Queen's Wish 7: Into the Dungeons

Moving much farther into the "Vol," the last major area of the game. I haven't yet run into that warning that I'm not strong enough yet, so no doubt I still have several things to do there.

I did manage to slay a rather large lizard, after getting slaughtered. But I went back and took care of its minions before the lizard came into view, and that solved the problem. One thing in the fight I lost however, I summoned a construct, placed it near the minions, and until they killed it, the thing kept the minions nicely occupied. Wasn't enough for that fight, but I learned something. Nice.

I made a mistake. I had a choice to fight an old drake and take its hoard or let it go. I'm me, so I let it go. Now I'll never know what I could have had in the hoard, and actually was pretty strong when I made that decision, so I'm pretty sure I could have won the fight.

Still, I'm me. It was an old drake. Let it go.

I have added another character, this one from the Vol. They're all supposed to have different charateristics, but so far I haven't been able to tell. 

I finally found some stone (turns out the Vol is the place to get stone) so I have added more shops in my forts, especially Fort Haven, the home base. It seems that as you add shops, you get better gear to buy. So, that works out pretty much the way any other RPG would work: as you get further into the game you get better gear. Still haven't found any consumables such as wands of fire or such, but maybe that's good. I'm notorious for hoarding them.

Am still enjoying the art work:

The entry fight into the Vol

Outside the same fort

I also cleared out another mine for which I so far don't seem to have a quest, or at least it isn't showing up in my journal. Will track that down at some point.

I left off while facing the Scorpion Pit. It contains fairly large scorpions.

The scorpion pit

Left off there! Will probably get back to the game later today.

Enjoy!

Next Entry.

Queen's Wish 6: More Travels

It seems that we can only do so much in one area, then we have to go to another. I have cleaned out the cinnabar area without getting a quest for it (or at least, it isn't in my quest list—it'll turn up later and I'll get the reward automatically). I have disrupted the evil experiments of a crazed wizard, only to find him starting up again. 

I have fought off various monsters while getting trapped in tree mazes, and I have conquered the Gardens of Pulchritude.

The Gardens of Pulchritude were interesting. We get charmed and take certain actions (mostly fighting other charmed monsters) until at last we face the evil tree.

Fighting Wolves. Some are large.

Boss Fight. The Evil Tree

The tree is a boss, but if you just keep wailing at it eventually it goes down. Ignore the little helpers it spawns and just keep whacking at the thing.

I'm hampered in my fort building efforts by a lack of stone. Really going to have to find some stone.

My new character is working out quite well. I like him better than the last one, although of course we can retrain anybody to make them exactly like the character we had before. I'm tending to concentrate on two fighters, a healer and a sorcerer, because I'm stuck in the past. My healer, however, started out as a fighter, so he's still pretty good at that.

Also I have acquired some better weapons. No doubt I'll find even better as the game progresses, but these are having a quite satisfying effect.

Along the way I looted a drake's den to find some kind of special item. Thereon hangs a Doctor Who joke:

Click to embiggen

I have apparently hit the wall in this area. As in the Ukat area, I got a warning that I might want to come back when I'm stronger and have better equipment. I did try to go forward but yeah, I can't get through the next fight.

So I have departed and am going to the Vol, the desert area (the Ukat is swampy and the Ahriel is nicely forested). Currently I'm in the middle of what might turn out to be one of Jeff's puzzle areas. For the first time I had to find a key to get into a room in a fort that I'm trying to get through. I found it and got in, and I've paused there. 

Today I have massive housework, and my sister is coming down, so I may not get any more playing time until tomorrow. So, till then!

Next Entry.

Queen's Wish 5: Changing Characters

I actually did play for both of the last two days, but have been lazy about posting here. I decided to give up on the western area and go east. Turns out that yeah, I'm strong enough now to operate in that area.

However, when you go to a new area you get the chance to add/remove characters from your lineup. I missed doing that in the Ukatish area, although I can go back and do it anytime, but this time I thought I'd try it. I got a blurb from the game that said all I had to do was hit the "edit party" button.

Oooohkaaaay. But where is the "edit party" button? Searched everywhere on screen for it. Finally had to go ask on the Spiderweb forum. Duh. It isn't labeled. You just hover your cursor over the bottom buttons and the third one turns out to be, you guessed it, "edit party." 

So I added a green-skinned fighter. Made a mistake at first and charged out into the wilderness without equipping the guy. (I also forgot to remove the equipment from the guy I deleted. Might be able to get that back, though.) But training him was fun, because I had 12 skill points! 


Yes, I am a really bad RPG player. It's amazing I can get by the opening areas in these games.

Entrance to Ahriel lands. Pleasant, no?

I have met with the various required leaders of the Ahriel, most of whom could care less about anything. One or two is responsive, so those give you your quests.

Not interested. Go smash slimes.

Anyway, I am now fighting my way through the Ahriel lands. Have defeated slimes, monster plants, zombies, spiders, and huge giant mirelings, so far. Interesting how these enormous enemies look so intimidating, but they're really not that tough unless they're bosses.

New characters on the enemy side, too!

I am using my magic a lot better, I think. I actually played a lot yesterday. Will do a bit more today, soon!

Next Entry.

Queen's Wish 4: Slaughtering Foes

I got my new keyboard! So now I can cancel actions. Don't like the touch of the thing, but it's a super cheapo model so I guess I shouldn't complain. I also finally remembered to look up the keys for quicksave. I've been doing it the old fashioned way, which is stupid. Now I can just use the F3 and F4 keys.

Did most of my stuff in Ukatish lands to the west. The most major challenge was the Mist Maze. Got wiped out on my first try, but was more judicious about how I used my magic on the second try and it was fairly easy to wipe out the three shade shamans. Neat!

You really can't get lost.

Also wandered around in the beginning area looking for the spots that I had trouble with earlier. Found 'em! The most difficult turned out to be just a dialogue choice on my part. If you choose to leave the tower you find, you get away clean. If you choose to burn it down you wind up fighting major slimes. I've learned that I wouldn't get skill points for fighting the slimes, so I took the easy way out.

But I did run into the various environmental monsters, such as this nifty spider:

Very cool. Really not as tough as it looks either.

I did learn a new thing about the game. I fought my way through a haunted mine and could not defeat the ghosts in what appeared to be the boss area. It was a tough dungeon and I had to reload a couple of times before I realized that I just wasn't strong enough to get it done. So I left, but as I exited the place I got a message that I had cleared out the mine and the quest was complete. OK.

Later I decided to go back when I was stronger and take on the baddies. But they were gone. The mine was in control of the living miners again.

Missed my loot.

I think that if I had not reported the quest as complete to the character that asked for it, I might have been able to go back in and do it again. Verdamnt, I missed out on what should have been a good bit of loot. So this, again, is quite different from other Spiderweb games.

But I'm feeling more confident about what I'm doing now. Clearly I'm still in early stages, because the range of items for sale that I can't access yet is pretty large. At last I'm finding more magical items, and I even found an excellent spear in the Mist Maze. Just occasionally you do find a few items in the environment. So I'm slowly upgrading my equipment.

So far I haven't had the option to get new companions. I'm upgrading the ones I have pretty well, so I'd really kind of like to stay with this party even if they don't have personalities. But we'll see. I know Jeff has new stuff in this that I'm sure I haven't encountered yet.

But the novelty is good. Yeah, I know how to play Spiderweb games, but this one is challenging me to learn new stuff. So that's good! So far I like it almost as well as Avernum, and better than Avadon.

Onward!

Next Entry.

Queen's Wish 3: Heading Out to Reclaim the People

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OK! I have mostly finished with the opening area, although there are a couple of more difficult places that I will conquer later. I tried to move east to reclaim the lands that use magic, but the magic was way too strong for me, as yet.

So I headed west into the swampy areas. I have actually found one of our forts, the aptly named Fort Muck, and have built my first two shops there. Wandered around and slew some ghosts, but mostly I'm looking for a mine that's infested with . . . well . . . something. Nobody will say what. So that's for tomorrow.

And in my new shops I see that there will be abundant magical items for me to get. We can't just find them in this game though. We have to buy them. Haven't decided if I like that or not but I will say one thing: it's keeping my inventory uncluttered. I'm famous for not using my consumables. I'm getting through the fights pretty well without the goodies, I'm finding. So far.

However, I have stumbled upon the odd rotting corpse every so often, and have gained coins from those encounters. Just wouldn't be a Spiderweb game without rotting corpses lying around.

Here's another new gameplay rule for this game: in previous Spiderweb games, once you killed a monster in a dungeon it stayed dead. You could clear out a dungeon with several efforts. Not so here. You have to win the whole quest on the first try. Plus, we don't get skill points for just killing enemies. We only get points for completing these quests. It does add some complexity to the game. You'd better be sure that you're ready before tackling something really difficult.

I ran into what might be a glitch, but maybe isn't. I had apparently only partially completed a quest when I teleported back to Haven, our home base, to rest and recuperate. I leveled up and did the skill trees for my characters. I know I saved the game, then I quit. But when I returned, that saved game was gone, reverted to an earlier save. I think it may be because I didn't finish the quest, I shouldn't have had those skill points. Maybe it's a bug, but it does make some sense.

I continue to enjoy the very simple artwork.

Inside, talking to folks.

And here's a nice little village.

Who will we meet?

I actually played for a great deal of the day. Still enjoying it a lot. Oh, I found out why I can't cancel an action. You indeed are supposed to use the escape key, but my ancient keyboard is getting rather spotty and the escape key isn't working. I ordered a new cheapo keyboard from Amazon that is supposed to arrive tomorrow. Ought to help!

So! Till then!

Next Entry.

Queen's Wish 2: Whither Do I Wander?

I have completed my first fun full day of Queen's Wish. I confess that I'm still trying to figure out some of the basic gameplay stuff, such as how to cancel an action, but I have found out that indeed, you really can only acquire items from containers that you find. These mostly occur around enemies that you slay, so it's basically the same thing as looting the bodies in other RPGs. But it means that I will miss out on one of my favorite activities: searching all around for goodies to loot. Maybe Jeff just got tired of hiding stuff.

But: where to go? At first, of course, you encounter fairly easy combat, but there's a fairly large area in which to roam, and it's really just up to whim where I go. Most of these early enemies are pretty easy, but I have encountered two that I can't yet manage. 

What happens when you get killed (sort of)

I've cleared out a couple of mines and a couple of mansions. So far I'm playing the loyal, merciful princess. You can choose to be a brat, but that just isn't me, is it?

A monster in a mansion

However, I have, with a bit of difficulty, figured out how to build the shops that we need in our forts. These give you bonuses and are in themselves useful. You can get the smithy to attach helpful runes to armor and weapons, rather as in Avadon. You can buy weapons, and here's a major difference from other RPGs: you really do have to buy all your weapons and armor, apparently. You don't take it off the enemies you slaughter. I have found a few things in containers, however. 

I now have a smithy, an apothecary, a barracks (this gives us some kind of bonus in fighting) a weaver, a mill and a distillery, which will make me money. Eventually, as I move out into new lands I'll establish this stuff in the forts there too.

One of my shops

I have achieved level four! The skills trees in this game are really much easier to manage than in the Avadon and later Avernum games, so I appreciate that. I rather miss having both a healer and a sorcerer, but I gather that I might be able to make one of my characters into a healer. Must try that!

Anyway, it's a real Spiderweb game, and has some humor which is always appreciated. I think I've pretty much cleared out the beginning area except for those two enemies (might try those again now) and I'm ready to branch out into one of the three areas that I'm supposed to re-conquer. 

So! Onward!

Next Entry.

Queen's Wish: The Conqueror: 1 WooHoo! A New Spiderweb Game

At last! A new game from Spiderweb! I had a new experience: I decided to back this game on Kickstarter, with the promise that I would get my own copy when the game released. It released today and indeed, I got my copy! WooHoo!

This is a rather newish effort from Spiderweb. While many of the tried and true Spiderweb gameplay elements remain, the whole look of the thing is quite different. It's very retro, of course, as always, but this game has a whole new look that apparently flashes back to some historic stuff. Never having played the historic stuff I don't recognize it, but it has a real charm.

Very blocky, but it has its charm

I have completed my first mission. Quite a few things are rather different in this game from what I've been used to. The combat is similar, but I'm finding it a bit more difficult to follow. No doubt I'll get used to that fairly quickly. 

I had quite a bit of difficulty retrieving items from chests. So far the only way we appear to be able to get items is to find them in containers. Turns out you have to click on the item and then click on the spot in your inventory/or paper doll figure to retrieve items or to equip them. Took me several minutes to notice that the opened container was over on the right-hand side of the screen.

The items are on the right

Not being able to pick up items from the landscape is a major difference from the games I'm used to, and I'm missing the opportunity to spot and grab loot. Stuff such as gold vases are on the ground, but we can't get them. Also, apparently when we grab things like silver bars from containers, we simply automatically get the money for the item. No doubt that will save some effort in lugging the stuff around, but it also means we have far less control over it and cannot drool over our loot. Hmmmm.

However, so far the skills system seems to be quite a bit easier. I have leveled up once, and when we do that we gain two skill points. It's easy to see what we can get for them, because those items are in full color on the skill tree. All we need to do is click on them. I think we also can unclick stuff to get points back and re-spend them. That's way easier than in earlier games.

Pretty easy, actually

Well I am having fun! A bit different, yes, but still without question a Spiderweb game! I'm playing this on my Mac, because I'm spending far more time in the room with the Mac at present. Also, it is massively easier to take screenshots on a Mac than in Win 10. Massively easier. I have a large collection of cat pics here too, so I won't want for blog pics.

Oh, also, while we pick up companions throughout the game, apparently, we can switch them out, rather as in Avadon. Each one comes with different skills. So far, however, they do not appear to have personalities, unlike in Avadon. 

I have defied the game's storyline and have chosen as my icon an old lady with short white hair. Lots of fun to see the references to my youth. But it really does look a bit like me! Hah!

Until tomorrow! I'm really looking forward to more of this! Yay!

Next Entry.