Sledge on 12/11/2002 at 21:46

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I emailed about this but I'll post in case anyone else finds this:

I remember there being a troll on the bridge from a long time ago (I never approached him). However, when I went down to level 5 I'm pretty sure the way was clear (ie the troll had disappeared). I know for a fact he's not there in one of my current save games (before I fought Pog and crew). Thus I had no idea I wasn't supposed to go down there. Has anyone else seen this or am I just smoking crack???

p7eter on 12/11/2002 at 23:25

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so it was a bug... i guess you passed without showing the note and they all became hostile

julien_roby@arkane_studio on 14/11/2002 at 07:18

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When NPCs became enemy they won't be friend again even with an amulet.
-julien

Entropy on 18/11/2002 at 02:40

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I am in exactly this situation. I walked past the troll on the bridge, and now the whole damn lot of them, with the exception of the estranged Greu, are against me. I wasn't sure if this was a bug so I came here, but now I know that it is not I am no less pissed off.

I do not want to go back and redo several hours of adventuring that I have done since this happened (not realising at the time that *every* troll had become hostile). I have the amulet, which I now know was basically a pointless waste of time except for the experience gained, since the hostile trolls won't heed it. I now face the choice of redoing all the work I have done, or becoming a bloodthirsty villain and massacring the trolls to free a prisoner (assuming they don't wipe me out first which seems more likely).

From a gameplay point of view I see this outcome as flawed. It is very easy for a player to end up in this situation without being able to anticipate it, and a pain in the ass once you are in it. Ok, it made sense for a troll to attack when you squeezed past him, to try and chase you back out of the area you shouldn't be in. Why should every other troll turn against you just because you went somewhere one of them didn't want you to go? Why doesn't he calm down over time, or when you leave the prohibited area, and just go back to guarding the bridge and ignoring you? Why doesn't he see the amulet and calm down once you have it?

I find this very frustrating. Do I have any alternatives to change this situation?

Entropy on 18/11/2002 at 22:33

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I managed to avoid restarting, but I did have to go back to a previous save and basically redo 4 hours of 'work'. I've cooled down a little now - it is a great game, and even going back and redoing a whole chunk was still fun :) At the time though I was incredibly frustrated, and that's coming from a committed player who loved UU and Thief and was waiting desperately for Arx to be released. I believe more casual gamers might give up rather than go back so far or try to persevere with such incredibly dangerous enemies needing to be slain.

I would suggest to the development team that in the next patch this challenge is modified a little. At least give the player some warning, similar to the way Tizzy does in the pub. Ideally, make the troll chase the player back to the correct side of the bridge if he trespasses (shouting at him to leave), only becoming permanently hostile if the player actually wounds him or goes down to the next level, and returning to just guarding the bridge if the player leaves.