Jump to content

Search the Community

Showing results for tags 'geneforge'.

  • Search By Tags

    Type tags separated by commas.
  • Search By Author

Content Type


Forums

  • Spiderweb’s General Boards
    • General
    • Tech Support
    • Announcements
  • Spiderweb’s Game Boards
    • Queen's Wish Series
    • Geneforge Series - Remasters
    • Avernum Trilogy (2011-2018 Remastered Versions)
    • Avadon Series
    • Second Avernum Trilogy
    • Geneforge Series - Originals
    • Avernum Trilogy (2000-2002 original versions)
    • Nethergate and Nethergate: Resurrection
    • Blades of Avernum
    • Blades of Avernum Editor
    • Blades of Exile
    • The Exile Trilogy

Blogs

  • One day, I'll have a techno band.
  • Crystal Souls
  • Jewels of the Mind
  • Avernum RP — Knights of Old Avernum
  • Masala of Life
  • Zummi's Blog
  • Aʀᴀɴ௵ᴄᴀʏᴛᴀʀ
  • After the Gold Rush
  • feilangxiao's Blog
  • Tales from Lynaeus
  • Dying Light
  • BJearles' Blog
  • The Life and Times of Dr. Alorael
  • Ir the Great's Blog
  • Tgiiif_2004's Blog
  • Tevildo's Blog
  • wenyue's Blog

Find results in...

Find results that contain...


Date Created

  • Start

    End


Last Updated

  • Start

    End


Filter by number of...

Joined

  • Start

    End


Group


Member Title


MSN


ICQ


Yahoo


Jabber


Skype


Website URL


Location


Real Name


Favorite Games


Interests

  1. After a lot of work, I can finally present to all you Geneforge fans a new modification for GF5. The mod expands the content of GF5 without altering existing quests\endings\content by adding a new, large, quest chain for Shapers \ Lifecrafters (only for those). It adds choices, it doesn't remove any existing ones. The content is combat-light... unless you decide otherwise. The only assumption this mod makes aside of the game is...the identity of the amnesiac protagonist, that he discovers bit by bit. As such the quest chain can be completely ignored without any effect on GF5 game. Or... you can follow it, discover clues of who you are, choose to ignore or believe them, set up a research laboratory like so many NPCs have, discover amazing (but not game-breaking) powers and perhaps settle some old scores with past enemies. To be clear, the protagonist doesn't discover any concrete proof to confirm the theory on his identity. You even have the choice to reject the conclusion at the end of the identity quest as false. But if you do, you won't get the idea to build up the laboratory. I believe the mod increases the replay-value of GF5, since not only it adds exiting features and quests in certain locations, but you'll keep an eye open for the now much-coveted research notes in areas not affected by the mod. At the end of the quest chain you manage to do something most people considered impossible. Both people in the game and gamers that play the game alike. You can find the mod (V1.1) here: http://www.mediafire.com/file/z2mj9c09253w6c1/GF5Origins.rar/file Installation instructions Clarifications EDIT: I'm working on a new mod for Warriors and Guardians. You take command of a Rebel outpost. See post 19 for more details. About my motives: Why I decided to spend that much time on a mod. Changes from V1.0
  2. Hey guys, I have an issue and need some help. I'm not sure if there's a perfect solution but essentially I'm trying to get a quest and I screwed up and made myself ineligible. Basically I want to get the quest from Huestess to kill Goettsch, but I messed up by clearing the zone before talking to him. I was saving the talk for later since I hadn't spoken to Goettsch yet, and accepting his quest makes him "mark" you such that Goettsch and his creations will become hostile on sight and not parley with you or give you the false shaping gloves, which I intend to use as I have high leadership. I wanted to pick up the fake gloves from him, then get the quest from Huestess to kill Goettsch as it awards 1 endurance and I'm playing on Torment difficulty. However, if you clear the zone (turning it green so it can be "crossed freely," Huestess does not need to "feed" on you, and lets you pass without any toll, since you've already cleared the way (through the heavily mined/crystaled area); this makes it so he will not give you the quest to slay Goettsch and mark you as hostile, which I now want to happen. Do you think you could help me reset the event in such a way that I could recover that conversation and pick up the quest from Huestess to kill Goettsch? The zone is Sentinels (from Geneforge 1) and it has two .txt files pertaining to it in the "Scripts" folder you mentioned earlier in this thread. I can't attach image files of the script here, but if you have access to the Geneforge 1 scripts folder, then the two relevant text files are "z72sentinl.txt" and "z72sentinldlg.txt"; I think the second file is the one with the script we're looking for, because I see the right conversation options from the quest written out. Scroll to "begintalknode 50", as well as "begintalknode 51, 55, 56, and 67. Those are the complete list of script headings for the correct conversation options, from approaching Huestess for the first time to accepting the quest to completing it and being rewarded with the endurance point. Could you assist me with this? It would save me hours of replay time since I unfortunately don't have a recent save. Thank you so much! ❤️
  3. The Warrior and Guardians mod: I made this mod is for Warriors and Guardians and incorporates elements of the "Artifact Batons" mod by Gameman as well as a completely new zone. Gameman and myself have tested the whole thing and theKian has kindly betatested parts of it. After certain Rebel missions you can request to be made Captain of the Rebellion and be given a base to command. For Shaper-minded individuals, you'll be given the chance to betray the Rebellion if you so choose. This mod is designed only for Guardians and Warriors! Using a different class would be problematic since the new quests, rewards and equipment are geared towards those two classes! A Shaper will see little benefit from a recipe that gives a good baton for example, or an agent would become overly powerful if she is given the ability to include in her party a large group of free-from-essence reliable allies (while a lifecrafter\Shaper could make better). NPCs will regard the player as a Warrior or Guardian which affects some of the dialogue aside of the rewards. The mod is not save compatible, it requires a new game. DOWNLOAD LINK 1: https://www.mediafire.com/?5762ayc8efb5t8i Features of this mod are: - Artifact Batons and exceptionally powerful shields and weapons. However, unlike the Artifact Baton mod (thanks Gamerman!), in order to make them you have to locate the recipes! - Multiple new mid-late game quests. - A completely new zone, West of Dera Bridge. To locate it and the secrets within you need to establish a base and complete certain quests. - Rebalance the classes. Removed the resistances for Shaper classes to make them compatible with their respective Rebel classes (Guardian still has the starting essence bonus) - Control of a base gives you several benefits. Some of these include requesting soldiers to join your party, salary and quests with significant rewards. - New mechanic: Combat Worthiness. Your soldiers start as a ragtag group and can be trained and equipped to become an elite force. - New characters and NPCs to react with, with their stories, problems, agendas and motivations. - Experience and Equipment shortcuts. Now, you don't have to complete side quests you've done a dozen times or visit zones that you don't find interesting just to level up or gather a little money. At certain points through the game a level check will be made and you'll be asked whether you want extra XP, coins and equipment. The checks are made: On a new game. When you enter Mera Tev (if you're below level 14). When you enter the North Plains (if you're below level 24). Outside Ghazaki Uss (if you're below level 30). At the Dera Bridge (if you're below level 35). - Canister abuse has an impact on some of the new quests. This mod doesn't alter the existing story of the game or the endings in any way. It adds content to the game, it doesn't change existing content. For those interested in modding: Since I could do it, so can you. Not every mod has to be a big multi-month project. Modding is caring. A LITTLE HELP ABOUT THE MOD: - To set up the base, you have to do a specific quest for the Rebels. It is in the introduction of several zones. - After you do that quest, a dialogue option opens up with Greta and Ghaldring in Gazaki-Uss - You are under the command of General Greta, a moderate. The better your relation with Greta's faction of the Rebels the bigger your salary and rewards. - You will get options to betray the Rebellion, even very far into the main quest. This will heavily adjust your relations with the Shapers so that it would be possible to join them. - You don't get -anything- for betraying the Rebellion, other the possibility (with some work) to join the Shapers and the enmity of the Rebels. Don't expect to walk to Alwan or Taygen and tell him "I was a captain of the Rebels, hit the Shapers mightly and then I betrayed the Rebels. What do I get in return?". As such, even if you want to join the Shapers I suggest you progress a lot in the quest before you do it, to get most of the rewards. - The Rebellion expects their commanders to be close to the ideals of the Rebellion. Your salary (and certain events) are also based on your Rebel\Shaper reputation. - Doing quests for Greta and improving your relation with her allows you to request more resources and manpower from her for an increase in your troops combat worthiness. A big thank you to Gamerman for the Artifact Baton mod and betatesting and theKian for betatest. Update: Without any reported problems from several players that used this mod, I decided to move it out of Beta What people have said about the mod:
  4. First off, I didn't know what to call this thread because I have a few questions, so I figured I'd name it after the most important question: Should I get the Firesteel Greaves for a little more spell power, or the Black Iron Greaves for more initiative. I don't plan on leveling dex at all but I want to be able to act before all enemies. Will this be possible without the black iron greaves, or will I need to get them to act before all my enemies? The rest of my questions will be listed below to keep this post somewhat organized. Can I still join the Trakovites if I told Agent Micheline where the haven is? Should I train in blessing magic from Sage Quothe? I've already managed to get everything else trained, and I'm wondering if I'll be short on gold in Chapter 3 if I get those 2 points in blessing magic. Either way, I want it high enough for essence blade. How high should I train my intelligence, magic stats, and healing craft for the optimal build? This last part is just me seeking approval on my current strategy for bosses/tanky enemies. I believe its quite effective (on hard mode). I managed to shred the drake in the western shadow road with this. First I cast wrack, and over the next few turns, I apply lightning aura, acid spray, and searer for maximum damage per turn. From there I daze or dominate the minions and cast ice spray to apply extra damage. In this case, I dominated the drayk so he would kill the shades. Anyway, let me know what you think of the strategy and please respond to any questions you can answer.
  5. I just wanna preface this by saying... It has been a long time since I heard of the game/played. Like, so long ago that I was a clueless kid that didn't really understand games in general. I don't know what caused this to pop up in my head again, but from what little I can remember, I'm interested in trying to give it a real able-minded playthrough. All I know about the game is I never got that far, and it seemed difficult. From what I've been reading, that latter bit seems pretty accurate. I can say that I'm pretty sure I'd like to give Shaper a try, though if I beat the game as that, I'm liable to branch out and try other things for funsies. The reason I'm making a post is, well... I don't often play unforgiving games, so I was just curious if there was an outline for important sections of the game, or things that are required. I've been trying to just read existing posts rather than making my own, but it's very difficult to understand much of it without context and no game knowledge. I read one recently about mind nutrients causing an issue, as well as other things like mechanical and leadership skills potentially being an issue if they aren't trained to the correct level during the correct times? I've heard about mines and pylons also being very difficult, and was wondering if mines had some kind of visual cue or indicator - and could be disarmed by hand, is that what mechanical is for?... Basically, I'd just like warnings about things that could ruin my save file/game experience. I'm headed off to work very shortly, else I would just dig into every single post I can find about G1 even further. Very sorry if it's a repeat post, or if there's a good outline elsewhere. Thanks in advance for any assistance!
  6. Presumably Jeff must have an Editor for every game he makes, unless he has a 4-digit IQ and does not need one. All he has to do is release the Editor, and maybe its source code too. Jeff could release the Editor as a companion to Geneforge 5. It would use the calls and features of G5. Documentation is apparently not his thing, we could build upon his notes. Alint would need to be updated for the Geneforge world, that is presumably not too hard. I just looked at a G4 script, it was quite intelligible to anyone familiar with BoA. Actual Blades of Geneforge scenarios would not need to be created he could just translate the four Spiderweb BoA scenarios. If he was really pressed for time he could just skip the scenarios and let us do them. Instead of Bas files, Blades of Geneforge would have aGF5ScenData.dat files. This idea would need Jeff to make a slight alteration to the game so that it could work like BoA: one scenario per scenario folder all scenarios can access the same default graphics all scenarios can access the same default scripts all scenarios can use custom graphics, scenario scripts and scenario data scripts a scenario selection dialog screen would need to be created Until and unless this happens you would need to have multiple aGF5ScenData.dat files in your Geneforge 5 Files folder, one file per scenario. Unused scenarios would have their file names prefixed by letters or numbers: aaaGF5ScenData.dat, abaGF5ScenData.dat, acaGF5ScenData.dat... Ditto multiple Save# and Scripts folders would be needed.
  7. Spiderweb needs to recreate geneforge with console support and make it look like diablo 3 where instead of skills you can shape your creations in the quick bar.. thoughts?
  8. Part 2 link. Useful information: Ability and stat ID list Welcome to my Geneforge modding tutorial. In this, we will be focusing on modding Geneforge 5, but the same principles underlying this apply to the entire series. Despite the minor differences between the definitions files and scripts of older and newer games, you can still apply this modding knowledge to older games (especially Geneforge 4, which is nearly identical to Geneforge 5 in terms of design and mechanics). Zone Script Editing: In each game's scripts folder, a zone has two separate scripts: the zone script and the dialog script. For example, the first zone in Geneforge 5, the Pacification Fields, has two zone scripts: z0pacific.txt and z0pacificdlg.txt. The first one holds data on the zone itself. This includes such things as event keys, such as cutscenes and mob states, as well as definitions for 'special' locations (for example, areas where dialog is triggered when you enter them) and the text that shows up above creatures' heads and above the text box at the bottom of the screen. Let's take a look at some parts of z0pacific.txt. beginzonescript; This indicates the beginning of the script. Without this, the script will not load properly. variables; short crime_tolerance = 5; short last_abil; short i; short roamer_warn = 0; short cutscene = 0; short kludge_count = 0; This defines variables for local zone data. This includes how much you can steal before you get in trouble (crime_tolerance) as well as various variables for zone status. 'short' is a variant of number, technically a 16-bit integer, ranging from about -33000 to about 33000. body; beginstate INIT_STATE; Body defines the actual content of the zone script. The INIT_STATE defines how the zone behaves when first created, as player interactions can change it. Inside the zone are such things as: set_level(37,3); set_name(38,"Crazed Roamer"); set_aggression(38,7); change_max_health(38,120); These set data on creatures by their universal ID in the game. This can only be determined by experimentation with modified scripts in-game. In order, they set creature 37 to be level 3, set creature 38 to be named "Crazed Roamer", set its aggression to '7' (likely a state of hostility with lower awareness) and its max health to 120. You will also note that each line is terminated with a semicolon. This is important. if (get_sdf(1,6) > 0) { make_zone_hostile(); } This causes the zone to be hostile if a given SDF (a stuff done flag, which stores universal data across all zones) is true. set_crime_tolerance(crime_tolerance); This sets the crime tolerance to be what was previously defined. break; This finishes defining the state. beginstate EXIT_STATE; break; This defines the exit state, which is empty in this zone. beginstate START_STATE; This defines the start state. In this section are the tutorial guides from the beginning of the game, i.e. gathering your weapons and armor. This section checks whether the flag for having equipped an item (ID 61) has been set and whether it is equipped. If so, the flag is set (so it cannot constantly repeat) and the map tells you to search for the armor in the storeroom. if ((get_flag(0,7) == 0) && (has_item_equip(61))) { set_flag(0,7,1); set_terrain_string_range("Now that you have a weapon, search the locker in the back of the storeroom. Click on a locker, box, or other container to open it.",3); When the zone has been sufficiently completed, that is, when these conditions are met, the zone is set to have been cleared. In this case, it checks to see if the zone has not already been cleared and if a given flag is set. Take note also of the //, which comments out a line. In this file, lines are split by tabs, so only the // clear zone? is commented out. Comments do not impact the script at all. // clear zone? if ((zone_clear(ME) == FALSE) && (get_flag(0,25) > 0)) { print_str_color("Now that this door is open, you can pass this area freely.",2); clear_zone(ME); } This part checks to see if your crime level exceeeds the tolerance of the zone (and hence you could make an extremely crime-tolerant zone by raising crime tolerance to absurd levels) and, if it does, causes the zone to be hostile. In this case, you will notice that an SDF is also being checked. This checks whether you just automatically die, as happens when you anger the zone before being able to leave the Greyghost mountains. if ((get_crime_level() >= crime_tolerance) && (get_sdf(1,6) == 0)) { make_zone_hostile(); set_flag(1,6,1); } if ((gf(1,6) > 0) && (gf(2,1) < 2)) begin_talk_mode(290); This performs a check on a random (get_ran) and, if it is an acceptable value, makes a creature (in this case the artila in a side room) hiss. if (get_ran(1,0,100) < 10) give_char_text_bubble(36,"Sss."); Here, the actions in the final cutscene occur. If the cutscene has not yet occurred (gf(0,1) == 0), it checks to see whether creature 50 (the vlish) is dead (char_ok(50) == FALSE) or (the characters || mean a logical OR, while && means AND) its health is below one half, it starts a cutscene, spawning Rawal and moving him around before finally murdering everything. break; The INIT_STATE finishes with another break. At the end of the file, a number of states are defined. Here, interactions with certain objects are defined, as well as extra tutorial information for the player. Dialogue Scripts: The dialogue script, z0pacificdlg.txt, is much more readable. It starts in a similar way. begintalkscript; variables; Dialogue is split up into a set of talk nodes, each of which is defined by begintalknode;. There is a limit to the number of these you can have, although I'm not entirely sure how many are possible in total (per zone), but I believe you can have at least 200 per zone. Let's take a look at the first talk node. begintalknode 1; state = -1; nextstate = 180; condition = get_sdf(0,5) == 0; question = "special"; text1 = "As you stumble through the barracks, your head clears. A tiny bit."; text2 = "It looks like you have been living cramped in here with a dozen serviles, the short, humble servant race of the Shapers. It is peculiar. Why would a human be left to live in squalor with them?"; text3 = "Also, your clothes are unusual. They seem like the outfit of someone in authority, perhaps a soldier or a Shaper. They are ill-fitting and torn, though. And in need of a wash."; text4 = "It looks like you have been living cramped in here with a dozen serviles, the short, humble servant race of the Shapers. Since you are a servile yourself, that seems like it would make sense."; text5 = "And yet, it doesn't feel right. The Shapers keep their serviles ignorant and terrified of authority. Somehow, you know that you deserve better than to be living in this squalor."; text6 = "The sounds of chaos and panic coming from outside are showing no signs of ending. You start to look around for something you can use to defend yourself."; action = SET_SDF 0 5 1; code = if (creature_type(pc_num()) == 46) { rs(2); rs(3); } else { rs(4); rs(5); } sf(97,0,100); break; The state is, in a way, the address of the talk node. The nextstate value indicates the state of the next node in the 'series'. A state of -1 or nextstate of -1 indicates, respectively, that the talk node is the first in a conversation or the last. In this case, we have a modified dialogue script where the nextstate points to my Geneforge 5 character editor for testing purposes. Consequently, anything with state = 180 will show up as a conversation option in the list here. Note: In this scripting language (which appears to basically just be C++), the comparison to see if something is equal is ==. A single = is used to set a value, e.g. short value = 1. Condition indicates whether the talk node can be reached. If it's an option in conversation, condition will determine whether the node will show up in the list of responses. 'Question' indicates the text of the option in the conversation list. when a talk node starts as the result of - for example - talking to a creature or object, the question is named "special". In a dialog list, the question would be whatever the player says or does, e.g. "Continue.", "Nevermind.", "Did that creation just say yanny or laurel?", etc. There follows a list of text items. Each is printed out in the dialog box, one after another. You can safely have--at most--8 text options. However, I would advise sticking to a maximum of 8. The lines of text of a few important characteristics. One, and this is very important, the length of the 'string' (that is, a section of text) cannot exceed 256 characters. If you attempt to do this, the dialog script will break. Secondly, as the string is enclosed in quotes, if you want to have quotes inside the text itself, you need to put underscores. That is, if you wanted to print out "Hail and well met," the cow said., the associated string would be "_Hail and well met,_ the cow said." Finally, the quotes enclosing the string are not optional. They indicate its beginning and end. The action can do a few different things. For the most part, you'll probably want no action. However, when you want the conversation to terminate on this option, you will want to set action = END_TALK;. You should also set state to -1 for this. You can also, as this conversation does, set an SDF. You can do literally the exact same thing in the code section, except with multiple stuff done flags, so I personally do not see any reason to use this. Take a look at the various dialogue scripts to find what various other ones do. The final section is the (optional!) code block. In this, you can do all the coolest things in a conversation. In this case, there are two functions being used. rs(number) removes a string with the appropriate number inside it. For example, rs(2) removes text2. In this case, it is being used to display different strings for serviles versus every other class. The other function is sf, which sets a flag (gf, for reference, gets the value of a flag). In this case, flag 97 0 is being set to a value of 100. There are various other things you can do here, including but not limited to: Give items with reward_give(item id number); Give special items with set_spec_item(special item id, number); Give the party XP with award_party_xp(amount,level of xp); (if you want the XP to scale with the PC's level, use get_level(pc_num()) for the 'level of xp' parameter). Alter the PC's stats with alter_stat(stat id, amount to increase); In this last case, the PC's stats include not only attributes and skills, but also spell and creation levels and resistances. A partial list of the different stat IDs is: The code block is terminated by a break statement. Talk nodes without code do NOT have break statements. This concludes the script editing portion of the tutorial. Stay tuned for the definitions tutorial, where we will learn how to modify items, spells, and creations.
  9. So its official, the new Spiderweb Software newsletter's news on future plans now that Avernum 3: ruined world is completed makes it pretty clear that no, Jeff won't be working on Geneforge rewrite/remakes quite yet. "We are working on a whole new game world, and we’re hoping to announce it soon. It is even possible that we will do our first Kickstarter". Gotta say, I for one am pretty disappointed that we won't be seeing a geneforge remake in the near future. How do you all feel? do you think the geneforge series dosen't need a remake just yet or are you still holding your breath? How do you feel about Spiderweb Software's plans for a "new world". What would YOU like to see should the geneforge series be remade?
  10. I hope this hasn’t been answered elsewhere already, if it has I haven’t been able to find it. I think there’s a glitch in Quessa-Uss. After Greta asked me to investigate what had been brought down from Northforge, I killed the Unbound prototype instead of bringing it under control. Now the southern doors remain locked, the control panel won’t open the north doors, and I’m completely stuck in this lab, unable to return to Greta. If I’m missing something, I’d greatly appreciate some direction. thanks all. Loving these games.
  11. Hello there, This is a post where I'll be showing you guys my current progress on the content I've been poking around with for Descent: Journeys in the Dark Second Edition. I have no idea if there are people around here who does play Descent, but I thought, why not check. In case there is, I'd love some feedback about it, since other than myself, I pretty much just have my two brothers that I play Descent with. If you have not played it and do like board games, I'd definitely recommend it since the combat system reminds a lot of the Spiderweb games, but as they might have been in board game format. I have tried to preserve as much of the feeling of the classes/characters/creations as possible when converting them, but unfortunately I won't be able to add all aspects because of balance or mechanics issues. I also realize this will make no sense if you have not actually played Descent. I apologize about that. But if you're curious about a potential Geneforge board game, just try and google descent, and maybe this'll make a bit more sense. Also, be sure it's the second edition. I would put a link in here, but I'm not sure if that's allowed since it might be seen as advertisement or something. Some things might look a bit weird since I wrote all this with heart emojis for damage and lightning for surges. It seems I only need to rewrite the hearts as damage though. I apologize in case of confusion. If the lightning emojis are only visible for me, please tell me and I'll rewrite them as surge. Litalia (Healer) Move: 3 Health: 8 Stamina: 4 Defense: White Strength: 2 Lore: 4 Willpower: 4 Awareness: 1 Hero Ability Each enemy figure who enters a space adjacent to you becomes terrified. Heroic Feet (Action): Switch place with a hero withing your line of sight who is at most 5 spaces away from you. Figures and obstacles does not block your line of sight when performing this action. All enemies adjacent to your and the chosen heroes new destinations become stunned. The passive terrify on Litalia I felt made sense because of all the canisters she's eaten. Her skin glows, and she probably doesn't look very sane. I guess that depends on when in the story of Geneforge you'd be looking at, but I feel that even early on she started with the "raw power is more important than anything" concept. Anyways, I felt this fit quite well with her. Her heroic feet on the other hand doesn't really make sense at all, Geneforge-wise. I just felt it fit quite well with her hero ability, plus that it was kind of like Master Thorn's heroic that was removed, except this one after all puts her, a squishy mage, potentially into a lot of enemies, which makes it seem alright. The reason why she has such mediocre (or, pretty bad) stats, in case you're wondering, is because of how good her hero ability can be. With good positioning, no melee enemies can surge her or ranged allies. That, I felt fit pretty well with a Shaper/pet class as well; being able to support the team. Lifecrafter (Healer) Shaping Major Heal 1 Aura of Thorns 2 Place one of your avaliable Choose a hero or creation Your creations and any creations in an adjacent space. within 3 spaces and roll two heroes adjacent to them If one was already summoned, red dice. The chosen figure gains; remove that one from the map. heals the amount of hearts Whenever an adjacent Avaliable; rolled. enemy deals ️damage to you, Fyora deal 1 damage to it. Clawbug Vlish Stamina: 1 Stamina: 2 Full Shaper 3 Banish Affliction 1 Regeneration Aura 2 Use this card when you Choose one hero or creation Exhaust this card and use Shaping to place withing three spaces from keep it exhausted until Kyshakk, Rotgroth or Glaahk you. That figure removes all you decide to, at the adjacent to you instead of any of their conditions. of your turn but after of the normally avaliable Reg Aura has taken creations. Stamina: 2 effect, un-exhaust it. Fyora now has +2 Health, Speed 1 While this card is adds a brown die to it's exhausted, apply -1 to defense pool and adds Blast (Action): Exhaust this card. your stamina, but to it's attacks. Choose an adjacent hero additionally, at the start or creation. That figure of your turn, all heroes Clawbug now has +2 health, immedietly performs an attack. and creations heal 1 damage. has a black defense die instead Continue your activation as of a brown, adds a red power die normal after the attack. If you at the start of to it's attack pool and gains; your turn decide to ⚡️: Immobilize. Stamina: 1 un-exhaust this card, the former reserved stamina Vlish now has +2 health, adds is now healable, but still a brown die to it's defense pool, counts as fatigue. adds a yellow die to it's attack pool and gains; Improvised Shaping 2 ⚡️: Curse Fyora now adds one Stamina: 1 green power die to it's attack pool. Mass Restore 3 Clawbug now has Roll one red and one yellow Pierce 2. die. All heroes and creations recover the amount of ️hearts rolled Vlish no longer requires and removes one of their ⚡️ to do weaken. conditions. Kyshakk now has; Stamina: 3 ⚡️⚡️: Pierce 4 Rotgroth no longer requires⚡️ to do Terrify and gains Poison. Glaahk now has Reach. Creations (In this section, the notes in between parentheses without the "IS" before them is referring to the stats the creations will get when you buy the "Full Shaper" skill. The ones with the "IS" before them is referring to what they get after you buy the "Improvised Shaping" skill.) Fyora Clawbug Vlish Move: 3 Health: 4 (6) Move: 3 Health: 4 (6) Move: 4 Health: 3 (5) Defense: (Brown) Defense: Brown (Black) Defense: (Brown) Attack: Blue + Yellow (IS:+Green) Attack: Blue + Red (+Red) Attack: Blue + Yel (+Red) ⚡️: Burn (⚡️: Immobilize) ⚡️: Weaken (IS: -⚡️) (Blast) (IS: Pierce 2) (⚡️: Curse) Flying Ranged Melee Ranged Kyshakk Rotgroth Glaahk Move: 3 Health: 5 Move: 4 Health: 8 Move: 5 Health: 5 Defense: White Defense: Defense: Brown Attack: Blue + Red + Red Attack: Blue + Yel + Yel Blue + Red + Yellow ⚡️: +2 ️Damage ⚡️: Terrify. (IS: -⚡️) ⚡️: Stun (IS: ⚡️⚡️: Pierce 4) ⚡️⚡️: Immedietly perform ⚡️: +2 ️Damage another attack against the (IS: Reach) same target, but only once per activation. (IS: Poison) Ranged Melee Melee Note that anything here is subject to change. This is a pretty early stage of my "poking around" with this idea. However I do hope it'll lead to something fun. Once again, please throw some feedback at me, it's always fun to talk to other people and exchange some ideas!
  12. Welcome to the Arena modification for Geneforge 5. As the name of the mod implies, this is a mod where you pit your character against an assortment of enemies. The Arena mod, while fun, is not a full gameplay mod. There are no quests, there are no deep NPCs etc. It started as an effort to test the various changes I make as I work on the "Total Conversion Mod". However, new battle scripts and changes in items and creations give this mod an air of freshness. The premise of this mod, is that your character is in a dream. It requires you to start a new game. You start at 18th level, in a large room. A Drakon Lifecrafter nearby can boost your level, abilities, spells etc. A Shaper can create enemies and allies for you. There are 4 chests with equipment of different tiers for you to choose. Once ready and you have told the Shaper to bring in the enemies, proceed to the next room. There's a signpost there. Read it and start the fight. DOWNLOAD LINKS: Link 1: http://www.mediafire.com/file/km52qxbj3pvq1gy/ArenaGF5.rar INSTALLATION: To install: - Backup your "Geneforge 5" folder. - Copy and paste the folder "Geneforge 5" to your Geneforge folder (where all the Geneforge games are). You should be prompted that some files will be overwritten. Accept and the mod will be installed. To uninstall: Simply overwrite the Geneforge 5 folder with the original from your back up. The mod is tested and works with a clean installation of Geneforge 5 on Windows 10. It has not been tested for MAC. This mod is not compatible with your GF5 saves! Don't try to use it with your normal GF5. There is no wrong way to use this mod. If you want to make a character with 30 intelligence at 18th lvl so you can have a bazillion of top creations at full modifications, all the power to you. If you want to give your character Battle Shaping 15 and Shape Clawbug 15 to make 45 lvl clawbugs, so be it. If on the other hand want something more reasonable, like a lvl 23 character with mid-early equipment and 3-4 tier 2 creations and see how you fare against moderate enemies, so much the better. And of course, if you want to see how a pair of Battle Alphas fares against a rotgroth, all you have to do is Shape those Alphas and have them fight the Rotgroth without you interfering. As said, no wrong way to use this mod. Changes from the normal combat gameplay of GF5: - The levels of most creations is different with a larger gap in power between the various creations. - Some items have changed - There are new NPC types (Batoneers, conscripts, Shocktroopers, Lifecrafters, Prospectives etc) - There are a couple new Creations - Some enemies have more complicated scripts What you should be aware of: - Not all creation types are available for the Player to Shape; I have put in only the creations that would be present in the total conversion mod. - The scope of the total conversion mod is to be from levels 18-35 or so. However the intention is to make the world of the total conversion as such, that a level 35 character doesn't have immense power able to stomp everything underfoot. - The chests are in "tiers". Beginning, mid-early, mid-late, end-game. - There is an option to activate a "Healing field". This may periodically heal a few of your enemies every turn. - In one of the chests are "sanity crystals". Having them in your equipment would be a great boon when fighting a Dementor. - Therions are slightly overpowered compared to their essence cost compared to other Tier 2 creations. This is intentional because in the actual game learning to Shape them will require more effort.
  13. Does anyone think that a move based in the Geneforge series would be nice to see? Either based on parts of the game's story or like an independent story based in it's universe?
  14. Just curious, does anyone know anything about the development team responsible for the original Geneforge game? I don't necessarily need names, just the amount of people who worked on it.
  15. Ive decided to dump more than a week straight into Geneforge in general and I noticed that info was at times quite scarce or not really centralized in one place. Anyway it was hard to find. And I had some questions to which I did not find answers to this whole week while playing. Some of them may be due to me sucking at using the search and googling. I played only shaper. Played G1 with basically all in on INT and Fire shaping and pretty much beat it with little effort on normal diff. Kinda same with G2. Really nothing to it. Got drayks, killed everything. Always used the "expendable creations" tactic. As in, went into a map, murdered everything til my creations died, ran back to town crying, made more and came back. But somewhere I read that Vlishes were OP, til then I figured they were probably made of glass and not versatile enough, so I didnt even touch em. But they are really cool looking creations. So in G3 I went for full pumping points into INT and magic shaping. And did quite well most of the time. But by the time I reached Gull island, I got absolutely destroyed by everything. Nothing I did worked. Figured that vlishes might just be for support in this one, so mixed them with Glaahks. Still got destroyed. Absolutely not a single thing I tried worked. Since I already had 15 hours into the game I said screw it, cheated myself fire shaping about the amount of magic and drayk creation +3, made drayks and still destroyed. So I went even further and went for drakon +3 and made some drakons. And still got rekt. So I went even further, cheated a lot of int and levels, buffed the drakons up and then got through the game. So now im in G4 and scared of putting points into anything, due to fear of mybe realizing 15 hours into the game again, that my build is insufficient to continue with. Was G3 ment to be unbeatable as full shaper or did I have a wrong mindset somewhere? Does the "expendable creations" tactic work on later G-s or am I supposed to keep them alive and level them, cause I really liked being completely reckless with them in earlier G-s? Do full shaper builds work in later Geneforge games? How much is too much into shaping skill? I asked because I read somewhere in a forum that 6 in any shaping is good enough, finished G2 with 18 in fire shaping. After my tumble with G3, I went back and started experimenting in previous games aswell. I noticed that increasing shaping skill gives rather little in basestats to your freshly formed creations. Their general lvls increase yet their stat lvls fall behind. I couldnt be fully bothered to figure out how the statdistribution works. How does it actually work?
  16. I decided to start this thread to share scripting advice with similar minded people so that we don't have to reinvent the wheel every time. Using "exhaustive search" technique and this trick: In a dialog script (signposts are nice), put this temporary script (Remember to remove it after testing!): code = num=10; // It can be whatever number you want from the creatures in the zone // you can see the numbers if you use the editor. add_char_to_party(num); temp=1; while (temp<3005) { if (char_in_party(temp) > 0) { change_coins(temp); } temp=temp+1; } break; You talk to the signpost, creature 10 is added to your party (if spawned) and then you see its number from the coins you gained. I don't know how good you're in scripting, so I'll add this: At the beginning of the zone dialogue txt, you should have: // dlg.txt begintalkscript; variables; short num; short temp; MY PROBLEM: And that's a big one, so please help. Not all creatures seem to have a "total" number! After ~20 hours of work I can't find the number for the mages in the bone peaks. I can do some stuff to circumvent it and not lose a whole quest chain, but it would be far simpler and more efficient if I could find, or generate, some identifier for them to see if they're in party. Else if I put a flag when they're recruited and then they die or are dismissed, the events will keep happening...
  17. In the course of GF5, there are two examples of Ghaldring failing to act against someone or delaying to act, for no real apparent reason and in both cases there is the theory he does it out of sentimentality. SPOILERS AHEAD ***************************** The first is of course, Litalia. Ghaldring prevents Drakons from acting against her. According to Saakash, a lifecrafter working on new Unbound in the lab, Ghaldring nearly attacked Saakash once she cast doubt on Litalia. And if you kill Litalia for Saakash, he says that Ghaldring will understand, but she will inform him with a message because she doesn't want to be there when Ghaldring gets the news of his former ally's death. The second is a bit more puzzling. Tholoss, the Drakon inside some ruins. Ghaldring says that Tholoss would be useful and that he is respected. Tholoss himself though, says that according to Drakon custom, he should be dead since he challenged Ghaldring and that Ghaldring loses faces since Tholoss is alive. He doesn't know why Ghaldring doesn't kill him and theorizes it may be out of sentimentality. And yet, Ghaldring doesn't want Tholoss dead, just brought back. So... any thoughts on those?
  18. Hello Geneforge fans! It is with great pleasure that I present to everyone my first mod for GF5. This mod implements new items into the game, namely, Artifact Batons. These highly modified thorn batons are designed around the idea of implementing artifact weapons into the game alongside the artifact armors that players can get over the course of the game. These batons function like regular batons, but with a few cool twists: - No reloading needed. These batons come with infinite ammo, meaning that players won't have to worry about running out of thorns mid-battle. - Powerful custom attacks. Each of the higher level batons have their own unique attacks, which can be easily modified in the scripts. One baton for example is capable of inflicting the Searing Lightning status effect on enemies. - Stat buffs. Much like artifacts, these batons increase your stats, depending on which baton you choose to craft. In order to make these batons, you need to gather the materials you need to make these batons, which you then have to visit the smithy in Mera in order to get these made for you. You will have to do a little bit of work to obtain these rare batons, but you will find that the reward is worth the effort. The mod is here (Version 1.1): https://www.dropbox.com/s/pesxxvq9t2aeuv8/ArtifactBatons%281.1%29.zip?dl=0 To install this mod: All you have to do is simply replace the appropriate script files with the files found in the zipped folder. Don't forget to backup your original scripts. Why did I make this mod? Well, first, I was having fun modifying the scripts, and I had the idea of adding artifact weapons into the game, especially considering that no game in the entire Geneforge series to my knowledge has any artifact weapons, only artifact armors. This is sorta to show how it can be implemented. Second, I wanted to release a mod that would help players that struggle to use combat oriented classes like Warriors, Guardians, and Shock Troopers. Weapons don't really scale as well as magic or creations in the Geneforge series, and this mod is sorta a way to fix that problem. Feedback and bug reports are welcome. EDIT: CHANGES IN 1.1. - Optimized the Scripts. For modders, that means that the script takes less lines of code, which frees up space if you're one of those people adding custom items or creations to the game. - Bugfix: Properly made it so that you can't obtain these artifact batons unless you have the money to pay for them (previously, you could get away with having no money, but still be able to get the batons as long as you have the materials. This is no longer the case). - Added two new batons: Commander's Baton and Physician's Baton. The readme has the recipes and what they do exactly. - Buffed the Ether Onyx Baton's Stun and Energy Resistance boost from +20% to +30%. Hopefully that makes the baton a little more competitive.
  19. Okay, had these thoughts bouncing around in my head for a while, and figured I’d better get them out before they pound a hole in the side of my skull. In this case, it’s just some ideas and thoughts on the Geneforge series, and as I want to collect these in a way that makes sense, I’m going to order them in a structure like this. I’m going to go over three categories. Pros, Cons, and then Remake Points. Obvious what the first two are, the positive and negative aspects of the games, the third is where I think the game could be improved through a remake of it, from better stories, to just general systems I think could easily be improved. I’m going to start it right now, with a small overview of the series using those three categories. Geneforge Series(As a Whole) Pros: This series is one of maybe two I’ve ever played that uses a binary moral choice system in a way that feels organic. It’s not good or evil, paragon or renegade. It’s actually a complex web of morals that I think really gives the world of Terrestria life. Unique gameplay. You’re always a summoner in these games, no matter which class you pick, the major element of the game is Shaping, and like Bioshock and Plasmids, this is taken as a core of both the character and the world as a whole. It really gives the game an interesting feel, and makes party management both easier, and complex at the same time. Only one inventory to mess around with, but one that affects everyone in the party, who all draw from the same pool of resources, almost like a toned down strategy game. Cons Gameplay itself can always get a little old by the end. Near about level 30 for most playthrus, about the half to two-thirds mark of the game you’ve got your character built, and while you might refine it a little, your strategy will vary little. I know this is more about me than anything else, but it would be interesting to have more growth options near the end, like some special skills for people specializing in Leadership/Mechanics, or extra creation types or something. Remake Points Graphics and engine improvements could be implemented easily enough, maybe putting it on the same engine as Avadon. I’m obviously not a graphics snob, considering I like games like this, but still, it would be nice to give every named character their own model, or at least match the models up a bit better with the descriptions of them. Maybe some Old Save Bonus or New Game + system could be implemented to give you a cool feeling. Like, for instance, in game 2, you find a satchel at one point that belonged to the main character of game 1, and in game 3, one of the deliveraries to the school was from an ‘unnamed’ friend of the teachers on the mainland, and it contains some stuff from game 2, etc. More utility creations. One of the more interesting parts of game 4 was the use of followers that raised stats of the main character. It might be interesting to add those into any remake set, something that makes you a better mage, or gives a healing buff to everyone in the party, etc. With that out of the way, let’s get onto the individual games, some of which might surprise you. Still, it’s based off my opinions, so let’s move right along to the games. Geneforge 1 Pros First game in the set, so it began most of the series’ moral complexity from the start. The three servile sects are actually quite distinct from each other in philosophy and tone of their individual areas. Probably the best overall start of the games, funneling you right through a few areas and drip feeding you the world building at just the right level. Enough to make you curious, but never enough to really overwhelm you like some later games. Cons Sucia Island is probably the most disconnected of all the locations in the series, in a lot of ways. The individual areas feel disconnected from each other, with nothing really spilling over between them. The biomes of the island aren’t really together, with lush forests giving way to deserts, which then give way to frozen valleys. The story tries to justify this, but it does a poor job in some instances. And worst of all, the story is the least connected to the overall plot. While Sucia Island is important, in the grand scheme of things, it’s not as important as what was done later in the Valley of Game 2. The factions are meaningless. It feels weird to say that, but here, the factions and the loyalty are at their most useless. They’ll give you a few items, and some neat little stories, but since they’re so disconnected, you end up being able to ignore them. Heck, as all they give you is items and every great once in awhile a canister, this feels pointless. Like they should have a greater effect than they do, especially as only one faction, the Takers, actually ties into an ending, as you kind of need their help to get o Trajkov. The endings. This is a problem to a lesser extent in game 2, and barely present in the remaining three, but it feels like there’s only one good ending, out of about five bad ones. The one good ending is loyalist, almost nothing else gets you one that doesn’t plunge the world into war, and even that one is suspect for later, as Trajkov being the only one able to resist the geneforge’s corrupting influence, when he’s clearly been affected by the canisters, is just weird in the continuity of the series. Remake Points Map redesign. This is the only game in the series I’m going to say this, but this game needs a full redesign of most of its maps. It feels like Mr. Vogel(Can I call you, Jeff?) was really not sure how to make the maps right, and went with the same design philosophy that Avernum used. In that game, you would, at most, have probably five characters(It was possible to do eight, but unlikely as that would require all four being summoners), the tight hallways and narrow passages helped by keeping things out of sight, and building a sense of dread. In a game where almost everyone not doing a challenge run will have eight party members, it gets cramped and they tend to get in each other’s way a lot. Give more options. For the most part, a large selection of the maps and events require you to have great combat ratings, and they don’t really like the sneak/tech/charisma builds that are of great use in the later games. Make more connection points. There are events in this game, like resurrecting mind four, or assisting the renegade Sholai that seem like they should provide actual gameplay benefits, but either don’t do anything at all, or give you an item. Sometimes it is indeed a good item, but it would feel even better if these had some effect on the world at large. Like the Renegade Sholai actually moving in with the Obeyers, or the Takers sending warriors to assist with clearing a hard area, or things of that nature. Geneforge 2(My Personal Favorite) Pros Best overall story in the game. Where game 1 felt like it didn’t really have much of a point beyond setup, and the later three games feel like only parts of stories(Because they are), this is a complete tale from beginning to end. Everything here feels more complete because of that, as it doesn’t really need you to play the first game to get it. Excellently put together, and very cohesive world. Best factions. While the other three are anti-shaper, the version they take on are actually unique, as each has their own overall goal, and their reasons for doing what they’re doing. Most of these would be reflected in the Rebellion of the later games, but it would mostly take its stance from the Takers, with only a few bits from the other two. Really good here. Your choices are your own. You can even reject the valley’s conflicts, and just leave, though that leads to a bad ending, it’s still an option. And unlike game 1, where doing so felt weird, as you leaving the adventure half finished seemed just odd by that point, here it was actually something you could logically think would work, even though you’re warned it’s a bad idea by a few people. Every major combat encounter can be avoided or mitigated in some way. Anyone that has to die for any of the endings can either be mechaniced around or talked down, or just made very easy through non-combat options. This includes faction bosses, something the later games sometimes forget to do. Shanti. I’m going to list her here because she’s so much...more than what she seems. This is your teacher, and in the whole series, really the only person who is nice to you, not only because it’s her job, but because you’re her student. She cares about you because you are her responsibility, and she wants you to learn and grow as any teacher would. This is most shown in that fact that you can snark at her, and while later games would have you slapped down for doing that sort of thing, she laughs along with the joke. Really short screen time, but very important in my eyes. Cons The factions could help you more. Like in game 1, it sometimes feels like your actions should result in more aid than just a few items. Especially the Takers, given you can easily betray them at several points by either killing people they need, or stealing stuff, and yet they seem to trust you. It feels off, like they should have sent someone with you to watch you. There are times where you can learn things, but never are able to bring them up in conversation. In the Demo/Beginning area around Drypeak, you can bring up what you’re finding to Shanti, and she has things to say about it, but then later on, you can discover stuff like the fact that the Awakened leader has an escape ship, but can never do anything with that information. It just feels like there’s things to do there. The inventory. In game 1 it was bad, but for the most part, you only found a few items of real worth, and most of those were quest related. In game 2, it has a proto-crafting system, but because the sprites of many items are repeated, you can easily miss some nice items for it, and never realize it. Also, it was just a pain to mess around with. Pacing. After you get through the Drypeak area, the game’s pacing goes down the hole. It constantly repeats stuff, making sure you know things, as you can sometimes come into areas from separate routes, and it just feels so weird. It’s why I think this is the easiest game to start, but the hardest to finish, as by the time you’re through one area, you kind of already know the story for the rest, and it’s just a matter of getting there and doing things. Remake Points Expand on Shanti a bit, give her more of a presence at the beginning of the game, and maybe give a way to end her story differently. A bit of a spoiler, but she dies in the main game, and I’d love a way to either catch up to her if I get to her soon enough, or to find her being healed by serviles or something. The creations around the valley that you can get to join you are a neat idea(There are 7 of them, not counting Nora and three Ornks), but maybe expand them a bit too. Give them conversation options like with Greta/Alwan from Game 3. Not quite so extensive, but more just feelings they could give you, that sort of thing. Make more sprites. As I said in the Cons, the lack of different sprites for this one really hurts it at times, both for equipment, but also for some scenes. In example, when you finally find Shanti’s dead body, you’re told you buried it in a bit of dialogue, but it just kind of sits there instead. Give us a mound of dirt or something. Geneforge 3 Pros The most focused story in the bunch. There is not one part of this tale that isn’t tied directly into the main plot, as the Rebellion’s opening attack is what kicks everything off, and it’s what makes everything matter. Companions. Greta and Alwan, while a bit two-dimensional here, are still great characters, and really add something to your quest, both in how they interact with you, and how they interact period. These two are going to become big faces in the later games, and they start out here just getting their feet wet, so it works. Varied mission types. This one is probably the best at giving you missions on your quest. Not just go kill the thing or go steal the thing, but get me these things here that require talking to, or stealth around the back end to prevent being seen by this one guy. And almost every mission has more than one ‘success’ condition, so it all works out to really make a neat tapestry. The only game in the series where, regardless of which faction you fought for, your use of canisters in commented on, and in a way that makes you feel awesome either way. Cons Least connected overall world. While everything happens because of the main plot, the main plot itself can’t change at all because of your actions. This means each island is it’s own little story, and even when your actions should cause reactions from people, they don’t, at least not till the end game on the Isle of Spears. Harmony Island. This place sucks. It’s the second island in the chain, and it has the worst put together story. I complained above about the lack of connection between islands, and this one is the worst for that. Heck, there are just sometimes here were it feels like you should be able to do things, like talk down the island’s rebels or the like, and the game straight up says no. And then you get the sides here. Help the rebels means leaving the roaming monsters that no one likes. Help the shapers means leaving Diwaniya with his broken mental state. This game does the least to justify why you’re so important. No, really, you have almost nothing here to make you special. You’re not the only shaper on the islands as in 1 and 2, where even the few shapers that where there sat in cities and never moved. Here, there’s several shapers moving around, but they never seem to get anything done. Heck, only once do you even find on to help you out, on Dhonal’s Island, and that was Erika, who then vanishes after this, and never appears again. She should have been the one sent to Gull Island, not you, as she was already fully trained. More about this in the Remake Point. The Rebellion is at its weakest justification here. Even in games 1 and 2 those siding against the shapers are given good reasons, and actually made sympathetic. Here, they’re straight up terrorists, and while that makes sense, given their actions, they’ve done too much bad to get my sympathy. Worse, they have exactly one normal human in their bunch, everyone else is a shaper or mage they got to join them. Really makes them feel off putting to me. Remake Points Fix Harmony Island. Literally, that’s a point here, but the story there has a lot of stuff to fix. I suggested in another topic on how to do a few things, but a major one is either make Lankan more sympathetic(Seriously, he hit someone, and then ran off rather than face punishment), or make Diwaniya less so(A put upon guy who’s doing his best in what was supposed to be a make work assignment turned wrong). I have some more suggestions for doing it, but really, just make it happen somehow. Greta and Alwan, allow us to make them stay til the end of Gull Island, if not beyond. Especially with Greta, but even in a way with Alwan, you should be able to convince them, with a high enough leadership, to stay with you. Not only are they good combat companions, but it would allow more interaction with them. For instance, with Alwan, you can claim you’re assisting the rebellion to get closer to the leaders, a real Agent sort of tactics. With Greta, you can just point out how the rebellion isn’t helping anyone but themselves, make her doubt that these people are anything but selfish. Give more reason why the Shapers are sending small forces, i.e. just the player character. A good for instance here would be for Rahul is that there literally are no boats left. When you make it to the dock, there’s only one ship, and it’s got a spell on it that makes it so only the weaker shapers, meaning the students, can use it. There, now there’s a reason why you are alone there. Just an odd thing to note, and something I want to comment on here, as it comes up in discussions of game 3. In this one, you find several times, promising to help people not only annoys Alwan, but also lessens your loyalty to the shapers. The reason for this is interesting, and one I had a thought on in later replays: If a Shaper promises something, it happens. No ifs, ands, or buts, if a Shaper says something is going to happen it is. That’s why Alwan gets mad at you for promising things. Oh, he wants you to do them, no question, but not promise to do them, as it means you have to, without reservation. It also causes you to look more rebellious, as you’re willing to follow orders of non-shapers. Geneforge 4(My personal least favorite) Pros The most well connected story of them all. Everything is well setup, with lots of foreshadowing of events. Characters will make offhand mentions of things that become important points later. Monarch, the Drakon’s Scheme, just about every major point is talked about long before it becomes important. Miranda, Greta, and even Alwan to a lesser extent get more than enough screen time to really flesh them out, and make them real characters. They each justify their existence, and really bring a sense of self to the factions that they don’t have in the other games in series. This is probably the fairest balance between the Shapers and the Rebellion in terms of the story. You learn more motivations for the rebels than just power from the people, or killing the shapers from the creations. Also, the Shapers come across as more totalitarian than before. In some ways justified, but still, they’re much dirtier, and not the only people bringing order anymore, as they were in the first three games. Every section is very well set, with the biomes here connecting in logical ways. Extremely well done there, and really gives each section of the story its own feel. The factions feel different. As you can only support one side or the other, your rewards are locked in, and each one gives you something for finishing major quests, usually something special, and just having them means you might base part of your build off them, giving each faction a different play style. Cons Invincible enemies. These do not exist, or do so in only small ways in the previous three games, and even in the final game, they’re never so blatant as they are here. This is, of course, because the story has to have them survive til the end, but lacking the justification of others, they feel cheap. Heck, game 3 let you kill Hoge early, even in the school(Though there’s no way you can win that without cheat), so the lack of ability to do the same here feels off. The Shaper Camp. This area feels like it was a chekhov's gun that failed to fire. In games 2, 3, and 5 there are testing areas, ones with places you’re not supposed to go yet, but can get some nice rewards when you’re stronger combat wise later. It felt, especially given the guard outside Southforge’s lines, that the camp was being setup for the same, but it never happens. Worse, it infinitely respawns enemies, which, while I’ll allow it in border forts, makes no sense here. As stated above, it just feels off. While the plot is well set up, the pieces don’t always connect as well as they could. Now, this is because it can’t always insure you’ve saved certain people, like the caravan from Southforge, but still, it really does feel like you should encounter these people later. My biggest one are the people in the Safehouse. Your told directly that they want to leave, but they never do, even if you kill all three guardians. Monarch feels incomplete. Not just because you never learn his origin, but then there’s the option at the end of his fight. You can let him go, without demanding to know his story(Mind, he could lie, but it would have been nice to be given the option). Here, he’ll just say he’ll go bother the Shapers, and you don’t lose reputation with them if you allow it(At least I don’t think so, it has been a while). I don’t think there’s an equivalent option for the Rebellion, like recruiting him to bother them, or capturing him for them. It’s odd. Once you’re locked into an ending, it’s very hard to change, and that’s a shame because once I hit the end of the Rebel storyline, I really want to change. The Drakon’s plan, even according to the character, is just a larger scale version of Monarch’s, and that’s an awful thing. Especially since not only did we see how bad that was, but we’re then told that there’s no other options, when you could have been kicking the shapers butts up and down the provinces. The final battles. The battle at the Unbound area is different depending on if you’re a shaper or a rebel. I know this is because of it being a game, but it feels cheap when the game hits you with all these defenses if you’re playing a shaper, but then you have almost none of them if you’re a rebel. Neither Cons nor Pros Shotwell and Khur, interesting idea here. One for each faction, and so much like Greta and Alwan, giving little story tidbits and just some extra muscle for areas you go to. I find their inclusion a bit confusing, as both will join you only for a single province, before falling away. For their own reasons, of course, but still, I’m not sure how to feel about them, I just think they deserve a mention. Remake Points Fewer invulnerable enemies. I know it only happens a few times, but either make them a cutscene completely, like have Alwan leaving the keep when you meet him, like with Miranda and the creations at the checkpoint, or just something to keep me from noticing he’s invincible. More ending options. While game 3 gave us two endings, game 4 gives two and a half, when it really should be giving four and a half. One ‘win’ ending for each side, one ‘neutral’ ending, and then the Trakovite ending. In this case, for the shapers, expand it a bit. We merely have to pick if we want to open the gates out of Gray Ghost to open an escape route early. It will give them more warning we’re coming, making more forces, and giving you the current ending fight to win. If you just go straight after them, you fight a much smaller force instead, as the attack is so sudden. Mind, now you don’t escape, and while the rebellion dies, so do you and Alwan. In the rebels case, the neutral ending is the current one. For the win ending, you have to go assault the shaper strongholds on your side of the continent. Specifically Rivergate Keep, and the Shaper Camp, with a few optional targets that will help you in the final assaults by gaining more npc allies. Upon beating the camp, you’re told you won the war because most of the more proactive shapers were in that camp, and without them, eventually the sheer weight of the Rebellion won the war. Geneforge 5 Pros Difficulty level does the most to change the play experience here. In the previous games, it really only had an effect on the damage formulas, making you hit harder and enemies hit softer. Here, it controls the enemy levels directly, and that has a lot of major differences on them, allowing them to hit more, and more powerfully. Really good job here. Lots of options, and lots of ways to damage enemies. You can win the whole game only killing a few guys now, especially as even a few points in stealth allows me to seemingly sweep invisibly through certain areas. I really like that. Combat options are expanded, and now, as there are spells for all damage types, and more importantly at least one enemy in the game resist each damage type, you’re more varied in your combat. Thanks to the way Shaping and Spells work, it never feels wasted when you get more power. Cons The images. A weird thing to bring up, but in the other games, you mostly got unique images in the beginnings and endings. Here, those loading images you see, yeah, those are the ones you’re going to see for the endings too. It makes them feel less special, and worse, due not only to repeating on loading screens, but most of the endings themselves using the same ones, it feels like there’s few differences between them. Heck, that farm village scene is used in all five endings, regardless of who you helped. Pacing. In the opposite way of game 2 though. Wherein game 2’s paces was bad because it constantly had to repeat things, just to make sure you didn’t miss them by skipping around the map, here it’s because nothing repeats. Every story is unique, and the details, even if you find out there’s stories there, aren’t told til you arrive. Like the Dera Reaches. You know there’s something weird going on, but you learn nothing about what exactly until you’re already in the middle of it. Very few stories connect. Not quite as bad as game 1, but honestly, closer to that than any of the others. None of the plots connect here, even when it feels like they should. Bennhold for example. He is a major bandit, somehow always raiding shapers(Even one of the guards, I think, says he’s been doing this since before the war), but we never really find out how, and you just kill him. It’s the end of a questline, true, but nothing comes of it. You kill him, and it’s over. The Final Battles don’t work for some factions. There’s two of them, and they seem tailored to two factions, specifically the Rebel and Alwan endings for the fight against the Council and Ghaldring respectively. The fight doesn’t work for the Trakovites, Taygen, or Astoria’s factions though. For them it actually feels antithetical, as for the Trakovites they’re trying to end shaping, or at least get it restricted, and by doing this, they’re returning the Shapers to power. Taygen, well if his Purity Agent doesn’t work on the Drakons, then it’s worthless. And Astoria just killed the leader of the other side during a peace talk. I hope that shows in brief why I feel the way I do about them. The faction stories aren’t well written. So many of them are on the same maps, but in a lot of cases, the missions themselves seem to prove the faction wrong. The Rebels can’t win without your help, Astoria really doesn’t want peace, she’s just tired of fighting, and the Trakovites are focusing solely on the Shaper lands, because they’ve got a deal with the Rebels to do so, showing how far they’ve fallen from their precursors in game 4. Again, Alwan and the Rebel stories mostly work, which leads me to think they were written first. The Nodye Coast and other such areas are on the map, but unreachable. Not really that big a con, but they’re built up so much, it feels like they were going to be included at one point and then cut. Remake Points Biggest one, take two of the factions out. The Trakovites and Taygen specifically. Fold them into the other stories. Trakovites instead of being hypocrites, go to being the Rebel side of the peace storyline, setting up the meetings and stuff, and helping Astoria. Taygen and Rawal go from Council members, to just Shaper Lords, like what Rahul was in game 3, with both being under Councilors, Alwan and Astoria respectively. With that done, you can use their stories to expand the other plots. In this case, Rawal is a schemer, and actually threatens Astoria a time or two, with you being someone he got via the more ‘underworld’ sort of connections. His experiments are now tolerated because she can’t expose him without doing damage to her cause, and so he’s allowed to be his jerky self. Taygen keeps much of his story, but now has Alwan breathing down his neck, trying to stop him from finishing the agent, which is a bad end if you do release it, similar to the ending with Rawal. In this case, however, you have to assist some of Alwan’s agents in putting down the rebellions in the camps that have gone down, but then escorting them out of camps that are still up. Showing his iron fisted mercy. For the Rebels, keep them the way they are, but add some to both Alwan and Ghaldring. In this case, Alwan’s Pride, and Ghaldring’s ambition. Both have a lot of both, and certain actions you do raise or lower them. For Alwan, things like killing/capturing Bennhold and showing the ‘superiority’ of shaper law makes him proud to be a shaper. Ghaldring meanwhile has ambitions to become a new lord at the end of the rebellion, and if you help him, your star will rise, even as he goes iron fisted on everyone. Killing his rivals, allowing him to take credit for your victories, etc. cause his Ambition to rise. Give two variations to the three endings, with different images to go along with them, though each faction gets similar ones. For Alwan, if you get his Pride up enough, he joins you, in Shade Form, in the final battle, becoming a very powerful NPC, but also taking some of your other reinforcements away, to attack other points. Ghaldring meanwhile will only join the assault on the Citadel if he’s going to be crowned king at the end of it all, and is likewise a powerful NPC, but one that turns away a few others via his presence. For the Peace Faction, you get two final battles, a choice. Assist the Rebels coming down the valley from the north side of the Citadel, or assist the Shapers coming up from the south. From the north, you run into Alwan’s people, who try to block you, regardless of the peace process, and you can talk them down with a high enough leadership. From the south, three named Drakons, the Blazes, and an Unbound are waiting for you. You can take control of the Unbound, if your leadership is higher than their’s, and have it help you kill them. After all that, the ending varies if Alwan or Ghaldring was there, or which route you took to the final conference, as you assisting one side gives them the better position. Nothing too extensive changes, just who’s in charge after everything's said and done. Anyway, that took a lot longer to write than I thought it was, but I think I got everything out. Tell me what your thoughts are, where I’m wrong, or where I’m right. I look forward to hearing from you all.
  20. So I've finally decided to replay GeneForge 1 and go through the effort of touching all the stone pillars. And I found the lore behind the Shapers and Sucia to be incredibly fascinating. How the Shapers went from shooting magic radiation at their enemies to give them cancer to discovering Genes and self-sealing (although not many people know either fact) I love the irony when the Shapers denounce the natives as backwards savage, only to not only be their descendants but some have also repeated the Sucians' mistakes (attempting to transcend death via necromancy). I'm sad that there wasn't more lore. Are there any more explorations of Shapers' history in later games? I hope I was missing something.
  21. Hello there, White 'ere! I'm a long time fan of spiderwebsoftware (eversince I saw the first geneforge on real one arcade, shortly before the GF:2 release) As you can tell from the topic, this is a nostalgia post; Your favorite moments Awesome Glitches Lore Anything that floats your boat! I'll always remember the moment, in GF1 when I was carrying so much loot, I broke the encumberance system... Instead of having reduced AP, I had around 31, but with such a huge penalty to accuracy I couldn't hit anything! Another of my favorite moments was in teh endgame, (playing a shaper, after using the geneforge), going to Kazg, equiping a stick and... Well let's just say there are no more rebels in Kazg. So! what are your favorite moments in the geneforge series! And no, they don't have to be good one's Speak up, Pass it around, Take one down, 99 Canisters on the wall! Post Script just remembered another thing, from ye olde days o' geneforge An XP farm made, from my own slaves. Having them attack one another Since I had run out of things my lvl to slay. I did this in a town called pentil, In which an immortal servile lay. The gemstones I gathered, increased by the day. As the blood stains in the gutters, drained away. Fin.
  22. Greetings, everyone! I have been playing Spiderweb's games for about four years or so now, and I have been lurking in these forums for about three years (I may even have made one or two posts, but nothing relevant). I recently ran a Google search, as well as one in these forums, for Geneforge or Avernum conversions to a Pen & Paper RPG. How many results did it return? Google returned one post (not even a thread) where someone expressed their interest on such a thing. These forums returned, if I recall correctly, one single thread where someone did a bit of conversion to D&D 3.5. I couldn't believe that was all. Now, why couldn't I find anything else? Was it due to poor search-fu? Or author rights matters? Or simply because nobody ever went through with it? wkwkwkwk1
  23. Which ones in the series are your favorite and least favorite and why? For avernum I know the third remake hasn't come out yet so if you say the old version of avernum 3 that's ok. For me Avernum 2 is my favorite because to me it's the most complex since you have to make sure you have the right passes before you can go anywhere. My least favorite is Avernum 6 not just because it's the end but because I have to keep starting over (due to being a perfectionist and wanting to get everything there is) For Geneforge my favorite has to be 2 because you could still play both sides or one side and then clear your alligence with the sects, thus going on a killing spree and make the council very happy. My least favorite is Geneforge 3, because I had a really hard time getting into the story of it and it seemed kind of not fully thought out, like it didn't connect with the others in the series Any thoughts?
  24. It has been two hundred years since the Great Shaping War ended and the land settled into an uneasy peace between the old Shaping order of Terrestia and the victorious rebels of Sucia. The peace has been unstable, and often in name only. Cooperation between the two great powers was high at first, as uncontrolled Shaping was reined in and wild rogues hunted down jointly. The bitter process of rebuilding, though, and the constant demands by both sides for reparations have left relations tense. The occasional mad Lifecrafter vying for power has left the Shapers bitterly suspicious of Sucia; the violent suppression of the Serviles of Terrestia, who remain enslaved with little improvement in rights, has been used to portray the Shapers as barbarians. Both countries fear war, and few things keep them connected. Trade is taxed heavily to fund new buildups. The shipyards of both Lethia and Burwood are experiencing a boom, the forts along the Drypeak Mountains and the Okavano Fen are a-buzz with soldiers, and embassies are being sent out to call in old favors. In the deep recesses of the Foundry and the Grayghost Mountains, secret experiments are being conducted. The Shaper Council and the Assembly of Sucia watch these developments with concern, and they have responded with a last ditch effort to shore up relations. A recently returned expedition to a newly discovered island to the far north of the Okavano Fen provided the perfect opportunity. Both sides selected their brightest children and sent them to a new academy on the island, to be supplied by a small colony populated by citizens of both countries. There, the children studied the art of Shaping under the tutelage of some of the best magicians from both countries. With baited breath, the world waited. And they were succeeding. Until one day, both the students and the teachers had vanished without a trace. The workers sent to supply the school returned saying that the gates were barred and no one responded to their calls. Something suspicious happened. To make matters worse, a delegation of dignitaries from both nations will soon arrive to assess the progress of the school and negotiate. The need for secrecy is paramount. As such, a small band of adventurers was gathered from the colony to investigate the situation and restore the situation before the delegation arrives...
  25. Hi! I'm replaying Geneforge series right now and I'm trying to do things differently (specially with class selection). Right now I'm about to finish Geneforge 2 as a Shaper, and I'm planning to start Geneforge 3 right away with the Guardian class. I would like to see recommendations on how to build a Guardian, or simply just builds you like to play with this particular class (so, not necessarily the best ones, but just the ones you consider fun or interesting to play with). I'm used to play as an Agent and I had some problems to enjoy building my pure Shaper in G2. So, any ideas or recommendations for my future G3 Guardian? Also, I have a concern for when I reach G5. In my first playtrhough, G5 was the only game I didn't play as an Agent, since the Sorceress seemed pretty awesome. But I noticed that the "speed" spell and the "speed" effect in general had been modified radically. Maybe I was way to used to rely on the speed spell for obliterating foes with my agents, but I don't see if I would be able to play as a solo Agent in G5 without the magical AP accumulation. Is it viable? Or any other recommendation for playing Agents in G5? Thanks a zillion!
×
×
  • Create New...