Well! Things are much better now! I've been playing for the last few days and I decided to take my own advice to just stick to one area for awhile.
And indeed, that has brought the game back into some coherence for me. I went to the Vol and got involved in the storyline there. And, amidst that, I returned to a placed called the "Infernal Pit" and there, lo and behold, I found that scorpion that I couldn't defeat earlier. It was not in the Scorpion Pit. It was in the infernal pit.
And I was able to smash it. Had some decent loot, but again, the loot in this game isn't even one tenth of what it is in earlier Spiderweb games, and I still miss that.
I also went to one of my forts and tried to install some runes and augments into my equipment. That's easier said than done, but I managed to make some good upgrades. Also got rid of some equipment that's been clogging up my inventories. There are no stackable items and it's very easy to get full.
But I managed to make a great decision in my storyline: I helped the Owens (enslaved people in the Vol) and got them to be vassals of Haven (our home empire) again. That was a major plot point.
I know there's more to do in the Vol, but finishing a serious plotline made me feel much better about the game.
So I headed off to the Ukat, and will stay there until I manage to get some advances in that plot. I just finished off some Naga:
Yeah, it kinda does all look alike.
I still don't like the combat system of all-in-one-go dungeons. It might work for serious players but not for lousy players like me. I don't like it that I can't find the loot I'm used to finding. I don't like it that there are no secret passages.
But I was the one screwing up the plotline in the game by jumping around in it so much.
So now I expect to be able to enjoy the game more.
UPDATE: Taking a hiatus from this game because Jonathan Boakes had finally released his new Dark Fall: Ghost Vigil. I do intend to come back and finish this game, because I think I'm getting fairly close to the endgame. I'm close to level 20, which I've read is the highest you can go. So, until next time!
FINAL UPDATE: No, I'm not going to finish (writing this in January, 2022). My medical difficulties have prevented me from getting to my Macintosh, and that's where I have this game. I'm not starting over. I just wasn't enjoying it enough, and now that so much time has passed since I've played, I've lost the plot anyway. So this becomes the first Spiderweb game I didn't finish. Well, if I want more Spiderweb fun, I have all of his other games. Sorry, but that's it on Queen's Wish.
