Profile for Derakon
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| Displayed name | Derakon |
| Member number | 1115 |
| Title | Shock Trooper |
| Postcount | 287 |
| Homepage | http://www.cs.hmc.edu/~cweisige |
| Registered | Thursday, May 9 2002 07:00 |
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| Author | Recent posts |
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| Avernum 4 Resolution Requirements in Avernum 4 | |
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Shock Trooper
Member # 1115
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written Wednesday, February 22 2006 07:59
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Resolution refers to the number of pixels that are displayed (where a pixel is a single point of color). Fonts these days are assigned heights that are measured in pixels. So if you have a 12-point font at 1024x768 resolution and a 12-point font at 1280x1024 resolution, then the latter is going to look smaller and harder to read, simply because the pixels are smaller. The fact that you're on a 15" monitor doesn't help any, as your pixels were already pretty small to begin with. I use a 19" LCD at 1280x1024 most of the time, but my default font size is 18. That's eminently readable; in fact, smaller would still be readable but I try to avoid straining my eyes as I'd like to keep them working as long as possible. Unfortunately, to my knowledge you can't change the font size that Avernum uses (doing so would most likely screw up a lot of the UI), so you're stuck. -------------------- "Don't take life so serious, son. It ain't nohow permanent." -Porkypine Derakon's Library Posts: 287 | Registered: Thursday, May 9 2002 07:00 |
| Ihrno-fort key help? in Avernum 4 | |
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Shock Trooper
Member # 1115
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written Monday, February 20 2006 10:47
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The screen darkness in underground areas does get excessive from time to time. I hate to think what it'll be like on PC monitors, which tend to have darker gamma settings... -------------------- "Don't take life so serious, son. It ain't nohow permanent." -Porkypine Derakon's Library Posts: 287 | Registered: Thursday, May 9 2002 07:00 |
| A4 Bugs in Avernum 4 | |
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Shock Trooper
Member # 1115
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written Friday, February 17 2006 21:38
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If you can't raise the dead during combat, then why does the game take your APs and spellpoints for trying to do so? In general, the game seems perfectly willing to let you try to do something even if you can't, and it's entirely possible to waste APs (or entire turns) this way. -------------------- "Don't take life so serious, son. It ain't nohow permanent." -Porkypine Derakon's Library Posts: 287 | Registered: Thursday, May 9 2002 07:00 |
| What to be added in Avernum 4? in The Avernum Trilogy | |
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Shock Trooper
Member # 1115
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written Thursday, February 16 2006 17:25
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I just dropped all of my potentially-useful loot on the ground in the portal room. I have over twenty emeralds there now, waiting for when I'm really strapped for cash. But then again, I'm a packrat. -------------------- "Don't take life so serious, son. It ain't nohow permanent." -Porkypine Derakon's Library Posts: 287 | Registered: Thursday, May 9 2002 07:00 |
| should i get avernum... in Avernum 4 | |
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Shock Trooper
Member # 1115
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written Wednesday, February 15 2006 20:27
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Actually, if you play A4 before A3, then you'll pretty much have to get a fair amount of A3's plot spoiled for you. This is rather more of a problem for A3 in particular than A1 (which doesn't have any real plot) or A2 (which has a predictable plot once you finish the first two chapters, which are themselves in the demo). -------------------- "Don't take life so serious, son. It ain't nohow permanent." -Porkypine Derakon's Library Posts: 287 | Registered: Thursday, May 9 2002 07:00 |
| A4 Bugs in Avernum 4 | |
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Shock Trooper
Member # 1115
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written Wednesday, February 15 2006 17:17
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I don't know if the "Nodiacus shoots through walls" bug being fixed was supposed to be for 1.01 or 1.02, but I just got frozen by the Spire arena's Basilisk Queen while standing in the entry corridor. So if it's supposed to have been fixed, it isn't quite yet. -------------------- "Don't take life so serious, son. It ain't nohow permanent." -Porkypine Derakon's Library Posts: 287 | Registered: Thursday, May 9 2002 07:00 |
| A4 Bugs in Avernum 4 | |
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Shock Trooper
Member # 1115
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written Tuesday, February 14 2006 21:02
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Another one: stated probabilities for the Riposte and Parry skills seem wildly inaccurate. I've seen enemies with 2% or 4% riposte more than a couple of times in a single battle, and Hecht (at 15%) parried three of four attacks in a single round. The odds of that are about 1%. The fun thing about this being that I could just be being horribly unlucky...but that's unlikely. Edit: incorrect tallying of odds. Didn't I learn anything from my statistics class in college? [ Tuesday, February 14, 2006 21:43: Message edited by: Derakon ] -------------------- "Don't take life so serious, son. It ain't nohow permanent." -Porkypine Derakon's Library Posts: 287 | Registered: Thursday, May 9 2002 07:00 |
| A4 Bugs in Avernum 4 | |
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Shock Trooper
Member # 1115
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written Tuesday, February 14 2006 17:14
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quote:I'd accept this except that you can already start your round with fewer than 5 APs, which implies that it's acceptable to not be able to take an action anyway. Additionally: what if you wanted to attack, then drink a potion/use a wand/read a scroll? Those take less than 5 APs and are entirely valid actions. quote:Okay, fair enough. It's technically accurate if misleading. -------------------- "Don't take life so serious, son. It ain't nohow permanent." -Porkypine Derakon's Library Posts: 287 | Registered: Thursday, May 9 2002 07:00 |
| A4 Bugs in Avernum 4 | |
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Shock Trooper
Member # 1115
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written Tuesday, February 14 2006 14:19
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Oh, yeah, a few more things: Attacking and casting spells both take 5 APs. If you have between 6 and 9 APs, then attacking or casting a spell ends your turn, despite the fact that you should be able to move after casting. This has a valid tactical use; say you want to kill something with a spell and then back away from the square that thing occupied; you couldn't do that in reverse order (i.e. move and then cast) because the slowdown from moving out of melee range would make spellcasting impossible. Related to this, if you try to do something that you lack the APs to do, your turn ends. Better, in my opinion, to simply not do anything and let people end their turns via spacebar, '5', or doing something else. If I accidentally try to cast three spells in one turn with my hasted mage, maybe I'd rather back her out of range of the enemy's front lines instead. When targetting a spell, clicking on an invalid square does nothing. Clicking on a party member cancels the "targetting spell" mode. This means that if I accidentally misclick, I have to determine if the misclick was on random terrain (in which case I can just click on my actual target) or if it was on a party member (in which case I must re-cast the spell). If I fail to re-cast after targetting a party member, then my mage charges into melee. Not good. Much of the really useful stuff is only documented in the quick-hints that show when you load a savefile. It'd be nice if those were collected somewhere (just dumping 'em to a file would be nice). Also, I don't believe that shift-clicking to pick up part of a stack is documented anywhere, though I could be mistaken. -------------------- "Don't take life so serious, son. It ain't nohow permanent." -Porkypine Derakon's Library Posts: 287 | Registered: Thursday, May 9 2002 07:00 |
| A4 Bugs in Avernum 4 | |
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Shock Trooper
Member # 1115
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written Tuesday, February 14 2006 11:39
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Okay, I figured I'd never get access to Haste Group as a spell. It's still irritating. As for that closed-gate thing, I should have been more clear: I could walk through an apparently-closed gate as if it were open. The graphic showed a closed gate, as it should, but it was not the barrier to commerce that one would expect it to be. -------------------- "Don't take life so serious, son. It ain't nohow permanent." -Porkypine Derakon's Library Posts: 287 | Registered: Thursday, May 9 2002 07:00 |
| A4 Bugs in Avernum 4 | |
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Shock Trooper
Member # 1115
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written Tuesday, February 14 2006 10:16
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I've managed to get the game to hang. And when a game goes full-screen and locks out keyboard access, hanging is bad! I haven't tested this fully twice, but I've gone halfway many times by accident. Basically this involves accessing the "cast a spell" screen for a character who has used up their APs already. So for example, before most fights I usually haste all of my characters. So the keyboard presses are '5', '5' (for my two fighters, waiting), 'ce3<ret>' (haste my mage), 'c<click on War Blessing><ret>' (priest blesses everyone). Then the mage hastes everyone else, et cetera. However, if I hit the second 'c' too quickly, then I'll end up back in my mage's spell list instead of my priest's. Actually trying to cast a spell from here is, I believe, what caused the game to hang. The basic glitch is easier to access if there are enemies that take their action after the spellcaster does, since that means that you spend more time with the spellcaster a) out of APs, and b) still selected. Also, the blazing sword gives fire resistance and does 11-33 damage. The oozing sword gives poison resistance, does 11-33 damage, and poisons your foes. Shouldn't the blazing sword cause additional fire damage, or is that hidden somewhere? I'd like to request that the keyboard shortcuts for the spells be displayed on the "cast a spell" screen. I've learned the common mage ones as they're in alphabetical order, but the priest ones pick up somewhere after mages are done (instead of, say, being in alphabetical order with Shift held down), so every priest spell I cast either uses the quickspell buttons or the mouse to select. Also, noting in the Tool Use skill description that it's helpful for mages using Unlock Doors would probably save many people from "wasting" skillpoints in the character creation process. Making it clear that Magery assists priests as well (assuming it does(?!)) would be good as well. Some players distinguish "spells" from "prayers". Sometimes enemies will not move if they can't find a path to their chosen target, even if other targets are available. For example, I bottled up three...chitrachs or hellhounds, I think they were, in a small cave that had a single-square exit. By parking my fighter in that square, I kept the monsters from moving at all, even though the fighter was in range for melee. In the chitrach battle east of Fort Remote, I got the "no more chitrachs are coming" message after killing the queen, wandered a few squares away, and saw a chitrach leave the cave! Fortunately the good lieutenant was up to the task. Dialogue triggers appear to only occur when the person speaking gets their turn in combat. So for example, most combats go (Fighter 1, Fighter 2, Enemies, Mage, Priest) for me. Dialogue will occur after Fighter 2 takes his action, even though Fighter 1 crossed the trigger boundary in the middle of his turn. I guess speaking needs to be a "free action"? :) You can attack the demon under Patrick's Tower; he just doesn't care and reverts to friendly the next chance he gets. This seems rather odd behaviour. Enemies frequently get obsessed with clearing "Slow" status. You can lockdown a mage fairly trivially by just slowing him every turn; even when he gets an action, he'll just re-haste himself. Related to this, enemies apparently have access to a "Haste Group" spell that players don't. See e.g. the small Vahnatai band just west of Fort Remote. Slow the Shaper, and he'll haste his entire group, as many times as you do it. Scrolls of Haste Group don't cut it here; he has as many casts as he needs. Or maybe Haste level 6 finally hastes groups? I haven't completed the game yet and a lack of haste-all is really aggravating me; I'm up to level 5 so far with that spell. I managed to walk through some gates in one of the earlier towns, after I had closed said gates. Not sure what's up with that. Okay, that's all I can remember right now. :) -------------------- "Don't take life so serious, son. It ain't nohow permanent." -Porkypine Derakon's Library Posts: 287 | Registered: Thursday, May 9 2002 07:00 |
| Tower of magi, I need help. in Tech Support | |
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Shock Trooper
Member # 1115
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written Wednesday, July 23 2003 08:04
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You use da editor, you takes your chance. There's a reason it says to backup your savefiles before using that thing. -------------------- "Don't take life so serious, son. It ain't nohow permanent." -Porkypine Derakon's Library Posts: 287 | Registered: Thursday, May 9 2002 07:00 |