new and I am admittedly rambling

[Casey]

When you're in Night Shade forest, tell Ash to tell you more about the object, then go 45 m away. It'll give you the spell.

[Casey]

I hate how the only response is are you okay when he's clearly not. Speaking of not responding, it's so annoying when Riley's dying and you can't respond bc Ezra blocks your messages, yet you have to respond bc it doesn't let you not. But Ash can't hear you!!!!! It's so annoying!!!!

Are there any other quests in the game besides the one in Nightshade forest?

[Cai]

Hiya and welcome! Love your signature haha.

[ChristineMoon]

Hi there, LadyPrincePyro! Welcome to both the game and the forums. Please feel free to ask any questions or share your thoughts/ theories here. Hope to hear from you soon.

[LadyPrincePyro]

Hi there, first time Timecrest player, first time caller. Excited about the 2019 tweet update and the upcoming Part 3!

[ChristineMoon]

Restarting the game constantly is one way to do it, although you would then earn 50 gold per day. I thought I was slick trying that in the very beginning when I bought 2 orbs, and restarted. The merchant will tell you that you have orbs and don’t need them.

No one has mentioned an extra 100 gold early in the game, I’ll let you guys discover that one.

The full game takes about 2 weeks to beat if played consistently. If you grab every irillium and tweet weekly, you could do it in 5 months (maybe a little more for what you spend on potions/ orbs).

[ChristineMoon]

The Chapter 10 irillium is from defeating the spider, no matter which choice you made in chapter 8.

And I love the bonus gold from the bet in chapter 7. A.C. rocks!

[ChristineMoon]

Electronmage I think Ash feels the connection to the watch the same way he does to the pebble/ feather, tome, briefcase. It’s magical. Not to mention Ash starts with no friends, too shy to talk to Riley, and is craving some kind of interaction.

The original question about bringing back the dead was posed in the beginning of the game, referring to Rhinehart empire. That was theoretical. Now you have a friend’s death on your hands. Do you feel the same?

The oracle definitely featured roger’s talents. Alan didn’t show any. MaybeRoger learned first but suffered from a magical arrested development, and Alan learned slower but was more powerful? Alan pushes himself to a breaking point, where Roger was happy with one mediocre spell. Or perhaps there are stronger forces at play and we’ll learn more in the future.

Part 3 is called Luthor Timecrest. It will be from his point of view, and similar to how Ash doesn’t have an oracle because we have 10 chapters to learn about him, I’m guessing we’ll have at least 5 chapters to learn about Chronos. I don’t have more details than that, other than to say it is a huge story and they’re working hard on it.

As far as replay goes, there are several interesting scenes, hidden deep within the story, such as exactly how Chronos destroyed Valdor. I made my original goal to do both Levitas and Gravitas with both Riley and A.C. I eventually expanded to include whether or not to open the door. Do I read the whole story every time? Not necessarily, sometimes I just log in and click the next option. But again I’ve beaten the whole story many times.

As far as irillium, you’ve already read a post above this one about it. I personally never spend gems on a timer. Once I wasted 800 accidentally, which brings me to my next point... Settings> save game is a lifesaver (not in that case, I had no recent save). Dragon berry elixirs are helpful in cutting times down.

[Cai]

Aaaaa I didn't see this before! How exciting. 2019 already proving itself to be great.

[Cai]

Omg I didn't realize I hadn't checked back into the forums in a while until I dreamt of it last night.

Electronmage I can easily see the trials being "too much" even within the Timecrest context so I'll yield my point. In my perspective, I was thinking to other forms of media where the main characters undergo a life-threatening trial so it seemed more plausible they'd do so in TC too. The first that comes to mind is the chuunin exams from Naruto LOL ... but that world is much more cut-throat.

Regarding learning spells, Ezra says something to the extent of "a connection with an object is just a romantic idea; it all boils down to concentration." So Ash drawing the spell from the bomb is doable even if he doesn't even know what it is; he just needed to be extremely focused, as you mentioned.

Re: gold/irrilium, two other places I know you can find some is when Nightshade Forest is burning, keep going through the fire and save some muffies. They'll give you some. If you choose to go with the Team 13 route in TC2 and Riley goes with you in Chapter 10 (? I forgot the name of the place but the deserted town Ash follows Ignis to), there's some irrilium if you check the river. You might have figured it out already in a new playthrough, but in Chapter 7, yeah, choosing the other option in the bet lets you bet for A.C. so you end up winning some extra gold .

Yeah, I'm excited to learn more about Chronos! TC3 is named after him, so we'll definitely be getting more.

[nightlock]

Here's the tweet

[nightlock]

I can answer your question about Chapter 8, when Ash says he feels responsible. I think that aspect is mainly because it's Ash's personality, he worries about a lot of things he can't control. If you answer "Great, we're off the hook" then Ash will say "I should learn to be more carefree like you" (not an exact quote), meaning it's just his nature. In addition, Ash felt a connection to the bomb because that's actually how spells are drawn. You feel connections to objects and after some concentration, a word appears- it's like a piece of new coding has embedded itself into your brain. The "incendias" spell only can be drawn from bombs. Ash also drew the binding spell from an apple in a courtyard, the binding spell that bound us (the human) with Ash. There isn't a reason what triggers that connection- or if there is I haven't come across it yet. But Ezra went into a special trance. That trance basically makes a spell stronger, doesn't make you learn a new spell. In this case, the trance made either Levitus or Gravitas a Magnus level spell.

I understand where you're coming from with the waiting and repeating the same things over and over. Honestly, it's not bad at all, imo. The game itself takes up less than 200mb on my phone so storage is not an issue. All I do is fast mode until either a text I've never read before comes up or if it's time to make a choice. Then it gets to a wait timer. Quite frankly I do have many other things I can be doing while waiting, whether I do other things on my phone or do real life things.

I also agree that people get bored with the story, which is true in a sense. But I'm always finding new things both in Timecrest 1 and 2, and I know you definitely have more things to discover. Like for instance, you mentioned spending 200 gold to get Elise and Ash water... In Windsorhowl I believe? I don't know what the issue is because from my standing I've never actually spent money at that point in the game. I pressed "spend 1000 gold on water for both Ash and Elise" (with a sad wallet) but to my surprise, Elise turned down the offer. I kept my 1000 gold, and instead, Elise gave me a couple items.. A dragonberry Elixir, Irrillium and something else.

As for TC3 I do not want to say anything is certain. I don't know anything. BUT Timecrest tweeted something which hinted at TC3 in 2019. I'll link a pic of it to this comment.

Oh and the Chronos thing as well. They also hinted that TC3 includes a lot more on the life of Chronos, after all the title is Luthor Timecrest.

One last thing, you did say that it will take way too long to get crystals, 2 years, but...

but make a plan. Myself, I'm gonna do the 50 cry a week and 60 gold a day, You said that'll take two years to get 5000 crystals, think again. I'll keep replaying the start of Timecrest 2, where Ash gives me the laughing pumpkin pie up until the point where I get an irrilium from the Muffie. That'll take about a week AT MOST, so each week I'd get 150 Irrillium. 5000/150 is 33 weeks, which is roughly 7 months. That/s excluding other bets and other ways to get Irrilium. Heck, you can just restart the game every time Roger gives us a teleport orb which hah.. can add up to quite a bit of teleport orbs, irrilium aND crystals each week. I haven't stuck to this plan, just because it does get boring replaying the same thing but it does make it possible. And if what Timecrest said on Twitter was true, I'm gonna have to prep for TC3 more sooner rather than later.

[Electronmage]

Been working on this for a week as I finished a run-through. About to hit chap 10 now, which is one of the slower parts. *rolls eyes* Stream of consciousness ahead and apologies for the length. It got away from me between the opinions, questions and wishes.

nightlock Thanks for the tip, but I will have to wait for next run-through to get the fire spell. I tried to combine responses and tell ash to draw, but from a distance. Unfortunately the limited response problem kicked in again, didn't allow me to explain anything and came across as panicking rather than giving me the time to "draw tell ash to draw the spell, but from a fair distance because this is called a bomb and it's going to explode in a big way. If you're too close you're dead. That takes maybe a minute, if that,, and for Ash and co. to get far enough away would have taken maybe five more, which would have still left plenty of time to focus. Will do it the other way next time.

Cai I disagree that the trials are within reason even within the scope of Alyncia. Obviously the parents weren't pleased their children were put in such danger. It could be said their displeasure is a product of hindsight and grief, but guilds are by nature secretive and I doubt the full knowledge of what the trials include is public. Alyncia doesn't yet have tv, blogs and tell-all books.

Re: the limited response issue, sometimes no response really is acceptable even though the story supposedly revolves around their interaction. Ash could easily just keep explaining without us only being able to say one thing. It's exposition when they're just talking and shouldn't need constant input when there's only one response allowed by the story. Silence is a very effective interrogation technique. Hahaha.

I just found another place where there weren't enough responses. In chapter 8, you're given two responses at the end of the bomb scenario, either you feel responsible, too, or are relieved at getting off the hook, but the way I see it, you were never on the hook for anything and shouldn't feel responsible in the first place. If Ash doesn't touch it and start the timer, Elise will just because she's bored and wants something to happen, so either way Ash and human are not responsible.
That does bring to mind another question. Why do you think Ash feels connected to something he's never seen and can't identify? The kind of connection believed in that time period to be needed to learn a spell goes beyond simple curiosity about the unknown. I'm having a brain fart on Esra's different spell learning methods. Drawing a spell seems to require extreme focus in any case, though.

Oh there's another one. When your character is forced to say either they're no longer sure about not wanting the power to bring back someone from the dead after Riley dies or to admit they would like it, there needs to be a third that basically amounts to "I said no and I meant it; and this changes nothing."

Re: Alyncian money, I'm collecting irilium when the chance presents itself. So far have only found three places, I got some in the palace and some on Azura, and some from choosing to attempt to buy Ash and Elise water in Windsorhowl this run-through. Regarding the bets, the one in chapter 7 is a loser because A.C. really is that fast unless something changes when you accept the challenge. At least Roger can't handle fire pepper]/spoiler] so you get an extra 200 that way. Score. I didn't get the bet in chapter 7 this time.

I've read the auracles, at least those I've unlocked, and it hasn't made a significant difference to my opinion of the characters so far. Those I liked, I still like. Those I didn't, I still don't. Maybe I like one of them even less now than I did. I mean, he does one thing and it goes to his head and puffs it up to the size of the entire planet? Knowing you had a crappy life doesn't in itself make you more sympathetic if you're an evil twerp or a narcisistic wuss now. It just makes you someone who had a crappy life and made the wrong choices or is dealing with the effects in such a way as to drive others away. That's not to say I can't still feel plenty of sympathy for a crappy life or when bad things happen now, it just means I don't accept it as an excuse for poor behavior. Your mileage will definitely vary.

I'm a bit confused by a seeming discrepancy. In the memory remnant, it's [spoilerRoger with the water magic , but in the hidden scene you can get with enough relationship points in chapter 9 with Roger, he says that he was adopted because of his brother's talents . If I'm remembering that right, what happened between those memories and now that has weakened Roger or strengthened Allen, and why was Allen's magic waining?

Speaking of the auracle, I wonder if we'll get Chronos memories when TC 3 comes out. So far, I don't think he's in the auricle. It would also be neat if we could increase Ash's understanding of the various people with the knowledge of these memory remnants. For that, we would need to repair Riley's amulet; it shouldn't have been broken and left that way anyway. I want a way to fix it. *Sadface*.

Re: the game mechanics
ChristineMoon What you call getting easier after a few runs with the wait timers I call getting bored, or at least less enthusiastic. I think wait timers should be abolished after your first run-through when you're making choices you've already made and have fast mode set. By the third one, you've seen most of what there is to see, and waiting is pointless. I say that even realizing that's not going to happen because if this is how the developers make their living, it's in their interest to make things less than convenient for players who haven't made in-app purchases. That probably comes across slightly harsher than intended, but I am no diplomat and speak very bluntly for better and for worse. Whatever the stated reason and intent for the timers, that is their actual effect. Here's what I mean. Think how long it'd take to earn 5000 time crystals, assuming you earn 50 a week, if you have to use them for gold sometimes and don't make purchases. You're looking at two years of playing, minimum, probably more, even if you manage to keep the 650 or whatever it is you start with before doing any of the following, liking, subscribing, visiting things. It's pretty much impossible to do that. I just spent two hundred of them to find out what would happen if you pay for water for Ash and Elise. Definitely two years or longer.

Unless TC 3 comes out soonish, I doubt I'll be playing this two years from now. How many times can you play through the same story before you just shut the app and wait for news, or simply delete the app because you need space, forget you ever had it and lose your forum password? Based on my experience with another game that waits on a small development team, the answer is a matter of months, not years, and replay value is necessarily limited. It sucks that it's that way, but it's what I've seen from other players and it's an effect I'm struggling to resist, myself. I still play that game, but barely; I've already done all the major things I can do. Forgetting or deleting and forgetting to reinstall are even more likely if you get a new device.

I do wish there were more ways to regularly earn the crystals (not ad-based since the ad sites don't tend to play nicely with VO in my experience. Maybe the tweets shouldn't be limited to one person weekly and you should be able to tweet them all once a week for extra crystals. It's still better than other games like dice world where people spam tweet every 20 minutes that they've beaten somebody because it gets them coins to play with. Even so that would only cut out some of the timers. To totally avoid timers, even temporarily, I'd have to purchase the $75 package. Some of them cost way over a thousand crystals. *rolls eyes*. I can't possibly afford that, but I am working toward the one with enough crystals for me to get the orb generator. Something else that would be fun is side quests that get Ash those crystals, things you could do that take place outside of the story arc, but alas that would complicate the game and be tons of work to code.

I don't find that waiting makes the game more impactful or increases its replayability. I could almost swear I read where someone said that once, but I can't find it now. I don't skip wait timers either, but it's because I can't afford it, not because I care that it "feels real", which is, to my apparently odd mind, not necessarily a positive attribute for a game to have. It depends on the effect of the "realism". If it teaches me about something interesting, I can tolerate it. An example is a game with a crafting system that describes the process of making xyz while you're doing it, but even that is a matter of a couple minutes where you're getting active text, not just waiting. If it just makes me wait or limits how much I can do at a given time, and thereby is used to control my actions, I don't enjoy it so much and tire of it quickly, and how long I put up with the mechanic depends on how much fun I have despite it. Unfortunately a lot of games do just that. That's another thing where your mileage will definitely vary.

[ChristineMoon]

The storyline:

I didn’t care for some of the characters at first. But when I read the oracles it changed the way I saw them and the whole story. I can’t really trust the adults either.

The trial deaths weren’t expected, and as someone said earlier the amulets were likely monitored. If I remember correctly, everyone who died was killed by Ignis, whose presence was completely unexpected by the guildmasters. (And of course Adam, by Conner). But if let on that there was an enemy/ threat to Alyncia’s most prestigious guild, at best you’d lose students and at worst, mass hysteria.

Some of the lands are discussed in the “ask me anything” thread, page 8. Some of the leaders and some Masters are mentioned in Ezra’s oracle, so perhaps they make the rules?

I wish I could answer your biggest questions. We see various people behind the door, but clearly there’s something bigger than that. I don’t know when the next one is coming out. The developers are working hard on it, but the game is entirely written, coded, etc. by a 2 person team, and because of all the paths the new story alone is something like twice the size of the biggest Harry Potter book, any Lord of the Rings book, etc.

As far as any other questions you have, feel free to ask them on the board. There are always new members and people willing to share thoughts.