TheKian

Sorry, nobody plays Geneforge 4 anymore. I kid. I'd like to know whether you changed the... shall we say... explosive temper of the tier 2 roamer. Also, correct me if I am wrong, but is it not impossible to alter the amount of essence a creation costs? It's possible that it will end up being a somewhat overpowered creation for its essence cost. On a side note, you may want to make sure that you didn't mess up NPC pyroamers with this. I'm just saying, trying to protect the caravan at the end of chapter 1 from a horde of guardian roamers will be slightly difficult.

As I said, prior to Geneforge 4, the rebels directly performed reShaping. In the case of Geneforge 2 (slight spoilers), there are Shaping platforms where the head researcher for a sect directly reShapes you to become extremely powerful (lets you learn the most powerful spells etc.). In Geneforge 2 and 3, there are Geneforges, but they can only be used by Drakons (with hilarious results when you try to use them). Also, just about Barzahl... I mean, I think the game mentioned that the Guardian statues in front of the Radiant College are supposed to be of Barzahl. Obviously he's just playing Shaper. Most people aren't entirely deceitful in G2.

Geneforge 3: Enter the crazy psychopath. Sometime around the events of Geneforge 2, a particularly psychopathic and insane apprentice wiped out huge groups of innocent serviles. And there was also Litalia, but you were way worse. Litalia was a Shaper apprentice sent to destroy rogue serviles. The laxity of the Shapers in the settlement had allowed the serviles to grow rebellious, and Litalia went to burn them to ashes and shaped a bunch of new serviles to replace them. Being a pathological liar, she later claimed she was an important figure in the events of the Drypeaks. She wasn't. Having done her first annihilation of rogues (the first one is always the hardest), she went mad from regret, attacked her Shaper handler, and ran off. Eventually, she met Ghaldring, the final creation of Easss, who swayed her to his side to join his rebellion. From there on, this already psychopathic Shaper apprentice became a canister addict and eventually was so insanely powerful that she was ready to go and attack the Shapers. Location? Greenwood Academy, Ashen Isles. A Shaper apprentice woke up to the sound of the entire academy shaking around him. Not natural tremors; the academy was under attack. After fighting his way to the exit of the academy, the apprentice was immediately KO'd (in effect) by Litalia, who then took a minute to brag and tells him 'toodleloo'. Following this, the apprentice cleared out Greenwood Island of the rogues left behind by Litalia, learning of the abominations of Shaping created by her and her allies. Having nothing left to do, the apprentice moved on to other islands. Accompanying the Shaper were two other apprentices: Alwan, a young, loyal Guardian badly lacking self-confidence, and Greta, a former Agent apprentice who was kicked out for her softness toward creations. The Shaper apprentice, leading the two, eventually found himself sympathizing with the rebels, and eventually found himself blatantly assisting them, repairing a warped creator left behind on the capital of the Ashen Isles by Litalia. The young Shaper, finally abandoned in disgust by Alwan for having turned on the Shapers, fought his way to the Isle of Spears, where the Drakons were preparing yet another Geneforge to give themselves ridiculous amounts of power. The Shaper apprentice pledged himself to the rebels, and returned to Dhonal's Island to kill Lord Rahul, securing victory for the rebels. As the flames of war swept across Terrestia, the young Shaper apprentice, possessed now of awesome power, reShaped by the Drakons into a being of true glory, just fell out of the world. Although, of course, there's always Shaper Monarch... in Geneforge 4. TO BE CONTINUED MORE

There is my (in-progress) lore thread summarizing the story and important components of Geneforge. http://spiderwebforums.ipbhost.com/index.php?/topic/23839-thekians-geneforge-lore-thread-spoilers/

I would think it's unlikely that someone was able to use the Geneforge with anyone knowing. Keep in mind, everyone who used the Geneforge had to be extensively prepared to not get killed by using it, and even those who were sometimes died. Remember, neither rebels nor Shapers knew who Monarch was (though the theory that he was the G3 PC makes some sense, and it is perhaps possible that Litalia knew who he was), so I think it unlikely that he used one of the Geneforges. Just a thought. Also, uh... interesting daily new name.

Officially... nobody has a clue who the player is. Unofficially, here are some things to consider. 1. The player, when using the Geneforge in the Foundry Core, learns that he's used a Geneforge before. There have been only 3 Geneforges in canon usable by humans, which are A. the Sucia Geneforge, B. Southforge, and C. Northforge. Obviously, it's not the Sucia Geneforge since, according to canon, the G1 PC destroyed the Geneforge without using it. This leaves the other two. The Northforge was practically unused, since the northern rebellion was always mostly creations, and the Drakons pretty much took over Northforge Citadel for their Unbound project. The Southforge was dismantled when the rebels abandoned Southforge Citadel. However, the PC must have used one of these. Since it had to have been one of these Geneforges, clearly the PC was a rebel. The PC was also extensively reShaped, which indicates a position of authority or raging kleptomania (*cough* PC *cough*). This basically limits it to post-Geneforge 3, since reShaping of humans was performed directly or with canisters. Obviously, therefore, not G3/G2/G1/etc. player characters. 2. (Spoilers) Assuming you can trust the sage in the Dera Reaches, you were an important figure in influencing the destiny of the world (something about being a lynchpin...) Therefore, since for some reason it's always coming down to you, a totally untrained newbie, to save the world, it seems to imply that it was a PC or a character extremely important to the plotline. Combined with rabid reShaping and Geneforge use, I'd say it comes down to this: (Highly unlikely) Geneforge 3 PC: Although it's possible that this is the G5 PC, it's highly unlikely, because the rebel Geneforges did very little aside from make you able to use Shaper powers. There would be no reason for a PC who had already attained a great many canisters and was probably reShaped by Akhari Blaze to use the Geneforge, assuming it'd just not kill him. Geneforge 4 PC: Used the Geneforge, needed to use lots of canisters in a more logical (i.e. not powergaming) storyline, and critical to the fate of the rebellion. He'd certainly fit. Master Jared: Presumably used the Geneforge, definitely used an INSANE number of canisters, and was important to the protection of Northforge and assisting the PC in gaining powers. So, probably another good fit. Anyway, that's probably as good as you're going find here. Have fun.

Unless you are joining the Takers... I believe you have to kill Taker leaders or some such thing if you join the Awakened, which is the faction I assume you want to do... *Edit* Of course, I personally suggest that you simply methodically sweep every area and kill literally everything. Loyalist encampment? Eh, who cares? Zakary? He deserves it. Sharon? She already knows she's going to suffer the results of her actions. Everyone else? Insane rogues that'll turn on you and kill you if they think it'll help them, Barzites and Awakened included.

There are a number of methods by which you can make all the pylons in an area with lots of pylons turn neutral, and methods by which you can brutally murder every turret ever. Selling submission/reapers/acid thorns and gemstones (which pylons drop) can get you loads of money. Also, killing drayks (you can often goad them into attacking you in Taker areas without making Takers hate you) usually gets you ~60 gold dropped per drayk and free access to all the gold and gemstones in their nests. Just some suggestions for getting yourself lots of money.

You end up with a great deal of money, assuming you rob everyone blind. Load up on loads of essence pods and, at the VERY LEAST, cast augmentation (only a tier 3 healing spell) to raise your health and your creations' health.

Yes, reaper turrets are neutral. The creatures and objects have tabs instead of commas so that, if you have only one entry in the zone, you can copy-paste it into the spreadsheet. It doesn't let you select separation of cells by commas if you're pasting only a single line.

I still hold that the Shapers experimented too far there. They ended up creating an Unbound Vlish (they were attempting to create a tasty Vlish to replace ornks), which promptly annihilated the continent.

Remember that there are 2 separate forest tilesets: one is the coniferous forest, like those in Mera (North Mera Road is a good example), and deciduous forests, like those in the Storm Plains. You preface it with forest1 or forest2, so just keep in mind that only putting 'forest' at the beginning of the image name will return a default (cave) tileset. Otherwise, excellent job explaining it. Also, regarding tilesets, I don't believe either of us mentioned where the data is output. It is put at the bottom of the text file the program outputs. Just copy-paste it at offset 48904 in the spreadsheet as you would the matrix.

Blame me, because I'm presently going omnicidal neutral. Once I'm ready, I'll kill everything I can find past the secret tunnel.

Hello, all. Many of you may have heard of Blades of Geneforge, which allows the enterprising modder to extract zone data, but have been turned off by the utter insanity in trying to manually create a zone out of spreadsheet cells. However, there now exists a tool that allows a modder to create a simple 64x64 image map of a zone, and turn it into a zone filled with the desired basic terrain and placeholder terrain, object, and creatures: ZoneLab. Also alhoon wanted a shoutout for helping with some data stuff. Using this is fairly simple. In the archive is a file with color codes which correspond to specific zone features. Using Paint or Paint .NET, or some other similar program, you can create a 64x64 map of a zone and save it into a 'zones' folder. If you put a specific word at the beginning of the image name, data is also output for the tileset (e.g. snow, forest) to be used in the zone. The available tilesets are: cave desert forest1 forest2 snow swamp wasteland Then, you must simply run* the file with run.bat**, and a new text file will appear in the same folder as ZoneLab. Using a copy of the Blades of Geneforge spreadsheet, copy-paste the data from the file (make sure to select commas as separation for cells when pasting) into the appropriate location. *If there is a space in the path of the file, it may not work properly for unknown reasons. **This is a Java program, and needs Java to be installed to work. This tool must be used, at present, with Blades of Geneforge. As the original links are dead, make sure to check for the downloads provided by alhoon. For present, ZoneLab will allow modders to create zones with much greater ease than could otherwise be possible. Happy modding. Download: https://www.dropbox.com/s/8tbjffjg12ko58d/GF ZoneLab.rar?dl=0

Leaving early != canon. Keep in mind that Litalia is actually only there in the 2 possible canon endings. She's an apprentice at that time. She came with a Shaper handler.

Stun lock 'em with blessed Glaahks. Killing the Guardian to the north of Rising (two zones up) is especially important, since he's the object of a quest that gets you a free Skein of Wisdom.

The regeneration spell is an aura, which in my experience is applied to every party member regardless of distance, but only to party members (it will not affect nearby friendlies). Essence blade is an essence spell, which will overwrite any present essence spell (like G5's version of augmentation). For that matter, regeneration aura will also overwrite any other aura spells you already have active, like elemental aura. Unless there is some way to alter how the spell itself works (I have never looked very closely at the blessing/mental/healing magic realm of spells in the scripts), I doubt you will be able to fix it to fit your purposes. For reference, according to Matt P. (writer of... like, the only Geneforge walkthroughs), G5 speed has about the same effect as war blessing. From what I can tell, it seems that speed only gives you 25%-33% or so more attacks. And, of course, you no longer get any bonus to your combat movement (considering that speed was an important aspect of stealth in previous games, this is another issue with the new one). Also, in regards to Aura of Flames, what exactly is the difference between it and Purifying Rain?

I should like to point out that people in Rising call him 'Guardian Barzahl'. It strikes me that it is more likely that he was indeed a Guardian, but started pretending to be a Shaper because of his research.

Some other notes on modding character base statistics: You can also increase player walking speed. This will usually result in creations being left in the dust, and it also increases movement speed in battle. However, it seems as though it may drain AP more rapidly when moving during combat. Testing to check that point is probably necessary. Another note to make about AP is that if you have too much (somewhere in the realm of ~50?), you will no longer be able to move in combat. I'm guessing that it wraps around to a negative value or something and just cancels your turn. Although you probably shouldn't be giving people that much AP in the first place, it's a good thing to consider. Furthermore, if you're in G1-G4, speed (i.e. the 'not stupidly bad' version of speed) can also break you if you have just as much AP, or a couple points less, than the game can handle.

Hello, everyone, and welcome to the wondrous world of Geneforge. If you'd like to learn about the world without having to play through the game and learn everything, or without having to piece together stuff from all the different threads on here, this should prove fairly useful to you. However, SPOILERS! ALL THE SPOILERS! LITERALLY EVERY SPOILER OF WHICH I CAN THINK! Geneforge (GF1): Welcome to Sucia Island, a Shaper research facility abandoned some two centuries ago. It is here that the problems in the world started, in more ways than just one. Sucia Island was an enormous research facility, industry, and school all in one. In its mines remain machines that can create powerful tools out of raw materials in but a moment. At one end, near one its three huge docks, lies the remains of a school. In the remainder of the island are crypts, holding cells, administrative centers, and most importantly... the location of the Geneforge. It all starts with the discovery of the gene. Shaper scientists had discovered the existence of a 'tiny scroll' in your body that holds the information to its entire structure. No longer would Shapers have to experimentally mutate creations to make them better. Now, all they had to do was figure out the corresponding code to do something, and make it so. However, they began to go too far. The Shapers discovered how to 'safely' reShape themselves, and give themselves powers in a single moment. Though this began to concern Shapers on the mainland of the 2 only continents, they only truly began to address their concerns upon the near-completion of the Geneforge, a tool that could give a person enormous, godlike powers in a short moment. All Shapers were recalled from the island with great haste, leaving behind many of their augmentation canisters, tools, waste, and most importantly... all of their serviles. Those that survived formed three distinct factions. The most pliable and docile Serviles - to Shapers, at least - were the Obeyers, loyal to the Shapers to the bitter end. They cruelly used their resources in Pentil, a former Shaper fort, to repress the other villages as best as possible. Their neighbors were the Awakened, who did not wish to serve the Shapers any longer, but wanted to deal with them as equals. They inhabited Vakkiri, in the southwest corner of the island. The poor, doomed "Takers of Free", known best as the Takers, inhabited Kazg, the former administrative center of the island. The Takers grew to hate the Shapers as a result of waste in the South Workshop poisoning them and their land. One day, everything changed. Outsiders landed on this barred island, outsiders from a distant continent far across the sea. They learned the secrets of Shapers, gaining great powers from the canisters. There, on Sucia, they discovered the Geneforge. Trajkov, their leader, decided that they needed a Shaper to unlock its power. The Shaper he selected was a man named Goettsch, someone about as charming as Sage Taygen. Goettsh gained Trajkov's confidence, then stole the shaping gloves needed to unlock the Geneforge's power and fled. An already formidable Shaper, he used all the canisters he could find, eventually causing a great stalemate between the two factions: rogue Shaper and Sholai. Trajkov decided that, though he still needed a Shaper, a different kind would be needed to unlock the power of the Geneforge. An apprentice Shaper. And so the player enters this situation, stranded on the island by an attack by the Sholai's last remaining ship. The player would wander the island, seeing the serviles. Perhaps he would kill them, perhaps he would help them. In his explorations of the island, this apprentice gained great powers from the canisters, and discovered a MASSIVE SPOILER about Sucia. This island was, indeed, the birthplace of the Shapers. Through uncontrolled use of Shaping to kill their enemies, the Shapers accidentally created monstrosities and diseases that drove them from Sucia for centuries. The apprentice, feeling some kind of loyalty to the Shapers or something who knows killed Trajkov, killed Goettsch, and escaped Sucia to land in Dillame, warning the Shapers about what had happened. They were impressed by this apprentice, and sent him off to his training while they burned Sucia Island to the ground. This Shaper became a famous and important traveling Shaper who eventually dropped off the face of the world since it was too hard to put him in later games. Geneforge 2: And now welcome to the Drypeak Mountains, a place that appears to be even more boring than the state of Montana. This massive desert is the combined result of a failure of Shapers to bring life to it and the failure of Zakary to not be a piece of- However, when an Agent, Shanti, and an apprentice assigned to her show up to take stock of the miserable failure of Drypeak, it becomes clear that all is not how it seems. Zakary, the Shaper in charge of the settlement of Drypeak, gives some unconvincing lies to the representatives of the Shaper council that almost make it seem as though he wants them to intervene. After a short period of investigation, Shanti is kidnapped by Barzahl's agents, the other Shaper who had come to Drypeak, and the apprentice finds that the claims of Drypeak's failure were a complete lie. The Shapers had, using knowledge stolen from Sucia Island during its purge, filled a hidden valley with life and brought elements of the Awakened, as well as some drayks from Sucia, with them. A few dozen Shaper apprentices had accompanied Zakary and Barzahl, and had split between the two as both diverged into two factions: wimpy loyalists of Zakary, and insane canister addicts of Barzahl. Meanwhile, the creations had once again split among familiar lines, with drayks and the newly created drakons fomenting war against the Shapers, and the Awakened being naive fools. Unfortunately for basically everyone present, the Shaper apprentice, whatever his misgivings about the absolute rule of the Shapers, remained loyal and reported back to the Shaper council. The response was immediate and ruthless. ALL TEH SHAPERS KILL EVER ONE. Massive armies, including one psychopathic... apprentice... named Litalia came to burn everything. The Takers pretty much all died. The Awakened pretty much all died. The Barzites all died. Zakary probably also died, but nobody missed him. Some elements survived, namely the greatest creation ever shaped, and this by another Drakon. For behind a sealed door in the mountain complex of Gazak-Uss was Eass' greatest creation: Ghaldring. TO BE CONTINUED

But the Tr- oh, wait, no spoilers. Anyway, do you refer to the unaligned option? As I understand it, that's probably the canon result of G2, right?

I will say that the only sect I have actually completed is the Awakened, but I can tell that it is definitely the 'best' end to the game. All I'm going to say...

Lo and behold, O ye gracious people of the modding persuasion, for I have provided thee with a pile of information most useful: a complete list of the floor and terrain ID values, and the related spritesheet and tile for most of them. https://www.dropbox.com/s/ouzz5lj4xcpzf1e/Terrain %26 Floor Values.txt?dl=0

Barzites internally use loyalist reputation, if memory serves correctly. They stroke your ego, but they sure ain't nice.

Everyone just seems to... sorta forget Vakkiri. Probably because the Awakened don't make it to Geneforge 3. The serviles allegedly named Penta after Pentil to annoy the serviles of Kaz (Kazg was the Taker village from Geneforge 1).