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Displayed name	Or else o'erleap.
Member number	335
Title	Law Bringer
Postcount	14579
Homepage	http://www.polarisboard.net
Registered	Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00

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Reactions - SPOILERS in Avernum 4
Or else o'erleap. Law Bringer Member # 335	written Monday, December 12 2005 20:47 Profile Homepage #13 Goldenking, that's what Kelandon was saying. I got the Emerald Chestguard with some difficulty on b2.something. The undead were no trouble, but I ended up reloading a few times until I figured out how to arrange the battle to minimize getting zapped by an angry necromancer. The demon wasn't so bad without the Lightning Sprays. The Oozing Sword is even more absurdly easy to get, and I used it all the way up to the end of the game. I think its acid damage was toned down eventually, but it's still immoderately good. Yes, being able to acid up those resistant enemies was lovely, and getting experience for poison kills was lovelier. That reminds me that I never did figure out of kills by allies give experience or not. Did anyone else check? I got used to individual hastes and I like the lack of Barter. The boats tricked me too, though, and I missed them. I still have nostalgia from the very first Exile of hopping in a boat purchased in Silvar and exploring the great blue expanses, running into slith forts, and so on. And there's Dark Waters... Oh well. —Alorael, who liked the plethora of powerful items made easily available at all times. On the other hand, a few real artifacts would have been nice. Even Demonslayer is no challenge to get and then not really especially powerful. It spent most of its time as a secondary weapon. Posts: 14579 \| Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00
Creative Writing in General
Or else o'erleap. Law Bringer Member # 335	written Monday, December 12 2005 20:37 Profile Homepage #59 Opium had its problems for Coleridge too. It didn't stop him from losing the rest of Kubla Khan, after all. —Alorael, who draws his inspiration from his mustache. The aliens are able to communicate through it, you know. Posts: 14579 \| Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00
ETA on windows version? in Avernum 4
Or else o'erleap. Law Bringer Member # 335	written Monday, December 12 2005 20:34 Profile Homepage #3 The Windows testing doesn't have to wait for the game to be completed and is less balance focused. It's also free of the egregious human error bugs and more prone to porting bugs. In theory, if all goes well, the Windows test could be very short. If all doesn't go well and there's some persistent bug, it could take... oh, a few months. —Alorael, who has contributed nothing by adding this post, has he? Posts: 14579 \| Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00
Sci-Fi and fantasy authors... in General
Or else o'erleap. Law Bringer Member # 335	written Monday, December 12 2005 20:32 Profile Homepage #64 quote: Originally written by Kasumetoru Sai: Took me a while to differentiate "Wolfe" and "Woolf", but from the way you describe her/his work, I doubt it makes any difference anyway. Oh, but Gene Wolfe works so well with a Christ-like figure! And cyborgs in reverse. An photosynthesis. And interludes. —Alorael, who didn't even manage to finish The Man in the High Castle on the first try. The Book of the New Sun was a close thing too, though. The transition from book one to book two nearly lost him. Posts: 14579 \| Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00
Slow on ... well, to be expected? in Avernum 4
Or else o'erleap. Law Bringer Member # 335	written Monday, December 12 2005 20:29 Profile Homepage #4 It only hiccoughs for me when loading, and otherwise with proper settings it really runs just fine on my 450 Mhz G4 Cube. I'm not sure the engine is elegant, as there's strong anecdotal evidence of absurd artifacts from past games in Jeff's oevre, but it's not that bad! —Alorael, who will say that on his Cube he moved mostly by keyboard and didn't do anything too fancy. He'll also admit that it was slower than other Avernums, although not painfully so. Posts: 14579 \| Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00
The Worst Game Ever in General
Or else o'erleap. Law Bringer Member # 335	written Monday, December 12 2005 20:25 Profile Homepage #31 No, it doesn't. Myst, however, is a detailed world. It's brilliantly executed atmospherically, clever in an evil way, and I think it deserves its fame far more than the Sims (which I can't stand). I've actually only played the first Myst, and only through a part of it, but I appreciate it for what it is. That said, I can also see not liking it at all. —Alorael, who was going to say that Myst is it's own genre, but that's not at all true. It's a point and click adventure pared down to a beautiful minimum. It's just that not everyone loves point and click adventures or, for that matter, paring. Posts: 14579 \| Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00
Some Simple Suggestions for not Sucking at A4 in Avernum 4
Or else o'erleap. Law Bringer Member # 335	written Monday, December 12 2005 20:20 Profile Homepage #30 No, I agree on the nephil mage and I'm a bit sorry I didn't think of it myself. Maybe it's my fondness for glass cannons, but I'm definitely in the sword-and-shield camp. The importance of my fighters was really in providing a barrier and mopping up the almost-dead. The firepower came from my casters. Against larger groups (several ogre fights come to mind), area spells are simply more effective. Against single enemies or small groups fighters hold their own, and then the casters can hang back to buff and heal. Any caster getting close enough to poke means something has gone wrong and a gamble is needed. I spent a lot of time having my casters with no points spent on archery take potshots at enemies. Actually, I purchased some dirt-cheap archery skills (take note!) specifically for this purpose. Against weak enemies Bolt of Fire and arrows were quite sufficient, and against tougher foes I didn't want to try poking. Parry, riposte, or simply missing are too likely to cause death. So if I was already using my casters as archers, and if I was already working with sky-high experience penalties, why not a little bit more for some very nice archery bonuses? I'm just not convinced that slith bonuses with polearms are worthwhile. I put exactly the same number of points into sword and spear skills for my human fighter and my slith fighter, so the slith had much higher skill and the stronger weapon, and they still did approximately equal damage. Maybe at higher levels it pays off more, since I concentrated more on defensive skills, Quick Action, and Quick Strike, but I'm not convinced. —Alorael, who also isn't sure about Strong Will. He's still searching for good fighter traits (Good Constitution has proven mostly worthless). On the other hand, even going to extravagant lengths to raise mental resistance hasn't helped at all, and he still just shells out the energy for Unshackle Mind as necessary (and avoids Haste). There seem to be any number of choices that look good in numbers but have little or no effect on gameplay. Posts: 14579 \| Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00
Some Simple Suggestions for not Sucking at A4 in Avernum 4
Or else o'erleap. Law Bringer Member # 335	written Monday, December 12 2005 15:21 Profile Homepage #16 If your slith priest had mage spells, you'd be loving the smell of Bolts of Fire in the morning instead of wasting your time with pointed sticks. Also, while sliths have some skill with spears, they have no special ability to not get clobbered, which would be a problem for any priest properly focused on the mystic side of making things die. —Alorael, who needs to plug Enduring Armor, Steel Skin, and Augmentation here. It is entirely possible to take a lackluster front line and turn it into an impenetrable wall. It also allows even those hapless priests to survive a round of clobbering, and then the Minor Heals can keep them alive forever. Posts: 14579 \| Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00
Reactions - SPOILERS in Avernum 4
Or else o'erleap. Law Bringer Member # 335	written Monday, December 12 2005 14:01 Profile Homepage #6 Okay, a few more things. Some of the continuity was weird. At least one character was recognizably the same but with a different name (Carol, a member of the Hamer clan in A1, became Hamer in A4). There were some other oddities. Ganrick left me scratching my head too, and some other towns had strange geographical alterations. Where'd the water by Fort Duvno go? Nothing was too awful, though. I liked seeing all the preserved mages, but I was sad that none of them did anything. Solberg in particular got only a bit part, and the part didn't mesh with his previous roles. He complains about it, but I don't know. It didn't feel right. I'm not sure what I think of long-term buffs. Leaving town and immediately casting whatever I could became a reflex. Then I'd wander around with untouchable fighters until I passed through some gates. In a few battles with allies, especially vahnatai, Arcane Shield becomes ridiculously good. You suddenly end up with an effectively immortal goon squad on your side. —Alorael, who had no trouble with fungi. It's interesting that their range is one space less than yours with spells. That makes them rather easy. Even tougher things like spraying shrubs weren't hard because of turn order: Fighters wait, shrubs have nothing in range, casters step up and cast, fighters swap mages out of range and move out of range themselves, shrubs have no targets... Posts: 14579 \| Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00
Some Simple Suggestions for not Sucking at A4 in Avernum 4
Or else o'erleap. Law Bringer Member # 335	written Monday, December 12 2005 13:50 Profile Homepage #6 Swords/Spears: I have exactly the opposite reaction to spears. They do slightly more damage in the beginning, but by the end they're more or less indistinguishable from swords in damage. You'll encounter stronger swords sooner and in greater quantities, and some of the abilities on swords are easily worth the extra damage on spears. Then there are shields, which provide some very nice skill bonuses in addition to defense. Basically, I'm not a fan of spears at all. Casting: Intelligence is now the only way to raise your maximum energy, but I think that's all it does. Spell bonuses come from the appropriate mage or priest skill and spell, Spellcraft, and Magery. (I don't know how Magery and Spellcraft compare, though.) Magical Efficiency sometimes lowers the energy cost of spells, but it's too random to be dependable and didn't seem worthwhile. Armor: I never had a problem with over-encumbered mages. Mages in melee were practically dead even in the heaviest stuff they could wear. I put them in whatever would boost their casting abilities instead, which was always leather or lighter. Traits: Most traits give you a bonus to one or more skills at first level, but the bonuses increase as you gain levels. Although these bonuses don't help you get special skills any faster, they can dramatically reduce the cost of skills. Natural Mage means you'll spend either fewer skill points to get an equivalent mage or the same number to get a more powerful mage. Specifically, I consider Elite Warrior (it's not Divine Warrior) almost essential for any fighters, Natural Mage necessary for mages, and Pure Spirit necessary for priests. Because I had only mage/priests, that gave me my two traits for both characters, and they work in a nicely complementary fashion. Nimble Fingers is excellent for your lockpicker and trap disarmer mostly because it saves skill points. Races: Nephil is okay, but I found myself quite underwhelmed by sliths. In my second game I created an entirely human party and I am quite satisfied with it. Dual Casters: Because you don't get the same cumulative energy effects from boosting mage and priest ability, there's no longer a compelling reason to have a mage/priest. I still found it very useful, howerver, as many skills now stack: Magical Efficiency, Magery, and Spellcraft apply to both, and of course Intelligence is useful only for casters. Fighters: Quick Action can double your damage output quite often with even a minor investment. It's probably the best skill for righters as long as they have enough other skills to hit things. Alternately, because there are many enemies you don't want to hit, high defenses are excellent. If you can parry (Elite Warrior!) and have Defense and Hardiness at moderate levels, you can often safely form a human wall between enemies and casters, who blow up your foes. Bows are also very useful for shooting those pesky critters that you don't want to touch, but it's not too hard to hit enemies even with no points in archery. I think it's impossible to complete Avernum without mages. You need to dispel some barriers and Piercing Crystals can't dispel the more difficult barriers. [Edit: Okay, I lied and this actually became a new post. I did manage to get a few doors open by the end of the game with Unlock Doors that I couldn't get with Tool Use. None were important. I Unlocked the door to Athron's Lair right before heading off to the final battles, but then learned that there's a key. Oops.] [Edit 2: Immobile Enemies: When fighting fungi, note that your archers and casters have a longer range than the fungi by one space. Kill mobile enemies and then have a field day with sitting ducks! Some others are slightly more difficult, but if your fighters move before the immobile enemies and your casters move afterwards, you can blast with spells and then have your fighters move everyone back out of range by swapping.] —Alorael, who has only one more tip, which will contain some mild spoilers. Some of the best equipment available in A4 is surprisingly close to the beginning, although it requires competence in difficult combat. Keep an eye out in the Honeycomb and two eyes out west of Fort Dranlon. [ Monday, December 12, 2005 14:03: Message edited by: Ytterbium-Enhanced Razor ] Posts: 14579 \| Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00
Some Simple Suggestions for not Sucking at A4 in Avernum 4
Or else o'erleap. Law Bringer Member # 335	written Monday, December 12 2005 13:31 Profile Homepage #2 Yes, it does. Nephilim get bonuses to Dexterity. Nimble Fingers boosts Tool Use. Note that as far as I can tell Dexterity doesn't help your Tool Use at all, so a highly dextrous character can still be hopeless with traps. —Alorael, who has a longer comment to post. Edit coming! Posts: 14579 \| Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00
The Worst Game Ever in General
Or else o'erleap. Law Bringer Member # 335	written Monday, December 12 2005 13:20 Profile Homepage #9 I also had the demo of EARTH 2140. While the game's balance is questionable (nonexistent), as are the plot and everything else, it did have one feature that I appreciated greatly. Being able to tell a unit production building to continue producing a unit as long as the resources are available is something that several other games could use. —Alorael, who can't really think of any game that exemplifies cannon fodder quite as well as EARTH 2140. When you have units that apparently are literally incapable of doing damage to anything and die if cllcked too vigorously, the only possible reason to have them is to produce a mobile blockade. Posts: 14579 \| Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00
Reactions - SPOILERS in Avernum 4
Or else o'erleap. Law Bringer Member # 335	written Monday, December 12 2005 11:57 Profile Homepage #1 To be honest, when I first started playing I was hoping Jeff was aiming for a satire of A3's plot. No such luck. It was the same, only there wasn't even any suspense this time. The less said about the plot, the better. Space: Wandering around before reaching Fort Avernum was exasperating. Words cannot express how much I came to loathe the door in Khrosth's camp between Fort Draco and Fort Monastery. After Fort Avernum things were better, and I actually liked the layout of the Great Cave a great deal. The major tunnel systems, like those connected to the basement of Patrick's Tower and the chitrach caves under the Eastern Gallery, were neat. I've always wanted to know why Avernum seems to be as flat as the surface. The towns that spread a little past their single screen, especially Cotra and Silvar, were nice. I do wish that Jeff had taken more of the chance to sprawl over multiple maps to do just that. Everything is still in nice little squares. Magic was excellent. There was a real concern of not running out of energy. Okay, it was a manufactured concern born of my desire to win without a single potion, but a concern nonetheless. It made finding enemies to kill easily for First Aid more important. There were areas of effect, single targets, the nuke effect of Divine Retribution, and the somewhat mystifying Lightning Spray, which I never did completely understand. (It targets things roughly in a line away from the caster, right? But only roughly?) Monster special abilities while getting hit were definitely a good kind of pain that required some thought. Charm was the worst, although there were ways around it. Chitrachs became a terror with parry. Against enemies like that (and those very physically resistanct slimes!) magic was absolutely essential. is it just me, though, or did terror become the worst possible threat? Once a character started running, I generally had one turn to get a priest close enough to dispel it, and that was pretty close. Otherwise the character would go off into the sunset, often into oblivion as well, and never return in time for the battle. And pylons. I love pylons. A lot. I think my favorite battle is the one after talking through the crystal in the Sulfurous Flats and then escaping past pylon hell. The fight in halls of pylons in the Darkside base next to Fort Saffron was also fun. Villains were unexceptional. Rentar-Ihrno failed to be especially difficult, although the first version of her keep was even more of a joke. I thought meeting Garzahd again was a nice touch the way it was handled, but the rest I could've been more new and exciting. Loot was a mixed bag. Jeff beefed up spears a little bit (due to my whining, probably), but I still feel like the spear users get short-changed. Shields are often very good, there are always better swords available than spears, and ultimately I can't see any compelling reason to have a spear character except maybe the desire to have two acid-causing melee fighters. —Alorael, whose final analysis is that A4 is tactically the best of the Spiderweb games. The plot is best left undiscussed, but the game has enough entertainment for that to be okay. Posts: 14579 \| Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00
The Worst Game Ever in General
Or else o'erleap. Law Bringer Member # 335	written Monday, December 12 2005 11:41 Profile Homepage #2 I can think of countless examples from CDs loaded with sharewaare and freeware, not to mention countless things encountered on the internet, and... well, mankind excels at awful. Some just excel more than others. —Alorael, who would be willing to put Homeland in the very bad category. Worst game ever is a little too much for it, though. It has graphics. It has text that is legible and logical. It has a plot, although it's nothing to write home about. It doesn't delete important system files. Posts: 14579 \| Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00
Mac emulators? in Avernum 4
Or else o'erleap. Law Bringer Member # 335	written Monday, December 12 2005 08:47 Profile Homepage #1 Not that anyone here seems to know of. Wait for the Windows release. —Alorael, who would be sorrier if it weren't simply justice for the Windows users to have to wait their turn sometimes. Posts: 14579 \| Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00
Aaaargh! Windows! in General
Or else o'erleap. Law Bringer Member # 335	written Monday, December 12 2005 08:45 Profile Homepage #17 Either you were also transferring viruses or you are blaming something unrelated. Transferring data shouldn't have any effect on computers after the transfer is over for obvious reasons. —Alorael, who highly recommends transferring by Firewire if you can, Airport if you can't but have Airport, and by floppy if you really need to have an intermediary. Transferring data on floppy disks is the way of the future! Posts: 14579 \| Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00
Avernum, Avernum, 1, 2, 3.... in General
Or else o'erleap. Law Bringer Member # 335	written Monday, December 12 2005 08:41 Profile Homepage #3 A1 and A2 have three endings, but they're not endings like Geneforge's. You can keep playing after winning, so you're really only done after completing all three major quests. The next game assumes that all the quests were completed. (Actually, one final quest in A1 has no impact on the plot of A2 or A3, but the rest matter.) The beginning of A2 gives spoilers for A1 and A3 has two books in Fort Emergence that give synopses of the plots of A1 and A2. The plots aren't especially surprising, though; as soon as you know the vahnatai exist, you've gotten all the real excitement you'll get from the plot. The rest is all in the details that you can only get by playing. —Alorael, whose favorite Avernum is A2. The plot is definitely the best through the demo, and it's still slightly better through the rest of the game. A3 suffers from generic towns and inflated damage, but if you like the engine then go with it. A1 is good, but the lack of a quest list is difficult after playing later games. Posts: 14579 \| Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00
Cheats ? in Avernum 4
Or else o'erleap. Law Bringer Member # 335	written Monday, December 12 2005 08:33 Profile Homepage #9 The first time through nothing was especially challenging until the Eastern Gallery, which proceeded to pile pain on top of pain. It's not quite as bad in later versions (or maybe my party is better), but it's a definite jump in difficulty. Besides important or otherwise special battles, there aren't too many tricks to master. Just get used to some surprising fluctuations in difficulty and don't wander around anywhere new without saving. —Alorael, who learned to stop worrying and love the chitrachs. Posts: 14579 \| Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00
Why do you play games? in General
Or else o'erleap. Law Bringer Member # 335	written Sunday, December 11 2005 15:31 Profile Homepage #13 There was an article online somewhere (I can't remember the URL, but it's probably still out there) that discusses how shareware can in fact be more lucrative than the major games from the big players in the computer game world. It was more about solitaire and other rather simple games than niche RPGs, but I think the idea holds. The art and sound expenses are minimal, and the only employees who need to be paid are Jeff, Linda, and Mariann. Besides paying for space on the web, there's no other overhead. That means that while shareware may sell fewer copies, each one means more money that isn't lost to "Spiderweb Software" and not the people who need to eat. That said, 100:3 sounds about right to me. It really depends on how many people download Avernum expecting something more graphically impressive. But really it doesn't matter how many people download and promptly delete Spiderweb games. As long as X people register, they could be X out of 100,000, X out of 1,000,000, or X out of 6,500,000,000. —Alorael, who doubts that 25% of people who download Spiderweb games end up with full versions one way or another. Most people probably aren't very interested, and those who are are most likely to be the people who pay. Jeff certainly doesn't seem to consider the pirates a threat to his income from what he's written, and it's fairly apparent that income is something very important to him, reasonably enough. Posts: 14579 \| Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00
orange gorillas in General
Or else o'erleap. Law Bringer Member # 335	written Sunday, December 11 2005 10:45 Profile Homepage #2 There are many variations of that type of artillery game. They range from the primitive past to some rather modern and bizarre 3D reincarnations. —Alorael, who doesn't approve. That's like making Tetris 3D. Sure, it may seem fun, but it's blasphemous! Posts: 14579 \| Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00
Aaaargh! Windows! in General
Or else o'erleap. Law Bringer Member # 335	written Sunday, December 11 2005 10:40 Profile Homepage #12 A CD-RW can be burned with one set of files, and then if you want to add more you can burn it again (but you have to burn the original files as well as the new files onto the disk). If you want something completely different, you can burn that too. A CD-R can be burned once and only once. You can't add more and you can't take anything off. —Alorael, who has never had his computer see a CD more than once. How does the computer read the data that's no longer on the disk? Posts: 14579 \| Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00
Fossils & Diamonds in Richard White Games
Or else o'erleap. Law Bringer Member # 335	written Sunday, December 11 2005 00:14 Profile Homepage #5 Rock Solid is to Richard White Games as jelly bean capacitors (fully charged) are to the Maginot Line. —Alorael, who hopes this makes everything clear. Posts: 14579 \| Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00
INTJ? ESFP? in General
Or else o'erleap. Law Bringer Member # 335	written Sunday, December 11 2005 00:10 Profile Homepage #39 We're not the majority of Spiderweb's customers, though. That seems to be young boys and those famous septuagenarian Eskimos. —Alorael, who would like to see a Myers-Briggs analysis of, say, Ambrosia and Battle.net boards. That would be enlightening. Posts: 14579 \| Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00
Christmas Music in General
Or else o'erleap. Law Bringer Member # 335	written Sunday, December 11 2005 00:06 Profile Homepage #7 Personent Hodie, Est Ist Ein Rose, and other assorted early music pieces. If I can't really get into the whole savior's birth thing I might as well enjoy good music. —Alorael, who actually isn't quite sure that Est Ist Ein Rose is Christmas music. It always shows up at Christmas and it's beautiful, though, so he'll go with it. Posts: 14579 \| Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00
Short Political Quiz in General
Or else o'erleap. Law Bringer Member # 335	written Saturday, December 10 2005 10:39 Profile Homepage #17 Um, no. You're misunderstanding i's position. It would be more accurate to say that because you have a position of privilege in the society, you have an obligation to do more than others to ensure that the bottom of society gets a fair chance to move up to where you are, or just that they aren't abjectly miserable. —Alorael, who tries to stuff a large rant into this signature and realized it didn't fit at all. Ranting another day! Posts: 14579* \| Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00

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