karry

...that there is this new-fangled invention, called "The Great Mouse Wheel of Eternal Omnipotence" ? Seriously, though. Ruined World is a game released in 2018. It has lists. That cannot be scrolled through with a mouse wheel. This is not just laughable, it's deplorable. You have to press tiiiiiiiny icons to scroll through. Right-click, as always, does absolutely nothing, like, say, it would have been nice to right-click on an item to use it, instead of hunting (once again, pretty small) use icon. Yes, there are probably some barbaric reprobates who still use the (clearly) unholy Apple (*shudder* maystevejobsfryinhell) hardware for gaming, but if you sell your games on Steam - do adopt some damn standards. 20 years late. Oh, there is FINALLY a toggle for inventory. 10 years late. But not one for journal or spells or status screen. Wonderful. Again you cannot see full character status if you have skill points unspent. Just to be clear, these things have been asked for, for literally a decade. And it doesnt require that much bloody effort ! I know ! I've done UI for 3 games now. It takes a couple of days to think things through, and a day, TOPS, to implement ! Yes, i know Jeff absolutely hates people who buys his products, i think he calls them "greedy children". What an attitude to have for your customers...but ultimately it doesnt matter what he says, what matters is what he does. And what he does is release this...product. I've read in several places that Jeff worships Bioware games. I dont believe it. Not one bit. A game like Avernum 3 : Ruined World could ONLY be released by someone who has never played any games other than those of his own making. I didnt buy Avernum remakes and not planning on it.

Quote: The fact that my bug swarm took out Greta, her summons, and an entire village of serviles, including the annoying servile vets, who kept healing everybody and everything, says quite a bit at how much things have changed. You are a damn liar, my friend. I took out everything in Rawal's area, completed all quests, and done Murkwood quest. That made me level 16. To make the exact same army you have on those screens took all my essense (Int at 13), and the rest of my points were in leadership and mechanics. And yet i could not get enough mechanics to reach that corruption baton you claim you had. Thats one. Having enough skill and essense to cast terror is another mismatch in your story. And finally, even on casual, Greta'n'friends wipe the floor with the plated bugs. They take two hits at most, and die from rot's acid the next round. If you say you did it on Torment, especially with no control over creations - you're either a cheater or a liar.

"Yeah, you're probably going to want to just skip to G4 if you have that many issues with G1's interface." Played G4 demo...same thing. Interface is somewhat more streamlined, but combat is still complete [censored] with everyone running around at the speed of light and crazy screen recentering going on all the time. Still full screen only, with relative mouse tracking ? Hotkeys are still the same with no chance of remapping. Its like Jeff Vogel doesnt ever play his own games and has NO IDEA how uncomfortable they are ! Sorry Jeff, you are an idiot. Supposedly you made each game under 100k$, but it doesnt take that much money to sit on your ass for one measly day and THINK THINGS THROUGH before implementing them. F*** you, Jeff Vogel.

Playing on normal, level 21 Agent with 11 in Battle Magic & 6 in Spellcraft, plus a few items. Its pretty much a neverending chain of instant deaths for me. I thought Geneforge was bad for shapers, well at least while you run away someone else is whacking enemies, agent has to do everything herself. And nothing really works. With all protective spells i have, a single Battle Alpha can kill me in two hits, while i generally need three to kill him, and i miss horribly. /*rage mode on*/ And really, having ranged combat in a game where EVERYTHING can cross the screen and still hit you (sometimes twice) is just a flawed design choice. Sorry Jeff, maybe once, in Geneforge1, i could forgive you for something like this, but not changing it for the sequel is just stupid and incompetent. There is no tactic involved in this game. NONE. Just constant running away. And not being able to. Sorry Jeff, even though i liked Avernum - you've completely failed basic game design class on this series. I dont care about trying GF3-5 anymore, what could you possibly do to make it better ? Except forsaking the entire thing and starting from scratch. /*rage mode off*/

Quote: I didn't think the G1 interface was that much different (i.e. "inferior") to the earlier Avernum games... Oh, it certainly is. Much slower, less thought out, and most importantly - ill-suited to real-time. When there is a bunch of explosive critters running my way, but i cant see them in time because the game field is so zoomed in, i cant push the fight button fast enough because my left hand is on the arrow keys since mouse scrolling barely works and i cant react fast enough...urr... I just dont understand how this abortion could be born, Avernum interface is okay, why is this one so much worse ? Or how about lockpicks. You are forced to manually click as many times as the number of required lockpicks. Why couldnt it be a simple dialogue window that automatically dispenses lockpicks as needed is beyond me. Or trading interface, that prevents you from seeing item descriptions on mouse hover, so you have to click "?" icon to check every item on what in the world it is. Quote: I think you're too used to modern graphics to appreciate it I think you, sir, should actually read the post you are trying to answer to first, before you write a response to a problem i didnt pose. Anyway, guess i'll demo the latest games.

Just started playing Geneforge 1, and i am amazed at how bad it plays. The setting is nice, and mechanics are okay...probably, except for every single creature being able to cross entire screen in one turn and still attack. But...the game is so slow when there is more than half a dozen creatures present, it refuses to be put in a window, must play at 16-bit. And it uses relative screen coordinates instead of absolute, wtf ? But thats still not my main gripe. The game has the complete abomination as an interface. GUI is simply garbage. Controls suck. What with trying to melee attack and accidentally skipping your turn. Unscrollable and uncomfortable inventory. Tiny buttons for statictics access. Horrible screen scrolling. Doesnt center screen on creature when i want, but centers when i DONT want it to. And to top it off combat switch is on the "f" button, what ?!? I barely have time to find and push the stupid button when every enemy rushes at me, and the screen is too small to notice enemies beforehand. Arrrgh ! Please, someone, tell me that later Geneforge games have better interface, i spend as much time battling controls as i spend fighting monsters in this game. I mean, this game was made 1 year AFTER Avernum 1, and in Avernum interface was archaic, but functional. Geneforge interface is just incredibly bad.

Also, judging by the numbers, bows should do even more damage than swords, at comparable skill levels, but in reality they do about 4 times less damage. Very helpful, those damage ranges...

That means that all weapon damage scores are completely useless to the player. It could just as well be "high damage" and "medium damage", since its no use trying to come up with exact number on the fly.

I still dont get it, seems very simple in theory, but in practice result is simply not quite predictable. Just started Avernum 3, a character has 7 Str and 3 Melee, with a weapon of (2-10)+(1-5) that comes to final damage of 12-60, right ? Well then how come he always does a minimum 30 damage ? I've seen him do damage in range of 32-37, never less than 30 and never more than 40.

Yeah, there's that. But is there really no legitimate escape ? None ?

Okay, so i went in there, passed all the "puzzles", tests, killed the invisible guardian bunch, and then there are those shamblers which i cannot kill. They kick my ass very fast, faster than i can drink enough healing potions to stay alive, and my mages are completely spent. Tried to go back - those 3 barred gates wont let me through anymore, and there doesnt seem to be a secret way out anywhere. Recall crystals wont work inside...so basically my entire game is screwed now. Nice. Any suggestions to get me out of this tower ?

Quote: What Randomizer said. Plus, over the years it seems like a sort of notation system has developed when referring to certain games or series of games. It tends to be a bit confusing at first, but it's easy to learn. Why would i learn something that doesnt work ? Search engine doesnt understand 2-3 symbol inputs. So what is there to "learn" ? Sifting through 100 pages manually ? No thanks.

1. What would be the fighter build that will actually survive the endgame ? At level 17 my guy has : HP - 87 Str - 11 Dex - 6 End - 8 Melee - 12 Hardiness - 8 Defense - 5 Assassination - 2 Anatomy - 5 Then i stumbled on some imperial wizard dude with 300 HP or so, which i hit by 10 points per hit, while he summons demons every turn...that was painful. Not to mention i have serious troubles with mutated giants. 2. What are the most useless extra skills and spells ? For example, i noticed that Sanctuary spell is absolutely useless, at level 2 i still get attacked. 3. I wish people would realize already that naming their threads "av1-av5" or "a1-a5" makes them impossible to find later, and leads to people asking same questions over and over, and this forum is already 100+ pages long.