Slarzahl

I think the problem here is calling the Awakened "moderate" in the first place. They are "moderate" in the sense that they aren't ideologically inclined to genocide, but that's a truly weird term to use for that. It is absolutely clear that they are willing to fight and kill when necessary. Look at Pinner's reasoning behind the Spy Drayk quest, as an easy example. Culturally, they're as radical as anyone else with the changes they are basically forcing on existing society. They might be the closest thing Geneforge has to Professor X, but they're also the closest thing Geneforge has to Magneto (who was right). What exactly about any of the other factions looks better via the genocide lens?

Seems plausible, would love an additional connection: In Triola (G2) we have John Maynard Keynes (economist) JS Mill (philosopher, relevant to economics) Henri Wald (much less famous, but also a philosopher) Zyx (literary magazine) per randomizer, this was a backer-suggested name Suspicious - any thoughts?: Barzahl means roughly "cash payment" in German - this feels far too appropriate Shanti means "inner peace" in Sanskrit Zakary means "remembering/remembered by god" in various languages New names in G2I - Kieron Stoff is listed as a backer Gardner Dozois - I think this is new in G2I? - SF writer, not connected to anything else but plenty of SF writers elsewhere in the series

Ultra-modern spittoon.

Is a war with no end in sight victory? Because that's what the Takers and Barzites get.

Every Awakened leader we've seen has been willing to compromise their ideals when necessary, and "no shaping" isn't even a core Awakened ideal. But more relevantly than that, the Awakened in their ending aren't just "Medab," they have all of Drypeak; and similarly the Awakened even during the game aren't just the serviles. Carnelian and Raeche and Charye are part of the Awakened, not just Tuldaric; and given how little fuss is made over those other three, it's hard to imagine they are the only such people. Like any RPG, one imagines people exist in the world who don't show up in the game. They aren't without Shaping. It's just not super widespread for them. It's not super widespread for the Takers, either. The Awakened end up with the full benefit of Barzahl's work greening up the valley. He obviously got it working better in the Rising area, and the whole map ends up Awakened territory in their ending.

This isn't fully true -- in their ending, they raid Rising, going on the offensive to absorb the research and resources of the Barzites. It's not clear to me that this is any less effective a setup than what the Takers have, particularly given Akkat as an example of problems with their approach (which they have to turn to a Shaper to resolve). The Barzites presumably have a few more actual Shapers, but most of the "Shapers" we see are just canistered-up commons.

They are not too good for that. Read their ending. They do just as well as the Rebels eventually do, and create a less miserable existence for their own members.

The Awakened aren't perfect. Is that disqualifying to "being the good guys"? It's the good guys, not the perfect guys, surely... is "good" really supposed to be a binary quality? There's no shades of good? The Awakened do some things that aren't good, by any standards, but it's kind of ridiculous to hand-wave their intentions, their actions, or the outcome of their actions and say "yup no difference from the other factions." Their ending is less destructive than the others, full stop.

Ending 1 is the "didn't finish" ending. I believe every full ending (i.e., 2 through 6) counts as good for achievements. Endings 3 through 6 have their own unique achievement as well, but ending 2 does not. I believe these are all possible for a pacifist run. Endings 5 and 6 are probably simplest for them, but they are all doable.

Syros was pretty rational in G1 too. As was Gnorrel. As will be Greta, and as, even, will be Ghaldring. The Takers/Rebels do seem to include a lot of mob-violence types but rarely in leadership positions, which I guess speaks to relatively good management on the part of the Syros-types. (Witness recruiting you to deal with Akkat in G2.)

Rotdhizons are crazy expensive compared to Rotghroths, have lower damage potential, and while the resistances are neat and do make them tanky -- you have to pay extra essence for those as well. (Also, the active 40% resistance is only to physical and acid, not everything.)

I like playing solo Guardians, but it's not what they were designed to do. Their 2nd best skill set is shaping! You can play them solo, and it's fun, they are balanced around having reasonable shaping skill, and not solo play.

The enchanted anvils, just like with the other artifacts.

Update: based on testing, 10 canisters are required to get the ending changes due to canister use. Alteration still has no effect.

What you are saying here is specifically wrong. The PC definition's stats are 100% imported as-is by some other character definitions. I believe this was true in every previous Geneforge as well.

You can mod in to-hit bonus, but it's universal to-hit bonus. It applies to everything, not just attacks that use that weapon. So this is really only a good idea if you're the sort of player who thinks having hit chance even exist in the first place is dumb.

He's said he prefers emails. If you want to be thoughtful and not "fill up his inbox" you might consider making a list of things like typos and sending them in large batches rather than one at a time. Either way, posting in two forums simultaneously is probably not going to help him, as it just becomes more to sort through. This is getting pretty off-topic for the atlas so if this needs to be discussed further, feel free to PM or start a new topic.

Also, just to reiterate for everyone's sake, emailing support@spiderwebsoftware.com is still the most effective way to bring bugs to Jeff's attention. He's said this a lot.

I don't think this is an error. I think this is multiplication with stat-based bonuses. What was the base melee % and what was it with the chestguard equipped?

In both games, when it is in your pack, Dante's Guile reduces the mechanics requirement of certain interactable items by 1. In G2I, this is limited to generic power spirals and spore boxes, and only if their base difficulty is 6 or higher. I think the list was the same in Mutagen but don't have it in front of me. It literally reduces the requirement, rather than increasing your effective skill, which is one of the reasons a number of the mechanics requirements listed in the atlases are off by 1.

full commentary:

That's not a customizable thing.

The Trakovite ending is closer to G4 "canon" than the Rebel one. Shaper Monarch fits fine, especially if he is himself the G3 PC. If you select Sorceress, of course, then, well...

It does change the ending, though not substantially. I think attacking Pinner flags you as not in the Awakened, even if that dialogue option somehow goes away. Also, I believe you can report the last quest (and receive your reward) before you actually trigger the final "Leave the Valley" step of the main faction quest. Either way this should be possible.

It was more than just creations gaining experience, it was how they did it. Creations gained experience. But that experience was, in most of the series, a fixed proportion of what you gained, based on your level -- not scaled for the creation's level. So if you created a level 16 vlish at PC level 4 and kept it around until PC level 20, you'd have probably a level 28 vlish. If you created that same level 16 vlish at PC level 12 and kept it around, you'd only have a level 22 vlish. And if you created it fresh at level 20, it'd be a level 16 vlish. This means that the longer you waited to make creations, the weaker they would be -- permanently. So you had to balance a creation's actual strength with how early it was available, and its cost, and how many you could make. There was thus heavy incentive for a shaper to invest in nothing but shaping skill or Intelligence until you'd made all your creations Level also mattered even more then. Because of how the creation stat system worked, higher level creations were exponentially more powerful. Level was fairly close to a direct multiplier for damage (via Strength) and an exponential multiplier for HP (multiplying it both directly, and also indirectly via Endurance), while also ensuring you won on the simple comparison systems for accuracy (also Strength) and evasion and turn order (Dex).