I'm not sure if anyone has noticed but...

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AuthorTopic: I'm not sure if anyone has noticed but...
Canned
Member # 8014
Profile #0
Avernum 5 Mac Beta Testing!!!
But windows users (like me) will have to wait :(

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Muffins n' Hell|Muffins n' Hell: The Muffins Are Back Again
I have an addiction to Spiderweb games.
I like this image
FYI, Iffy is short for Infernal Flamming Muffin.
Posts: 1799 | Registered: Sunday, February 4 2007 08:00
Shaper
Member # 6292
Profile #1
Are you sure this is new? Mac testing has been going on for three weeks. It's possible more testers are needed at this point.

-S-

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A4 ItemsA4 SingletonG4 ItemsG4 ForgingG4 Infiltrator NR Items The Lonely Celt
Posts: 2009 | Registered: Monday, September 12 2005 07:00
Off With Their Heads
Member # 4045
Profile Homepage #2
Well, I definitely filled out an application. I'd like to see what Jeff has done with this one. I like most of what I've heard about A5.

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Arancaytar: Every time you ask people to compare TM and Kel, you endanger the poor, fluffy kittens.
Smoo: Get ready to face the walls!
Ephesos: In conclusion, yarr.

Kelandon's Pink and Pretty Page!!: the authorized location for all things by me
The Archive of all released BoE scenarios ever
Posts: 7968 | Registered: Saturday, February 28 2004 08:00
Law Bringer
Member # 6785
Profile #3
It's fun, you get to make all these moral geneforgish decisions as the bodies pile up around you. Do you stay loyal to the Empire, help Avenites, or join the Darkside.
Posts: 4643 | Registered: Friday, February 10 2006 08:00
Law Bringer
Member # 4153
Profile Homepage #4
*sigh*... I wish I had the time to help out.

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TM: "I want BoA to grow. Evolve where the food ladder has rungs to be reached."

Gamble with Gaea, and she eats your dice.
Posts: 4130 | Registered: Friday, March 26 2004 08:00
Warrior
Member # 6714
Profile Homepage #5
quote:
Originally written by Randomizer:

It's fun, you get to make all these moral geneforgish decisions as the bodies pile up around you. Do you stay loyal to the Empire, help Avenites, or join the Darkside.
Does Jeff plan on disposing of most of the Geneforgish gameplay? I don't mean the moral decisions, but the aspects of Geneforge that were...well...very unappealing, such as the lack of an outer world map you travel upon, the AP restrictions, lack of free-roaming as much, and so on and so forth.

In other words, I'm wondering if Jeff will make the game play more or less identically to the Avernum trilogy while keeping the Geneforge style graphics. To be honest, I even want him to dispose of the Geneforge style graphics and return to the Avernum trilogy graphics, but that's probably asking for way too much.

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Well that signature was out of date, since I've not been here in forever.
Posts: 91 | Registered: Thursday, January 19 2006 08:00
Off With Their Heads
Member # 4045
Profile Homepage #6
quote:
Originally written by DanielJacksonMPC:

In other words, I'm wondering if Jeff will make the game play more or less identically to the Avernum trilogy while keeping the Geneforge style graphics.
I believe the answer is no. The Nethergate/Avernum engine is gone forever.

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Arancaytar: Every time you ask people to compare TM and Kel, you endanger the poor, fluffy kittens.
Smoo: Get ready to face the walls!
Ephesos: In conclusion, yarr.

Kelandon's Pink and Pretty Page!!: the authorized location for all things by me
The Archive of all released BoE scenarios ever
Posts: 7968 | Registered: Saturday, February 28 2004 08:00
Canned
Member # 8014
Profile #7
quote:
Are you sure this is new? Mac testing has been going on for three weeks. It's possible more testers are needed at this point.

-S-

Nope. I have checked the "New Stuff" every few days. The last time I checked I saw that there.

I think that it has just now gone public.

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Muffins n' Hell|Muffins n' Hell: The Muffins Are Back Again
I have an addiction to Spiderweb games.
I like this image
FYI, Iffy is short for Infernal Flamming Muffin.
Posts: 1799 | Registered: Sunday, February 4 2007 08:00
Triad Mage
Member # 7
Profile Homepage #8
quote:
Originally written by Synergy:

Are you sure this is new? Mac testing has been going on for three weeks. It's possible more testers are needed at this point.

-S-

Jeff always offers testing to people who have done it before and they get to test the most buggy beginning versions, before he makes a public call for more testers.

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"At times discretion should be thrown aside, and with the foolish we should play the fool." - Menander
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Drakefyre's Demesne - Happy Happy Joy Joy
Encyclopedia Ermariana - Trapped in the Closet
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You can take my Mac when you pry my cold, dead fingers off the mouse!
Posts: 9436 | Registered: Wednesday, September 19 2001 07:00
Law Bringer
Member # 6785
Profile #9
quote:
Originally written by DanielJacksonMPC:

In other words, I'm wondering if Jeff will make the game play more or less identically to the Avernum trilogy while keeping the Geneforge style graphics. To be honest, I even want him to dispose of the Geneforge style graphics and return to the Avernum trilogy graphics, but that's probably asking for way too much.
Most of the graphics and play style of A4 are still there. This is a new area so most of the scale complaints aren't really there. AP system is still being adjusted but it is more Geneforgish than old Avernum.
Posts: 4643 | Registered: Friday, February 10 2006 08:00
Law Bringer
Member # 335
Profile Homepage #10
quote:
Originally written by DanielJacksonMPC:

the lack of an outer world map you travel upon, the AP restrictions, lack of free-roaming as much, and so on and so forth.
The lack of a world map isn't a Geneforge thing. It's an Avernum 4+ thing, and it feels more natural in A5 than it did in A4. AP restrictions have been improved as in G4. I can't talk specifically about limitations on movement in A5 without going into detail, but I never felt like I really wanted to go somewhere and was arbitrarily blocked.

—Alorael, who thinks the initial analysis of A4 as the shiny new engine and A5 as the great story to go with it was flawed. A5, as it turns out, makes the engine shinier. And yes, there's a nice story too.
Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00
Councilor
Member # 6600
Profile Homepage #11
As shiny as G4 plus the addition of battle disciplines, or even shinier? Is it shiny enough that you can see your reflection?

Dikiyoba.

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Episode 4: Spiderweb Reloaded
Posts: 4346 | Registered: Friday, December 23 2005 08:00
Warrior
Member # 6714
Profile Homepage #12
The only world map in Geneforge was a zone-like map you use to transition from zone to zone...I'd not call that a world map by any means, at least not in the sense of the Avernum trilogy.

And ah well, then. I guess I'll try out Avernum V...though I'll have to ask people about the plot details of IV since I only played a small portion before getting rid of it out of sheer disgust...

Odds are, though, I'll stop purchasing Spiderweb Software games, if this is the direction they're going in.

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Well that signature was out of date, since I've not been here in forever.
Posts: 91 | Registered: Thursday, January 19 2006 08:00
Canned
Member # 8014
Profile #13
This post brings an Internal Service Error.
quote:
And ah well, then. I guess I'll try out Avernum V...though I'll have to ask people about the plot details of IV since I only played a small portion before getting rid of it out of sheer disgust...

*Goes to knock on his bedroom door*

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Muffins n' Hell|Muffins n' Hell: The Muffins Are Back Again
I have an addiction to Spiderweb games.
I like this image
FYI, Iffy is short for Infernal Flamming Muffin.
Posts: 1799 | Registered: Sunday, February 4 2007 08:00
Law Bringer
Member # 6785
Profile #14
This is the plot that should have been used for Avernum 4. No details, but it makes more sense and is new material. The downside is that the map makes for some block points where you can't just explore. Also moral decisions will limit what you can do later on in the game.

I still think Jeff should let you roam wherever you want and if you go past your level then you die and start over.
Posts: 4643 | Registered: Friday, February 10 2006 08:00
Electric Sheep One
Member # 3431
Profile #15
How shiny is A5? Can you see your own reflection?

Well, would you believe that it replaces the old character graphics with pictures of the player taken by the iSight camera?

What's amazing is the algorithm it uses to make slith and nephil faces out of them.

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We're not doing cool. We're doing pretty.
Posts: 3335 | Registered: Thursday, September 4 2003 07:00