Copernicus

Let me ask, are you downloading the game directly from the Spiderweb website, or are you getting it elsewhere (Steam, GOG, etc.)?

Some quests are vague and it's not really clear what to do. At the very least, it would be nice if you could ping the *zone* you should be in for a given quest. Just as an example, I got a quest to get a hunting token in Avadon. His description on where to go was kinda vague, and the quest text in the journal was not much better.

A vote in opposition here -- I actually like the idea that some quests still exist that don't lead you by the hand and say "Go to this spot". You have to explore on your own to satisfy them. I think it would even be a nice touch if it weren't possible to collect all the honor tokens in the game; some should become available based upon story choices you make, or even based on the class you've chosen... The more non-linear the game, the better, imho.

I also want to jump on the "toggle" bandwagon with respect to keys like "g" or "i". I am guessing you don't do this because letters choose items in the inventory or on the ground, but there's got to be some way to work around this.

Ah, this is where an emacs or vi mode would be handy. In the classic Unix text-editor wars, the main point of contention between the two sides was whether editing should be "modeless" (you can use the keyboard keys both for writing text and for editing it at the same time), or "modal" (you switch the keyboard between writing and editing mode as you go). In the modeless camp, you normally use control-characters for editing; in the modal camp, you use a switch (vi uses the Escape key) to convert the keyboard between writing and editing mode.

In this case, for a "modeless" solution, you'd want to use something like Control-G to toggle in and out of the inventory screen, allowing the regular letter G to be used for selecting inventory items. For a "modal" solution, you'd probably have a particular key combination (I guess Escape is already in use, though) that turned the selection-by-key property on and off; when turn the mode on, you'd be able to select items by key, but you wouldn't be able to get out of the inventory using the G key until you turned selection-by-key off.

Related question -- does the level of a cursing skill count on how likely it is for the target to be affected? (After increasing my Sorcerer's blessing/curse ability, it feels like I've been able to Charm more monsters than before, but I don't have any hard data on that.)

Nope, I am talking about the shortcuts for the dirextX version, as I say in the post.

You're saying that opening the DirectX version from a shortcut doesn't work, but opening it directly does work? Hmm. I'd think that'd mean there was something wrong with the shortcuts themselves...

I was a bit worried about this as well; after starting Dedrik's quest, I let it sit for a while and went off to do other tasks. When I eventually talked to him again in Avadon, the dialog indicated that the quest was over, that I had failed to complete it. But it was still active, and still allowed me to finish...

Hey, can you check what version of Geneforge 5 you've got? I took a look at the "Updates and Support" page for the Mac version, and found this note:

When playing Geneforge 5 v1.0.3 or earlier on OS X version 10.6 (Snow Leopard) or later, all of the creature graphics will be drawn incorrectly. To solve this problem, upgrade to the newest version (v1.0.4 or later).

Smart blademasters don't suffer as much from mental attacks.

Hmm. I just don't see how to build a successful character whose primary ability is "resistance to mental attack."

Perhaps there should be a warning added, such as "Giving a blademaster points in intelligence will make your game much harder", or some such...

Well, drat. I was sort of hoping that at least the scarabs would work in a more class-independent way. (Why do these characters even have stats? Is there any advantage at all for a smart blademaster?) Thanks for the info!

I do something similar, although for a different reason. On my first start through Avadon 2, I began with a Tinkermage, but I slowly got annoyed because he seemed just _way_ too powerful. Half the fun of a Spiderweb game is trying to puzzle out how to get your characters through dicey combat situations; but it seems like you'd need to start out on Torment from the beginning to make things tough for a Tinkermage. So, I started over again with a Sorcerer, my favorite class from Avadon 1. Now, somewhere in the middle of the story, I've gotten the idea into my head that it might be fun to try an intellectual Blademaster; this character wouldn't necessarily be a true master of the blade, but with a (presumed) intelligence boost to the utility skills and an appropriate set of scarabs, he should be able to dominate the battlefield from the front while his companions snipe away from the rear...

Anyway, I like to create unusual characters and see how they play out.

Clear/thorough in-game tooltips and instruction manual information regarding the controlling attribute for every skill/ability. I understand the occasional vagueness in this area might be a conscious decision on Jeff’s part. But considering the volume of requests on the forums for clarification of which attribute controls a particular ability (including in this topic, e.g. re: Tinkermage skills and INT, which stats – if any – affect summons, etc.), as well as the fact that skill points are limited due to the level cap and ability planning (despite the optional respec feature) is therefore very important, this would seem a pretty big oversight. The addition of a combat mechanics section to the Avadon 2 manual also indicates Jeff is realizing this himself.

Hmm. You know, thinking about it, I don't really like the association of a single stat to each skill/ability. It is certainly a powerful way to simplify tailoring a character towards a particular set of skills, and it's probably too deep into the battle mechanics now to change for later versions of Avadon, but I'd prefer to make stats much more general in nature. (The way that many other RPGs do it.) That is, Strength simply provides a bonus to damage dealt (both for melee and for most ranged attacks, since shuriken/javelins are thrown and bowstrings require a decent pull), Dexterity applies a to-hit bonus for pretty much everything (both weapon and spell), and Intelligence maybe provides a limit on the quantity and/or complexity of spell or spell-like abilities you can train (even the spell-like abilities of Blademasters and Shadowwalkers).

At least Endurance currently has an effect on practically everything, so most training questions right now come down to "Do I emphasize Endurance, or do I emphasize X", where X is the specific stat most used by the given class.

I think it'd be nice, for example, to be able to create a brute-force-oriented Blademaster, a finesse-oriented Blademaster, or battlefield-support-oriented Blademaster, depending on whether you emphasize Strength, Dexterity, or Intelligence...

Edit: Alternatively, just go ahead and limit each class to having an Endurance attribute and a class attribute, so that you don't have the situation of someone trying to create an abnormally strong Shadowwalker and eventually finding out they really can't do much of anything with the character...

What the hell, it is explicitly set to "anyone with the link. no sign-in required".

 

I just double checked. I can view it even when I am signed out.

Hmm. I just tried the link, and Google is asking me to sign in first as well...

Edit: After signing in and then signing out, it no longer asks me to sign in to view the document. Weird.

Stats also provide a lot of room for role-playing customization, not just mechanical. Is my character smart, or strong? Fast and cunning or careful and straightforward? Are they really tough or do they try to avoid taking a beating at all?

Seconded! There's only so much you can do to create your own storyline in any CRPG; you're generally going to have to face the same quests and experience the same events no matter what you do. Your character's stats provide pretty much the only way to modify how your character will interact with the world of Avadon.

Melee in Avadon basically boils down to building a tank or a damager; there's no real room for hybrid builds.

True, if what you are going for is a party optimized for maximum efficiency in battle. Figuring out how to succeed with non-optimal builds is more fun, though, in my opinion.

I think one of the most enjoyable aspects of Avadon is that you can successfully play characters "against type". My favorite run through Avadon 1 was with a sorceress with lots of points in Ward Mastery and a decent amount of endurance. In short, she could take a punch or two before going down. It was fun trying to come up with tactics to make good use of this...

Hmm. I think the mere existence of auto-healing doesn't mean the game is too easy. So long as the game is balanced for it, how healing takes place (or whether it takes place at all) is kind of immaterial. I haven't tried Avadon 2 in "torment" mode yet, but battles in Avadon 1 could get plenty tough. (And there is the "vitality" statistic that does not regenerate until you at least return to a portal.)

It's not like there's a question of realism here. People in the real world don't normally recover quickly from the kind of cut or burn damage depicted in modern RPGs, and death is pretty darn final! If you're going to allow magical healing in a game, I kind of figure the Avadon approach lets you more easily continue the flow of the game's narrative, if you do successfully manage to get past a given fight.

Cool, that worked for me too -- switching off "Enable Steam Community In-Game" from the Properties dialog box got my Steam version running again. Thanks!

The Tinkermage using throwing stars is all the more annoying because the solution would be very simple: give the Tinkermage, who is a ranged-combat specialist anyway, universal access to ALL types of ranged weapons, and maybe throw in a type exclusive to them as well. Their coolness factor would go up approximately 200%.

Meh. For me, the whole point of having distinct class types is to encourage different styles of play. The more you allow the classes to intermix abilities, the less reason to have "classes" at all.

The bad news: yeah, OS X 10.6 or greater is required for this game.

The good news: the 2008 MacBooks can run OS X 10.6 (and 10.7), so even though you can't run the latest version of OS X, you can still upgrade to a version that this game supports.

It's possible that they want to be able to show off their achievements in their Steam profile so all their friends can see.

Ah well, I guess that's true.

No need to use Steam to acquire achievements! There's an entry in the main menu called "Medals" you can choose to see all your accomplishments, so you'll still get all the achievement categories whether you buy from Steam or not.

if you can prove you've brought the game once, they'll give you a registration code so you can continue with the copy you downloaded from SW's site.

Actually, I just went ahead and purchased the game from the SW site. I don't mind paying a little extra for Spiderweb software, as I usually enjoy their games more than the ones that cost $50 or $60...

You might try verifying the game cache.

 

From the Library, right-click on the game and select Properties from the menu.

Select the Local files tab and click the Verify integrity of game cache button.

Thanks! Let me try it...

Unfortunately, it reports that the local files are fine.

Let me try just uninstalling it and reinstalling the whole game...

Nope, that didn't fix it either. Not sure what's going on here.

-Romance in SW games? I'm worried. If only heterosexual options are available, I will be angry and ticked off (I trust that the romance can be turned down and ignored, but if that turns out not to be the case, there will be no end to my anger and ticked offed-ness).

Hey, found this note at the end of the Avadon 2 manual:

A Few Words on Companions and Romance

For the first time in a Spiderweb Software game, it is possible to have a romance with

one of the characters you meet. Because of limited developer time, there is only one

romance with one character, and most players will never find the option.

One result of our limited resources is that the only romance option is female if you are

playing a male character and male if you are playing a female character. We’re an

inclusive bunch here at Spiderweb, so, if you would like to switch this around, load your

saved game, press Shift-D (on tablets, select Enter Cheat Code from the file menu), enter

the code

scoutswap

and select ‘OK’.

I like the art in the intro. Well done. Except for the main pic, the one with woman and baby next to the warrior. What are you doing there girl? Don't charge into combat with a baby...unless she is planning on wielding it... New weapon type maybe?

Oh, I *loved* that picture! A very Soviet or Red China style propaganda poster -- "Comrades! Support your Army, as they keep your children safe and your enemies under their heels!"

Hi all,

Hey, I just purchased Avadon 2 via Steam for my Mac. I've discovered a curious problem -- I started the game (as a Tinkermage, which looks like a very cool character class), and worked my way through the introductory region, but at the point where my character was leaving the area, the screen went completely black (except for the minimap in the upper right hand of the screen). The background audio continued as normal.

Not figuring any other way out of the app, I ended up rebooting the machine. Now, whenever I start Avadon, I get no graphics. (The screen is completely black when in full-screen mode, and the contents of the window are completely black in windowed mode.) I can still hear the audio feedback when the mouse moves over a button, and (when I'm lucky enough to move it to the right spot) clicking on the exit button still closes the program, so it seems to be otherwise running correctly.

I just updated to OS X 10.9 (Mavericks) a few days ago, so my guess would be that this is a combination of bleeding-edge OS and bleeding-edge game conspiring against one another other. FWIW, this is a mid-2010 Mac Mini with the GeForce 320M GPU.

Any clues on what I might do to alleviate this situation? Thanks!

Edit: I've just tried downloading the demo from the Spiderweb site, and using that I've managed to get past the point where the glitch occurred. So, I'm guessing this may be a Steam-related problem. (Or, perhaps, something went wrong with the Steam download or install.)