my Sorcerer party proceeded to past the Ascension a while ago...but something was wrong -- Aerie didn't give birth to the baby! The final conversation works just like she's already having the baby. That's really anticlimax to me since this time around I seemed to play everything perfectly, and I really want to see that birthgiving scene (especially with Valygar in my party).
I've spent tons of time tracking the save games, trying to find some clues. I checked the AeriePregnantTimer varibale in various save games , but it's ALL 23858139. It never changed! that is, the timer was set since her pregnancy. So I thought theoretically she's past the legendary "116423417" mark even when she gave the prior-to-brith LoveTalks! Then I checked one of my "historical" save games -- the first time I went all the way with Aerie Romance and she did give birth to the baby before we went to the final battle. The Timer of that save game is 21830690. I loaded that game, and waited a while, she gave birth! So I think the timer isn't really the deciding factor for Aerie's baby brith. It's some unknown real-time, game time, and game event mixed factor:(

After re-experienced the Aerie's baby scene from the old save, I proceeded to challenge the Ascension final battle with that party, which failed miserably while I played with it. I did some leveling up first and went forth, and without the help of Balthazar. It's a much, much tougher battle than when we had Balthazar on our side. After several reloads...I found that Abazigal was simply too tough to beat in that situation (ie. while we have Balthazar to worry about at the same time) -- he's a mighty Kensai -> Mage with some nasty electrical spell/attacking abilities :mad: I found ways to handle all others at the same time, but I couldn't contain him nor could I finish him off efficiently. So again, I resorted to the skull traps cheese to take him out in the beginning of the battle.
How did you guys handle him without using any kind of traps (either wizard's or Thief's)?

[ 05-03-2004, 11:56 AM: Message edited by: teardropmina ]

I'm pretty sure the AeriePregnantTimer is based on Real Time, not game time, so wandering back & forth among areas, for example, isn't going to help. What you can do, if you have the CLUA console enabled, is try...

CLUAConsole:AdvanceRealTime("7200")

..and the game will think you've played for 2 hours (usually at least triggering a dialogue). Try it several times if necessary.

I think traps & semi-cheese are OK in the final battle - you know a fight's coming, so it's smart to prepare the battlefield beforehand (of course, placing a trap on the exact spawn point of a particular opponent is a bit extreme).

If all else fails, you can use one of those green Protection from Magic scrolls on Abazigail (& Sendai if necessary) to prevent him from using his spells. Or you can try to "lock him up" against a Mordy's Sword or three, letting him waste his attacks while you deal with the others.

- Imrahil

EDIT: oh, I forgot to mention, the APTimer isn't a countdown - it marks the time you have to get to for the event to happen, which is why it never changes.

[ 05-03-2004, 09:30 PM: Message edited by: Imrahil ]

ok, I'll try the CLUA real time thing. so, the pause and leave the game is different from really playing for a long time? I always thought pausing the game = spending the real time as long as the game is "running." I've tried leaving the game on pause and went to slept. The next morning...well, nothing's different :(

as for the Abazigal tactics...for some reason the green scroll doesn't really work on him -- he can still get his combat protection on (especially has PfMW on all the time), and every so often his electrical shockwave actually runs through the Green scroll sphere. so the green scroll actually works against us since we cannot dispel his combat protection. Well, guess they just give him tons of PfMW scrolls and other protection spells scrolls and his electrical attacking spells are actually his "abilities" which won't be affected by the green scroll effect.

ADD: the CLUA Advance Time thing works! thanks Imrahil! now I'll just play the last part again to make a proper end of this run [img]smile.gif[/img]

[ 05-03-2004, 10:35 PM: Message edited by: teardropmina ]

ok, I tried holding Abazigal with several Mordy Swords (well, cheese a bit with simulacra that exceeds the summoning limit [img]tongue.gif[/img] ). However, he's actually quite good at slaughtering Mordy Swords :( anyway, I did finally manage to take him out without using any trap. But that's after few reloads...mostly due to quite often Balthazar refuses to die (and Once Sarevok joined the "die-hard" group). it's easy to get them to Near Death (few rounds top), but it takes FOREVER to finsih them off :mad: so I reloaded...til the last time, everyone is willing to die [img]smile.gif[/img]