Imperial quest Chain

[Mathalis]

In the first town as a merc I joined the imperial guards. Why does the game lock the door and keep me in the Imperials camp the whole time. Im obviously not ready to fight Antidas, but the other fights were a joke, so I was assuming ill get some good xp and gear then go off and do the rest of the town then finish the imperial line. There is no reason to lock the player into only that quest line. I have to restart now because there is no way I am ready to take on that fight.

[Vince]

The barracks get locked after the second quest (if they are locked after the first quest, it's a scripting error) for story-telling reasons. The Imperial Guards attacked the town, so most quests (like Dellar's quests or the infiltration or the refugees near the gate) are off the table. For the record, all other questlines are similarly locked after the second quests when the events escalate.

We'll try to communicate it better to the player.

[Mathalis]

Thanks, It makes sense.

[Asuzu]

Originally posted by Vince:

The barracks get locked after the second quest (if they are locked after the first quest, it's a scripting error) for story-telling reasons. The Imperial Guards attacked the town, so most quests (like Dellar's quests or the infiltration or the refugees near the gate) are off the table. For the record, all other questlines are similarly locked after the second quests when the events escalate.

We'll try to communicate it better to the player.

Yeah man, need some clear explanation to the player, that if he proceeds with a second guild quest, things will go ham and he won't be able to do anything else besides main questline.

[enlyre (Alex M)]

Originally posted by Vince:

The barracks get locked after the second quest (if they are locked after the first quest, it's a scripting error) for story-telling reasons. The Imperial Guards attacked the town, so most quests (like Dellar's quests or the infiltration or the refugees near the gate) are off the table. For the record, all other questlines are similarly locked after the second quests when the events escalate.

We'll try to communicate it better to the player.

Vince, about that. I've noticed, that I have no clear notification about the chain of events I will enter when accepting second quest from Imperial Guard. What I mean, I will no longer be able to finish quests which Dellar and Feng gave me. I understand the reality in which no one in army will tell details about mission before the mission, but the game should hint you somehow about opportunities you'll lost. It's minor, but it forces me to return back to autosave and replay two missions again (not that they were too long).

With that, there is no indication of hardness of second and third quest, and, since player will be locked until he finishes them, with low combat skills he may stuck there.

[[e-mail]]

This is a problem throught the game. My general advice & approach is to try & find everything else to do & do it first before advancing the main quest line. This is at times also very difficult as there are no indications of doors closing in almost all of the dialog options and no returns. Makes talking to secondary entities very fraught - the clasic example is Aemolas in Teron - ask about his village before one has a "Word of Honour" point and pfft! secondary quest line gone! Speak to the "youth" in Maadoran & don't take his job immediately same thing, this applies elsewhre to. My pet hate though are the infiltrate in Teron - cause the dialogue sequence is basically linear & locked (no bail out if / while undetected) & the Yellow Gem - if one backs out of the sneak even if undetected it's still gone. In both cases I can see no reason for this at all. I do need to add that the movie Gound Hog Day was one I left at the interval!

[enlyre (Alex M)]

Well, it's logical about Aemolas and his quest.

[[e-mail]]

It is logical that I not be offered it until I have that word of honour point. That I come back with it and that option is gone is not logical. That I could be trusted on first meeting because he mystically knew I had a word of honour but could not / would not after I had done some fairly public thing to earn it??

[enlyre (Alex M)]

Yeah, you are right)) Agreed)

[RobRendell]

Originally posted by BrennanTate:

the clasic example is Aemolas in Teron - ask about his village before one has a "Word of Honour" point and pfft! secondary quest line gone!

I'm pretty sure you can still get the Aemolas quest if you get the Word of Honour point later.

Yup, I just checked his script. When you ask him about his village, the script sets the flag aod.npc_aemolas_checkForHonor to true. As long as that flag is true, the game checks your Word of Honour again every time you leave conversation with him, and offers you the quest if it's >= 1 (at which point it resets the flag to false).

The problem is that it appears that the game's engine can't handle resuming a conversation after you've been in the shopping/trading dialog, so getting the quest later is a bit obscure, because you have to talk to him and then leave without shopping.

[[e-mail]]

If one has already asked about his village before you got the word of honour point then that option goes away. Observed this repeatedly and it is commented on in other threads

[RobRendell]

Originally posted by BrennanTate:

If one has already asked about his village before you got the word of honour point then that option goes away. Observed this repeatedly and it is commented on in other threads

The option to ask him about his village goes away, yes. But you'll note that he doesn't actually offer you the quest as part of that discussion... he offers it when you leave ("... the wasteland can be a very strange place sometimes." -> "Leave" -> "[word of honor success] Wait, <charname>...").

If you've already asked him about his village and then later get the WoH, go talk to him ("Do you want to look at my wares?") and then don't look at his wares ("Maybe later." Leave). You'll get the same "[word of honor success] Wait, <charname>..."

I agree that he should do the same if you do look at his wares, but it seems that the engine can't support resuming a conversation after shopping.

[edit] Yes, I just confirmed it in-game. Went to Aemolas with 0 WoH, asked about his village, no quest. Did stuff and got WoH 1, went back, spoke to him and said "Maybe later." Leave. He said "wait" and told me about his quest.

[Mathalis]

I understand the Dev's point, if you pay attention to the conversastion and story it should be slightly obvious that you are about to do something insane that will rock the town. With combat has difficult as it is and the lack of hand holding throughout the game, I do not expect them to add in tons of hints and help.

[enlyre (Alex M)]

Originally posted by joshuadelliott:

I understand the Dev's point, if you pay attention to the conversastion and story it should be slightly obvious that you are about to do something insane that will rock the town. With combat has difficult as it is and the lack of hand holding throughout the game, I do not expect them to add in tons of hints and help.

Yes, it really looks like you are signing to something on joining the Imperial Guard, but:
1. You can't be sure;
2. More important - you can't predict this will happen with starting of the second quest for IG, and that you will go rage and kill everyone in Daratan.

I agreed, it's the whole direction of the game and cool saving system coupled with short duration of quests makes things easier, but still... I don't want to replay same quests, at least playing the same character)

[Mathalis]

Originally posted by lyre:

Originally posted by joshuadelliott:

I understand the Dev's point, if you pay attention to the conversastion and story it should be slightly obvious that you are about to do something insane that will rock the town. With combat has difficult as it is and the lack of hand holding throughout the game, I do not expect them to add in tons of hints and help.

Yes, it really looks like you are signing to something on joining the Imperial Guard, but:
1. You can't be sure;
2. More important - you can't predict this will happen with starting of the second quest for IG, and that you will go rage and kill everyone in Daratan.

I agreed, it's the whole direction of the game and cool saving system coupled with short duration of quests makes things easier, but still... I don't want to replay same quests, at least playing the same character)

I understand I wish they would have added multiple paths for each class. With merc they could have added one path where the avatar followed a more good/friendly save the world style by doing well and following the imperial guards or even joining the Daratan guards. That way we had a choice that set us down our path, evil or good in essence. This was pretty low budget though. For the money they spent this game is pretty amazing. It reminds me of the original Fallouts a bit.

[enlyre (Alex M)]

Originally posted by joshuadelliott:

With merc they could have added one path where the avatar followed a more good/friendly save the world style by doing well and following the imperial guards or even joining the Daratan guards.

Whatcha mean? Merc actually can join Imperial Guard or work for Daratan house (though I don't know if Merc can become Daratan guard eventually).

Imperial Guard is kinda rough, but there actually is a way to make things do without a massacre, you just need required skills.