Micawber

I actually would recommend not skipping Avernum 4. While the plot isn't going to win any contests for originality, at least it's not fundamentally depressing like Avernum 6. You get to catch up with some old friends from the first trilogy, and save the world all over again. Destroying the shades (eventually) was very satisfying. Despite the lack of boats, you do actually get to see most of the Avernum map. And, now that Harehunter posted the annotated maps, when you get hopelessly lost in the honeycomb, you can even find your way out! In gameplay terms, A4 offers tactical challenges unique within the two Avernum trilogies (it was largely copied from G1-3, however subsequently many elements were changed in A5 especially the AP system). The trials were a good example, making you to try varied combat style instead of relying on the same attack. Arrows were actually good in this game. Even the 227 riposting chitraches didn't -- much -- diminish my enjoyment of this game. The main downside is the linearity, which serves mainly to avoid you getting killed by attempting difficult quests before you're ready.

Avernum 6 is a really long game, so I don't think it's what Valdain is looking for. I recommend Nethergate.

There's a crystal shop in Squiggus.

A difficulty with the UBB polls is there is no way for us to see the responses to the two questions for the same sets of participants. We assume the 5 people who played Avadon on torment are the same 5 who played all other SW games on torment, but we can't actually conclude that. For free you can have the information that I voted normal on both.

Instead of actually changing the game, Jeff should support localization, thereby just allowing us to customize the names of the difficulty levels. That way we can all tailor to suit our particular tastes. So for me I would choose Casual = Breeze through Normal = Normal Hard = Grinding Torment = Suicidally difficult But I guess an expert player like Randomizer's choices might hypothetically be more like Casual = God mode Normal = Bit of fun Hard = Light relief Torment = Non-trivial

Sizing is easy, surely all creations are 62x68 pixels Those scenarios, kind of work. Although for guards, might drayks be too unreliable. War tralls make good guards. But for a shaper on the run, trying to conserve essence, maybe he would use a pack of roamers? They're a bit like dogs, so I guess that would go down well with the children.

Originally Posted By: Harehunter In computer networking terms a bridge is a way to get from one LAN mass to another. Seriously though, there has to be be a law against jokes like this.

I still don't understand how firefox went from version 4 to version 7 in such a short time. It's like they're trying to catch up numerically with IE or something.

The room at Avadon where you meet Fabron. The automap note is "upper library", it's upstairs, and it's got bookshelves in it, so it's going to be pretty hard for you to dispute that it's an upstairs library.

Originally Posted By: ignoti & quasi occulti (If you're curious, you can look at the large version of the second to find out what books I have. ) I can read precisely three: Computational Complexity, Linear Algebra, and Coders at Work. Some of the other titles are in German, which limits my ability to parse them. Link to my book collection (includes semi-recent photo of me).

Originally Posted By: Trenton the dragon lord God harehunter Now that's a promotion.

Despite my earlier sarcasm, I actually do agree with that. Although the first two sequels rank somewhat lower in originality, Geneforge still has the best setting, and in terms of gameplay, it's the most varied and challenging, and replayable.

Yup, he was dazed, and that explains why he woke up immediately upon being attacked at the beginning of Geneforge 5.

It's nearly impossible to narrow it down to a short list, but I managed to limit myself to 10. In chronological order: Bringing up baby (1938) The ladykillers (1955) Some like it hot (1959) A man for all seasons (1966) The Empire strikes back (1980) Groundhog day (1993) The wrong trousers (1993) A time to kill (1996) A midsummer night's dream (1999) Intermission (2003)

Originally Posted By: Superba the player was already fooled once with a party of psycho outsiders and the same trick wouldn't work twice. Ahem. Geneforge 1: Shaper apprentice encounters serviles with varying political views Geneforge 2: Shaper apprentice encounters serviles with varying political views Geneforge 3: Shaper apprentice encounters serviles with varying political views

Economic Left/Right: -0.62 Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: -3.64 I seem to be in the majority quadrant, but more on the fence economically. It seems the more I learn about and observe the practice of economics, the more I realise there are no simple answers, so I fairly well disagreed with all the statements on the test. Oh well. Edit: Even so, based on the chart on the results page, -0.62 puts me to the left of mainstream politicians. Which makes sense given my voting record.

If a laserbeam is blocking your path then it means you have pressed the buttons in the wrong order. You need to reload an earlier save from before you went down to that room. This time head straight to that curtained off button, which will be accessible, and press that button first.

I guess we have different play styles. My Shaper's armour is sorta irrelevant when nothing lives long enough to harm him.

Yes it's straight forward. Try not to kill the crystal soul.

Congratulations! Actually you can get into Gale before you complete the golem quest as well as after, but not through the front gate. Look for another entrance.

In Avernum, item lore is a derived stat. It is increased by intelligence, arcane lore and mage spells skill.

It's not capped, getting the effective skill to 9 or even 10 gives a good bonus.

You need to go back to that control panel you found before, and play with the controls (change the setting on the Star conveyer). Somewhere to the north of the level is a staircase up to the top. Bring lots of energy potion. Edit: Sorry if this is vague, but it's a long time since I've been in that Tower. And I'm not going back in without a colossal bribe.

Opinions vary but here is my 2 cents. Yes, it is really annoying having to move every time you want to use battle magic. I have never found running out of thorns to be a problem, but then I usually only use batons as a back up option. Having said that, the ultimate weapon is the corrupting baton, although of course it's not a thorn baton. If you're going to use creations, don't just get 1 or 2, as you've found they die really quickly. Pump essence like billy-o and get an entire horde (5+ creations, the more the better, and make sure you always have at least 2 distinct attack types). That way, you can mob your enemies, they'll be dead before they've had time to take out your pets.

I seem to remember Trenton is playing as Anama. Also of course he is unable to complete the troglodyte quest (see earlier in this thread) so he couldn't complete the quest to get DB either. @Trenton: Don't bother with dispelling the rest of the machinery. Just go to the top level of the tower and kill the mind crystal.