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Since the release date thread is going astray, and I just started my game, I thought to create a general thread for Avernum 3: Ruined World where we can share our joys and tribulations, as well as tidbits of advice, and ask questions in the hope of receiving some sage advice from the beta testers.

 

 

First up, does anyone know if the Challenger trait works as intended in this iteration or if the effect is still unclear or bugged?

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O-o you want to draw attention to one of your guys?  In all my decades of playing SW games I've never had a problem finding someone to hit/toss a fireball/shoot an arrow at...

 

Seriously, in a mob fight you're going to get your frontline guys swarmed.  As long as your spell casters are a couple(+?) spaces back you should be able to handle things.

 

Traits are precious/important enough that I've never found the need to put a point into Challenger fwiw

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Out of curiousity, do you all take Sliths and Nephilim in your party in order not to miss out on any quests or bonuses (or just because you like them), or do you run an all-human party? I used to take a token Slith and Nephilim, but nowadays I just go with humans in both A2 and A3 because of the extra traits since it seems like it fits the story better somehow. Or maybe I've just been listening too much to Johnson.

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For A3RW /A3/E3 I always run a human only party, it just seems wrong not to.  The whole point of the (early) story was to get out & unobtrusively explore around the nearby surface. Given the Empire's penchant to try to exterminate other races, having one/both of them along just seemed like a dumb idea from the get go.  It would be cool to be able to add/trade out one or the other into your party later in the game but...

 

A2 I never really thought that having either in the party would be wrong for the story but usually there too just go with humans (mainly because I tend to run a magic heavy party & their racial bonuses don't add a whole lot to my style of play)

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2 hours ago, Minion said:

Out of curiousity, do you all take Sliths and Nephilim in your party in order not to miss out on any quests or bonuses (or just because you like them), or do you run an all-human party?

 

I never really cared about what the Empire or the imperials think, so I've always rolled with a mixture party in A2 & A3 (in all of them, actually). I've never tried a full-nephil or full-slith party, though. The Party of Ultimate Irony. Hmm, that'd be nice to try once.

 

EDIT: Never answered the question, did I? Yah, even on Torment I don't count the trait bonuses. I just go with a band that feels good to the hand. I'm a roleplayer to the core.

 

1 hour ago, TriRodent said:

It would be cool to be able to add/trade out one or the other into your party later in the game but...

 

EDIT2: Well, in original A3 you could delete and add members to your party post-creation. The pick-up people were laughably overpowered (at least in my opinion) around the time you'd get them, with skills that were un-obtainable otherwise (in quite some time, or even altogether if memory serves me right), like Find Herbs, which was a big thing if you relied heavily on potions.

Edited by Zaego
Clarifying my post and the question I was answering. I'm too hyped about A3 to even type correctly. Or think straight.
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I'm absolutely paralyzed at the party creation screen purely over which race to pick. Do the extra traits really matter enough to take an all-human party? Are there, in fact, quests you can't get without a Nephil and Slith in your party? My min-max nature is in conflict with my completionism streak.

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RP aside, it's an interesting choice to make re: all-human or mixed race party. I altered the default group and swapped out the Slith Rebel for a Nephil Archer, and swapped out the Nephil priest for a human priest(ess). I've just done the minor quest that happened b/c I had a Nephil in the party; not worth that much to be honest, but I still like the racial bonus to my ranged attacks. Though I might think differently if I figured out how many traits I've walked away from...

 

Next party should be a human soldier; Slith something (but pole-arms user); and then human priest and mage. Though even here, having a good archer has been invaluable, and I'm not sure I'd want to give that up. Maybe I go w/ a Slith soldier for pole-arms, Nephil archer, etc. We'll see.

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On 1/30/2018 at 3:16 PM, TriRodent said:

O-o you want to draw attention to one of your guys?  In all my decades of playing SW games I've never had a problem finding someone to hit/toss a fireball/shoot an arrow at...

 

Seriously, in a mob fight you're going to get your frontline guys swarmed.  As long as your spell casters are a couple(+?) spaces back you should be able to handle things.

 

Traits are precious/important enough that I've never found the need to put a point into Challenger fwiw

 

In Escape from the pit I liked having defensive archers. I made dexterity as high as possible, including getting all the dexterity-increasing traits, and all the gymnastics I could, and just about every physical attacking enemy was getting a 5% to hit chance except bosses, and the even the bosses with physical attacks were getting reduced to-hit chances. I could see challenger being pretty useful. It'd be a shame if it's not fixed. The game looks like it has a lot of improvements though. Hopefully that's one of them. 

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On 1/31/2018 at 5:51 AM, Minion said:

Out of curiousity, do you all take Sliths and Nephilim in your party in order not to miss out on any quests or bonuses (or just because you like them), or do you run an all-human party? I used to take a token Slith and Nephilim, but nowadays I just go with humans in both A2 and A3 because of the extra traits since it seems like it fits the story better somehow. Or maybe I've just been listening too much to Johnson.

I'm having a nephilim in my party, because my party is not a party of friendly diplomats or explorers. Three of the four are a party of delusional psychopaths. 

*The leader is Frank N Furter, who lived in Transylvania before being thrown into Avernum. He looks female, but that's because he's a cross-dresser. You may have seen him  in the movie "The Rocky Horror Picture Show. 

*Second in command is Hrungir. Hrungir is a halberd-wielding mage. Hrungir doesn't talk. Hrungir just likes to light people on fire and stab things. 

*Third is the nephilim, Wen bol Dun. Wen bol Dun is in the party so he can shoot all the people who don't like nephilim. 

*Last is the priest named Scott. Scott's job is to read things, because nobody else wants to do that. He also has the job finding all his friends' missing limbs and sticking them back on. 

 

They're not the explorers the Avernum government decided to send. Those people are locked in a closet somewhere, nude, because my party took their clothes and robbed them...except for Scott. Scott was an accountant and now is their hostage. 

Edited by Clintone
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On 1/30/2018 at 12:57 PM, Minion said:

Since the release date thread is going astray, and I just started my game, I thought to create a general thread for Avernum 3: Ruined World where we can share our joys and tribulations, as well as tidbits of advice, and ask questions in the hope of receiving some sage advice from the beta testers.

 

 

First up, does anyone know if the Challenger trait works as intended in this iteration or if the effect is still unclear or bugged?

I just tested it on my Windows version and challenger works. It definitely has an affect if your character with challenger runs up close to your enemies. It might not have an affect if your enemies see your character with challenger from far away then run up to it. 

 

I used a cheat that I found online after a brief search to get my characters up to level 13 so I could give one of them all three levels of the challenger trait. Then I had two characters, a slith and a human, run into the room where your first combat in the game takes place. Here you fight a giant spider and a giant bat. the human had three levels of the challenger perk. the slith had none. There's a wide hallway before the main room with the spider and the bat. 

 

8 out 8 times when I had my human and my slith standing at the edge of the hallway, which was very close to the spider and the bat, both the spider and the bat attacked the human. The human had the thee levels of the challenger trait.

 

Now whenever I had both my human and my slith further back further into the wide hall, further away from the spider and the bat, the spider and the bat would still see my characters and attack them, but the one closer to the slith would attack the slith and the one closer to the human would attack the human. Therefore, I suspect that the challenger trait is only activated once your enemies are within a certain range of characters with the challenger trait. In other words, if a monster sees your characters from sufficiently far away and runs toward them, they'll ignore the challenger trait for at least that first turn. The next turn, assuming they're close enough for the challenger trait to take affect, they'll be much more inclined to attack the character with the challenger trait. 

 

After that first turn though, once the spider and the bat had gotten within close proximity to both my human and my slith,  the spider and the bat seemed considerably more interested in attacking the human  than the slith. The slith (who lacked the challenger trait) could attack the spider and the bat, and the human (with the three levels of the challenger trait) could just stand there, acting like as a pacifist, never having harmed either monster, and the spider and the bat would usually keep attacking the human.  

 

 

Edited by Clintone
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So, far I'm really enjoying this game. It seems to solved the problems of past games I noticed. Sliths used to seem pretty much useless, except for roleplaying purposes. Now with halberds that give armor and with a higher chance to hit multiple opponents, and with slith spears giving a bonus to critical hit chance, sliths seem like they could be useful again. In the other two games in this series, I think Nephilim were a little better, but still of questionable value. Now, with bows giving a bonus critical hit chance and javelins having all sorts of new bonuses, they seem like they might be genuinely valuable. 

 

In particularly, I love the improvements to thrown weapons. Those used to be pretty much useless, and now they can immobilize opponents and have a 50% chance of doing massive amounts more damage. 

 

Also, for the first time in any Avernum game, goblins seem dangerous for low level characters on torment. They're still pretty easy to beat, but you can't just have one character run in and take on three of them at once anymore. You have to think ahead a bit. More strategy. 

 

I also like what they did to spells. Not only did Jeff add the "mine field" sorts of spells from the old retro games that harm enemies who walk into a certain area, he kept all the old good ones like Call the Storm and Blink. I also like how area affect spells can now damage your own players on torment. Spells used to be quite overpowered. Now, they're still as powerful as ever, but you have valid reasons to consider not having an all mage/priest party. 

 

I like the changes to shields too. I didn't play any of the Crystal souls game beyond the demo, but I at least like the changes in shields between Escape from the Pit and Ruined Word. They give a heavy bonus to parry, but they also are more encumbering, so they're more specialized for tank-like characters. No tank mages, I guess, at least not without a lot of planning. That makes sense. I always pictured mages as wearing flowing robes anyway, not lumbering around in full body armor, with a shield as tall as a short person.

 

They also, apparently, got rid of a glitch the prior two games in this series had that would allow your character to wield a halberd in one hand, and either a shield or a short sword in the other hand. You'd first equip the shield or short sword into your shield hand. Then you'd put the halberd into your quick slot. Then you'd click it to equip the quick-slot halberd. That was a great glitch. I suppose this is fairer though.   

Edited by Clintone
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