Some thoughts after just finishing Geneforge

Author	Topic: Some thoughts after just finishing Geneforge
BrianK Apprentice Member # 7989	written Monday, February 5 2007 12:58 Profile #0 I bought Geneforge 4 and Avernum a month or so ago. I just finished playing through geneforge with a double agent, um, agent, and a travokite servile. What a great game. I've been looking for old school RPG type games for a long time. Games like final fantasy three that were driven by great gameplay and stories rather then flashy graphics and too many buttons. The idea of people using genetic technology to create fantasy creatures is great. What a great job at making an open ended game. I have a couple of constructive comments about little things that bugged me. One is that the UI in pop up screens seemed arbitrary and inconsistant. Sometimes, you had to press 1. OK to end a pop up screen, and sometimes you had to click a box that said "OK" to end a pop up screen. Another, when playing a warrior, if an enemy is to the top of you, it's very easy to inadvertantly click your character and skip a turn instead of attack. The most frusterating part of my otherwise great gameplay experience was a couple of times when I lost huge battles because of this. When designing UI's it's important to make it so accidentally clicking the wrong thing doesn't mess things up badly. For example. having the shortcuts for delete the trash can as shift+apple+delete and a shortcut for partition hard drive as shift+apple+\ would be a bad idea because it would be really easy to do the wrong thing which is devistating. the checkbox in avernum when this happens is also annoying, but having it do nothing when you click on the character might be best. I dunno, these to things were the only ui problems I noticed, the first was mildly annoying, and the second was sometimes throw my mackbook pro through the wall frusterating. OTOH, It's a testiment to how well balanced this game is that losing one turn can make such a difference. Thanks for making these great games Jeff, you've got yourself a definate customer for your next releases. Posts: 1 | Registered: Wednesday, January 31 2007 08:00
Randomizer Law Bringer Member # 6785	written Monday, February 5 2007 18:23 Profile #1 The complaint about attacking adjacent monsters is old. Hopefully Jeff will bring back keyboard targeting where you can designate a target with a letter or using an arrow key (numeric keypad). It's worse in Avernum 4 than in Geneforge 4. It helps to wait until the target is outlined in white to be certain you have the right one. The dialog boxes depend on the type and Jeff doesn't seem willing to rewrite the old code to make them consistent. Some will close by hitting escape or return. Posts: 4643 | Registered: Friday, February 10 2006 08:00
Skrat Apprentice Member # 7921	written Monday, February 5 2007 18:40 Profile #2 This happened to me a couple of times, but mostly because I got too excited in the heat of battle. Blood lust gets my clicky finger going! I have learned to save just before I get into a fight, so that I can replay the battle if I screw it up. I also have to slow down a little to ensure I am clicking on the right character. Posts: 22 | Registered: Friday, January 19 2007 08:00
Thuryl ...b10010b... Member # 869	written Monday, February 5 2007 20:16 Profile Homepage #3 Even trying to move into an empty space can be difficult. Sometimes it's literally impossible to move to a location even though you have a clear path to it, because there are bits of other creations covering every clickable part of the space. -------------------- The Empire Always Loses: This Time For Sure! Posts: 9973 | Registered: Saturday, March 30 2002 08:00
Randomizer Law Bringer Member # 6785	written Monday, February 5 2007 20:41 Profile #4 There is another problem that Jeff tried to fix with the path finder routine. It looks like you have a clear path to a space, but the program thinks that there are obstacles in the way. Some of the paths that it comes up with defy belief. Posts: 4643 | Registered: Friday, February 10 2006 08:00
Vercalos Apprentice Member # 4511	written Tuesday, February 6 2007 00:56 Profile Homepage #5 Heh.. Those shutter doors drive me nuts when it comes to pathfinding.. as for the clicking thing, I fight long range typically, and when I fight close range, I'm usually careful enough that I don't accidently skip my turn. -------------------- Vercalos al'Corlin The Wanderer Posts: 21 | Registered: Thursday, June 10 2004 07:00
Corker Apprentice Member # 6830	written Tuesday, February 6 2007 14:32 Profile #6 You can accidently misclick the enemy and instead click the space next to them- automatically spending all your points to walk right next to that rothgoth! Eep. Posts: 7 | Registered: Friday, February 24 2006 08:00
Archer of Darkness Apprentice Member # 8029	written Tuesday, February 6 2007 14:35 Profile Homepage #7 I run into that issue all the time. It happens the most when I'm overly excited and can't wait to attack the rotghroth in question. -------------------- I am Sara's little brother. Fear me. Posts: 1 | Registered: Tuesday, February 6 2007 08:00