Kyna

What screen resolution were you using to play the game? (ie When the game prompted you to reset the screen resolution, which option did you select?)

I preferred the Awakened until I found their major flaw. The major flaw I found with the Awakened was when they wanted me to do their dirty work. They claim they wanted to avoid violence - but what they meant was they wanted no blood on their hands, and it didn't matter to them if my character sold out her own people and got her hands dirty. I prefer the Trajkov ending. I wanted the serviles to be free and treated with respect, and Trajkov delivered on that.

I don't know that it has been slow. I wasn't here for a few days and when I came back I selected 'show last 10 days'. There were 4 pages of posts, so it's been reasonably busy. EDIT: Although, on second thoughts, I think at least one of those 4 pages may have been the 30 or so topics that all received posts from one person on the same day. So maybe the board is slowing as the rush from the windows release dies down.

Here's some of my comments on the suggestions made by mystiprisme 2. IIRC the game made it clear that you would be unable to open the door. Sounds like you got frustrated when you continued to try to open the door after that. That's not a flaw in the game, in my opinion. BTW, in case you haven't worked it out yet, the door is intended to be a 'teaser' for GF3, unanswered questions and all. I don't see which 'key character' could deliver the speech you mention - different games end up with different key characters being dead. 5. Me too! Greater use of keyboard would be great (it would be nice if the game recognised the enter key as being the same as clicking on a 'tick' mark). 6. I think that's a flaw that's inherent in combining real-time movement and turn-based combat system. This combination is one of the plusses of the GF engine for me, even if it does have unintended side-effects. 7. You can record character speeches - I did that for all the EQ quests, and deleted their speeches from my journal as I completed those quests. Those quests are different to normal quests - you are not doing a favour for them, they are doing a favour for your character. 8. Items are storable - wherever anybody wants to store them. That means you can have up to around 150-200 (I think) different items in every single zone (including items already there that you didn't loot). Even if you only store of fraction of the limit per zone, if you multiply that by the number of zones - then you've got a LOT of storage. I don't see why you'd want to limit that very extensive storage ability to a 'storage room' or 'storage closet' just for the sake of neatness. Kyna

It could be a corrupted download. Try downloading it again to see if it makes a difference. If that doesn't work, please provide more information (such as what OS you are running, whether anything is running in the background, does this happen with other software you try to run)

You can find a sling in the hut in the south-eastern corner of Sweetgrove. You have to fight a few rats to get it.

Timber Wolf, not sure if this helps but ... I put the editor folder in the data folder and then moved the editor program itself into the data folder (ie the exe file was moved out of the editor folder to the data folder). Can't really think of how to word this for more clarity.

I interpreted 'typical clan attitude' as meaning the opinions I stated in my post are similar to those of other posters in this thread. Maybe Vent sees us (posters on these boards) as a 'clan' or tribal grouping. (Completely off-topic side note: In my anthropology tute this week we briefly discussed cybercultures, so I can see where Vent is coming from on this clan thing) I think the 'uninteresting clan reactions' is referring to the fact that many of us have said VoDT is only so-so in the way it handles it's moral - many of the 'clan' reacted this way, and this reaction is apparently uninteresting to Vent. Vent may find our reaction uninteresting, but if he's planning on putting any moral themes into his scenarios, he'll have to take into consideration the 'uninteresting reactions' of the Spiderweb community. I'd say Vent's post means that Vent sees me in the same 'clan' or 'tribe' as Thuryl, Kelandon and The Creator. So ... I've been given a compliment

Vent, I also spoke of opinion. Perhaps I made a mistake in using the word 'fact'. It didn't mean you could ignore the rest of my post, which was clearly addressed to you. Let me restate without using the word fact: Opinion 1: GF treated the moral of pollution much better in my opinion. This means that Jeff has demonstrated that he is capable of much better than VoDT. Opinion 2: It shouldn't take several pages in a thread with one person explaining how VoDT was done well and that the explanations are in the game. Most of us are reasonably intelligent and should be able to see and recall those explanations for ourselves if the story had been handled well. Since we don't (at least not without pages and pages of posts from you) either (a) we're stupid (which we're not); or ( VoDT is flawed. Opinion 3: Quite frankly, I still don't see some of the justifications you talk about, and I think you are sometimes grasping at straws and that you are stubbornly refusing to admit that other people have a valid point of view about VoDT. Opinion 4: Why did GF do pollution much better in my opinion? On the issue of pollution GF was detailed, it had depth, it was clear, VoDT was none of these things. GF had no obscurity about the issue which VoDT had. Go play Geneforge and see for yourself how Jeff can do a decent treatment of pollution (and several other complex moral issues in the same game). Opinion 5: I don't think I've seen you seriously rebut the point that explanations should have been in the game. I've seen you say you don't want anyone to point it out again which is not the same as stating why you disagree with it. While there are some situations where ambiguity works well (as Geneforge also shows in exploring other issues) this is not one of those situations. I restate my opinion - explanations should have been in game, and should have been clear enough to be understood by the average player. Please explain to me why you appear to disagree with this point. Note that in none of these do I resort to minute examples of 'this character did ... that character said'. That sort of detailed discussion has sidetracked this thread from the main issues it was discussing, and I'd like to take this discussion back to more general level. ---===---===---===---===---===---===---===---===--- Ponders some ... it just occurred to me (after writing all the above). On an entirely unrelated note ... maybe some of the disputes in this thread are really about language ... when you play the game I assume you translate in your head to your native tongue. Or maybe you make notes with the translations. You seem to see stuff in VoDT that some of us who are native English speakers miss - perhaps the process of translation sticks this stuff in your mind. Maybe for those of us who don't translate, it doesn't stick in our minds when we're playing because it doesn't appear significant at the time. If that's the case then this lack of significance in English is a flaw in VoDT. I'm all for subtle clues, but not clues that are so subtle that intelligent people (such as Thuryl and Kelandon) would miss them.

Vent, you can come up with all the theories you want. It won't change the fact that the moral in VoDT is badly done (which was the initial point at the start of this thread). If VoDT was done better you wouldn't have to come up with those theories. It's badly done because it's treated shallowly. Jeff did a much better treatment of the subject in Geneforge in my opinion, the zone with Corata in particular. There we understand that steps were taken to try to store the waste as effectively as possible before the island was abandoned, explanations are given about where the waste comes from, why it was dealt with in the way it was, and why nobody has subsequently dealt with it. We see it's effect in the surrounding zones, which were inexplicably barren (no longer inexplicable when we came across the source of the problem). We don't even get to deal with the problem - it's too complex for our apprentice character to do so. Geneforge relates much better to the real world experience of hazardous waste (whether chemical or radioactive) than the unrealistic and shallow treatment in VoDT. I've seen you make lengthy posts explaining away every point that has been raised about VoDT in this thread. I've seen your point of view (repeatedly and at great length). The point several people in this thread have tried to make (and that you don't seem to understand) is that explanations should have been in the game. The fact that explanations weren't made in the game means that what could have been a great moral scenario failed to deliver it's moral effectively. I played Geneforge before I played BOE and I found VoDT was a big disappointment after the far better treatment the subject of pollution was given in GF. Put simply, VoDT lacked the depth and the detail to deal with the subject effectively. EDIT: several typos. I hope this edit caught them all.

I liked GF better than GF2 (which is not to say that I didn't like GF2). It was the first Spiderweb game I'd played, and I felt like I was exploring a new world. GF2 used the same graphics and engine and didn't have that 'new world' feel. It's the only Spiderweb game I played where I didn't know about hints, walkthroughs or this forum. So I wasn't tempted to ask for a hint or follow a walkthrough (a temptation I find too hard to resist, unfortunately). I liked GF's story better than GF2. Questions arising from the story were discussed on this board at length - was Trajkov good or evil, the nature & origin of serviles and did they have the right to seek freedom, and so forth. I enjoyed those discussions. Discussions about GF2 focus on powergamer questions (eg which creation is best, which sect gives best rewards), and the story itself hasn't generated a lot of discussion, which I think indicates that the story is much weaker (or maybe it just gets lost against the size of the GF2 world).

There's a random chance he will load when you enter the area (defined in the script for the zone). As blueman said above, if he's not there you need to leave and then re-enter the area. Keep doing this and eventually he'll turn up.

You mean I'm supposed to get over the 'make it go boom' phase?

It might be interesting to watch him 'grow' as a minor character over the course of a few scenarios from reporter in the boondocks to star reporter to columnist to newspaper owner, eventually ending up controlling all the press in the Empire. As he moves up in the world his quests become more difficult and more rewarding, and in the final one he's central to the plot in some way (perhaps he's Bob, or perhaps all that power goes to his head and he's the big baddie).

HTML is good in certain situations. However, when it comes to printing, PDF beats HTML every time for me. This cookbook is something I'm going to want to print so I can refer to it easily when offline.

I disagree that "dialogue" is an archaic spelling. Dialogue (not dialog) is the spelling used in Encarta 2003. Last year is hardly archaic. I just checked with my son (who's doing IT at University, and knows more about computers than I do) - he uses "dialog" when talking about dialog boxes, but when talking about a conversation between two people he uses "dialogue". He believes the different spellings are because it's being used in a different context as if it was a new word. Back to the topic, I like the idea of the cookbook. While I don't plan on releasing any scenarios, I do intend to play around a bit with the editor. For a scripting newbie like me any help I can get is much appreciated. The last time I did any programming was in BASIC on a CP/M machine in the late 80s.

Geneforge was the first Spiderweb game I saw, and it's plot is the reason I purchased it. I wanted to see how the story progressed. If I hadn't liked Geneforge's story I wouldn't have bothered to purchase it or any of Spiderweb's other games (and I have all of them except BOA - waiting for the Windows release). If I just wanted hack'n'slash I could go down to the local recycled computer game store - they have plenty of second-hand hack'n'slash games available there at cheap prices. For me, the fun of RPGs is in the story. It's not a case of story first, fun second - it's that if the story sucks then I probably won't find it a whole lot of fun. This is why my favourite Exile/Avernum game is E2/A2, and why I liked GF better than GF2. There is a crucial difference between Blades and Spiderweb's other games. I've only played a few BOE scenarios, but I can see that after you've played a dozen or so scenarios on the same engine, combat would quickly become repetitive and boring, and you're looking for something that distinguishes each scenario from the other ones you've played. This is the reason why story-telling is crucial in Blades scenarios, far more so than in Spiderweb's other games.

It doesn't look crescent shaped - it looks just like every other rock in the game.

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.

You don't add/remove plus, which is why it wasn't there. The second tab across the top in add/remove programs is 'windows setup'. Since plus integrates into windows, you need to use windows setup to uninstall the desktop themes. A reformat is much more serious than a defragment. It's the option of last resort after everything else has been tried, as it deletes everything on your hard drive and you have to reinstall everything. It sounds like you've seriously messed up your windows setup, and reformat is probably the only option left to you. Back up any important documents or saved games on floppy/CD disc before you try it. EDIT: I very strongly suggest that you don't use the format command yourself. Get your parents to do it - format is not a command to be used unless you are sure you know how to install windows on a blank HD.

If you have a firewall, but don't know how to scan your system ... then I assume that someone else installed the firewall. Can you try asking the person who installed the firewall to help? Computer problems are much easier when you can see the problem in person (as opposed to attempting to diagnose/fix a problem on a message board). Yes, I know I say 'get someone in RL to help' every time you post a tech problem here. You've never explained why you can't do that.

SPOILER WARNING SPACE ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; The Lair of Drakos is where you'll find Pachtar's plate mail. It has nothing to do with golems. I hope you got a certain special item from the mage in Kneece before Olga died. If you didn't get it, you'll be unable to finish the roach quest. EDIT: Added spoiler warning.

From the A3 tech support page: Quote: If your game becomes unregistered, contact us for a new key by calling 206.789.4438 or emailing spidweb@spiderwebsoftware.com. There is no charge for this but please include the name you registered under, which game you need a new key for and your current registration code (located in the lower right hand corner of the title screen) EDIT: tags

Zephyr, I've said this at least twice before to you (but you haven't responded). Do you know anyone in RL who is handy with computers that can help you? (eg A family member or friend)

Could you be more specific on the nature of your problem? It's hard to help on a statement that vague. I'm not sure how browser difficulties are related to Spiderweb. Do you know anyone in RL who acts as your 'tech guru' (a relative or friend who is good with computer problems) who could help you fix it? I use IE and clicking on links works for me, unless I run out of memory - rebooting fixes that, or if I have too many IE windows open, which rarely happens as I close extra windows once I'm done with them.