What Have YOU Been Up To?

By Feminina O'Ladybrain on July 19, 2024

No real spoilers

Butch:

I, once again, have nothing. Mrs. McP worked late, I had to do work pickup etc.

And Mrs. McP is taking time off to "do stuff around the house," which means I'm going to be very busy. One thing that is the basis for a sound marriage is knowing when your spouse is lying to you, and accepting it. I know when Mrs. McP says "Don't worry, I won't need help," this is, at best, a hope and a dream.

I'll try to play tonight.

Loothound:

I trucked around for a bit last night. Not much of spectacular interest. I did note, however, that Valgyar seems to be the one good character who isn't lily white. We were talking about this before, and he's definitely on the lighter side, but he looks like he's black. Definitely not like Hexxat, but still…

Butch:

This is a good point, and I had forgotten about him when I made that argument earlier. I maligned you, game.

You trucking through the Umar quest line?

Loothound:

It's easy to overlook. I didn't notice it myself on the small in-game icon. But on the full sized character sheet it's pretty clear. Still a very valid criticism, especially when contrasted with Hexxat. I mean, she just couldn't be darker, and in case you didn't get the point there they included NECK RINGS straight out of a National Geographic photo shoot.

Yep, still on that train. I was in desperate need of rest so I could get spells back, and the game interrupted my rest four times in a row. So annoying. Mostly, I'm practicing not giving my party massive amounts of collateral damage when Nalia starts flinging spells. Between Lighting Bolt and that Scorcher spell, I've made a few crispy critters out of my teammates.

Butch:

I cannot get the hang of lightning bolt. I've played this game twice, and BG1 and the expansion, and STILL casting lightning bolt anywhere but a wide open field usually results in me incinerating everyone in my party and maybe, MAYBE, doing 10, 11 damage to the bad guys.

Feminina:

Oh, never cast lightning bolt anywhere but a wide open field. I think it's specifically programmed to bounce back on every single person in your party. Probably attracted by the rings and necklaces they're all wearing to free up inventory slots.

I also played. Worked my way through the excitement in the shady back room of the Copper Coronet. Waved hello to a couple of once-and-future companions who were hanging out there.

"Hi, just passing through fighting alongside people who aren't you, nothing personal, bye!"

I should note that I waved to Hexxat and Nalia in the Copper Coronet generally, not specifically in the shady back rooms. They're much too moral, or in Hexxat's case perhaps disinterested in human affairs, for that.

Loothound:

You really do have to wonder what all of the stray companions think when you come strolling through with your crew. I'm imagining a very high school lunchroom kind of feel to the whole thing.

Feminina:

I wish there were more dialogue options for when you drop companions. Like, "Don't worry, I'll come back for you, I just have to deal with someone else's nonsense for a while," or "I feel I've gotten as much out of dealing with your nonsense as I'm going to, so have a nice life!" or "don't call me, I won't call you."

Loothound:

Yeah, I have some questions about talking to your companions. You pretty much always have the option to talk to them, but do you need to initiate conversations in order to have some companions talk about their quests—or romance? Dragon Age and Mass Effect had a pretty nice set up where you knew to chat up your buds when at camp or on the ship. Is there something similar here?

Butch:

Aerie and Jaheira talk a lot. I don't know about the others. Hexxat was surprisingly quiet. I've never seen a "talk to me" icon or anything.

Feminina:

Yeah, as far as I've observed, if they're in your party they'll at some point tell you what they have to say, so you won't miss out on any of their story unless you don't ever travel with them.

But you do have to have them in your party, I've never had anyone I wasn't traveling with send me a message like "talk to me next time you're in the inn, I have a mission for you!" or anything.

Butch:

Yeah. Sometimes they'll make up for lost time. You pick them up and "so in the two weeks I was in the inn, I thought of so much to say…"

Feminina:

Or you pick up Yoshimo and he says "in the month I've been here on my own I haven't bothered to rest or heal, do you have any potions?"

Somehow I thought sending them out of the party would auto-heal them, but apparently not.

Loothound:

I'm not actually sure that there's ANY automatic healing for an 8 hour rest—even in an inn or something. I notice that when I wake up sometimes there's a message saying "Healing Spells Cast Upon Rest," or something. I think it might just automatically use any uncast healing when you rest, and that's why you don't always get HP back. Sometimes you don't have any spells. Regular 2E had overnight healing, but it was really slow and usually needed some sort of care from someone with the Healing skill, or something.

Butch:

It does say that, which is odd because sometimes it says that when I know I'm out of healing spells. Hell, the whole reason I am resting in the first place is that I'm out of healing spells. Of course, sometimes it says I rested for 16 hours. Maybe we memorized then cast.