Silver hilt: Look out!

Radek · Post by **Radek** » Fri Feb 02, 2001 4:45 am

After leaving the Underdark, I left for Waukeen's promenade as usual. As usual there was a rubble of githyankis waiting for me there. As usual, the rubble was found rude, stinking and ugly so that its chance to get the silver sword was rather minimal. As usual, the words were replaced by swords soon. As usual, the rubble was sent to hell. Nothing extraordinary.
As usual, I went to the Cernd's house, which I use as my base in Akathla. Suddenly, I was attacked by the crier near the Adventurer's Mart. I put myself out of sight (I do not kill bystanders) and searched what's wrong. I found that my reputation dropped from 20 to 4.
Yes, there were causalties in the preceeding fight but it wasn't me who murdered there. I used only my melee weapons against the rubble. No magic (it wasn't necessary). On the other hand, the rubble was really unscrupulous. Nevertheless, I was found guilty for the slaughter. My reputation get lost. The reaction of the crier is now understandable: he attacked the criminals which he saw in action.
I have found only one explanation. A gihyanki cast an area effect offensive spell and some innocent somehow survived. Because of being attacked, the innocent became RED. Now, your party attacks anything red. It is possible that somebody in your party attacked the innocent. This was a begining of a known self-powered chain reaction. If it is so, then it is a serious fault in a game logic, moreover an unavoidable one. Everybody in the game is either your ally, your enemy or a neutral. The innocent cannot be an enemy of your enemy.

Q: Has anybody a better explanation?
Q: Is my explanation incorrect?

Let us continue. As far as my experience is concerned, there were almost always victims of the fight at the Promenade. As if the killings of innocents were - somehow - INTENTIONAL! Suppose it for a moment and consider the consequences. Then it would be the most embarrasing foul played on me by the game I've ever seen. But don't let us suspect the authors from such behaviour.

Osiris · Post by **Osiris** » Fri Feb 02, 2001 6:06 am

I had a similar thing happen when Xzar got killed in the Docks, after the Rylock quest with the Harpers. After that a couple of townsfolk showed up as red for the rest of the game. I had not cast anything, just got in a few weapons shots before the Harper dropped him. Xzar IIRC got off a spell.

It seems to be that the townsfolk get upset from being involved in a fracas against anyone who was involved.

With your rep dropping like that, you either killed some innocents or at least were blamed for their deaths.

Krom · Post by **Krom** » Fri Feb 02, 2001 7:27 am

I had the same problem as well. Those githyanki would cast lightning bolts that would bounce around the promenade and nuke 3 or 4 people. Unfortunately, the game would flag me as the caster. Funny thing is that during the battle, the town crier would attack me instead of the githyanki.

I got around this by reloading and luring the baddies to a corner where no other NPC's were hanging out. Still an aggravating little bug though.

Radek · Post by **Radek** » Fri Feb 02, 2001 8:08 am

@Osiris: Your cause seems to be understandable. You should not have attacked Xzar. The harper should kill him. Your attack could be considered a hostile action against innocents by the bystanders (Xzar wasn't your enemy, he was one of them when you attacked).
@Krom: Sure. But WHY are we blamed for it? There is a lot of fights in streets (vampires, thugs, etc.) without any unjust cosequences. Suddenly, the things change.
As far as the githyankis are considered, I found a dead bystander near them after the battle several times. The bystander wasn't killed neither by the lightning nor by some fireball or so (I didn't noticed any visual spell effects). How come?

FoulDwimmerlaik · Post by **FoulDwimmerlaik** » Fri Feb 02, 2001 5:02 pm

Originally posted by Radek:
After leaving the Underdark...consequences. Then it would be the most embarrasing foul played on me by the game I've ever seen.

How am I embarrasing, and what exactly are you implying with all of this?

Waverly · Post by **Waverly** » Fri Feb 02, 2001 10:36 pm

Yes I am afraid the peasants can't take a joke. What is worse, despite their low intelligence, they seem to be telepathically linked. There's nothing like a full frontal assault from the harlots in the docks district after some, ah um, over-reacting to a little harper skirmish (read: fireballs akimbo)

After careful consideration, I can offer two paths of advice. 1) Since you now know the confrontation is imminent, go back to quicksave and prepare. Hint: You can often even choose the location of the battle. 2) Give up that goody-good reputation, and embrace the evil within

------------------
\^/
And his eyes have all the seeming of a demon that is dreaming,
And the lamp-light o'er him streaming throws his shadow on the floor,
And my soul from out that shadow that lies floating on the floor
Shall be lifted -- nevermore!

MM3 · Post by **MM3** » Sat Feb 03, 2001 4:39 am

It is possible that your shiny cloak reflected a lightening bolt casted by one of the uglies and it hit an innocent by accident. If you watch the little screen on the bottom, you would notice that damages reflected off your cloak are considered delivered by you.

Osiris · Post by **Osiris** » Sat Feb 03, 2001 6:58 am

@Radek: thanks for the explanation.

Originally posted by Waverly:
...Hint: You can often even choose the location of the battle.

On one occasion we were fronted by the githyanki near the adventurers mart. We ducked into the store, the giths followed, but did not cast spells while inside. In a weapons only battle they were easy to drop.

Brink · Post by **Brink** » Sat Feb 03, 2001 7:53 am

Guess they were afraid of Ribald

You can indeed chose which district to fight them(I think they appear in the first district that you head towards right after leaving the Underdark).So,to avoid civillian casualties,I'd say go to one which is not heavily populated(ie : Docks) and not the Slums(think of how many beggars/halflings would be killed

)

[This message has been edited by Brink (edited 02-03-2001).]