Vent

Still not fixed? I can't believe it. So it's clearly not linked to my hardware which is a Mac Pro. Nor the system I'm using El Captain. the system was a good bet, the hardware, lol. For me it makes the game unplayable. I won't play the game with scroll on keyboard, and I tried get used to the crap and the little lag but couldn't, you constantly scroll it's a major command. Is there really any config for which it is working properly?

Ok fine I don't believe one second it works on any el Captain and I quote you don't confirm yourself you have a counter example. But ok I'll send an email with private information, to what email?

Tested with Avadon 2, I haven't the problem, just Avadon 3. All are steam version.

With TrackballWorks 1.3.0 it's the same problem. I don't remember why I downgradded but it's not the cause of the problem.

So you are saying it works for you and you use El Captain? I don't see how video card control Dock and menumar, and for fullscreen not working to switch resolution I saw the problem already quoted. So is anybody using El Captain has mouse on border top not showing menubar? Could be the mouse, I'm using Kensington Trackball and TrackballWrosk 1.1.2.

Avadon 3 : Mac problems with "fullscreen" : - The game allows choose resolutions but don't switch to the resolution selected. - Mouse on border top in fullscreen show menubar and generate a game pause/slowdown, it's a nasty problem when you use mouse on border to scroll the view. - Mouse on border bottom in fullscreen show Dock if you insist a little bit to move the mouse to bottom. It's a nasty problem when you use mouse on border to scroll the view. I"m using El Captain. About mouse on border not working well, no arrow keys isn't a solution for me.

Still wonder why Avadon 2 hasn't that already.

As usual I find the party only when it is finished. Ha well, I'm not fan of party. Even if it's too late: Sounds and Spell Effects Will all get a massive overhaul. => I don't care, I'd preffer much better ambiant noises. :-) I wonder if there's any I don't feel weird and there's some I feel unpleasant. Quick Use and Ability Preset Buttons. I am strongly considering changing to 3 Quick Use buttons and 5 Ability Preset buttons. => Why so few? 12 Ability OR quick use, it should be fine even for tablets. And there's no point to restrict player choices on ability vs quick use. Difficulty... => Why link any of those design elements to difficulty? They are design that can improve the quality of combats. => Friendly fire is a huge rule that change a lot a gameplay, I wouldn't like have this option just for Harder difficulties that eventually I wouldn't want try (playing Avadon 2 at Hard but I'm ready go back Normal). => Combat positioning is, in my opinion, what makes such type of combat system just good or great/very fun. It's not a matter of difficulty it's a matter of possiblities. For me simpler CRPG as Heroes of Stell or Antharion have better combats than Avadon 1&2 (haven't yet fully played the 2). And both have an interesting non basic positioning gameplay. Even more obvious, Telepath Tactics (not a good game but rare combats quality) almost any element of depth are related to positioning. Positioning means also obstacles, and weights if possible but that's harder for an iso game. But party of 4 is already a burden for having an interesting party positioning gameplay, but party of 3 is too much. => Nasty enemy effects, again I don't like the idea that such design is linked to difficulty, they are design that can improve quality. If the player have various tools to cancel them it always add some depth, it triggers the question for a character turn, help another character or use the turn for an attack or something. But in a system with a fixed action order it can be a bit rude, you lost turn if the character penalized if before the character that will help him. Such mechanisms are better suited for systems that allow the player to play the characters how and when he wants. In Antharion there's various effects like that, and if you lost control of a character it's not necessary a burden. Examples: - Frozen: Most enemies tend avoid attack a character frozen because it breaks the freeze. - Polymorph: It morphes the character into a pig you can't control but the character is healed and also not attacked because it breaks the morph. - Confuse: It's not the severe charm, charm has the default to be too extreme and not let much choice. So for confuse you don't control the characters and only rarely will try hit another character close. This effect isn't break by an attack. What's the points of those design, nasty effects, but not so nasty up to not let a real choice to the player. Skill Tree... => Yeah seems coherent, I always felt the skills requirements in Avadon was too extreme. Writting... => Im' not competent to judge that, so from an ignorant, a probably erroneous feedback, never use writing for fillers. A text that says me there's 3 towers and something else when it's just contents of the map and there's direction panels everywhere, this is lost of time. Describe the wearing of a character is hardly interesting. Try focus the writing on dialogs, mood of a place, emotions of a character, pure story element, local social behavior,... And about dialogs does it bring anything, if not scrap it. More smiles, more emotions, more weird/surprising/intriguing stuff,... Sorry for those last comments, it's just my feeling, probably wrong. EDIT: No matter the desing choices, I'll buy Avadon 3 at release even if I fail finish the 2. But I still haven't for Avernum 2 remake and won't until I understand why I enjoyed a lot Avernum 1 (never played Exile 1 but a quick try) but not the recent remake.

Originally Posted By: Lilith ..you were mistaken. I don't think all his friends are objective in that matter, and that's normal. What I mistaken? That it's not targeted to me? That is clear but that doesn't mean I don't feel concerned and then get it for me. A post targeted to nobody in particular will take the risk that some people will take it as targeted to them. It's not the best behavior but not expecting that is wrong. If someone post something classifying in players that think and players that don't, he shouldn't be surprised to get some reaction even if it's not justified. And not targeting to anybody in particular but some category justify nothing. If it wasn't on purpose it was still a provocation. Sure it was easy to ignore but few after reading a post where I was wondering what would be the cause of something, and he ask if nobody would know what _obvious_ causes would be possible? Sure non deliberate... and I could ignore but I didn't. I wonder what brilliant English language lessons will explain those "think" and "obvious". I already apologize first time, tried take it with humor second time (yellow smile) but third was enough. And I don't care it wasn't targeted to me it's not the point.

It evolved from outdoor encounters to all encounters hence the confusion. A solution could be just for outdoor encounters, instead of having a new functionality, in case there's still some items on field a confirmation dialog could offer cancel quit so you have the chance to quote the items and pick them. And an option would allow not get the dialog if there's only items with no value. EDIT: And about a more general mechanism, not specially for outdoor, I tend agree with Fael post. Current solution isn't perfect but an automatic system will spoil some charm of discovering the jewel among the crap, and could cause some serious troubles. In fact few items are specials but have the same look than other standard items, there's less than in Avernum but still few. Players using the junk bag to sell stuff could have lost few special items. Well very few, and you probably would not have use them. I use one of them but it's one a bit questionable.

Clearly anyone "cheat" as much he wants and I'm fine with that. But then he shouldn't argue that the game difficulty is fine or easy. That seems to me more fair. It's at same level than starting arguing about a game difficulty for a replay. I'm fine to argue about that (difficulty at replay or following guide or walkthrough) but then it should be clear it's in the context of some "cheating" or some replay. Something rather different than a play. Class building and equipment are an element where players manage it differently and this is generating some differences but that's relative at a first play, the difference isn't that huge out of the context of a replay or following some guide, or trying some experiment with some very special party like only mages. But the game needs provide good information and AEFTP is probably perfectible on that point. For example the default party could launch the player on some false tracks, or the tooltips with important missing information and the few with some wrong information could misguide players, or the game would benefit on multiple better balance making better multiple more or less logical choices of class building. But another point could make a bigger difference it's in digging all the tricks the game can provide. That can takes a lot of time and some player will put a lot of time in this even at first play. When some other will spend quite less time in such task time consuming with an uncertain reward. I think this point more than equipment and class building can make important differences between players. Classes builds and equipments are under the eyes of all players, and more or less all plays RPG at least in part for that. But spend a lot of time for possibly not much result, this will generate more different players behaviors. For a game like AEFTP, very open, and with many tricks at disposal of the player if he find them, that probably can makes a more important difference in difficulty than some standard class building and equipment management. I wrote in a previous post that a standard difficulty test should not be done by exploiting all possibilities of the game too soon, but it's a difficult matter because in a game like AEFTP it's an important part of the gameplay, and the game is very open. For example exploring an area a lot too dangerous for the party but trying slip through dangerous outdoor encounters is an important mechanism of the game and a good fun of it. Exploit this more can allow find quite more tricks that can make the play easier. For the secrets the new mechanism making them much less secrets I think the difference will be less important between different players. For digging dialogs well a player not reading them will have hard time very soon but putting more or less care into digging them will skip some important information, tips or good easy quests to do. Myself I probably exploited not enough the full game exploration possibilities and found some important tricks too late. Perhaps sooner would have change a lot my feeling about the difficulty.

Originally Posted By: mauvebutterfly This is generally how I've played through most of the Avernum games. To be clear, I make poor choices because I don't spend the time or effort to learn how to build the characters optimally. I'd be curious you explain how, apart by cheating and reading some guide (and anyway you'll follow it more or less blindly), you can play a game the first time and make some "optimized build"? You just can't because you can't predict what the game will throw on you from begin to end. For a replay, always a lot more easy, and optimized builds, only Torment difficulty can worth arguing, not Hard, even less when Normal is closer to something like Easy.

My post wasn't targeted to you *i, that's the first point. I notice you quickly ignore how House separated players in two categories those that think and those that don't think. I won't comment more on that I already did. Anyway back to build topic. It's impossible to make an optimized build at first play, just because you can't predict what the game will throw on you. That simple no need to argue more on that! You can do as many tests you want and this will change nothing to that point. Example, focus all on To Hit will be a weak build if monsters tend get hit very easily. It's not that simple than just get the max To Hit or max damages or more simply max dpt (damages per turn) to get the best optimized build. Now if you restart the game each time you realize it wasn't the "perfect" build base ok, but well, not many do that and it's not anymore a play but more a sort of replay. The build optimization starts only at replay and many players do that. But at replay and optimizing the builds, and knowing already all tricks, the game is always a lot more easy, and most often it will be too easy. But there's no surprise it is. You still see regularly players at their third play and complaining it is too easy but well, it's more a problem of having or not a difficulty level like Torment. It's not pertinent to link optimized builds to Hard difficulty knowing that Normal has been low down to something more close to Easy. For people playing AEFTP for the story and with no care in choosing the best equipment or improving the current build for their party in their first play, really? Who? Now ok myself and many players do that, I'm used to, on purpose, make some choices I know weaker for the fights but better for something else, it's because I don't want optimized too much and get too easy fights. But when players like that see the game is causing troubles then they put care avoid this and put more focus on improving fighting efficiency in some ways. Also all of that build discussion is really questionable, now during levels 17 and 18 I'm chaining fights I feel quite too easy. So I got the perfect build? Well not the one quoted by House. No just for now I improved a bit too much my party, but I'll see what will follow next and I can't predict it.

Ok let see the base: Quote: hap·haz·ard adj., adv. hap-haz-erd; n. hap-haz-erd] 1. characterized by lack of order or planning, by irregularity, or by randomness; determined by or dependent on chance; aimless. The word carries multiple meaning and that you use it instead of lack of planning is either you have language imprecisions, either the use of this word was quite deliberated, if you are conscious of it or not. Anyway in one sentence it's about players that think and the other about other players that... what? They don't think? Lol that's ridiculous. And you insist on that is ridiculous, there's a clear elitist meaning in some of your posts. You should take care about that and what it means for other. EDIT: And you should start understand that it's not because in a post you don't target anybody in particular that you can't hurt. Time you understand that some people will feel to be a part of this category and then will feel your post addressed in part to them.

I haven't yet pinpoint for sure why I got sometimes that feeling of something wrong with difficulty, it was mainly levels 6-12 and during level 16 but well that was too short to be significant. Exploits: The more I play the game the more I realize the numerous quick path and exploit that could be done, and a difficulty test shouldn't exploit all those stuff soon. For example I found the Healing All spell only at level 13 and it's at level 13 that my feeling changed (no idea if there's really any link at same time I also learned few more spells). It's a simple example but there's many other. Not get lost between the 40 quests on the go and the attempts: I realized I had difficulties to remember when I had already tried a dungeon or quest or special fight, I suspect multiple time I was trying again too soon some of them. I end track all quests in a sheet and quote those tried and failed and at what level, and those not yet tried. I started do it also roughly before my feeling of the difficulty changed. Shortage of money: A lot of my problems was coming from a shortage of money. It's a difficult matter because almost all RPG ends rather fast in providing too much money. I didn't throw money through the window, but still bought a few stuff when spending for spells would have help quite much, but it's not for much more than 4k (one training, one helm, one armor, plus few minor stuff) still significant, and I was stealing no YN, so perhaps about 2/3k more lost, from an estimate after to have change this and entered fully in the stealing game (also after level 13). Difficulties to identify difficulty level: By anticipation from game information or monsters expected (those undead here are pinuts and here are top level). From a first attempt to get an estimate when it will be doable. From numerous mini boss fights finally win after a very long fight and a lot of hassle and items used, it's hard to keep track what's the right difficulty to expect. The new option "acts in roster order" is questionable: It is difficult to understand that unconventional mechanism, because of its effect on initiative management. I bet many players could do like I did and failed into the trap to not get how it works. And put some heavy slow tank in front and then lost any control on initiative through class building. Make it less obscure or even not the default could help some players. With such party and setup, slow tank in front and option activated, it generates a ton of awful fights beginning with all enemies acting first. This is increasing the difficulty feeling for no reason. It's for outdoor encounters but not only, when exploring normally a dungeon even with care, it will make a fight often harder until you reload and try by stating in fighting mode. That sort of stuff is increasing the feeling of difficulty. In my case, removing this default option changed a lot the general feeling, once more something I did before get a feeling change about the difficulty at level 13. All of that is just a series of feeling, I have no arguing that the game should be easier or harder, I just know I didn't felt it good during some part of the game.

I was at Hard that is sure because I win the fight and saved right after and didn't override this save. I already tested the same fight and logs was sort of normal at least no 0 resistance, from this monster type or others. Perhaps a bug I got either from log itself either from resistance mechanisms. Or some curse I didn't quote, but one not shown in log from fight beginning, and with not clue about it at end of the fight after the save. I wanted knew what was known causes that could involves such weird mechanism.

I listed the possible reasons that could explain 0 resisted with 39% resistance, so let recap: Difficulty level: I checked it and it was Hard. Not the reason. Weakness curse: For Weakness curse there's no character state icon on right, I checked the log but could not have seen the line. I didn't checked outdoor log but lines in log before fight start and didn't noticed anything special, it's still possible I didn't saw a line. But is really a weakness curse can remove 39% resistance? That seems huge. The game is very wrong to not show any icon state about such important state. Dread Curse: Right after the fight I go to Tower of Magi and open dialog with Throndrell and had no option to remove it, so don't have it. Anyway I knew I had none. Cursed item: There's no more cursed items in the remake from what I have seen. Location: It was the entrance of Pit of the Drake, the first fight. Perhaps there's something very special because of the location, I doubt but I quote it in case. The monster: It was an Ur-Basilik, I reloaded the save before and reach the same dungeon and checked the same fight. It was perhaps not the same conditions, anyway it wasn't easy to reproduce but same monster, same character, same fight, but perhaps some conditions different, didn't reproduce the same log event. Any other possible reasons?

Originally Posted By: Lilith Originally Posted By: Vent See? At random. Words with similar meanings can have different connotations that are difficult to explain in the few words that a dictionary definition allows. This is one of those times. Doing something haphazardly doesn't necessarily imply complete randomness, just a lack of planning. Lack of planing has no ambiguity use it then. So if there's a problem it's at opposite, some players will plan something and will stick to it too long without to identify the game signals evolution showing the initial plan is going bad. You can't fully plan at a first play an optimized build it makes no sense because you don't know exactly what's coming. Most RPG players play the beginning few times with few different parties to get a feedback and then will get some building plan and yes will adapt it in accordance to the game evolution so will break the plan or change it multiple time. It's fine and will end in non perfect builds, but that's how it works. If now RPG require follow a walkthrough and read some forum to find some strict build to follow, lol. If there's something fun in RPG it's also the class and party building. Anyway for me, there's potentially a problem with class build in this remake but it's not my case. That said to come back to OP I explored Honeycomb a lot too late (did it very soon and get wiped so reloaded) ie at level 17, and I agree this part is failed. I remembered there was some dangerous random encounters that could stuck you in some closed path or corner, but there was none, either the outdoor encounters are generated differently than during the beginning either I just confuse encounters.

About optimized build and less optimized build, which is a totally different argument. My opinion is the difficulty can't be setup for the optimized builds. Even less when the game collect series of unclear and false and missing information (possibly on purpose) that are important for a class building. If you optimize your build close to the max, which should be at best at second play (for almost all players not following blindly some walkthrough or stuff like that), obviously the game will be too easy, that's why difficulty level like Torment are done. I opened a thread about tactics but quote almost nobody post here, I'd be curious to see what are those amazing secrets making the game so easy. Moreover, original Avernum at Hard didn't provided me at all that same feeling of difficulty at Hard, challenging yes but not difficult. But I replayed it only to level 8/9, I'd say the remake makes better so many points that despite the original had some better points, it's difficult to play it now. EDIT: haphazardly : Quote: hap·haz·ard·ly [hap-haz-erd-lee] adverb in a haphazard manner; at random. See? At random.

House is saying some people build their class randomly and choose their equipment randomly... Lol who else apart an idiot would do that???? If won't argue more on that, I'm fine if an admin or mod delete my other posts.

It's right it's for one round, I'll try check more often. For your explanation, 39 events, let say the incredible high number of 0.25 chance (25%) each happen, ie 0.25 power 39. This isn't even a number human can understand because it is so small. Should be something like 3 power -24. 24 zero! That's hardly the explanation.

Originally Posted By: HOUSE of S FWIW, I still don't understand how it is any harder...The reality is, however, that even in a game as linear as Avadon, some players will do all the side-quests and think hard about where to put their level up points and which equipment is the best. Other players... This imbalance exists regardless of linearity. So other players won't choose their equipment according to their power levels and will define their class without thinking of it? That's quite insulting for those other players. You are taking those other players for total idiots or what? So I'm curious, with your _logic_ who post here and complained about difficulty and are the total idiots you are mentioning? And don't quote my name even for a joke, I don't like _stupid_ humor you are warned. All the rest of your post is based on assumption of stupid players playing such games, which is a total non sense, so I won't answer it. Is this enough civilized? I can't be more correct with someone making the link "total idiots" and "complaining the game is hard" when I'm one of the rare who complained this.

Originally Posted By: HOUSE of S ...some players will do all the side-quests and think hard about where to put their level up points and which equipment is the best. Other players will do no side-quests and place level up points haphazardly... Lol sure some players put points randomly! OMG you should wake up, think hard IS NOT to do mass of boring tests and reload back and compare this and that and make stats. All of that crap you obviously enjoy a lot to do, almost no players enjoy do that crap. Think means read the descriptions and if they are wrong or missing important information the game sucks, make choices in accordance of descriptions, adapt if it seems not that good and so on, not a load of crap tests and reload back... I'm dreaming.

I already wrote I checked the difficulty. Otherwise, what was those _obvious_ (lol thank you!) explanations?

Forgot mention but yes I checked it wasn't Torment, just Hard. Both time it was Basilik, usually I don't check those numbers very closely, more those of attacks to see enemy resistances and To Hit values. So I don't have a clue if it's often or not, only for magical damages or not, and so on. The second was an Xsomething Basilik, the first just a Basilik.