Ess-Eschas

Treating the porting process as an adaptation sounds like a good idea in my book! After all, as you say, it’s not possible to recreate a BoE scenario in BoA with 100% accuracy – and it seems a shame not to make use of the more powerful features of the new engine. Once you’re working on something that is a close adaptation, but not an exact recreation, I feel one might end up with a better result at the end of the day. I think that the Za-Khazi run is a nice example of this. There weren't many changes made to the scenario on the move from BoE to BoA, and the changes that are there aren't very noticeable, but the result feels like a much more solid package, at least to me. Even so, I’ll be looking forward to seeing what you do to solve some of these problems. It will be nice to see the results of someone else’s thought processes on this! I’m getting nostalgic about the scenario now, enough so I might consider replaying it again at some point. I wonder if I can still remember where all the books are? Getting to the end of that hidden quest chain was – perhaps oddly – one of my real highlights playing BoE. For some reason, my immediate response to this comment was to imagine what an anime TV series based on Doom Moon II would look like ...

That's really great to hear! Redemption is an excellent scenario, one of the very best, and it will be nice to see it in the BoA engine one of these days. It’s a port I’ve idly thought about working on myself at one time or other, enough so that I’ve scratched my head about certain areas that would be difficult to port (such as the vertical climbing section, for instance, or those mist tiles that restrict the player’s vision). I’ll be really interested to see how you handle those in the final product – and I’m sure you’ll do a great job! Best of luck on getting everything up and running again on your new machine. I know only too well how much of a pain that can be ... And best of luck to you too for your graphics work, Hyena of Ice! Just because both you and Jarinex said something similar in successive posts, I thought it was worth mentioning that you really don't need to be a programmer to make Blades of Avernum scenarios! In fact, you can make quite decent scenarios without ever touching any scripts at all; the editor is very powerful just on its own. Of course, you won't be able to put on any fancy bells and whistles, but a good scenario is far more than technical wizardry. Without using scripts, you'll still be able to create a very solid, very interesting scenario – much in the spirit of the early Avernum games, in fact. (The one exception is making dialogue, but I can assure you that that isn't scary at all. All you're really doing is writing down what characters say, the questions the party can ask, and how they all link together – much as you would if you planned it out on paper.) I'd strongly encourage both of you to give scenario building a try some time. You'll find it an enjoyable process, and I'm sure it will be much easier to produce something than you might think! Think of it this way – if someone isn't very good at making fancy art out of cake icing, is that any reason for them not to make a cake?

Hello Humfrey, This is indeed the right place to post a question like this. By the way, if you don't mind me saying so, your english is excellent! I'm afraid that I use Geneforge on a Mac, rather than a PC, so I can't advise you on detailed points about how to manage the sound on Windows. However, I do have one suggestion. If you launch Geneforge, and either start a new game or load an old saved game, there is an option to lower the game's sound level – although it's a little hidden away! Make sure a game is running, and then press 'escape'. This will bring up a menu. Select 'preferences'. This should bring up a new menu. The top item should refer to 'Sound'. If you click it, you can cycle through some sound options. One of these is 'Quiet', which should lower the game's overall sound level. It sounds like the game is playing at a much louder volume for you than it's supposed to. It's always possible that this might not lower the volume enough on its own, but it's worth a try! I hope that this is helpful, and goes some way to solving your problem. If so, enjoy your time on Sucia Island. Geneforge 1 is an especially fine game!

Hello BabyComeBack, I'm afraid that the part of the game that controls how characters regenerate health after combat appears to be hard coded. Unfortunately, this means that there isn't any simple way of disabling it. Is there any particular reason that you wanted to remove this feature? I know that it's less convenient to do things this way, but you could always try playing through the game as if the feature were removed. For instance, if you're playing with a shaman, or characters with healing abilities, you could manually cast some healing on your characters after each battle, spending the vitality you would have needed to restore them to full health yourself. This might sound like a pain, but you might be surprised how easily you'd get into a routine doing something like that. One other option might be to play on a higher difficulty setting, if possible. The extra damage you receive will quite effectively negate the extra healing the game gives you! Sorry not to be of more help. Enjoy your time working for the Black Fortress!

Hello Capt. Jim, Are you trying to open the gates of Almaria manually using a wheel, say from inside the town? Unfortunately, this isn't possible. In this case, the wheels are just there for realism – that little dialogue about not being strong enough to turn them is being used as a default response for a wheel you can't interact with. Don't forget that you still have a route through the town, though: Once you've received a certain quest from the Castle, you won't need to worry about bypassing Almaria in future – the gates will be open permanently!

Thankfully, it's only the targeted spells that will damage your party. You're perfectly safe with spells that automatically attack all creatures around the caster. Divine Retribution will still work as it used to, and you won't need to worry about being damaged! This isn't quite as stressful as using Exile's Shockwave, thankfully! I wouldn't be too concerned about getting damaged by your spells. It takes a little getting used to and, if you're like me, there will be a few times early on when you zap a party member into oblivion at a critical moment. However, you'll get used to it quicker than you might think – and it really does make fights more interesting! Good luck, and enjoy your adventures in Valorim!

Hello Beth, I can reassure you that this isn't a bug! Spells damaging friendly characters is something that has been recently introduced into Spiderweb's games. It's only been present in the last couple of releases, and it only happens if you are playing on Hard or Torment difficulties, so it's entirely possible that you won't have seen it before. I believe the rationale behind it is to make battles more of a tactical challenge. I certainly find that it makes me much more aware of my party's positioning. Now, I always have to be aware of where my mage is standing before throwing out a lightning spray!

Welcome to the boards, Jarinex! Good on you for showing support for Blades! Even if we don't say much on the boards right at this moment, there are still plenty of players out there ... Do make sure to play Kelandon's scenarios if you haven't already. They are excellent, I can assure you!

Hello Redknight22, This is a nasty bug I'm afraid, and I'm sorry that it's one you've been experiencing. Unfortunately, this particular bug is a really difficult one to tie down. I can assure you that a lot of time has been spent trying to track down its source and to come up with a fix, both by Jeff, the main force behind these games, but also by his testing team and the wider community. Jeff is really passionate about making sure that his games are as bug-free as possible, so this is an issue that will not have been treated lightly. The reason why it's so hard to pin down is because it happens so rarely, and so unpredictably. To my knowledge, no-one has yet been able to find a way to make the bug happen repeatedly. Repeating the same set of actions that caused the bug the first time won't cause it to happen again. This makes it really hard to figure out the cause, since even getting the bug to happen in the first place is difficult, let alone in a controlled manner. Without being able to easily trigger the bug, finding out the root cause of the issue is very difficult indeed. Of course, this is of little help if you're experiencing the bug yourself. At the moment, the best course of action, I'm afraid, is to reload to a point before the bug occurred. It might be worth checking your Autosave and Quicksave slots – it's possible you have a save close to where you were that is not yet affected by the bug. Since you've experienced this bug yourself, it's possible that you might be able to shed some light on the issue. As you've played the previous two games with no problems, was there anything unusual about your playthrough of Ruined World? Did you perhaps use a very different party, or play on a different computer, or make more use of the keyboard/mouse? Any information that could give a greater insight into the problem is always helpful. Alternatively, are you playing on a Mac? If you are, I might be able to take a look at your save file directly. I've had an idea of a way to potentially solve the problem for a while, but I've never been able to test it.

Hello Radnen, Unfortunately, the detailed information about item drops in Avernum 3 is hidden away in the main body of the code, and very difficult to access. All we can really say with certainty is what Randomizer said above: monsters can be given a set of items that are always dropped with a given percentage. From personal experience, I can tell you that monsters are rarely given more than one or two items that can be dropped. Each monster is given its own set of items which has to be typed in by hand, rather than consulting a big list. In other words, you might find one or maybe two valuable items when defeating an impressive foe, but you probably shouldn't expect to find any more. That being said, it is possible to say something a little more concrete here. The next game in the series, Blades of Avernum, changed the way data like this is stored. It's possible to see all the percentage drops for every single monster! Better than that, it seems that a good chunk of the data was ported over directly from Avernum 3, so the information in Blades is likely to be a good match for the same information in Avernum 3. Looking at the code for the Doomguards, I can tell you that they do indeed drop Iron Plate Mail, as you've seen, with a probability of 20%. However, I can't give you any information about Mind Crystals, I'm afraid. These weren't coded into Blades as standard items, and therefore don't appear in the item lists. It's entirely possible that Doomguards can drop these in Avernum 3, but it would most likely be at a similar or lower chance. I haven't seen this happen myself, but that doesn't mean that it isn't possible! 20% might seem like a lot, but probability can be a little counter-intuitive even at these odds. It's worth remembering that only the original Doomguard will drop an item; all the others are treated a bit like summons, and so drop nothing. That means that you only get one chance per fight. If you went through the fight, say, five times, the chance of you not seeing the Plate drop at all is a little over 30% – and that's still more likely than picking up a Plate on your first try! It's entirely possible that your dearth of item drops is just due to a slight run of bad luck, rather than anything else more mysterious. To sum all this up, farming Doomguards for items is likely to be a slow process. I am interested by the idea of them having Mind Crystals, which does seem to have been reported in a few places. I might go back and have a look to see if I can get that to happen. If I do, I'll report back!

And potentially a second, too, although on a much, much smaller scale. It won't be for a while though, because sorting out all the dense coding needed to make the little thing work will be … interesting.

Chin up. There’s no reason to be so gloomy! Blades of Avernum is an old game, and this is an old forum. It gets a little quiet from time to time, and that’s perfectly normal. If you look back through the last few pages of posts, you’ll see that there are occasional gaps of months or even years between new content. A little period of quietness is nothing new! I can assure you there are still plenty of people around who play BoA, myself included. The old girl has a lot of life in her yet! It’s easy to think about standing on the edges of a community, looking in, and to focus on the points you don’t like about it. But remember that you are part of the community, too, and that what you contribute to it is important. If you’re concerned that this board isn’t all that active, then make some posts! If you’re concerned that scenarios haven’t been released for a while, then make a scenario! If you’ve played every BoA scenario out there, you’re in the perfect position to design a scenario yourself. You’ll have found things in those scenarios that you really liked, ideas that stayed with you, and you’ll also have seen design that you didn’t get along with. You’ll now know what works, and what doesn’t. So what’s stopping you from making one yourself? Trust me, you'll have fun! If using the editor is daunting, you could always consider trying to port a little Blades of Exile scenario just to learn the ropes. Here’s a list of scenarios you can use to get started: http://www.spiderwebsoftware.com/blades/scen_stuff/solid.html After all, if you’re not using the editor, you’re missing out on one of the key features of Blades of Avernum!

There are a number of tunnels that lead to the surface in the parts of Avernum we see. Of these, all but one were closed off by the Empire before Avernum 1. The exit found by the party in the first game was also closed off by the Empire before the second. The Empire didn’t play lightly with these exits. They were keeping their dangerous prison shut, and the tunnels were sealed very, very thoroughly. The game makes it clear that the exits are magically sealed with “millions of tons of rock”, something the party marvels at. In fact, here’s what the game says about the exit found in Avernum 1: “Nothing's left here now but a lost opportunity. It is blocked forever.” These tunnels were almost completely blocked by rocks – miles and miles of broken rock. To all intents and purposes, it would probably be easier boring a new hole to the surface than opening up the old exits, even with a head start of a few miles. After all, reopening a tunnel full of densely packed rock is dangerous because of all the shifting material, and the rock may well have been melted or hardened magically depending on what process the Empire used. Digging a hole to the surface would be extremely hard. You would be tunnelling upwards (which is hard anyway) for what is clearly many miles. That’s something that’s hard to do even with modern machinery. It would take a long, long time – perhaps the work of many years. Perhaps the critical thing here is Avernum had no need to do this for most of its history. When they were at war, they couldn’t go to the surface because the Empire would destroy them. By the time the war ended, they had their super portal and a way to get the surface magically. Given how expensive and time-consuming building a physical tunnel would be, it seems reasonable to me that they just kept using the portal. Of course, putting all your eggs in one basket is dangerous, but that’s part of the point of Avernum 6! I’ve already waffled a bit, so here are some thoughts briefly. This is a fun excuse for a little scientific speculation! All the rivers we see in Avernum keep a mostly constant height, so there must be some way that water gets from the place the river is flowing to back to its source; there must be some sort of water cycle. How could that happen? A less wacky answer is this: the water flows to the ocean. If we think of the world of Avernum as having much, much thicker continents than Earth, we can imagine the tunnels of Avernum as being hollow spaces inside these continents. These tunnels then open out at the edges of the continent into the oceans (which would be *deep*). Since the very deep tunnels of Avernum are shown as being fairly narrow, I think it’s fair to say that the pressure of the huge volume of river water leaving the caves through tiny holes would be enough to keep the ocean at bay. This is why the caves of Avernum don’t flood. (For an analogy, think of holding a running shower head under a bath. Water would naturally try to flow into the holes of the shower head, but the pressure of the escaping water prevents this.) Or, for a weirder answer, think of this. The water runs into very deep lakes that sit on top of the planet’s magma layer. The water in these lakes constantly boils, and will get very hot because of the pressure (i.e. much hotter than 100ºC). Super-heated gas will escape. This expands in volume enormously and cannot be contained by the lake cavern, so it escapes through chimneys – either natural ones or ones that the steam bores itself. The high pressure and temperature of the steam causes it to rise through the chimneys very rapidly, until it escapes to the surface. This mechanism is basically exactly the same as a geyser! However, these geysers would be enormous, and essentially active all the time. So you’d get spots on the surface where there would be great hot lakes fueled by constantly steaming geysers. The Empire gets free, vast hot springs! Ah, Grimm got there first. Oops!

As it happens, this has been done! However, so far as I read it, I think it’s implied to be a tricky thing to do, requiring a lot of carefully controlled magical power. If it weren’t tricky, I imagine some of the early mages in Avernum would have tried something like that before going down the tricky route of magically modifying plants. Having said that, though, perhaps Erika, with her curse relating to sunlight, put a stop to any of that research? In the Blades of Avernum scenario ‘The Za-Khazi Run’, we find a group of unicorns who used to live on the surface, but were forced to flee to Avernum. These are your familiar unicorns from traditional high fantasy, by the way, rather than Avernum’s much more common feral unicorns. They are very, very powerful magical creatures, and have recreated portions of the surface in Avernum itself. This includes soil, grass, trees and, as it happens, a fully functional sun. Here’s some text from the Unicorn Gate: "The unicorns have created a beautiful garden inside this dome. An artificial, magical sun floats above you, shining cheerily down onto the grass and trees. How the unicorns got the seeds, you can't guess, but what they've done with them is remarkable." Just to avoid any confusion, this is canon, by the way. The Za-Khazi run, both the place and the scenario, are referenced by Pea Eye in Avernum 4, and again by Sergeant Nichol in Avernum 6. The ‘sun’ in Avernum 6 is a slightly different thing. Rather than creating a real sun, the Tower of Magi used a portal to beam sunlight down into the caves. This went wrong through no fault of their own, actually, and they had fairly decent safeguards in place to make sure that conventional problems could be dealt with. Of course, something else did happen:

Hello hotmitts, My record of this part of the game is a little sketchy, I'm afraid, but I think I know what your problem might be. Are you looking for the Verbeaux Tunnel? If so, you'll need to start looking in the Bereza Woods – by which I mean the zone itself. There's a farmhouse near the eastern entry point, and its residents have never been too happy to see you. That might be a good place to start. If you're having trouble finding it, take a look here: https://keepersofavadon.com/Pages/Beraza_Woods.html Some parts of zones in Avadon change depending on where you are in the storyline. You can't always assume that you've seen everything a zone has to offer, even if you've thoroughly scoured it before! Alternatively, if I'm getting the wrong end of the stick and this isn't what's getting you stuck, let me know the name of the mission in your quest list. That might help jog my memory!

You know, for what it's worth, I think this is an interesting idea. It's also something new, so far as I can tell, so it will naturally be something of an experiment. I may be wrong on this, but I don't think anyone has yet tried to set up a Wiki for a Spiderweb series right at the point at which it has been released. Because this is an experiment, I say go for it! It's always possible that it won't pan out, but you won't know if you don't try! This is, after all, an excellent time to try something like this – the beginning of a new series is bound to bring in a whole bunch of interest, and a whole bunch of new players. Indeed, I'd be willing to speculate that this will be particularly true of Queen's Wish; one the merits of putting the game through a Kickstarter is that it seems to have gained a lot more coverage than some of Jeff's other series. I feel that a new project like this needs one person to work through the very, very early stages – just to set things up for others to do further work in the future. I suggest that you go right ahead and set up a skeleton Wiki. All this needs to be at this point is just a domain – somewhere for the Wiki to live – and a name. You could even set up a few stub sections if you wanted to for some idea of the structure, but that's not really necessary right now as so little is known about the game. I say this because I'm not necessarily sure that you'll get many replies to this post, and I don't think that has anything to do with people not being interested. My feeling is that people will be happier to add something to a Wiki they can see and interact with, rather than committing to a good idea before the fact. As you said yourself, you're looking for lurkers, and lurkers won't necessarily jump to reply to this post – but they might be willing to cut out the middleman and directly interact with your new Wiki! So, go for it! If you build it, they will come! As Slarty pointed out, there are dangers in putting together Wikis, but I think these can be easily averted. If you allow free editing of the Wiki, and it doesn't take off for whatever reason, someone could simply post something on the front page to the effect that the Wiki is obsolete, and divert all traffic to the Strategy Central posts. That way, no-one gets confused, and people looking for information about the game who don't think to look at the forums will still be able to find the information they are looking for. In any case, it's nice to see someone who has been lurking for a long time make an account on the forums. In good Spiderweb tradition, do leave your sanity by the door. Otherwise, the fluffy turtles tend to get a little aggravated ...

Hello La paix, There is something else that might be causing the problem you've been experiencing. There are a number of different versions of BoE available for the Mac these days. Many of these are experimental versions produced by programmers who are currently updating the game for modern systems. BoE is a complex program, and there's no handy manual for figuring out all of the code, so this is understandably taking some time! However, this means that there are versions of the game out there that are not complete, and in some cases are really buggy. At least one of the versions has real problems loading graphics, causing problems exactly like those you've described. Where did you download the version of BoE you're using? Ideally, could you tell us the exact link you used? It's possible that you're using one of buggy releases – particularly if you've downloaded one of the more recent versions. If you're using an iffy download, it might be worth trying out this one instead: http://redsaurus.net/boe/BoE10.7+301212.zip This is the version I use, and I can testify that it works like a charm.

Hello IcyChains, I'm afraid that it doesn't. The special easter egg dungeons only appear in the second and third games, as you suspected. Escape from the Pit is based on Jeff's very first game, Exile I. I suspect that he just didn't think about adding in something like this until the second game – and presumably he didn't want to slightly artificially add one in when he made the remakes. That's not to say that there aren't little eggs hidden all over the place, in all three games. Perhaps my favourite is this message in Crystal Souls: "This particular section of Avernum is quite buggy." You then get attacked. By bugs. Welcome to the boards!

Hello Capt. Jim, It sounds like something has gone a little wrong with this encounter. What's supposed to happen is that Vyck talks to you, and then opens the gate herself (possibly hitting the gong as she does so, too). From the looks of things, it seems that you've defeated her before this has happened. Unfortunately, this means that there isn't any way to open that gate by normal means. It's an unfortunate oversight that you've managed to get stuck this way! If you're happy to go through the fight again, you could always try loading from a recent save (or the auto-save if it's near enough). Make sure that you talk to Vyck before attacking her. The gate should open as the fight starts. However, if you don't want to go through the fight again, I have a solution for you. Go into your 'Scripts' folder inside 'Avernum 5 Files' and look for the document 'av5objsmisc.txt'. Just to be on the safe side, make a copy of it in case you mistake a mistake. Now, open the file, and do a search for the word 'gate'. You should find the following: begindefineobject 126; import = 0; ob_name = "Closed Gate"; ob_object_type = 1; ob_graphic_template = 48; ob_graphic_sheet = 5; ob_base_icon_num = 0; ob_width = 256; ob_height = 256; ob_blockage_type = 2; ob_default_script = "gate"; ob_part_of_terrain = 1; ob_in_space_offset_y = 4; This looks complicated! However, all you need to do is to make one change. Do you see the line ob_blockage_type = 2? Change the 2 to a 0, so that the line reads: ob_blockage_type = 0; Save the file and run the game. Click on the opposite side of the gate. Your party should move there, as if by magic! You'll now be free to continue onwards with the game. What you changed was how the party responds to gates. You made it so that gates are 'transparent' to your party, meaning that you can stroll right through them. Of course, you don't want this to remain for the entire game! So, return to the same document, at the same place, and set the line back to its original form: ob_blockage_type = 2; I hope that this is helpful!

Hello Falastur, Generally speaking, the presence of Quickfire isn't tied to the game's clock, but rather to the game's memory of what's happened in previous towns. In order to fix the problem, you'll need to clear this memory backlog. Try entering a few different towns (about 4 or 5 should do it) and then returning to the Chasm of Screams. The Quickfire should then have subsided! This is useful trick to know, since it makes it much easier dealing with Quickfire traps you'll come across in future. There's a place in particular near the endgame where you can avoid an especially nasty trap and still pick up a good reward for your troubles! If this doesn't work for this dungeon, it might be that this particular Quickfire trap is part of a special script. Let me know if that's the case, and I'll see if I can come up with another solution.

Hello ladyonthemoon, Likewise, welcome. Enjoy your time on these boards! I second this. There are a large number of scenarios available for both games, and it's definitely worth rooting through them. Since you already have Blades of Avernum, I'd suggest taking a look at the the following list of scenarios for that game, which I believe is pretty comprehensive. As you can see, there are a fair number, and there are some real gems in there! https://blades.nethergate.net/ If you're looking for suggestions, take a look in the Scenario Reviews subforum of the Blades of Avernum forum. Also, since you like the original Avernum trilogy, you should really try out Kelandon's scenarios, which are especially fine. You can have a look at them here: https://kppp.webs.com/scenarios.html

Hello Woodman, From the sounds of it, you've done all you should have done in this encounter. Adze-Haakai is supposed to escape, I'm afraid – you don't get to destroy him in this version of the game. In fact, later games imply this in a more general way, I think. Demons, even Grah-Hoth, escape back to whence they came rather than ever really being killed. I think I've figured out what might have happened. I've just tried it myself, and got my party stuck in just the same way as yours. If you accidentally click on the wheel when the gate is opened, the gate will close. If you do this in combat mode, though, there is a delay. The gate only closes at the end of all your party members' turns. So, in combat mode, if you click on the wheel with one of your first few characters when your party is standing over the gate, and then immediately end combat, the routine that determines where your party stands after the end of combat has a chance of placing you behind the gate – which is then shut. This is indeed a bug, and a nasty one! You have to be fairly unlucky to fall victim to it, but that won't make it any easier when it has happened to you. There is a way to fix this problem, though. Type shift-d. A little dialogue should appear. Enter the following: backtostart This little debug command will send you back to Fort Avernum, from where you can continue your adventures! Yes, you do! Randomizer is mistaken on this one. You only get Demonslayer by having it reforged by Avernum's master smith!

Hello Earth, This is a tricky problem to diagnose, I'm afraid. The way the game deals with the barriers in Shayder, and the way it deals with the fake rings, are both hardcoded. Unlike parts of the game that can be found in the scripts, this means that it's not very easy to figure out what the problem is. Honestly, the best person the know how to fix this in a conventional way would be Jeff through his support email. Be patient! Jeff is good at replying to help requests! In the meantime, I do have a solution for you. However, it's a slightly overpowered one that involves some script editing. If you can, it's best to make a copy of the Avernum 3 application first – just to be safe. If you can't, make sure you make a copy of the script that you are editing. That way, you'll be able to easily return the game to its original state when you're done. First, you'll need to find your scripts folder. If you're using a Mac, control-click on the application and select 'Show Package Contents'. You can then find the scripts folder (named 'Resources') in 'Contents'. On Windows, apparently the folder (named 'Scripts') can be found in the same one that contains your application. If you're using another distribution, such as through Steam, then finding the right folder might be a little more complicated, I'm afraid. Find the file 'a3objsmisc.txt'. Make a copy of this and put it in a safe place! Then you can return the game to its original state after you've made any changes. Search in the file for 'barrier', and you will find the following bit of text: begindefineobject 186;// import = 9; ob_name = "Magic Barrier S"; ob_graphic_template = 67; ob_graphic_sheet = 2; ob_base_icon_num = 0; ob_num_anim_steps = 8; ob_which_icon_destroyed = -1; ob_effect_when_slain = 60; ob_width = 256; ob_height = 256; ob_default_script = "barrier"; ob_in_space_offset_x = 0; ob_in_space_offset_y = 0; begindefineobject 187; ob_name = "Special Barrier"; // ob_default_script = ""; ob_graphic_coloradj = 64; This is the code that describes the behaviour of magic barriers. Add one extra line of text to this – 'ob_blockage_type = 0;' – as shown below, and save the file: begindefineobject 186;// import = 9; ob_name = "Magic Barrier S"; ob_blockage_type = 0; ob_graphic_template = 67; ob_graphic_sheet = 2; ob_base_icon_num = 0; ob_num_anim_steps = 8; ob_which_icon_destroyed = -1; ob_effect_when_slain = 60; ob_width = 256; ob_height = 256; ob_default_script = "barrier"; ob_in_space_offset_x = 0; ob_in_space_offset_y = 0; begindefineobject 187; ob_name = "Special Barrier"; // ob_default_script = ""; ob_graphic_coloradj = 64; Now, go back to Shayder. If you go up to the barriers, you'll still receive the message that you can't get through. However, try walking through them anyway. The change you just made altered the barriers so that they are transparent to your party – you can just walk right through them! In actual fact, you can now walk through *any* barrier in the game, even those that cannot be dispelled, so you'll want to change the game back to its original state once you've finished. After you've done what you want to do in the upper areas of Shayder, make sure to leave the city. Then, either remove the 'ob_blockage_type = 0;' from the script file, or replace the altered one with the original copy you made. There you go! You've made it to the upper levels of Shayder, and the game is now back to normal. I hope this helps, and sorry that it's a slightly complicated process!

Hello supercow, I thought it might be useful to elaborate slightly on what's already been said. Generally speaking, Avadon keeps most of the keyboard shortcuts that Avernum used, with a few exceptions. Perhaps the most obvious difference is in the example you quoted. Slarty isn't quite right in what he said above. All of Spiderweb's modern games up to this point included the 'use item' shortcut, including the second trilogy. Avadon 1 was the first game to drop it. The reason, so far as I understand it, was that the feature could be used as an exploit. In previous games, pressing 'u' highlighted all usable objects, including those that were supposed to be hidden. Essentially, it provided a quick and easy way to highlight the hidden switches that opened secret passages, entirely negating the idea that the player has to carefully search for them. Indeed, I can remember getting very, very used to pressing 'u' in suspicious areas in the Second Avernum Trilogy! I'm guessing that Jeff received some negative feedback about removing the feature, because it returned with the modern Avernum remakes several years later. Incidentally, there are ways to modify the scripts to make secret switches a little more visible. But, unfortunately, the only way to interact with objects that I am aware of is to click on them.

Hello txmimi, That section of the caves is a little bit awkward to get to! It might not look like it, but the path that Randomizer mentioned above does indeed lead to the other side of the chasm. A path doubles back just inside the Giant's Spire, although you'll need to fight some chitrachs that have taken up home in that particular tunnel in order to get through. There's a slightly easier path, though. You can get to the same set of tunnels through the basement of Shafrir's Tower, which you can find a couple of map segments east and north of Muck. It's a longer walk, but the journey is less dangerous!