Slawbug

I don't know exactly what's going on with Realmz, but I do know that the person to ask is not Tim anymore, it's now Skip Meier, who seems to have taken over its day-to-day admistration and communication duties.

 

(I'll save Thuryl the trouble of mentioning that it all went downhill after version 4 anyway, which it did.)

Note that Parry's damage reduction *does* apply to ranged and area attacks. (All magic attacks go in one of those categories (or melee) -- "magic" is not an attack type.) The damage reduction against magic (i.e., against energy, fire, ice, etc.) is again much lower than against physical attacks, but you can get a reduction of around 15% or 20% without too much trouble. That's useful.

Agreed. The moves to the BoA skill point system will make me especially sad. And dialog... meh.

Although I am really looking forward to the remake and will certainly buy it, I wonder if I'm going to end up doing with it what I did with Avernum 2... never finishing because I got distracted by wanting to play the original instead.

Divinely Touched doesn't grant Parry. Only Elite Warrior does.

 

There are also some items that give a Parry bonus.

 

Parry is unquestionably a great skill, but how does its (greatly reduced) blocking rate against missiles make it broken? Admittedly you also get a little damage reduction, but the block rate against melee attacks is so much better.

Let me get this straight: you're not going to buy G5 because G4's Bob didn't give specific enough directions? Was G3, with its complete lack of plot, better in that regard?

Is this question ever going to die, like it deserves? Jesus.

 

While we're at it, Guile isn't Magus, either.

Weird. I'm almost sure Str + items added damage in previous games, but haven't tested that in G4. Anyone try it?

No, he never said that, Nioca. This is a ridiculously propagated myth. He said there wouldn't be an Exile 4, and he said that back in 1997, I think, years before Avernum was even conceived of.

This topic receives a nine-headed cave cow pie.

Are you sure that drayks and drakons do fire damage? Can anyone else confirm this about windows (or possibly updated mac versions as well)?

 

If so, that's a HUGE change, which among other things makes drayks and drakons less consistently useful.

 

I know there are a few minor errors that crept into the page. To be honest, I doubt I'll update it. G4 has lost my energy and attention.

Well, keep in mind that the Rebellion as of G4 only really supports creation rights for Drakons (and sometimes Drayks). The Drakons, essentially the surviving part of the Rebellion, were going to destroy all the other creations with the Unbound anyway. So the choice isn't really about creation rights anymore.

I *did* use backtostart, and right about that time, too. I was too lazy to walk through all those empty zones twice when I could just do it once. Serves me right, I suppose.

 

Bleh.

On a lark, I started playing A4 again with a fresh copy of the Universal Mac version. Everything went fine until I got to Fort Draco. Then (following a quit and reopen between playing sessions) every container -- cabinet, chest, pot, etc. -- that I looked in was completely empty.

 

This has now continued through the Draco farmlands, all the Draco mines, and Tolliver's hideout. I know I'm not just forgetting that there were three entire zones with vacuous cabinets.

 

It also doesn't play a sound on opening a container for the first time, though I can't remember now if it used to or if I'm just thinking of G4.

 

If I go back to earlier areas, everything that was in containers before is still there. This is really strange, and fairly disconcerting. The game has been behaving normally otherwise.

 

SW/HW specs:

MacBook / 2 GHz Intel Duo / 1gb ddr2 sdram

OS X 10.4.6

Avernum 4 v1.0.3 Universal Binary (registered)

 

The files in the Data folder don't show any obvious signs of distress, i.e., they are all there. I've been playing off the hard drive with nothing else running.

Given G4's mechanics, it would be the uncontested best class, unless it had some kind of unprecedented drawback.

They did in Exile. Then Mindduel died, along with part of the ending of Exile 2. Sigh!

The Stasis Shield can be incredibly useful in one scenario: you are using lots of Drayks (or other 1st-3rd tier creations). This is a plausible scenario, since Drayks are one of the best values in the game. Unlike 4th and 5th tier creations, Drayks don't have a built in mental effect resistance at all, which can lead to a number of annoying scenarios, particularly if they are charmed. In that case, the Stasis Shield is by far the most useful shield for a lifecrafter with many creations.

Walter provided an extremely useful workaround in another thread. Pyroroamers! And other unstable creations. In previous games, you could use them to kill people without triggering hostility... or more importantly, experience. I'm not sure if that still works, but I don't see why it would have changed.

 

If it does work, that would allow you to get a lot more equipment than otherwise.

No. More information is available somewhere in G4 Strategy Central.

I believe one of that FAQs in the forum header has a section on "Powergaming the Sects."

This one actually has an answer: because Jeff has apparently received numerous complaints over the years about the demon summoning spells in Exile, from concerned parents, I guess. Jeff concluded that demon summoning was not really an integral part of the game, and he might as well get rid of it.

Maybe not, but maybe it does. I do think special effects are (rightly or not) probably one of the main reasons we have so few spells. In Exile, a huge chunk of the spells involved no graphics effects whatsoever. I would guess that, just as with the PC sprites, it takes more work to add spell graphics than we think.

Personally, I'd rather see 120 spells with 40 identical (not even palette swapped) graphics than 40 spells with 40 graphics. But I guess not everyone feels that way.

Quoted for agreement.

You've got to be kidding. *facepalm*

You only need the Fyoras with you when you are about to get experience for something. Mostly, I imagine shaping all seven right before any experience-granting encounter. Anyway, I think that means you can make do with AI Fyoras early on. It does force Lifecrafter unfortunately. The earliest you can get Fyoras at is level 3. A Lifecrafter can get to 46 essence at that point, enough for 5 Fyoras. An Infiltrator can get to 38, which is only enough for 4, sadly. One experience point later comes level 4, at which point a Lifecrafter has 60 for 7 Fyoras, and an Infiltrator has about 50, for 6 Fyoras.

 

Mental Magic is obvious, both for Daze and for Unlock, which lets you open doors without gaining experience.

 

Looking ahead, I'm not quite sure how to deal with Moseh, Monarch, and the like.

 

EDIT: Charm and Dominate seem particularly good since they allow you to nab enemy drops without gaining XP for them.

It's worth pointing out that A4 has close to the same number of spells as Nethergate -- just a few less -- but people have great things to say about the Nethergate spell system. Why is that? The spell lists actually compare surprisingly closely. Both games have at least 6 regular summoning spells, similar sets of healing and curing spells. A4 has more damage spells (including area of effect spells) but it doesn't have Hero of Old or Simulacrum.

 

I'll suggest two reasons Nethergate compares more favorably. First, the spells are in flavor; Wind Warriors, Coils of the Serpent, Hero of Old, Sever Seal, these are spells that tie in to the atmosphere and feel like they belong. Second, Nethergate is a significantly smaller game than A4, so the spells don't get old as fast. Avernum has more ground to slog through, and more hacking and slashing.

That would be a neat challenge -- finish at the lowest level possible. (You up for this one, Thuryl?) A diplomacy/mechanics only game can almost certainly be done, and I bet you can get enough skill points for it solely out of doing the required quests. That restriction does make it harder though as pretty much all the diplomacy-related bonuses (like having people kill stuff for you) gives a conversational XP bonus. Hmm.

Thuryl's right. What AM I talking about? *blinks*