Phantom Forest

[Gyrmadet]

Is it preferrable to:

1) finish Hunters Edge quests first

or

2) clear the path to the Source Temple

also:

some NPC keeps telling me not to harm the forest's spirits... does that means I have to avoid combat? but they are all demons... it doesn't make much sense

[Dragon]

Might as well finish Hunter's Edge completely before worrying about the Source Temple, as otherwise you'll probably be way over-leveled when you go back to do the Hunter's Edge stuff, which takes all the challenge out of the game.

Granted, you might be over-leveled regardless as the game fubars the level balance towards the mid-game/end-game and makes most enemies be under-leveled in general (at least for a player who did all of the content).

As for the NPC comments; I don't remember that stuff which you mentioned they said, which is probably because it's unimportant nonsense.

[Gyrmadet]

Originally posted by Dragon:

Might as well finish Hunter's Edge completely before worrying about the Source Temple, as otherwise you'll probably be way over-leveled when you go back to do the Hunter's Edge stuff, which takes all the challenge out of the game.

Granted, you might be over-leveled regardless as the game fubars the level balance towards the mid-game/end-game and makes most enemies be under-leveled in general (at least for a player who did all of the content).

As for the NPC comments; I don't remember that stuff which you mentioned they said, which is probably because it's unimportant nonsense.

thanks man. I'm already overpowered... yes I noticed, past level 16 something went wrong with the scaling, and the result is that I am steamrolling foes in battle even with (purposely) bad strategies

[red255]

you need to go to hunters edge to get the amulet to let your team into the phantom forest.

finishing hunters edge, I just got into a fight where I convinced the humans to kill the orcs, didn't require much fighting on my part. only reason why I wouldn't finish it is because I didn't understand the knights tomb puzzle and thought the INSTANT death meant I wasn't able to finish it at that time.

rather obtuse puzzles in this game. many I bypass by teleporting over them too. like the source temple one. god knows the solution to those.

[Gyrmadet]

Originally posted by red255:

rather obtuse puzzles in this game.

I concur. But, in some way, I understand the developers because they had two goals:
1) give the players some variety of gameplay (not just killing stuff)
2) avoid the puzzle being "cracked" too fast, to push longevity

the problem is: as someone who long surpassed the age of being able to spend days after days playing games, I prefer to get to the business to just distract myself and have a good, entertaining, hour or two.
Resorting to puzzles that require only trial & error, is just a way to artificially inflate longevity at the expense of gameplay quality.
I consider this a forgivable crime though, maybe they listened to the feedback from players and balanced puzzles in the second chapter of DOS.