Owenmoz

I started the avernum series with avernum 4(dont ask me why) honestly its not that bad. Exploring can be a pain and you're never ready for a fight. The honeycomb is a complete nightmare. But you get used to it and the story is worth it. I guess he was trying to make the game longer in terms of playing hours. Avernum 5 is much better. Its a bit unsettling to play as a soldier of the empire but the whole new area stuff and these continous scavenger quests are awesome. Plus battle disciplines. It was a tad less chalenging but i really liked it. Replaying the series the only hard to swalow game was the sixth. My personal worst game from spiderweb. Trumps black fortress in that aspect. Had none of the good things of the old games and none of the good things from the new ones. And the story was both disapointing and sad. But all in all gotta say. 4 is worth playing you get used to it and honestly from that cave in when you get the mark you feel special. On other games you dont feel special. You're either part of an army or just another adventurer on the good side of fortune.

Good point. I'd say the drop was due to the fall of roman civilisation. Which was partly due to abscence of free labor force. But yah the huns had slaves so did other people. They just lacked the technology and ambition.

I agree its not that they were benevolent and farming vilages had great aqueduts and marble statues. But stone buildings stopped being a thing after the romans technically. If i remember correctly in britain the only started to actually invest on those during the cursades. And that was mostly due to richard's prolongued abscence. What im trying to put across is rome before christ had a better structure than moscow during the napoleonic wars. Say roman empire finally desintegrated in 520 A.D. the napoleonic wars were 1300 years after that and life wasnt much better. We had guns and canons but our citties burned us easilly if not easier. I think the problem with rome,shapers,quarians etc isnt that they adapted or didnt adapt to abolition. Its that they built their nations based on slavery to begin with. Were they treated like equal citisens progress would be slower. But more sure and less likelly to stop. Of course that would go back to rulling class wanting cheap labour. Working class wanting better conditions. And rebelion. But in a perfect scenario it should work out well enough.

Well... the roman empire did colapse? And stone buildings? Not for hundreds of years did we see them being errected. By the time the danes invaded britain, the roman empire as was had colapsed for some time. A lot of countries in europe rellied heavilly on wooden infrastructure. Ny the time napoleon invaded stone buildings were still not standart and tsar alexander actually burned moscow to the ground like that. Im not saying viva la slavery. Im saying that society heavilly rellied on it. Its understandable why they chose to ignore sense. Goes back to the geth quarian war in mass effect. Quarians were more insightfull though.

Ok with the rest i can agree also im sure since it was a research facily you could add 4th and 5th tier creations without having to worry too much about the implication. They would have to be different than the ones we know that way it could be agreed that the research was barred and creations unstable. Actually i tend to agree with everything. But only shaper factions would be too one sided. Im thinking maybe have a shaper like khyrik that wants to give autonomy to serviles. And one that is sorta like a mix between taygen and traskovites. This could actually work.

To be honest the first thing that crossed my mind when playing avernum cs. Was that it was chaleging. I had finished avadon two to play this one. And i went crazy for a while. The whole dying easilly wasnt doing good for my self esteem but then it was fairly easy figuring out which parts of the map where out of your ling and which parts arent. Also some quests you get in the begining can be finished right away. But in the end i enjoyed it much better than escape from the pit. It really brings me back to geneforge 1/2 where you technically could explore any area. But ultimatelly you had to be smart on how to explore them. So all in all. Although as randomizer said melee is necessary. And ranged close to useless. Another thing is anything other than humans in this game are a bit handicapped. So the traditional nephil archer? Worst option.

Im not sure where but im sure i've seen a thread on mods some years back. I also think it would be easier to work them in geneforge 4 as its sort of a new engine so it likelly has more empty spaces. A good thing you can add tp clawbugs is spines or what. But im not the best person to adress this. As i gave up on modding since i ended up corrupting my copy.

Spukrian thats not a bad idea but it will go in conflict with the rest of the story since if you have rebels and work for them in the heart of shaper land sabotaging and recruiting would be slightly unrealistic since you know... the shapers would have found out. But the gap time between 2 and 3 is big and not really explained. Maybe if we were to play as litalia from drypeak to sorta rebel queen. But that would make one complicated map. A prequel for geneforge one is actually good since like we know almost nothing about why sucia was bared. All we know is that it was. But then im not sure how it would work. As its a shaper research facility only factions wpuld be shapers. And who would you be? An aprentice? a servile? How would you get more powerfull? Would there be rank system like on avernum's army? Who would you fight? Etc.. Idk if im just stuborn but i still think the distant future would be easier to make and less constraining. But the prequel is a good idea and could actually work. So is the gap between 2 and 3 although im not seeing any major decisions being made by the protagonist without disrupting the canon.

Most games end up in truces sorta. Even for alawn but in that case he only leaves the ashen islands to the rebels. Since it would be hard to remove them from there. Tbh the rebelion started with a single drakon and a few serviles leaving any kind of truce wouldnt work out. Maybe imediatelly but on the long term I agree with idontexist. But thats not a part i'd like to revisit. Also the ghaldrin ending ends with the start of a new rebelion. The only definite would be taygen's ending as it would kill drakoms and serviles leaving only the human part of the rebelion. But im not sure if they were also obliterated. Long time ago.

Ok i actually get you there but arent you tired of the open war scenario? Honestly the first 3 games where more about exploration and discovery and you have little idea what the hell is going on. I mean in open war first you work for someone. Then your decisions dont matter and stuff. I mean i really get like how the end didnt convey lasting stability or anything. But after playing all the option on g5 part of me was glad that part of the story was over. It really is much less personal than the rest.

Honestly i could get behind the awakened, traskov and the sort on the first game. I felt sorry for the other shapper but i never played for him. On the second one i guess the choice would really be between power and morals. But i couldnt stand behind zachary out of principle he was reckless and weak. I might have joined the barzites but they killed shanti. And I took great pleasure in completelly destroying them. Ultimatelly i could do awakened or unnaligned. In the third i actually tried to join up the rebels. But i couldnt bring myself to kill khyrik. He was really reasonable. The further you go on the island chain the less you can get behind the rebels. In 4 it was hard to choose. I supported alwan because we had history. Same with greta. And i liked how they paint it as if our stay with them on 3 changed how they view the world. Honestly i even liked litalia by then. So i played it many times settling with the trakovite ending even if it wasnt pleasant it seemed to do justice to both greta and alwan. I really liked ghaldrin too really honourable. On the fift i was pissed cause it painted ghaldrin as a huge prick. And i gladly killed him repeatedly. But i couldnt wholeheartedly get behind any faction. There was something missing. I felt strongly about nothing. So i mostly agree with idontexist42 almost always spot on.

Even if it left loose ends i don't think it was enough to build a story. Even if it were. Terrestia is all ravaged by war and Jeff couldnt bring new areas and such. I mean lose ends and all specially if you fight for ghaldrin. But the story is tired-ish. Looking forward on reading your thoughts on this though.

Technically the reason why mordor was more stable than most empires is what alorael said. Subjugated eauality everyone. Tends to be actually realistic since sauron was mayar not orc or troll or anything else so he had no reason to give preferential treatment. But with a lot of other empires, they tend to give preferentail treatment to some over others. Even in colonialism it was like that. Only true effort not to do it that i know of, was made by portugal which gave portuguese citezenship to all mozambicans, angolans, cape verdians, goans, macau chinese, etc.. (brazil got independence slightly after the napoleonic wars, so im not really sure on how it was there but prolly the same) Actually in the beggining portugal insisted the explorers tp settle and remary in the colonies as the trip back home would be dangerous and expensive. As a whole they tried to integrate the natives into the portuguese society. It wasnt all great and flawless, they sorta failed. But all in all much better than most colonial empires. Evidenced by the relativelly low ammount of bad blood between eachother. Still gotta admire the romans. From a strategic point of view relocating and dividing the natives really lowered chances of rebelion. TL;DR: Empires tend to be unstable if there is preferential treatment given to some people over others. So smart thing is act like sauron and treat everybody equally. Smart way to bypass that is relocating people from their homeland divide them. That way they are less likelly to unite and kick you off. Copyrighted by owen's guide to world domination. ©

Imperialism has to do with aspirations beyond your traditional borders. Its cricticised because it usually involves chalenging or undermining the sovereignty of your neighbourgs or other weaker countries. Kingdomnism sorta implies you keep your actions into your own land. Imperial japan for instance reminds us of bad things. Just japan reminds us of good things.

Aloraek, maybe because empire has an implication of power. Evil cant be harmfull if one lacks the power to exerce it. An evil county doesnt make most feel threathened. An empire is usually large and powerfull( unlike most kingdoms) and thus can be percieved by most as a threath. I mean the most basic point is that an empire can take over the world, the roman was surprisingly good at that since they relocated whole populations thus erasing inherent patriotism fueled rebelions. Katherine the great did the same with the crimean tartars. Most known empires if kept at their apex had the means. We percieve north korea as evil but do not feel threathened by it. Yet ive met various people that feel threathned by china due to size, population, economic relevance and technological advancement. Even if its rare to find it portrayed as evil.

Well technically i agree with Alorael on most points. In the end might be a mixture of these all things. evil empire isnt something that can actually exist. (Cept for the third reich and some others) Most often than not they are manipulation of people's fears and points of view. So i think they could only trully exist in fiction. In that case... yeah. Tolkien. And about Gestahl. Is a monster someone who does bad things not entirelly understanding the consequeces, someone who does bad things knowing full well the conseauences and not caring, or someone who does it because its their nature. Or all of them. Because really the dude from what i've read seemed more delusional than evil.

Maybe its a coincidence. I remember thinking either christopher paolini ripped off drakengard or the other way arround specially on the two oposite dragon riders. But then they were released with a very small time difference so i realised it was likelly what i call convergent evolution. But since these are both in the gaming world i guess it is a bit iffy.

Technically could be traced to the golden horde. And the huns. I guess since a lot of invasions of europe came from the east its easy to get that position. Otomans, persians, huns, mongols, and then the soviet union. But the whole nazi germany thing also fits most evil empire descriptions. I don't think it started necessarilly with Reagan. Maybe the term or so. But the concept must have existed for sometime. If im not mistaken even atlantis was supposedly an "evil" city state defeated by athens. I dont remember correctly though.

Have to agree with nercis here. If anything the stormcloaks were the racists ones. The empire was technically very openminded and such. Even in morrowind, most locals were against foreigners and the empire was the only one tryna get things a little bit more global. The main problem i saw in skyrim was not the empire but the aldmeri dominion. The empire was just weak and slightly pathetic. I didnt finish morrowind but i guess the empire seemed stronger back then.

Hahahaha! Thirteen years is a long time ago. Im not sure i even know how to speak english back then. Cheers bro! *raises cup of cofee* get us some catletki, smoked salmon, kvass, black bread, lotsa tea lotsa coffee and we got a full blown karelian fest xD (background soundtrack in my mind is kalinka malinka)

Thanks for the advice man! Does look more organised now. Anyway. Thoughts?

Hahahahahahahaha! Whatever those bananas are on, im sure its illegal xD lemme get it so far, keep langague PG, be polite, create new threads rather than reply on old ones, no flashy collourfull animated things(with exception of the ocasional nanaparty), dont cricticise nethergate cause its highly regarded here, unless felt necessary avoid smileys,(ok i'll try to do that but without them usually it will seem like im angry or bitter specially when im doing sarcasm or hyperbolisation. But i'll do my best) And thank you all! Also, please don't feel wierd due to my nationality. Im not a bear riding, nuke throwing, bullet stopping man in the snow with bikini cheerleaders in my wake. Its sort of an awesome image... well maybe i should start pretending thats me.

Mushroom merlot. Now isnt that something. Late harvest almarian. Why not go all the way to Almarula! On any case, the is this russian tea thing called roughly tea fungus. That just sounds wrong in english. Anyway it's the closest thing i know to mushroom champagne. Its bubbly. But its sweet so i assume sugar is used. Please dont try that at home. Like i only drank it one time where it would be just rude to refuse. But im sure you can get an infection if you do it wrong. No really. But what would it be called. Champagne is an area in france. It cant be just called almaria since its already taken.

I would say more lore, like irrelevant to the gameplay and such but would make the world feel more real(specially comical lore, love those. Might be in the description of objects, like on avernum). A good sense of mystery would be good, as in not exactly knowing what the main plot is about up to mid-game and so, but you still have freedom. I think companions, even one and even if not playable are a good thing, they should also be somewhat important to the plot. (Sort of like shanti but more relevant) While not exactly factions as that would kill the mystery on the plotline, it would be great to have various different endings as costume for spiderweb games. I think graphics are not a must. Geneforge 3 didnt have atrociosly old graphics, nor too realistic and it was pretty good. I think however think that deserts should deffinitelly not be the last/hardest area to explore, im not sure why, actually i am, deserts are frustrating to look at. Better in the first/easiest part. New spells would be good but I couldnt think of any. So maybe a complete change of creation and spell engines so veteran players have to figure out how to go about stuff and experiment a bit. I would also think that it has to be in a great time distance in relation to the first geneforge saga, because that story in itself is over and trying to pick up there would be a stretch. Areas that are completelly dark would be cool(like the one on avernum 5), as in you can only see with a lamp, a spell or a piece of clothing that "shines". One great idea would be either the shapers exploring the sholai lands(which while habitated are not populous) or the sholai exploring terrestria after unnamed disaster made it nearly( people are important) deserted(in my head im having overgrown thickets and forests with free roaming rouges which can and sort of should be the same rougues as found in the first saga). Im thinking sholai because little to nothing is known about them so you have a lot of wiggle room to be creative. I think money should be less of an issue than in the first games, and I think that some spells and techniques should be given in exchange of favours/quests but not exclusivly so. Another important thing is that paths you take wont be one-sided or evil for evil's sake(except one only just for fun if you feel like leaving only ashes behind), there should be consequences to your actions no matter what the end, that way there is no good and bad "factions" and players can finish the game at random as in no one faction will be obviously more popular than the other (this whole part is hard to explain, english isnt my first language, but i'd like all paths to be morally ambiguous). Finally I would think it cool to have an arcade adition to the game, its not necessary tho, but my idea was you get to manage a town, build up the town economically, physically and intelectually making guards and creations to fight off random hordes of monsters, no cheats should work in this mode. My reason for saying that would be a good idea is, firstly like chess helps the players develop strategy. Second, there will be,less mounting pressure for a sequel to the game because people can get to play it without repeating the story lines and thus it will take more time for them to get over it, thus giving you(the game creator) enough time to figure out the sequel. If no sequel is to ensue, I think most players will be a bit less frustrated than otherwise. Well this is all disorganised. Sorry about that. I know its probably a dead topic but i'd like to know if you agree or have something to add. Also, Mr Jeff V. Im not above shameless befging and emotional blackmail >.>

Hahahahahahaha! First time i was given a free rein to stalk.JK though.Thanks. And yah came across it minutes after posting.