Minion

That was probably A1. I too love the sense of freedom and exploration that is so prevalent in the first game. Naturally, you spend a lot of time boating around in A2 as well, but then you have Empire invasion on your mind. Come to think of it, the "boats" we see on the surface are actually large fishing or trading vessels and would likely be a tad too difficult to handle for a small group of people with no experience of sailing, let alone the open sea.

Video game graphics terminology isn't exactly my forte, but is "top-down" completely flat graphics like the original Exile games or does the term include the mid-era Spiderweb games like Nethergate and the original Avernum?

Everything the scurrilous Skull says should not be taken at face value, I suspect. The Skribbane tip in particular sounds like the kind of unsubstantiated rumour that was common before Google and smartphones gave us the power to instantly determine the veracity of any and all statements. Kind of like someone saying how great Coke goes with Menthos.

I'm only running Hard, but my polearm-fighter frequently tops 100 on normal blows against most enemies. Also, there will be some really great swords a bit later on (in fact, one is very close but probably still out of your reach for a little while longer).

Congratulations and good luck with the sequel! I just got the original Nethergate, my first Spiderweb game, running on a Mac emulator on my PC today. It's amazing how good nostalgia can feel. I'm also playing Avernum 3: Ruined World and it's just as good as I remember the original remake to be (Exile was just before my time).

Doesn't "icon-based" simply refer to using series of still images (sprites?) made from 3D models to create creatures that look and behave as though they were 3D models while they are actually 2D animated images? That is, what all Spiderweb game since Geneforge have done (before that I guess they weren't 3D models, but drawn frame-by-frame). I believe that's how games like Fallout and Baldur's Gate were designed back before your average personal computer could be counted on to support a complex true 3D game.

I suppose it should be noted that at the time of Crystal Souls (and presumably Ruined World), only a small fraction of the Vahnatai nation (or nations?) has awakened from their crystal stasis, which means that they have limited manpower and resources at their disposal. Once sufficient numbers had awakened and they had restored their infrastructure sufficiently, I would presume that the Vahnatai would have been an even greater force to be reckoned with. Note that I too have not played the second trilogy.

I recommend playing Nethergate: Resurrection for further insight on this matter. It really puts the difficulties of managing military logistics in a vast empire into perspective.

Total control usually requires a massive military presence to prevent uprisings, which would occupy the attention of most of the Empire's standing army. Also, I don't find it particularly surprising that Prazac would commit to the enormous undertaking gathering troops from elsewhere to retake Valorim when new monster invasions could happen anywhere at any time.

Why do I keep finding shackles in people's bedroom closets and drawers? Are bounty hunters really that prevalent? There are even pairs of them in the private rooms in the Anima barracks.

It's more like a narrow corridor with a chest in one end than a room, and it lies wall-to-wall with the room where you are attacked by a group of brigands if you enter.

Actually, you can just walk past the chamber with the Alien Slime and reach the other spawners without having to run their respective gauntlets (and you can do the gauntlets in reverse order and get the drop on your foes). The Alien Slime only reacts if you approach it directly, specifically if you move past the first set of columns or piles of skulls (can't remember which came first).

It's not exactly a bug, but whenever I start up Avernum 3 I suddenly find that hours have passed mysteriously, and I am dehydrated, hungry and have a stiff neck. I suspect that the Vahnatai are using the game as a portal to abduct humans for experimentation. Anyway, I don't believe I know of any game from that time that was anywhere near as ambitious in terms of an open world that deteriorated as time went by. Actually, I've never heard of anything like that.

What does it have wrong?

TriRodent: I noticed that in the tutorial when I dazed my two fighters, and they remained so during the subsequent training montage. And thanks for the food tip, it seems my party will go green for the sake of those precious spells and skills. Randomizer: Don't resistances act as a flat chance to resist a certain effect? If they do, even a 50/50 chance to avoid being dazed, charmed or confused seems like a good thing.

I take it that my plan to play the game on Torment with a party of two close-combat fighters with extra points in Dexterity for missile weapons and Intelligence for resistances (and maybe a few points in Priest Spells and/or Mage Spells), a polearm-wielding cleric with a good helping of Strength and finally one standard mage may be a bit foolhardy?

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 probably won't have any spare traits (I'm shooting for a Torment run, or at least Hard), but it would be good to know if it works as intended now just in case.

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?

Since it's several hours yet before I have the chance to actually start up the game, might I ask whether the timer is ticking while you are in towns/dungeons or only when you are travelling across the overworld?

So, anyone know how much Arcane Lore, Tool Use and Nature Lore you need?

Back in Exile/Avernum 1, you could walk across lava at your own peril and reach it, but since lava is now impassable the corpse is unreachable (but hopefully devoid of loot). I recall being a bit frustrated about it too, especially since I could remember looting the body in the old Avernum 1. You can see that it used to have an emerald and a silver ring on this annotated map of the Bat Cave: http://www.harehunter.info/Avernum1/Maps/Newbielande.html

I had a look in avitemschars.txt and noticed that it gives you some idea of enemy levels as each entry has a "base level" number. I was curious to see what the difference between the level number and initiative was for something other than cave rats (or Huge Rats in the file) and goblins. I found the small band of Slith scouts outside of Fort Dranlon, which consists of several Sliths (base level 10) and one Slith Flinger (base level 18). On Normal, The Sliths' initiative was something like 4-5 points higher than their base level, while the Flinger had an initiative bonus of 8-9 in addition to its base level. Unsurprisingly, enemies with missile weapons have higher Dex, presumably, but not quite as high as a dedicated missile weapon PC would have at the same level. If the Sliths are any indication, having a few points of Quick Action in addition to your base Dex should be enough to go before most normal enemies of the same or a reasonably higher level than you, and quite possibly high-dex enemies of the same or a slightly higher level than you. Also, I guess you could compare your hit chances against enemy initiative and base level to see if they have Quick Action or not (maybe Assassins have it?).

It appears that every level does add one point to a creature's total initiative score. Also, I did some further testing on the impact of level on initiative using party members only and realized that party initiative order is influenced by marching order, i.e. in case of a tie, the foremost party member takes precedence. This means that I was wrong about my previous theory that Quick Action adds slightly less than 2 points to initiative, since I never bothered to test it in reverse order (i.e. the first party member increases Quick Action while the second increases Dex). A couple of simple tests seem to confirm this. I also tested Dexterity and Quick Action against the goblins outside Fort Avernum (on Torment, just like Zaego), but without knowing the goblins' level, Dexterity and any skills they might have, it's hard to determine their initiative score and whether enemies take precedence in case of a tie. However, it does confirm that Quick Action gives a flat 2 since the PC's total initiative score gives her the same turn order regardless of whether it comes from Level + Dex or Level + Dex + Quick Action. Level vs Dex/Quick Action Quick Action vs Dex (reverse marching order from previous test) Level 1 hero vs Goblins and Goblin Warrior (Torment)

Unless character/monster level favours high Dexterity, it would seem the same number of skill points invested in Quick Action will have greater impact on your initiative than the same amount of attribute points invested in Dexterity since one attribute point is automatically invested in Dexterity every four levels. So unless one of my characters will be using missile weapons, putting the odd skill point in Quick Action by way of Hardiness whenever they seem to be lagging behind in combat seems to be the optimal choice. At least assuming that I have more skill points than attribute points to spare, but hopefully a Quick Action trainer will appear early on.