Re: Quest start up suggestions From: Brian Carpenter <btc2@cornell.edu> Date: Tue, 14 Dec 1993 08:31:48 +0000 David Gene Adams, seattle@cyberspace.com writes: >I am a bit confused about primary weapons chosen on the introductory turn. >According to the post card (sign up now!) if I didn't get a weapon, the >'natural' weapon skill would be given to the character. Where on my results >sheet does it indicate the weapon skill? After a few phone calls and letters to ABM (and discovering that they do indeed have very good customer service), I got the following information, which isn't accurately reflected in any of the original set-up cards, but is apparently how things work. Every character has his best skill in the weapon he has on the first turn. If the character has two weapons at the end of the first turn, either: - the FIRST weapon purchased determines the 'best' skill -or- - the best skill is determined randomly from those purchased If the character has NO weapons at the end of the first turn, the 'natural' weapon is selected. The example I got was 'axes for Dwarf Fighters'. I'd assume that it's the first weapon that comes to mind for a given class/race. Daggers for thieves, maces for priests, god knows what for mages and then the 'cultural' weapon for fighters. Again, I only got the above example, so the rest is conjecture. How do I know this? Everyone bought daggers as their first weapon (good old B 99 0 102), and that wasn't pretty. It's fixed now, and I applaud ABM's responsiveness. I would add, however, that purchasing daggers for everyone isn't necessary -- apparently a holdover from my old days where everyone carried a backup weapon in case of breakage. >I would have wanted to buy Long swords for my fighters, but it wasn't listed >as an option. Now that I've recieved my first results, I find that Long >swords are available in the town. If I buy them, will I have the skill? >In my first orders, only my thief is equiped with a dagger now. To find out what the skills of your characters are, use the I 99 order. In fact, I strongly suggest that you put I 99 as a standing order unless you really need that slot for something else. Not knowing the make-up of your party, I'd suggest not buying anything 'til you've issued that I 99. If you don't have skill in a weapon to start, it starts out at ZERO. (Admittedly, my data so far is from a thief with a sling as his secondary weapon). Also, a sword is a sword apparently. If you start with a short-sword, and later switch to a long-sword or a great-sword, your skill stays the same. Categories of weapon skill are: Hand - Dagger - Sword - Flail - Mace - Bow - Crossbow - Sling - Axe - Spear You'll see these categories and the skills of your party listed when you issue an I 99. >In the Quest.faq.long apparently all the mage spells are listed, but not >the spell components. Did I miss something? For instance, how would my >mage cast slow poison (61)? That takes Crushednuts and Yellowliver, right? >so my order would be C 5 61 5 to slow poison on the mage casting it. To answer your question, yes, that is the way to cast a spell. I suspect the reason that the FAQ doesn't *name* the spell components is because the titles will change even though spell '1234' will always require components 1, 2, 3 & 4, regardless of what they actually are. Finally, please don't post things like mage spells and other specifics. The Quest.FAQ has the short and long versions so that people don't get information they don't want. If the above example is a non-spell, then so be it, but a certain satisfaction comes from learning things on your own, and unsolicited information can be a hinderance to that. Yours in QUESTING -- Brian Carpenter Up