Ever since entering the Shrine I have noticed that I cannot heal my leading character. "Restore Health" fizzles every single time it is cast on him and he does not even appear as a beneficiary of the "Healing Realm" spell. I am also experiencing similar problems with my teleport spell. I have successfully created a number of portals after entering and completing the Shrine. But not one of them works when I try to teleport to them.
Apart from a bug or corrupted file/s the only other possible cause I can think of is something to do with the Mavin sword oath and (unjustly) killing the Sphinx?
All other spells I have used seem to be working normally. But since I have to use "Call of Home" to heal my leader -bottles fizzle on him as well- and then walk all the way back through the Shrine to continue from where I left off,
I am on the verge of taking a rest from WW -the blisters and shark bites are killing me - and playing a different game for a while and then coming back to start all over again at some future date.
Any advice? For example, what are the chances of saving my game, reinstalling. Would this make a difference?

Dandad

There are places were some spells won't work. Teleport is usually the most common of these.

This is NOT related to killing the Sphynx - the game doesn't care whether or not you keep your oath (drat!). There are no consequences to offing the various nice NPCs in the game, although it does appear that in the original design for the game consequences were planned but didn't get implimented when they rushed the game to market.

Now, back to healing. Have you tried changing his position in the party? What class is he? Is he a vampire? If he is a vampire, healing isn't going to work on him! ;) He needs BLOOD!! :D I've never played a vampire so someone else will have to come along and tell you how to make that work, but I think you need to remove weapons, equip a shield or something in the shield spot and BITE!

Wyv

I forgot to tell you -

If you want to take a break from your game, you need to save your gamexx.sav files and your roster.dat (move them to another directory for safe keeping). You can then totally uninstall the game. When you reinstall, just put those files back where they belong and you're back in business!

Wyv

But an uninstallation does not remove your saved games does it? Just a thought. It might be wiser to back them up before uninstalling. [img]smile.gif[/img]

An uninstall usually leaves the saved games, but I'm not so sure about that roster.dat file. Best to be safe and make copies. ;)

Wyv

Thanks Wyvern and Willow for your prompt help, as always!! I will experiment with a reinstallation after further experiments/investigations of the spells which do not work.

I cannot find any (other?) indication that I am a vampire. If I am then I'll start again anyway. It would be too tedious to be running back and forward for the rest of the game. Even the thought of having to do so is unnacceptable.

I was not totally surprised to find my portal by the Leprachaun's treasure did not work. But the other three were all after the Shrine, from outside Shrine exit to Bloodbeards ship. I tried all of them repeatedly with all of the four characters who have the appropriate spells. In all locations the game said a portal had been created, but it repeatedly failed to work when I left Brimloch to return.

Is it normal for the Create Portal spell to work, and the Teleport to it not work with a one hundred percent failure rate?

Dandad

There are some areas in the Lost Sea area where portals seem to fail. It does seem odd though that you are able to successfully create the portal and it still fails. Usually if a teleport is going to fail to that area, the create portal fails. hmmmmm

You can play a vampire without always having to go back to the town to heal, you just have to use that character as a vampire, not just a normal character. He has to attack with his teeth but as I said, I haven't played one and my memory of what others said you had to do to make it work well fails me.

Restarting a game with the same characters had a lot of advantages. Except for quest items, they keep just about everything they have collected/learned. Very nice! [img]smile.gif[/img]

Wyv

To find out if you're a vampire, look for the vampirism trait on the skills page, and check your special attacks (the dragon on the adventure screen). I believe that vampires get a special attack (frost breath or something like that).

'Cause if healing is failing, you're likely a vampire. :( Sorry.

As for reinstalling, Willow and Wyv have you covered. Save the appropriate files, and you'll be set. Typically, an uninstall won't remove any files you've added (like savegames), but they might... back 'em up to be sure. The reinstall might overwrite them as well... I've seen that logic before.

1. Check your special abilities. If you find something like "vampiric bite" then you get the answer for failing heal spells. The Vampirism trait might be scrolled out of the window (I am not sure where the trait is positioned on the list) but the abilities will always give you the answer. What did you tell Adrianna in the Skull Castle and what did you allow her?
2. The portals in the shrine. I have experienced "vanishing portals" there several times, too. You create a portal, the game tells you "portal created" but - when you attempt to teleport, the spell fizzles. It seems to be some kind of bug of the shrine. You should be able to create portals anywhere in the shrine. You should be able to teleport from anywhere to your portal. In fact, the only place in the game, where you CANNOT create a portal and, therefore, where you cannot teleport, is the Pyramid. You'd better do the following:
a) Make a special save.
b) Create portal.
c) Make a normal save.
d) Make a few steps away and teleport. Okay? The portal is ready and it will work everytime you cast teleport from anywhere. Reload the normal save and continue your way. Failure? You are a victim of the bug. Reload the special save and goto b).

but how come some spells still cant work in some places, i know one of them is the teleport spell that everyone knows of... could it be a bug??? :eek:
ANYWAY, the vampirism trait is quite irritating to me: not being able to heal ur characters and always losing life until ur characters goes *bonk* totally... [img]graemlins/madhell.gif[/img]

I think it's the combo Create Portal - Teleport which is buggy somehow. Let us note that the Teleport spell is the one that raises most of complaints. And the complaints are always the same: "I have set the portal but my teleport fizzles! Why?". This happens also in the wilderness (often behind the shrine) where some "good portal so far" should be supposed. The teleport does not teleport to the old portal - it fizzles instead.
Therefore, the Create Portal seems to be buggy. Not only you are mislead by the "portal created" message, the spell also deletes your current portal without replacing it by a new one. This must be a bug: if the Create Portal spell fizzled simply and lied that a portal was created for some reason, then the Teleport spell would have to teleport to the old portal. This is not the case. The complaints from dungeons can fall into the same category but we don't know whether a "good portal" has been created so far.
The only defense against the bug is keeping the bug in your mind. If you are far from the town or if it is essential that you have a portal at a certain location then always check the portal by a subsequent Teleport spell. Create the portal, save the game, make a few steps away, and teleport. If you get teleported to your new portal then the portal is safe. It will not vanish (until you create another portal) and all Teleport spells will teleport you to your new portal.

I believe the failure of Portals and Teleport in some of the dungeons (or specific places within a dungeon) is not the result of a bug but a deliberate choice by the game designers. The failures in other locations may indeed be a bug but knowing that failure is a possibility it isn't too difficult to work around it.

Radek's check to see if it is working plan is excellent and should prevent some disappointments.

Wyv

In my experience, you can create portal anywhere in the game except the Pyramid. The portal will work and the Teleport spell will take you to your portal from anywhere on the current map. The Pyramid is the only place in the game where you cannot create a portal and, of course, where any Teleport spell will fail.
On the other hand, there are places in the game where you have to expect the "teleport bug". One such place is the south shore of the sea behind the Anephas Shrine. But you can create a working portal even there.
Perhaps, there were planned places in the game, where you weren't allowed to create a portal. Perhaps, these places were removed from the game later. Perhaps, the "teleport bug" is a result of incomplete removing these places from the game. I don't know.

I was a vampire. [img]graemlins/blush.gif[/img] [img]graemlins/stunned.gif[/img]
I only confirmed this by downloading a trainer and checking my traits. Changed 'em. Thanks everyone for your help in this.

But still having the same problem with teleport spell. The most recent was by the two chests near the Hydra. Could it be that this problem is related to parts of the game involving a "commentary" i.e. where the program "speaks" e.g. "....Bloodbeard....", "....Hydra....", "....Altar...." ???

Anyway I now have a system for any time I am thinking of creating a portal.
1. Save 2. Create Portal. 3. Immediately use "Call of Home" 4. Immediately get out of Town and try to Teleport back. 5. If it works, then proceed as previously planned. If it does not work then go back to Save, change location then kneel and thank the Gods that you have not just wasted a long session of selling, promoting and worst of all ...................................listening to Sebastio. [img]graemlins/hehe.gif[/img]

I'd use Radek's suggestion. Create a portal, move a few paces away, and then cast teleport. You either end up at the original spot or the spell fails.

Saves the trouble of loading the city, then reloading the wilderness, and then casting the spell, only to potentially spend the time reloading the saved game.

But your approach will work, so if you want to use it, go right ahead. I won't stop you :D