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Nethergate +/- Avernum (Special Guest: BoA)


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Boy. This board is so deserted. Shame that more people don't play this game.

 

Just finished playing it after a few years.

 

So, to add something to this post.

 

Prefer Nethergate, but with these things from Avernum:

The automap. The one in Nethergate is a bit too big.

Giving items to others. Disliked having to type "g" each time. Ditto for dropping.

 

What could Avernum learn from Nethergate?

Spells. Spells. Spells.

(why was the amount of spells reduced for Avernum?!?!?!?!?!!!???)

More than spells, though, spell schools. Nice touch.

 

The extra person in the party. I miss like all hell the 6 character party from Exile. At least in Nethergate I could get 5, and 6 momentarily.

Yup. In BoA you can get an extra person. Sure.

Now, this may be only my computer, but when I get the extra person the game moves all sluggish. Sucks.

 

And there were other things which I didn't write down and forgot.

 

BoA question regarding Nethergate:

Can I use the graphics in Nethergate for BoA?!?

Because if so. . . I can use elves in an adventure. Drows too.

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I asked Jeff if we can use other SW graphics in BoA, and he said yes, so go for it.

 

Nethergate had a promising system. More could have been done with it -- additional spells, additional schools. I'm not sure if I like the thing about gaining individual skill points vs. gaining levels -- but I'm not sure that I don't, either. And it was an interesting idea to have Exile-style dialogue but highlight key words. This helped me a lot.

 

I'd rather see a Nethergate 2 than an Avernum 4, personally.

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Kel, you reminded me of something I'd forgotten. The dialogue!

 

I'd rather see that kind of dialogue in Avernum. It seems to me, specially from the point of view of BoA, to give designers more freedom, you know? One of the problems I have right noe that I'm designing my first scenario is justly that.

Most of the CRPGs follow the "we'll give you the dialogue options, choose one and that's that" a bit like the Choose Your Own Adventure family of books (a neat idea for books that I loved a kid, btw.)

 

But the "word" system allows the possibility for the players to actually CHOOSE something by themselves if they have explored the world, it gives the game a bit more of a Text Adventure flavor. Maybe I also like it so much because I'm a big fan of IF.

 

And, man, I also agree with you on your last comment, I'd rather see a Nethergate 2 than an Avernum 4.

 

Take care!

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The dialogue option system lets players speak with more complicated phrases, though, which can open up more sensible dialogue and avoid the tedious search for the right keywords. Perhaps an ideal system would contain both dialogue options and an "Ask about word..." option (and make it require the whole word!). Many dialogues wouldn't have any hidden pieces, but it would be there if you need it.

 

Actually, that can already be done with BoA, I believe. Maybe people will use it.

 

—Alorael, who sees one huge advantage to dialogue. If you see Bill trying to steal the magic gem and then have to trek across the world to notify Police Chief Dan, you don't want to have to remember Bill the whole time. Or Bjilllmekmektwingleson, if that happens to be his name. And if you haven't caught him in the act, you shouldn't be able to lay the blame on him based on outside knowledge.

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Too true, Alorael. Too true.

 

A system which will implement both would be great.

 

And, now that I thought about it a little more, I guess you can use flags (or something like that) to add further dialogue options once certain events have happened.

 

Good example the one about that Bill. . .

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I prefer Avernum's dialogue system. smile

 

But I liked the fact that we could have two different starts. I don't know about the ending, as I just played the demo.

 

I love Ancient Rome. That's another good point about Nethergate. smile

 

But if I could chose which game Jeff is gonna do next, I would prefer an inovation. No nethergate, no avernum, no geneforge. A science fiction game! With an engine similar to avernum's. It would have towns, outdoors and outerspace! Humm... That would be cool and original. smile

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Overwhelming, bad news on the SF front. From what I've read apparently Jeff is not going to do a game of that type. For starters he doesn't like the idea of using laser guns. I may be remembering this information wrong, though.

 

If you can, getting the registered version for Nethergate is recommended. It's replayable, like the other SW games, and you'll have a neat experience doing so, specially if you like Romans. Not many RPGs where you can play Romans (hmm, what are the others? I don't know)

 

Mutliple choices in any game are always nice. I wish that when Jeff re-did Exile he would have implemented more choices for the characters in the Avernum series. Maybe we could have worked for Empire instead of against it.

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