HoW: What's new at Conlan's Smithy?

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The HoW manual states that new stuff has been added to Orrick's tower and to Conlan's Smithy. I was really hoping to get my hands on some cases and bags...

Anyhow, it is easy to see what's been added to Orrick's: there's a bunch of the new spells and a couple of robes. However, I could not find anything at Conlan's I would not have seen before. What gives? A glitch or has it added 'mundane' items?

 

But if Destroyer was able to get new spells at Orrick's, but no new stuff at Conlan's, is it only Conlan's shop that's affected?

Destroyer, what's new at Orrick's?

 

Yes, Orrick's definetely has new stuff (what in my next post)! Conlan's not. Odd.

I haven't seen posts on the bug Taluntain mentioned (probably mostly because the 'official' message boards for Icewind Dale/HoW are almost completely unusable, and have been for a year, and Interplay won't do anything about it, so I don't spend a lot of time there...)

Taluntain's correct, it is clear that the developers have not been telling us that fact from the beginning: in fact, the manual for HoW states, and I quote (p. 13):

"The selection in two of the Icewind Dale stores (Orrick's tower and Conlan's Smithy in Kuldahar) will change once the expansion is installed, allowing you to purchase new items. The original items in the stores will not vanish, only new items will be added."

OK, maybe it doesn't EXPLICITLY say you can't have visited the store earlier, but I certainly read that as implying it's OK to have done so.

I did notice another bug report: apparently you can't get to the expansion in the middle of your game IF for some reason you have returned to Easthaven during your game. You'll reportedly still get to do the expansion once you finish the regular storyline.

Still wondering whether it has an effect on multiplayer -- haven't seen any reports pro or con...

 

What's new at Orrick's Tower:

I actually am at the office, I have the HoW manual here, but the installation is in my home machine. So I can't tell you exactly, but am writing what I can recall from last night in the interest of time:

1) a bunch of new spells. I think some of them higher level than Orrick offered before, some of them new in HoW. (I'm not sure if all this is due to HoW, as I also went up levels in between) -- some of the higher level spells could be due to this?

2) two new robes for magic users, one of them I recall gives 18/99 strength and +2 CON for the mage (has to be single class, though!), can't remember the other one, sorry.

 

Tal, I saw the same bit on the Interplay board about 'we told you before and this is not new info'. That's a lot of BS. I guess I will have to play the hold IWD game fresh from the start. Honestly I don't think i have my saved games anyway so I don't think it's an issue, still. Did anyone read the gamespot review of HoW? They riped it rather bad. I guess I'll wait until the price drops in a few months. Then it will be worth it to buy.

 

I really hate being called a liar.

This is an interview at Vault Network from September 25th, 2000. Yes, it was a long time ago, but it is here. The italicized emphasis is mine.

http://rpgvault.ign.com/features/mini/jesawyer.shtml

J.E. Sawyer: We're in the process of adding new items as well... Not content to just add items to the expansion, we've also created a host of new weapons for Conlan's store in Kuldahar. If you play through the game again, Conlan's store will not only feature all of the items from before, but it will also contain one mid-range powerful weapon of every type.

I apologize if that wasn't clear, but I did state it. I've stated it elsewhere, but apparently not often enough nor recently enough. There are plenty of items in the expansion itself, obviously. The only items you "lose out on" are the ones that were in stores you have already opened in a current game. In Kuldahar, this means that you lose access to the stock "+3 of every type" weapons in Conlan's shop as well as the gem bags, scroll cases, and potion bags in town. However, you can get better weapons in the expansion, and you can get all of the various "inventory containers". Sorry about the confusion.

 

To be honest, I didn't mention it that often because I didn't think it would be a big deal. If you have characters who are powerful enough/far enough in the game to get those items, you can go to the expansion and get better items anyway. The purpose of the weapons in Conlan's smithy was to provide a +3 version of all weapons for people who wanted to go further in the core game instead of hopping over to the expansion right away at 9th level.

As for my involvement in IWD information trade, I have been responsible for about 95% of the content released. It's not like I'm the producer or anything; I've just been the person who has done every interview and fielded the message boards (including the one I set up and recently had to take down at redqueendesign.com) through the entire dev cycle. I've gone to great lengths to inform people about what's going on in the expansion, and I have never winced at telling people exactly what is and is not in the game. There's no reason for me to lie about the items in Conlan's smithy. I don't think players are missing out on anything incredibly awesome, and if they want to become angry about it, I'm more than capable of taking that criticism.

 

I still don't understand why I can get at the new stuff from Orrick's (including a spell case!) even though Conlan's doesn't have anything new. I'm 100% I have bought items from both before, and the same thing happens with two different games I've been playing (solo and multiplayer).

Ah well.