Icshi

I agree wholeheartedly with Chief Spider. I looted then cooked just about everyone on the island after I saved them from the cockroach plague. They were a condescending, rich cult opposing the wonders of magic. They were just asking to be robbed and killed! However, before you jump to any conclusions, I should hasten to add that eliminating the plague wasn't a humanitarian endeavour on my part, I was just curious to see this Filth Factory and blow the hootin' daylights outta that as well. I am however a conscientioius philanthropist, as I staunchly opposed the skribbane scourge and destroyed the drug trade in Gale after saving them from the golems. It became necessary to destroy the people of Gale in order to save them from themselves...

Quote: Originally written by Walter: No, I mean in Geneforge 1 a shaper walking into a serviles house is like the Queen of England walking into the house of some farmer in a small town. In Geneforge 3, a shaper walking into the house of someone in dhonal's island is like a member of parliament walking into the house of some businessman in london. Very good analogy there. I enjoyed seeing a more civilized area in Geneforge 3, getting to see what a well-established Shaper colony looks like. The ruins of Geneforge 1 were a nice tantilizing glimpse, the wilds of Geneforge 2 were rather chaotic, so it was nice to explore a "regular" settlement.

You need to go to Keep West Gate, the area just west of Dhonal's Keep. On the northern edge of this zone are some docks. There should be two ships moored there. One takes you back to Greenwood Isle, the other will take you to the mainland. The ship taking you to the mainland wasn't there before, while the Greenwood Isle ship was. I can't remember offhand whether it's the left or right ship that takes you to the mainland, so when you aproach one of the ships some text should come up telling you where the boat leads. I was a bit confused by all this too. Too many docks, too many ships...

Quote: Originally written by Spring: Presumably. Hopefully. Keep your fingers crossed. It would be nice, though, if he were to drop an all-new game in our laps after Avernum 4. But that's not likely. That man's got a toddler to take care of—it's a miracle he has enough energy and mental coherence to do something as compex as eating his breakfast in the morning. He hasn't the time or stamina to be too original. He has my deepest sympathy.

Yes, Geneforge 3 was a bit disappointing in that regard. It lacked expansion imagination, and was filled with monotony. But word on the grapevine is that Geneforge 4 will blow your mind away with its revolutionary evolution. Or something.

The choice between only two sects, and being forced to join one or another, has its advantages and its drawbacks. Multiple sects and indecision helped enrich the plot of the first two games, while not having the luxury of sitting on the fence in the third game makes it more intense. I think overall the second game works best in terms of conflict between groups and how you influence things.

This coincidence can be explained away by the simple fact that Andrew Hunter did the character artwork for both games. I guess he likes snouts and robes. I'm a big fan of Ferazel's Wand, by the way. Great game. The artwork and music make it so much better than just another run-around-shooting-monsters game. (Incidentally, the background art for Ferazel's Wand was not done by Andrew, but by somebody else whose name I can't think of at the moment.)

First time through I did as a solo agent, played rebel until I got to Dhonal then switched to Loyalist. I started playing it through a second time, this time as a shaper with both companions along for the ride, and remaining a rebel all the way through. However, I soon got EV Nova to work properly and Geneforge 3 went flying out the window. 3 isn't as fun as the first or second ones because it consisted more of sloughing through infested areas killing, killing, killing rogues. Which is fun for a few hours, but then it gets a bit monotonous. The first two had enough twists and turns in the plot to make things more interesting and worth repeating.

These are aspects of the game that I've always found amusing, and it's great to see this list! I guess this is where the whole "suspension of disbelief" comes into effect. Or, as it's known in more mundane circles, "the imagination." Just pretend such things aren't so. Games are a limited medium, and if every effort was made to make them ultrarealistic they'd be so dull and tedious that they wouldn't be worth playing. The player fills in the gaps and glosses over errors in logic caused by limitations of the medium. EDIT: Incidentally, it's this that makes mediocre games like Galactic Core worth playing: a heavy dose of imagination, and the ability to enjoy the quirks rather than just be annoyed by them.

Quote: Originally written by Exploding Head: I'm a little bit worried about what will become of all the older Spiderweb games when Apple ties the knot with Intel and starts burning bridges. —Alorael, who likes to dream big. Why settle for Carbon when you could have Intel native? When I read about this in Macworld I just couldn't believe it. Insane. As if having to run Classic (which doesn't run all OS 9 programs) wasn't bad enough—now X applications will run in a new emulator and 9 stuff won't work at all. Further proof that the entire computing industry has gone stark raving mad. I'm just sorry to see Apple becoming such an enthusiastic particpant in the tea party.

Like with Greta van Susteren, a facelift would merely makes things worse. Er... um... even if Greta were as attractive as Nethergate to start with... I kind of shot myself in the foot with that analogy—and my foot was in my mouth when I shot it—but never mind. You know what I mean. I hope.

Geneforge 2 is the most fun to play, while the original Geneforge had the best plot. Geneforge 3 was... well... a little peculiar. Motsly it seemed like running around killing rogues. Full-scale war rather than a story per se. It was more repeitious than the first two games—I guess that's my main impression of Geneforge 3. It would've helped some if there had been more than two sects, though I admired how Jeff forced you to pick a side rather than sit on the fence all the way through, bleeding each sect dry as much as you could without committing. But Geneforge 2 was easily the most fun. Hordes of lunatics scheming against each other, barricaded in their separate cities, border skirmishes, canisters lying all over the place just begging to be used, and lots of new terryfing creatures and powerful new spells.

Quote: Originally written by Schrodinger: Essence shield and armor both increase your dodging ability, but do not reduce the amount of damage taken. This is a nice bit of information. Now that I know what it does, I'll have to use it accordingly. Using it on Alwan also sounds like a good strategy, as I notice he gets hit an awful lot.

That's one of my favorite things about Spiderweb games: the low system requirements. Er, even though I now have a really good computer with lots of RAM and fast processor, I prefer the games I play to be "easy" on the machine. Probably the most demanding game I have is Stronghold, which even on my new iMac G5 is kinda sluggish. And the ridiculous things is that it came out over two years ago for Mac! It's an "old" game already! That really annoys me. I never have that problem with any Spiderweb games. Very nice, and much appreciated. Yes, it took me a while to get used to the movement system when the first Geneforge came out. I still miss using the arrow keys to move my characters around, though. You can't just hold down one of them to navigate a long, emtpy stretch, you have to find an area you know you can get to, click on it, wait for the characters to get there, find another spot, click, etc. This is especially true when exploring a new area. It's a bit cumbersome, but you get used to it.

I don't use Essence Armor or Essence Shield very much becaues I've found them to be completely useless, and it just sucks away essence needed for bigger and better spells. Steel Skin I've found to be very handy, usually coupled with Augmentation and just regular Shield. Oh, and trying to avoid being damaged as much as possible. That always seems to help!

Double ouch. Megabummer. If the game won't let you continue, I don't know what else you can do. I'm glad I did my flip-flop earlier in the game. I gave Lankan his canister, then later on regretted it. After destroying the Creator on Dhonal's Isle I went back and tried to kill him, but I wasn't strong enough. He shot fireballs out of his eyes, for crying out loud, and gave me a bunch of vicious gunpunches! So I ran away, and finished Gull Isle. Tried again. Failed. Ran away. Fisnished Isle of Spears. Came back. Killed him. Problem solved.

Ouch. I wouldn't care much to go up against the Creator after he's been repaired. Still, since you've gained a lot of levels since repairing him, you might be strong enough to destroy him. Dunno, it's worth a try I guess. Interesting!

I'll have to do a proper one-PC party some day. I've tried it with Nethergate and Avernum 3, but each time I ended up giving them steroids by clicking on the up arrows in the character editor. And it always starts out so innocently. I figure "Well, I keep getting wasted here at the beginning, and I'm too lazy to try to change my strategy, so I'll just add a couple of little stat modifications to make things just that wee bit easier." Before I know it, I've turned my level 1 generic character into an omnipotent wizard/priest/barbarian sword-slinger. I bet this is exactly how Barzahl started out. "Oh, I'll just tinker with this here drayk to make his teeth a little sharper..."

Although I like many of the Geneforge elements, I'd prefer Avernum 4 to remain as Avernumy as possible. I like both engines for different reasons, and each has its advantages and disadvantages. Oranges and apples. But there are a few things that would cross over well—how weight is handled, item crafting, and character types, for instance. Reputation in the Avernum games works similarly to leadership in Geneforge (even though it's not a trainable skill) inasmuch as you have to have a certain level of it in order for people to react to you differently and let you do things.

I once started a game as a solo Celt lady, but had pumped up her stats to the max using the character editor. But after a while I couldn't resist adding more female characters, as well as picking up that Brigit woman in Vanarium. And, of course, just to keep things exciting, I pumped all of their stats too. Great kinky fun. I called them "Charlie's Angels."

When playing as a lone Agent, Strong Daze is the most useful, and it doesn't cost much energy. I can use it as often as I want without worrying about how much energy it's using up. But when traveling with a large group—a Shaper with multiple creations and a few tag-alongs—then group-blessing or -healing spells are the most efficient.

Quote: Originally written by Kingy: do you think it would be worth it for me to purchase it? Absolutely. Forget the anniversary, dump your girlfriend, and buy Nethergate instead. It's that good. Okay, well, maybe I'm overreacting a bit. Keep the girlfreind. Celebrate the anniversary with a nice gift. But then tell her that's it for the year, scrimp and save, and then buy Nethergate. Mug little old ladies if you have to. Just not my grandmother, please. EDIT: A helpful hint here. Rob them on their way TO the grocery store, not as they're coming BACK. The reason for this should be pretty obvious, but it's a point often overlooked.

Well, the rebels certainly don't have it. Yes, they start out all very well—"We're going to help the poor down-trodden serviles"—and then they go on to say things like "The Shapers will perish indiscriminately by the millions and all the world will burn, BURN, BURN in the fires of the almighty Drakons and all other forms of life will be enslaved or swept away!!!" I think they lost the moral highground when they crossed over from Mother Theresa to Khmer Rouge.

Nethergate was the first Spiderweb game I ever came across. I downloaded the demo from some demo-download website or other in May 2001, and practically spent all my time playing it for several days. When I came upon the Shareware Barrier, I unhesitatingly registered it, as I just had to play the rest of it. It's easily Jeff Vogel's masterpiece, and indeed is probably the best game I've ever played. In fact I like it so much, I'm tempted to send Jeff extra money every now and then just out of appreciation. Instead, though, I just buy every game of his that comes out, which are all quite good but only Avernum 1 and Geneforge 1 have come close to matching its quality. PS — I'm a bit puzzled by the "quite short" comment. I spent just about the same amount of time playing through Nethergate all the way as I did with massive games like Avernum 3. You really have to play it through twice, once as Celts and once as Romans, to play the whole game.

Yes, my day count in Geneforge 3 was bumped up like nobody's business because I had several drop spots on the various islands, and could never remember where I put that Shaped Blade or Demon's Bile, so I spent a lot of time wandering around — "Is this the right town? No, but there's some nice stuff here I had piled up that I can sell... Oh look, here's a Wand of the Inferno! I didn't even know I'd come across one of those. And lookee here, another magic spike thing! I love these! Why on earth did I leave this *here* of all places?" —Repeat for 15 days...