Is there any trick to interrupting long combats for the purposes of bug-free saving and then jumping back to it? The game is simply way too crashtasting to do them in one sitting. I just went through an hour-long dance with Lareth and everyone else with just my cleric, Elmo, Furnok and Spug at 4/4/4/3 levels and the damn thing crashes when just 3 enemies are standing... lol It's 3 am here so you can imagine I probably woke up all the neighbors 2 floors up and down when that happend. I'm all for challenge but I can't afford wasting time like that... The game doesn't let me leave area mid-combat and the combat seems go drag on although no enemies are in FoW... so is there any trick, other than waiting for higher level and then steamrolling through it?
As far as I know, no. Just wait until you do the 2-hour, twice-over battle with Hedrack and his gang . . . only to have it crash just as you strike that last blow of the battle. Happened to me, as well as many other shorter battle-crashes and wierd bugs in the Hedrack battle. The Lareth battle is one of my favorites, even though sometimes it is very frustrating. But then, I prefer the low-to-mid-level battles. The crashing actually helped me develop better tactics so i could win battles faster and with less magic (as it seems that the more magic I used the more likely a crash -- that's just a personal observation on a very old, very low-RAM (half-GB) machine). Sorry I don't have a solution for you, but I don't think there is any fix for loading from a battle-save.
Ouch that must have sucked :dizzy: btw. no need to be sorry, you actually saved me lot of time looking for all kinds of possible and impossible ways to interrupt the combat... So Hendrak is even worse you say huh? Sounds like I'm for a treat taking only 1 PC and 4 NPC's... with 5 NPC in earlier playthrough the game was crashing almost every third area load lol dunno why I'm doing this to me... :no: ah well, I guess everything for some rpg fix... just gave Meleny Lareth's ring as a wedding ring
I seem to remember being able to save in combat by pressing escape on the keyboard, though I can't vouch for whether such saves were bug-free or not... been a while since I tried though.
You can do it with 5 total . . . it'd be more likely to be successful if you don't put the Temple on alert (see the walkthrough, which suggests PUTTING the Temple on alert -- don't do it!), and also fight Hedrack's lieutenants in their room instead of with Hedrack. I went through most of the Temple with 5 (4PC, 1 NPC (Zaxis)). But then Zaxis found Kendra Spoiler right after finding out his sister was dead (a Zaxis-Kendra romance would be a great addition of fluff), so i took Kendra along, and I also charmed a couple of heavy hitters to use as cannon fodder so i took on Hedrack with 8 that time also.
You can save during combat at any time via the Esc key and main menu options. We don't recommend it though, because combat saves seem to be very vulnerable to corruption. There's no method or game mechanic to temporarily end combat. You could flee if you want, save, and then come back, but that would be pretty contrived and would likely promote other issues. (e.g. Lareth might say his lines over again, etc.)
As far as I am concerned, I always save at the beginning of a known harsh battle (like Lareth's). For the time being, I have always been able to reload these ones. Anyway, let's assume your save becomes corrupted ... well you didn't lost anything more. You may see these fight-save as an insurance ! I remember having a hard time with the behemoth frog and the hag ; I was so mad that my wizard always died that I decided to save after each blow, and reload when I didn't like the odds. I did the same with the giant and his pet bear (my team was around level 2 then).
In regards to the Giant and his pet: The trick is to attack the bear from a distance while the giant is out of sight. The bear will pursue you and the giant will be none the wiser. I've also found the best way to deal with Lareth's crew is to cast a web spell into the area and then pick off the archers one at a time (keeping out of the line of fire of the others if possible). I have lured people into the hallway (the archers don't pursue) and kill them there, then back out (if need be); but the previous method works best.
Charming the enemy is a great way to take out some key members of the opposing forces and gaining extra help as well- it tends to make the longer combats at least more enjoyable- with results tilted in your favor...
