lothyr

Well I am wrong in current state, and I'm not sure about a past state of Steam that stuck with my memory. Reason I say that is I know I played S.T.A.L.K.E.R. a lot more than 61 minutes Finished that and I am pretty sure it cannot be finished in 61 minutes. What was I doing? Seemed like mostly I was always trying to find where the Team's boat was... Initial part of the time was spent experimenting with game mechanics, finding out what worked and what didn't. Middle chunck of time was gaming with 2 parties...the first Team was scrapped after misspending points on abitiies and features that didn't pan out well. I think Arcane Lore / magical efficiency and the physical/magical resilience traits were basically what I had to/wanted to start over for, in addition to an increase in the difficulty to keep it interesting - after reading posts here. The last chunk of time was the best - Team 2 was fun - experimenting with spells + items + traits took some time. Running back through areas to make sure I had not forgotten or missed anything takes quite a bit of time - the map is just so huge and sometimes I didn't bother with Tower of Magi pylon travel. Dodging wandering monsters can sometimes take a lot of time. Was taking more notes than usual for games - looking back at said notes shows I was running some kind of autistic calculations on chance to hit % apparently early on I became fixated on this variable. I would be honest and say if I had ever been bored or not having fun in this game - it was only in the Final Gauntlet that the game became a little tiresome - but that was probably more a factor that I had spent 6-8+ straight hours gaming previously than the actual area itself... Quite possibly a lot of time was spent documenting as I was not heavily referring on any walkthroughs/hints, etc. Edit: If any feature(s) were to stick out that were an annoyance it was only 2 things. Orb of Thralni not working as expected and when mis-clicking in combat having a character run in to melee or somewhere I did not want him/her to go...Though the Orb not seeming to fly as intended caused some outdoor encounters resulting in a wipe, that could have been my just not knowing that the Orb was not intended to be used in that area? idk

There must be something wrong with me. Steam reports that I took 237 hours to complete A:EFTP w/ 2 main quests completed. Memory is a little fuzzy on beginning, but I did have another/other party(ies) I scrapped after they were not doing so well, so really kind of hard to say how much time w/ one party did it take... 237 is most likely on the low side of total time played considering I think Steam's Time played counter resets if a game is uninstalled {could be wrong on that} In general I am not a player that "beats" games sadly. I'm not talking about newer games that are kind of supposed to be beaten - like maybe the first Dragon Age game. I'm really referring to old school games which I feel that A:EFTP falls in to the category of. In addition to 237+ hours there is probably another 25 - 30% more to investigate. Not sure how to approach doing that though. If I load an earlier save when my team is in the lvl 25 range a lot of the fun would be nullified by exploring lower level areas with too strong characters. Aaaagh, I should have periodically saved the saves at lower levels - Option 2 : load up game winning team at earlier save and complete main quest I didn't get too .... Looks like I need to pay Erika a visit and start planning Option B.

Hi, Is this game text only? In other words, players/GM type out everything? Looks pretty sophisticated compared to when I last perused something like this years ago. How much time did, for example, session 4 take? Thats a lot of writing...

Sorry for your loss. I hope he did not suffer in his passing.

Haha - I played through basically w/o reading too much about items. I carried that darn husk around a long time. Kept waiting to find some poor lost soul who needed it...ah well

I don't know - just seemed like that is how the game "is". A game like this can punish an in-game item pack rat like myself {hoo boy} too some extent. There are far worse examples of games that are inventory management nightmares. At least there is a "Bag of Holding" type mechanic that, as my band of misfits wandered around, could dump any and everything in to it for sorting/classifying/selling/dropping Imagine Escape from the Pit with not only worn-item encumbrance but backpack-item encumbrance. E_f_t_P harkens back to a different era. I'm not claiming it is better or worse than anything else. Everyone can make up their own minds by actually playing a game. Avernum might be geared to an audience that enjoys aspects that casual gamers or who ever find cumbersome. An upcoming game release called Grimoire: Heralds of the Winged Exemplar has a game option where the player can control whether critical items are "locked" "adaptive" or "not locked". I mean to look at the graphics of this title is like stepping back in time literally to circa 1993-1996. Honestly, without a game manual I can't figure out what "adaptive" item locking does, yet. It sure sounds good to have an option though. The point is: the developer of Grimoire acknowledges different styles of gamers. Not everyone has Mr. Blakemore's tenacity or can push the envelope of a bygone era genre like it appears he is doing. On a side note: written in Grimoire's demo credits Mr. Blakemore recommends Exile Old Skool street cred

Had set aside E.f.t.P. for a few weeks / months. Returned to Avernum not knowing which way to go and had forgotten just about everything about the game. Most importantly, though, my team could not find their boat >.< {as usual - haha} (side note: boat mooring location remembrance apparently has been a life long nemesis - thinking back to one of the Ultimas where if I forgot where my boat was, it was pretty much gone forever lol) The good news was my team were around level 24. Plodded along pretty well after a few underworld forays. Finding the Dispel Barrier pedestal was a godsend. Basically, at that point, all the notes I had made months ago about barriers that I could not get through came in handy. Traipsed the team around dropping barriers left and right Some mage at a Fort must have been cursing me for days when we dispelled his barrier creations - to tell the truth though, he needed to step up the defences a bit anyway. In hindsight I guess I allowed my Team to get strong enough that some of the later encounters and areas were not as challenging as I thought they would be. Not sure what happened or how except that I must have been doing a lot of side quests or w/e and not checking back on an area as to whether it was currently do-able. I don't know if this thread is making sense but I didn't want to put any descriptions or names or w/e that may give away an unwanted hint to a new player. All in all Escape from the Pit was and is great imho. Not that I need to point that out here P.S. I would like to leave one recommendation for new players to Avernum: Escape from the Pit which I don't think is a spoiler or w/e. It only occurred to me through trial and error which afterwards I wished I had known/thought of from the beginning of the game. Dying in games is inevitable - unless your one of those Ironmen types. I'm not an Ironman mode player {too lazy - haha} Dying a lot in a game is sometimes a bummer or deadens the enjoyment factor. Well, my little band of misfits was dying a lot at one point while exploring. Outdoor exploration can be troublesome, indoor exploration can be to some extent controlled though. When exploring a new indoor area - exploring in combat mode is pretty handy. Walk the team one by one in to a new area leaving all but the scouting character in a safe/cleared area (like-next to the exit). That way, if the scout runs in to something very unpleasant - the rest of the team can start heading for the door - and hope that the scout makes it out alive. Note: I don't think this was intended to be done based on some encounters playing out in a weird order when I would be exploring in a step-wise fashion. So if you want to play the game as the developer intended, move as a group in general.

"kinda" ? I must be losing my touch. I'll try harder. {Edit: I see from the Code of Conduct Rule #2 that I could be perceived as being in Violation of said Rule. Out of respect for the creator of this fine series of work I shall endeavor to improve myself as a person and keep my thoughts to myself}

No - why would people take notes? This game is so easy - you use the cheats right? When the going gets tough, well, the tough get cheat codes, amiright? Who on earth would want to enjoy the exploration and challenge of a well thought out PC game? Barriers? Pfff - I have a macro that dispels all barriers when i start each game. Much more better. Why would I try to figure out where a pedestal exists to allow my party of whiners and bed wetters to proceed to a new area or unlock a key game plot element? Just makes no sense why games force us as human beings to actually do something other than mindlessly click click our way through a virtual puzzle... These game designers are SADISTS! I tell you! Stop the Insanity! This is the part where I am supposed to add an emoticon amiright?

Was debating buying Avadon. Watched the trailer and it looked a lot like Avernum:EfTP? Is this the case? I saw ogres, talent trees, etc. basically same as EfTP...

This is a little embarassing, but then I must admit I am a little bit of a lazy gamer... Ever since Ultima games I have never been able to keep up with..boats... Yes, I have tried writing notes every time I leave a boat somewhere for a long period of time...forget to do this after a while, then Lost Boat syndrome sets in... Is there any way to scry the location of one of my boats in Avernum:EFTP? Some code {not resetboats}? It wouldn't be a problem except that scrolling around the map has a limit, Fog of War or Black screen after i have scrolled too far...I have explored 95% of the map..but dang boat has either been Eaten by some hungry Sliths or confiscated by the Empire! { Kyassian grumbles all around } Any help would be appreciated... Lothyr

At first, I was like, Hey! Awesome game...I got this on Steam about the same time I bought Grimrock, but have been playing this for a while now, and at first it was mostly enjoyable. Then, after levelling in to more difficult encounters I started to get really annoyed at the lack of being able to determine where I "should" be, ie. my party wanders in to a nest of Fire Lizards or Drakes at level 8 {just some random idea here}. Boom! insta- death. So, I was wondering why would my party be able or allowed to commit suicide so easily {no in-game warning or limit}. This became a little dissappointing until I started changing the way I explored....I mean,yes, I can walk in to a hopeless encounter, where my team is hopelessly outmatched. Combat begins and all party members are in a concentrated formation, easily destroyed by AOE attacks. It wasn't until I was mentally commanding my last troop to RUN! that I realized the game allows for these mishaps. After entering combat mode, I can "sneak" my Tank around a corner and scout what Nasties await in their squares of red influence...HA! The rest of my team waits around the corner or out of sight of these nasties. My warrior signals the All-Retreat sign and backs away quietly. Drakes are unaware, and we slink off to strategize quietly on how best to relieve the Fire Breathing Lizards of their Hoard... After that realization, the game became way more enjoyable and immersive...Of course not every encounter can be treated this way, but when your standing talking to A Large Named Demon, then your team kind of knows that things could go very bad very quickly if not careful...So, yeah there is strategy, there is hack and slash, there is some RP {not that I am in to that, but hey its there if you want it, but no Fru-Fru "My warrior falls in love with this or that NPC crap"} I guess what I am trying to get across is maybe some people start playing like I did. Default movement style through "dungeons". Throw everything you've got at tough encounters, hoping to overcome tough foes. Watch my entire team get whittled down till death screen appears...Re-Load.... A:EFTP does not "have" to be played in any one way. In "dungeons" I crawl through, until I determine toughness of denizens. Moving in Combat Mode allows 1 square "scouting" essentially giving my Party the opportunity to RUN!. If an encounter is too tough for my Party all at one time? Wade in to combat, leave one healer OOR, kill a few of their number, and make a strategic withdrawal...Head to Town, recover Mana, and head back to said encounter, and finish off Boss or w/e is left...Much more Better... Thanks to the developer of this game, its really, really a lot of fun, and huge value for what little money I paid for it...they don't make em like this anymore {or rarely}.