Slawbug

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!

Quote: Originally written by KnowledgeBrew: Agent's Shelter is greater than Stasis Shield. Dexterity, Intelligence, Missile Weapons, and Mental Magic are the most important stats. Stasis Shield raises irrelevant stats. 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.

Quote: Originally written by Nalyd Twisted: Do higher level creations take a bigger bite of the XP pie? 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."

Quote: Originally written by Archmage Alex: My question is, why not? There already are summoning spells and, in Avernums past, they sometimes summon demons. Why not have a spell that specifically summons demons? 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. Quote: Does this require more than palette-swapping the spell effect graphics from red/yellow to white/blue and copy/pasting the code with "firedmg" switched to "icedmg"? 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. Quote: There are any number of spells Jeff could add, taken from games he's already produced, that would not significantly affect gameplay in any way beyond adding variety, utility, and enjoyment to the use of magic in the game. So the question still remains, why not have more spells? 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*

The non-damage spells might begin with a base 100% to-hit instead of the standard elemental to-hits (60% fire, 70% magic/acid, 80% ice). Or they might begin with 70%. I don't really remember. Do note that "a couple of points" difference in spell skill is worth 5% to-hit per point, so that could be a big chunk of what you saw.

I assume you are talking about Duncan in Rivergate Keep. Although Leadership can make it easier to get him to train you, you don't need it, and you only need a minimal pro-shaper reputation (105) to utilize him. Leadership exchanges on a 1 to 1 basis with reputation for his check, so pumping leadership high for that would be a gross waste of skill points.

The chance of hitting with Essence Shackles, as with any spell, is dependent on your skill in Spellcraft, your skill in the spell's field (in this case, Mental Magic), and your skill in the spell itself. It is NEVER dependent on Intelligence, Dexterity, Missile Weapons, or anything else.

*nod* This is true. I always thought of the Awakened in the middle as they are not actively hostile towards the Shapers, and in G1/2 that made a lot of sense. With the more recent rebel attitude it may make sense to flip as such. Shrug.

"Typically"? What trilogy of trilogies goes in that order, other than the projected one for Star Wars?

Geneforge Gaiden!

I didn't think the variety of shade created by shapers was actually a creation. I'm not sure if the game text says they are somewhere, but the creature definitions file definitely says that no shades are creations. Shaper Shade uses the same basic information as all the regular undead. I figured it was more of a magical projection -- along the lines of the shades left behind by countless wizards in Exile.

Ghaldring will clearly be an important figure in G5, G6, or both. His true goals and feelings towards the Drakon plans and life in general are pretty ambiguous. He doesn't look like he's shaping up to be a villain. Jeff's villains are never ambiguous. They may be heroes to some and villains to others, but the lines are always fairly clear. ...on the other hand, G2 and G3 both foreshadowed him, and most of the stuff Jeff foreshadows involves villains (Garzahd, Linda, Rentar-Ihrno). I suppose the Vahnatai would be a major exception.

Out of curiosity, how much time do you spend making those edited jpgs?

I did some intensive testing of this -- there's a topic somewhere where I had a good discussion with Thuryl about it. Anyway, the short of it is that 1) resistances are multiplied together, so two 50% pieces of armor reduce by about 75%, and 2) the actual damage reduction granted to a given attack varies somewhat. In tests, 25% armor gave reductions of about 10% to 40%, with more closer to 25%. Thuryl's idea, which makes sense, is that each individual point of damage has an X% chance of being eliminated, where X is your armor/resistance score for that type of damage.

Repairing Moseh is 100% unnecessary to keep any areas open whatsoever. It's a myth. Even if you kill Moseh, reporting to Alwan will still earn you the pass that you need to get into the Shaper areas in the Fens. The problem is that many people kill Moseh, then assume there is no reason to report back to Alwan. The game really does reward indulging in diplomacy with the side you aren't helping.