77 replies to this topic

[eaintree]

Has Jeff put one out there?  Or an estimate?  "slowly gearing up to it" could mean next week or three months from now.  Avadon was easily my favorite Spiderweb game ever; getting a little impatient for the follow-up.

[Mosquito---Slayer]

at least 4-5 months I think, possibly more.

[nikki.]

As far as I know, Jeff hasn't even started beta-testing yet, which would imply months rather than weeks. Randomizer usually seems fairly clued up on beta schedules, so perhaps he will know more.

[Randomizer]

I still haven't got Jeff's initial request to see who is still insane enough to beta test.  It takes between 4 and 5 months from that until Mac release.  Part of the time is game balancing and part is Jeff hasn't finished writing half the game yet.

[eaintree]

Bah.

[ξ]

Hopefully that means that Avadon 2 will be large. I'm hoping for, like, Avernum 3 large. That was pretty cool.

[Earth Empires]

Avadon 1 wasn't small either but new areas would be nice.

[Mosquito---Slayer]

Earth Empires, on 25 December 2012 - 10:55 AM, said:

Avadon 1 wasn't small either but new areas would be nice.

Avadon 1 was actually very small by SW standards, It's almost hard to believe that the same company made Avadon and Avernum 3.

[MMXPERT-seraph of thermodynamics]

Ooo, I wanna beta test

[Earth Empires]

Mosquito---Slayer, on 25 December 2012 - 11:03 AM, said:

Avadon 1 was actually very small by SW standards, It's almost hard to believe that the same company made Avadon and Avernum 3.

True cause players went to same areas over and over again.

MMXPERT-seraph of thermodynamics, on 26 December 2012 - 02:04 AM, said:

Ooo, I wanna beta test

Then you need to keep eyeing forums since JV's beta-calling might not last long.

[Rent-an-Ihrno]

Seconded. It's time for me to man up and finally do the right thing, the testing thing. And yea, Avadon 2 should be, and probably will be, alot bigger. A1's investigative style of storytelling was great, but where's the good in the implementation of player decisions if they are only presented along a linear path? Gimme dat open world, Jeff. Gimme aaall dat world.

[Randomizer]

Jeff has been shifting to a linear world because it's easier to balance the major quests to an average party level for each area.  The older game remakes are still going to be open worlds with party death as the limiting factor on where you can go.

[Earth Empires]

poor us if we ever get Avernum 7, it could be reincarnation of A5.

[Painted Lady]

Somehow I didn't get the feeling that there were going to be any more Avernum adventures after A6 ended.

[Randomizer]

Jeff has an idea for a Avernum prequel, but with all the scheduled new Avadon and Avernum remakes who knows when he will ever try to develop it.

[Earth Empires]

A7 is very unlikely but still possible but most likely made by his kids if they follow daddy's footsteps.

[Ociporus]

Would the prequel be, tentatively, A0 (as opposed to A7) ?

[Mosquito---Slayer]

Ociporus, on 10 January 2013 - 05:46 PM, said:

Would the prequel be, tentatively, A0 (as opposed to A7) ?

It's not really decided that it will be made for sure, mostly it's just speculation.

[Substance Breakdown]

Jeff made an off-hand comment once about thinking that an Avernum prequel could be cool. He's been quoted ever since. I'm not even sure he ever said he had concrete ideas, just that there was interesting stuff to work with.

—Alorael, who still wants to play First Expedition. Also known as Avernum 2 Chapter 2: The Game. Also known as Party Dies at the End.

[Earth Empires]

How to Win at Cooperative Games, on 11 January 2013 - 07:15 AM, said:

—Alorael, who still wants to play First Expedition. Also known as Avernum 2 Chapter 2: The Game. Also known as Party Dies at the End.

yea outcome is known but not how things came to that point.

[Randomizer]

There is the possibility of Avernum 2 Conquering the Caves where you are lowly support troops helping the Triad push back the demons culminating 5 games later with the imprisonment of Grah-Hoth.

[Rent-an-Ihrno]

Earth Empires, on 11 January 2013 - 11:06 AM, said:

yea outcome is known but not how things came to that point.

Most of it is, actually. You can piece it together in quite some detail if you pay attention to the dialogues in A1-3.
This is also where one of the most problematic issues of a First Expedition-game lies: we know that they split up. We know where and how and why they die. I'm not sure it would work out well to put the PC in a position where he has to choose - "Do you want to join the party who is hunted down by Slithzerikai and eventually seal themselves off in the Spiral Crypt to starve? Or do you go along this equally linear path of doom with the dude with the big sword, to get eaten by demons in that other corner? Either way, I hope all your characters go in the same direction bc otherwise things'll get real complicated!"

No, no. We shall have a Avernum Magic-cards, Geneforge D&D-style boardgames and Avadon: Total War before that happens.

[Substance Breakdown]

And yet we don't know exactly what happened to the entire First Expedition. We know that everyone thinks they were entirely slaughtered. We know that most of them died, and how and where. But could one intrepid band have managed to escape back to the surface and been hushed up? Certainly. The Empire had to discover the Final Gauntlet and that ascending cave near Fort Draco that got sealed off somehow.

—Alorael, who is also always inspired by the BoE scenario Truffle Days, which includes a First Expeditioner who went native. Before there were any other human natives, even!

[Randomizer]

Jeff probably wouldn't do it this way, but in the text Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, the game goes from place to place with the player controlling a different party.  Thus even though you keep dying you get to see if you can survive to reach the predetermined death scenes.

[Rent-an-Ihrno]

@Randomizer: Yes, for other games, this would be a possibility. But for a Spidweb-style RPG, It's impossible. (Meaning it wouldn't be a Spidweb-style RPG anymore. Progression, and such.)
@Alorael: I guess that would be an option. Explore the caves, find a way out. However, the gameplay would be very limited. Only sliths and demons, no settlements.

[Substance Breakdown]

Sliths, demons, dragons, and most of all, your scattered expedition. Encampments could serve the same purpose as towns, but you'd have to keep finding them. It would be different, but it could be different in an interesting and fun way.

—Alorael, who could also see playing as the more fortunate Second Expedition. Someone had to go back and report everything to the Empire.

[Mosquito---Slayer]

It could even have some psycho type humans, after all there were physical pathways to go there at some point of time, I will have to say if Jeff ever makes it, this is going to be really awesome.

[nikki.]

Yeah, and there are plenty of ancient temples and crypts, so there might be isolated bands of humans still around. Maybe you can even slaughter them to prepare the caves for felons!

[Skwish-E]

Your Quest: Remove all of the current human inhabitants. You can convince them to move back to the surface (preferred) or kill them (acceptable). If non-humans (lizards or kitties) want to escape the coming influx of undesirables, they can be disarmed and encouraged to emigrate to the lovely gated communities set aside for them on the surface. The kitties can have several acres of swampland, and the lizards have been granted a large tract of tundra.

[nikki.]

The Sliths are actually native to the caverns; in Avernum it's mentioned that you don't have them on the surface at the very beginning of the game, and I'm sure something is mentioned in Avernum 3 to the same effect. The upshot is you can either let the Sliths be, or kill them. Judging by how the Empire reacts to most non-humans, however, it doesn't look good for the lizardfolk.

[Substance Breakdown]

The sliths are natives. The nephils are not. Either way, why would the Empire waste energy on displacing natives? They use Avernum as a dumping ground. Nonhumans, rebels, and troublemakers are all undesirable. Why bother to resettle them when they can just all be dumped or left in the caves to murder each other?

—Alorael, who in fact thinks this is a large point about nephilim. Their resettlement is Avernum, and they're not pleased about it.

[Rent-an-Ihrno]

Guys, what are you talking about? What ancient crypts? There were no humans, and no Nephils. Only Reptiles or all shapes and sizes. Even the Sliths mainly lived deeper down than what we saw in Avernum, and the vahnatai as well. The First Expedition (and the Second one too, in a different way) might've seen a little bit of a bunch of stuff, but not enough to put together a game in the style we have known so far. No civilization, no infrastructure, nothing. How many camps can such an expedition have set up to be of any significance in the entirety of Avernum?

[Mosquito---Slayer]

It's Jeff's game if he wants it to have things he will do so, btw I think there was this crypt north of formello, which is said to be very old, The game will be just like an extended version of Avernum 2, chapter 2, which was like super cool.

[Earth Empires]

there is crypt north from Formello but no indication whose crypt.

[Substance Breakdown]

No, there are some messages about it having pictures of humans even though it's too old for any humans to have been there. There's never any explanation for it that I can recall. Earlier explorers of some kind? Vahnatai whose stylized art doesn't look right (but the wrong kind of undead)? Some mysteries never get an explanation.

—Alorael, who is forced to conclude that the Empire faked the moon landing using a sound stage in the caves. It's the only possible explanation. Wake up, sheeple!