Micawber

SW games are atmospheric in the same way a good novel is atmospheric. Playing Geneforge the first time was both terrifying and irresistable.

I think you'll need to run it in a virtual machine. If you have Windows 7 Professional or Ultimate, then you can install under Windows XP mode (I have tested Exile 3 in XP Mode and it works). Otherwise, you can get another vm (e.g. Sun VirtualBox), and install an older windows (if you still have the disks) and run it under that.

I found Clarke's books were variable. I really enjoyed Rendezvous with Rama and A fall of Moondust but found the others weren't that interesting. In all fairness though, it can be difficult to judge books such as City and the Stars or Fountains of Paradise, because some aspects would have appeared more original 50 years ago than they seem today. Last thing I read was Iron Council by China Mieville. It's about a train strike. Which seems topical. Currently reading many books by Jack McDevitt. This guy's books are addictive. Sort of like a series of sci-fi disaster movies.

Quote: I think transgender is a really difficult topic for most non-trans folks to wrap our heads around Trying to imagine all that Thuryl is facing right now, and it's on a spectrum between mind-boggling and impossible, and somehow every point passes through terrifying. Traditional offers of support - cake and/or hugs - are hard to give over the internet from the other side of the world. All I can say is good luck, you get through this.

That, or give your regular user account ownership of the Program Files\Avernum 4 folder (and subfolders).

I wonder how many hours per day people generally put in? I don't see myself as a heavy gamer but when there's a shiny new game out I'd definitely be playing more than a couple of hours per day. Sleep deprivation rules.

Yeah, about the only useful info they could give would likely be maps of all the dungeons (with all the secret passages marked out). But of course they'd think all the towns were farther apart than they actually are.

Originally Posted By: The Almighty Doer of Stuff I've never played Avernum 1. Those details were present in Exile 1. Are you saying they're not in A1? Relatively sure this was a question to the OP. It makes more sense when you read it that way. Geneforgeisformeyukkyu maybe didn't get the Abyss concept so much.

I really hope Jeff is reading this. Would be nice to see some hardcore science in a spiderweb game. A relativistic anvil (able to fit into one's pocket at sufficiently high speeds) is quite an appealing concept. Maybe also some quantum thought experiment involving Solberg's cat.

Yes it seems to be wrong, and the walkthrough doesn't mention the feather token hidden in a barrel in Zhass-Uss (even though Schrodinger refers to it in his post). So it looks like there was a mix-up somewhere.

Originally Posted By: RC2112 At the endgame I was level 32 [snip] Can anyone do better than that? So are you going for lowest level at the end of the game?

I rather liked the bit about how the 100,000 normal deviates were accidentally filed under 'psychology'. Reminds me of how the curiously organized London bookstore, Foyles, had filed a book named "Signal Catastrophe" under railways. That book is about the C19 Afghan war.

There are three 'victory conditions' for Exile 1. And there is no exclusivity: you can continue playing after achieving any one of them, so to get the most satisfying outcome you will want to achieve all three. The three things you want to do are to slay Grah-Hoth, to assassinate Emperor Hawthorne, and to find the exit to the surface world. Personally I wouldn't kill Sulfras merely to obtain a weapon. I'd say finding the last exit is a worthwhile quest. I seem to remember blundering around lost in a maze fighting living statues in the absolute darkness and it was all rather fun.

Currently reading Perdido Street Station. The only downside is the book's size as I need to carry it on the daily train. It is fun though.

Well, that was not at all OTT

I do re-use character names, but unlike the OP don't consider them to be the same characters transplanted from one game to the next. Nor am I consistent about allocating names to the same character class e.g. Borodin might be a priest in one game but an archer in the next one. It's just quicker to not have to come up with a new name at a point when I'd rather get straight into the action...

Originally Posted By: Seaweed Protective circle - A spell so weird that not even I found any use for it. What the hell? Personally I thought that was a really cool spell. It was the only way for priests to cast anti-magic cloud (good for Anama, and when mage spell points were a bit low) and all the other effects came in handy when you were swarmed - which happened A LOT in Exile. I used to cast it all the time in town fights. Edit: regarding anti-magic cloud, I guess I should point out that this was a powerful *defensive* effect. (In Exile with bless party you're basically immune to physical attacks, and the anti-magic stops you being hit by any spell effects either.)

Hooray for E2! This all takes me back to 1990s

You access that tunnel by going round the east side of the mountains, right beside the coast. You can either approach from the south (e.g. from Fort Emergence, go to Golddale, south to Libras then Stormport, then north to near Squiggus, then squeeze round on the narrow ledge between river & mountains, keep going north and it'll be to the west) or from the north (e.g. from Lorelei, go east to Paulsbo, then swing round north tip of the mountain range then just keep following the line of the mountains south and it'll be to the west). Looks like a regular cave. A map may help to understand the directions...

Do you by any chance have very little money? Like, say, between 10 and 14 coins? I notice that the skills you can buy all cost <= 10 coins, and the ones you can't buy cost more than that. Just a thought.

In the mountains north of Gale & Moon, you get the opportunity to pay for membership of the Church of the Divine Lucre. It has no effect on any other encounters however. Edit: the in-game description is 'Holy Valley'. Not too far from Greendale.

Dude, you don't have to do everything you're dared to do. Even using the word once a sentence is annoying dude (let alone every other word). The rolleyes were apposite; you can decide for yourself if you deserve to be called an ass for doing something idiotic (and boasting about it here).

Originally Posted By: Evnissyen Micawber's writing challenge for today: Express that in a sentence. (May include the word dude.) Iffy is an ass, and Matt dude I want your babies.

No, you have to find a specific passage from the dark river to the Azure gallery before that quest is completed. It's guarded by the cult of the monster or whatever the hell they're called. And if you complete it, he kindly turns up at the darkside fortress to help you to fight Dorikas (see also e-mail correspondence op cit).

Often times, I *really* wish the ignore user feature worked on the active topics page...