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Lost hardrive, lost 6 registered games in Tech Support
Varg
Apprentice
Member # 4904
 written Saturday, November 27 2004 00:38 Profile #11
When I IDA'ed the games (I needed to reduce the sound volume), I've found a couple formulas that are used to check that; in case that's needed I can PM or email them to you (assuming you've really bought the games). Or maybe you should search a bit for some automatic keygens... well, if you've already paid, you've got the moral right to use them it they exist.

P.S. Raid mirror rules =)

[ Saturday, November 27, 2004 00:39: Message edited by: Varg ]
Posts: 10 | Registered: Thursday, August 26 2004 07:00
Geneforge 3 Screenshots.... in General
Varg
Apprentice
Member # 4904
 written Monday, November 22 2004 19:45 Profile #30
You see, this engine looks better than a basic 3d engine would. UnrealEngine is the first game 3d engine allowing large open spaces, at the same time being fast, non-demanding and featuring good graphics. I'd really prefer GF3/A4 on it.
But a basic 3d engine... no way.
Posts: 10 | Registered: Thursday, August 26 2004 07:00
Suggestions for Geneforge 3 in General
Varg
Apprentice
Member # 4904
 written Monday, November 22 2004 19:42 Profile #18
2Dres&Air'n'ax: Well, I guess Jeff knows what the players want. But I doubth he knows small problems like these with sound and resolution.

2Adagio: I can't adjust only the Geneforge (Avernum) volume. If I adjust the system volume, XMMS or winamp sounds too quiet.
Fixing this is 2-3 minutes for Jeff or several hours of disassembling for me.
Posts: 10 | Registered: Thursday, August 26 2004 07:00
How do you perceive what you imagine? in General
Varg
Apprentice
Member # 4904
 written Saturday, November 20 2004 20:08 Profile #20
Hard to say. Well, I guess mostly I imagine in words combined with something like simple sketch - I see not a fully rendered image, but smth. more like Max 3d view or quake with textures off. Grayscale marking of things positions and dimensions, words to describe them.
Though when I'm either exhausted and almost falling asleep or somewhat drunk, I see in my imagination colored 3-d images with lighting effects etc and very clean texturing. (Just comparing to 3d rendering, it's easier for me to speak in that terms). Though with background... not exactly words, but ideas.
Posts: 10 | Registered: Thursday, August 26 2004 07:00
Suggestions for Geneforge 3 in General
Varg
Apprentice
Member # 4904
 written Saturday, November 20 2004 19:53 Profile #0
Just a few suggestions for the interface (I think Jeff will do his best for the content so there's no point to interfere with that).

First, it would be better to have more options for sound volume, like 1-100% slider.
Reason is that even 'quiet' is sometimes much louder than winamp at maximum.

Second, please make options for higher resolutions by scaling or a larger view frame.
I've seen scaling done via DX in The Ur-Quan Masters open-source project (for 2d graphics), it looks quite good. Probably it could be done the same way. Or at least simple pixel doubling.
Reason: many people have higher resolutions, and they have problems. On my 21-inch CRT (Eizo F930) I have 599 thin horisontal black lines across all screen caused by low v-freq. That's unpleasant, though it doesn't trash the graphics, but many LCD users have a much worse problem with image blurring because of poor monitor rescaling - they would clearly benefit from hq software scaling. Or a larger viewframe without scaling.

[ Monday, November 22, 2004 18:54: Message edited by: Varg ]
Posts: 10 | Registered: Thursday, August 26 2004 07:00
Geneforge 3 Screenshots.... in General
Varg
Apprentice
Member # 4904
 written Saturday, November 20 2004 19:24 Profile #28
quote:
Originally written by Dres Redoran:

Even with those things, he should still consider moving to at least a very basic 3d engine soon. Seen that free MMORPG, Runescape? And engine like that would work fine.

I don't see why not... well I do, but I think it might be worth it. I've spoken with several people over the last few years that have heard of Spiderweb games, but were turned off the dated visuals, regardless of the gameplay elements. While most of us aren't so shallow, we do still like to look at our games...
I think not. He clearly shouldn't move to a 3D engine.

Well, surely, a good and fast, like UnrealEngine, 3D graphics would look better. But, first, making such a thing requires not just programmers, it requires a skilled, experienced team of programmers. Look at TES3:Morrowind. Well, a rich company hired a lot of people to do a 3D engine. What's the result? The result is an extremely slow, very buggy and unstable, "featuring" a lot of problems 3d engine. Because only a few teams in the world can make it good. While making just a 3d object display is not that hard (if you visit www.scene.org, you can see a lot of high-quality 3d demos in just 64 kbytes mostly written by 1-5 people), creating a stable game engine is not that easy.

Second problem is: it won't really look better. It would look worse. Because without a large team of 3d artists there can be no good models.
And, besides that, have you heard about Fallout 3 which will be 3d? And about fans' reaction? It's very negative. Because 2d graphics has it own advantages which are in first place perfection in details barely possible for 3d. There are no ugly animation, sharp poly edges, poly intersection, multiple small bugs, etc. And the second is that handcrafted graphics look better.

What about people who require 3d to play... most of them won't buy the game anyway. This game is interesting not because of graphics (though it's a very pleasant change from quite ugly Avernum), but because of storyline and gameplay. Some people still play ADoM for that. Geneforge graphics is acceptable.
Posts: 10 | Registered: Thursday, August 26 2004 07:00
servile as main charactor? in Geneforge Series
Varg
Apprentice
Member # 4904
 written Saturday, November 20 2004 19:17 Profile #8
quote:
Originally written by saltydog:

for geneforge 3 0r 4 there should be an option to play an evolved servile that has learned shaper skills illeagaly and the shaper towns could hate you and the servile colonies would automaticly like you... you could fight to take down the shapers.. just a thought
The idea is interesting, but it can't be done well. Playing a servile would mean a completely different storyline and dialogues. Making a servile 'just another char' is good only for munckin games (diablo, mw), but not for plot-based Geneforge.
Posts: 10 | Registered: Thursday, August 26 2004 07:00
servile as main charactor? in Geneforge 2
Varg
Apprentice
Member # 4904
 written Saturday, November 20 2004 19:17 Profile #8
quote:
Originally written by saltydog:

for geneforge 3 0r 4 there should be an option to play an evolved servile that has learned shaper skills illeagaly and the shaper towns could hate you and the servile colonies would automaticly like you... you could fight to take down the shapers.. just a thought
The idea is interesting, but it can't be done well. Playing a servile would mean a completely different storyline and dialogues. Making a servile 'just another char' is good only for munckin games (diablo, mw), but not for plot-based Geneforge.
Posts: 10 | Registered: Thursday, August 26 2004 07:00
PC People in The Avernum Trilogy
Varg
Apprentice
Member # 4904
 written Sunday, August 29 2004 13:54 Profile #9
By the way, is it harder (and significally?) to play with incomplete party? What is the scheme for xp distribution?
Posts: 10 | Registered: Thursday, August 26 2004 07:00
Empire's communication orb [Scimitar 1st quest] - where? in The Avernum Trilogy
Varg
Apprentice
Member # 4904
 written Thursday, August 26 2004 19:21 Profile #2
Thanks, found it.

(BTW, I never expected there exists such ultra-detailed walkthrough as on silverchat)
Posts: 10 | Registered: Thursday, August 26 2004 07:00
Empire's communication orb [Scimitar 1st quest] - where? in The Avernum Trilogy
Varg
Apprentice
Member # 4904
 written Thursday, August 26 2004 17:52 Profile #0
I got the quest from Bargha to destroy the surfacers' communication orb. It tells that orb is somewhere "in southwest corner of Scree Pits, east of Fort Spire".
I've searched that place, but only found a Gremlin Cave in southern corner. Inside, there really are gremlins, but no soldiers or orbs. Could anyone tell me where should I seek it?
Posts: 10 | Registered: Thursday, August 26 2004 07:00