Lattan

I guess I’ll need to go re-read that text then because I definitely thought I got to pick one of them.

I've got a letter from Istara of Sliven stating that the Ukatish are their cultural equals. (I can see in my Special Items list: "Letter from the Ahriel".) I have previously sent the dragon away and reported that success to Borgen. I only need to do two tasks to make them my vassals. But for some reason I don't get a dialogue option to GIVE him the letter! I can go through the dialogue tree and agree to make them favored vassals, and then the quest advances. So, I presume this is some fun bug? Anything else I should try, or anybody else seen this?

Oh man, thanks for helping with this Fingolfin, and to Jeff for listening because I know it can be really obnoxious for strangers to come in and complain about one's code.

The Gale library has Bolt of Fire level 1 (basic knowledge), not level 3. Which is frustrating for me, since I’ve got a mage stuck at level 2 on that spell, unable to train further at a trainer and unable to find anything I’ve missed in the Shayder sewers to level him up.

Geneforge 1 undeniably has the best plot; in terms of gameplay mechanics presumably Geneforge 5 wins (though I dunno; I'm just now finishing G4 due to a computer crash long ago). Why the best plot? Well, it's a completely new world you're discovering, as both the character and the player. Later games where you introduce the character to game mechanics that the player already knows about get tedious. Exploring was a lot more rewarding than in later games because it wasn't just for loot (which I generally turn into boring gold) but told you more about the history of this banned island, and of the Shapers and their history as a whole. And, perhaps most importantly for me: Originally Posted By: feo takahari G1 was the only game in the series where you could play a "good guy" and not get creamed. I really like a lot of the thought processes that Geneforge 4 subjects you to (if you actually pick sides morally), but it's killing me that I can't play as a good guy. Either I prop up a corrupt regime or I help set up a new regime that is already corrupt and will kill the entire world, or I create a stalemate guaranteeing the death by violence of a great portion of the world's population. That's just icky.

Niceness here means: behaves like an OS X app should when switching applications and reduces its CPU time when in the background. I've noticed that the "niceness" of the Geneforge games tends to vary across the games. I originally noticed between (I think) Geneforge 3 and Avernum 4; G3 refused to let you switch applications and A4 allowed it, and thanks to being turn-based A4's CPU usage when not playing is fairly low. Geneforge 4 is fairly nice; if you switch applications it drops its CPU time to near-zero, and you can call up the dashboard/expose/spaces while playing. Geneforge 5 provides the cool new feature of windowing, but it DOESN'T drop CPU usage when you switch to another application -- so with Geneforge 5 running it takes up an entire CPU core even if I've got it paused in a menu and hidden and have 3 other applications I've accessed more recently. If you don't play G5 in a window it's even more rude since then you're just stuck playing it with no opportunity to switch to another application without quitting. Hopefully starting other applications that require cpu time would cut into G5's usage, but when you play on a laptop the extra cpu usage translates pretty directly into a much hotter laptop and louder fans. I'd previously assumed that these quirks were a consequence of the older engines and the niceness was added deliberately. But apparently not -- or the difference is now a consequence of G5 using OpenGL. Playing around with a few other similar apps it appears this cpu behavior may be endemic to windowed OpenGL apps. But surely there must be some sort of "pause processing" command you can invoke when it loses focus? Or am I missing an option somewhere in either G5 or hidden deep within my system plist files that will change this behavior?

It's possible that the newer installers don't overwrite old registration (ie, preference) files if the demo has already created them. I'd delete those and then install from the disk.

Thanks guys!

I oddly couldn't find this anywhere. So I've gotten a mercuric item that grants "+1 battle speed." As far as I can tell this just puts the character wearing it a little farther ahead in the line to attack (which, basically, means that my melee guy goes before my archer). This seems a really lousy reward for an item that takes away a point of strength, so does battle speed do anything else?

I was really annoyed the first time I did this -- I wanted to find out what I could get by killing him so I saved and did that first. When I found his babies and got the message about Avernum being unhappy if they found out I figured I was clear to go back and say "killed all the goblins; killed giant since he had babies."

That list doesn't look to be worth much. It's the top 100 of 368 games reviewed in the last three years, most of the games at the top look fairly dumb, and the aclaimed Darwinia is ranked 60th. And just looking through the authors, who you're rated by and the kind of games they like seems to have a profound impact on your placement in the list.

Quote: Originally written by Thuryl: Quote: Originally written by Tyranicus: A healthy number of PCs are 16:10 now too. Why's it called 16:10 and not 8:5, anyway? My assumption is that it's easier to compare to 16:9 and people like tens. gis, can you give us a better description of what's going on? Which way is the picture stretched? Have you ever run the game successfully before?

<---Appreciates elevation and "Averforge"-style graphics

I just now noticed, but the only way to access the preferences from the main menu is to press cmd-p. Unless you're in a window, in which case you can get them through the file menu (which is the wrong menu ), but the only way to window the game is to use the preferences box! Now of course if you start a game and press escape you can get the prefs, but it's still a little odd.

Quote: Originally written by Lord Sylak: You realize that up until the Geneforge Series (not the first Geneforge game mind you) that Nethergate was the #1 selling Spidweb game, right? Yeah, where on earth did you get that idea? It's completely wrong, and for obvious reasons. Nethergate was just awkward to use. It's the newest game of Jeff's that I haven't bought because the interface was just too painful and it lacked polish much more than his later efforts.

It's...it's in 800*600. That's going to be claustrophobic.

Quote: Originally written by Student of Trinity: I still find this a doubtful scenario, though, just because everyone you meet in the game, Rebel and Shaper, human and drakon, all speak about the rebel Geneforges as though they confer really significant powers. And it is evident that the Rebels have been producing Geneforged Lifecrafters for some time: the PC is not the first Lifecrafter, but the last. So even those Rebels and Shapers who have no direct knowledge of how the southern rebel 'forge worked would seem to have had direct experience of its products. Hmmm. I always just figured the Southern Geneforge was considered so powerful because it could give serviles the power to craft and cast magic, and it could let humans do the same thing without the years of study otherwise required (remember, your characters in the past games are all old apprentices who have been learning magic and memorizing different formulas for years).

I'd like to see the comedy RPG. I'd also like to see something with a new system, perhaps a cyberpunk style (one that doesn't just depend on technology to replace all the magic stuff we have).

I think I remember this happening in each of the games with a few random items, but none of them were important. It was just that the strings were too long to fit into the allotted space.

There's a chamber directly south of Monarch's bedchamber which you access through his throne room. The papers are in the cabinet in that chamber. And a note: if you haven't yet completed Master Jared's quest for the missing items in the wrecked lab, make sure you do that before you tell Greta you've beaten Monarch. I've just finished that part of the game and got zinged.

Quote: Originally written by Emperor Tullegolar: For number 3, I've never had to go into fight mode to do this. The alphas walk fairly far away and they stay at that end of the bridge for a good amount of time. I have no problem just walking up, doing the deed, and walking away. Unless... does cheating and maxing your stats make you more stealthy? I had no trouble doing it without going into combat on my not-cheated-up character.

I, ummm, don't think it's a poem. I don't remember Heustess at all, and I finished Geneforge less than a month ago. All well; does he ever show up again?

There are a few that you discover by being told of their existence or (maybe, I'm not sure about this) by having high enough luck. There's no point trying to headbang, though. Sadly.

Yay!!!!

As a quick note, there are several areas of the end-game that seem to be more interesting (ie, they're towns rather than dungeons) if you're a Taker. I'm planning to replay G1 at some point to take advantage of those.