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Avernum 5, April Update in Avernum 4
Ladonna
Apprentice
Member # 8530
 written Sunday, April 29 2007 05:56 Profile #26
quote:
ii. There is now a system of battle disciplines. People with high combat skills will be able to use special abilities. Some of them are cool enough that some mages will be tempted to train in pole weapons.
Indeed....very nice. I certainly don't advocate making the whole game a hack and slash fest, but more combat options will be a big plus. Any little hints about what these might be? Polearms are mentioned, perhaps some form of trip attack? or first strike ability?
Posts: 20 | Registered: Wednesday, April 18 2007 07:00
Spiderweb, the business in General
Ladonna
Apprentice
Member # 8530
 written Saturday, April 28 2007 08:48 Profile #27
Have you tried Exiling them? Or Geneforging them? For some strange reason some prefer the graphics of these two series to those of Avernum (Except A4).
Posts: 20 | Registered: Wednesday, April 18 2007 07:00
Spiderweb, the business in General
Ladonna
Apprentice
Member # 8530
 written Friday, April 27 2007 07:53 Profile #21
The UI in Avernum 4 is definately a plus, It would be nice if it allowed for Keyboard shortcuts as well, but it is very easy to learn.

If Jeff can bring in more gameplay options, combat options, etc and also work on different ways to complete goals and roleplay, that will really make my day.

GC?
Posts: 20 | Registered: Wednesday, April 18 2007 07:00
Blades of Exile Source Code in Blades of Exile
Ladonna
Apprentice
Member # 8530
 written Friday, April 27 2007 04:45 Profile #19
What language is it written in?
Posts: 20 | Registered: Wednesday, April 18 2007 07:00
Spiderweb, the business in General
Ladonna
Apprentice
Member # 8530
 written Friday, April 27 2007 00:25 Profile #17
quote:
I think the biggest surprise for me was the relatively poor performance of Geneforge 3
Doesn't surprise me after reading all the negativity about it. I haven't played it yet, so cannot speak for it, but word of mouth has played a big part in some of these games sales. GF3 seems to cop a lot of stick in this department.

BoA is usually touted as 'Too difficult' to make scenarios for in comparison to BoE and other game toolsets on the market.
Posts: 20 | Registered: Wednesday, April 18 2007 07:00
Avernum 5, April Update in Avernum 4
Ladonna
Apprentice
Member # 8530
 written Friday, April 27 2007 00:06 Profile #19
What are some of the new mechanics you are introducing into this one Jeff? Anything that you think will stand head and shoulder above previous Exiles/Avernums?
Posts: 20 | Registered: Wednesday, April 18 2007 07:00
If Jeff went for a new RPG world.... in General
Ladonna
Apprentice
Member # 8530
 written Thursday, April 26 2007 10:08 Profile #0
What would you like to see?

Lets say he had enough of doing Exile/Avernum and Geneforge games, what kind of world would you really like to see done in a new trilogy (+1)?

Post Apoc?

Sci Fi?

A new Fantasy world?

etc?
Posts: 20 | Registered: Wednesday, April 18 2007 07:00
Jeff Vogel's RPG hating rant in General
Ladonna
Apprentice
Member # 8530
 written Thursday, April 26 2007 10:03 Profile #29
That just blew the definition right out the window ;)
Posts: 20 | Registered: Wednesday, April 18 2007 07:00
Spiderweb, the business in General
Ladonna
Apprentice
Member # 8530
 written Thursday, April 26 2007 10:01 Profile #6
Exile 3 is how I found out about Vogel's games in the first place. It was also my first buy. Came at just the right time (When all the oldschool RPG's had gone to hell).

After that I got 1 and 2. Didn't bother with the Avernums because they were the Exiles rehashed. Didn't bother with Nethergate (Probably a bad idea, since I love Teudogar and the Alliance with Rome). I bought Avernum 4, and now that I have squeezed the problems out of Geneforge demo, I have ordered the trilogy. GF4 if the trilogy whets my appetite enough.

Will probably get Nethergate 1.5 when it is ready too. As long as the demo is good.

What is the biggest seller so far?
Posts: 20 | Registered: Wednesday, April 18 2007 07:00
Jeff Vogel's RPG hating rant in General
Ladonna
Apprentice
Member # 8530
 written Tuesday, April 24 2007 05:05 Profile #18
quote:
It is used when quoting from a text which uses an alternative spelling or has a misspelling
Misspelling. Not RPG's. Wrong word. Sarcasm.I can tell you are a literal thinker, not a lateral thinker. ;)

But your post count is +1....

quote:
But by that line of logic, Terror's Martyr (number 4) would be even more closely related to Jeff. And that is a scary thought.
Do tell. What is the story with Terror's Martyr?

And who is 2 and 3?
Posts: 20 | Registered: Wednesday, April 18 2007 07:00
Jeff Vogel's RPG hating rant in General
Ladonna
Apprentice
Member # 8530
 written Tuesday, April 24 2007 00:02 Profile #14
quote:
I'm looking for a date. Interested Ladonna?
Daddy always said not to talk to Mysterious men :P

Number 5 eh? You must be Jeff's Brother or something.

quote:
Alorael, who doesn't understand the [sic] there. Jeff spelled RPGs without the apostrophe. That's now an acceptable pluralization of acronyms, but even if it weren't you can't put [sic] by your own writing. That's bizarre.
Alorael, who doesn't understand sarcasm ;) . To me, the two RPG's that Jeff wrote about are absolute craphouse RPG's, hence the 'sic'.

Anyway, I feel that Jeff stacked the deck by discussing the ****e of the RPG world. If he had brought in other, good games into the discussion, his hate would be effectively neutralised. I would have agreed with him if he said that the current crop of RPG's totally suck, but that isn't what he said. Its just that most companies have stopped making good RPG's.

I personally think Jeff has contracted an online RPG disease. Lots of rest, chicken soup, programming his next game and some time playing a decent RPG will have him cured in no time. ;)

Edit:
quote:
On a follow-up note, one of Jeff's biggest influences is Fallout. I think anyone who has played Fallout and the Geneforge series can see the influence.
I haven't actually played the Geneforge games yet. The slowdown prob I am currently having with number 1 doesn't bode well, but I am attempting to find a solution. The Exile games and Avernum4 certainly don't point towards Fallout though, more like the earlier 80's RPG's. I don't mind that kind of game, especially considering the lack of competition anywhere else.

[ Tuesday, April 24, 2007 00:07: Message edited by: Ladonna ]
Posts: 20 | Registered: Wednesday, April 18 2007 07:00
Jeff Vogel's RPG hating rant in General
Ladonna
Apprentice
Member # 8530
 written Monday, April 23 2007 06:35 Profile #0
http://rpgvault.ign.com/articles/782/782155p1.html

After reading this I could only think 'wow'....

However, its quite easy to see where Jeff has gone wrong. WoW and Final Fantasy? lol

Jeff, if you don't like level grinding, why on earth do you pick RPG's that make this very mechanic you hate so much the biggest parts of their games?

Have you played Teudogar and the Alliance with Rome by Wolf Mittag? Have you played Fallout? Arcanum? Yes, you didn't mention those, so I take it that you haven't....

Please do so, and stay clear of level grinding garbage like the RPG's (sic) that you mentioned. And please steal some ideas from the above games I mentioned, there are many more excellent RPG's out there that you could also flog ideas from, and they are evidently not the ones you are playing (Or have sworn off playing).

Instead of fighting the 500 wolves, perhaps you could introduce many new types of low level monsters, with interesting quests to make this a better system? Perhaps bring in an ability to talk your way through the Goblin caves (With a superior charisma based skill) or find a secret tunnel, and get through some nasty traps, sneaking past sentries (A stealth, lock picking, thief based way).

There are plenty of ways to get experience in a good RPG. And there should always be more than one way to proceed through a quest. Your the maker so I will leave that part to you, just wanted to stimulate your jaded senses and make you realise that for all the bad games you have been playing, there are plenty of good ones just waiting to soak up your time.

Looking forward to Nethergate V1.5 ;)
Posts: 20 | Registered: Wednesday, April 18 2007 07:00
Avernum joinable NPC's in The Avernum Trilogy
Ladonna
Apprentice
Member # 8530
 written Monday, April 23 2007 05:04 Profile #0
Played around with the Avernum 1 demo today, and noted a guy called Jay who offered to join up (No room for him though).

How many Joinable NPC's are there in the Avernums? Is it easy enough to make a decent party of them if you only create one character? It surprised me when I found this guy, so thought I would ask here and see what others knew and thought.
Posts: 20 | Registered: Wednesday, April 18 2007 07:00
Having a good time, but one annoyance. in Avernum 4
Ladonna
Apprentice
Member # 8530
 written Saturday, April 21 2007 22:44 Profile #15
I don't mind optional permadeath for those that like it, but I wouldn't buy a game that only had this feature.

Not enough time on my hands for gaming as it is, without playing through the same parts of a game again.

Roguelikes tend to help by being random each time, but I leave those to roguelikes.
Posts: 20 | Registered: Wednesday, April 18 2007 07:00
Having a good time, but one annoyance. in Avernum 4
Ladonna
Apprentice
Member # 8530
 written Saturday, April 21 2007 04:57 Profile #8
quote:
At least with "unconcious" you don't have to pick up all the character's equipment and loot to haul back separately. The down side is that you can't access that one item that only he or she was carrying.
I agree with both your points, but I cannot remember my characters dropping everything when they died in Exile. I might be wrong, it was MANY years ago :D

quote:
I feel there has to be some sort of death penalty. Otherwise, there is no risk. Having to return dead people to the city gates is, I admit, an annoyance, but I can't think of a better solution at this point. And it is far better than the previous system where dead characters were a serious pain in the butt.
It seems to be a dilemma for many devs this issue. I would say that you are on the right track, though have gone half way. Unconcious, imho, should be one 'state' that can lapse into further states until finally death awaits, unless the appropriate healing skill is used to stabalise a character. If you have played Wasteland before, you will get what I am saying. Its also an elegant way of increasing the importance and scope of a healing skill.

Death should be hard to rectify. And extremely costly too if using the above method. But its just a suggestion.

quote:
One of my current rules, btw, is that I do not let players summon anything that summons.
This would have helped me greatly during Exile Crystal souls ;) . Agreed.
Posts: 20 | Registered: Wednesday, April 18 2007 07:00
Slowdown problem with Geneforge 1 in Tech Support
Ladonna
Apprentice
Member # 8530
 written Saturday, April 21 2007 04:48 Profile #6
Why not make a database of the systems used by people when they have this problem? Perhaps a correlation can be seen that will help point out what the cause is, or at least narrow down the options.

Even a collected list in a thread stickied at the top of this forum might nail something down if everyone with the problem posts in it.

Not home yet. Will try out GF2 and 3 then and report back, I am determined to try getting GF1 to work as the few moments I spent with it intrigued me.

And yes, A4 has been a blast so far thanks Jeff. You earned your gold on that one.

[ Saturday, April 21, 2007 04:49: Message edited by: Ladonna ]
Posts: 20 | Registered: Wednesday, April 18 2007 07:00
Having a good time, but one annoyance. in Avernum 4
Ladonna
Apprentice
Member # 8530
 written Friday, April 20 2007 07:32 Profile #3
quote:
But you can also bring your entire party back to life with the Raise Dead priest spell.
Yes, thats correct, but its a reward for working hard on your priest spells, and certainly didn't pop up for a long time. Before that, losing a character was a major issue.

quote:
There is a (late game) spell that can revive them in the field.
Thats a relief ;) This will make my journey much easier on the mind. Thank you.

quote:
I don't think Jeff is seriously impressed by some mad parental group wanting to remove death from the game. Otherwise demon summoning and necromancy would have to go too. Not even mentioning the deaths of your enemies, and the concept of taking items that are clearly marked "not yours."
No, no, this was meant as a joke on my part :D Or perhaps a sly little ribbing about the 'new' RPG audience of today's 'RPG' mainstream games and their 'never die' mechanics. Knights of the old republic, NWN2, etc. Just me being an idiot, nevermind.
Posts: 20 | Registered: Wednesday, April 18 2007 07:00
Having a good time, but one annoyance. in Avernum 4
Ladonna
Apprentice
Member # 8530
 written Friday, April 20 2007 06:44 Profile #0
Hi,

Been playing this game for a while now, and ended up buying it. I played the Exiles many years ago and thoroughly enjoyed them, thus never bought the Avernum games.

I wanted to see where the story went though, so I tried this game, and have been having a blast...its certainly different to the Exiles, better in some ways, and worse in others, but there is one thing that has been annoying me constantly: When one of my characters goes 'unconscious' (They cannot die? :D Is this for younger players? anyway) they then need to be carted back to a town gate to be revived.

Why? It is the only thing that has so far dampened my gaming experience. Having to slog all the way back to town is rather silly for an unconscious character don't you think? Why can't I just take a rest and heal them back up again? If they died I could understand having to travel somewhere to attempt a revival...but unconscious?

Anyway, the rest of the game is shaping up nicely. Though it would have been much better without this slightly annoying mechanic. Keep up the (mostly) good work. ;)
Posts: 20 | Registered: Wednesday, April 18 2007 07:00
Slowdown problem with Geneforge 1 in Tech Support
Ladonna
Apprentice
Member # 8530
 written Friday, April 20 2007 06:19 Profile #4
Hi guys :)

On my gaming PC, which is offline, I don't actually use an Antivirus program. No need. I have no idea why this happens. I have tried redownloading on two different PC's and then playing them on mine. I have tried restarting PC. I have tried updating and going back in drivers...

Honestly, I have tried a lot of things. My next attempt will be downloading the demo from Manifesto games and seeing if this works....

Also, as I have said, A4 does work fine. GF1 doesn't. Consequently I bought A4 and am having a ball....

Anyway, I am going to download GF2 and 3 and test them as well.

Please help me with this problem. I don't know why this is happening, but it is, and I don't have this with any other game (As yet, let me check the other GF games).

Edit: There is one other post in here where a guy seems to be having the same prob with GF1. In it Jeff says he will look into but then the thread was never posted in again. http://www.ironycentral.com/cgi-bin/ubb/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=2;t=000782

There you go.

When I get back home, I will replay the area in which the slowdowns happen and explain fully EXACTLY where on the map they happen. Hopefully this will give you guys something to really look at.

[ Friday, April 20, 2007 06:34: Message edited by: Ladonna ]
Posts: 20 | Registered: Wednesday, April 18 2007 07:00
Slowdown problem with Geneforge 1 in Geneforge Series
Ladonna
Apprentice
Member # 8530
 written Wednesday, April 18 2007 08:01 Profile #0
Hello,

I downloaded Geneforge 1, and not long into the game, in certain sections of the first areas, the game is suffering large slowdowns as to make the game unplayable.

My PC:
AMD64 3400+
2.5 GB ram
Geforce 7600GT 256mb
Soundblaster live.
XP home SP2.

I have tried all the tips on getting the game to work posted at this website (Redownloading, drivers, etc) and to no avail. All of my other games work fine (Avernum 4 works fine, and my demo's of the other Avernums also work perfectly). I have read other posts in here with similar problems, but no solutions. I am wondering if any solutions have been found?
Posts: 20 | Registered: Wednesday, April 18 2007 07:00
Slowdown problem with Geneforge 1 in Tech Support
Ladonna
Apprentice
Member # 8530
 written Wednesday, April 18 2007 08:01 Profile #0
Hello,

I downloaded Geneforge 1, and not long into the game, in certain sections of the first areas, the game is suffering large slowdowns as to make the game unplayable.

My PC:
AMD64 3400+
2.5 GB ram
Geforce 7600GT 256mb
Soundblaster live.
XP home SP2.

I have tried all the tips on getting the game to work posted at this website (Redownloading, drivers, etc) and to no avail. All of my other games work fine (Avernum 4 works fine, and my demo's of the other Avernums also work perfectly). I have read other posts in here with similar problems, but no solutions. I am wondering if any solutions have been found?
Posts: 20 | Registered: Wednesday, April 18 2007 07:00