I think I may have got myself stuck

[MasqueradeCry]

Ah, it is there as you say. It turns out I was on Hard afterall. I'm not so sure I'd like to begin again on Normal, that being the case - even though I've got myself stuck I was careless in some battles, couldn't revive for a long time and made some bad choices in the levelling tree, so I imagine if I played on Hard again but without those mistakes I'd do better than I have. On the other hand, I'm worried that I'll now find Normal too easy by comparison.

[Vilk]

Originally Posted by MasqueradeCry

@ Elwin : While my battle tactics weren't mindlessly rushing I didn't use anything along the lines of sacrifice/magic spring and so on and didn't come across any resurrection scrolls until I got to Kordar

There's no need to use sacrifice/resurrect/magic spring/time back tricks to do the game, those are useful only if you try do a time record.

That said if you have Sacrifice and magic spring that could be a way (not that fun) to save money.

Originally Posted by MasqueradeCry

All that said, I get the feeling that even if I can get enough money to raise a decent army it'll be too little too late and I would be better off starting from scratch, my lesson learnt.

There's no need to finish the game in less than 100 days. For the first game I finished (not even my first game but the third with two unfinished) I did it in 169 days! Yes plenty travels, but you can do it too, anyway your score won't be that good and there's no need to worry about it.

As Erwin I cannot load your save file, I'm using retail version updated to 1.7.

Forget time and check any quest not done in all previous area, check and do any easier fight not done yet and sell items and scrolls, yes you can sell scrolls in case you didn't quote it. Also for saving troops and in same time learn the game, it's good to replay any battle where you had too heavy lost.

[Elwin]

I suggest gremlin's castle if u hadnt done it and still want to try finish that game.
If u wanna start from scratch remember basics :
- always explore land first before fighting etting everything what is posssible
- to not loose much use crowd control spells slow,phantom, or target on tank
- you hadnt written what units you have used and what tactics for them so basic most powerfull ones : sprite/lake fairies/dryads with anga's ruby; no retalation unit ( griffon,demon) sent into enemy on the begggining of the fight and timebacked on the end of 2nd round

[MasqueradeCry]

The loading problem is probably caused by my game being the Steam release. There's been a lot of fiddling with that by Katauri so it's no great surprise my save is incompatible with your games.

Unfortunately I've been very thorough and there aren't any quests left to do. It's literally the Labyrinth or nothing, or so it seems.
I haven't been through the castle however, so there probably is a chance I could rescue my current game. I'm kind of set on starting over though, I'd rather finish the game in a non-sloppy way.

As for tactics, there is one detail I left out - when I chose to be Warrior I did so because I normally go for magic users and wanted a change. I stubbornly stuck to the idea, for much of the opening part of the game, that I wouldn't cast spells and thought - wrongly - that my choice to be a warrior instead of a mage would make up for that approach. I didn't expect spells to remain crucial to a Warrior, despite there being two other class options better suited for casting.

[jake21]

Ack - Did I miss somethign? I've played the game several times and I nkow about the treasure (based off of treasure maps) but are there also random treasures buried everywhere ?

Originally Posted by Akimbo

If you havn't done so already you might want to try treasure hunting. When I first go to a new area I take a boat along the coast and hop onto all the beaches / islands, even if there's seemingly nothing there, and then: Walk a little, hit dig, walk some more, hit dig. The range on digging is pretty big and I've picked up some significant hauls from it. ( I seem to remember a 50k chest somewhere, probably in dead land. )

[MasqueradeCry]

There are - everywhere the pillar of light shines there lies a chest. They can be dug up with the spade icon near the mini-map or by pressing D - this element to the game is explained during the tutorial I believe. Did you skip it?

[Edit : Also, I'd like to throw another question out there if I may. What use is there for bonuses to scroll slots? Surely there comes a point where you no longer buy any scrolls as the spells you need are learnt permanently (and above the first level of the spell). As I understand things, you can pick up as many map-found scrolls as you like and the limit only applies to actually buying scrolls - so is it as useless a bonus as it seems to me?]

[Ryastar]

Scrolls are mostly only useful for warriors since they allow you to cast the first level of a spell at no cost in mana. As a warrior, I always buy every scroll of gift I can find since you never know when you will need more res from your inquisitors. A few other spells are useful at first level too. So you only need to buy scrolls afterwards if they are useful at first level. In other words, the skill is only semi-useful, but since it comes with a bonus to mana as well, it's worth getting.

[jake21]

Bleh been too long since I played. Now I remember - in fact the tutorial at the start shows this - oh well I should play again fairly soon (when I have time).

Originally Posted by MasqueradeCry

There are - everywhere the pillar of light shines there lies a chest. They can be dug up with the spade icon near the mini-map or by pressing D - this element to the game is explained during the tutorial I believe. Did you skip it?

[Edit : Also, I'd like to throw another question out there if I may. What use is there for bonuses to scroll slots? Surely there comes a point where you no longer buy any scrolls as the spells you need are learnt permanently (and above the first level of the spell). As I understand things, you can pick up as many map-found scrolls as you like and the limit only applies to actually buying scrolls - so is it as useless a bonus as it seems to me?]

[Vilk]

Originally Posted by MasqueradeCry

[Edit : Also, I'd like to throw another question out there if I may. What use is there for bonuses to scroll slots? Surely there comes a point where you no longer buy any scrolls as the spells you need are learnt permanently (and above the first level of the spell). As I understand things, you can pick up as many map-found scrolls as you like and the limit only applies to actually buying scrolls - so is it as useless a bonus as it seems to me?]

Perhaps you haven't quote yet you can sell scrolls, in your current game if you never sold any you have a big amount of money to get from selling those.

The bonus to scroll slots is very minor but not vain. That's typically the item you wear only when you want buy a scroll and don't want sell or learn some.

You can delay learning spell for many reason like to delay your choice or like to wait if you are a mage that you have increase the skill that reduce crystals costs.

About that take care even in normal mode that you'll get a crystal shortage if you try learn too many spells.