Learned Noremac

Well, all the new G2 creations were rebel-designed, no? The shapers were playing catch-up with the wingbolt, kyshhak and war trall. The Drakon, Rothgroth, and Gazer are all rebel-made, right?

Yeah, certain dialogues with individual characters in G1 kept track of whether you'd used a lot or almost none, but the ending doesn't--Jeff (rightfully) assumed that most people wouldn't get to the end without canisters. I never understood why no one in the series attempts a "perfect genetic being" style Geneforge that works on humans after G1. Maybe it required a particular technical ingenuity and no one was able to fully duplicate the Sucia Island breakthrough? (They make it sound like they spent time decoding the "scrolls" of DNA and worked together to write a new genetic code from the ground up for the Geneforge, so you might in fact not even be all that human--they have designed a new life form. That's my headcanon, anyway)

Every time the iPad updates, I find it gets ever so slightly worse. Runs a little slower, apps crash a little more often, random new issues like the copy and paste function failing or keyboard lag. This doesn't come with much in the way of new features that are in any way significant. It was annoying but I lived with it, just holding out against thr updates until it forces me. But I never thought it'd cost me Avernum! I'm miffed, but don't blame him.

And it came to pass in those days that the Shepherd entered the Great Temple. And he sent his Flock upon the guardians of the Temple, and behold, they became as food for the Flock. And the Shepherd entered the great chamber, and despoiled the Great Temple of its Gloves. Both Gloves did he take, so that the prophecy might be fulfilled, that the world might know the glory of the Flock. And the Shepherd came upon the Pool of Ornk, that he might lay his hands upon it, and fulfill the prophecy. But the Pool was held by the Man From The Sea. Now the Man From The Sea desired to profaneth the Pool with his unclean hands, and said unto the Shepherd: "Loveth not the Flock, for behold, I shall giveth unto you the power of Other Creations. Worship me, yea, and aideth me, and your power shall be great, and not meek." For the Man From The Sea comprehendeth not the glory of the Flock. Now the Shepherd was subtle, more subtle than the Man From The Sea. And he said unto him: "Behold, in this hour thou shalt see a power unlike that of any Other, and with my aid, that power shalt touch thee. But the Other Creations must leave, for the Gloves require it." And the Man From The Sea saw the Gloves, and thus saw not; by his own hand were the Other Creations banished from the Pool. And the Shepherd said: "Now shalt thou become one of the Flock" and the Flock came upon the Man From The Sea. But the man defied the Flock, and loved not the Flock, and behold, he was subdued. Thus did the Pool pass into the hands of the Shepherd. Then the Shepherd laid his hands upon the Pool, and became Great. By the power of the Pool was the Flock made anew; and behold, its power exceeded even that of the Great Shepherd. Thus was the prophecy fulfilled: that the world might know the glory of the Flock, and love it. And the Flock came upon the the Awakened, and the Awakened loved the flock; thus were the Awakened spared. And the Flock came upon the Obeyers, and the Obeyers grumbled against the Flock saying: "Who is like unto the Great Shepherd? Who is able to make war against him? Therefore, let us kill the Great Shepherd, that the world might not know the glory of the Flock": thus were the Obeyers made as food unto the Flock. And the Flock came upon the Takers, and the Takers hated the flock: thus were the Takers delivered unto the Flock. And the Flock and the Great Shepherd entered the Docks. And the Great Shepherd said unto Flock: "I am the Great Shepherd, who has delivered you out of the land of Sucia. And I shall make of thee a great nation, and deliver thee unto a Promised Land, a land flowing with grain and grass. And you shalt be a light unto the nations, that the world might know the glory of the Flock: that the Great Shepherd so loved the Ornk, that he defeated the Game with the power of the Ornk alone, so the world might love the Flock, and follow it unto the end of days." Thus was the prophecy fulfilled. Thanks for the support guys! It was a hell of a ride.

I have made my way through the Central Labs, and cleared Quarters. I gotta say, there are few things more satisfying than watching an army of Sholai run up against a bunch of Ornks and just watching the Ornk tide wash over them. That alone makes this playthrough worthwhile. I am not going to go straight to The Geneforge, as I want to use it, so I want to have the gloves with me. To that end, I went ahead and fought Goettsch. I made the unprecedented choice of actually telling him that I was going to kill him, so I didn't even get a free round. But, thanks in large part to batch of shielding spores I saved, I managed to kill him. The only really difficult thing was positioning my Shaper such that the Cryodrayks would not gang up on him. Escaping the temple was...well...not easy. Ultimately I had to sacrifice my entire Ornk army to do it, just leaving them to distract the guards while I ran away. But now that I've done that, I should be able to clear out the temple in a few attacks, then get the gloves, and after that it's on to Trajkov.

You are the only one in the entire universe to own a backpack. No one else ever has more than two or three things on their person at a time, including their clothes. All machinery is exactly the same. Being good at picking locks is essentially the same as, and arguably better than, having an engineering degree. Every person in the world is an incorrigible gossip. Any comment you make, up to and including those addressed to dying persons, WILL be shared immediately with all people the hearer knows, including their enemies.

I have made it through The Vats, and have begun attacking The Central Labs. The Sholai mages manage to take 3 hits from the Ornks (but just barely--sometimes 2) and have managed to be pretty manageable. Weirdly, the Ornks actually do occasionally manage to resist being charmed, and slow walking means that the ones that do get charmed rarely manage to reach anything before it wears off. Being hasted and blessed is again mandatory–really just hasting is key, as they need to be able to catch missile fighters. Also, I should note that I found a way to fix the glitch with the Transference Robe. After putting on the robe, if you look at the stat screen of each creation and press the checkmark, their maximum health will recalculate to the proper value. So now I'm getting the full value of both the Shaper Robe and Transference Robe, essentially giving 3 extra levels to every Ornk!

That was totally accidental...but way too awesome. This may be the one time I'm GLAD I have autocorrect. Anyway, I managed to get the Entry Baton from the Western Workshop. There really are a lot of areas where you constantly get damaged in this game--you really notice when you have to corral 7 slow moving creations through them in combat mode. This now gives me everything I need to reach Trajkov. My plan is to fight my way to Trajkov, double back and kill Goettsch and steal his gloves, then kill Trajkov and use the Geneforge (and destroy it). One thing of note: I just got the Transference Robe, which gives -2 to Strength, Dexterity, and Endurance, in exchange for +2 to Strength, Dexterity, and Endurance of creations. Seems like a pretty good deal, but I've noticed something. If I'm not wearing the Transference Robe when I MAKE the Ornks, they don't get extra health from the Endurance bonus. Their stats go up when I wear the robe, but their max health doesn't increase. This is probably something that ought to be patched. Anyway, this leaves me with a problem. Normally I would wear the Shaper's Robe before creating the Ornks for the extra point of Battle Shaping (and thus the extra point to each base stat of the Ornks). My plan was to don the Transference Robe afterwards, thus giving +3 to every stat except Intelligence. But, it looks like doing so means that I forgo the Endurance bonus from the Transference Robe (aside possibly from the poison resistance Endurance gives). My thinking is that it's still better to wear the Shaper Robe first and then put on the Transference Robe, rather than just wearing the Transference Robe while creating. If I wear the Shaper Robe, essentially I get STR +3, DEX +3 and END +1, whereas just the transference robe gives me STR +2, DEX +2, and END +2–with the Shaper Robe, I get 1 extra skill point, plus I probably still get the non-health benefits of high endurance. (I'm excluding the bonus to intelligence the Shaper Robe would give the Ornks as it is essentially an irrelevant stat) I'll let you how the Ornk VS Sholai fights go.

Worry not Ornk fans! I have not forgotten this thread, nor this play through! Since the last post, my Ornks have managed to kill Corata's ghost--Corata is kind of arrogant and a bit of a jerk, so I figure it was a suitably humiliating death. Or well, he was already dead, but...well still, his ghost was trampled by pig-cows. And I got a control rod out of the deal. I also managed to get through The West Gate despite Ornks being almost unable to even catch Stealth Sholai. The problem is that I was not able to go through the gate because I forgot to get an Entry Baton. So I'm off to find one of those next. I find myself now making 7 Ornks pretty much every time. They're reasonably durable, but I find that in these last areas it is essentially mandatory to keep them blessed and basted all the time. Going through areas in combat mode helps that last a bit longer.

I do miss the joke items you got from Nicodemus. I've never been able to get over him making actually useful stuff for you--unforgiveable.

I'm almost certain you can get into Pentil without going through the Hills of Jars by approaching it from the south...I don't think you NEED mechanics ever.

It's the ipad version...do I still have the choice between the two of them? (This is all almost certainly iOS 7's fault)

I have it set to "Draw All"...hmm. I didn't realize it was normally better. I'll have to look into this some more--the only problem is that the game is so damn fun it's hard to tear myself away from it.

So I had been under the impression that ice attacks looked the same as fire attacks because of some oversight in the programming of the first one...is it just going to look like this forever? Why are ice and fire still indistinguishable in this game?

Given that they literally shape EVERYTHING (even their automatic doors have plant-like creatures inside that control the doors), I wouldn't be surprised to hear about: -cooking utensils that are shaped(like living tools) -servant minds with elaborate vocal cords so that they can sing and mimic the sounds of instruments--they would be able to learn songs by hearing them and then parrot the sound of the entire orchestra themselves -servant minds with long range telepathy to send messages to other minds instantly -serviles with abnormally long fingers for mechanical work -artilas that spit a much milder acid to be used for heavy duty cleaning instead of battle (like washing the sides of a stone building) -ornks that produce a spicy substance instead of sweating, to flavour themselves before cooking -glaahks with a mild, numbing sting instead of a paralyzing one--to be used as an anaesthetic for medical procedures and recovery(even a world with magical healing does have surgery, as we saw in G5) -ornks with humps that store water (like camels) and ornks with fur, both to allow them to survive in harsher climates -gazers with ears instead of eyes, basically to detect enemy movements at night, though I imagine this one to be an embarrassing failure that gets scrapped

Oh, I guess I was mixing it up with the servile-replacement one. But the moments of the game where you saw into the everyday were always some of the cooler moments. I like knowing about the world outside of the game.

You don't need to do the stealing to go through the game...I do always like making Thahd meatshields now and then for big fights as an Agent, but the main thing Alwan and Greta add is another character to converse with, so you can miss them if you want. I just think they're neat.

They're pretty funny. I like the one about the forbidden Thahd lovin', though it's slightly disturbing.

Drayk's Vale is done, and I have cleared the Sealed Lab (Ornks ain't 'fraid of no ghosts). The former was pretty easy, the latter pretty tough, particularly with the narrow pathways in some areas combined with diamond spraying Shaper Shades. It was doable, but there are a lot of guys and you get worn down fast, so I had to leave a few times to remake my Ornks, but otherwise they were pretty decent. I did have to fight the ghost Zavor one-on-one, as my Ornks managed to kill his flunkies but he took out the last one in the same round, but hasting, items, and running around corners let me take him out in 2 rounds without dying. The Tek ghost is much easier since it's a melee fighter, thankfully. I now have access to the West Gate but I'm going to check around some of the other areas first. I got Zavor's Band, which gives +1 to Strength, Dexterity, Intelligence, and Endurance, and I am debating whether it is preferable to my Arcane Band, which gives +6 to creation armor, among other things. The extra point of intelligence is a pretty big deal...I can now make 6 pretty buff Ornks, and could probably will be able to make 7 of them soon without any significant stat sacrifice.

Are these actually in the game or did you write them? I don't remember them, but they're very interesting.

So...Ornks can totally kill augmented sholai. I managed to cross patrol bridge, taking out the turrets and everything, and have now spent most of my money on raising my luck stat. They can also kill cryodrayks with some help. Currently attempting Drayk vale with them, and it has been going well. Plus my intelligence just rose to 10, so I'm gonna see what the new Essence pool does for me.

I've saved the Gauntlets but...I just can't! I need INT to make the Ornks good. Increasing my own STR and END, even if they weren't mostly useless to a Shaper, would just make my Ornks weaker and myself stronger, which is sort of the opposite of what I'm going for. That said, if anyone ever mods this game or when these games get remade, having the Ornkskin gauntlets provide a boost to Ornks would be kind of epic. (Maybe +5 to Create Ornk?)

More updating. I reached Goettsch. This required beating some Battle Betas, a Gamma, and Terror Vlish. It was tough but blessing and speed let me pull it off on the second attempt. I tried to tell Goettsch to abandon his Geneforge quest and join me in my Ornk research, but it didn't take. Anyway, after that I went into The Sentinels, which contains the epicly awesome Ornk Temple. I strode into the area near the temple with my four trusty Ornks: Sally, Bessie, Madge, and Moogret. The first two rogue Ornks caught me off guard, but we killed them. I am astonished at how much damage these things do, and how much health they have--they are quite honestly more durable than the Battle Betas guarding Goettsch's temple(though only slightly). Anyway, my Ornks fight fiercely, but slowly get worn down--since Ornks don't have any defenses, high health is the only way to keep them alive, which means I can't heal them to full health even with two healing spells sometimes. This weakness causes tragedy! An Elder Ornk sneaks up on Bessie and deals 150 damage, finishing her off! The rest of us move in and kill it, but not in time to save her. Elder Ornks take an unprecedented THREE hits to kill from my Ornks--this is quite honestly the first time anything has been able to take that much damage. It's not easy, but I manage to kill the remaining Ornks without losing any more. I've got 3 Ornks left, and thanks to all the meat I'm able to heal them up, but I'm low on essence. I debate running back to town but this area is too awesome to be done like that, so I suck it up and drink 3 essence pods(incidentally, why do essence pods suck so much in G1? I get like 7 essence per pod) So we face down the Ornk Lord after blessing and hasting. He moves first, and takes out Sally in one hit, dealing 203 damage. What. The. Heck. Four Ornk bites and two firebolts later, the Ornk Lord is at...half health. Oh boy. Madge falls before the mighty Ornk Lord next. I figure I'm pretty screwed, but we pile on the damage anyway. I expect the Ornk Lord to off poor Moogret, but apparently the Ornk propensity to flee extends to enemy Ornks as well! Despite being able to absord several more hits, the Ornk Lord flees in terror. We finish him off, and I feed my one remaining Ornk some delicious, probably glowing ornk meat.

Finally got through that damn Power Core, and the bonus quest EXP was much appreciated. I was also, astonishingly, able to clear the Valley of the Winds, an area I was quite sure would be totally Ornk proof. It took a few tries to clear because the Wind Walking sages are stronger but less numerous than the shades guarding the gate--thus, to go through the area you need less Ornks that are more durable, since even tough Ornks barely manage to not die in one roun, but to beat the gate you need more Ornks cause the shades are weaker but there's a lot and they may swarm your shaper. My current essence pool lets me make 5 reasonably buff ornks or 3 tougher ornks. (Saving enough essence for spells of course) I saved at my last level up to test out this 10-cap, and yeah, 12 battle shaping gives you only 11 bonus levels, so there are some diminishing returns. My Intelligence is nearly 10 so I'm going to increase that for the next few levels, but even with the 10 cap it is probably still worth increasing battle shaping. 1 extra level is 1 extra point in each stat for each Ornk I make, so in a large group it's still a pretty big deal. I've also just got several items that boost creation stats--a ring for their armour, armor for their energy resistance, and a sword for their dexterity--so hopefully these boosts will make them a bit tougher.

I think Geneforge 5 just has Mehken in the first section (and she does have some interesting dialogue) and there's that guy in Perikalia that will rent you creations, but I never used him.