mikeprichard

(EDIT: I'm trying to clean up this and my earlier posts in this topic through text strikethroughs in my above posts and edits in this post, as I think they clutter the forum with certain incorrect assumptions from my side, and I can't delete my posts. Apologies to the moderators if my approach here isn't appropriate.) I think I've been making this much more complicated than it is and taking things in a wrong direction. I also incorrectly assumed and was concerned that resource losses due to theft would now accumulate over time, rather than only being part of the one-off calculation against your resource inventory each 2-day period similar to QW1 - Mechalibur has shown that it's still the same as QW1 in this respect, so no need to worry on that account. (https://steamcommunity.com/app/1947750/discussions/0/3314107765690352597/#c3427823723507969545) That said, it seems the mechanics are still fairly similar to QW1 (with the major exception that resources are immediately and permanently spent on/invested in structures, rather than being regularly accumulated or expenses being regularly deducted every 2 days), but I'd appreciate any fixes/additions to my below current educated guesswork, especially for the "???" points/values in items 2) and 3). Cheers! ------------------------------ 1) Your resource inventory as reported every 2 days is the total of all resources you've so far collected from any source, with all known available sources listed in Randomizer's top post in this topic, less the total of all initial costs for buildings you've so far constructed in all forts. Note that unlike QW1, removing a building after initially constructing it will not remove its associated cost, so once you initially build something, you've irrevocably committed those resources. 2) Any resource theft as reported every 2 days is counted as an offset against your resource inventory. If theft occurs, it will deduct from your total resource inventory for that period. The amount deducted begins with a "base" amount of 20???% at the start of the game on Normal(???) game difficulty up to 30% on Torment game difficulty, and is then affected by the following factors: a) building barracks and guard towers and upgrading forts, which reduce the theft amount in that region (barracks: -5%, guard towers: -5%, upgrade fort: -5%) b) gaining "Aid to Peace" by dedicating four forts to the Ro, which reduces the theft amount in all regions(???) (-10%) c) taking certain actions/completing certain quests, which either reduce or increase the theft amount in that region(???) [actions to reduce thefts are listed in the "Queen's Wish 2 index" topic, while actions to increase thefts include appointing bad governors, supporting women in the Low Dhaga, and burning groves in the Kranas Woods] (???%) d) your reputation with the Ro, which either reduces or (???) increases the theft amount in that region(???) (???%) e) reclaiming the second fort in a region, which increases the theft amount in that region(???) (+20%) 3) You'll suffer penalties for the next 2-day period if amounts stolen for any particular resource are greater than your available inventory of that resource for any 2-day period. Each single unit of any resource in "deficit" for the period results in a 2% penalty to your ???, up to a 20% maximum penalty. NOTE: Especially as removing a building after initially constructing it will not remove its associated cost, while quicksilver (until the late game) followed by stone (toward the late game) are in limited supply, you must be extremely careful when planning your fort purchases from the beginning to avoid a situation later in the game where you have an insufficient "cushion" against thefts and are unable to build/maintain all desired structures. ------------------------------

Thanks, Mechalibur; that's helpful. The piece I still don't get is the period of "income" for resources against which the theft is calculated - again, I'd thought once you initially collect the resources, they're yours, and there's no hidden ongoing accumulation of stuff, but clearly that's wrong. (cleanup of incorrect/misleading assumptions - sorry for all my posts spamming this topic; I'll just summarize in my 9/1/2022 post further below)

Oh shoot, so ongoing shop maintenance really is a thing... I'm a bit confused now as to the specific mechanics. The instructions note: "If theft reduces the resources coming in below the amount you have already spent, you will get penalties in combat." Still not sure how this exactly works in practice, considering I initially thought there were no resources "coming in" on an ongoing basis - I'd thought it was very simply "you get X resources, you spend Y resources". Real examples of how the system works, including sample timeframes/amounts for calculating the use of resources, would be great. (cleanup of incorrect/misleading assumptions - sorry for all my posts spamming this topic; I'll just summarize in my post 9/1/2022 further below)

Right, my concern is there really now might be a clock ticking in the background - the longer you play without getting to the next fort and using available resources to build all the buildings you want, the less you'll have available throughout the entire playthrough to do so considering the drip-drip of theft over time. I don't expect it will be too punishing for a thorough player, but it still seems it could be kind of a bummer for those like me who don't want any "time pressure". And silly question - if the game won't let you build with resources you don't have, and theft won't ever take you below 0, how exactly do you go into deficit (and rack up penalties) in the first place? I know it happened to me in the demo since I was starting to play by QW1 rules, but now I don't know how. (cleanup of incorrect/misleading assumptions - sorry for all my posts spamming this topic; I'll just summarize in my 9/1/2022 post further below)

One more question (since I only played the demo and haven't yet started a "for-real" playthrough - I've got other games for now, and am waiting for 1.0.1/1.0.2 anyway). As a very, very thorough completionist who likes to play RPGs leisurely without any explicit or implicit "time pressure", thinking further on this, I'm a bit concerned that the fact that resources are apparently finite across the entire game and aren't produced daily/weekly coupled with the theft mechanic could eventually put you into a resource death spiral if you play the game too long. E.g. to use simple numbers that illustrate the principle I have in mind, let's say you buy/collect 100 wood over the course of the entire game from all available sources, and spend 75 making buildings. If you then play too long, will occasional thefts start chipping away at your 25-wood "cushion", to the point where you'll eventually be in the hole and suffering penalties with no possible way to get back in the black? I'm sure I'm missing something obvious here - i.e. maybe getting to 0 in a resource isn't a problem in itself, as long as you don't try to build another building that would put you in a deficit - but any insight would be appreciated! (cleanup of incorrect/misleading assumptions - sorry for all my posts spamming this topic; I'll just summarize in my 9/1/2022 post further below)

Great info - much obliged!

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It would be nice if he'd tweak the report UI a bit to clarify the system, but I know he tends to be a bit set in his ways after version 1.0 launches! Either way, it's cool.

Yeah, I'm surprised Jeff didn't highlight this (that I saw at least) in his blog posts/other news bits for returning QW1 players. It's a major change, but one I happen to like.

It looks like there's some significant duplication of posts/info in this topic (the post starting with "Low Dhaga - southern" was apparently posted twice; there may be other duplications as well). Would you please be able to remove the duplicated info for ease of use? Also, you write in https://spiderwebforums.ipbhost.com/topic/27810-qw2-advice-for-playing/ that monsters now give 1-24 experience, but here you state they give 1-12. Could you please confirm which is correct? Thanks for this awesome resource, as always!

You can always count on Randomizer! Thanks as always for the great info.

Thanks for the inside info, Randomizer! It sounds like the "tweaks and improvements" only refers to underlying performance/system compatibility changes, rather than any adjustments to gameplay or UI.

Hi all - I'm checking in since I just read in Jeff's newsletter and on Steam news that QW1 was recently updated to 1.03 to include "better, revamped character art and a lot of tweaks and improvements." I suspect a detailed changelog specifying the exact tweaks/improvements doesn't exist, but if one does and I'm just missing it, will someone please provide a link/copy here? I doubt the changes will be enough to get me to start another playthrough, but I am curious about any hints of what's in store for QW2. Cheers!

Oh yeah, those Anama playthroughs in some games... good point.

OK, thanks, TADOS!

Sorry to continue this tangent, but how were lockpicks "infinitely renewable" in Exile? Was there an infinite supply in merchants, or did they not get used up? Again, don't remember that far back.

OK, so I guess I was right in that this kind of thing has been around since the beginning, without really remembering for sure, lol.

Oh, so Exile did have lockpicks after all? Forgot about that.

True, the old Exile/Avernum games had an Unlock spell for this purpose - been a while since my last Exile/Avernum playthroughs, so I tend to mix up different gameplay mechanics across the series.

Good Lord, those stinging (?) double-move clawbugs were a massive pain in the tuckus the first time I ran into them. Was very satisfying to come back later and squash 'em.

Yeah, I realized that later, TriRodent - no problem! To BenS' point, I also would love to be able to selectively sell junk bag items, and find the limited inventory space much more tedious than challenging, but I understand the latter it least is a very intentional decision on Jeff's part - and inventory management is still wayyyyy (way) better than it was in the original.

I didn't see Shift-click covered earlier, which is how you split stacks (and why I mentioned it above as relevant to alhoon's immediately previous question).

In my case, I was simply trying to understand the mechanics - no real complaints about difficulty (though in some battles I had to go for a cup of coffee while waiting for my turn to come back while surrounded by 25 ticked-off shades...).

I've also noticed this and wondered about it; though I've finished my playthrough so I can't recall very specific examples, it seemed many enemies had this kind of inherent "double attack" ability, separate from/in addition to e.g. Haste or Quick Action used by Sholai or servile NPCs.

You can split stacks with Shift-click.