A:EftP - Things I'd love to see a return.

[Trenton.]

Ahh, but Major blessing gives both the blesses in one turn, while you have to do Major haste and Bless party on different turns. Unless you have more than one magical user

[Osmedirez]

Couldn't food be an optional thing?

 

I've always been a big fan of games which allow optional ruleset rather than a strict "hard or easy" variation on difficulty. Super easy difficulty, massive food needs, little food generated in game. GO.

 

Yeah, you can kill whatever you want.. if you live long enough to get to the fight! Oh, you killed a dragon! Too bad it wasn't edible, cause you'll never make it back to town alive. Bwahahaha!

 

Love that stuff.

[Trenton.]

Food had to be eatan in exile, and could be in avernum 1st series. So he's right. Are you saying that food usage should be based on difficulty levels?

[Earth]

why adventurers couldn't eat dragon meat? or any other non-humanoid's meat?

[Trenton.]

Well I dont think that meat was dropped in that game, only mushrooms and stuff of the sort. Now the characters in geneforge for like 30% of the time dropped meat.

[Earth]

I know animals didn't drop food on Avernums but I wanted Osmedirez to answer why party couldn't eat dragon meat.

[Tyranicus]

Animals do so drop food in the Avernum games.

[Trenton.]

I know. Did you see them drop meat? I meant they only dropped mushrooms and fish.

[Tirien]

Giant Lizards and Hydra drop meat that is not a mushroom or a fish.

[Trenton.]

Oh yeah, Reptiles drop meat, so why don't dragons give high quality meat?

 

Is ther' scales to tough to cut through?

[Ceiling Durkheim]

It might be inedible for various reasons. Or Jeff might just be squicked out by the idea of eating sentient, talking things.

[Tirien]

Perhaps, but nearly everything in his games tries to eat you at some point. And let us not forget the intelligent Ornk from G5. It was sentient and talking, but was food nontheless.

[Ceiling Durkheim]

In the sense that it dropped food? It seemed more likely destined for dissection than consumption, outside of that.

[Alorael at Large]

You can't eat dragon meat because of its mineral contents. Dragons have substantially different metabolisms, and their meat is generally lethally high in antimony, arsenic, and zinc. Some of their organs are, unsurprisingly, also rather high in phosphorus.

 

—Alorael, who suspects that dragons' hoarding instincts are, in an intelligent species, a preference that comes from the evolutionary past of requiring large mineral stockpiles for optimal growth, health, and fire-breathing.

[Dintiradan]

I assume even adventurers have taboos against eating sentient beings. I mean, you might as well be eating sliths and nephilim as well.

 

EDIT: Never mind, duplicate post. I didn't know the topic went on to another page.

[Kennedy]

As I recall in the first Avernum trilogy they had special days that had various effects, holidays, if you will. It would be neat to see those coming back.

[Earth]

I guess those days will be on remake, don't see reason why not.

[Necris Omega]

Maybe they could play a bigger role, however, like perhaps instead of mere holidays we get entire festivals, or something.

 

Definitely more prior notice and explanation would be nice too. Especially in the case of High Alignment, when every blade turns from broadsword into Bazookasword...

[Micawber]

Were those days in A3 as well? I remember them from A1 & A2 but not 3 for some reason. Either way I wasn't a big fan and not sorry they were dropped in A4-6.

[Earth]

walkthrough doesn't mention those and no memory of those happening.

[Randomizer]

Special days were in Exile, but I don't think they carried over to Avernum.

[Micawber]

Really? I thought they were introduced in Avernum. There wasn't even a calendar in Exile was there?

[Nioca]

There were definitely special days in A2. Can't remember whether they were also in A1 or not, though, and they definitely weren't in the later Avernums.

[Earth]

those days are mentioned at end of Avernum 1 AverMan's walkthrough

 

||| 13. Special Events |||

As the months go by in Avernum, special events occur during them. These are a

list of events that happened during the time I was playing Avernum. Some of

these are out of order, sorry.

 

1st of Any Month - The crypt door opens

 

Remembrance 1 - Avernum's Birth. The anniversary of the day the first exiles

arrived in Avernum. Traditionally spent in study and contemplation. Training

doesn't cost any gold.

 

Ice Fall 1 - Low Ailment

All melee attacks do half damage

 

Frost 29 - Battle Eve

This is the anniversary of when the mages defeated of Grah-Hoth.

Effect: All spells are cheaper.

 

Evermoon 3 - The Terror

This is a day that is terrorized by rampaging monsters. Nobody knows why

though.

Effect: More wandering monsters.

 

Suncome 15th - High Alignment

A good day to start a fight.

Effect: All melee attacks do double damage

 

Radiane 1 - ???

Day when Fort Draco opens.

Effect: None

 

Radiane 14 - Day of Recall

Aaahhh a day of to remember all the good things in life. Too bad all stores are

closed.

Effect: All shops are closed.

 

Avernum 2 those were gone (not mentioned on walkthrough)

[Venatrix Avia]

The holidays existed in all of the first three Avernum games.

 

I remember finding it particularly surreal in A3, when I was wandering around somewhere in sunny daylight Valorim and suddenly that pink writing appeared in my text box, informing me that all of the shops would be closed for the Day of Recall, "the day all Avernites remember what they lost when they were banished from the surface."

 

I always meant to stop in a surface city on Radiane 14, just to see if the Empire shops would really have all closed their doors for the day, but then I think I wound up just forgetting about it.

[Trenton.]

Are we serious? I almost always checked the text box and never saw it say anything except for the normal stuff. I never noticed one of the shops being closed once either, and whenever I went to fort draco it was open.

[Alorael at Large]

The holidays are one day a year. It's quite easy to not be in towns when they happen, and it's even easier not to notice the little message if you're not keeping an eye on the console.

 

—Alorael, who doesn't even think he sees most holidays during most games. Completing the games doesn't take enough in-game time to cycle through the calendar.

[Trenton.]

How long is an avernum year? Same time as average every day now?

[keira]

A year is 280 days.

[Venatrix Avia]

Yes, serious. Although I was speaking metaphorically when I talked about the shops "closing their doors." They don't actually close their doors. In fact, you can still talk to shopkeepers on the Day of Recall, but if you try to buy anything from them, you get an "all stores are closed today" message.

 

I know this because I just hit Radiane 14th in my replay of A2 today -- and I was in Vahnatai lands. I have therefore now discovered that even the Vahnatai shopkeepers won't sell you anything on the Day of Recall! So I suspect that the Empire shopkeepers in A3 won't either. Silly nonsensical game mechanics.

 

As for that "Day when Fort Draco opens" comment above, though -- I have no idea what that's about, but I suspect that it's a garbled reference to the Ancient Crypt in the Motrax Maze. The Ancient Crypt opens on the first of any month, but Elizabeth the innkeeper at Cotra tells you about some soldier who told her that he saw it open on the first of Radiane. At least, that's my guess as to what that's supposed to mean. I think that's from Averman's walkthrough, which is...well, often garbled in places.

[Trenton.]

There is a secret crypt in motrax's cave? I have went behind his main cave, past his sleeping pit, and to a barrier that makes the whole place hostile. On the right was a secret door to a boat that led down a river with statues that shoot spells at you. Is this said crypt?

[nikki.]

No, the crypt is a separate dungeon in the overworld, near Motrax's Cave.

[Walker White]

I know that the debate has moved on from this, but...

 

Originally Posted By: Drakemoore

1. The necessity to consume food along your journey and a common food pool to use like Gold is. Just like the system Exile 1~3 used. Any food bought or picked up would immediately go into your party's food pool.

 

I am not a fan of food. I have used Skyrealms of Arcadia as a lesson in bad UI design all the time. Not only did it have food, but you had to drag the food to the mouth of your paper doll in order to feed the character. And you had to do this multiple times a game day. Thankfully no one remembers this game.

 

However, it is true that resource limitation can heighten a sense of urgency or other emotion in a game. Act II of Avernum 2 felt very, very different than act II of Exile 2. Why? Because you did not have to worry about running out of food all the time. Similarly, the Tower of Zkal in Exile 3 constantly drained you of mana, and you needed to get through quickly (and have a lot of energy potions) to survive the Lich battle; Avernum 3, not so much.

 

I understand Jeff wanting to take these hardcore aspects out of the main plot line. But it would be nice to see them in the advanced dungeons (like say, the Tower of Zkal).

[Walker White]

As a follow-up to my last post. The thing that I really want to see Jeff do is better retrofit the old plot lines/level design to the new mechanics.

 

Avernum 2 is a great example. Exile 2 was all about mind duel. You were gearing up for the great boss battle with Garzahd. The end tower was demons everywhere, and locking yourself in constant mind duel. In Avernum 2, you kept the same format and lots of demons, but it was just mindless bashing (and Repel Spirit on everything). So the layout was exactly the same but the spirit of the game was lost.

 

On the other hand, the move from conveyors to mirrors and lazers in the Golem lair of Avernum 3 was great. It kept a lot of the spirit of the game but actually made it much more fun than Exile 3 (oh lord, those conveyors).

 

Jeff has really carefully thought about his boss battles in the later Avernums (4-6) when it felt like he was phoning it in for the remakes (Avernums 1-3). I am actually looking forward to the next Avernum remake in the hopes that he takes these lessons and redoes it right this time.

[Venatrix Avia]

Structuralize THIS has it right, Trenton. I was referring to the Ancient Crypt in the tunnels southwest of Motrax's Lair.