Stumbling around in Albion

[jefklak]

#6923

Hi all,

I never played this game before and I’m a huge cRPG fan so this should be right up my alley, but for some reason, it’s very hard to get into! I’ve scoured through threads here and some walkthroughs to make it less painful, but a few things still irritate me. I was wondering how you folks deal with this.
(Yes, I’m late to the party…)

– My party is constantly tired and even getting damage from being exhausted. I couldn’t afford a night at the inn, and I understand you can rest outside, but all I can do is press “wait”. Why? I tried interacting with the beds but no avail.
– Navigation seems excruciating. Only in the 3D view there’s a map and you can thankfully fast-travel. All building interiors look the same only adding to the confusion. Where the hell is that first dungeon the murderer flees off to?
– Should I step outside the city gates? I wandered around in the jungle a while and it’s vast, and I of course got lost again! And then killed. And again. And again. I forgot to grab that pistol so I don’t have access to it. Combat seems fumbling about too: should I make the humans close-ranged fighters? If not, where can I get a bow or so?
– I’ve been stealing a lot of cutlery since that can be sold to get that “exotic weapon” for 45gp. Any other ways to make money?
– Should I invest all skill points when going to the combat trainer or hold of to train other stuff somewhere else, god knows where? This game’s explanation of mechanics is so very obtuse!
– Healing: I drink up a lot of those medkit potions but there’s limited supply, what’s the alternative?

Thanks!
Happy holidays

[jefklak]

#6924

Played another hour, finishing the basement thing, and for some reason, I now *can* pick “Rest” in the menu. I have no idea why. I also bought the equipment and a bow and feel a bit more capable of dealing out damage, although it’s still difficult. The healer gives potions if you say you need healing but can’t afford it.

I see very nice gear in the arms seller and there’s talk about a way to “steal” some of that, but haven’t tried that yet.

[DavidN]

#6925

Were you carrying any food when you were unable to rest? I know that you can’t regain health from resting if you’re not carrying any – I’m not sure if it actively prevents you from selecting the option, though.

I had a look at the manual, which is almost completely unhelpful – it talks about some of the setting and the basics of the UI but there’s absolutely nothing about how training your stats help, or what you need to do to keep your party healthy! So there really is a lot of trial and error involved – I had to consult an FAQ to get an understanding of what I was doing.

So I can only help out from my own research and gathering of information:
– Search junkpiles and chests and sell things that you aren’t going to use! There are a lot of useless objects, but weapons and potions can be bartered.
– Selling monster bits and pieces that you gain from combat will give you a decent cash flow as well.
– If you’re really hard up, go and visit the healer in the Dji-Kas building (southwestern building in Jirinaar) and talk to her repeatedly – she’ll occasionally give you a high-tier blue health potion that can be used or sold!
– The lack of a map can be a huge disadvantage, especially at night. Explore slowly, learn landmarks and ask the man herding cattle near the city for directions if you need them!
– It seems to be generally agreed that it’s worth training yourself up in close-range combat as much as you can in Jirinaar (though as mentioned above I have little idea what difference this specifically makes!)

[IS4]

#6926

Hello and happy holidays too! I’ll try to assist you in your journey as best as I can:

– My party is constantly tired and even getting damage from being exhausted. I couldn’t afford a night at the inn, and I understand you can rest outside, but all I can do is press “wait”. Why? I tried interacting with the beds but no avail.

You cannot sleep in cities, so the only thing you can do is wait. You can however sleep outside Jirinaar, and in the hunters’ clan building too, for free. In these locations, the “Wait” button changes to “Rest”.

– Navigation seems excruciating. Only in the 3D view there’s a map and you can thankfully fast-travel. All building interiors look the same only adding to the confusion. Where the hell is that first dungeon the murderer flees off to?

You get used to it. 😉 The first dungeon is located outside the city (I think some iskai talk about it), and you can ask a herder outside the city for directions. Or, if you don’t mind “cheating”, you can take a look at the Nakiridaani map (and I recall someone on this forum also recorded a video how to get there.

– Should I step outside the city gates? I wandered around in the jungle a while and it’s vast, and I of course got lost again! And then killed. And again. And again. I forgot to grab that pistol so I don’t have access to it. Combat seems fumbling about too: should I make the humans close-ranged fighters? If not, where can I get a bow or so?

Definitely! There should be some weapons and healing drinks back at the hunters’ clan house, in the location where you woke up (and in the cellar too), I think, so that may help. As for training your humans, focus on using Tom and Drirr for combat, and either leave Rainer behind or use him as a meat shield. You can definitely survive without the pistol (I never used it even though I got it) but it takes some training, and getting some Morrowind-style hit and miss from early combat is expected.

– I’ve been stealing a lot of cutlery since that can be sold to get that “exotic weapon” for 45gp. Any other ways to make money?

The loot from krondir and warniak can be also sold for some gold. If you are okay with abusing glitches, you can also steal items from shops if you are moving towards the counter and right-click to select them (the range expands somewhat if you time it right).

– Should I invest all skill points when going to the combat trainer or hold of to train other stuff somewhere else, god knows where? This game’s explanation of mechanics is so very obtuse!

Honestly I am not sure, I haven’t concerned myself with training that much. However there are not that many trainers out there anyway, so feel free to spend the points if you want to.

Healing: I drink up a lot of those medkit potions but there’s limited supply, what’s the alternative?

You can get healing points from Rejira (in the Dji-Kas building) for free sometimes, when you exit the dialog. You can repeat this an unlimited number of times, so you can pretty much stack up with the however you want.

[yozy]

#6927

– Should I invest all skill points when going to the combat trainer or hold of to train other stuff somewhere else, god knows where? This game’s explanation of mechanics is so very obtuse!

YES! Using all your points to train people in close combat is crucial and will make the game _much_ easier. I’d even recommend training Tom as much as you can even before going to the basement in the hunters clan house. And definitely train Drirr before leaving the island.

As for the dungeon where the killer fled, I’ve made a short video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mNpds21F8Bo

[jefklak]

#6928

Thanks all for your help! I’ve played a bit more today and found the dungeon and got Rainer incapacitated lol. We also ran out of torches which was kind of stupid. We barely made it back but sold a lot of stuff. I’ve finally been able to buy the compass (and music crystal thing) which should help with navigation.

Behind the corpse in the dungeon is another locked chest but my lockpicks were used up. I tried “examining” and using the lock a few times and got a message we escaped a trap and after 3 tries it opened. Is it worth it to go back and give the crystal? I have no idea why I bought that thing for 80gp!

IS4, your map link unfortunately doesn’t seem to work…

The murder quest is solved now but I’ll hang around a bit until I can max out the combat skills like everyone suggests.

[yozy]

#6929

Rainer can pick any lock that does not say “this lock can not be picked”. You just need to try to pick it a lot. With trapped locks it might be useful to use lock picks but it’s really not necessary.

**SPOILER FOR THE CRYSTAL**

So, this crystal usefulness kind of depends. At the end of the Dji-Fadh dungeon you will find a being that you can promise the crystal to. They will give you some useful information in exchange for the promise, but as far as I can say it’s not actually necessary to give them the crystal.

However, later in the game you can find another person who is bored out of their mind, and you can give them the crystal in exchange for a nifty throwing axe. There are other music crystals in the game so it’s as you like.

[IS4]

#6931

IS4, your map link unfortunately doesn’t seem to work…

Fandom is trying to make it harder and harder to link to images… sorry, link fixed!

[jefklak]

#6935

All right I got to another island by boat today!

Things already were tough but are only getting tougher. I grinded a bit before leaving but apparently not long enough. The enemies in the druid’s ruins are mark III of those flying poison things and simply decimate my party. Everyone is just a useless meatshield except for Tom and Drirr. The bow constantly breaks, bolts and arrows constantly miss or do like 1 damage, and after casting one or two spells with moderate success, the casters are sitting ducks.

Money is a big problem. I gobble up potions like mad, and 10 healing ones cost 100gp!! Trying to rest to heal doesn’t always work due to “nobody is tired yet”. I’m constantly poisoned and have to run back to the healer. My big axe broke and it cost 150gp to repair, wtf? That’s a friggin’ fortune! I can’t afford anything shiny in shops.

To be honest I’m getting a bit hung up on the lackluster RPG mechanics of Albion. Doing battle or grinding in general isn’t fun, it’s a rightclick-fest. If one enemy dies but that was also the target of another character, he/she simply stumbles and does nothing. Is there a way to see how much HP an enemy has? Is there a way to see how mechanics of weapons work? Why does equipping my axe increase damage (visible) but decrease both total and current close combat skills (???)? Why do NPCs walk around like lunatics while I have to aim my rightclick since it can’t reach far for some reason?

I guess I’ll give it another shot in the coming days.

[DavidN]

#6939

Oddly enough I share a lot of your complaints except money – I’ve never found myself short of it, but then I’m not really buying anything beyond the essentials. I loaded up on blue potions on the first island, and am overusing Frost Avalanche to freeze enemies which makes combat much easier (in some cases trivial). You can always rest at an inn regardless of your party’s tiredness, and it doesn’t consume food either – on top of that, you only pay for characters who are conscious when you come in, so the more knackered your team is the cheaper the stay is 🙂

Sira’s “View of Life” spell adds an HP meter, but you have to cast it on every battle, so I rely more on just vaguely being aware of how many HP each monster type has and how much I’ve damaged them (it isn’t easy to keep track of that either, because the damage display at the end of each round only counts the most recent attack!)

I imagine the combat skill penalty is to reflect the axe’s heaviness? But I’ve really no idea – information on the actual game mechanics seems extremely rare!

[yozy]

#6940

The manual does explain quite a bit, then there is Albion wiki to see the actual weapon stats.

I suppose one reason they don’t show the statistics in the Examine window is that it would either reveal the cursed objects, or would require adding a whole “identify object” game mechanic.

Maybe we can ask Jurie?

[jefklak]

#6957

Okay, I tried it one more time, but the druid dungeon is just too much without that frost avalanche spell. I’m on the verge of giving up. I’m still underleveled and I don’t feel like running around in the jungle looking for trouble to fix this (which takes a long time, BTW). My guys constantly die and it sucks the fun out of it. And yes, Tom got sick and permanently lost skill points. Great!! 😡

One of my 2023 resolutions is not making myself finish a book or game I don’t enjoy. I’m afraid about 7 hours in, I’m gonna have to throw the towel…
I tried a god mode cheat (http://albion-hra.wz.cz/?page=cheaty) but without clipping it’s kind of useless. I’ll watch a few YouTube videos to see what I missesd.

[yozy]

#6959

To be fair you do not need Frost Avalanche. Frost Crystal is good enough.

[jefklak]

#7025

I did a write-up on my thoughts of the game: https://jefklakscodex.com/games/pc/albion/

I realize it’s perhaps a bit harsh, but while playing it, I just missed the clearly superior games it’s based on such as Might & Magic. I might go ahead and replay one of those. That said, I highly enjoyed exploring the world and doing it together with you folks, thanks!

[DavidN]

#7026

I think your assessment is fair! Like I said in the first post on my topic (and affirmed more strongly throughout it), I came to realize I love Albion as a world and story but not so much as a game.

The awkwardnesses you described are all very real – one you mentioned that stuck out at me but that I haven’t mentioned before is the route to the Former building on the first island. You would think that at this early stage, there would be some sort of overgrown path to follow to get you there – but if you follow the path out of the city you instead get to the middle of nowhere! You have to clamber your way behind the city across vines on a narrow little pass and then go in the opposite direction from where you’ve been told for a while, just to get anywhere – and the maps are consistently much larger than they need to be for their content.

That problem arose again late in the game for me, when I was going through the hidden path in Umajo – there’s an exit that serves no purpose and will just dump you out in a vast space with nothing to discover or do. And because of the nature of the hidden tunnels, it’s very difficult to find your way back.

[yozy]

#7027

Right in the feelings. Albion definitely has more to go in the world building than mechanics, but somehow I didn’t really find them too penalising.

I think Albion was maybe the first dungeon crawler style RPG that I finished (if not the only one), so it has a lot of nostalgia value for me. I do also remember that I did give up on it the first time I tried it – the game difficulty is really not that well balanced, if you know what to do it is quite easy, if you don’t it’s hell.

However I did find that compared to games like Ishar at least there was something to go on. The items were relatively simple (although it still has way too many useless weapons), the spells have obvious use (I’m still traumatised by Shadows over Riva).

One thing that also really pulled me through the whole story is the graphics, for me the game still looks gorgeous (both in 2d and 3d parts).