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Revised political-geneforge sympathies poll in Geneforge 4: Rebellion
Cronocke
Apprentice
Member # 7228
 written Wednesday, December 12 2007 03:17 Profile #166
quote:
Originally written by Retlaw May:

It was a joke and reference to another game, if you couldn't tell by the last line...
And the comparison sort of fits. Both the Chaos and Rebel factions claim to want freedom from the oppressive rule of their opponents, but on the other hand, the unrestrained freedom they propose can only end in at least as much suffering, and they're not scrupulous about using very dark methods and/or people/creatures to get their ways.

Likewise, both Law and Shaper factions want to suppress their adversaries, and restore stability to the world, but they care very little for everyone who doesn't fit into their very heavily structured and segmented worldview, even going so far as to enslave or eliminate them.

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We all have our crushes. We all have our unrequited loves. They don't make you special. They only make you more ordinary.
Posts: 11 | Registered: Friday, June 16 2006 07:00
Revised political-geneforge sympathies poll in Geneforge 4: Rebellion
Cronocke
Apprentice
Member # 7228
 written Monday, December 10 2007 19:39 Profile #163
Personally, I prefer the Neutral path, where I get to kill both the Shaper and Rebel heroes, and their leaders, Michael and Asura, pave the way for the reincarnation of the goddess, and still get the girl.

edit: wait what do you mean this isn't shin megami tensei

[ Monday, December 10, 2007 19:39: Message edited by: Cronocke ]

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We all have our crushes. We all have our unrequited loves. They don't make you special. They only make you more ordinary.
Posts: 11 | Registered: Friday, June 16 2006 07:00
Avernum V ideas in Avernum 4
Cronocke
Apprentice
Member # 7228
 written Thursday, June 22 2006 10:43 Profile #80
Now some of you are going to want to lynch me for this, but... what about music? It'd have to be optional, and he'd have to get it from some kind artist, or a company that sells collections of music, but it'd give something to help add to the mood instead of ambient noise. (Which works fine, by the way. This is just something that came to mind.)

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We all have our crushes. We all have our unrequited loves. They don't make you special. They only make you more ordinary.
Posts: 11 | Registered: Friday, June 16 2006 07:00
New melee/archer options for A5 in Avernum 4
Cronocke
Apprentice
Member # 7228
 written Monday, June 19 2006 00:12 Profile #22
quote:
Originally written by Anarhiztok:

Well, you know what; although I didn't think so before, I got convinced it'd be kinda cool to have fighters need intelligence - after all, if a character wants to improvise a lot in combat, he/she'd have to be a little smart, don't ya think so?!
Well, they shouldn't need so much mana, coz they don't need to be as "smart" as the spellcasters, so their abilities shouldn't cost as much as spells, but still something - I think it'd be more realistic and'd add a little more life into the character.
Granted, having higher intelligence might factor into the moves in a small way, but it shouldn't cost mana just to, for example, put all your might into an attack instead of swinging normally.

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We all have our crushes. We all have our unrequited loves. They don't make you special. They only make you more ordinary.
Posts: 11 | Registered: Friday, June 16 2006 07:00
fan made graphics? in Avernum 4
Cronocke
Apprentice
Member # 7228
 written Monday, June 19 2006 00:07 Profile #22
quote:
Originally written by Alorael, through yet another alt:

... It's hard to draw out one game when you have to put food on your family. ...
*snickers uncontrollably*

[ Monday, June 19, 2006 00:10: Message edited by: Cronocke ]

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We all have our crushes. We all have our unrequited loves. They don't make you special. They only make you more ordinary.
Posts: 11 | Registered: Friday, June 16 2006 07:00
New melee/archer options for A5 in Avernum 4
Cronocke
Apprentice
Member # 7228
 written Sunday, June 18 2006 17:14 Profile #20
I don't think mana-based melee abilities are really worth it. As has been said, fighters really don't need INT unless they're going to be mages as well, at which point they don't need the mana-based abilities. Stamina is a possibility - remember, this is the Geneforge engine, fully capable of having three different bars - but unless the skills are done JUST right, mages would be rendered useless when compared to a party of high-levelled fighters, or the skills wouldn't be used at all.

Like I said earlier, I really think it'd be best to have the abilities be chosen from a small set, about 4 per weapon, 7 at the absolute most. Characters would learn them from trainers just like mage and priest spells, only they'd use no mana and be variations on the standard attack. If you want to do less damage, but hit more times, that could be an ability. If you want a guaranteed stun of an enemy, or even to daze them, at the cost of much of the damage and/or hit chance, that could be an ability.

These abilities don't need to be heavily tweaked - since you can usually only attack one enemy per turn (unless hasted), they can be a little overpowered without losing much (if any) mage appeal. Plus, they lack the strangeness passive skills have in this game where your fighter just randomly pulls off two hits every few strikes, or randomly strikes back after parrying this time instead of on the Big Demon Lord you just ran away from...

Hot damn I type a lot.

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We all have our crushes. We all have our unrequited loves. They don't make you special. They only make you more ordinary.
Posts: 11 | Registered: Friday, June 16 2006 07:00
New melee/archer options for A5 in Avernum 4
Cronocke
Apprentice
Member # 7228
 written Friday, June 16 2006 17:01 Profile #14
quote:
Originally written by Zeviz:

Cronocke, the main point of my post was that Spiderweb games are programmed and designed by a single person, so the more time he spends tweaking the engine, the less time he has to make a good story, as we saw with A4. Jeff probably could implement these skills and balance them so that they are useful, but not overpowered. However, the time he spends doing that is the time he doesn't spend improving other aspects of the game, and I think combat system is fine already, unlike some other important aspects.
The combat system is fine, I do agree with you. However, there are aspects of earlier Avernum games that are missing from this one, and aspects of Geneforge that were cut to make room. For example, in Avernum 1-3 (and Nethergate) there were abilities you could use both in and out of battle, like calling a divine wraith to aid you, or going into a combat frenzy. In Geneforge 1-3, there are 2 extra classes of spells you can cast. All the hard work has been done transforming the Geneforge world into the Avernum world, now there's just some tweaking and editing to be done. So why not add fighter/archer-centric abilities to make up for the unique abilities that made some of the character traits so appealing?

Besides, the topic is ultimately about things you want to see in Avernum 5, not things you expect to see. I expect him to do more tweaking on the issues we all agree on. I want him to put in a little extra effort in special abilities and the like... but I don't expect that.

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We all have our crushes. We all have our unrequited loves. They don't make you special. They only make you more ordinary.
Posts: 11 | Registered: Friday, June 16 2006 07:00
New melee/archer options for A5 in Avernum 4
Cronocke
Apprentice
Member # 7228
 written Friday, June 16 2006 15:55 Profile #9
quote:
Originally written by Zeviz:

quote:
Originally written by Cronocke:


...
Or such. A small handful of abilities that aren't really any better than the standard attack, but would have their uses in specific situations.
This is exactly the problem: either these abilities would be so weak that they are a waste of time, or they'd be essential to winning, in which case fighters would just become mages with a different name.
How would they be a waste of time, or turn fighters into mages? Look at, for example, tabletop RPGs. In those, fighters have more options than just "Attack blindly." There are active abilities that cost nothing to use, but add bonuses and penalties. Not skills that are just passively working in the background, but things you choose to do. Not spells that cost mana, energy points, or per diem uses, just variations on the standard attack the characters can perform. They're not better than the standard attack - they do less damage, or are less likely to hit. At the same time, they're not worse - they hit more times, or give a small chance to knockout or paralyze an enemy. You could open up new strategies like this - a fighter who clocks enemies so the mage or archer can deal the real damage - while still leaving the standard fighters perfectly viable.

quote:
Originally written by Zeviz:

PS These ideas could work better in Geneforge, where the player controls a single character, rather than an entire party, so it's more important to have a good balance among the classes than to have a variety of roles within the party.
Why can't fighters have a few minor alternate forms of attack? It's not like I was suggesting spells or anything, I just gave some things that, really, are the sort of things melee and ranged fighters are usually expected to be able to perform in tabletop RPGs. Rather than just renamed mage spells, or abilities that are useless, you give the fighter a choice of a few very similar things to do to aid the party. Nothing game-breaking, and nothing pointless, I thought.

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We all have our crushes. We all have our unrequited loves. They don't make you special. They only make you more ordinary.
Posts: 11 | Registered: Friday, June 16 2006 07:00
New melee/archer options for A5 in Avernum 4
Cronocke
Apprentice
Member # 7228
 written Friday, June 16 2006 15:01 Profile #6
quote:
Originally written by A Matter of Historical Outsight:

Either combat tricks would be essentially meaningless or they would make all fighting just a matter of finding the right tricks to make the enemies trivial.
Not necessarily. You could have skills that serve as adjustments of the standard attack, or alternatives. Like...

Spear Spin: Skip action this turn, enemies have -30% penalties to accuracy and damage against the character this turn.

Pole Bash: Bonus 25% accuracy, 25% chance of stun, 50% damage.

Wild Swing: Bonus 20% damage, -25% accuracy, 5% chance of stun.

Blade Flurry: Attack twice, 50% damage per hit, increases to 4 hits if Quick Action activates.

Focused Shot: Double damage and 100% accuracy, but attack happens next turn.

Spread Shot: 10% chance of dealing 10% damage to enemies in a 3 space radius, 80% damage to target, -20% accuracy.

Or such. A small handful of abilities that aren't really any better than the standard attack, but would have their uses in specific situations.

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We all have our crushes. We all have our unrequited loves. They don't make you special. They only make you more ordinary.
Posts: 11 | Registered: Friday, June 16 2006 07:00
What's your favorite party? in Avernum 4
Cronocke
Apprentice
Member # 7228
 written Friday, June 16 2006 14:08 Profile #2
quote:
Originally written by Xenodave:

I am about half way through A4 for my first time with a pretty standard 4 character party (2 slith pollarm users, a human mage and a human priest, and my mage is also a (low skilled) archer and (high skilled) lockpicker, and am thinking of starting a second party. I am looking for advice from other A4 fans.

Any ideas for another party? I am looking for interesting combinations, especially with archers. Any recomendations? Note I am not planning on trying to solo this game; I save and restart enough as it is. :-)
Myself, I tend to use four custom characters.
A human sword fighter with Natural Mage and enough mage and priest skill to cast War Blessing and Haste is my primary tank.
A human priest with enough priest skill to cast Smite, enough mage skill to cast Slow, low skill with polearms, and Natural Mage to wear good armor is my main healer/secondary tank.
A human wizard with enough mage skill to cast Icy Rain and enough priest skill to cast Protection, along with Natural Mage again just for the bonuses is my main wizard/second healer.
I round this out with a nephil archer with high tool use, Sharpshooter, and Nimble Fingers to get past any traps or locks.

Then I just increase their stats based on what I use them for or find lacking. It's not The Best Party, but it suits me just fine, and I usually take 2 positive traits, so Slith characters tend to be cost-prohibitive to me.

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We all have our crushes. We all have our unrequited loves. They don't make you special. They only make you more ordinary.
Posts: 11 | Registered: Friday, June 16 2006 07:00