Universal Zarista Games’ Cursed Stone expansion for Redshift’s The Quest - Open Betatesting

re: The Well:
Small detail: With the monsters down there, shouldn't it give fouled water until you cleanse the place?
If I remember right, Rasvim can only consume fouled food/water. If that's correct, bonus points for offering the morally questionable option to leave a corpse or two down there, ensuring a continuous foul water supply

 

I am doing very well so far as a rasvim. Honestly it's the only race I have ever played and probably the only one I ever will play. I have wondered around just about everywhere and collected tons of quests but have yet to solve one. I am very confused about what I'm supposed to do in the castle full of dead people having a party. I killed a two headed hound in a courtyard and got a dance card and when I used it to dance with someone he became evil and attacked me but that was it. I know there's got to be more to this place...

 

Thanks for the cheat sheet I won't go there unless I get really lost lol I am off to find the moon goddess! I remember that was one of the first quests I was given and obviously one of the most important

 

Some small things this time:
1) Huntsman: Change that to "Huntsman Spider" or such? With the current name, I really expected to see an actual Huntsman, and was looking around to doublecheck where he is

2) For the "Large Creel" quest: It definitely was around last time, but now I cannot find it anywhere in the starting village. Shouldn't that be always available?

3) Question: I am pretty sure that on my first attempt I got an important key in the starting village. But of course now I cannot find it anymore. Any hints?

 

Thanks!

Hhmm, can you make it so that he always sells it?

Yep, that's the one. Sorry if I wasn't clear here. When I started exploring with the default character, I got the key. Now I am playing with a custom char, and I simply cannot remember who gave me the key the first time, and cannot find the spot/person anymore. I didn't drop it by accident or anything like that.

Haven't been there yet, so can't really comment. Giving gems to trees sounds a bit odd, unless they are Ents or such. What else could they want? Getting watered regularly?

Thanks, same to you and everyone else!

 

Zombilon sells many Large Creels every day in the new version

You need your persuade skill to be at least level 40 to get the key from Tom the Taverner.

Happy New Year!

 

I am very confused by the goddess quest I think I have missed a few trees cause I have yet to find her

 

You can climb it right away, but only at night and you need water (or one Black Diamond in a previous version you may have). It's 2 steps west from Mahjia's shop.

 

One thing I noticed:
After the initial dialogue with the first NPC and checking out the Astrologer Guild, the game lacks direction for me.
"Go visit the Goddess/Temple" at first glance looks like the first starting baby step of the main quest.
Still didn't find it, but that's not the point I'm trying to make.
Currently, I am wandering around rather aimlessly, trying to find interesting stuff without getting killed.

Just a bit more direction on what to do & where to go in the beginning would be good, I think.
I'll compare Cursed Stone to the Avernum games, because they have an even larger open world, that easily could be equally overwhelming at first.
But in Avernum, you get quite a few pointers:
Person X tells you to go to town Y, and best stop by and resupply on the way at village Z. Right from the start you have a worldmap that shows where you and important places are.

Something like that would help to make Q:CS more accessible, I think.
E.g. Old Shaman gives you a map, showing at least where all the towns/villages are. Bonus points for including other obvious landmarks.
And he gives you directions to the Temple: "Head north till village Generic-upon-Beach, then turn NW from there until you reach the area of I-don't-know. Best stock up on some healing in Generic, people keep talking about how giants and worse run rampant farther up north."


Second, I'd like to have some indication that people might tell you more if your Persuasion score were higher. With most NPCs I met so far, I have absolutely no way to figure out if they just don't have more to say, or if they don't talk to me because I'm not the most charming Rasvim ever (i.e. very low Persuasion score still).

 

Another small detail: Gold supply.
I find it really hard to judge how much gold I'll get over the course of the game and how much I'll be able to afford.
Most useful items I can buy cost 10k or more. Gold trickles in in very small amounts so far, a few hundred max per find.
Sure, I only saw a small part of the gameworld so far, and I can always resort to the cardgame (which is fun enough on its own, so no problem with that ) . But having some indication if gold will be more plentiful later or if it stays like it currently is would be nice.

 

Nullzone, is this your first time playing the quest? I doubt anything major ( the gold system) will be changed in one expansion that has already been used in the dozens of existing games

 

I think that's the way it's supposed to be: you explore the world and find out where you need to go by yourself.

A bit more direction on what to do and where to go in a few places would be great, but not too much. There may even be none at all sometimes, and that should be changed.

I agree with you on that there should be more indications when there may be a skill requirement if you want to solve something that requires you to have a higher skill level. Not too explicit, though, like "upgrade your Persuasion!", which sounds really weird unless it's some random tip. Something like "Your arguments are lame" or "Can't you talk nicer?" or "What, stop mumbling and get outta here" may suffice.

The game should be more accessible, so let's talk about it
When I first played, the game lacked direction most of the time for me too, but the second time I played, after I found where most of the key items and quests are hidden, the experience changed irreversibly.
One thing that stumped me is getting to the Witch of Canna.
Eventually I picked the lock in her hut, and it's good that it's pickable, but where can I find the key?

Nullzone,
I think gold rewards for quests should be bigger (500-3000 gold)
There's a ton of gold in the Burial Vaults (Loch Fuar Cemetery)
Some spiders down there can be killed only with a Venom Stick.

 

Technically not, but I haven't played in at least 4 years. So despite remembering some stuff - e.g. that Enchanting can get ridiculously overpowered - I'm coming at it almost like a new player.
I don't mind if the answer is "we always did it like that, won't change". But I still like to point out things that I notice

@DeMenchev: second time is always easier
I don't mind exploring on my own, so that's not the problem. But at least a hint or two in which direction I should go first would be nice.
Again, comparing to Avernum: A. also expects you to explore on your own, but does guide you a lot better than QCS does.
But I am also coming at it from an internal consistency/world building angle:
It just doesn't make much sense in-game to send the person who's supposed to fix your stuff off with very vague directions and a "good luck, hope you don't get eaten on the way". Yes, I died quite a few times during exploring already; mostly when I ran into unexpected monster groups, as opposed to the far more common single monsters (who so far pose little challenge, at least outdoors).

And fully agree on the quest rewards: the two or so I got so far only were a few hundred gold each, could easily be 10 times that amount.

 

I had a much easier time starting out as a rasvim in this game vs almost any of the others don't know why maybe because when I started the first quest I had no gold no experience or spells and every time I left town I would die almost instantly. One thing I have noticed about this game is that bad guys spawn pretty close to town. That might not be good for new players