Jump to content

This thread is a spoiler.


Donald Hebb

Recommended Posts

Spoilers, spoilers, spoilers. This post is pure and unmitigated spoiler in a thread of spoilers. But you asked for it.

 

The mysterious pylons in all towns and forts are revealed as a teleportation device once you reach Fort Avernum. They're convenient for quick travel. There's another teleportation pylon accessible after the last battle of the game, and it takes you to the ending.

 

—Alorael, who believes a quick and unhelpful explanation is given in the game as well. Deus ex machina covers it, more or less. Actually, since the pylon is kind of a machine, and since Jeff can be considered a god of sorts over the Avernum world, would it be machina ex deus?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Machina ex deo, I believe. But actually it might make good sense for Rentar-Ihrno to have made her own pylon, to transport her agents from her fortress out into Avernum. The question remains as to why she doesn't just use this transportation capability to escape again herself. Presumably magic capable of creating these pylons would have no trouble over the trivial fact that a crystal soul can't walk over and touch one.

 

Perhaps it requires more or different magical infrastructure to transport a crystal soul than an ordinary mortal, however, and Rentar-Ihrno had built a mortal-insertion portal but hadn't yet finished her own escape route. This would imply that she put a higher priority on continuing her offensive, through insertion of mortal agents, than on ensuring her own last ditch survival. This strikes me as entirely plausible for her: she is certainly obsessed with revenge, and very possibly too exhausted to be all that keen on living to fight another day if she is defeated yet again.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

She didn't have any trouble escaping the first time you fight her/it. Rentar is strong enough on her own to teleport away, she is after all, the most powerful Vahnatai wizard. The pylon is just there so Jeff can end the game...pity too, I would have preferred a more A1/A2 style of "ending".

Link to comment
Share on other sites

After killing rentar and getting the game-over, my first thought was, "When do I get to kill Dorikas?"

 

And hell, there's at least one gaping hole with that pylon- if pylons can be accessed by unattuned people, doesn't that essentially mean that Rentar's inner sanctum could have been accessed by ANYONE? Why wasn't I teleported there in the first place?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Quote:
Originally written by *i:
She didn't have any trouble escaping the first time you fight her/it. Rentar is strong enough on her own to teleport away, she is after all, the most powerful Vahnatai wizard. The pylon is just there so Jeff can end the game...pity too, I would have preferred a more A1/A2 style of "ending".
How do we know how much preparation went into her first getaway? We do know that her preparations at her final fortress have been more hurried, and teleportation is probably pretty hairy stuff. And there's no reason to assume that pylons have to work equally well or easily both ways.

Sheesh, people. In a game with all kinds of outright magic, it seems to me that there is bound to be enough wiggle room for rationalizing things like this. Work with the man a bit.
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Once you have magic in a game, pretty much anything you think up is "possible" in any way you want it to be. Why dissect it as if it were science? I find it rather intuitively silly and not much in line with previous Averna that a crystal soul can move itself around in the first place. But I can't argue about whether or not it should be possible.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Quote:
Originally written by Synergy67:
Once you have magic in a game, pretty much anything you think up is "possible" in any way you want it to be. Why dissect it as if it were science? I find it rather intuitively silly and not much in line with previous Averna that a crystal soul can move itself around in the first place. But I can't argue about whether or not it should be possible.
Let's just assume that Rentar is still insanely powerful and intelligent. That should account for her self-teleporting. I mean seriously, she's supposed to be the most powerful vahnatai mage out there.
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Quote:
Originally written by Student of Trinity:
Sheesh, people. In a game with all kinds of outright magic, it seems to me that there is bound to be enough wiggle room for rationalizing things like this. Work with the man a bit.
Yeah, if this were the ONLY thing he rationalized. Unfortunately, Jeff has a tired and predictable pattern that he's fallen into. At least he provided a paper thin explanation, but still, I felt the pylon is sheer laziness. Rather than making a real means of escape, Jeff resorts to authorial magic to do his dirty work...same complaint I have in A3.
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Facing a living or undead incarnation of our final foe would have been more satisfying for more of us, I think. You wouldn't believe how basic and boring the original final conflict was in the first beta I saw. I, and no doubt, other testers asked for more elements and foes in the final fight and we got a few more, at the least. I would have liked to have seen some kind of serious ambush though. That final series of fights in A3 seemed worthy of someone so powerful and powerfully protected. In A4 it's surprisingly meek, the nasty V-Lord notwithstanding.

 

I also just realized there are no animated cutscenes in A4 at all, just text and pictures at the start and end.

 

All this kind of reminds me of how Civilization 3 was after Civ 2. Civ 3 had a whole new engine and many improved elements, but it was only halfway there and had some bad flaws, and it has taken another game afterwards to apparently really put some polish on it and get it right. (Civ 4) That's kind of how I think A4 has turned out—a lot of improvements and changes with a new engine which hopefully will be much better polished in A5—and it better reinclude elevation or I will vote with my feet.

 

I personally enjoy fewer bugs and blobs and critters to fight, and more intelligent adversaries like the bandits and mages. It's more satisfying bantering with and then dispatching a human adversary than going on "another bug hunt". The lack of dervishes or true soldiers in this game to fight was a little disappointing. I always enjoy dispatching some smug 'n' snotty Empire Dervish.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

×
×
  • Create New...