improvements for geneforge 3.... your thoughts

[Webrat]

too hard. im playing on torment (but im not far) and isnt very hard(for me)

[Dragongirl]

maybe I am just a lousy game player then. But wait till you reach Barzite and Taker regions....

 

anyway, I just want to point out for the last time that I have nothing against a game being hard at torment level, but I feel it is rather too difficult for easy or normal level, comparing to the previous GF. To me, it seems ridiculous to gain level so quickly in the beginning just to go and do valley quests and get killed for measely 1 xp/monster (such as at the spawner place). (not that I don't like skill points to spend)

 

With experience and patience, out of demo areas, it is doable for me but I would end up washed out - dreading to go on and getting beat up so often - just personal issue on self fulfillment, maybe....

[chandrew333]

Food should have a greater effect on your health.

[Webrat]

dragongirl i am in their lands. its kinda tuffer there. but not like i cant kill anyone i dont think that your a lousy player, you just need some practise time

[blueman00]

Here's my thoughts. Being able to have a melee and ranged weapon equiped would be great. Also for the end game, it would be neat to be able to actually participate in the battle instead of being told what happened. If u helped ur allies they would be more powerful etc. (Although at that point u could probably destroy everything yourself)

Something else I think would be kind of neat. U would be invading the shaper council territory.

 

When u create your character u have to pick which sect u want to play as. Then u would follow their quests throughout the game. In the end though u could still betray them and align with the council or whatever. (just a thought)

 

I also agree with no training cap, but it costs more every time u train. This way u can always spend ur money instead of making it useless. And possibly a trading post that will buy things no matter who u are aligned with. (like Darian but more of them)

 

Also change the appearance on magical items (even if it's just the color)

[lexi]

Been lurking here for a while but I wanted to post my thoughts on this having (properly) completed GF1&2 recently.

 

I think from the "door" ending of GF2 it's clear that the story line of GF3 is probably settled and I hope the game has lots of mythology and history of the Shapers (because, call me sad, discovering what's happening in both the games has been the main staying power for me).

 

1- Optional beginning

The first couple of zones in GF2 are probably a good introduction to the series but for those who have played GF1 or are replaying they are superfluous. If there was some way of optionally skipping them then it would save the first 15mins of the game having little interest for the player.

 

2- Unlocking

I agree with the posters near the start of the thread who said unlocking should go back to as it was in GF1 where living tools could be used in combination with the unlock spell.

 

3- More quests

GF2 seemed to have substatially more quests (big and small) than GF1. During the older game my interest waned a bit from half way as there was no quests I could directly complete (expect for getting eqipment which by that time had no exp reward). It makes the game run far more smoothly to complete a quest then look at the journal to see what to attempt next.

 

4- Special weapon quests

The special weapons made by various people in GF2 that needed rare componants (like the emrald chest guard) were complicated to get. By the time I had got lots of the componants for them I had forgotton who was where. Making these tasks part of the official quest list would make it far easier to remember where to go with what.

 

5- Special weapon power

It would also be far more rewarding if the special weapons people make for you out of componants were obviously better than some of the stuff picked up around the game.

 

6- Appearance of serviles

A few people have mentioned having different colours for the main character but I find the fact that all the serviles look exactly the same (except for the odd purple cloak) to be very confusing (espeically when trying to search for a particular person).

 

7- Economy and trainers

I think there should be enough cash in the game to pay for all the items possible to pick up (half way into the games I was just leaving items that I didn't want to equip). The cash should be used on other items or training (with no cap- finding Learned Guauss on one of the hardest levels of GF2 when he had no skills to offer me was very annoying). This will espcially be important if there are ethicl reasons not to use the canisters or alterations in GF3.

[tbg10101]

First, Jeff hasn't even thought about a Geneforge 3 yet. He even told me so in an e-mail.

 

Also See "The future of Geneforge" "Techgforge" for more about a possible sequel to GF2.

[Reality Corp.]

GF3 will be out. He might not have thought about it much, but he will make it for the following reasons:

 

1. $

2. The ending of GF2

 

Techforge will never work. In fact, I highly doubt it will work...

[tbg10101]

yes there will be a geneforge 3! here is the e-mail:

 

What is the door for in GF2 that you can't open for if you weren't

thinking of a Geneforge 3? (you told me that you hadn't thought of a

GF3, but that was last year. Has that changed?)

 

We will write Geneforge 3.

 

- Jeff Vogel

Spiderweb Software, Inc.

http://www.spiderwebsoftware.com

[Kyna]

Technically this was not news. See this post by Drakefyre, written last June (before GF2 was released).

 

I can understand your excitement, but there really was no need to put this post in 4 separate threads.

[Deathstra]

Whats with those healing/essence pods? I ran out of them, RAN OUT! i have no essence and no life, its just like real life dear god my character is ruined! One would think they would replenish their supply of potions on their spare time being the "potion makers" that they are.

 

And one thing i would like to see is MORE, thats right, just more in general, more always helps after all. 80 zones? pfft nothing, make that 160 zones. More weapons! More Spells! More Character designs! More chat options! More shaped creations!

It would be cool to be able to mix and match and create hybrid creations with sufficient skill in 2 or 3 catergories of shaping skills or further develop existing ones. After all, research is a big part of a shaper's life and are always looking to create the bigger, badder, and smarter. (All the NPC shapers are doing it, how come i cant charge or energize or make a battle gamma )

 

On a side note:

As an old school game developer, i shrug at many of the games that have been produced as of late. The developers who make these games are insensitive to the desires of his/her community, advertising pretty graphics whilst delivering no gameplay and hiding behind big name producers and coporations to churn out high sales volumes. My faith in the so called game-makers of todays society had nearly been lost had i not stumbled upon Geneforge 2 in my latest subscription of PC Gamer magazine. I salute you Mr. Jeff, and despite the fact that this 7 page long thread of suggestions may sound like your doing any less than a superb job, well, you are doing a superb job and its the reason why there are 7 pages worth of game suggestions in the first place. As a dissapointed and demoralized game developer working for a big company, i hope that my attempts to vicariously program/develop through you has made at least the slightest dint of difference, thank you

[Chaosfox]

Hmm well I got another idea for Geneforge 3. Here is another way to make a new line of creations. Have the ability to meld 2 or 3 monsters of different types together to make a new one. Of course this could result in a large amount of combinations but try to make them so that if the creations were combined it would make sense. The only Shapers that can do this are the ones that have used the new Geneforge(for more complicated monsters) or used a multitude of canisters that give the ability. This would mean the Geneforge would need to be used by you and not just Drakons.

 

Note: If it is a completely retarded and stupid, useless idea then ignore it. But if you think it could work build upon it and add things that could make it better.

[Cat]

Okay, I'm sure lots of this stuff has probably been said before but here's my ideas for Geneforge 3.

 

1. Merchants should not run out of supplies. I have nobody left to buy potions from!

 

2. If a person has, say, 10 pieces of food, they should be able to give it to their creations more than one piece at a time.

 

more later....

[Piccolo]

Some ideas for GF3, I sure hope there will be one it would be a crime to end it like that. :)Canisters should impact your character's dialogue responses as well as how characters react to you. It should be more of a sacrifice and tradeoff to choose to use them within the game, sanity for skills. Holding off on using them should have rewards, using them should give you less control on what you say, but both paths should be interesting. Fundamentally there's no difference between your character's interactions from a disciplined loyalist to a canister-mad barzite, except for the one time at the mountain pass. Truly if you use tons of canisters, your character should become a totally arrogant hothead just like Phariton, Tuldaric and them. At least in regards to conversation with powerful/key characters, some extra dialogue options for heavy canister usage would be cool. While roleplaying a canister free loyalist, I sort of felt like I was wasting my time, besides a slight change at the ending.

 

Create serviles, these little guys are creations who built not only the towns but the plot itself in both games, they should definately be a must for shaping in Geneforge 3. There could be different types, like technical servile (add to mechanics), alchemy servile (potions).

 

Definately a longer main plot for each faction. For the Loyalists for example, it was basically just sabotage the awakened, sabotage the barzites, kill the 3 drakons and it's over. I know there are tons of locations and scads of sidequests, but I really enjoyed the main factions and wished they had longer stories.

 

I think Geneforge 3 should be different in some way from the first 2. They were both fantastic games, but they've exhausted the plot line of being thrown into an area stranded with the same factions to choose from. Starting in a more central shaper area would be interesting, seeing the main cities of shaper civilization. It would be an interesting twist to actually start as and play as a servile, being spoken down to and spit upon by shapers instead of constantly having the choice of taking the shaper low road or high road. Choosing between the factions as a servile, would definately add new perspective. It wouldn't be as good as a whole new plot, but much better than the same factions as a shaper again. Being reshaped as a servile, by the awakened or others would allow you the same potential and abilities as a shaper. Assuming you're a young servile revolutionary fighting for the Awakened, heck the current leader of the Awakened could be your former character from Geneforge 2, who tells the tale which you played out. An interesting twist maybe? Dunno which ending it will assume, but unless it's the loyalist one there will probably be an ongoing war. The shaper council fighting either the Awakened, Takers, or Barzites, and that's good. Plus there's that beasty in Easss (sp?) dungeon, his final ultimate creation in the chain of Drakons it will probably turn out to be.

 

This next part's really getting kind of out there from the realm of possibility, but humor me just for fun. Having your own serviles build you a structure would be really awesome, a fortress or home custom designed. It could have the typical areas seen in shaper halls, blacksmith for customizing weapons and armor, creating puresteel, an essence pool for creating and charging magical items. Then making creations like Battle Alphas and setting them to guard and patrol your fortress, against what enemy I don't know but something could be improvised.

[Webrat]

1. it isnt nesserly. if you want get much power but you would turn mad, it takes the joy out of the game.

2. a very good idea.

3. even better. the old plots are so boring.

4.it could be different but not totally.

4.1. the shaper towns idea has alredy brought out and i agree. it is a thought that deserves to be respected.

4.2. i wouldnt want to start as a servile. it could be a choice. you could choose like this: guardian, shaper, agent, servile, drakon, gazer, etc.

5. it is bossible, but it would ruine the point of the game.

[David Sachs]

Rethink the level system. One of the annoying features of Gemforge 2 is deciding when to complete a quest, so the experience gained has the most desirable effect.

 

I would suggest:

 

a) Use the common system that requires more "experience points" for each successive level gain, but the experience points for doing something are not dependent on your current level.

 

Make level increases more common, so that adanced characters reach 3 or more digits, but each increment does less.

 

c) Put "skill points" into areas 1 at a time, with each point doing just a little, and the effect diminishing when many points are put into a single attribute.

[78439]

about the music... maybe it could be like a packet download. one for the game, one for music, one for internet play, etc, etc, etc

[Webrat]

there isnt a internet play yet. it will be out (maybe), but it is questionable. if there are to many packets to download, it gets annoying. afcourse the downloading file shouldnt be too big, youre right about that. i think that jeff will improve the music and it shouldnt be too much to download.

[Capt Byron]

I think GF3 should definitely have a multiplayer option. Multiplayer allows for a much longer period of enjoyment. Maybe In multiplayer you could choose to play the actual storyline w/ your friends or you could just wander around fighting each other or something. I think it would be so cool if there could be player characters with each faction or something.

[Kain Ceverus]

lol

all this stuff sounds so good. it makes me wish i could afford the game . if anyone wants to chat u can find me on AIM/AOL. My screename is NikDaFly. hope to chat about the game and other stuff!

[Detteh Mehkej]

Preamble (written after post): this is a bit long. I really, *really* want 1,2,3. Rest is just highly desirable and suggestions.

 

What I would like to see next.

(note: I played on easy and normal, I skimmed through this thread and I get lost in my posts easily)

1) better interface - one-click-does-everything is baaad, I want to have absolute and easy control over

- what I select (numbers for party memebers, lowercase letters for friendlies, uppercase letters for foes?)

- where do I send it (I want grid displayed and move command so that I can move my creations behind other creations)

- seeing how much action points will remain and the path it will choose (sometimes creations choose really weird paths - too long, when there is an obvious shorter way)

- where when and how will the view center; OK, it would be sufficient if it did not usually do exactly the opposite of what I want, but a bonus would be if active creature was always kept in view (some minimal distance form the border) in such a way as to also keep most enemies in view

2) synchronicity

- now I can only activate commands like Load game or Quit if one of my party is active (and not frightened and not AI controlled ...), I want to be able to do these things all the time

- similarly, all game messages (like ... is hit for ..., ... gains level) should be displayed when they happen and not blocked until something happens (something usually=my turn)

3) Why is time taken for all those offscreen (not visible) creatures to move as if they were visible? If they are not animated on the screen, their movement should happen *much* faster.

4) Better creation control - let the button panel control creations when they are active - give them default attack mode (melee/missile), give higher creations more attack modes (less effective with lesser cost) and a choice between them, invent a 'move' command ...

5) Finally get rid of that fixed-number-of-items-in-inventory silliness, that was acceptable for games on 8-bit computers, not on computers with at least 1M available RAM ...

6) Make creations more different ... not more types of creations, but differentiate the current ones more ... like bonuses to attributes, armor, resistances, different(not just larger, but overlapping) sets of abilities(spells/attacks), different rates of HP/energy gains at levelups ...

7) I propose a different method of creation levelupping:

- don't base their experience gains on PC's level, but their own *experience* level

- start every creation at experience level 1 (or something based on their type)

- but give them level bonus so that they have equivalent effective starting level (for purposes of attribute determination, HP, energy, ...)

- give them some bonuses based on PC's shaping skill at point of their shaping at no additional essence cost (not start at higher experience level, but maybe higher bonus level; higher armor for high shaping; ...)

- another bonuses for experience level (on top of the effects of total effective level(HP, energy, attributes)) - possibly an action point or two, levels of parry/quick action, more armor, resistances

 

I was aiming here for a system in which PCs are not penalized (for high levels) with creations that level up slower ...

8) trainers that don't give less if you already know something ... eighter

- let all trainers teach a total of two levels for any skill,

- let any trainer teach one(two) levels for any skill

- let any teacher (and quest reward and special learnign encounter) disperse a fixed amount of skill points on a given skill (and have skills remember skill points invested instead of just level); I would prefer this alternative (with canisters giving bonus levels without increasing skill point cost for another level)

9) Anyway, if a 5 skill point increase can give me +5% at something, why can't I invest 1 skill point for +1%?

10) I am sure I forgot something

11) I hereby give (as much as I am allowed to) spiderweb software rights to use or refuse ideas in this post to its (their's?) liking.

 

Wov, that got long.

[spyderbytes]

I've only managed to skim the first seven(!) pages, so forgive me if this has been mentioned... but what I most want GF3 to be is "Blades of Geneforge". That is, give us an editor and let us write our own scenarios set in the GF mythos.

 

-spyderbytes

[poolwin2001]

I would like to have a good ending in GF3 where the world gets saved or ruled by me not eaten by drakons who make me just a researcher

[LillBenny]

3D

[tbg10101]

there needs to be a cheat for money

[Dragongirl]

I agree about the trainer's cap, especially it seems illogical to place Learn Guass at the hardest area which by that time, the char should have been quite strong anyway.

 

Also, having some early quests that give a free stat only means that we get cheated on the available trainer's offer in the next area - that is quite frustrating.

 

Actually, instead of larger areas, I'd rather see work done on tidbit things that have been discussed here like better use of wands, two handed weapon ability, etc.

[tbg10101]

u play guardian?

 

with the two handed weapon wielder thing(2 weapons). I think that it is a great idea but you would need to be able to defend yourself. Maybe you could defend with the two weapons (swords, daggers, etc., not wands)?

[tbg10101]

how would you controll your weapons?

 

Lets say you have a sword in one hand and a baton in the other.

lets also say that you are fighting a Battle Gamma.

How would you controll which weapon to use?

 

Could it be a pop up window like the spells? You click on the gloved hand in the bottom left corner of the screen during combat mode and a window would come up (like with spells). Then you could choose to attack from the left or right hand. It would tell you what you had in your hands also.

[tbg10101]

Also, could you select which hand is better (right handed, left handed) in the statistics screen when you made your character? This would have to be permanant though the game so all it would show you when the game has started is what hand you are better in. You could not edit it.

 

The better hand would do more damage or somthing. It could improve your armor if you had a shield on that hand(better use of the shield. If you have played warcraft III you would understand (playing humans and research defend))

[SilverBlade]

Leave the Gazers as they were, or make them stronger, they're my favorite creation so don't bring them down, you need the common, middle, and royal classes.

They should allow us to make serviles, and creations should carry our stuff, just like slaves would, just carry. The mighty Shapers, creators of life, has to lug around 200 pounds of stuff while his creations walk around carefree.

Also, why are some in-game Shapers able to make thousands of creations and use them for their benefits and we get to make 7.

[tbg10101]

yeah, you should be able to make more creation than seven. Maybe there could be a little scrolling bar under the character tracker thing in the upper right corner.

 

I think that there should be a kind of a sting-ray/scorpion creation that hovers by beating it's wings. It would not go over trees though.

[Learned Noremac]

Well if serviles were a creation they probably should be able to use weapons and armour, because they arent incredibly strong otherwise, and they also have that slow walking speed like Ornks.

 

You could make it an online multiplayer thing so you could fight other teams or something

[tbg10101]

It needs more different sound effects.

[Toenail Returns]

more weapon options. (sorry if his was mentioned before)

[RiotGearEpsilon]

Well, one thing it needs is to be slightly more -responsive-.

 

By which I mean, things you do need to have noticable effects whether or not you do them as part of quests. For example - Recently, in my game, I killed Barzahl, and... Well, weird things happened. Not surprisingly, the Barzites started attacking me on sight - but surprisingly, so did the Awakened sympathizers and Awakened spy in North Rising Gates! Hostility needs to be painted less broadly than region by region - I don't know enough about programming to really know what I'm doing, but it seems to be like it should be possible to make more specific changes - attacked by the guards and not by the civilians, for example.

 

In fact, I KNOW you can do that because you did it in the Qurem-usss (or whatever the Taker stronghold is called) power supply - the Power Golems don't attack you even if they're right next to Guard Golems or Miner Golems who are attacking you, and they also don't attack the other golems or vice versa. If you applied that script to 'noncombatants' in towns, things would have more versimilitude.

 

Plus, more events should trigger those text boxes - When you kill a faction leader, you should be instantly aware of what a profound effect you have just had on the area. Maybe guards flee before your profound power. Hell, maybe you can even dominate the town and make them pay tribute.

 

------

 

I want to second the earlier request to be able to speak to your creations. It would be a convenient method of setting their base A.I., and it could be very interesting when dealing with intelligent creations such as Drakons or Eyebeasts. If your creature begs for a second chance when you absorb it, it forces you to really confront the morality of what you're doing.

 

Pack animals! More specifically, Pack Serviles! I want to see outraged Awakened trying to talk your loyal shaped steward in to seeking freedom, and then outright rioting a week later when you casually menton you absorbed him to free up the essence.

 

---

 

Creatures who join up with you, such as Xander or Herst Blade, should also be 'talkable'. Additionally, they should kick up a little text box when they die, and open up a quest to notify their next of kin.

 

In fact, they should be open for more quests in general. Imagine if you take Herst Blade in to the Taker town, and his old commander recognizes him! The town might riot to see you dominating him in town, especially when he defends you from them! Or if you take Xander, a free servile caster, to meet Zakary!

 

There's a lot of opportunity for inter-character interaction that is lost due to admittedly inescapable limitations on free time to program and cash. If possible, if you get enough cash out of Geneforge 2, I'd love to see more of those opportunities taken in Geneforge 3.

[Custer is the worlds biggest noob]

Quote:

Originally written by Publicly Displayed Name::
Improvements:

1. Fire Creations need more power. Getting hit by a giant fireball spewed by a 20-foot tall dragon is supposed to hurt more than getting stared at by some freakishly large eyeball.

2. Make Eyebeasts weaker! The game doesn't need a high-damage, stunning Aura of Flames.

1.being killed by the phsycic power of a gazer/eyebeast is ment to hurt more thank being stomped on by some stupid lizard.
I mean Eyebeast are waaaaaaaaay more powerful than ur-drakons.....and cheaper

2.it does.

[Kelandon]

Heh, you (RiotGearEpsilon) must be the only person who thinks that the GFs aren't responsive enough. I think this is more of an individual bug than a system-wide issue, though.

 

If you want text boxes that tell you what you've just done, play Avernum. I thought the GFs were interesting in their setup. I didn't know exactly what would happen (or what had just happened, in some cases) as a result of my actions. I liked this effect. *shrug*

 

A quest to notify their next of kin? I really don't like this idea, but I'm not sure why, so I can't justifiably say anything bad about it. I liked the way Nethergate handled joinable NPCs, that they would give dialog boxes ("talk" to the party, kind of) at certain times, mid-dungeon.

 

I would really like to see GF3 be to GF1 and GF2 what A3 was to A2 and A1: a truly monumental epic, the culmination of everything that preceded it. Although hopefully he won't throw combat out of whack, the way he has done for thirds in a series before.

[RiotGearEpsilon]

Don't get me wrong - the game is super-responsive. The thing is that seeing all that responsiveness only makes me want MORE responsiveness. Why miss heaven by inches, after all?

 

The notify-next-of-kin thing is a little silly, I admit, but I think the death of a party member should be a significant enough event to make you recognize the fact that someone just _died_. Something should be done to notify it, and make it less of a "Dammit! This dumb A.I. refused to retreat again! Now I have to start that fight all over again."

 

Of course, that might be better solved by allowing direct control of joinable NPC's instead of continuous A.I. control.

 

The text boxes don't necessarily have to tell you what the RESULTS of your action should be, but they should, in some way, hint to you that you have done something that will have a dramatic, possibly violent effect on the landscape.

 

And as you said, huge, epic games are never a bad thing.

[Archmage Alex]

Has anyone turned this thread into a concise list yet?

[Toenail Returns]

Yeah, I agree. I'd like gender and color options too. My favorite character is the agent but since I'm male I feel uncomfortable playing as an Agent.

[smokethagod]

What about some more magic and spells?

[tbg10101]

Here you guys, I'll make a list of all this stuff (coming soon for Alex)

[skrew]

what would be cool, for geneforge 3, if you make an editor, or even for yourselves, make real colour maps, with displacement maps and models, using a true 3d environment with sprites or whatever... thats the concept used comercially almost 6 years ago, it shouldnt be that hard now... even so, you guys seem to be more gameplay based than graphics based. and if you need colour maps or models, I make them for alot of games, just ask. Another thing geneforge lacked was bonds with well anyone... i dont my character really being able to depend on anythign through the entire game, simpl because of how badly the evolution was, i just had to start again, with a new creature...

[Chaosfox]

I was thinking that maybe you could possibly control the entire group but only for certain areas. Like all 3 types of characters come in at the beginning of the level and you split up. You would then control each one at a time on their different paths. For example you would control the Agent along her entire path until she gets to a certain spot or gets stuck, you could then move onto your guardian or shaper, and they would all come together at one spot for a big battle, give each other items which would benefit the others best, talk about stuff they found and split up again. This would give the game an aspect of a further advanced level of team work and even some degree of puzzle making.

[Toenail Returns]

I'd also like it if you could leave creations in a different town where you are. When I was going into another town the loading screen came up and said, "Press = to keep your monsters inactive for a while" and I thought I could keep one of my Thalds in Drypeak while I investigated Sharon's Grove and I got really mad when I saw I couldn't.

 

Yeah I'd like it if I could leave my creations around for a while so I didn't have to feed them...

[Shadowmaster]

I already sent Spiderweb an e-mail about this, but Geneforge 3 needs a charcter editor, like in the Avernum games and basically all the other Spiderweb RPGs. This was one of the main reasons I didn't buy Geneforge off the bat. I think this would make people a bit happier if they get stuck. The editor would allow how many spells you know at what level and the creations you can make at what level. Also, make male/female genders for each character type. Also, if there is not going to be a "Blades" of Geneforge, maybe there could be a World Editor where people could make entirely new scenarios for people to play (these would be massive and few in number.) Just a suggestion...

[Semmiel]

Qouted:

"Also, why are some in-game Shapers able to make thousands of creations and use them for their benefits and we get to make 7."

I think that there should be a house or mansion or fortress, etc. Where you can have many servants waiting for you, your party would still have a maximum of 7. This would also be part of having your servants wait in other cities as was mentioned earlier. Also, in order to make this work, the permanent missing essence thing would have to be scrapped (I, personally, wouldn't miss it anyway.)

Also, Ornks should be left the way they are, sort of a useless easter egg kind of thing. But that you should be able to shape serviles, to carry stuff for you.

Last but not least, there should be some sort of creation mutating ability to further the uniqueness of each creation.

[Toenail Returns]

Good idea Semmiel, having a couple slaves would be usefull for carrying all my gold...

[Detteh Mehkej]

Quote:

Originally written by Semmiel:
Qouted:
"Also, why are some in-game Shapers able to make thousands of creations and use them for their benefits and we get to make 7."

That is because our PC is not a fully extensively educated shaper ... it takes years of experience et expensive equipment to create awesome amounts of beneficious beings.

[Goldengirl]

I think that we should be able to be serviles. I would also like to be able to have packmules like ornks, roamers, etc. Of cours more creations and spells. One spell I definetly would like to see is a spell that allows me to completly mind control a creation. A wand that could do that would also be great.