Profile for Delicious Vlish

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what is your group make up? in The Avernum Trilogy
His Mighty Tentacle
Member # 627
Profile #52
There are more of those kinds of bows. You can buy archery training and the Sharpshooter skill. This will give your casters a reasonable hit rate.

Some of those bows are so nasty in their effect that it's tempting to use them in favour of actual physical damage.

Jeff seriously gave power to the archers. There are bows in the game that are just plain SICK!

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If I could make just one wish, I would want a tasty vlish.

Geneforge IV. Still no tasty vlish.
Posts: 1104 | Registered: Tuesday, February 12 2002 08:00
what is your group make up? in The Avernum Trilogy
His Mighty Tentacle
Member # 627
Profile #49
A bow backed with a high level of the Sharpshooter skill is not poor secondary to melee. You must pump your missile skill, add to Sharpshooter whenever you get the chance, and pump dexterity a bit.

With very little effort, you too can start lobbing off 100+ damage arrows or 150+ thrown missiles.

In fact, I have found it was easier to scale up bow damage than it was melee damage. For melee, you must pump dex for to hit, strength for damage, your weapon skill, quick action, and your another weapon skill to unlock the Blademaster skill so you can pump that. And that, well, that is a lot of skill points for not much in return.

Meanwhile, a Mage or a Priest that buys two levels in bows and two levels in Sharpshooter from a trainer suddenly has a viable form of secondary damage. Especially if you get one of those bows not designed to do much in the way of physical damage, but other kinds of damage.

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If I could make just one wish, I would want a tasty vlish.

Geneforge IV. Still no tasty vlish.
Posts: 1104 | Registered: Tuesday, February 12 2002 08:00
what is your group make up? in The Avernum Trilogy
His Mighty Tentacle
Member # 627
Profile #40
I found that a couple of those No Touchie Touchie Enemies were highly magic resistant though. Even spells like Arcane Blow only did like 20 damage to them.

Missiles did the trick though. I am finding, when all else fails in AVIV, pumping something full of arrows usually takes care of it.

Of course, I learned this the hard way, with one of my first parties, when my fast on feet fighter with way to many action points with items and haste went and stabbed something that charmed him after he stabbed it. On the next round, he killed two party members outright, with one stab for each, and on the next turn, the last surviving member, a mage, found he could not outrun the fighter with the legs of a long distance sprinter.

Or course, a charmed archer is no better. You can't outrun those either.

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If I could make just one wish, I would want a tasty vlish.

Geneforge IV. Still no tasty vlish.
Posts: 1104 | Registered: Tuesday, February 12 2002 08:00
ohmigod, Ohmigod, OHMIGOD!!! in General
His Mighty Tentacle
Member # 627
Profile #37
We need to do an intervention and get that poor fellow in to rehab.

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If I could make just one wish, I would want a tasty vlish.

Geneforge IV. Still no tasty vlish.
Posts: 1104 | Registered: Tuesday, February 12 2002 08:00
what is your group make up? in The Avernum Trilogy
His Mighty Tentacle
Member # 627
Profile #37
Actually, the two archers and two mages is a winning combo.

Summons. You are going to need lots of summons.

With erm, certain enemies, yeah, that's it, you know, those enemies that have spines, gush acid, and scramble your brains if you touch them, missiles are quite effective.

Both missile launchers should be trained in bows with some training in thrown missiles. Because some thrown missiles are just that good. Having two Nephils in the party would be ideal actually because they get free skills.

With the party I first beat the game with, my front line fighter became an archer out of sheer need because I didn't know what I was doing and the final enemy has all those, well, er, if you play the game you know that you shouldn't just go up and whack those things with a sword because you will die.

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If I could make just one wish, I would want a tasty vlish.

Geneforge IV. Still no tasty vlish.
Posts: 1104 | Registered: Tuesday, February 12 2002 08:00
what is your group make up? in The Avernum Trilogy
His Mighty Tentacle
Member # 627
Profile #33
Glass cannons, paper tigers, whatever you wish to call them, as much as it was true for the Agent in Geneforge, it is also true for the spellcasters in AVIV. Do not waste a point. Those five points you spent raising endurance could cost you big time later, when you could have raised Spellcraft or Magery. And didn't because you spent those points on Endurance.

And yes, it's a big deal.

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If I could make just one wish, I would want a tasty vlish.

Geneforge IV. Still no tasty vlish.
Posts: 1104 | Registered: Tuesday, February 12 2002 08:00
what is your group make up? in The Avernum Trilogy
His Mighty Tentacle
Member # 627
Profile #29
My latest party design is different.

Up front, human female. Priestess. With Natural Warrior trait. There is one spell... One spell that you want to cast when you are surrounded by enemies. I can't say what it is, but needless to say, this spell is best cast from the center of a mob. So I created a character designed to be a monster chew toy. Lots of defense, priest skills, defensive skills, and the bonuses from the warrior trait. She can really take a beating. Monsters really do not like her. (Monsters tend to beeline for spellcasters now) One day, she will be my religious suicide bomber. Run in to a mob and cast that spell. And then every monster on screen that manages to survive will be drawn to her like flies to honey. The survivors are going to be super pissed. I am going to give her just enough melee skill and dexterity to get Quick Strike. I'll buy a couple of levels of this to make sure that she always goes first. I want monsters focused on her.

Up second, a Nephil. Archer and thief. Bow user. Sniper. Pretty straight forward here. His job will be to make the monsters gathered around the priestess look like pincushions and to open stuff.

A Slith. Lancer. Exclusive use of spears of both types. For up close pigsticking and long distance puncturing with javelins. He will have enough strength to carry his missiles, will be lightly armored to allow for more missile payload, and a vast majority of his skill points will wind up in the Sharpshooter skill and dexterity. His specialty will be death. Plain and simple. Long distance damage. Mage slayer. His sole purpose will be to achieve the highest damage possible with thrown weapons.

And in the last slot, a mage priest. Glass cannon. All offensive geared. Nothing but spell energy and skills. Walking death. Portable nuclear device. The Vapouriser. No strength, no dex, no endurance, nothing but skills that contribute to damage, and lots of it. After the first character runs in to battle and casts that spell, and the missile launchers do their work, this person is clean up. POOF. Enemies all go bye bye.

At least, that is how it should work. I hope.

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If I could make just one wish, I would want a tasty vlish.

Geneforge IV. Still no tasty vlish.
Posts: 1104 | Registered: Tuesday, February 12 2002 08:00
what is your group make up? in The Avernum Trilogy
His Mighty Tentacle
Member # 627
Profile #27
I can think of at least one fight that you must run from in order to complete a quest.

I have beat the game twice so far. There are optional fights involving artifacts... And one of these fights involves a whole lot of HARD hitting enemies.

Nuts, I really want to discuss strategy. And I don't think I can with out violating the NDA.

Oh I hate this.

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If I could make just one wish, I would want a tasty vlish.

Geneforge IV. Still no tasty vlish.
Posts: 1104 | Registered: Tuesday, February 12 2002 08:00
what is your group make up? in The Avernum Trilogy
His Mighty Tentacle
Member # 627
Profile #25
Yeah, that is a good piece of advice.

RUN LIGHT. Being encumbered is positively lethal. There are some fights that you simply must run from. Fast on Feet is good to have, because you don't need to outrun the monsters, just your fellow party members. Always, always make sure that your priest can run the fastest is the most sound piece of advice that I can offer. Death can be quite sudden and swift. There are, well, with out giving away what, things that will chew you up and spit you out. There are enemies that will lay the smack down on you. And when your front line goes, if your mages and such are encumbered with wands and reagents and such, they WILL die.

Jeff really did a good job at making tactics important. Some times, it's better to send one character forward to wake up a foe or two and lead them back to a waiting ambush. The alternative is stumbling in to a massive battle you are not prepared for and say, walking in to a mob of 20 or 30 giants all of whom are bored and looking for somebody to crush with rocks.

Not only is AVIV epic in size and scope, but some of the battles in game are absolutely astounding in scale.

Running shoes are required.

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If I could make just one wish, I would want a tasty vlish.

Geneforge IV. Still no tasty vlish.
Posts: 1104 | Registered: Tuesday, February 12 2002 08:00
ohmigod, Ohmigod, OHMIGOD!!! in General
His Mighty Tentacle
Member # 627
Profile #21
I like the logo. In game, it looks quite nice.

It's simple, straight forward, and to the point.

I can't stand games where my computer has to load some movie file or some huge animated image rendered in full 3D, spinning, wreathed in flames, with all manner of useless special effects and CRAP. Yeah. That's right. CRAP. To much frigging time making some eye catching logo. And not enough time making a good game and getting the bugs out. And shipping a product that's only half baked. Bother.

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If I could make just one wish, I would want a tasty vlish.

Geneforge IV. Still no tasty vlish.
Posts: 1104 | Registered: Tuesday, February 12 2002 08:00
what is your group make up? in The Avernum Trilogy
His Mighty Tentacle
Member # 627
Profile #19
I like blowing stuff up. I chug through potions like there is no tomorrow, and let loose with all the really fun fireworks. I can incinerate a huge mob in a single round usually.

I can make 400 energy disapear in no time at all and all I have to show for it are piles of charred remains and a few items here and there.

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If I could make just one wish, I would want a tasty vlish.

Geneforge IV. Still no tasty vlish.
Posts: 1104 | Registered: Tuesday, February 12 2002 08:00
what is your group make up? in The Avernum Trilogy
His Mighty Tentacle
Member # 627
Profile #14
You know, that is a really good point about spell casters running out of energy and fighters being able to continue to hack it out.

It really caused me to sit down and rethink some of my approach.

That is exactly my problem. Spell cost is staggering, and I have never burned through energy potions like I do now.

Making 4 spellcasters isn't the right solution either as I have discovered, because after one very very long and particularly grueling dungeon crawl, and I went in there with at least 50 energy potions, I found my self out of energy and up chocolate creek with out a popcicle stick.

Not a fun place to be. Four dedicated casters that could not conjure up some summons or blow the enemy to smithereens didn't last long.

I don't recall this ever happening to any of my Agents.

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If I could make just one wish, I would want a tasty vlish.

Geneforge IV. Still no tasty vlish.
Posts: 1104 | Registered: Tuesday, February 12 2002 08:00
what is your group make up? in The Avernum Trilogy
His Mighty Tentacle
Member # 627
Profile #11
I wont say which enemies, but there are some enemies that connected regularly with my tank. 181% armor score, probably at least 80% hostile effect resistance, and gymnastics. And he got chewed up and spit out.

All I could say was, "OUCH!"

There are a few things that hit really hard. And magic doesn't do much to them either. It becomes a grueling slugfest.

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If I could make just one wish, I would want a tasty vlish.

Geneforge IV. Still no tasty vlish.
Posts: 1104 | Registered: Tuesday, February 12 2002 08:00
what is your group make up? in The Avernum Trilogy
His Mighty Tentacle
Member # 627
Profile #10
All you people that skimp out on tool use are in for a rude awakening very very soon.

I can not say more, but Jeff doesn't like you folks and wants to hurt you. He told me so in an email.

Your days are numbered.

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If I could make just one wish, I would want a tasty vlish.

Geneforge IV. Still no tasty vlish.
Posts: 1104 | Registered: Tuesday, February 12 2002 08:00
A4 - The New Geneforge? in Avernum 4
His Mighty Tentacle
Member # 627
Profile #22
My issue with melee, and this is true in many games, and not specific to AIV...

In melee you kill one critter at a time. And this is fine and good if there is only one critter.

This is simply not the case most of the time.

Which is why magic appeals so much to me in these games. It's why I fell in love with the Agent in Geneforge.

When Geneforge first came out, people said the Agent was the weakest class. The Shaper and the Guardian were the top dogs.

My first Agent was a failure. So was my second and my third.

I built several prototypes, all of them failures because they either focused on melee or shaping to get through the rough spots at the beginning of the game where everybody said the Agent sucked.

So I played the Agent like an Agent and I just toughed out the first few levels. And things got better. And then I discovered that the Agent could fire off Searing Orbs that would do well over 200 damage... But only if you built them right.

And the glass cannon Agent was born. Perfected in G2.

And that is my problem with melee in general now. It's tedious having to kill everything just one or two at a time when I know that if I wanted to, I could obliterate everything and leave a little smoking pile of ashes. Once you do this, you can't undo it. The cat is out of the bag and you can't go back to slugging out big fights one at a time.

AIV rocks. I can't wait till I can actually talk about the game in detail.

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If I could make just one wish, I would want a tasty vlish.

Geneforge IV. Still no tasty vlish.
Posts: 1104 | Registered: Tuesday, February 12 2002 08:00
IMG Previews A4. in General
His Mighty Tentacle
Member # 627
Profile #43
It's not the story, it's how you tell it.

It must be working. He has fans for a reason.

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If I could make just one wish, I would want a tasty vlish.

Geneforge IV. Still no tasty vlish.
Posts: 1104 | Registered: Tuesday, February 12 2002 08:00
IMG Previews A4. in General
His Mighty Tentacle
Member # 627
Profile #38
quote:
Originally written by Ash Lael:

Not worth it.

Basically, I don't like it. The story on both sides is mostly just a set of contrived occurances designed to lengthen the game.

"Oh crap, the contract just got stolen... go fight through this handy dungeon to get it back. No, I won't help you and I won't write out another one."

There's about as much actual story in Nethergate as in pretty much any Spidweb game - next to none. And the gameplay sucks.

And yet, here you are, after playing through said games, hanging out in these forums. How many of the games have you played? More than one? If the first wasn't up to your standards, why did you keep playing other games? Why are you here? Something must appeal to you for you to stay.

And I respectfully disagree. The original Exile Trilogy were the bomb, in both gameplay and story. Compared to other games at the time, like Curse of the Azure Bonds and the endless parade of BAD CRPGs, the Exile games were a breath of fresh air. Story. Game play. EASY TO USE INTERFACE! Simplicity and stripped down approach to gaming. Simple and straight forward character creation. And by goodness, there was an actual game there! You could spend weeks, months even, exploring every nook and cranny, trying out new parties, new themes, and have all kinds of fun. I can remember at that time going to places like Comp USA, buying a game that I had hoped would be at least half way decent, dropping 60 to 80 dollars on it, and then getting it home and facing the end boss a half hour later and uttering a string of profanities so foul and vile that I dare not mention them here. Oh sure, the game looked cool on the box, and had some nifty graphics, but the story, there was no story, and it certainly was not hours of fun as promised.

I don't know how old you are or if you remember the long parade of turds being put out at that time, but Jeff did something that very few people at that time could do. Make a game worth playing. Which is why he has so many hardcore dedicated fans now. And he is still doing it.

Avernum 4 is a brilliant piece of work. It brings back exploration and story in a big way. You can play for hours, and hours, and hours, and still have a lot to do. Those horrible nights of being awake at 3AM at the computer trying to figure out what to do are back, and in a big way.

It's killing me not being able to talk about it.

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If I could make just one wish, I would want a tasty vlish.

Geneforge IV. Still no tasty vlish.
Posts: 1104 | Registered: Tuesday, February 12 2002 08:00
IMG Previews A4. in General
His Mighty Tentacle
Member # 627
Profile #34
I have not.

Make a new thread and share them? :eek:

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If I could make just one wish, I would want a tasty vlish.

Geneforge IV. Still no tasty vlish.
Posts: 1104 | Registered: Tuesday, February 12 2002 08:00
IMG Previews A4. in General
His Mighty Tentacle
Member # 627
Profile #32
quote:
Originally written by Ash Lael:

quote:
Originally written by VCH:

I'm sure the plot is strong too.
Out of curiosity, what other Spidweb games would you describe as having a strong plot?

Well, I'll take a shot at this one.

Nethergate.

A very deep, very involved plot, done in such a way as to reveal both sides of the issue.

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If I could make just one wish, I would want a tasty vlish.

Geneforge IV. Still no tasty vlish.
Posts: 1104 | Registered: Tuesday, February 12 2002 08:00
IMG Previews A4. in General
His Mighty Tentacle
Member # 627
Profile #21
You will be a believer when you see the Eight Legged Fiesty Slap of Pain from the Spider Monks.

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If I could make just one wish, I would want a tasty vlish.

Geneforge IV. Still no tasty vlish.
Posts: 1104 | Registered: Tuesday, February 12 2002 08:00
IMG Previews A4. in General
His Mighty Tentacle
Member # 627
Profile #13
I am going to get in big trouble for blabbing this, but people are bound to find out sooner or later seeing as the game is almost out and I really want to be the first to say this...

But the enemy behind the happenings in Avernum 4 is not who anybody here thinks it is.

IT IS THE GIANT FRIENDLY SPIDERS!

No really, it is. No, I am not joking. I am probably going to lose my status as a beta tester for blabbing, but it's worth it.

All of their bugs got killed off in all of the previous adventures, and they want revenge for losing all their tasty yummy treats. People are no longer cute, and they no longer say "HI!" in a cute chirpy voice.

Beware of the Giant Silvarian Face Leaping Spiders... I don't know what Jeff was thinking, but he gave them quick action, the blademaster ability, and they get eight attacks each round. I guess his reasoning was one attack for each leg.

Or the Ass Biting Almarian Arachnid. Those are pretty bad too. All of the beta testers will agree on that if you can get them to talk.

You will look upon the Spider Queen and know dispair.

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If I could make just one wish, I would want a tasty vlish.

Geneforge IV. Still no tasty vlish.
Posts: 1104 | Registered: Tuesday, February 12 2002 08:00
Beta Testing Testing One Two Three Four in Avernum 4
His Mighty Tentacle
Member # 627
Profile #38
I'll tell you what got me... The Exploding Townspeople of Silvar.

"Oh, hi!"

**SPLORCH!**

"Oh dear. Hot entrails everywhere."

Those folk did a heck of a lot more than just act funny like the AVIV intro claimed.

"My tummy hurts."

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If I could make just one wish, I would want a tasty vlish.

Geneforge IV. Still no tasty vlish.
Posts: 1104 | Registered: Tuesday, February 12 2002 08:00
Beta Testing Testing One Two Three Four in Avernum 4
His Mighty Tentacle
Member # 627
Profile #35
Hey Alorael, what did you think of the heat seeking explosive razordisks? Jeff really outdid himself didn't he... Talk about over powered.

However, getting the tarrasque placentas so that you can buy those razordisks from the vendor was awfully hard.

[ Friday, November 18, 2005 12:19: Message edited by: Delicious Vlish ]

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If I could make just one wish, I would want a tasty vlish.

Geneforge IV. Still no tasty vlish.
Posts: 1104 | Registered: Tuesday, February 12 2002 08:00
Memories of Things Long Past at Spiderweb in General
His Mighty Tentacle
Member # 627
Profile #32
I have been around for a good long time. I just don't post much unless I have something to say.

That, and all the talk of cheating and such usually drives me away from the game boards. There is a brief golden moment though when a game is just released for the Mac when there are some really good game players... People who actually play and love the challenge, and there is some great chit chat on how do to this or that. People talk about how to beat the game with strategy. Skill. You know, things that matter. And then in no time at all it disolves in to talk about trainers and how to edit scripts and cheat.

Oh, and I think I have one of those coveted original 1000 thousand. I will look after this is posted.

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If I could make just one wish, I would want a tasty vlish.

Geneforge IV. Still no tasty vlish.
Posts: 1104 | Registered: Tuesday, February 12 2002 08:00
Beta Testing Testing One Two Three Four in Avernum 4
His Mighty Tentacle
Member # 627
Profile #32
I am not sure what we can and can not talk about here, but I am glad to see that I am not the only one that feels that melee is **cough** USELESS.

As soon as possible the man that engineered the glass cannon agent will inform you how to properly blow stuff up in A4.

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If I could make just one wish, I would want a tasty vlish.

Geneforge IV. Still no tasty vlish.
Posts: 1104 | Registered: Tuesday, February 12 2002 08:00

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