Need some Direction

[networkn]

I have been playing about 4 hours. Explored all the areas I have found as best I can. I can't reach the island because of the broken bridge, but I have sort of run out of stuff to do. In Baldurs or lots of other RPG's there are lots of sidequests, everywhere you go but I can't find the similar thing with POE. 

 

CAED NUA, seemed to have nothing, I cleared all the energy. 

 

Also is healing ONLY able to be done with camping which requires supplies, or going back to town which is a PITA. 

 

I just keep expecting the game to open up, but it's not happening for me. 

 

Also levelling seems to happen so infrequently. 

 

[Tigranes]

1) At the bridge they'll tell you that Northern bridge is currently inaccessible, as you've noticed. The way is the Eastern bridge seen on your world map, which requires going through Caed Nua and exiting through the Southern exit. 

2) To do this you need to do what the main quest told you to do way back in the Gilded Vale: speak to Maerwald in Caed Nua. Have you spoken to Maerwald? Have you spoken to the Talking Statue after that? This should clear your way to exit South and proceed to Defiance Bay. 

 

There's 5 or 6 sidequests in the Gilded Vale, and there's dozens in Defiance Bay which is 'the' big city in the game. 

 

Levelling is infrequent, and each level is a significant change in your power - just like the IE games.

[Elgyn]

I have been playing about 4 hours. Explored all the areas I have found as best I can. I can't reach the island because of the broken bridge, but I have sort of run out of stuff to do. In Baldurs or lots of other RPG's there are lots of sidequests, everywhere you go but I can't find the similar thing with POE. 

 

CAED NUA, seemed to have nothing, I cleared all the energy. 

 

Also is healing ONLY able to be done with camping which requires supplies, or going back to town which is a PITA. 

 

I just keep expecting the game to open up, but it's not happening for me. 

 

Also levelling seems to happen so infrequently. 

Health can only be recovered by resting. 

 

This game is closer to BG1 in leveling than many other RPGs. Since you only have a dozen levels through the entire game, you get a couple levels early rather quickly so you can actually survive the game, and then they spread them out so you have some sort of progression during the other Act's. IIRC, the xp needed to go from 4-5 is about equal to what you needed from 1/2/and 3 together. After that they start tacking on an extra 1000xp needed into the formula to level up. I like it though, it makes the selections seem more important than something like NWN2 where you had 20 levels to get all the toys, or other RPGs where you have hundreds of levels to get everything known to man. That could be personal taste however.

 

Don't worry, you will get a ton of stuff to do once you get into the city.

[networkn]

Thanks Tigranes. 

 

I got to Caed Nua and found the statue that opens the way down into the dungeon but there are only 3 levels and I can't go deeper and I didn't find Maerwald, I read somewhere there was like a 15 level dungeon and I didn't think I was strong enough to go much deeper anyways. 

 

I found in the other city with the dead people tree, a dungeon and I got to the bells place but couldn't work out the order. I found a scrap of paper, but it still left me with only one clue. 

 

I'll go back and take another look around Caed Nua 

[Tigranes]

That is the 15 level dungeon, but all you need to do at the moment is just enter the basement of Caed Nua and find Maerwald. It's more or less a straight walk from the entrance of the keep to Maerwald, so if you really can't find him, you should perhaps use a walkthrough. Also remember the Journal will always tell you waht the main quest is and what your next step is for that.

 

The 'bells place' I assume is the first floor of the Temple to Eothas in the Gilded Vale. There's at least one more clue in there, and after that it's fairly easy to guess the order. That is a sidequest. If you need it:

 

 

Right, middle, left, right

 

 

is what I remember.