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Difficulty of Bahssikava in Blades of Avernum
Garrison
Agent
Member # 2820
 written Friday, April 28 2006 17:40 Profile #17
A question like that kind of makes me laugh because there are so many blocked passages in the caves of this scenario. Anyway, I thought I would pop in again to say that I have reached the golems and should be very close to finishing this quite difficult of scenarios.

I kept to my vow of not over exploiting the enemies and the difficulty has never been dropped from torment. That is not to say, however, that I did not reload the game gratuitously.

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Thuryl: I mean, most of us don't go around consuming our own bodily fluids, no matter how delicious they are.
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Alorael: War and violence would end if we all had each other's babies!
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Drakefyre: Those are hideous mangos.
Posts: 1415 | Registered: Thursday, March 27 2003 08:00
What do H.E.R. and P.F.W. do? in Avernum 4
Garrison
Agent
Member # 2820
 written Friday, April 28 2006 17:32 Profile #5
To summarize, no one knows anything definitive, and I would be wary to trust the given resistance percentages.

I can only tell you for sure that HER will protect you from effects like slowing, and it likely reduces elemental damage as well. PWR reduces physical damage in general.

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Thuryl: I mean, most of us don't go around consuming our own bodily fluids, no matter how delicious they are.
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Alorael: War and violence would end if we all had each other's babies!
====
Drakefyre: Those are hideous mangos.
Posts: 1415 | Registered: Thursday, March 27 2003 08:00
Behold the Power of Doors in Avernum 4
Garrison
Agent
Member # 2820
 written Friday, April 28 2006 17:27 Profile #3
This is one exploitation that for some reason was introduced in this latest Avernum game. In the previous ones, NPCs still could not open doors, but at least it was not possible to attack and hide behind a door in a single round because you had to be in town mode in order to close a door.

The Exile monsters, which could open doors, made things all the more challenging. However, due to engine differences, the ability for them to open doors was sacrificed for the greater flexibility of scripts instead of nodes. Sadly, it is infeasible to allow them to do that again except in very specific situations.

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Thuryl: I mean, most of us don't go around consuming our own bodily fluids, no matter how delicious they are.
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Alorael: War and violence would end if we all had each other's babies!
====
Drakefyre: Those are hideous mangos.
Posts: 1415 | Registered: Thursday, March 27 2003 08:00
I want my other two characters back! in The Avernum Trilogy
Garrison
Agent
Member # 2820
 written Thursday, April 27 2006 15:58 Profile #12
More people in your party never hurt as long as you can keep up with keeping them all alive. My only irritation with full parties in Exile was that the experience is not distributed evenly, so that the first three characters are twice as powerful as the last three. Then they contribute much less to battles and die more often as well.

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Thuryl: I mean, most of us don't go around consuming our own bodily fluids, no matter how delicious they are.
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Alorael: War and violence would end if we all had each other's babies!
====
Drakefyre: Those are hideous mangos.
Posts: 1415 | Registered: Thursday, March 27 2003 08:00
Targeting a custom ability in Blades of Avernum Editor
Garrison
Agent
Member # 2820
 written Wednesday, April 26 2006 14:30 Profile #1
I am not completey clear on this, but I do not think that custom abilities can take targets. However, you can make a custom item that has targets and link it to a scenario script state. Use who_is_custom_item_target() to get the ID of the targetted creature.

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Thuryl: I mean, most of us don't go around consuming our own bodily fluids, no matter how delicious they are.
====
Alorael: War and violence would end if we all had each other's babies!
====
Drakefyre: Those are hideous mangos.
Posts: 1415 | Registered: Thursday, March 27 2003 08:00
Targeting a custom ability in Blades of Avernum
Garrison
Agent
Member # 2820
 written Wednesday, April 26 2006 14:30 Profile #1
I am not completey clear on this, but I do not think that custom abilities can take targets. However, you can make a custom item that has targets and link it to a scenario script state. Use who_is_custom_item_target() to get the ID of the targetted creature.

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Thuryl: I mean, most of us don't go around consuming our own bodily fluids, no matter how delicious they are.
====
Alorael: War and violence would end if we all had each other's babies!
====
Drakefyre: Those are hideous mangos.
Posts: 1415 | Registered: Thursday, March 27 2003 08:00
I want my other two characters back! in The Avernum Trilogy
Garrison
Agent
Member # 2820
 written Wednesday, April 26 2006 09:38 Profile #8
Who needs 6 PCs in the Avernum games? Each one can deal and take a huge amount of punishment. Since when could you assassinate for 300 in Exile? A 250 hp cap for your PCs? Ridiculous!

I agree that the characters have to be much more specialized, but it should not be a problem becuase people can still find enough skill points to pull off singletons or duos.

But really, the source of passion for this argument is in that I absolutely love killing monsters in one hit in Avernum.

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Thuryl: I mean, most of us don't go around consuming our own bodily fluids, no matter how delicious they are.
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Alorael: War and violence would end if we all had each other's babies!
====
Drakefyre: Those are hideous mangos.
Posts: 1415 | Registered: Thursday, March 27 2003 08:00
SDF Max value in Blades of Avernum Editor
Garrison
Agent
Member # 2820
 written Monday, April 24 2006 16:57 Profile #13
I am quite sure that memory cells can be negative. I suggest using print_nums() if you want to make sure once and for all.

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Thuryl: I mean, most of us don't go around consuming our own bodily fluids, no matter how delicious they are.
====
Alorael: War and violence would end if we all had each other's babies!
====
Drakefyre: Those are hideous mangos.
Posts: 1415 | Registered: Thursday, March 27 2003 08:00
SDF Max value in Blades of Avernum
Garrison
Agent
Member # 2820
 written Monday, April 24 2006 16:57 Profile #13
I am quite sure that memory cells can be negative. I suggest using print_nums() if you want to make sure once and for all.

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Thuryl: I mean, most of us don't go around consuming our own bodily fluids, no matter how delicious they are.
====
Alorael: War and violence would end if we all had each other's babies!
====
Drakefyre: Those are hideous mangos.
Posts: 1415 | Registered: Thursday, March 27 2003 08:00
Dex doesnt seem to increase bow damage.. in Avernum 4
Garrison
Agent
Member # 2820
 written Sunday, April 23 2006 08:56 Profile #1
I would not be surprised if that were true. Remember that in the previous Avernum games, dexterity only gave half as much bonus. I would be annoyed if Jeff let the description slip up like this, though.

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Thuryl: I mean, most of us don't go around consuming our own bodily fluids, no matter how delicious they are.
====
Alorael: War and violence would end if we all had each other's babies!
====
Drakefyre: Those are hideous mangos.
Posts: 1415 | Registered: Thursday, March 27 2003 08:00
Difficulty of Bahssikava in Blades of Avernum
Garrison
Agent
Member # 2820
 written Saturday, April 22 2006 08:09 Profile #11
I think I will play through Bahssikava for a challenge first, though. Its combat for my party is a little ridiculous, but it should help me with other, difficult scenarios.

Actually, for me the problem is not necessarily in the scenario design. I try not to exploit the situation or the AI too much so that my enemies and I are on a more even combat ground. But after reading some of the hints Kelandon provided with the scenario, I figure that if the designer feels it justified to take advantage, then it should be justified for me. That is, if everyone could beat the Avatars in a straight up fight, then I would hate to do anything else.

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Thuryl: I mean, most of us don't go around consuming our own bodily fluids, no matter how delicious they are.
====
Alorael: War and violence would end if we all had each other's babies!
====
Drakefyre: Those are hideous mangos.
Posts: 1415 | Registered: Thursday, March 27 2003 08:00
Difficulty of Bahssikava in Blades of Avernum
Garrison
Agent
Member # 2820
 written Friday, April 21 2006 19:28 Profile #5
quote:
Originally written by Kelandon:
Others have succeeded with weaker parties than the one you're using.
But on Torment with 2 PCs? Anyway, I tried to see if there was any non-heroic way to beat the Avatars, and I succeeded. I walked through the secret passage by the altar in combat mode and picked off the avatars one by one as they came in. Not prestigious, but it does get the job done. Then for the 4 Avatars, I just used Cloud of Blades repeatedly and kept reloading to make sure that the Avatars would not be able to rush my spellcaster.

Meh, I will keep going through this. It is a good enough of a scenario to endure.

[ Saturday, April 22, 2006 08:02: Message edited by: Garrison ]

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Thuryl: I mean, most of us don't go around consuming our own bodily fluids, no matter how delicious they are.
====
Alorael: War and violence would end if we all had each other's babies!
====
Drakefyre: Those are hideous mangos.
Posts: 1415 | Registered: Thursday, March 27 2003 08:00
Difficulty of Bahssikava in Blades of Avernum
Garrison
Agent
Member # 2820
 written Friday, April 21 2006 18:29 Profile #3
My fighter can use a blessed sling for a very modest amount of damage, but that rate of damage is simply not feasible against monsters that have 1000 or more health. You did a thorough job of making Capture Mind useless at least up to the point I am at. Cloud of Blades was the only sensible way to take on the altar fight, and Simulacrum helped me through the Slith Avatars with reduced difficulty. But I went into Bahs right after playing ZKR; I do not have the strongest spells yet. Should I go back and do DwtD?

If I do not have to go back to get stronger, I can live with turning down the difficulty.

[ Friday, April 21, 2006 18:30: Message edited by: Garrison ]

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Thuryl: I mean, most of us don't go around consuming our own bodily fluids, no matter how delicious they are.
====
Alorael: War and violence would end if we all had each other's babies!
====
Drakefyre: Those are hideous mangos.
Posts: 1415 | Registered: Thursday, March 27 2003 08:00
Difficulty of Bahssikava in Blades of Avernum
Garrison
Agent
Member # 2820
 written Friday, April 21 2006 13:06 Profile #0
I have a level 40 two person party, and I like to play on Torment. One PC is a pole fighter and the other is a mage-priest. The battles in Bahssikava started out as a nice challenge with the drakes and such, but I started to encounter problems soon after.

The altar fight was extremely difficult, but I got through it by using two invulnerability potions. Then I moved on to the nearby temple where the three Slith Avatars are spawned. Am I right in assuming that, in my situation, this fight is basically impossible for me?

Anyway, I turned the difficulty down to easy just to get through the fight. I turned it back up to Torment and in the catacombs, I immediately encounter a trap that spawns 4 Slith Avatars. This was, again, impossible.

If the fights are just going to become more and more difficult from here, is it worth it to continue playing this scenario with a party at this level on Torment?

[ Friday, April 21, 2006 18:24: Message edited by: Garrison ]

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Thuryl: I mean, most of us don't go around consuming our own bodily fluids, no matter how delicious they are.
====
Alorael: War and violence would end if we all had each other's babies!
====
Drakefyre: Those are hideous mangos.
Posts: 1415 | Registered: Thursday, March 27 2003 08:00
The Push, Hide, and Loot Maneuver (And Miscellany) in The Avernum Trilogy
Garrison
Agent
Member # 2820
 written Wednesday, April 19 2006 12:37 Profile #12
It is interesting how everyone at one time or another through the course of playing these games tries out some of these considerably obsessive-compulsive behaviors. The atmosphere simply encourages constant and meticulous detail.

If you exploit something to do something that you should not be able to, then you are cheating. In this way using method Zephyr described above would only be justified if, for example, the barrel you searched could be easily pushed into the adjacent room for looting.

The practice of buff-one-round-then-wait has to be ubiquitous. It is almost impossible to resist if you really know that a fight is coming that you cannot readily beat. But winning fights without doing this is incredibly rewarding in comparison.

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Thuryl: I mean, most of us don't go around consuming our own bodily fluids, no matter how delicious they are.
====
Alorael: War and violence would end if we all had each other's babies!
====
Drakefyre: Those are hideous mangos.
Posts: 1415 | Registered: Thursday, March 27 2003 08:00
A3: Poor mages! in The Avernum Trilogy
Garrison
Agent
Member # 2820
 written Wednesday, April 19 2006 12:27 Profile #27
Delete your priests for testing purposes. Remove invulnerability potions from your fighters. Then enter a scenario that would have been only mildly challenging for your full party. You'll probably either find yourself guzzling down plenty of potions or gratuitously using Capture Mind, Simulacrum, and Arcane Summon.

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Thuryl: I mean, most of us don't go around consuming our own bodily fluids, no matter how delicious they are.
====
Alorael: War and violence would end if we all had each other's babies!
====
Drakefyre: Those are hideous mangos.
Posts: 1415 | Registered: Thursday, March 27 2003 08:00
Cleannup @ Wikibooks + Call experiments in Blades of Avernum Editor
Garrison
Agent
Member # 2820
 written Tuesday, April 18 2006 16:16 Profile #9
That is an interesting finding, but since this mysterious return type results in an error message makes it is ruinous for gameplay atmosphere.

I took a quick look at the wikibook for the calls, and it seems to function perfectly as a quick reference page, which I take to be its original purpose. But since it would almost be trivial for a group of people familiar with scripts to write clear descriptions and provide discerning examples for each, improving it is a matter of "Why not?".

Providing references to scripts would be great for very complex or unique scripting procedures, but I think that high quality examples will suffice for most. There are numerous little details about the operation of the scripting engine that could be written out, though. For example, the order in which different scripts, such as the town script, scenario script, creature script, run. Of course, bugs should be pointed out.

I am going to look at the discussion on the site now to make sure that I have not just repeated what people have been saying...

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Thuryl: I mean, most of us don't go around consuming our own bodily fluids, no matter how delicious they are.
====
Alorael: War and violence would end if we all had each other's babies!
====
Drakefyre: Those are hideous mangos.
Posts: 1415 | Registered: Thursday, March 27 2003 08:00
Cleannup @ Wikibooks + Call experiments in Blades of Avernum
Garrison
Agent
Member # 2820
 written Tuesday, April 18 2006 16:16 Profile #9
That is an interesting finding, but since this mysterious return type results in an error message makes it is ruinous for gameplay atmosphere.

I took a quick look at the wikibook for the calls, and it seems to function perfectly as a quick reference page, which I take to be its original purpose. But since it would almost be trivial for a group of people familiar with scripts to write clear descriptions and provide discerning examples for each, improving it is a matter of "Why not?".

Providing references to scripts would be great for very complex or unique scripting procedures, but I think that high quality examples will suffice for most. There are numerous little details about the operation of the scripting engine that could be written out, though. For example, the order in which different scripts, such as the town script, scenario script, creature script, run. Of course, bugs should be pointed out.

I am going to look at the discussion on the site now to make sure that I have not just repeated what people have been saying...

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Thuryl: I mean, most of us don't go around consuming our own bodily fluids, no matter how delicious they are.
====
Alorael: War and violence would end if we all had each other's babies!
====
Drakefyre: Those are hideous mangos.
Posts: 1415 | Registered: Thursday, March 27 2003 08:00
Magekiller in Blades of Avernum Editor
Garrison
Agent
Member # 2820
 written Tuesday, April 18 2006 16:03 Profile #5
So you want them to completely disregard any pummeling and only focus on the magic users? Maybe you already explained this, but I am guessing that your monster will have a nice ranged attack so that it can kill the magic users while they are in the antimagic cloud. But your wording seems to suggest that its only purpose is to create these clouds.

If the latter case is true, then it is completely fine to have the monster have separate targets; one for antimagic clouds and one for normal attacking. If the former is true, have you tried setting its strategy to 11?

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Thuryl: I mean, most of us don't go around consuming our own bodily fluids, no matter how delicious they are.
====
Alorael: War and violence would end if we all had each other's babies!
====
Drakefyre: Those are hideous mangos.
Posts: 1415 | Registered: Thursday, March 27 2003 08:00
Magekiller in Blades of Avernum
Garrison
Agent
Member # 2820
 written Tuesday, April 18 2006 16:03 Profile #5
So you want them to completely disregard any pummeling and only focus on the magic users? Maybe you already explained this, but I am guessing that your monster will have a nice ranged attack so that it can kill the magic users while they are in the antimagic cloud. But your wording seems to suggest that its only purpose is to create these clouds.

If the latter case is true, then it is completely fine to have the monster have separate targets; one for antimagic clouds and one for normal attacking. If the former is true, have you tried setting its strategy to 11?

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Thuryl: I mean, most of us don't go around consuming our own bodily fluids, no matter how delicious they are.
====
Alorael: War and violence would end if we all had each other's babies!
====
Drakefyre: Those are hideous mangos.
Posts: 1415 | Registered: Thursday, March 27 2003 08:00
Cresent Valley help in Blades of Avernum
Garrison
Agent
Member # 2820
 written Tuesday, April 18 2006 15:59 Profile #9
Just keep trying over and over by pressing escape when your non-having-sex options run out. I discovered this the hard way because I wanted to find out how many ways I could kill her with my two person party. On the third or fourth attempt, I was suddenly presented with options to return the doll peacefully. Go figure.

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Thuryl: I mean, most of us don't go around consuming our own bodily fluids, no matter how delicious they are.
====
Alorael: War and violence would end if we all had each other's babies!
====
Drakefyre: Those are hideous mangos.
Posts: 1415 | Registered: Thursday, March 27 2003 08:00
I Hate "Regenerating" Locks and Barriers in The Avernum Trilogy
Garrison
Agent
Member # 2820
 written Saturday, April 15 2006 08:49 Profile #2
Locked doors usually do not become relocked when you re-enter a town. I do not remember a single instance where it is absolutely necesary to dispel a barrier a second time, though. Just finish what you need to behind the barrier the first time.

If you have not tried Avernum 4, then you might like to know that the barriers stay dispelled in it.

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Thuryl: I mean, most of us don't go around consuming our own bodily fluids, no matter how delicious they are.
====
Alorael: War and violence would end if we all had each other's babies!
====
Drakefyre: Those are hideous mangos.
Posts: 1415 | Registered: Thursday, March 27 2003 08:00
Fireblast Spell? in Avernum 4
Garrison
Agent
Member # 2820
 written Friday, April 14 2006 09:17 Profile #1
Look in the game documentation.

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Thuryl: I mean, most of us don't go around consuming our own bodily fluids, no matter how delicious they are.
====
Alorael: War and violence would end if we all had each other's babies!
====
Drakefyre: Those are hideous mangos.
Posts: 1415 | Registered: Thursday, March 27 2003 08:00
I learned my lesson in Avernum 4
Garrison
Agent
Member # 2820
 written Thursday, April 13 2006 13:00 Profile #7
As you know, there is no steamlined way to make the mage come back to life. I suggest just dabbling with the scripts to make the mage reappear when you enter the area.

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Thuryl: I mean, most of us don't go around consuming our own bodily fluids, no matter how delicious they are.
====
Alorael: War and violence would end if we all had each other's babies!
====
Drakefyre: Those are hideous mangos.
Posts: 1415 | Registered: Thursday, March 27 2003 08:00
Athame in Avernum 4
Garrison
Agent
Member # 2820
 written Tuesday, April 11 2006 21:01 Profile #13
Originally written by Garrison:
quote:
It should be small dagger with a bluish tint because that is how it is described in the games, though the blusih tint is my conjecture. It should have a very high base damage and the regular bonus damage per level of weapons skill as a dagger because I figure that a knife whose edge is blessed enough to cut through virtually anything does not give its user much of a bonus for having big muscles. It should of course deal damage to undead and demons because I think most people like to see anything holy or related to religions being discriminatory.


[ Tuesday, April 11, 2006 21:02: Message edited by: Garrison ]

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Thuryl: I mean, most of us don't go around consuming our own bodily fluids, no matter how delicious they are.
====
Alorael: War and violence would end if we all had each other's babies!
====
Drakefyre: Those are hideous mangos.
Posts: 1415 | Registered: Thursday, March 27 2003 08:00

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