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I'm normally a fan of doing all content off of the critical path first, then getting back to the main story. With the time limits in this game, though, I would hesitate to do that. I like the idea of being the big and very proactive heroes who stop the plagues and problems as early as possible so that more people are still alive to remember how great they are.
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Aug 26, 2016 19:03
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You can't be big heroes without money, loot, and exp. Explore the East.
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Aug 26, 2016 21:07
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Vil posted:How are we looking in terms of poo poo happening with the other plagues because of days passing while we gently caress around exploring? If my information is correct, the next plague doesn't become critical until about days 60 to 90. There's another event back in Upper Exile that gets triggered between 75 and 100 depending on the status of the next two quests. I can do a bit of puttering around, which will show me a couple places I'll need to go back to to deal with the quest.
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Aug 26, 2016 21:26
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There is plenty of time in this game to do everything. If you're really frankly pretty lazy (and/or spend a lot of time retreading ground) then you may find that some of the pointless towns get nuked and their important NPCs get moved elsewhere, but that's about the worst that can happen and even that takes a long time. I wouldn't worry too much about resolving all of the "imminent threats" ASAP. That'd throw the power curve all wonky, for one thing, as Art & Company would end up vastly overpowered compared to everything except for certain special sidequests.
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Aug 27, 2016 01:41
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TooMuchAbstraction posted:That'd throw the power curve all wonky, for one thing, as Art & Company would end up vastly overpowered compared to everything except for certain special sidequests. Oh please, Art is vastly overpowered. Even if she wasn't dual wielding Alien Blades, I've come across enough decent weapons to make the difference moot. And it's taken Matthias and Ni'aurl getting Firestorm for them to compare to her ability to slaughter everything in front of her. Everyone else is merely mortal. 
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Aug 27, 2016 01:57
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berryjon posted:Oh please, Art is vastly overpowered. Even if she wasn't dual wielding Alien Blades, I've come across enough decent weapons to make the difference moot. And it's taken Matthias and Ni'aurl getting Firestorm for them to compare to her ability to slaughter everything in front of her. Everyone else is merely mortal. Well okay, then go get the Ring of Endless Magery already! 
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Aug 27, 2016 02:08
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I have to say that I never got the Babylon 5 reference. I was too young and even now I'm not a fan of sci-fi. I also have to say that I had never even thought of doing the Golddale Mines quest by circling around to the other entrance until my last playthrough - so I attacked their fortifications head-on and was forced to reload dozens of times each. Somehow I actually managed to win once in a while by going the hard way. Don't ask me how. Also, I'm going to have to vote west here. This is partially because of the time limit, mostly because other than the courier side-job, there are a couple of nasty dungeons that are probably above your party level at the moment. But it's up to the thread, really.
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Aug 27, 2016 02:29
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TooMuchAbstraction posted:Well okay, then go get the Ring of Endless Magery already! Not yet. I want to get to the fifth Plague before I attempt that one.
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Aug 27, 2016 02:30
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LuffyVeggies posted:I have to say that I never got the Babylon 5 reference. Honestly, I'm surprised every time somebody does get a B5 reference. Apparently it was hard to get new viewers into a show predicated on one long pre-planned plot thread after season 1 or something. (Also, this was the 90s, before shows like Breaking Bad and whatnot made having show-long plots that were actually planned out the cool thing to do.)
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Aug 27, 2016 02:41
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What awaits us in the Sharimik area is one of my very favorite quests in the game. However, since we are in the area, kind of, I vote we go east. if my memory serves me right, there are some very interesting things there, as well.
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Aug 27, 2016 03:05
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East it is! Now it's riddle time! Exile 3 posted:"I have a thousand little knives, my hands are red and white. You can give them to your maid, to make things turn out right. What am I?
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Aug 27, 2016 03:56
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If maid means maiden/lover like I think it does, then a Rose? That's a dick move of a question for people from Avernum since they probably don't see/remember what a rose is.
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Aug 27, 2016 04:10
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A Rose, yes.
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Aug 27, 2016 04:10
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Argh, I thought of Rose but was thinking maid as in female servant and couldn't figure out how it fit at all.
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Aug 27, 2016 04:17
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Yeah, the only thing I could come up with was some kind of sewing kit, since I immediately thought of pins with the first two hints.
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Aug 27, 2016 04:18
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Rose it is. Also found a Random Shop selling some stupidly useful things. Enough so that I bought some endgame gear.
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Aug 27, 2016 04:21
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berryjon posted:Rose it is. There's a debug code (I want to say it's shift-W) to force-refresh the shop contents, which otherwise refresh once per day. So if you feel like being a cheating cheater who cheats, it's pretty easy to spam refresh the shop until you have Rings and Boots of Speed on everyone. Assuming you have unrealistic amounts of cash, anyway.
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Aug 27, 2016 04:35
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TooMuchAbstraction posted:There's a debug code (I want to say it's shift-W) to force-refresh the shop contents, which otherwise refresh once per day. So if you feel like being a cheating cheater who cheats, it's pretty easy to spam refresh the shop until you have Rings and Boots of Speed on everyone. Assuming you have unrealistic amounts of cash, anyway. Yeah, I found a ring of speed in the Tower of the Magi random shop on my first visit. Unfortunately it cost 6000 gold which was a good 2000 gold more than I had. Instead I bought Magic Chainmail and a Steel Greatsword,and whoops that was supposed to be my training money.
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Aug 27, 2016 04:52
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berryjon posted:What am I?
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Aug 27, 2016 19:07
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Parts Kit posted:About to be stabbed repeatedly ... Wait for the update. Something magical happens.
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Aug 27, 2016 21:49
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Fireballed repeatedly works too.
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Aug 27, 2016 22:46
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berryjon posted:... Well now I'm really curious! At least I feel vindicated about the answer the thread generated; it's probably the one I would have picked.
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Aug 28, 2016 05:32
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So what kind of overland map do you have? Is it just pencil and paper to remember where all the towns are or can you easily see the names of places you've been?
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Aug 31, 2016 01:50
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Glazius posted:So what kind of overland map do you have? Is it just pencil and paper to remember where all the towns are or can you easily see the names of places you've been? There are no place names on the map. You do get in-game 'hand drawn' maps in some places for each of the provinces to give you an idea of where the major cities are, but a detailed map depends on your memory, or the map included with the guidebook.
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Aug 31, 2016 02:19
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Unfortunately some of those maps are in weird places (at least one is NOT in the major city) and there's not any pointers telling you where to find them, so they aren't quite as useful as they could be.
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Aug 31, 2016 03:54
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Update 028 – The Dryad Grove, Storm Port and the Fiery Pit  “... I don't know.” “Do it! Do it!” “We don't even know what she's thinking!” “Yes we do.” “To investigate the Trogs or no.” “You know, I thought they were kinda extinct. Why is there a colony here in Valorim?” “Good point! Let's head back south and avoid resolving someone elses problems!”* * *  “Curious, there is something to the east of here...” “Amazing! You've discovered trees!”    “Oh, this is bad.” “But it's pretty!” “Oh dear.” “Hello?”   You meet a dryad, a beautiful, feminine creature of the woods with greenish hair and skin. She isn't as peaceful and carefree as you've heard these creatures are, however. She is distraught and has been crying. “Um, hello?” “I am Esselarea,” she says in a voice choked with grief. “What happened?” “I am trying to regain my grove!” Fresh tears begin to run down her face. “Regain it from what?” She stamps her foot in fury. “A fierce Ogre snuck in and scared me out! A dryad's grove is her life. I'm trying to figure out how to remove it.” “We might be able to help. Can you tell us about the Ogre?” “A horrid beast, the biggest I've ever seen. It's in there now, burning my trees and killing my pets. Oh how I'd reward someone who slew it!” “Why are groves so important?” “SASS!” “I feel the death of every tree and every animal. If something isn't done to the Ogre soon, I'll be done for!” “I'm more wondering about what kind of reward a nature spirit would offer. Not that we need one, naturally.” Her tears dry up, replaced by a furious gaze. “The ogre stole some of my trinkets. Whoever slew it could have them, but there's a problem.” “There always is.” “What problem?” “One of you can enter my glade to the east. But only one of you. The defences of my glade are working against me now. Only one outsider can enter. That was how that one Ogre got in. Please, please please, will one of you accept this quest?” “Art.” “Art.” “Art.” “Art.” “Art.” “... Fine. I accept the quest.” “Just go through the trees to the northeast. My hopes are with you!” she blushes, then starts to cry again.  “You guys really nominate me, huh?” “You have that nice mix of magical and martial to handle the Ogre better than anyone else.” “Except maybe Sass. He's learning.” “But he's not good enough.”  “Alone. Again. Story of my life.”  “Don't have food, so you can't steal anything you purple annoyance.”  A nasty little Gremlin is grinning at you. “Who are you?” “I'm a gremlin! What use do I have for names?” “Then what do you want?” It gives you a toothy little grin. “I should be helping you get further into the grove!” “Oh really now? And how exactly, are you helping?” “Just being helpful wouldn't be very gremlinish now, would it?” It emits a little high-pitched laugh. “Tell you what ... I'll help you if you can answer my riddle.” “A riddle.” “I have a thousand little knives, my hands are red and white. You can give them to your maid, to make thins turn out right. What am I?”  “Correct! In return, I shall tell you this ... proceed on the path with the large stone at the entrance. Otherwise you'll get beaten on.” “...” “One or the other. How bad could it be?” “Boring.” “Easy.” “Wait.. I hear the sound of something magical...”   Even the game wants the Gremlins to die! “Heh.” “Oh, and that 'safe' path has enemies of its own.” “Or was this the unsafe path? Don't know. Don't care.” “I should have asked how far in the Ogre was.”   “So.. what's your gimmick?” An unusually tall gremlin, a full three feet, has been waiting for you. It says “1234.” You aren't sure why. “What's your gimmick?” “6789. 2345.” You aren't sure why it's saying this. “You know, I really hope this isn't a math problem. I had enough troubles wrapping my head around how to figure out square roots using subtraction” “4567. 2345.” “Come on! Pattern recognition?” “3456.” “I hate you. And if you're just going to throw out random numbers, then I can too!”  Smiling, it points at the path marked by a large rock. “You know, that didn't work out so well for the last gremlin.”  “This is almost calm.” “Never mind. This is more my speed.” “You know, I remember someone saying that you know you are going in the right direction when more foes show up in your path. I wonder if they were an adventurer.” “Hey, your 'safe path' wasn't.”  “Oh joy. Spiders.”   “At least the spiders are currently of the normal size. And non-talking. That's the important part.” “Definitely non-talking.”  “Oh wow. Open field of flowers. This is going to be one of those silly maze things, right?” :zzz: “Right. Don't step on the flowers. Follow the nice path around them.” “Left or right? My sense of impending doom says.... left!” “Doom confirmed.” A Gremlin looks at you enigmatically. “Right, what's up with you? Got a name, at least?” “I don't have a name. But at least my name isn't a number!” “Wait, I was guessing an identifier? How many of you are there in this grove that the Dryad has to number you?” “Doesn't matter. I'm here to help you rescue the grove.” “Well, out with it then.” “Of course, I'm a gremlin. I don't want to be too useful. I can give you a hint though!” “Well, at least you're not being arrogant about it. Tell me the hint.” It grins enigmatically, and points due north. “North? That's it? Wow, you're downright pleasant for a gremlin.” It laughs. “We're just not friendly creatures!” It kicks you in the shin, just to punctuate the point. “Right. Hate you all.” “Due north..?” “Oooohhhhh.....” “This seems very convenient.” “Huh.” “Well, I could either engage it in an epic duel to the death, or throw this pollen of sleeping power at it. Wait. Pollen? I meant pod. Glad no one was around to hear that slip of the tongue.” “Eh, no one has to know.”  “And thus, I slew the might Ogre in battle.” “Oh, who am I kidding? This'll be what I tell everyone:”     “That's what totally happened.” As far as I can tell, the Ogre is completely generic, and the flavour about it being bigger is just that – flavor. “Now, let's check out that stash.” “Hey, more bolts for Delilah!” And here's a map of the Grove. * * *  “Coming through!”   “Yep, not getting back in there.” “So, what happened?” “Well, I had to hack and slash my way through corrupted and mad creatures before finally confronting the largest Ogre I've ever seen in the centre of the Grove.” “Really? You're telling him that?” “Is it not acceptable to elaborate on ones deeds to make them better stories?” “Well, that's enough of that. We have places to go. More welcoming places, I should hope.”* * *  “From the information we've received, the next town along the southern coast should be Storm Port. Now it's just a measure of finding it.” “We just follow the road.” “Another point where the road loops around a forest. At least this time there's no obvious way through instead.”  “Nah. Thanks for the offer though.” I come back here. Eventually.  “Storm Port this is.” “I'm more worried about the lack of a road going further north or east.” “Don't care. Let's check it out.” “And hopefully Sass won't follow me.” “Probably random stuff for people living here.” “Hey there, shopkeep!” A tall, thin, twitchy man is sitting behind the counter. He's using a rag to energetically polish what looks, to you, like a shard of broken glass. He stands up. “Ah! Welcome to you, stout traveller! I am Valentino! Welcome to my shop!” He sits back down. “I'm Bronwyn. So, what kind of store is this?” He's very pleased you asked. “Why, I collect and distribute all manner of wondrous items! Here is how the process works! You sell me the excess crud you don't want. I hike the price, and make it available to others for purchase. Elegant, eh?” “Sounds like basic economics to me. What sort of wondrous things are we talking about?” “Wondrous items. And, of course, a lot of garbage.” He shrugs. “Show me.”   I stopped for a moment here, and connected with a follower of this LP I like to chat with on occasion. I told him what I found here, and he may have not quite believed my good fortune. Anyway, Valentino's is a “Random Shop” whose inventory resets every day, and it can have anything that isn't a unique or extremely rare item. And I have money to burn at this point, so I grab the two armors, the Nimble Gloves, the Archer's bow and the Runed Helm. Art gets the Chainmail, Bronwyn and Art each get an Archer's Bow for the defensive bonus, and Sass gets the Magic Breastplate. I forget who I gave the helm to. Bronwyn also gets the Nimble Gloves. Why? It makes her better at picking locks and removing traps. “If this is the prices you offer, we'll probably be back as many times as we can.” “Where did everyone go?”  “Hello?” “Oh good, it's only an eight-foot lizard. That's reassuring.” You meet an aging female merchant, wearing fine jewellery and rich clothes. She looks on edge. “I'm Sass!” She shakes your hand. “I am Dana. I run shipping up and down the east coast. Right now we're looking for couriers.” “Bronwyn was talking about that. I thought you were in Libras?” “There are actually a couple points on the route, with Squiggus being the end of it.” “If you want to be a courier from here, you can purchase bundles here and carry them up there. They'll pay you handsomely for it. It's been hard lately. There's been some monster troubles.” “Oooh! Monsters! Tell me about those!” She looks annoyed, but not at you. “You should ask Mayor Runkle. He's next door. He's been useless for dealing with the problem, but at least he may be able to explain it.” This place is literally a copy of the same one in Libras. Just a tad faster to get to. “Well, it's nice to see Sass being polite.”  “My turn to talk to the local head, I think.” “Hello there, sir.” You meet a tired, thin old man. He sits behind the desk, contemplating a skull. You notice the skull has rubies for eyes. “I'm Mayor Runkle. You must be the people wandering around, doing things I've been hearing rumors about.” “Probably.” “I'm the mayor. It's sort of a different post around here. I'm the administrator of several towns, and I have enough problems as it is.” “How can you possibly administer several towns at once?” “Ideally it would be easy. Most of the places run themselves.” He counts the towns off on his fingers. “Storm Port. Libras. Lost Isle. Gost. Gebra. Bolton. Squiggus. I take care of administration details for all of them as they aren't big enough to have mayors of their own. And of course, I try to protect them from the monsters.” “You have a monster problem? Like the Troglodytes?” “No, not them. They haven't gotten this far south yet.” He holds up the skull he was looking at. “There's undead to the north-east. Lots of them. We don't know who's making them, and they move farther south every day.” “Well, at least the undead are a known problem.” “The undead aren't as bad as the monster plagues I hear the big cities have been having, but they are a threat. And the Empire is no help.” “And what do you expect the Empire to do?” “When things were peaceful, an Empire adjunct would be through every week, riding me about one thing or another. Now, when we really need their help, we don't get one gold piece, not one soldier. I don't know what's going on up north, but if they don't start helping out more, this whole area will go straight to Hell.” “We'll look into it. Not officially, if you don't want a record.” “Well, you can't make things worse, can you?” “Hello?” “...” “Well, at least the sign is helpful.”  A beggarwoman kneels by the docks. In addition to an alms bowl, she holds a roll of tickets. “Well, I hope you won't give me the cold shoulder.” “No, good sir, I will not. I am Laika.” “You seem to have two jobs.” She sneezes and wipes her nose on her sleeve. “Well, I'm a beggar, really. But lately I've been more of a saleswoman.” “And what do you sell?” “You can purchase tickets to the city of Gebra from me. Only 12 gold ... 10 for the ticket, plus a 2 gold service charge.” “And what service would that be?” I only include that image because as far as I can tell, this is the first (only?) NPC to use the NPC's graphic and not a garish face. Nice to know that it could be done.  “Generic.”  “Same as you.” “So, after checking on everyones notes, we can either go south and check out the islands, north and face the undead, or back inland to address the Troglodyte menace. “Eh....”   “Yeah, I think we can work with this. To the North!”  “At least the river is keeping them at bay.” “Actually, I'm not seeing much of any activity regarding the undead.” “Oh, never mind.” This occurs whenever you encounter an undead mob on the overworld. “That is not normal behaviour.” “But I wanna smash them!” “Don't follow them. They could be attempting to lead us into a trap.” “I'm not seeing any way across. We'll need some way to fly to check out that island.” “Hey! Shiny!” “At least we know now that they are violent. But why not us?” “No clue, but this cavern looks interesting.” “No undead here.” “No, but we should check it out, just in case.”   “This is nice and relaxing.” “Says you! What do you hope to find here anyways?” “I don't know.” “Drakes are not it though.” “Fall back!” “It's following us!” “Crap, have to fight here!” “I'll help!”   “That seemed... easier.” “You're just getting more experienced, and we were able to fight it where it couldn't maneuver.” “If this is going to be a thing, It's time to break out a nice spell.”   “Oh crap.” It's hard to tell when and where an enemy will walk over lava. It may have something to do with their immunity to fire, or something like that. But I can't be sure. Drakes will, but Fire Lizards won't. And when this happens, the Nephil will move to get off the lava if they can. If they can't, they won't move at all. Not moving on lava means you don't take damage from it. “That's the last of them. Can we leave now?” “Not yet. There's still the south side of these caves.” “Wait. Raw rubies? I think we can stay.” “Don't be too greedy.” “More!” I cheat here and restore my HP/SP. Art's burning 20% of her reserves everytime she casts Firewalk, and there's more to do. “This path looks well worn down by clawed feet.” “I wonder how many little passages like this there are that we've missed?” “Too many.”  “Fall back!” Welcome to my kill box. Population: Everything else. Except when one firebreath – normally only hitting a single target – hits the entire party. And that's the last of them. Two more Drakes and about a dozen Fire Lizards were in this back corner. “Let's not do that again anytime soon, shall we?” “And no more crystals. Just bones. I don't think they've been here for long.” “You sure?” “Someone didn't make it out.” Hey, a Fine Crossbow! Poor sap. “That's enough of that detour. Time to go find the source of the undead.”
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Aug 31, 2016 07:46
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When I mentioned earlier that there were some tough dungeons out in the remote east, there were three I had in mind. The Fiery Pit was one of them, the other one it sounds like you'll be tackling next update, and the third is WAY out of your current level and abilities and is actually much further north than I remembered, meaning there's no way you'll even find it until we eventually go after the troglodytes. Also, there is something different about the Ogre in the Dryad's grove: it has a TON more HP than the usual Ogre, which is why the "hint" about the instant-sleep poppies to throw at him exists. But he can still be taken in combat easily if you're halfway competent. Finally, beggars are not the only characters who use their sprites instead of faces in dialogue boxes, but they're the most prominent and are pretty much the only civilian-types who have them. Oh, I forgot one more thing - that's REALLY good luck on the Random Item shop. And the fact that all that cost you less than half your gold? Pretty awesome. All magical armour has 1 less encumbrance than other armours of the same type, making them great if you don't have tons in Defense stat. And Mithral Chain, if my memory serves me, has 0 encumbrance and can be freely worn by mages. The same with the Runed Helm. Meaning it would actually be better if Ni'aurrl or Matthias got it instead of Art. But only if my memory is correct. If memory is NOT correct, keep it on Art. EDIT: Mithral Chain would actually go GREAT with Sass, who'd be able to cast Mage spells with it on. LuffyVeggies fucked around with this message at 08:34 on Aug 31, 2016 |
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Aug 31, 2016 08:30
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Mithril chain does indeed have no encumbrance and is great on Mages (who otherwise are limited to, like, Leather Armor). This is, of course, a Tolkien reference, where mithril chain mail is light enough that even small hobbits like Frodo and Bilbo can wear it easily.  One of the things the remakes and later games really improved was the encumbrance system - both by modifying the system and by adding more variety in Mage-usable armor.
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Aug 31, 2016 12:15
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Always nice when the game deals with pesky gremlin NPCs so you don't have to. I can't remember if killing them yourself does anything bad other than making the others hostile since the dryad disappears when you leave. Also didn't know about the poppy pod, that's neat. When I was cheating my rear end off in this game as a kid after I found out the refresh shop debug command by accident I hit up that junk shop (with cash help from the editor) and outfitted everyone with mithril chain and crystal shields. No encumbrance and total party immunity to basilisks?  ed: and if anyone didn't notice it the price note at the bottom of the shop interface says the prices are "very reasonable," unlike the other one in the Tower of Magi which IIRC is "utterly ridiculous." So this one is very, very much worth the trip from time to time.
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Aug 31, 2016 14:16
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Man, I don't remember that drake dungeon at all. Guess it goes to show just how huge the game is, that something like that could be readily missed. I like these little detour dungeons. There's nothing plot relevant in them, not even any NPCs in the towns asking you to go to them, they're just places you can go to that help keep the world from feeling too empty. One of the things that in retrospect I don't like as much about the reremake -- every single dungeon is either directly on a major plot line, or has some random NPC wanting you to go there for some minor reason. Or, in one specific instance, the dungeon was just removed from the game!
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Aug 31, 2016 16:11
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LuffyVeggies posted:When I mentioned earlier that there were some tough dungeons out in the remote east, there were three I had in mind. The Fiery Pit was one of them, the other one it sounds like you'll be tackling next update, and the third is WAY out of your current level and abilities and is actually much further north than I remembered, meaning there's no way you'll even find it until we eventually go after the troglodytes. I do deal with the next dungeon next update, though I am leveled enough to take on everything except for the bonus objective. After that though, I recognize that I can't leverage myself to deal with being just a tad out of level, and head back inland.
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Aug 31, 2016 16:22
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That random shop roll goddaaaaaaam.
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Aug 31, 2016 16:50
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I was rereading the first Exile LP to try and scrape together a few facts scattered over a very large number of updates, and I just hit the conversation with Micah. Well played, berryjon. The Revolver Ocelot stinger at the end of that update makes a lot more sense now that I've seen what you were setting up for. Also, is it just me, or does 'Anaxiamander' sound like an 80s cartoon villain name? (Or maybe a dragon. I could totally see a dragon being called 'Anaxiamander.')
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Aug 31, 2016 21:37
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That random shop was certainly something. Wow. ...why am I now extra-suspicious of Bronwyn, for 'finding' such an opportunity?
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Aug 31, 2016 23:04
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vdate posted:I was rereading the first Exile LP to try and scrape together a few facts scattered over a very large number of updates, and I just hit the conversation with Micah. Well played, berryjon. The Revolver Ocelot stinger at the end of that update makes a lot more sense now that I've seen what you were setting up for. Well part of that is that it wasn't until we got to E3 and actually had screenshots with the guy, that berryjon ninja edited his name (sometimes) to the actual Anaximander without the extra A in the middle. I do agree that the modified version sounds villainous in a way that the original (which is, btw, Greek) oddly does not. Probably because "Anaxia" in general sounds like a villain name.
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Aug 31, 2016 23:36
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Vil posted:Well part of that is that it wasn't until we got to E3 and actually had screenshots with the guy, that berryjon ninja edited his name (sometimes) to the actual Anaximander without the extra A in the middle. Actually, I messed up his name by including the extra 'a'. That was after I had decided to do the full trilogy, and knew that I needed to start laying the groundwork for future plot developments, and introducing Anaxi(a)mander early was one of them. edit: I re-read that update myself, and realized that there was a Matthias at Fort Emerald in Exile 1! Hrm....
berryjon fucked around with this message at 02:16 on Sep 1, 2016 |
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Sep 1, 2016 02:07
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berryjon posted:Actually, I messed up his name by including the extra 'a'. That was after I had decided to do the full trilogy, and knew that I needed to start laying the groundwork for future plot developments, and introducing Anaxi(a)mander early was one of them. Yeah that was all artistic license on berryjon's part to tie the story together better - there's no mention of Anaxi or Unspec Services in E1 as far as I know. I can't remember precisely but I don't think the remakes or re-remakes affected this either.
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Sep 1, 2016 03:19
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Update 029 – The Tomb of Vahkohs and Gebra “So, I guess it's today that I'm the voice of reason, right?” “What are you talking about?” “I'm talking about the fact that the way we're going, we're going to get in way over our heads, right?” “But that's when we start swimming!” “Oh right, that explains everything. I got your shift as team sourpuss.” “Excuse me?” “Well, I'm just that good at bones.” “You really are good.” “Is this going anywhere?” “Anywhere but there.” “Oh come on! It's not even decorated with skulls!” “This is where the undead are coming from!” “In Art's defence, we haven't been harassed by any of them yet.” “Except that one corpse we found. Did you figure out that ring yet?” “Bronze Ring of Accuracy. Makes me more accurate with the crossbow.” “Not that you're good with it in the first place.” “Look, just because I have been focusing on my more priestly abilities does not mean that I will keep skipping my more martial studies.” “But I can handle them all!” “Yes, but you're you and I'm me. If I was you, who would you be?” “???” “You're breaking him, you know that, right?” “Don't worry, he'll grow up.” “Wow, the lawn is manicured and everything.” “And there isn't the same degree of malevolence here that you would find with normal undead.” “In fact, they're downright friendly.” “Wow! Engraved invitation!” “How is this not the biggest, most obvious trap in existence?” “Because even Sass would see that?”  “Let's go find our host, and talk to him about his undead, shall we?” “Hrm. Lich or Vampire?” “Lich.” “Lich.” “Don't care.” “What's the difference?” “Huh. Levers.” “Can I pull them?” “Sure.”  How very meta of you, game. “And there's this set on the other side.” “Pulling!” “And no one here. That just means there's no one here to stop me from doing this!”   “Hey, look at this!” “Well, that confirms there's more stuff further in. Question is, how do we get to it?” “Secret Passages!” “Certainly something.” “Hrm..?” “What? Is there something on my face?” “No...” “I would hate to have to fight our way out past these undead if things go wrong.” “What's the problem? I have Dispel Undead.”  “I really don't want to have to fight my way out. Wraiths and a Ruby Skeleton?” “Oh. Now that makes sense.” “What?” “Mayor Runkle? I thought his ornament was simply egotistical. Now I realize that it's the actual head of a Ruby Skeleton.” “Alright, that's pretty awesome. At least he can't command it to shoot beams from its eyes anymore, right?” “I hope not.”  “Ah, you arrive.” A vampire, pale, lithe and lethal, sits in the throne. It watches you with amusement. It seems to be sizing up just how much blood each of you contains. “Dammit, we were so certain it was a Lich!” It chuckles. “I can see why you would make that mistake. I am Vahkohs. Welcome to my tomb.” “It's nice actually, I was expecting you to be in the front hall. So, uh, we gotta ask, what's up?” “Oh, I suppose I should be slaying and devouring you. But I wish to welcome you first.” “Couldn't help but notice you said first and not instead. It's so odd to see an Undead welcome adventurers.” He grins. My, but his fangs are impressive. “Well, this is my tomb, and you are visitors. Lovely, isn't it? Huge. Imposing. Sepulchral. Everything I hoped for. I had my undead servants make it for me.” “Sep..a what?” “A self referential word that means that this place looks like a tomb. I must say, I have never seen your like before.” “I'm Sass! I'm a Slithzerikai!” “Curious. But there will be time for that later.” “So, I see you have a lot of undead around here. And in the forests surrounding this place.” “They're wonderfully useful servants. They watch the woods for me. Build my home. Keep me company. Don't know what I would do without them.” It rubs its fangs with a long, red tongue. “But enough chatter. About that slaying and devouring?” “You know, you don't have to do that? I mean, we just came along because of the reports of undead, and we can negotiate something, I think we can come to a reasonable conclusion.” “Where's the fun in that? I could have killed you long before you reached me, but I've done that so many times, and it gets old. So, instead, I have a little challenge for you.” “What kind of challenge?” “Chess!” “Not this time. You adventurers are such a greedy lot, so I'll tell you what. I'll let you loot my treasure store! I'll wander off, and let you have your fun. Then, in return, I get to slay you as you try to escape. Doesn't that sound fun? Now, do you agree or disagree?” “Hold on!” “It's mentally unstable, even for the undead. We can't let it go unchecked.” “Undead. Pick the fight.” “Be heroes!” “I agree with Matthias and Delilah.” “Yeah, leaving this guy around means more problems down the line. And why are we picking a fight with a Vampire again?” “Because he's evil.” “Good enough for me. Hey, we agree to your terms!”  “And we'll start with the Spectre over there.” “Now, the initial condition is that we raid his treasury first, right? I mean, that feels weird. Like we're doing it backwards, or something.” “Found it!” “You know, I suspect we wouldn't have been able to get back here until we agreed to Vahkohs' little game.” “I wonder how he would react if we just tossed this stuff into the lava?” The Halberd is cursed, and the ring, I don't remember at this point. “Wonder what these are?”   “Oh my!” Nice spells, once I can cast them. “And now we fight our way out.” “owie” “Yeah, this is going to be a slog.” Wights, Ruby Skeletons, Spectres, Spirits and Skeletons. I'm pretty sure I've checked them all out before, but here's the Wight anyways:  “Ugh.” I haven't seen Stinking Cloud in ages! This nifty little field curses everyone in it, as you can see the poor party in. Darned Spirits and their Mage 2. Forgot about those. And they haven't forgotten about me! I know it says Paralyzing Touch, but that's really Slow. And 3 hits can be quite lethal, especially if they gang up on one person. Like that. “This is getting annoying. When will we get out of here?” “I mean, seriously, the door to the place is wide open! And it's still daylight outside.” “You want him to come after us at night? I don't think so!  Vampires actually start with 120 HP, I was just blowing through it before Matthias got the chance to cast Scry on it. “Yeah, screw this!”  “Really? Really? It thinks it can get away with that?” “It does seem like it.” “With what?” “The creature turned to mist, and fled. We need to track it down.” “What if we don't?” “I don't care to find out.” “At least figuring out which way the levers go to open these inner gates wasn't that hard.” “Nothing here.” I love the name of this little room. “Hold on, I've mapped everything out – there's a gap we need to check.” “Where?” “Yeah, that's suspicious.” “Found it!” “How long is this passage?” “Curses! We need some way to dispel this barrier!” “Hold on, I have this crystal I confiscated from Sass. It's one of the Piercing types, right?” “Yes, that will work!” “Save it. It's passable.” “Quickfire. Joy.” Please ignore the extra piercing crystals. I was cheating my way in at this point, because I know the penalty for failure. If you're following this LP on your own game, don't attempt this dungeon until you have Dispel Barrier, please! “Ugh. Let me get the Firewalk up.”  “Finally!” “This place is sooooo evil!”  “Surprise!” “Ugh!” I got absurdly lucky with this fight – I'm out of gas in terms of what I can do, and managed to pit the demon in the corner while people healed up the brawlers. I can't even take the risk of loosing someone's turn to Scry him.  “And stay down!” “Let's see what we've got here then.” “Ugh, I can feel the malevolence.” “Who would be dumb enough to fall for that?” “Yay! We saved their home!” “meandmybigmouth” “Nope. Not gonna fall for that one. You don't deserve your respects.” So, Vahkohs. Optional dungeon, despite the mayor telling you about it. Rather, what's unique about it is that if you 'kill' Vahkohs and then leave, you are afflicted with “The Curse of Vahkohs”, which is... well, I'm not sure exactly. I know it exists. There's an option dealing with that in the Editor, but beyond it I don't know. I presume it's bad. But getting rid of the curse involves destroying that crystal, so I'm in the clear! I also cheated to get out of the dungeon, because I wasn't about to go through that lava/force barrier/quickfire gauntlet again. “And that's done. Let's go report that to Mayor Runkle.” The undead still spawn in the region though, and this is what they say when you encounter them: * * *  “... And that's what happened.” “I see. Well, we had heard about this Vakos character before, so it's nice to know he's been put down. Now we just need to deal with the undead out there, who knows how many there are.” “Vahkohs, sir. You forgot the two 'h's in his name.” “Don't care. It's dead, so I can call it what I want. Thanks. Look, while you're in the area, can I trouble you for something more?” “What would that be?” “We've been getting reports of something weird going on with the islands to the south. The Empire may have a policy of religious freedom, but whatever is going on down there seems to be skirting the line.” “You mean the Anama?” “I wish it was them. Them, I could deal with. No, there's something mad down there, and I'd rather you go look at it.” “I don't see why not?” “Sure.” “Tickets, please.” “Of course! Anything to spread some joy around.” “That's why we're going. Where we go, the other people don't come back.”   “Oh dear.” “This is weird.” “Uh guys?” “...”  “Um, excuse me?” The only town where the generic townspeople talk, and this is what they have to say? Oh dear.  “I don't expect much from here.”  You meet a sour faced little man in monk's robes. “I am Kawas. What brings you to our boring little farming town?” “Looking around at the behest of Runkle. You wouldn't happen to know who is in charge around here, would you?” He looks at you coldly. “I am in charge of welcoming people to Gebra.” “That didn't answer the question.” “I tell people all the things Gebra has to offer.” “It is a quiet, uninteresting town. Perhaps you should return to Storm Port. It's much more interesting there.” “Is it really that quiet here? There was an undead problem just on the other side of the boat ride, you know.” He looks at you blankly. “Hmmm. Come to think of it, we don't have anything to offer. Just some crops. And dull people. Fortunately, it's very easy to return to Storm Port. Why don't you?”* * *  “This merits worry.” “Is it something in the water perhaps? Or in the food?” “And why is this corner of town blocked off by trees?” “I like Sass's question best.” “What is this building? It's set into the ground so the trees cover it better.”  “Do we knock first?” “I don't think so. This place is far too suspicious.” “Door's not even locked. Heck, the only thing keeping it closed is interia.” “Or it could open when I breathed on it.”  “SPEAK NO WORDS! PAIN IS THE WAY!” “Uh whut.”  Meet the Mad Monks. For some reason, these enemies stand out most of all in my memories of the game. Now, at first glance, these guys look like your normal brawlers, except as you get deeper, you see things are... more terrible than they first appear. First thing, Armor 15, and Skill 25. That's a massive amount of damage reduction right there, and the Skill of 25 means that these guys are amazingly accurate. Add on top of that enough speed to attack twice in a round, and three attacks each, and the Mad Monks can tear an unprepared party apart in short order. I am not unprepared. Blessings and Curses can take a huge bite out of how dangerous they are, though dealing damage to them can still be a chore. Just focus on one at a time, keep your health up, and you'll be square. Having so many priests in the party actually makes this fight relatively painless. “Why would they attack us?” “The Word?” “I don't know that.” “I do. They're a fringe cult that believes in words of power, and that speaking the right ones will result in their god coming forth to unmake the world in song, or something like that. About the only thing that really sticks out about them from all the other generic apocalypse cults was that they had a reputation for filing their taxes on time.” “Interesting, but I doubt that's relevant.” “Slap of pain? I don't understand.” “I don't think anyone does. That's why they're mad.” “Alright, we should poke around the island, see if these people have a base somewhere. I mean, this building is empty, so they can't be from around here. And I doubt the 'greeter' would be of use.” “Nice farmland though. Just no effort being put into it beyond sustenance.”  I'm pretty sure every last 'boat ride' uses the same dialogue and price at this point.  “These islands are remote.” Actually, this is the south-eastern most corner of the overworld map!  “Nothing. No habitation, no random monks. Nothing.”  “Ah, good. It worked.” “Did you seriously do that?” “You shouldn't do that. It's dangerous.” This particular encounter includes generic monks and Assassins! I haven't seen those since, oh, the Great Cave in E2.   “We can cross here. The water is really calm. Just wade and climb onto the sandbars and rocks.”  “A welcoming party. How convenient.” “But we know how to handle them.” One fight later. “Come on, there has to be something out here...” “WHERE?” “Maybe it's hidden with magic?” Actually, it's because I haven't triggered this quest yet. And the rewards for this quest are massive – endgame so. “Fine, back to the Mayor. Maybe he can sort some of this out.”* * * Now, remember how in Bolton, there was that Acolyte falsely flagged as hostile? Turns out I forgot that Charm was a combat only spell, so I have to start a fight to talk to him. Let's do that.   “Now will you be nice to me?”  “Yes. I apologize for my behaviour. I thought you were here to eat me.” This is the sort of man who's only comfortable when surrounded by piles of books. His eyes must be very weak – he has to lean forward to make you out. In addition to books, there are many odd items scattered about the room. “I'm Oppenheimer,” he closes his book as he says it. A cloud of dust rises up, making him cough. “I'm sorry about the lack of light.” “What do you do here?” “I'm a sage, specializing in items.” “Nice! Being a sage must be fun.” “It's a very lucrative field. I do identification, of course. In addition, I also obtain items for resale. If you want to sell anything, you have but to ask. Its nice to see adventurers in these parts, by the way.” “Yep! We're adventurers!” “I heard about what you did to the slimes. Everyone does. On behalf of Bolton, I thank you.” If we hadn't, this guy would basically say “Hey, Slimes are back that way. Go deal with them!” And while I'm here, let's get stuff ID'd. Nice! 'many things' means status effects. This will probably go on Matthias, if only to counter the occasional Disease. No idea where I grabbed this, but I'm glad I did. Look at that value! Just as useless as previous versions, only now with more weight! I think I'll keep this stuff. For later. And I think I'll end the update here. Next few locations are pretty thin on the ground, but I want to see how the update after than looks before I decide how to handle some poor pacing on my part.
berryjon fucked around with this message at 16:11 on Sep 1, 2016 |
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Sep 1, 2016 07:13
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I got the Curse of Vakos the first time I fought him, but that was ages ago. From what I remember, every so often a popup happens where he laughs at you and... diseases your party or does damage to everyone or something? I don't really remember. I only had it trigger once or twice before I got back to the dungeon to finish him off.
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Sep 1, 2016 07:30
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| # ? Jun 4, 2024 11:38 |
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I thought I'd played this game pretty well as a kid, but honestly I had no idea this quest line existed. Huh. And then Avernum 3's graphics were never really my thing, so hopefully the second remake is good and not too many more hours long.
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Sep 1, 2016 08:58
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