Dear Potato

I guess this isn't technically a gameplay / interface request, but I would really really really love some closure as to the fates of the Hands that accompanied the PC in the first two games.

Yep, completely true. I'm specially intrigued about the fate of Nathalie.

I started playing Spiderweb games with Avadon, too. It was an amazing experience! Both Avadon games have a very interesting and well written plot; boss fights (except, maybe, one particular exception) are amazing. I remember how impressed I was due to these two things.

After Avadon, my curiosity for Spiderweb games grew and I moved to Geneforge games, which is also an outstanding saga. If you end up liking Avadon, I recommend to take a look into that bundle; every saga has something different to offer.

Have fun!

I'm perfectly ok with being overpowered because I did all secondary quests. Many RPGs do that, and it's supercool. Even rewarding.

But if that overpowering implies reaching the level cap way too soon... well, then no. I don't like that. But I'm glad to read that would not be the case for Avadon 3 Thanks for replying in this thread.

About the individual inventories, I'd say that probably, a unified inventory could work better. It's as other people had said: individual inventories are not very inconvenient, but uncomfortable nonetheless. I have just recompleted Avadon 2, and in the last moment, before the chance of battle you-know-who, a unified unique inventory would have done my life much easier. Especiallly if you want to fight that battle without sacrificing certain fort.

Auto-rearrange items sounds cool to me. Not necessarily automatic, though. Maybe only when pressing a button, on the side of the inventory, the items auto-reorder themselves. I have seen this in other games, although I don't remeber which ones rgiht now.

Anyway, I'm eager to know more about the next installment. I hope the changes turn out to be great

P.S. - After recompleting Avadon 2 I'm only going to add one more thing: I reached the level cap the first time I encountered Vardegras. Sorry to insist in this point, but I think it's important to rethink this for the next game. Too much time spent without the chance of leveling.

Some other things that come to mind while replaying Avadon 2:

- Many times, specially while inside small indoors, it's confusing to know which doors lead to another part of the same map or to a diferent one (subsequent trial and error tries leads to unnecessary loading screens). Maybe some kind of hint while hovering the mouse over the door/exit?

- Preventive summoning (specially for shamans) is annoying due to the summoned beasts "free will". Not sure if this is intended to prevent preventive summoning, but personally I would find better to have direct control over them, even outside battle.

- A map of the kwown lands, for refreshing lore while in Avadon. There are lots of world maps in the game, why not make some of them clickable to look at the map that shows the pact/farlands borders? Maybe inside the ibrary?

Replaying Avadon 2 right now, there is a little thing that I miss from Geneforge games: the message box showing how much EXP is gained (right now it only shows the amount momentarily on the characters at the end of quests, unless I'm missing something).

Judging by the flow in Geneforge games, I think the canon will turn towards the rebel endings. It even seems the case from Avadon1 to Avadon 2. Or so it seems to me, at least.

I'm late to the party, but I'm very excited about this announcement. I started to play Spiderweb games with Avadon, and I still keep the past two entries as some of the best rpg games out there. That said, I will try to contribute to the discussion; please excuse my poor english.

New sounds and new spell effects: Great idea; that kind of change will contribute to give new personality to the third part. Along with the new skills revision, of course.

3 Quick Use buttons and 5 Ability Preset buttons: Not sure if you mean what I think, but if it means 3 use buttons for quick using items and 5 use buttons for quick casting spells, this is very welcome. In fact, I would even reduce further the items quick buttons +1 spell button, since I think the general gameplay flow revolves around skills/spells (and items being crucial only in major fights).

Difficulty: About the smarter way to implement difficulty, yes, that would be VERY welcome, too. Enemies with tons of health... lately almost every rpg tends to do this and it feels awkward -even boring sometimes. As a general rule, I think that battles would benefit from being more quick paced in the same way Geneforge 1 battles were -only refering to the battle speed, of course; enemies were less HP inflated. If you keep the GREAT work with boss battles, I'm very excited to see what you bring along.

About the AOE friendly fire, I think it's a great idea, but maybe not just as an option for higher difficulties, but as an option completely independent from the difficulty choice. Although, I must confess that if adapting this to the game results in a lot of trouble to make battles playable and fun, I wouldn't mind much if it is finally not present.

Skill Tree - Will be completely redone - prerequisites will be massively cut back: Finally, I completely agree with this. Along with the level cap, the most annoying aspect of Avadon 1&2. As a personal wish, I would be expecting the Sorceress to keep her/his role as a pure damaging caster in some of the skill trees. But the chance to spend some points into mental magic too, without sacrificing the main role would be amazing.

Avadon was never about non-battle abilities, but I always felt the game would benefit from some bits of those. Maybe keep the unlock skill for shadowalkers and turning the base-independent skill of every class as some kind of non-combat skill (like mine tinkering for tinkermages, intimidating for blademasters and diplomacy/leadership for soreceress, for example).

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As a personal request, I'll be joining the petition about the level cap. Avadon 2 was fantastic, but the level cap was hit waaaaay too early. I would even recommend to completely rethink the level cap idea and turning it into something else. I sincerely think this is by far the worst element from Avadon 2.

Well, I don't remember where or who exactly, but there is a clear mention about GF5 main character not being exactly young. There are so many ambigous answers during the game... since GF5 is the final chapter, probably it is something deliberate? I mean, to open the chance to be any previous main character you wanted. You can make it fit to whoever you want to play.

Personally, I like to play pretending GF5 main char is my first GF1 agent; a loyalist shaper who ranked up after Sucia events, but unfortunatelly, ends up caught in an ambush when the Shapers invade Drypeak. She remains captive to the rebels, who in turn experiment reshaping with her. Until, of course, she ends up in Rawal's hands and awakens at the beginning of GF5.

It's like... yeah, she's back from the past to kick some rebel ass

If you want music during the game, then just fire up your music playing software with your choice instrumental. I've done it before. Or do like me and hum your choice of videogame tunes while playing. Unless you can't sing worth a broken chitrach husk piece, that is.

I think making an OST might be an awful lot of work for Jeff for something that only a minority of fans want-- a lot of the background sounds you hear are public domain sounds just like the death screams in earlier games. (seriously, I hear the monster screeches/etc. track in all sorts of low-budget shows) AFAIK, the opening themes for his games are the only sounds he makes himself.

I already use music outside the game. It does not work. It's just a poor alternative.

I'm perfectly aware that an OST would be a resource demanding feature. I know it's very unlikely that something like that happens. Nonetheless, it's a big issue for me, something that I really miss out from SPDW games. It was not the point of this thread to talk about things we would want to see in future Geneforge games? Jeff doesn't even read this forums. I just shout a particular wish from me, not expecting to be fulfilled or something. Just to add to the conversation.

Also, let's be honest about the ONE shortcoming of the current background tracks-- they sometimes fit poorly once you've cleared a place out (mainly the monster howling that I mentioned above, and hostile towns. The rest fit just fine.). It's not a significant issue, however, just being upfront and honest. Which brings up another point-- whatever negative effect this has on the games now, it will only be far worse with an OST. The OST would also interfere with the atmosphere of certain special encounters. Or let's take Dhonal Inner Keep for example-- the theme that would be appropriate for Lord Rahul and his throneroom would not be appropriate when you're sneaking around their personal quarters. Then, of course, what about battle music? Would Jeff be able to script the game to change themes when you're in and out of battle?

As I said before, in the unlikely case that Jeff adds an OST in the future, it would not be mandatory. As the background, you would be able to deactivate it. The contrary would be weird. So, if that's the case, none of these concerns matter.

I don't know for sure if he would be able to code battle music. I believe he could, if he wanted to. I always thought the OST absence is just a personal decision. I must say, by the way, if there is a moment in the game I really miss music, is in battle. Personally, I think good battle music brings rpg games to another level.

It amazes me how many people seems completely opposed to music in Spiderweb games in this forum ._. It always has been a big issue for me.

One thing to note, though, it's that in the very unlikely case an OST is released, it would be completely optional. It would be weird not to include an option to mute it. That way everyone would be happy.

Yes, yes. I said Battle Magic but I was thinking of Blessing Magic. The Agent inside me tricked the keyboard

I think Blessing Magic would be very effective due to Guardian gameplay style. If there are teachers/books about it, that would be wonderful. I'll look into the guide and FAQS

Thank you all.

All right, finally I've decided to hear the forum wise words and invested two points in Magic Shaping and Create Vlish. The fact is, Thahd seemed extremely powerful at first, and I was seduced Also, it was easier to create them since Guardians start with 1 point in Battle Shaping but none in Magic Shaping.

Anyway, I'm starting to foresee problems in the future. Right now, my Guardian can obliterate enemies with brute force, but I don't think he will be able to stand a chance in the upcoming major battles. Is there any teacher or book out there that gives points in Battle Magic Blessing Magic? Or I'll have to resort to canisters?

Also, the essence pool seems a bit... poor. I'm not spending any points in intelligence as suggested. Any recommendation to palliate this?

Never tried the missile weapons path... I'm tempted to spend some points into it, but I've always wondered how you deal with the ammunition. It seems a bit scarce, given the number of enemies and their HP.

I've finally started G3. I'm trying to do a decent melee Guardian as suggested by Triumph; also, I'm trying to level up a battle creation from the beginning, as Lilith said. I've just left the school, wish me luck

Hi! I'm replaying Geneforge series right now and I'm trying to do things differently (specially with class selection). Right now I'm about to finish Geneforge 2 as a Shaper, and I'm planning to start Geneforge 3 right away with the Guardian class.

I would like to see recommendations on how to build a Guardian, or simply just builds you like to play with this particular class (so, not necessarily the best ones, but just the ones you consider fun or interesting to play with). I'm used to play as an Agent and I had some problems to enjoy building my pure Shaper in G2. So, any ideas or recommendations for my future G3 Guardian?

Also, I have a concern for when I reach G5. In my first playtrhough, G5 was the only game I didn't play as an Agent, since the Sorceress seemed pretty awesome. But I noticed that the "speed" spell and the "speed" effect in general had been modified radically. Maybe I was way to used to rely on the speed spell for obliterating foes with my agents, but I don't see if I would be able to play as a solo Agent in G5 without the magical AP accumulation. Is it viable? Or any other recommendation for playing Agents in G5?

Thanks a zillion!

What I would love to see, as in any other hypothetical new spiderweb game, is a real OST. That would be just awesome.

As for specific Geneforge things... let me see:

- More agile battles that do not rely on high HP bosses/enemies.

- I'd love to see leadership and mechanics still present, I really liked them, but adding a general skill that complements the "infiltrator" role; I've always longed for a "walk in the shadows" or stealth skill.

- One creation, unique, attached to every particular class. That way, the general idea behind shapers would fit better in the class division; Shapers, agents and guardians could have a particular creation, cheap to them, that benefits from their role, apart from the usual cast of creations avalaible for everyone.

Thanks everyone

I like Spiderweb games, although I'm not very fond of this saga (yeah, I know, I have terrible taste; I agree ).

Nonetheless, I'm considering purchasing and I have two doubts:

- Is there a hard level cap like in Avadon? If that's the case, do you hit that cap soon?

- I know, this is a naive question and I could try the demo, but anyway... is there music this time or only sfx?

Thanks

I think Alorael is right; the problem with a new class is the effect that would have in the party. Too many characters may be out of Jeff's reach.

That said, I would love a new class altogether. Especially if it is as cool and original as the tinkermage. It was a very pleasant surprise indeed.

Well, I always try to play with as many companion combinations as possible, so I'm not sure who is the best to pair with Alcander, but certainly the most obvious pair is Khalida; they are waaaay too different from each other. I remember at least one occasion when she gets irritated from Alcander selfish remarks.

Maybe Samien it's an atemporal omniscient creature with the gift of ubiquity.

Or maybe they are evil twins, Samien and Damien, and Avadon 2 is in fact the tragic story of how the evil twins were unable to conquer The Corruption.

Well, I completely approve a thread about stealing. I consider myself a pretty deplorable thief in Spiderweb games. Sometimes I read posts and comments like this one and I wonder what other kinds of items could be "covertly grabbed" that can be really useful.

That said, a very unlikely but awesome thing to happen, is a Shadowalker with true "stealth" skills -cloak and such.

I remained loyal to Avadon and Redbeard in both games. I appreciatte the effort to offer dilemmas and gray moral decisions, but I'm unable to get convinced of a Pact nation without Avadon or "the pact" itself.

Maybe the pact and Avadon have serious issues within, but that doesn't mean that a better performance of both entities is impossible; given the core idea of the alliance, if they manage to make it work properly... well, I think it's a great solution in the particular context.

Yeah, I agree with Ociporus on that. I miss the system that allowed "free" spellcasting. At least potions don't need recharging too, like in Dragon Age 2!

That said, I can clearly see the benefits of reloading times on spells -or so I think. I guess it adds an extra tactical layer for gameplay.

I had been playing my entire game on torment. However, after so many grueling battles that took so many attempts to complete, I got sick of how ridiculously impossible it was to finish off Miranda, with those stupid horrors interfering with everything. So I finally dumbed down my setting to "Hard" and finished the battle. I am very disappointed that so many of the main battles in this game were so ridiculous on torment setting. It is making me seriously considering never to play another Avadon episode, though I have played all the exile, avernum, and avadon games so far. Having these stupid opponents that can wipe out the entire party in one or two shots on torment is too tormenting for me. It deprives me of even "imagining" that I "won" the game; at least with other Spiderweb games, I would only lose once or twice, then got the victory and went on after reloading. But this game has been very exasperating and, hence, less "believable" than any other I can think of.

I am just persisting so I can "finish" this game and then I think I will never play Avadon 2 again...

What I don't get is that you deny the chance to like it just because you can't beat it on torment... that difficulty setting is there for a reason. To be insanely difficult but beatable.

That said, I never understood that need of playing on highest difficulty settings, in Spiderweb or any other games. If you are not having fun, why don't you just trigger a lower level of challenge?