Ming

Quote: Originally written by Randomizer: What got Jeff was the beta tester stockpiling bags of flour in hopes there was a quest that needed it. Was that the "Bread for a Kingdom" quest, or the "Red Flour Beetle Breeding" quest?

dxwnd is out there if you google it. Seems like most people use it for Maple Story. Certainly a much simpler solution than mine.

Wot is joo sayee--n'? It's oh my got! (search Urban Dictionary)

Quote: Originally written by KnowledgeBrew: A4 was perfect aside from the whole not being able to transverse the whole screen with one MC. That is actually highly annoying. If there is some reason I need to stop, then stop me wherever or whenever I hit the obstacle, but otherwise let me travel as far as anywhere I've revealed on the map previously.

I am caNnot write fuLl sentenses yes? Wow, I really do hate textspeak with the strange breaks for text. It's like writing a sentence longer than 5 words is a chore, and paragraphs are unheard of. I have to wonder if we will have people speaking like this to each other in social situations soon. "so is you... gonna... eat.... that ---- I think it is a... good pie?" "nO this is my... pie... I --- eat IT!" It's double-plus ungood if you ask me. Or perhaps I'm just wrong and its all some kind of deep Haiku! Serious error. All shortcuts have disappeared. Screen. Mind. Both are blank.

Comparing Nethergate:Res. to A4, I have to say that while I miss some things from the old engine, like elevated terrain, less character portraits, and the cool/fun Phil Foglio-type artwork for the skills (not sure who did it for N:R), I prefer Avernum 4's look and feel on the whole. And I have not played much of Geneforge, so I'm not biased that way. I just think the BoA / N:R engine is past its prime and too retro for most casual non-retro gamers to enjoy. I feel confident in telling a non-retro gamer to try Geneforge 4, for instance. That said, I think BoA will stand the test of time and be a classic that will outlive Avernum4 in the long run. Avernum 5 on the other hand, sounds like it will be a really great game. What I don't want to see in the future is a cheesey 3-d engine with chunky textured graphics like the original Neverwinter Nights as Jeff's next new engine. Or close ups with 3d characters talking that have mouths that don't move (but heads that bob strangely). If that is the case I'd just rather see a refinement and enhancement of the A5 engine. BTW, do the characters in A5 have moving feet like in Geneforge 4, of "floating" feet (static upright stances) like in all the Avernums? From what I recall, the Geneforge4 characters actually look like they are walking. If he does go 3d, I'd rather see him do so while sticking with a fixed isometric view style, like some RTS games do, zooming in only temporarily for the fun of checking out your character in different angles and without a lot of camera angle funkiness during the game. In other words, to add depth and realism, not confounding game play and camera angle manipulation.

Found some iron bars, sold them to Dawdy (smith in Fort Monastery) and noticed that while the other active quests go away this one does not. Trying to clear my active quests before I move on, so....does Dawdy ever say "enough" or is this quest forever on your active list?

Thanks for the feedback, I still am early enough in the game that I could swap out for a Nephil for at least one of the characters. Oddly enough I had one initially, and felt he was progressing poorly so I swapped him out with another human! I hadn't considered how he might benefit later in the game.

Quote: Okay, I just tried the workaround for fudging the character graphics mentioned here again. This is another thing I'd tried before, but hadn't been able to make work. Well, today is my lucky day, I guess, because it worked fine for me this time. Yay! (I must have been totally out to lunch the day I tried all these things before or something, I dunno.) Anyway, thought I'd add that, both to forestall the advice, and also to direct any new readers to that trick. I'm only in the beginning of A4, but does this imply that it is very difficult to play with Human characters? I haven't been doing so badly with an all human group so far (fighter-type custom, rogue-type custom, shaman, sorcerer).

Start a new game in any recent Avernum. Check out "Cordelia's" dress slit! Gotta thank Phil Foglio for that, I'd guess. After all, he did pen XXXenophile...

Quote: Originally written by m4mitchell: I dislike that items are often hidden by walls, especially important things, such as trapdoors. I really don't like the fact that spells no longer have letters attached to them - yes, I can still press 'a' in order to select the first spell, but it's difficult to know which letter to press when it comes to the later spells. Of the things you wrote, this is the only one I agree with. My guess is that the editor Jeff uses is in 2D (like the editor for BoA) so he cannot see how bad this is when he's making the game. I hope that the playtesters for A5 let Jeff know when a trapdoor is "hidden" like that (there's an important one in the very first town of A4, and that' just wrong). There is nothing good or realistic about having the POV hide an object. Venatrix Avia, I also miss the ability to click on an object on the ground to examine it, rather than using the "pick up" option. I wonder how hard it would be for Jeff to add that back in.

Don't give up! I'm trying to get creative here and thinking you might consider running a virtual machine on Vista which can then run in a window. It sounds complicated but its really not. If you look at the screenshot below, you'll see how the "full screen" Geneforge 1 would actually be in a window as a virtual windows session. Try the free download of Virtual PC 2007. Or, perhaps there is a good Mac OS emulator that could also be run in a window, and you could download the Mac version! OR...you could do a remote desktop connection to a laptop running Geneforge in fullscreen... I can't think of a reason why this would not work for you. It's not like Geneforge is a fast-paced graphic wonder like Bioshock. It should run fine without lag. http://www.microsoft.com/windows/products/winfamily/virtualpc/overview.mspx

Quote: Originally written by Washington Irving: I have to vote for Exile too. I really like the simplicity of the 2D world. For the record: I also liked the Ultima games, I've heard this a few times now. Am I the only one who didn't stop playing Ultima after Ultima 5? Ultimas 6 and 7 were my favorites (especially the Fujitsu FM-Towns version of 6 I owned with all voice acting), and improved the graphics dramatically. I see the Geneforge engine as more like Ultima 7, and the old Avernum engine as Ultima 6. Exile more like Ultima 5, just without the black background/white characters look. As long as Jeff keeps his colorful room descriptions a part of the game and keeps developing the Avernum world, I will keep gladly buying. I'm a retro gamer, but I don't want Jeff's audience to be limited to hard-core retro gamers. I doubt he'd be able to support himself that way. BUT...I'll agree its a fine line for Jeff to walk between keeping his faithful who were probably attracted to his games for the retro feel, and not turning off potential new buyers with a game thats "too" retro in its look and feel.

Well, those were mostly fan-made rips of other artist's work. If you look at the original Baldur's gate, there were about as many as in the Avernum series. Very well painted and beautiful, but the portraits were limited. It's not like Jeff can just go in to the NWN:Vault and steal some portraits for the games he sells. Besides, I'm guessing he wants some sense of consistency in the portraits that look like the work of Phil Foglio.

Quote: Originally written by Spidweb: Avernum 5 has far fewer trivial monsters, both in the wild and in dungeons. There are 6 new character graphics. 2 human, 2 nephil, 2 slith. - Jeff Vogel Great news, Jeff. Another reason why I love this board is the chance to read feedback from the programmer himself. Now I'll just have to keep myself busy with the three games I bought until early 2008...!