Profile for Spidweb
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| Displayed name | Spidweb |
| Member number | 1 |
| Title | Board Administrator |
| Postcount | 960 |
| Homepage | http://www.spiderwebsoftware.com |
| Registered | Tuesday, September 18 2001 07:00 |
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| Author | Recent posts |
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| Quick Note About Graphics in Avernum 4 | |
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Board Administrator
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written Friday, March 3 2006 23:13
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I am just bumping this thread because I've seen that some of the Windows users have the same questions as the Mac users about why the graphics look the way they do. When I do Avernum 5, I hope to do at least 2 more human graphics and 1 more nephil and slith. Hopefully, 4, 2, and 2. We'll see how it goes. I want a player to be able to make an all-nephil or slith party with different icons. I also miss the man and woman in the fur bikinis. :-) - Jeff Vogel -------------------- Official Board Admin spidweb@spiderwebsoftware.com Posts: 960 | Registered: Tuesday, September 18 2001 07:00 |
| Spiderweb Software Releases Avernum Trilogy CD, Lowers Prices in Announcements | |
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written Monday, February 27 2006 12:49
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Spiderweb Software Releases Avernum Trilogy CD, Lowers Prices Spiderweb Software, an independent game developer specializing in fantasy role-playing adventures for Windows and Macintosh, announces the vigorous cheapening of their entire line of games. Practically everything is now available in bundles, for gamers who want an enormous amount of adventuring for less money. The hit Avernum Trilogy is now available on one handy CD-ROM for $45. Avernum is a subterranean nation, a gigantic prison for unfortunate people who were banished from the surface of the world. Experience the epic tale of the Avernites, as they struggle to survive and return to the surface world. The first three games of the Geneforge saga are now available for $55. Geneforge is a fantasy adventure with a science-fiction twist. You are a Shaper, a member of a secretive sect with the ability to make and mold life to serve your purposes. In these open-ended games, you can serve your people, change sides to fight them, and seek your goals with your own horde of custom-made mutant monsters. And if you suspect that all of are games are, in fact, terrible, we are eager to convince you otherwise. Each of our games has a big, free demo. You can make good and sure you like the game before you give up your hard-earned cash. The Avernum demos are available at http://www.avernum.com/ and the rest of our games are at http://www.spiderwebsoftware.com/products.html - Jeff Vogel -------------------- Official Board Admin spidweb@spiderwebsoftware.com Posts: 960 | Registered: Tuesday, September 18 2001 07:00 |
| noob Mac question in Tech Support | |
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written Friday, February 24 2006 13:43
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The problem here is that some newer Mac web browsers are being released that can't properly handle Macbinary, which has been the default Mac file distribution format for a long time. I have no idea why they would do this. How are the games running on the Intel-based Mac? - Jeff Vogel -------------------- Official Board Admin spidweb@spiderwebsoftware.com Posts: 960 | Registered: Tuesday, September 18 2001 07:00 |
| A Few Advance Notes On Geneforge 4 in Geneforge Series | |
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written Monday, February 13 2006 12:49
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"As cool as Drakons might be, if I start up G4 and see a Drakon as a playable race, I am going to quit the game and toss it in my desktop trashcan." Don't worry. I am sure I could find a thoroughly contrived way to bust your drakon down to a level 1 character. :-) But no, you will play a mammalian humanoid. I'm not sure I have the guts to design a game where you play something else. I think it would be a tough road to convince a lot of gamers that they want their avatar to be something different. - Jeff Vogel -------------------- Official Board Admin spidweb@spiderwebsoftware.com Posts: 960 | Registered: Tuesday, September 18 2001 07:00 |
| A4 Bugs in Avernum 4 | |
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written Monday, February 13 2006 12:37
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The Nociduas shooting through walls thing should be fixed in the next update. The "Random person waits." bug might be fixed. That's an odd one, but I put some safety checks in place that should keep this weirdness from occuring. - Jeff Vogel -------------------- Official Board Admin spidweb@spiderwebsoftware.com Posts: 960 | Registered: Tuesday, September 18 2001 07:00 |
| A4 Bugs in Avernum 4 | |
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written Monday, February 13 2006 00:20
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I have found that items are not saved properly if you are blipped back to start by loading a saved game past the shareware barrier, or using the return to start cheat code. It also appears that my fix to keep you from going north from Fort Emerald didn't take. Both of these will be fixed in the upcoming Mac update. - Jeff Vogel -------------------- Official Board Admin spidweb@spiderwebsoftware.com Posts: 960 | Registered: Tuesday, September 18 2001 07:00 |
| Will Exile ever be carbonized? in The Exile Trilogy | |
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written Sunday, February 12 2006 15:37
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"With that in mind, I have a suggestion: release the source for BoE." I've been considering something along these lines for a while, but I need to put some actual thought into how I want to approach it. Turning my games into freeware is, for obvious reasons, REALLY a last resort. But I imagine, sometime in the forseeable future, something like this will happen to the Mac version. But it's sort of a "Only when it's completely abandonware" kind of step. - Jeff Vogel -------------------- Official Board Admin spidweb@spiderwebsoftware.com Posts: 960 | Registered: Tuesday, September 18 2001 07:00 |
| Will Exile ever be carbonized? in The Exile Trilogy | |
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written Saturday, February 11 2006 13:49
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"Jeff has said that if support for Classic mode is ever completely dropped from newer Macs, he'll do what's necessary to update all his older games so they still run." I did? I know I said this about the newer games (Avernum, Geneforge), but I don't remember making such a grim blanket promise about everything I ever did. I won't be Carbonizing the Exile games. Sometimes, the old games just have to drift off into the past. (And the Exile games are over 8 years old now. OMG!) Reworking that ancient code would be a real pain. My time is much better spent working on new games. And if you are angry about this, I suggest blaming Apple. I didn't ask them to completely redo their OS architecture for the THIRD time since I started this business. - Jeff Vogel -------------------- Official Board Admin spidweb@spiderwebsoftware.com Posts: 960 | Registered: Tuesday, September 18 2001 07:00 |
| Avernum 4 For Macintosh v1.0.1 Upgraded Released in Avernum 4 | |
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written Thursday, February 9 2006 11:25
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(I'm feeling lazy, so I'm just going to post the press release and go out to lunch. :-) ) For Immediate Release Contact: Jeff Vogel (206) 789-4438 Spiderweb Software, the maker of fine fantasy role-playing adventures for the Macintosh, has just released the v1.0.1 upgrade for Avernum 4. This update features bug fixes and a variety of improved graphics. Upgrading is recommended. Avernum 4 is an enormous fantasy role-playing adventure. Wander the strange, subterranean world of Avernum, full of multitudes of characters, hundreds of side quests, and traps, tricks, and treasure in every corner. Experience the life of an adventurer: the fame, the wealth, the hapless townsfolk begging you for help at every turn! This epic tale is guaranteed to give you weeks of entertainment, with an impossibly huge world that dares you to uncover all of its secrets. Previous experience with the Avernum games is in no way necessary to enjoy Avernum 4. The full demo can be downloaded at http://www.avernum.com/avernum4/index.html There won't be a patch to update v1.0 to v1.0.1, as the changes were too extensive. - Jeff Vogel -------------------- Official Board Admin spidweb@spiderwebsoftware.com Posts: 960 | Registered: Tuesday, September 18 2001 07:00 |
| A Few Advance Notes On Geneforge 4 in Geneforge Series | |
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written Tuesday, February 7 2006 16:56
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"It's not about the Minotaurs at Spiderweb Software. It's about the giant spiders. Too bad there haven't been any in the Geneforge series. At least, not yet." In my very very early conceptions of Geneforge, the serviles were actually going to be whole huge tribes of Exile-style spiders. This idea was eventually discarded, as it was mind-bogglingly terrible. - Jeff Vogel -------------------- Official Board Admin spidweb@spiderwebsoftware.com Posts: 960 | Registered: Tuesday, September 18 2001 07:00 |
| A Few Advance Notes On Geneforge 4 in Geneforge Series | |
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written Tuesday, February 7 2006 16:15
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I've been spending a lot of time of late, when not debugging Avernum 4 for Windows, sketching out the plot and world for Geneforge 4 and designing some interface stuff. Here's a little advance info, for general interest. All of this is subject to change. Of course. I want the Mac version to be out this year. It will, like Avernum 4, run at 1024 x 768 resolution. The days of our 800 x 600 games are gone forever. I am focusing heavily on improved animations and spell effects. There will be a greater variety of effects, and they will be prettier. Since the end of Geneforge 3, the rebellion against the Shapers has begun. You will play rebels, not Shapers, though you will develop shaping abilities early in the game. Without shaping, it's not Geneforge. At this point, your character can be a human or a servile. There will be three character classes that take the role of Shaper/Agent/Guardian. I really like how that set works. The skill list will stay the same, most likely, as I think it works very well. There will probably be 3 new creations and 8 new spells. There will be three overall factions/sets of endings, but one of them is more hidden than the others. A number of characters from Geneforge 3 will return. I want the game to have many more scripted events and big battles. It's a war, and I want you to be mixed up in it. I've never been entirely happy with how mines and traps work, so I'm tinkering with that. I want to find a way for Tool Use heavy zones to be a more fun experience. I want to rework stealth so it's clearer what's going on and when a creature can see you. I want to implement weather. It won't affect play so much, but it'll be pretty. - Jeff Vogel -------------------- Official Board Admin spidweb@spiderwebsoftware.com Posts: 960 | Registered: Tuesday, September 18 2001 07:00 |
| Windows version in Avernum 4 | |
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written Tuesday, February 7 2006 16:05
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"Now that PPP data is at our fingertips, we could divide up all the threads and try to establish once and for all which FAQ is the most frequently asked." That's a good one. And I think you're right. I have long ago lost count of how many people have requested an online/multiplayer version of my games. My answer: I'm not really interested in doing it. It would be an ENORMOUS undertaking. And I don't have the technical skill, coding-wise. And to answer the first question, barring flu, hospital visit, premature birth of my daughter, or untimely death, Avernum 4 for Windows should be out at the very beginning of March. - Jeff Vogel -------------------- Official Board Admin spidweb@spiderwebsoftware.com Posts: 960 | Registered: Tuesday, September 18 2001 07:00 |
| Sudden Ending in Avernum 4 | |
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written Friday, February 3 2006 12:38
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"I think it made sense that Rhentar Ihrno's last fight wasn't as hard as it could be, because according to the plot she's weak and using the last of her resources." Difficulty is highly subjective and varies greatly from player to player. I promise you that a number of my testers, accomplished Avernum-players all, found the climactic fight to be a genuine challenge. But I am sure many of the more experienced people will find it to be easy. Remember, if I make a fight difficult for everyone, even the hardcore, then a lot of players will find it insurmountable. I got a lot of complaints from my friends (and wife) about the difficulty of the later parts of Geneforge 3. So if you, like many, found that game to be too easy, this should give you some sympathy for my situation. - Jeff Vogel -------------------- Official Board Admin spidweb@spiderwebsoftware.com Posts: 960 | Registered: Tuesday, September 18 2001 07:00 |
| Helping Jeff advertise in Avernum 4 | |
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written Friday, February 3 2006 01:11
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"On that note, I wonder if Jeff has ever lost any customers over Nance and Elspeth?" I never got a single negative comment about it. I got numerous positive comments. My games are relentlessly politically correct because, well, I don't know. They just turned out that way. Part of it is my own comfort, and part of it is greed. The wider the variety of player icons, for example, the more players are happy. And happy = $$$. As for Mycroft, artists Phil and Kaja Foglio are good friends of ours. Their firstborn son's name is Mycroft. And yes, he is named after Sherlock Holmes's brother. - Jeff Vogel -------------------- Official Board Admin spidweb@spiderwebsoftware.com Posts: 960 | Registered: Tuesday, September 18 2001 07:00 |
| Tentative Avernum 4 v1.0.1 Update Out in Avernum 4 | |
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written Wednesday, February 1 2006 15:19
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Nobody reported this bug. I just noticed it while I was working on the Windows port. "who would like to know if the precise number of sparks before errors is 32767." Yes. - Jeff Vogel -------------------- Official Board Admin spidweb@spiderwebsoftware.com Posts: 960 | Registered: Tuesday, September 18 2001 07:00 |
| Helping Jeff advertise in Avernum 4 | |
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written Wednesday, February 1 2006 14:00
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"Many RPGs, Spiderweb's among them, avoid anything more than the most nebulous of backgrounds." Several games I have truly loved (KOTR, Planescape: Torment among them) have featured main characters with a well-defined background. And yet, I am personally irritated by games that tell me who I was. When I play a game with a role-playing element, I like to fill in the details of the past for myself, to give more of a context to the sort of character I have decided to play. This is such a strong preference on my part that I can't imagine myself designing a game that works any other way. In the end, I have two absolute limits on the games I design. One is time. The other is that I can only properly design games of the sort I would want to play. Which is not to say that writing games where the main character has a well-defined past isn't a good idea. I'm sure it is. Just not for me. - Jeff Vogel -------------------- Official Board Admin spidweb@spiderwebsoftware.com Posts: 960 | Registered: Tuesday, September 18 2001 07:00 |
| Tentative Avernum 4 v1.0.1 Update Out in Avernum 4 | |
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written Wednesday, February 1 2006 13:53
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"Wow. That seems like an awfully obscure bug." Don't think I wasn't smiling when I typed that out. - Jeff Vogel -------------------- Official Board Admin spidweb@spiderwebsoftware.com Posts: 960 | Registered: Tuesday, September 18 2001 07:00 |
| Tentative Avernum 4 v1.0.1 Update Out in Avernum 4 | |
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written Tuesday, January 31 2006 12:40
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We have released a tentative, beta v1.0.1 for Avernum 4 for Macintosh. Avernum 4 v1.0.1 (20.5 MB) can be downloaded at ftp://ftp.spiderwebsoftware.com/mac/Avernum4.demo.v101.bin It fixes a variety of irritating bugs and adds some improved graphics. The full list of problems fixed is on the Avernum 4 support page. Comments or problems are best sent to spidweb@spiderwebsoftware.com. If it looks clean enough, I'll make it the default download shortly. - Jeff Vogel -------------------- Official Board Admin spidweb@spiderwebsoftware.com Posts: 960 | Registered: Tuesday, September 18 2001 07:00 |
| Quick Note About Graphics in Avernum 4 | |
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written Monday, January 23 2006 15:54
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I was out of town, so I was slow getting back about the chitrachs. I like them and hope to use them. - Jeff Vogel -------------------- Official Board Admin spidweb@spiderwebsoftware.com Posts: 960 | Registered: Tuesday, September 18 2001 07:00 |
| A4 Bugs in Avernum 4 | |
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written Monday, January 23 2006 12:43
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I just fixed several of these, including the infinite Abisynthe problem. The thing about dialogue triggers for fights is something I have been struggling to fix for several games. It's better than it was, but it still requires some work. It'll probably require some actual engine work in the next game. - Jeff Vogel -------------------- Official Board Admin spidweb@spiderwebsoftware.com Posts: 960 | Registered: Tuesday, September 18 2001 07:00 |
| Pruning of old General Topics will begin soon. in General | |
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written Sunday, January 15 2006 18:21
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After a delay due to my laptop being stolen, I am ready to begin the pruning of all topics in the General Board that are older then 60 days. I will begin 11 pm PST. Mariann -------------------- Official Board Admin spidweb@spiderwebsoftware.com Posts: 960 | Registered: Tuesday, September 18 2001 07:00 |
| Might have done somthing out of order (spoilers) in Avernum 4 | |
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written Saturday, January 14 2006 12:48
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Known issue, which will be fixed. More information at http://www.spiderwebsoftware.com/avernum/avernum4/techsupp.html - Jeff Vogel -------------------- Official Board Admin spidweb@spiderwebsoftware.com Posts: 960 | Registered: Tuesday, September 18 2001 07:00 |