DarkTreader

What about Andy Serkis for spiders? Or for the more absurd, what about Dave Coulier? (of full house fame, Uncle Joey!) Or what about a flock of raving fangirls?

Okay so there's really no official plans for an Avernum TV series... but I wish there was! One of the most captivating things about Spiderweb games to me is the story. It's unique and interesting and well written and the way it goes, I could imagine creating a TV series out of it. It has to be a TV series because it's too big to be a movie. It's also plot driven, so you need to have the story unfold and get all the important points, uberflashiness is not required. I'd be sad if it was limited to 13 episodes a season but 26 should do nicely. Realistically, I think the best you could do would be to aim to have SyFy pick it up and put it in prime time but if you think you could get it on CW or FOX at a reasonable time (i.e. NOT Friday nights where FOX has killed way too many great shows) go for it. Okay, so we'd need a writer to work with Jeff. J. Michael Strazynski comes to mind, though he's more sci-fi. Maybe Kripke when he's done with supernatural, or Whedon could take it up since he's so good in making cultish fan oriented material and just finished Doll House. Iw as also thinking that it would be 6 seasons one for each game, and we'd have new characters each season for each new story line. And after season 1, we could introduce a CGI nephilim and after season 2 we could have a CGI slith, and perhaps in 4,5 or 6 have any combination of those. Having 2-3 flesh characters and 1-2 CGI might cut down on production costs, and give the characters depth, but then again you have to work hard to not make it look cheesy. 4 Human characters might have to cut it and sliths and nephs only make it in as periodic appearances. And I might rewrite the story just a wee bit to do one thing, and that is to factor in the Demonslayer into all 6 seasons. It doesn't come up prominantly in all of them and it gives people something to look forward to each season to tie the seasons together before the end of each season. As for the secondary characters and villains, you'd have the guest star of the week format of course, but you'd have a huge pool of actors for fans. Just think, who would cast as Gladwell, Patrick, or X? Tell me your thoughts!

Anyone have a list of shortcut keys? In particular there use to be a key that would highlight stuff in a room, is that still available?

Quote: Originally written by Randomizer: Jeff decided during beta testing of the Azure Gallery to end the era of the glass cannon. No more running around with minimal endurance and relying on augmentation and essence armor to provide health. Part of this was to balance out regular parties and the Anama ones and the other was to end the abuse of 200+ health spellcasters at this point in the game. It was a way of restoring balance to the game that you couldn't create tank like characters without using tank like stats. I took this as a bit of a surprise. Not an entirely unwelcome one, but I fell behind the curve in so many places, I felt, skill wise, and endurance was one of them. There's just something about feeling your behind during most of the game that's a little distressing. Quote: Originally written by Randomizer: I played the game through on torment since the start of beta testing. There were expert areas that needed to be done later in the game because they weren't meant to be cakewalks when you first encounter them. I think that the game could have been made a little harder except for a few areas that were pure grinding dull on torment. The pro-Darkside Loyalist fight was toned down since it took a min-max party with plenty of energy elixirs to finish the fight. The others like Pit of Abominations, doomguards, and a few in Melanchion's Keep were just long unless you could figure out a trick to shorten the fight. Using slow and/or to reduce spliting monsters is an example. I didn't find the loyalist fight up the hill a major toll on my potions. But then again, I was pumping intelligence and I had like 14 in my mage and 11 in my priest. Your glass cannon may not be able to be made out of glass any more but you can still pump INT and get a nasty cannon.

Quote: I didn't say the game was too hard, just that I found Normal difficulty in A5 to be a lot harder than Normal difficulty in A4. A4, I could get through pretty much every battle on the first try. A5, for most major combats after Chapter 2, I had to try once to figure out what the winning strategy was, reload, and then fight it out a second time knowing what to do. Fael gets what I'm trying to say, because he's been there too. Flat out, A5 is harder. Not too hard, and definitely not unfun, but definitely harder. It was more of a surprise than anything. If you are a power gamer who can analyze a game in 2 seconds and come up with a power party and you are at the top, you can't see the bottom as well. Many of my friends are marveled by my gaming ability, but absolutely none of them are computer geeks. In the gaming world, I'm average. I also agree with Fael in general with the spells. I was almost totally dependent on the 3 long lasting buffs, as well as haste. In chapter's 8 and 9, I began to be dependent on arcane shield as well. Constantly. And I'm not just talking for the big fights, but the little and the medium ones as well. That said, A5 was still a very good game. I've always thought Jeff has a way with storytelling, and that the Avernum world is one of the most original I've ever seen. Hell it's so good I would personally like to see it as a TV serial or a roleplaying game... or both! Since there's always room for improvement, let me reply to Thuryl's post previously: 1) If fighters shouldn't be main damage dealers past the early stages, why does the default party include them? That's a good way to get an average gamer new to Avernum discouraged. In fact some people (not myself) might misinterpret that as arrogance (oh you used the default party and reloaded 500 times? Silly n00b!) With a reasonable amount of skill, the starting party should be able to beat the game in an approximate amount of time (set by programmer in however means he or she sets), with a minimal but not tiny number of reloads, and give the player a reasonable feeling of balance within his or her own party. Changing the difficulty is possible, but also realize your target audience. My cousin is a gamer who sets every game to easy so he can breeze through and feel like he's a god but never plays hard. I on the other hand, like multiple replays, and to make the game harder as I learn it. I don't like the feeling of reducing the difficulty because someone tells me normal is too hard for me. Normal should be normal. 2) Buffs are cheap to a point. what's annoying is that many you have cast over and over and over, just to get anywhere. That becomes a grind. Avernum was never a grind, because when you cleared an area, there's a new area to move onto. I did a bit of a grind thru A5, casting buffs, going thru the area, recast haste every few minutes, and if I ran out of mana I ran back to a town and came back and finished it. If I forgot a buff, I got hammered a lot. And that I had to cast steel skin 4 times each and every time? And when I did I had to wait for the animation to finish every time i cast it? In A1-3, before I had level 3 haste, if I wanted to haste the part, I could rattle off spells quickly, I'm a fast typist. Waiting for the animation to finish and catch up to me is never fun in any computer game. If I have to cast 12 spells before I go into an area, I need a way of casting it quickly at a speed I feel is good. 3) I played A1-4 and suddenly in a5 they hit much harder? Where in the instructions does it say "oh btw enemies hit much harder in A5, so pump up your endurance." From a replay perspective yes you are dead on. From a first run experience, especially those that have played prior titles, you can't expect a new player to know that. Specifically I'm talking mostly about first run, which is where you capture most of your user base with. Many won't run through a second time, and those that do, wouldn't have if their first time hadn't been enjoyable. 4) I tried that. The problem with that is that if I moved too far away, party affecting spells didn't take effect. The other problem is that it was easy to get surrounded, and your spellcasters get hung out to dry while your warriors can't act as meatshields to help them out. Then you have to recover by casting AB and DR multiple times just to clear out enemies surrounding your spellcasters. In a first run of a game, don't know that I will get surrounded until I get to that fight. If I have to reload for every fight just because I am at a tactical disadvantage because i didn't know the room I was walking into, I'm grinding again. 5a) I didn't have too much of a problem going back to town to recharge and heal... it was more the frequency I had to do it. Also I heard complaints on the opposite end of the spectrum here, that there weren't enough energy potions. Also there's a limited number of energy potions, since you can only find them or make them custom. 5b) I found spellcasters strong and fighters not as much so in A5, so I agree with you here. My concern is that, knowing what I knew of A1-4, this is a surprise to me, since my expectations of the game were different, and the strategy I used based on what I knew wasn't as good as I thought it could be. This is hard to address, because you have to give new options for power gamers, the game has to evolve to keep the most avid and vocal gamers happy, but you have to keep the casual happy. The biggest thing here is you play A4 and look at A5 and say "oh look same interface, same skills, must be just a new plot... whoops! no it ain't!" I don't have a good answer for that, to be honest, but being a support rep in a software company myself, I'm trained to be sympathetic and recognize any concern, so I'm just laying it out there even if I don't have a solution yet A couple more points to round things out. 1) Most boss fights are awesome, and challenging. Jeff mixed it up, and forced you to think a little. Not solve a myst like puzzle, just know this isn't gonna be a whack/whack/heal/flamebolt type of battle. And in these, I expected to have to need to cast buffs so I didn't mind as much. The only issues I do have were the doomguard (without slow, OMG he's crazy, with slow, he's an utter wimp) and part of the Dorikas fight with the orbs (clever idea but when I saw the orbs, Jeff, you had sent so many other clever challenges my way I was well trained. I immediately asked myself "okay one orb is fire one is ice one is melee, etc, right?" so it was a bit predictable ) 2) at first I thought the choices you had to make in the game were annoying (gladwell or no gladwell), but as the plot developed, I saw their charm. Plot wise this is the most intricate Avernum game yet. I just wish I hadn't given into the temptation for the extra power from gladwell... that's so not me... but I was suffering a bit by that point in combat and thought I needed it. 3) all the extra powerups are fun, and I like those as rewards. Larks quests were particularly fun for me. I look forward to more of that And finally, some suggestions: 1) Bring back demonslayer There's something about obtaining it in A1 and A2 that was just so satisfying. A3 it was there but it was so anti-climactic finding it and it wasn't useful, nor was it the most powerful sword. A4 and 5 it's completely gone. 2) start making difficulty levels like Civilization did. You need a higher level than torment now, since you have so many power gamers familliar with you. Civ1 and 2 had 5. Civ3 had 6 and then 7. Civ4 i think might go up to 8 (I forget, my mac can't run that for me to check... I need a new mac! ) That suggestion for a "soul crushing" level sounds good Thank you for continuing this very cool franchise Jeff!

Is it me, or is A5 significantly harder at normal level than A4? 1) Most of the strategy guides are saying I should be hitting twice as hard as I am. My mage and priest were quite happy with their meatshields, as they themselves did huge amounts of damage, but my warriors kinda wanted to be a little more important in each battle. They tended to pick off the stragglers while I pounded with DF+FB or DR+AB from my spellcasters. Or maybe I'm reading the damage figures wrong, because maybe they include MB or WAB. That's not clear in the melee party guide to me. Even then, I'm not sure I'm reaching a high enough level 2) In most encounters, even in midgame, I had to spell up with as many enhancements as I could before entering even a simple battle. I expect spell ups for important battles, but I seem to get surrounded easily, even if I'm sneaking up on the enemy and know they are there. And my spellcasters being physically weak would 3) I seem to be taking damage twice as hard as I'd expect. Restoring was a common thing for me when I'd lose a party member because a bunch of average joe monster ran around my warriors and wailed on a spellcaster. 4) OMG could the monsters stop running around my warriors to get to my spell casters? My warriors would stroll up to the enemy call confident like, then as my warriors commenced their all but impotent attacks, massive spells would come from behind their heads and blow away a few beasties. The beasties would be like "hmmmmm, hey Dave, you think we should go bite off those spellcaster's heads first? These warriors are wussies." The AI is just mean when it does that. 5) I felt there was a lot more running back and forth to and from towns just to get spell points to finish an area. 5) There were so many special skills to work with, I'm not sure if I didn't have enough or not. I had 12 INT for both spellcasters, and 11 melee on one warrior, 14 poles on my slith. I probably spent way to much on basic skills and stats and not enough on specialty, but I didn't understand that. I'm not sure A4 was like that, as I only ran thru A4 once... didn't find it as interesting as A1-3 so I never learned the new engine and I must be still thinking A1-3 when playing A5. I'm definitely not saying it wasn't worth it. This was a very good plot, the big battles were harder in a clever way, which is good (but Doomguards are wussies!!!! ) and there were more puzzles. And the ending promises that there will be more. You can't end the Avernum series like that! I guess I'm just saying... wow... it was harder than I expected

The Mandrake tincture in the pit of abominations is behind a secret door in the room where you fight the lich. The switch is outside the room.

The editor allows me to edit any and all skills with impunity. Are there any options, in the middle of a game, to just redistribute points? I ask because I think I've not done well with my point distribution in my first go round so I want to experiment. I have lots of saved games from my first go through, so it would be interesting to experiment at different saves, then come up with a party mix I'd like and start my next run with that mix. I also noticed that a lot of the A5 strategy guides assume A4 knowledge. I played A4, but only once, as I found the plot less engaging than A1-3. So I started playing A5 like A3 in terms of character build, but I see now, secondary skills are playing a much more important role than before, so I want to see how they work by experimenting. A5 normal is definitely a little harder than A4 normal I've also been unable to find a thread on how the inner mechanics of the game work (damage, to hit calculations, raw numbers and formulas, etc). Anyone have anything on that?

It's behind another gate. You need to complete a quest for the Vahatni in the library first, and she'll open the first gate. Epiron-bok opens the second gate, beyond the first one.

Slow got me through this fight. I have two buff warriors with Mighty blow wail on him, hit him with every spell I can (even if they don't do very much damage) and just make sure the slow spell stays on him, I got a grand total of 3 doomguards, including the original. Jeff, if you make a Doomguard immune to slow in A6, I will *#@!$%^ kill you Evil, evil man

Go back to new harston and look for a bald-headed guy with dark blue pants and light blue shirt. He's usually wandering around. I like to call him the docboy NPC (Looks like Docboy from the garfield comic strip ) This guy appears in every chapter in one city so look for him.

Claws are not entirely useless if you like armor elixirs... you can have the anama alchemist make some for you with claws.

The great thing about any avernum game is the exceptional writing. For example, taken from one of Lark's quests after you return with the ectoplasm from the Moref the Shade. Lark then makes the soup and: "She takes some of it herself and gives the rest to you. Sadly, this soup is the most disgusting so far. You have to clap your hands over your mouth to keep it from flying out of your throat. Ghosts taste bad." I'm still trying to get over this one! LOL

That's not what I meant. Even before I finish the demo portion, I get heavy enough equipment to max me at 60 lbs encumbrance. That seams like a lot. I'm making choices on equipment so soon for my warriors. I never had to do it so soon or so often. Right now my lead warrior is walking around without pants because regular pants put her 2 lbs over the limit!

I seem to be very encumbrance laiden in A5. It's hard to get all the gear I want equiped. I have two characters, one with Strength 6, one with strength 7 (this one is a slith). both, however, are encumbered at 60 lbs. #1 either that is low, or I'm getting equipment very fast, and #2 why the same amount despite two different strength figures?