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Which Spells and abilities do you want included? in Blades of Avernum
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Law Bringer
Member # 335
 written Saturday, December 7 2002 12:04 Profile Homepage #16
I think the mad monks get multiple hits per attack, too. They certainly did in E3.

—Alorael, who doesn't think any PC's will ever be able to perform monk-like attacks. For one thing, 9 AP and multiple attacks are both impossible. For another thing, Jeff never intended for the feisty slap of pain to be mastered by mere mortals.
Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00
Bug? in Tech Support
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Law Bringer
Member # 335
 written Monday, December 2 2002 13:14 Profile Homepage #5
The teleportation is supposed to happen. My guess is that the way spending the night in an inn involves teleportation of your party, the horse message either gets called by both or was accidentally used identically in both places. As long as it doesn't actually cause game problems, it's probably okay.

—Alorael, who would even say it's convenient to have your horses spare you the effort of walking back into the hermits house to say the right thing.
Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00
Which Spells and abilities do you want included? in Blades of Avernum
Or else o'erleap.
Law Bringer
Member # 335
 written Saturday, November 30 2002 18:11 Profile Homepage #1
I still think a wound-like spell would be nice. There are only so many times you can bless and haste your fighters before it becomes redundant.

—Alorael, who would just as soon not have any instant-death skill. A high-level party would have far too easy a time with that sort of thing.
Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00
Message From Spiderweb - Brain Blocked in Blades of Avernum
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Law Bringer
Member # 335
 written Friday, November 29 2002 19:04 Profile Homepage #141
I think the idea of wild summons is that the creatures are powerful, but they'll attack you as well as your enemies.

—Alorael, who can say for certain that he would never use that spell. Summoning is bad enough without having to kill off your own creatures.
Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00
Role Playing in Blades of Avernum
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Law Bringer
Member # 335
 written Friday, November 29 2002 18:57 Profile Homepage #17
Jeff's taking out Barter; pathfinder has nothing to do with selling. A leadership-type skill could be set up as a special flag, but it would be difficult to make it alter selling prices.

—Alorael, who would say the easiest way to get a personality for the characters would be to set up several tests along the lines of the E2/A2 vahnatai tests, only instead of making them a win or lose situation make them each a problem that can be solved in multiple ways. Depending on the path taken, the party's personality flags are altered.
Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00
Role Playing in Blades of Avernum
Or else o'erleap.
Law Bringer
Member # 335
 written Thursday, November 28 2002 12:02 Profile Homepage #13
At least A3 doesn't have any really game-wrecking spells like Quickfire, Flight, or Word of Recall.

—Alorael, who would say that while some of the spells are more powerful than others, none are so good that they require excessive means to nullify.
Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00
2nd Newbie Question: Mass-attack spells in Blades of Avernum
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Law Bringer
Member # 335
 written Tuesday, November 26 2002 19:08 Profile Homepage #5
I can't imagine that programming a field that lasts for 0 turns would be much harder than programming a field that stays around for a while. And even a field that lasts for a turn would do decently as a fireball.

—Alorael, who is pretty sure there is even a way in the Avernum engine to deal damage to a certain radius or area. There are a few places with explosions that damage everyone in an area and nobody outside it.
Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00
A problem with my profile in Tech Support
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Law Bringer
Member # 335
 written Tuesday, November 26 2002 18:47 Profile Homepage #17
No, TGM isn't banned. His account was deleted by an error in the boards.

—Alorael, who thinks that out of everyone discussed here, only SM had his account banned. He had his IP banned too.
Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00
Role Playing in Blades of Avernum
Or else o'erleap.
Law Bringer
Member # 335
 written Tuesday, November 26 2002 13:48 Profile Homepage #8
Make a lot of dialogue choices where what you say really matters. Each one sets a special flag (recording good/evil choices) and also opens up new, different choices in conversation with other people. Thus, someone who is consistently evil may have an entirely different discussion with the High and Mighty Priest of Goodness than he would if he had been walking the straight and narrow.

—Alorael, who isn't sure how feasible this is before BoA comes out. Depending on the way hidden conversation options are treated, this could be easy, painful, or impossible.
Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00
A problem with my profile in Tech Support
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Law Bringer
Member # 335
 written Monday, November 25 2002 17:18 Profile Homepage #12
Banned accounts aren't deleted, and in fact SM's account may not be banned; his IP was banned, preventing him from logging onto any account, so there is no reason for his account to be shut down as well.

—Alorael, who believes the only deleted accounts are those few that were deleted by board errors.
Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00
Message From Spiderweb - Brain Blocked in Blades of Avernum
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Law Bringer
Member # 335
 written Monday, November 25 2002 13:58 Profile Homepage #132
In A2 there are a number of other interesting temples. In Mertis, for example, there's that priest of the head-bashing warrior deity. Then there are the two priests in Blosk, one of whom seems to worship secrets. That could very easily be turned into the basis for a nice mystery scenario.

[Appropriate! punctuation?]

—Alorael, who finds the Church of the Divine Lucre very appropriate. After all, who doesn't worship the Almighty Coin? But it's somewhat surprising that Drakey didn't mention the Anama...

[ Monday, November 25, 2002 13:59: Message edited by: Alorael ]
Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00
Role Playing in Blades of Avernum
Or else o'erleap.
Law Bringer
Member # 335
 written Monday, November 25 2002 13:51 Profile Homepage #3
I don't think BoE can do that with a single node, although using flag increments as a counter and looping to another increment could do it. BoA has the new scripting, though, which will allow better variable use.

—Alorael, who supposes the many scenarios that make you join one faction or another do a good job of forcing party decisions. The problem with a good/evil flag, though, is that a neutral party could easily end up at their starting level of neutrality and have already completed all the quests without a requirement for a very good or bad reputation, getting the party stuck.
Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00
more than 4 characters ! in Blades of Avernum
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Law Bringer
Member # 335
 written Sunday, November 24 2002 08:33 Profile Homepage #28
quote:
Originally posted by GG l'Avernite:
By the way, I play Dungeons and Dragons (3rd) with friends, and I think it could be better if you could play orcs or gobelins in med fans RPG.
In the Avernum world there are no orcs, and I can't imagine anyone wanting to be a goblin.

—Alorael, who is impressed with Djur's programming speed. He has to create an engine from scratch, while Jeff already has the A3 engine in place, but Pyg will be finished almost as fast.
Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00
Message From Spiderweb - Brain Blocked in Blades of Avernum
Or else o'erleap.
Law Bringer
Member # 335
 written Sunday, November 24 2002 08:29 Profile Homepage #127
So in your party, you would spend your money more on leveling up the spells that most suit your mage. Everyone has the capacity to learn whatever magic they wish to.

—Alorael, who does occasionally wonder where the priestly magic comes from. There are assorted deities in the Avernum games, but your priests don't seem to need to follow any particular religion or ethos to bring down upon the infidel (or anyone else) the holy wrath of an ambiguous greater force.
Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00
Message From Spiderweb - Brain Blocked in Blades of Avernum
Or else o'erleap.
Law Bringer
Member # 335
 written Saturday, November 23 2002 19:56 Profile Homepage #124
Another set of spells would require not only a large alteration of the engine but also the creation of twenty new spells for the new 'class' of spellcaster and a skill to go along with it. The likelihood of Jeff doing this is nil.

—Alorael, who also doesn't think there should be any differentiation between good and evil magic. After all, magic is an amoral force; the wizard is the one who applies ethics to its use.
Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00
Message From Spiderweb - Brain Blocked in Blades of Avernum
Or else o'erleap.
Law Bringer
Member # 335
 written Saturday, November 23 2002 07:35 Profile Homepage #118
We've certainly got a large array of possible spells and skills, among other things. Since I don't think Jeff is slogging through all this any more, should we go through the list and pick out all the ones that are feasible, then present the ideas to Jeff more concisely?

—Alorael, who would also see another poll, like the original one for BoA ideas, as a possibility. That way, there is less of a chance of getting another batch of useless things like Forcecage.
Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00
I will host BoA graphics in Blades of Avernum
Or else o'erleap.
Law Bringer
Member # 335
 written Thursday, November 21 2002 13:52 Profile Homepage #39
Poking around with ResEdit (on a Mac, of course) reveals that many Spiderweb games contain relics of the older games' code. In Avernum, there were bits of Nethergate and even E3, I think.

—Alorael, who supposes just copying everything and altering where necessary saves time, but it probably increases the amount of disk space that the games take up. For all his worry about download times, you'd think Jeff would trim his code better.
Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00
Message From Spiderweb - Brain Blocked in Blades of Avernum
Or else o'erleap.
Law Bringer
Member # 335
 written Thursday, November 21 2002 13:48 Profile Homepage #111
That spell sounds like it would either be too powerful for a mid-level spell or it would cost so many spell points that it would become another useless spell like Forcecage.

In low-level situations, the mirror spell could reflect the ever-present slow and iceblast spells. In encounters with more powerful enemies, the AI's lack of intelligence could easily result in it's fireblasting itself to death.

—Alorael, who also imagines that this mirror spell would be difficult to program. Even assuming everything else goes well, arrows would probably be reflected too.
Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00
Feel of Blades in Blades of Avernum
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Law Bringer
Member # 335
 written Thursday, November 21 2002 13:41 Profile Homepage #3
If necessary, monsters can be given ridiculously high resistance to everything, including physical damage.

—Alorael, who just hopes that physical resistance, or defense, or global resistance, or something along those lines will be included.
Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00
I will host BoA graphics in Blades of Avernum
Or else o'erleap.
Law Bringer
Member # 335
 written Wednesday, November 20 2002 14:17 Profile Homepage #36
Is the grape graphic from Nethergate? I know it's been a while since I've played it, but I don't remember any grapes and the graphic doesn't reappear in any Avernum game.

—Alorael, who doesn't see anything wrong with edited items. The from-scratch terrains are far more impressive, though, and they match the Avernum terrain quite well.
Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00
Ideas for how to work around design options in Blades of Avernum
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Law Bringer
Member # 335
 written Monday, November 18 2002 15:14 Profile Homepage #2
A less elegant solution would be to prompt the party for passwords given out in the first scenario at certain points when critical events were completed. There's really no good way to work that into the scenario, but it does get the job done.

—Alorael, who actually isn't certain if passwords will be available in BoA. They were there in BoE, but they didn't appear anywhere in the Avernum games.
Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00
Monster ideas in Blades of Avernum
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Law Bringer
Member # 335
 written Sunday, November 17 2002 13:06 Profile Homepage #1
There were living walls in BoE, but in BoA they'll be a little more difficult because of the way walls are located between tiles.

—Alorael, who would like to see monsters that use the programmable behavior scripts to fight intelligently. For example, archers that kill mages in the back instead of firing at (and missing) the front-line fighters would make combat far more challenging.
Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00
Newbie Question: Dual-Wield/Ambidexterity in Blades of Avernum
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Law Bringer
Member # 335
 written Sunday, November 17 2002 13:02 Profile Homepage #2
Also, the ability to wield two weapons would require even more graphics for the PC's. And there would be a bit of awkwardness in the code that checks if the newly equipped weapon should replace the current weapon or shield.

—Alorael, who thinks all of these reasons played into Jeff's decision to take out dual-wielding. In Avenum 3, especially, two weapons would either do far too much damage or hit the cap and be worthless, and the powerful weapons are strong enough alone to make a pair ridiculous.
Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00
Message From Spiderweb - Brain Blocked in Blades of Avernum
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Law Bringer
Member # 335
 written Saturday, November 16 2002 22:14 Profile Homepage #96
I'd rather have my party learn entirely from training still, but I also see a problem with the suggestion. Most skills are very difficult to practice this way. If you hit in combat, is that weapons skill, dexterity, strength, assassination, or anatomy? All of them? How do you practice Arcane Lore if all checks for rune reading are either successes or failures based on your score?

—Alorael, who would rather avoid the temptations of min/maxing his characters as well. Trying to start characters out with as few skillpoints spent as possible to learn the skills from use would just make life more irritating.
Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00
BLOODTHIRSTY ME in Blades of Avernum
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Law Bringer
Member # 335
 written Saturday, November 16 2002 13:31 Profile Homepage #13
The other %5 of the time the corpse is so hacked, charred, and otherwise demolished by your party that there's nothing left worth talking about. In fact, given the amount of damage needed to turn a character into dust, I'd say that it should happen quite a bit more than %5 of the time.

—Alorael, who doesn't see why it matters. Corpses add very litle, they'd be a pain to deal with with item limits, and most people don't want them. On top of that, it would probably raise the rating and make parents disapprove of the 'graphic' violence.
Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00

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