TheKian

The Okavano Sea Caves are through a trap door on the northern edge of the Western Okavano zone - if you have the area revealed on your map, there will be a map note on top of it. Randomizer seems to be referring to the Trakovite Haven, which is technically also sea caves in Okavano.

The Geneforge save file format (unlike the scenario data) is not publicly known (at least to my knowledge). Editing it would require a hex editor (for example, Hexplorer), but I checked the files in a save game folder and there's not really anything that would be reasonably possible to edit without knowing the exact format of the files.

Nobody seems to have addressed the single most important component of the Trakovite ending. When you change the power settings (to get the ending), you can set it to a strong power flow or a weak power flow. A strong power flow will result in strong Unbound and destroyed machinery, while a weak power flow will result in low quality Unbound. The strong Unbound will (all other things being equal) cause you to be exiled, because they force a stalemate. Weak Unbound will result in the rebellion losing and you'll be executed. Aiding the Shapers when they attack Northforge will always result in your execution (I believe), and giving Alwan the Unbound specifications will result in the Unbound being destroyed regardless of which of the two options you chose and you'll be executed. Also, I just tested with the maximum pro-shaper reputation after a game that was pro-rebel with some amount of fence sitting with the cheat SDF 100 0 200. Being pro-Shaper does not cause you to be executed when you complete the Unbound.

Could you upload some images to Imgur and link them here so we can see exactly what the problem is?

Nobody's complained about my Google Drive download links.

Personally, I'm waiting for a Farmville/Tower Defense combo Geneforge remake.

There is also a cheat to directly change SDFs. In Shift+D, I believe it would be SDF 100 0 <reputation value> I believe the values vary from 0 to 200, with 0 totally pro-rebel and 200 totally pro-Shaper.

You know, you don't HAVE to join a sect to win the game. If you just murder literally everything that moves, you'll get a pretty decent (pro-Shaper) ending. Also, you should totally do Gazak-Uss. In addition to having canisters of all the top-tier creations, you can get the omnicharm. Of course, putting it off until you've finished the rest of the game makes it a little pointless.

Spam the escape button. Opening and closing the menu resets whatever timer is used to make mines explode. You can literally walk past a field of mines (SOMETIMES even spore mines) without one exploding by doing this. On the topic of creations, anyhow... Basically, the stats of your creations are their level divided by 2. You can improve these quite considerably, considering, with creation stat boost items or investing essence into them (except for strength boost items, which don't work). An increase in Shaping skill increases their starting level by one. As a result, absorbing a creation to make a new one is only viable if you increase your Shaping skill right after creating it, so it hasn't leveled up yet. Otherwise, you should only replace creations with better types.

Going slightly more back on topic, as Randomizer said, So you can expect the (first of the) Geneforge remakes to (release? begin creation?) around Summer/Autumn 2019.

For those particular doors, you need to go around the western edge of the map, south, and then to the southeastern corner. Behind the door is only a vat with a thahd. You can use leadership to control the thahd and then kill it for a good amount of XP, though.

It starts in the northwestern area of the Okavano Swamp, to the south of all those obnoxious acid worm spawners. After it runs away, if you don't kill it before it escapes, it ends up in the southwestern corner of the Okavano Barrier (the area which connects to the Trakovite Haven) and you can use leadership to convince it to return to the Shapers instead of fighting a bunch of cows again. Things like solidified flame/ice, purified essence, essence-infused iron etc. are produced by (apparently quite difficult) magical processes, from what I've gleaned of the lore.

In the lore of the game, Shapers sometimes have problems with crafting powerful items because they need the scales (or skin, or whatever) of barred creations in order to make those items. Some of the recipe books even mention them looking for alternatives because it is so difficult to obtain the items. This implies that they cannot, in fact, create those individual pieces of creations.

The members of the Shaper council seem to like having control over other members, especially councilors who would be extremely popular with the people after, say, holding back the rebel advance. I'm just saying that they kinda do have the off button (presumably), if you will, to his life support. Breaking news! General Alwan dies after teenage Shaper unplugs his life support to charge his wand!

Yeah, I mean, we've never seen something like that in a *cough* Geneforge 5 *cough* game... Actually, it was a salve created from wiry moss and/or saltweed using (possibly non-magical) alchemy that works by killing the fungus growing under the skin. Shapers are able to fix severe medical problems by using Shaping, for example sealing the hole in your character's heart caused by the control tool. However, you may recall, doing so results (in the game) in permanently losing a point of endurance. So while it could be possible to, say, create a thahd or servile arm that the body would not reject (while you can perform Shaping on a human, it doesn't seem from the game that it is possible to shape a new (non-servile) human), the process of attaching it to the body could cause severe strain and additional long-term health problems.

The final demo version (Trakovite edition) of the Geneforge Modding Suite has been released. Whenever the full version is completed, it will be on a new thread. You can download Trakovite Edition v1.1c in this post or in the OP.

Geneforge 3 is usually considered to be the worst of the series, though. Geneforge 4, now...

If you're finding that the enemies are getting kinda boring, you'll want to do the end dungeon. You need to find a stone crescent from a crescent thahd somewhere in the western deserty area. The final dungeon is in the very middle of the desert, pretty much. You have a bunch of high-tier enemies constantly spawning (in the first section of the dungeon, you can turn off the spawning equipment, if I recall correctly) and a bunch of cool bosses, including one that drops a belt which gives you +3(!) to your primary stats (int, str, etc.) They also give you consistent XP if you just want to level up a bit. Although I've never had the patience to bother hitting the level cap in Geneforge (max level in the first game is 30), I believe they'll still get you enough experience that you actually can do it. On an aside, while I've never played Avernum, I can tell that you may find the non-linear gameplay of Geneforge 2 to be... a little boring.

A. The 'system' to which I was referring was the bonus AP from items system. B. Speed in Geneforge 5 was calculated to give, I believe, something along the lines of a 30% damage bonus. Geneforge 1-4 speed basically doubled your damage, and also let you move farther, which was important for combat stealth. C. Mass energize, which is a relatively lower level blessing magic spell, gives speed to everyone in the party in addition to war blessing and regeneration, which is less essence-intensive than getting all those buffs in Geneforge 5. It's not a late-game spell, either, and you'll almost definitely have it for chapters 3-5 (in Geneforge 4).

In all Geneforge games except for Geneforge 5, speed gives you 50% more action points. In Geneforge 5, the only way to get extra AP is by having an artifact to increase your AP. Unfortunately, however, the system in Geneforge 5 is complete garbage, and you only have a chance to actually get your bonus AP from items each turn.

If you have (I think) 12 leadership, you can join the Obeyers, use that one servile to reset your reputation to pro-servile, join the Takers (using leadership to avoid killing Ellhrah) and then leave them and join the Awakened. If, you know, you want to powergame everything.

Joining a faction is fairly helpful. If you want to join up with the Sholai, go with the Takers. Meanwhile, the Obeyers and Awakened each can give you ability bonuses. Joining the Obeyers will get you a bonus to fire Shaping, while joining the Awakened will get you some like, totally sick, dude combat skill bonuses. Mind, joining a faction is not necessary, and killing literally everything* on the island is also an option. *that can be actually attacked

In regards to creation building, I'm going to have to go with Slarty on this. While, yes, there are plenty of builds that can FINISH torment, it isn't unreasonable to take creation analysis into account when trying to make a torment build warrior (widely regarded as a suboptimal class). The number one reason that you should go with battle/magic instead of fire/battle is that fire Shaping is a more expensive skill. While all the fire creations are fine (except for roamers), you can get the enemy damage resistance penetration with either fire OR battle Shaping, and having both is unnecessary. Since battle creations are cheaper than fire creations and wingbolts are seriously OP, it's most logical to go with battle and magic creations and put the extra skill points you'll get into something else. TL;DR while you CAN make most any build work (just look at some of the ridiculous challenges we have around the forums), going battle/magic instead of fire/battle will generally help everything.

http://spiderwebforums.ipbhost.com/topic/17985-creation-str-boosting-items-in-gf3/ http://spiderwebforums.ipbhost.com/topic/9791-best-weapon-for-a-shaper-focusing-on-creations/ http://spiderwebforums.ipbhost.com/topic/9639-a-problem-with-creature-str-and-hit/ And by word of Jeff himself,

Geneforge 2 is set in the Drypeak Mountains, an area of Terrestia believed to be located between the Turabi Gate in the southwest of the Geneforge 4 map and Gazakii-Uss in the southeastern area of Geneforge 5. The area is most likely fairly close to Gazakii-Uss in Geneforge 5, due to the existence of the original Gazak-Uss in Taker lands there.