Geneforge 5: Overthrow - August Update

[Randomizer]

Since Jeff is busy writing the last part of the game,so I'll give an update.

 

The 3 shaper classes are back as a starting characters as well as now 6 lifecrafter classes. The new strong magic, weak fighting class has been seen as a screenshot for inventory.

 

Reputation will make a difference in what quests you can get and which of the 5 factions you can join. Too much in one direction (shaper/rebel) will limit your actions.

 

Plenty of fighting once you past the first 10 zones. Jeff has made it possible in the next area to fight tier 4 and 5 creations plus a few special types that will make things interesting. Also for those that prefer leadership and mechanics there will be plenty of that at much higher levels than GF4.

 

It seems playable even at torment levels, but you will have to make characters that fight since past normal difficulty, you can't breeze through the game without increasing your skills. One shot kills are harder on torment past the beginning.

[Acky]

Thanks-a-much. one question though. The character in the screenshots just has shoes that match the floor, shes not floating around right

[Xaiya]

Has he made it possible to play through the whole game without attacking anything yourself?

[Randomizer]

The new class has gray footwear (boots?)

 

I doubt you can do a pure pacifist game where you don't have to attack yourself. There is one creation that if you attack it with the right leadership and attack type will prevent the need to kill it.

 

You get one character you can recruit near the beginning to do some fighting for you, but she isn't that helpful even buffed and you providing healing and daze. Only in one other zone can you recruit anyone and just for that zone.

 

I think on normal with avoiding several zones completely or at least daze and run, you might be able to do the main quests. You will need higher mechanics and leadership than in GF4 and have to have enough living tools to slip around the second chapter's boss fight obstacles. Parry above 15 and using thorn items to make your opponent suicide might work, but you will need high health and plenty of healing to last through this type of fighting since turrets and golems don't daze.

[Lyric]

will there be a different beginning for shaper/rebels?

 

And what about the name of the new class?

 

[Randomizer]

No.

 

That would be telling. See spoiler .

 

Click to reveal..

Non-Disclosure Agreement

 

Agreement, entered into on ___/___/___, between ________________ and

Jeff Vogel. In consideration of each party agreeing to disclose

certain confidential proprietary information to the other party, the

parties hereto agree as follows:

 

FIRST: From and after the date of this agreement, termination and

expiration notwithstanding, any information, correspondence,

drawings, manuals, and other documents transmitted by one party (the

"Disclosing" party) to the other party (the "Receiving" Party) and

marked "Confidential" or "Proprietary", and any information or data

orally described as "Confidential" or "Proprietary", or which the

Receiving party has any reason to believe is such, shall be received

and treated by the Receiving party in secrecy and confidence, and

shall not be disclosed by the Receiving party to any person or firm

without the prior express written consent of the Disclosing party.

Such confidential and proprietary information may be disseminated

within the Receiving Party's own organization only to the extent

reasonably required for the proper evaluation of the Disclosing

Party's products.

 

SECOND: Such restrictions on use or disclosure of information

contained in the FIRST paragraph do not extend to any item of

information which:

 

i. is publicly known at the time of its disclosure to the Receiving

Party,

ii. is lawfully received by the Receiving party from a third party

not bound in a confidential relationship to the Disclosing party,

iii. is published or otherwise made known to the public by the

Disclosed party,

iv. was generated independently by the Receiving Party,

 

provided, however, that before making any use or disclosure in

reliance on one of those exceptions, the Receiving Party shall give

the Disclosing Party as least ten (10) business days' prior written

notice specifying the applicable exception(s) and circumstances

giving rise thereto.

 

THIRD: Each party shall require each of its employees having access

to confidential or proprietary information of the other party to

enter into appropriate confidentiality agreements and shall use its

best efforts to insure compliance with the terms of such agreements.

 

FOURTH: Upon three business days' written notice, each party agrees

to return any written confidential or proprietary information and all

physical media on which software was received from the other party,

with a letter declaring that the information which was contained

thereon has in no way been copied or reproduced onto other media.

 

FIFTH: Each party acknowledges that the other party shall not have an

adequate remedy should one party breach this Agreement and that the

other party will suffer irreparable damages and injury in such event,

and agrees that the other party, in addition to other rights and

remedies, shall be entitled to an injunction restricting it from

committing or continuing any violation of this agreement.

 

SIXTH: If any provision of this Agreement shall, to any extent, be

found to be invalid or unenforceable, the remained of such invalid or

unenforceable provision shall be reformed so as to be valid and

enforceable to the full extent permitted by law.

 

IN WITNESS THEREOF, the parties hereto have caused this Agreement to

be executed by their duly authorized officers as of the date set

forth above.

 

[The Flaming Cuckatoo]

It's a pity that G5 will only grace my screen in the middle of my exams. D:

[Lyric]

Originally Posted By: Randomizer

No.

That would be telling. See spoiler .

Click to reveal..

Non-Disclosure Agreement

Agreement, entered into on ___/___/___, between ________________ and
Jeff Vogel. In consideration of each party agreeing to disclose
certain confidential proprietary information to the other party, the
parties hereto agree as follows:

FIRST: From and after the date of this agreement, termination and
expiration notwithstanding, any information, correspondence,
drawings, manuals, and other documents transmitted by one party (the
"Disclosing" party) to the other party (the "Receiving" Party) and
marked "Confidential" or "Proprietary", and any information or data
orally described as "Confidential" or "Proprietary", or which the
Receiving party has any reason to believe is such, shall be received
and treated by the Receiving party in secrecy and confidence, and
shall not be disclosed by the Receiving party to any person or firm
without the prior express written consent of the Disclosing party.
Such confidential and proprietary information may be disseminated
within the Receiving Party's own organization only to the extent
reasonably required for the proper evaluation of the Disclosing
Party's products.

SECOND: Such restrictions on use or disclosure of information
contained in the FIRST paragraph do not extend to any item of
information which:

i. is publicly known at the time of its disclosure to the Receiving
Party,
ii. is lawfully received by the Receiving party from a third party
not bound in a confidential relationship to the Disclosing party,
iii. is published or otherwise made known to the public by the
Disclosed party,
iv. was generated independently by the Receiving Party,

provided, however, that before making any use or disclosure in
reliance on one of those exceptions, the Receiving Party shall give
the Disclosing Party as least ten (10) business days' prior written
notice specifying the applicable exception(s) and circumstances
giving rise thereto.

THIRD: Each party shall require each of its employees having access
to confidential or proprietary information of the other party to
enter into appropriate confidentiality agreements and shall use its
best efforts to insure compliance with the terms of such agreements.

FOURTH: Upon three business days' written notice, each party agrees
to return any written confidential or proprietary information and all
physical media on which software was received from the other party,
with a letter declaring that the information which was contained
thereon has in no way been copied or reproduced onto other media.

FIFTH: Each party acknowledges that the other party shall not have an
adequate remedy should one party breach this Agreement and that the
other party will suffer irreparable damages and injury in such event,
and agrees that the other party, in addition to other rights and
remedies, shall be entitled to an injunction restricting it from
committing or continuing any violation of this agreement.

SIXTH: If any provision of this Agreement shall, to any extent, be
found to be invalid or unenforceable, the remained of such invalid or
unenforceable provision shall be reformed so as to be valid and
enforceable to the full extent permitted by law.

IN WITNESS THEREOF, the parties hereto have caused this Agreement to
be executed by their duly authorized officers as of the date set
forth above.

bahh, one should never listen/read such gibberish.

[Silver Shadow]

Thanks for the update, Randomizer! I appreciate it greatly. I was starting to wonder if something ate Jeff.

[Xelgion]

Originally Posted By: Silver Shadow

Thanks for the update, Randomizer! I appreciate it greatly. I was starting to wonder if something ate Jeff.

Yeah, the old UBB.

[Randomizer]

Jeff's about a week and half away from allowing us to test the third part of the game. We have seen all or parts of almost 40 zones and we still haven't left the first part of the map.

 

Right now most of the text errors and dialog/quest bugs are gone. Mostly Jeff is still adjusting the spells and fight difficulties.

 

Don't expect Jeff to visit here much since he is pushing to get a new beta finished to clear up last weekend's bug reports.

[Acky]

He can take as long as he wants as long as the game is more freking amazing

[Evnissyen]

Yes, I'll willingly wait a whole year longer if it means the game will be that much better.

[Brock The Archmage]

I'd wait half my life, but somehow I don't think he would actually spend that much time on one game hehe.

 

Hey, I'm looking for a suitably impressive picture of a person calling forth magical energy, preferably electrical, that will work on this site. I got tired of Hennet. Help would be appreciated.

[Lyric]

you mean smth like this http://kino18.deviantart.com/art/Lightning-never-strikes-twice-43544413 ? or this but with fire http://wen-m.deviantart.com/art/Anima-Colonel-81076133 ?

[Bubb9]

This is good to hear you guys always make great games and I'm certain I'm going to purchase this for PC when it comes out.

[Randomizer]

We still have about another week until the next chapter which is supposed to be huge (over 20 zones and probably closer to 30). Jeff is trying out new graphics, and we still haven't seen the final version of them.

 

Edit - I finished the download and it is getting smaller in size as graphics are getting adjusted. Just under 43 MB.

[Acky]

Hey Randomizer(or any other tester), will jeff be porting the feature from A5 with traveling on a boat, cause that was pretty cool. And what about Battle Disipliens.

[Randomizer]

No boats so far since all we've seen doesn't need them. No battle disciplines since that would be nice, but too Avernish.

 

The spell system has been changed for buffing characters, but Jeff may change that as the game progresses and we get to use the higher level spells.

[Acky]

Originally Posted By: Randomizer

No boats so far since all we've seen doesn't need them. No battle disciplines since that would be nice, but too Avernish.

The spell system has been changed for buffing characters, but Jeff may change that as the game progresses and we get to use the higher level spells.

Oh well. I'm not suprised about the boats since the game will certinly be in western Terriestia. What do you mean too "Avernish" please elaborate because its all Spiderweb Softwareish too me.

Out of intrest, will there be more spells.

[Randomizer]

Jeff seems to have some things that appear only in Geneforge games and some that appear only in Averum.

 

Avernum has elevations and boats that can be navigated from point to point like walking. It now has battle disciplines.

 

Geneforge has creations that you can control and have with you. You have essence and spell energy as separate levels.

 

There are a fixed number of spells, but Jeff has changed them to have different effects and replaced a few.

[Acky]

Ah. I never thougth of it like that.

 

 

By replaced, and different effects, do you mean something like daze is now an area affect spell and burning spray is now "infect".

[Evnissyen]

I'm hoping he means brand new spells.

 

Randomizer: I know I'm always going on about this, but... has he added more complicated and involved interaction with the NPC's? And do the NPC's get an even greater narrative role than in previous games?

[Student of Trinity]

The beta testing is done under a non-disclosure agreement, so a few judicious and uninformative hints might be okay as hype-building for the game, but testers can't really answer questions.

 

For my part I don't think we can yet tell how sophisticated the NPC scripting is going to turn out to be. A lot of interesting things are starting up, and I look forward to seeing where they all go.

[Randomizer]

Plus the game has been seen by a limited number of testers that mostly look for text and graphics errors. The rest of the game is in flux as Jeff makes changes depending upon how the later testers react to the game.

 

I'm waiting for the screams of anguish when the rest of you try the game on torment and see how hard it is to build a character that can go anywhere with some decent leadership and mechanics. This game may be balanced easier when that happens.

[Xaiya]

I can't wait to play this game five or six times, than play through the whole thing without attacking anything!

 

Then again, I still need to do my G4 one. I've been too lazy so I haven't really beaten Monarch yet...

 

So is this game going to be hugemassiveawesome?

[Randomizer]

Jeff hasn't released the second map section so all I know is over 60 scripted zones for size and there should be more.

 

Playing without attacking anything will be interesting since there are several kill something quests and very few places where you can recruit someone to do it for you. It might be possible to finish the game on normal without personally attacking someone or using creations.

[Dark Neptune]

Randomizer, did Jeff reveal to you that he has change the Battle Alpha, Beta and Gamma animations back to the original G1, G2 and G3 ones? Because the one in G4 really looked....lousy. Back in my G2 and G3 demos, when I looked at the Battle Alpha design, I am sure I am this tough guy in my party more than a Drayk or Glaahk, But the look in G4 really disappointed me though.

[Dark Neptune]

Originally Posted By: Dragonlorddrakon

Oh well. I'm not suprised about the boats since the game will certinly be in western Terriestia.

I don't think so. Its either an area in-between the Ashen Isles and Terrestia or on the Ashen Isles. If it is in Western Terrestia, then Jeff may have a hard remaking that land if he wants the game to be realistic since Western Terrestia was the part where Geneforge 2 take place.

[Dikiyoba]

Geneforge 2 took place in one mountain range in Western Terrestia. There's still a lot of the continent we haven't seen yet.

 

Dikiyoba.

[Slawbug]

Specifically, in one valley within one mountain range, and it's on the immediate left edge of the G5 map -- it's not particularly western at all.

[Randomizer]

Jeff hasn't set the final graphics considering the number that are marked place holder. In GF4 he didn't insert the creation and character graphics until about a month before release.

[mann]

question here will it finally be possible to create like as many creations as you want without the whole bother of hold much essence you need. Because i dunno i was always drawn to geneforge with the intention of making a small army of creations yet it seems that i always end up with 3 creations at max. no offence intended but it just seems you have a small weak army or a few creations that will actually be able to survive.

 

Also i think somewhere there should be a place where you can just kill an infinite number of creations to rack up xp in the past it always seems that if you kill all the creations in one area, unlock all doors etc theres nothing else to do to improve your lvl (if your anti cheating).

 

i mean i've always enjoyed playing geneforge games but i always felt that there was a limit that stood in the way of making the game perfect

[Lilith]

Well, if you wanted a small army, 3 creations is pretty small.

[Randomizer]

If all you have is 3 creations you probably need more intelligence. I mean that as in getting more essence to make creations. I think that in GF4 having 3 tier 5 creations was reasonable, but you should be able to get more.

 

Having limits is Jeff's way of saying I'm done coding.

[Xaiya]

I'm pretty sure the areas in G2 are much closer together than the ones in G4.

 

Will G5 include some of the area from G2?

[Dark Neptune]

Maybe. And maybe G4's "Turabi Gate" maybe in it.

 

Actually, I still think the War Trall costed a little too much essence for a melee creation, though it does rranged attacks as well.

 

In G4, I could create 7 Battle Alphas with 2 levels of Intellingence. The hard areas of G4 like "The Titan's Hall" have some goodies to increase your Intellingence without spending skill points, goods like those skill canisters, and Girdle of Genius.

[Lyric]

hope this game will also have some nice easter eggs

[mann]

will the unbound be seen in G5?

 

Because as most know they were released if you played rebel and killed if you played shaper

[Acky]

The unbound will be seen in Overthrow. It says so in the discription for G5. Its just that we don't know if it will be the Rebal or the Trakovite ending. Both end in a stalemate.

[Randomizer]

You won't find out the ending from GF4 until you talk to someone that was there. I can't believe who Jeff let survive and who died in that fight.

[Goldengirl]

Originally Posted By: Randomizer

You won't find out the ending from GF4 until you talk to someone that was there. I can't believe who Jeff let survive and who died in that fight.

You're talking of the last fight, correct? Let's see, Akhari Blaze, Miranda, Alwan, Greta, Warmaster Karikiss, various Drakons and soldiers, some golems. Did I miss any of the participants?

That's it. He let the golems live, and they see the player unleash the Unbound, even as everyone else is dead, before the PC is devoured by a stray.

But seriously, how long will it be until we get to see the survivors? And, I suppose, how many are there?

[Randomizer]

At least two and maybe three survived that fight plus your own character.

 

Now how long depends upon what route you take through the game. If you take the minimum quest path and avoid extra fighting then you can do it in 20 to 21 zones. You might even avoid the no experience for killing monster fights.

 

By level 34 you don't get anything for almost all tier 3 creations. By level 37 you don't get much for clearing whole zones.

[Acky]

Hmm I say Miranda lived because she has to much potential for just 1 game. Now she's a general. Akavire Blaze was killed but Warmaster Karikass is alive and is either the next Salassar or a "general" for the drakons under Ghaldrings right arm. As for Alwan or Greta.... I can't say cause its to close to call. I want them both equaly.

 

I know you can't tell me, but heck I'll guess anyway

[RetlawMay]

I don't think that Alwan will live but I hope he will. I doubt they killed Greta, she may even be at the top of one of the factions you can join if I would venture a guess.

[Acky]

Maybe. She'd be in the neo-awakened faction. On a side note, I don't think jeff killed your PC. I'd venture he/she is slowly roting away in Northforge cells, far away from where are last PC will be.

 

....last Pc(I'm sad now)

 

 

Hoorahh. 100

[Nioca]

Originally Posted By: Dragonlorddrakon

Maybe. She'd be in the neo-awakened faction.

Doubt it. She was all in favor of letting the Unbound loose on Terrestria, and effectively swatted you on the nose if you suggested otherwise. No, she's sided with the Drakons. All the more sad, since it was her that suggested in the beginning that someone like you might be needed to steer the Rebellion back on track.

[Clois]

But didn't she say that she only supported the Unbound because it was absolutely necessary for the Rebellion's survival, and that they would deal with moral issues within the rebellion (drakons etc) once they were less desperate?

[nikki.]

Alwan and Greta will survive and make cute Shaper babies. There can even be a mini-quest where you have to try and get all the ingredients Alwan needs to make Greta's favourite meal!

[Ale193]

Both alwan and greta are sane so if they survive they theres hope for both factions.