn was remade a few years ago into Avernum: Escape from the Pit. So there's a long history with that game universe (generally known as Avernum - of which there are six games/chapters in the story). Geneforge (remake of #1 just came out a few weeks ago) has 5 games/chapters. Avadon has 3. Queen's Wish was a new story that came out about a year ago, at least a trilogy is planned there & #2 will be the next game released by SW. Then there's the stand alone game Nethergate set in ancient England when magic was still around (which is actually two games as you can play both the Romans & Celts). Each are in their own unique universe with different back stories/game play. Each are very well done & each game has 60-100ish hours of playtime (so you'll be getting your money's worth even at full retail - there are usually bundles on sale at Steam or GOG every month or so...). My favorite is Avernum, but that's me. Best suggestion that I have is go to SW's site (link at top of the page) & download demos for each of the games (most demos have at least 10-20 hours of play time so you should get a real good feel for things). They all are good/great/interesting in their own way, but which one is best for you? That's up to you to figure out. Enjoy the journey. If you do want to be a developer, there's a lot you can learn about many aspects by playing the games. Not so much the programming end, but the world building, character development (or when to leave things a mystery), where & when to make things amusing/serious/confusing/etc, resource & inventory management, monster strength/balance with player's level, etc. You've stumbled upon something special, enjoy it.

I don't know if there is a limit here, but in other SW games there was an item limit (200+ iirc) of distinct items in any one particular spot (10 healing pods stacked together count as one item) & going over that would cause items to disappear.. So it would take a really big pile of your crap...er...stuff, but it could happen. I do essentially the same (leave stuff in a friendly zone), but scatter it around a bit more. Pods & spores in one spot. Move down the map far enough that when I open up the inventory screen, the pods/spores are not available/out of reach, & drop off say the assorted thorns, etc. It takes a few extra seconds of walking around to do the sorting/inventory management, but then there's no worry about hitting the limit & having items vanish.

DId you turn off the nearby power source? Because that would shut down the machine permanently

Three spots north of the river. You'll be 2/3+ of the way through the game before finding a canister. But once you do...

That's the way I did it. During testing I talked a bit with Jeff about this. His stance is that the junk bag is there to save on the drudgery of filling up your inventory with things of little, but some, value, going to town to sell them, and then going back to get more. You fill the bag with that, go to town & sell everything at once/one click. It's 'not' supposed to be some magical space warp inventory pocket. I'm about to head out the door to go to the library for a few hours. It would be nice to have this desktop computer/monitor/speakers/printer/etc with me as it's familiar to use & probably faster than the ones there. Likewise, I'll be there past lunch time. Bringing all the equipment/ingredients to make say an omelette would be nice, but it's more practical to wait until I get back to make it. So I'm venturing out into the world with my truck keys, wallet, cell phone, & pocket knife... Point being that there's only so much that you can physically carry. Be glad that you 'can' carry around 6 sets of chain mail (if you have the inventory spaces) in the game rather than the more realistic (but highly annoying) system that say A4 had where 'everything' had a weight value & you got overloaded pretty quickly. My inventory screen generally has 6-8 slots open (carrying either pods or spores not both helps a lot, only one wand of any particular type (extras stored in town), maybe a piece of specialized equipment if I know I'll need it (such as soft shoes in the mines), etc). Would I like to be able to haul everything with me & be immediately accessible, sure. However this way strikes a good balance between game immersion, reality, & reducing the cash producing drudgery.

With enough energy/essence, airshock from just outside their range works wonders on pylons...& lets you accumulate all sorts of light blue crystals

During beta testing I did a solo Agent run on both normal & veteran (normal 1st & got the medal then). Did the veteran run mainly to make sure that the balance scaled up with the difficulty (it did). As Randomizer mentioned, picking up Airshock is a game changer/makes things much easier. Not a huge amount of reloading all things considered.

An Agent with zero creations on Veteran or higher is interesting/fun. A true solo run can be done but it gets interesting/exciting/lots of reloading at times...

Leadership to the north, fighting to the south (or for extra/maximum experience, fight through about 2/3rds of the south, avoiding the northeastern part of the map. Then go out & do the leadership route north of town)

I did a runthrough as completely unaligned. There are places that will teach you without belonging to a certain sect. Not that I really noticed. It kept all three villages friendly throughout the game if that's a concern. The ending wrap up will be a bit different than if aligned. So, not really, no. You'll miss out on some training/quests but nothing game changing/can't be overcome by doing things differently.

I usually went down & around (through the red mines) to get to the boat. For the times I fought my way through, even as a solo agent on veteran, I'd whittle things down before they all attacked. Stand juuuust out of their visual range & stun the nearest one with airshock at the furthest it could reach. That was usually good for three turns, so run in on the first stunned turn & hit him with searer, run back out & continue the airshocks while the poison/acid whittled hit points away as well. Run back in on a new stunned rounds, etc. Usually I'd have to head back to town to recharge after killing just one, but as there was no penalty to do so/day counter to advance, why not. Come back & find someone else who could be picked off the same way. Rinse, lather, repeat. Eventually (eventually....) you'd get down to just a couple within the actual docks area & probably could handle them. Never tried dominate on them as airshock became my go to/take on everything spell.

Or depending on your search history 'who...' ... er ... never mind...

“In my house there's this light switch that doesn't do anything. Every so often I would flick it on and off just to check. Yesterday, I got a call from a woman in Madagascar. She said, 'Cut it out.'” ― Steven Wright

Bwahaahaa No ... and yes. The mysteries of Sucia aren't yours to fully know yet young Padwan...

Down at the very bottom of the map? Yeah that's a quest monster. Killing it's a good thing. Now you just need to figure out who wanted it dead... {evil smile}

Type 't' to open up the text box & you'll get details of what's going on.

Shouldn't someone named Coach be helping us...?