Telanos

In A6? X. The one and only master of *stylish* destruction. But I also like Solberg - less so after he got embittered and lich like, but all the same I am fond of Solberg. The rest... meh. I wish they'd elaborated more on Aimee though (in one of the earlier games)

Originally Posted By: Californian Just personally, I want X's anvil spell. I covet it. Now that you mention it, this would be awesome. Raining anvils... glorious! A more stylish spell was never invented!

Originally Posted By: Seaweed Am I the only one who found the ending of A6 to be a little... anti-climactic? Nope. A6 left me feeling like I hadn't really accomplished all that much. Previous games permitted a 'not on my watch!' attitude to problems, where you were able to deal with problems that cropped up. Demon about to break free of prison? Send it packing to the infernal realms! Empire invading? Punish them by killing their emperor. Monster plagues ravaging the land? Exterminate the pests. Got a problem? Not on my watch! But this time around.... Mushroom disease, invading sliths and an upstart dragon? Too bad. Live with it.

Based on somewhat fading memories, I really loved the Exile series - Exile 2 in particular. I can see that the game has advanced in many ways since then, but the atmosphere evoked by the game doesn't quite match that of earlier versions. A1-3 were remakes of E1-3 but with less features and better interface, and A4-6 I think went further along this path (reduced features, but better interface). I am being rather broad in my use of the term 'features' and 'interface', but that is I think a decent generalisation, where features refers to things like the range of spells available, and interface refers to not just the UI which has improved dramatically, but such things as having an inventory without weight restrictions (no more treasure piles at dungeon entrances!). Its been an interested progression of trade-offs, with what I've felt as a progressive decline in the quality of the overarching storyline and the atmosphere they evoked. But on the flip side, the advances in the interface, and associated removal of behaviour that adds nothing to the game but tedium (eg: aforementioned dungeon entrance treasure piles) makes for a huge improvement. Having gotten used to the luxuries of the newer interface, I couldn't go back to playing E1 before getting too annoyed with it (I actually went back and tried!). Storyline wise, E/A1-3 were memorable. A4 was meh. I remembered it only because I've just played A6 and the time of shades was mentioned. A5 was totally forgettable. So forgettable infact, that I had to go the A5 game page and read its description to remember what happened in it. Spell changes have been rather dramatic in particular (at least by my style of playing). We've gone from being able to create barriers and cast quickfire, to white elephant arcane blow spells (although admittedly it was more useful in A6). Some people have made the comment that the game has become more balanced, and it probably has. Spellcasters seem much less powerful in A6 relative to previous games, but some spells gain more relevance. For example, I think A6 may have been the only game where summoning spells (other than simulclarum) were actually worth anything. The 2 summon limit is probably necessary for balance.... but at the same time, I probably could care less if I were given the chance to flood a dungeon with a torrent of simulclarum Ur-Basilisks from exile 2, and walk through a garden of monster statues Side note 1: It would be awesome if you monsters could be petrified and result in an actual statue! Hopefully a statue that you could break/move to prevent them blocking doorways etc. Yes, it would be totally unbalanced, but then again... I wouldn't be the guy that let quickfire loose in dungeons (and some outdoor encounters!) and hid behind fire barriers for the hell of it if I were concerned about balance, and oddly enough its those ridiculous things that I did that I remember many years later. Side note 2: Perhaps it could be an interesting idea to have an 'unbalanced/fun' game option in addition to the easy/normal/hard, where we can actually summon unlimited monsters etc as per earlier games. Having an 'outdoors' as mentioned many times already had a huge impact on the feel of the game. It meant that we weren't taking 3 steps out of one town and suddenly tripping over the next one (not even a stones throw away!). The introduction of new things like battle disciplines was something I never really got into. To be honest, I never even touched them while playing. On a smaller scale, things have gotten more... well thought out. Each area has something interesting - that is to say, just about every area has something in it. I think its something that works well for A6, because if every area was packed in with stuff in E1-3 it would probably have felt like a grind fest (which I detest... probably the reason why I had no qualms using quickfire in a past dungeon... and trying to wait things out). In this respect, A6 does really well. The only areas which felt drawn out, were those areas which we weren't supposed to go into anyway (formello infinite spawn areas). The rest of the areas were pretty succinct. Go in, do stuff, and exit. No frustrating slog of monsters or pylons, no conveyor belt of golems and no laser puzzles with hordes of monsters getting in the way of already frustrating puzzle solving! (Moral of the story: You can have monsters, and you can have puzzles, but please don't mix the two - or at least not excessively! The only other really frustrating area in the games that came to mind would have been the gremlin dungeon in one of the earlier games where the walls shifted around and scry map wouldn't work.) Anyhow, thats about it for my thoughts.

Hi, I'm having problems with the northern test in the lake of trials. It doesn't want to let me complete it. I found the secret button on the north wall, and went through the series of secret rooms, but it doesn't let me go any further. There is another button behind the crystal next to the statue which I hit. I think it was supposed to open the next passageway, however nothing happened. Oh, I have looked at the old posts on this under "lake trial" and yes I have searched around with "u" and yes I have hit every button in the room. The passageway behind the south wall isn't opening. If there is any way I can enter in a command to reset the area or something, (or something I'm missing) that would be *really* appreciated because I was foolish and have been going on quicksaves for a long stretch.... and I have quicksaved since. So yeah, I can't really load without having to go back a long way. Cheers

Quote: I'm not quite sure what you mean by tile map or tile graphics. A4 is just as much a matter of isometric square grids as A1, A2, and A3. Even Geneforge is actually tile-based, although it's less obvious. If you mean graphics, well, the terrain is still tiles and everything else is still sprites. Well yes I'm aware of that. To clarify, when I say tile graphics I mean it reminds me of board games where you have distinct squares and characters on those squares. I guess I found the whole setup charming, whereas even though the Geneforge graphics are "better", its an attempt to be something it clearly is not.... I just don't feel as taken in with the Geneforge graphics. Quote: —Alorael, who doesn't see what the Anama and the Church of the Divine Lucre have to fight about. The latter has no mages and the former doesn't particularly care about money. You have a point. But I'm sure it can't be too hard to manufacture a reason for them to duke it out. In this particular case, I'm less concerned witih small details like how they get into a fight (someone else can solve that) and more interested in the coolness of having the two loony faiths at war Quote: 4. Fire and force barriers were useful for two things. Containing quickfire if you were fast enough and were in the right place. The other was to deflect those moving blocks so they didn't crush you. I had forgotten about moving blocks, but in short the barrier spells were essentially useless - I am basically ignoring specialised/contrived circumstances and focusing on general game applicability. Quote: 9. Food is still around as a source of healing for those that want it. Poison is not as useful since most monsters die before it takes effect. There are still a few items that duplicate it like the oozing blade. Yes, food does heal, but the amount is so small as to be insignificant. Who can really say they lug around food to heal themselves when there are potions galore, not to mention spells available? As for poison, I concede that as a problem that needs to be overcome for poison to become useful - but then, the same can be said of acid and its corresponding spell. Perhaps re-introduce monsters with high resistance to physical and magical damage, and vulnrability to poison? I realise of course, this brings us closer and closer back to E2. Quote: 11. It's buried in the instructions, bug Jeff did mention the change on combining tool use and unlock spell. Yeah well.... what can I say. I jump into the game and learn by tinkering. I read the manual only when I'm forced to. Quote: 12. The wait 40 turns isn't needed since you can't get back health/spell points by using it any more. 16. Bring back slow HP/SP regeneration Quote: 13. Some of the lower level skills were useful like parry and riposte. Lethal blow is just too hard to train up to in a real game. Too long ago for me to remember much and in any case I never really explored the skills too much. I'm simply going by what I remember was mentioned in the forums. But going on what you mentioned, I don't think there should be skills like Lethal blow which are there but never attainable to any practical degree. All covered under balancing the skills out.

Hmm, some thoughts on this: 1) It has already been said, but I didn't like the Geneforge dressed up as Exile feel the game had. I think I'd be much happier if A5 went back to a distinctly tile based map. Sure its probably a step backwards in terms of graphics but I don't think anyone played Exile/Avernum becuase they thought the graphics were great. The tile pictures had their own unique charm. 2) Rentar was a major character in A2 and A3 - A4 was overkill with her being the badguy yet again. But I think there could still be a place for her in A5 as a minor character (kind of like that old master potion brewer lady whose name I can't remember for the life of me) 3) A5 gives the chance to do what A4 didn't. Tie up all the lose ends that were lying around in A2-3 (or rather, Exile 2-3). I don't even remember them now since its been such a long time, but the main one that does come to mind is the Slith and their brethern in the deeper caves. 4) Bring back those cool spells from Exile. Perhaps its my bad memory, but as a general rule it seems each progression onwards involves pruning spells from the selection. In a way I do see the logic behind it - I mean, nobody REALLY had a use for spells like Force Barrier or Fire Barrier.... or Quickfire. But even though they're effectively useless I had immense amusement from using and abusing them in odd ways (I remember dispatching of a random outdoor encounter by setting quickfire to the place and walling myself in with barriers) 5) Again, faulty memory is probably at play here but do feel free to being back minor characters that most of us have forgotten about. In particular, I would like to see Aimee (From Exile 1-2 who used to live in the North West prior to the Empire's invasion) make a return from whatever world she went off to and become a more significant character. Granted, she may be too old now but you could always say she discovered other means of prolonging her life without the painful side effects Solberg seemed to be suffering. Or perhaps she trained an apprentice, died and her apprentice is bringing her back to be buried. Doesn't really matter how shes worked back in but I'd really like to see her around A5 and her method of departure leaves alot of scope for new material related to her return as well. 6) Avoid making A5 a clone of A4, which was a clone of A3. I obviously exaggurate, but its somewhat annoying when the crux of the storylines are too similar. 7) Include a character editor. Something similar to the one we got in Exile 2 would be really nice. 8) Movement/Map thing. Geneforge engine aside, the key difference I see between A3 and A4 is the use of one huge map in A4 vs the "overmap" (for lack of a better word) and seperate locations within the "overmap" which you visit in E3. I think the concept of having everything on one huge map is interesting and might have some merit, but as A4 demonstrated, its probably going to be incredibly difficult to get a map huge enough to get the same feel as you would in E3. The fact that the distance between two cities was often shorter than the width of some cities was somewhat annoying (see overall map of A4, where the great castle is 1/3 of the great cave). And if you make it huge enough to have it feel nice, then you have a problem where the distance between cities may be uncomfortably far (which could probably be addressed with horses and whatnot), but perhaps the larger problem is what to stuff into all that empty space. You can crawl through only so many dungeons between cities before it gets repetitive and you want to get back to the storyline..... So, i'm not saying that a having everything on a huge map is bad but there are some issues that need to be overcome for it to feel good. 9) Bring back food and poison. OK, the hunger thing was somewhat excessive in E2 (I felt its effects came on too fast), but as a concept it was pretty good. It meant food wasn't completely useless. As for poison, I feel that could be expanded on. Remember how we used to be able to apply poisons onto weapons? We could expand on that. Bring back the skill, and have different things we can apply onto our weapons. Not just straight up poison damage, but perhaps slowing, or paralysis. It could help pull the potionmaking skill out of irrelevence. 10) Spells/Experience. Specifically, make it so that if Sug summons say a lizard and the lizard kills something, Sug gains experience as if he was the one who killed it. Perhaps make summons alittle cheaper - something to turn summoning back into a useful spell. Same thing for arcane blow. For its cost, it was useless for anything other than sounding good. 11) Lockpick skill + lockpick spell synergy. It sounds good at first, but I feel mages shouldnt really need to invest copious amounts of skill points into a lockpicking skill - especially if you arn't informed about this when you're creating characters. A guy that picks locks shouldn't necessarily have to know lots of magic in order to unpick the strongest locks. Perhaps have it so that the spell gets rid of magically locked stuff/magical protections on locks and the weaker normal locks, but stronger locks still require normal pick locking (after having whatever magical protection on it dealt with) 12) The wait 40 turns option was really cool when you needed to pass time by in a dungeon for whatever reason. Much better than being forced to click around at furious speeds. 13) I guess this goes without saying, but try and balance skills out more as difficult as it probably is. I never got into A4 enough to explore the skills out but it seems fairly clear from the comments of others that some skills are simply a waste of points compared to others. Pathfinding becomes more useful once swamps are brought back in (perhaps make it some areas are only accessable with enough pathfinding? Eg, allows you to find a path through a thick patch of trees or something). 14) The random weapons quests in Exile 3 were pretty nifty. 15) Random Addendum: I want to see the Anamas Church and the Church of the Divine Lucre (was that its name? I'm talking about those guys obsessed with money) duke it out. And maybe an unusual plague could spread amongst the divine lucre members - for example, their high ranking members could turn into solid gold. Midas style! And for the Anamas a huge scandal would suit them nicely.

Quote: I must disagree here, sorry [big Grin] Spiderweb games are easy enough not to worry if you crank the difficulty of them down, but with higher difficulties Spiderweb games are some of the most difficult games ever invented. You have to take every single little advantage point you can get by every little last point if your difficulty is raised. They're easy if you want them to be and set them to easy, but you can certainly play on some of the most difficult levels ever put into gaming too. I play on normal difficulty (default setting). While I know you can increase the difficulty setting, I never feel the need to do so. I play games to enjoy its storyline - not to nut my way through ever more difficult battles although that may be something I do along the way. Still, whatever floats your boat.

Quote: I must disagree here, sorry [big Grin] Spiderweb games are easy enough not to worry if you crank the difficulty of them down, but with higher difficulties Spiderweb games are some of the most difficult games ever invented. You have to take every single little advantage point you can get by every little last point if your difficulty is raised. They're easy if you want them to be and set them to easy, but you can certainly play on some of the most difficult levels ever put into gaming too. I play on normal difficulty (default setting). While I know you can increase the difficulty setting, I never feel the need to do so. I play games to enjoy its storyline - not to nut my way through ever more difficult battles although that may be something I do along the way. Still, whatever floats your boat.

Quote: Personally I like to give my Slith fighter pole weapons and my human fighter edged weapons and a shield. I do this as well. I generally try and build characters based around their given strengths and weaknesses. Having said that, I try aim for variety rather than powergaming. Spidweb games have generally been easy enough that you can kill stuff fairly easily without having to resort to calculating which combination of equipment gives you maximum power.

Quote: Personally I like to give my Slith fighter pole weapons and my human fighter edged weapons and a shield. I do this as well. I generally try and build characters based around their given strengths and weaknesses. Having said that, I try aim for variety rather than powergaming. Spidweb games have generally been easy enough that you can kill stuff fairly easily without having to resort to calculating which combination of equipment gives you maximum power.

OK, I have just seen the screenshots of A4, and it wasn't until I saw it labeled as A4 that it sunk in how much I treasured the old grid layout of previous Exile/Avernum games. I can't quite place my finger on why I prefer it to the "better" graphics the geneforge engine offers, but I do. Maybe its because it reminds me of a boardgame feel. As for the secret passages, I loved how it was done in Exile/Avernum. Sure you could find out they were there with Far Sight, but really - why else would you want the spell? Its been a long time since I played but from memory, I usualy didn't use the spell until I'd finished exploring the dungeon, since I'd use the automap to keep track of where I'd explored (and obviously, farsight would ruin that). And even without the spell, in many instances it was pretty obvious if there were any secret passages anyway if you looked at the automap - Just spot the conspicious empty splotches on it, and then make a search around the area. Oh well. It just remains to be seen how the game turns out.

Well I havn't put any points in shaping, so accordingly I didn't really buy much in the way of creations. Furthermore since I didn't expect to make creatures, I sold quite a number of items that are more for shaping than anything else (will have to check if I have any left in my item stashes). To make things worse, I'm also out of money (spent on augmentations earlier) - but thats easily fixed since I have plenty of items I can sell. Anyways, as to where else I dumped points I invested in leadership/mechanics, but not that heavily (Under 10 points in both from memory) but beyond that I didn't really put points anywhere else. I'm most curious as to how you managed to get your Spellcraft points so high. Oh, something I forgot to add: I generally havn't been using canisters (Used 1 in total so far). As for items, I suppose it may be time to start using the forge - I havn't actually bothered making any items yet.....

Searer and kill does in the order of 30+ damage. Ice bolt does 60+ and Firebolt from memory isn't much better. Additionally strong daze fails to affect them.

Well, I'm stuck again and oddly enough it looks like nobody else actually got stuck here :| (At least not if the threads you can find through search are anything to go by). Anyways, general info: Playing as solo Agent on Normal. Stats (with items equipped) Level: 39 Int/End: 12/3 Magic: 18/6/5/14 13 points left to spend My problem: The essense vlish slaughters me. Actually, so does the gazer thing (I forget its name). Come to think of it, I have lots of trouble with Gazers/Eyebeasts in general but this is the point where I've been unable to get around the problems. Anyways, the crux of my problem is that I do pitiful amounts of damage to the gazer/vlish (I think the most I can get is about 60+), while the gazer thing does about 180+ to me, and the vlish stuns me to the point where I'm practacally comatose. Any ideas where I went wrong/what I can do to correct this guys?