Ess-Eschas

Sorry it didn't work out! I like your attitude about not getting the ideal ending, and I agree. There is something oddly fitting about the party perishing at this point. In fact, I'm almost tempted to apply the same thing to Avernum 2 as well. You can equally well think of the party perishing either after a certain climactic battle with a familiar face, or after dealing with the Empire's teleporter. It's less good for the party, obviously, but it does make a little more sense in relation to the series as a whole. If you haven't already, do play the other games in the series, including the oft maligned no. 4. They're well worth your time!

Hello Thwip, I have a suggestion that might solve your problem. It's a bit of a long shot, but it's probably worth trying – it's quicker than starting a completely new game! Go back into the editor and get your party out of the Royal Spire. Then, use the editor's 'Reset Hostile Towns' function. The name sounds innocuous, but it's actually a really powerful tool. Rather than just making towns friendly, it actually resets the state of a good portion of the game's towns and dungeons. The effect isn't universal, so it's possible it might not work on the Royal Spire, but it's worth a try. If the reset does work, the Spire will return to its original state when you enter it. That means you'll need to refight all the battles again, but you should be able to reach Hawthorne. Even if you enter and it doesn't look like the reset has worked, do try going to the dining hall again anyway. That insta-death message is based on a timer, and hopefully Reset Hostile Towns will have restarted it. Ordinarily, it would be easier to make these kinds of changes using the scripts, but these are buried away a little deeper in Avernum 1's innards compared to some of the later games. Best of luck!

Hello txmimi, As it happens, you've already completed the quest! All you need to do are to touch those three pylons in the northeast quadrant. The idea is that the sentinels are not patrolling correctly in that quadrant in particular, and Malachite wants you to prove that by touching the pylons. Now that you have, you can report back to her for your reward. Because of the way Tranquility is organised, it can sometimes be a little confusing as to which areas the characters are talking about, particularly when people start referring to parts of the quadrants. I know that I've jetted off somewhere on occasion, only to find out I should have been somewhere else! Malachite refers to a pylon in the northwest part of the northeast quadrant, so that may be why you expected there to be a pylon in a different quadrant. Enjoy your time in Tranquility!

Ah, now I understand what the problem is! Sorry for the confusion. Some of the intricacies of this portion of the game had slipped my mind. Your hunch is indeed correct. In order to get into the base, you do need to be on a quest. Your party knows roughly where the base is, but in order to actually find the hidden way in, you'll need some information from somewhere else. The quest chain you're looking for is given by Levitt, who you can find in the south-east corner of the upper level of the Castle (near the centre of the Great Cave). There are three quests involved in dealing with the loyalists. The first involves some bandits in the Fissure Post, the second involves Fort Saffron and the third involved infiltrating the base you've found. You'll need to be on this last quest in order to get into the base itself. Good luck!

Hello Capt. Jim, There are a few different places which the darkside loyalists use as a hideout in this game, so I'm not sure which one you're referring to. If you're referring to the one in the Abyss, are you trying to enter it from the east side of the river? If so, you'll need to wait for a while. You can only enter the base properly from the other side of the river – from Erika's Tower itself – and you can't get there until much later in the game. One good resource to look at if you're having problems like this is the Annotated Maps. These are maps of the entire game, with a small walkthrough attached for each area. You can find them here: http://ironycentral.com/harehunter/Avernum4/Maps/MainMap41.html

Hello mikeprichard, I'm believe that one is a duplication. Given that it's placed in the crags, I think it's referring to the reward that can be found there based on the party's reputation. Synergy refers to this as the 'reputation reward' a couple of items further on in the list. This increases all the primary stats, including endurance, by one. I assume that Synergy corrected the original entry, but just forgot to remove the old one. I did a quick check in the scripts, though, just to verify this. Sure enough, there is no place in this zone (or indeed in the entire vale) that increases just the party's endurance stat in this way. Enjoy your time in the vale!

Ah, Slarty just beat me to it! To elaborate on what has just been said, you should be able to make the changes you want by editing the game's scripts. These scripts control almost everything, so they're a very powerful way of adapting your character. At least at the moment, there seems to be more knowledge about this than editing the save files – although it's interesting to know that it is possible to do so! Thankfully, you might not need to learn scripting in order to make the changes you want. Some members of these forums have used script editing to create editors for Spiderweb's games that allow the changing of the player's stats, money items etc.. This might be the best place to start for now. For instance, you can download an editor for Geneforge 2 from this topic: http://spiderwebforums.ipbhost.com/topic/13129-geneforge-2-editor-updated/ If this editor doesn't do what you would like it to do, do say. As long as you're not looking for something too complicated, I or someone else on the boards might be able to work up a quick editor file for you.

Hello eaintree, I've come up with a little fix for you that should remove that quest item from your list! First, go to Shayder and stand in the mayor's office. Then, press 'shift' and 'd'. This should bring up a small dialogue box. Enter the following: sdf 4 5 1 This makes a slight change to the flag relating to the Krizsan quest. If you talk to the mayor now, you should see a new dialogue option allowing you to complete that quest and claim your experience reward. Just initiating this dialogue will set things back to where they were before, so that should be all you need to do! If this doesn't work for whatever reason, let me know. This behaviour is a little odd, so it's possible there's another cause I haven't anticipated.

Hello, Slarty is indeed correct. In order for the difficulty setting to stick, you need to change it from within the game itself. Just to clarify this a little, open your save file and then open the File Menu. This can be done by clicking an icon in the bottom display bar (or by pressing Escape if you're on a Mac). Then, select the Preferences option. This will show you a screen where you can change the difficulty, amongst other things. If you do this, and then save your game, your difficulty setting will be changed from that point onwards (or until you change it again) and stored in the save file!

Hello, In order to set your changes in stone, you need to manually save the file before clicking 'done'. When you load a file, an option should appear immediately underneath the 'Load Saved Game' button with the text 'Save Changes'. If you select this, you'll be prompted to save a new file – and this will have all of your changes! The option is hidden away slightly in a box that mostly contains other options, so it's easy to miss.

Hello again, I've just checked, and you do indeed have the correct solution to the puzzle. From the sounds of it, though, you might not be putting the crates and barrels in the correct place. Did you arrange them so that they fit onto the three tiles of carpet on the west side of the room?

Hello Curtis, Both of those areas can only be reached when the friendly spiders give you access to them, I'm afraid. To get access to the first, you'll first need to speak to the chief of the spiders. There will be a comment in this spider's description saying that he seems to be a leader. He will first give you a quest to speak to the Widow Queen, far to the west of the outdoors. Once you've done that and returned, the spider leader will give you a second quest. This is the one that involves the nasty spider. The quest will open up the section at the top of the map. Once you've finished this quest, you'll be able to reach the chest in the centre. Access will open up directly to the north of that area, and a small set of stairs will get you to the chest. Best of luck!

Hello kGeek, There's a little section on Spiderweb's site that talks about this, although it's a little hidden away. There are two different ways to reactivate the editor depending on whether you're using a Mac or a Windows computer. Here's the Mac version: "To reactivate the Nethergate: Resurrection character editor, go into your Preferences folder (in the Library folder in your Users folder) and throw away the file "Nethergate Resurrection Prefs". If your copy of the game is registered, you will need to ask us for a replacement registration code. (This is free.)" The Windows version is the same, but instead you need to delete 'NethergateSettings.dat', which can be found in 'Nethergate Saved Games' inside 'My Documents'. This will make the game unregistered, but if you send an email to the address below, giving the email address and name you originally registered under, Spiderweb will send you a new code at no cost to you. They're usually very quick about this! support@spiderwebsoftware.com

I also tend to prefer Curses somewhat over Jigsaw (and Graham Nelson's other games), but I think that's just personal preference. There's much to like in both games, and they both made quite an impression on me when I was younger. I fear I'll have to agree with Slarty on this one. When I first played through Curses, the ending didn't come across as a joke to me. It felt quite satisfying, as if it nicely wound up the themes explored in the work as a whole. In fact, I find the ending to be quite sad. The inherent magic surrounding the player character and their surroundings is broken, and the magical devices used throughout the entire game are no longer functional (with a couple of exceptions, granted). The surroundings return to banality, and you return to normal life – exactly what the force of the curse was trying to prevent. It feels like the wonder experienced during the game has evaporated, and I'm sure that's deliberate. I think I disagree with you about the map, though. This gets into some specifics, so I'll put this in a spoiler block: I also feel it's a little unfair to judge Curses on that 'last lousy point' mechanic, although I fully concede that it's a frustrating feature. That mechanic was hugely popular at the time of the release of Curses, and Curses was Graham Nelson's first game. I suspect he included it to make the game as complete and 'current' as possible. Nelson, incidentally, disliked the mechanic, and wrote about it negatively a few years later. I'm sure the point's in there somewhere, though. Perhaps someone will find it one day. I have a suspicion there might actually be three mutually exclusive points depending on the player's choices, but that's only speculation. I really hope it isn't that old don't-save-the-game trick. Incidentally, did either of you find out how to be turned into a constellation? I always wondered about that. It is possible to bring this topic full-circle again. Jigsaw was praised at the time it was released because of the novel way it handles the romance between Black at White (although I have one minor quibble about how it's done). As someone who is a fan of Jigsaw, googoogjoob, I'm curious as to your reactions to the inclusion of that romance. In your option, do you think Nelson does a decent job in writing it?

Hello BainIhrno, I'm not aware of any complete port that will run on Intel Macs, I'm afraid. One of the new experimental builds can open old scenarios, so you can use it to browse through scenarios if needed, but you won't be able to save any changes. I do have a pre-Intel version that works like a charm, but it sounds like that won't be useful for you. This might not be a helpful suggestion, but have you looked into going back even earlier in time and emulating Mac Classic? It is a little bit of a pain to set up, but I feel it's easier than setting up Windows or PowerPC emulators – at least if you're not paying money to do it. I can run the editor this way using the program 'SheepShaver' to emulate Mac OS 7.5.5, and it works like a dream. The advantage of setting up the system this way is that you can also run Blades in its original environment, so you're getting the full experience as Jeff originally wrote it! However, it's also easy to move scenario files to and from the 'fake' Classic machine, so you can always use the scenario editor in Classic and move the files over to your Intel machine to play them there – so you can use the editor and enjoy the quality-of-life improvements that have been added in newer versions. A number of people have set up convenient Classic emulators using SheepShaver over the years, so you should be able to find some good advice by searching online. If you're having problems, I might be able to give you some pointers. One other, much easier, option is to see if you can get hold of Tyranicus. He made a Wineskin version of the editor back in 2013. The link he posted seems to be down now, and it's not on the Archive, but he (or indeed some others on the forums) might still have a copy floating around for you. That won't require any porting – the editor will behave just like a normal Mac application, but it's actually pretending to be Windows. It can run straight out of the box!

Hello Muscleguy, It seems that this is a bug that can happen occasionally. It's something that's appeared on these forums before: http://spiderwebforums.ipbhost.com/topic/24462-quest-to-kill-garzahd/ Unfortunately, the solution posted above – replaying the fight – might not work out if you don't have a save handy, and it's extra work! Since this has popped up a few times, I had a dig into the scripts to see if I could figure out the cause. Unfortunately, the part of the program that registers Garzahd's defeat seems to be hard-coded, so coming up with a fix isn't entirely straightforward. If you're interested, there's one flag that logs Garzahd's death, and another that lets Avernum 'know' that he's dead. Only the first (oddly) is set by actually defeating Garzahd. That other one is hard-coded. However, I have a suggestion that might work, although it's based on a little guesswork. Try going back to Garzahd's fortress and entering it again (I'm hoping this will still be possible). There's something in the scripts that looks like a sanity check for a situation like yours. With luck, when you enter, you'll get the ending picture and dialogue for the Garzahd major quest. If you don't – let me know what happens. I might be able to use that information to come up with a fix that works! If all else fails – try the above method first! – I can at least get you the quest reward, although probably not things such as achievements. Hold down 'shift' and press 'd'. A dialogue box will appear. Type the following: sdf 16 11 1 Avernum's people will then recognise your feat. Interestingly, there are actually quite a few people who have things to say about this (e. g. Thompson, Solberg, Caffren-Bok etc.). In fact, Limoncelli even has a dialogue option removed if Garzahd is defeated. That's good foresight!

I think you might have misunderstood fractalnavel, River Linden. The posted link is a working link to Homeland. Also, and I hope you don't think I mean to be rude in pointing this out, but the daughter of the game's creator posted earlier in this thread. I'm all for positive criticism, but I'm not sure this is the best place to be plugging those old Homeland memes ... In fact, why not download the game yourself and give it a try? You might be pleasantly surprised! Greetings, siennilox. You are very welcome on these boards!

It's possible that I'm misunderstanding you entirely, here, but Avernum 4 is really quite old now. The original game was released back in 2005, which was several years before even the first iPhones were released. There wasn't any original iOS port, and I don't think Spiderweb has made one since then. Avernum 4 was the first game in a completely new engine, one that was a sort of amalgam between the old Avernum games and Geneforge. It has some significant changes compared to the previous Avernum games, since Jeff was going in a slightly different direction. It was a first attempt, so it doesn't have some of the small improvements made to some of the later installments. That lack of a talking command is one (although you can still get part of the 'A' effect by using Tab to highlight the names of people). Generally, the game is a little more mouse-focused. That's not because it was a port – it was a deliberate design choice! Your issue with the trackpad is an odd one. I seem to be able to move about with a quick tap on my end, but that's probably not very helpful to you. Have you tried playing around with your settings? Also, it shouldn't be possible to break the difficulty settings in the way you describe, no matter what operating system a player is using. If I understand how the engine works, the game itself would break completely long before something like the difficulty settings would go wonky. Again, Avernum 4 was a new engine, so the balance might be a little different compared to what you're used to. Just keep on going, and I'm sure things will hot up! Still, as a sanity check, it might be worth checking to see that your difficulty setting in the Preferences is set to Tricky. If it says Tricky, then that's what the difficulty should be. On the original topic, I feel that Avernum 4 was something of an experiment. It added quite a lot of changes compared to the earlier games, such as the different use of AP, the way item weight is handled and the different approach to the outdoors. That tends to make it a little harder to get into for players used to the other Avernum games. I insist that, under all these points, there is really quite a good game in Avernum 4. Sure, it's different to the other games, but that just means it's a different sort of Avernum – not necessarily a worse one. For my part, I feel that there are some really nice, memorable moments in this game. There are also good, novel things this game does that don't appear in subsequent games – a 'non-violent' way of dealing with the threat to Avernum, for instance. Now, I'm clearly in the minority here, and this isn't an argument I will make any attempt to win. But, still, I would really suggest that people give Avernum 4 a chance. If you get past the engine differences, it's the same old Jeff Vogel, the same old set of caves, even most of the same characters (even Pathass!). You might have more fun than you think!

Yes, bugs in how the party moves outdoors do seem to occur every so often. I've had it happen naturally to me about once per playthrough of each game, which probably says something about how I move my party around. Actually, I've had this bug happen several times around those same lava fields. There is a version of this bug that's reproducible, although I think it's slightly different from the one you describe. Next time you're in Avernum, try clicking on an inaccessible area of ground while your party is already walking. Good candidates are spots behind closed secret doors. Note that it has to be ground that your party could stand on if the way to it was not obstructed. The first character in your party will stay fixed where they were at the moment you clicked, but the rest of the party will obediently keep walking to their original destination. They'll also have their masks removed, so you'll be able to see your characters through things like cave walls. When you click again, the party will reunite. I suppose it's the opposite of what happened to you. I've had that bug happen too, but I can't reproduce it yet. It seems to like narrow tunnels, at least ... I've always assumed that there's one piece of code governing how the first party member moves, and some slightly different code for all the rest. If these pieces of code behave slightly differently, it might account for some of the confusion that the game is displaying! Still, as a bug, at least it's nice and harmless!

Hello ruppert29, Each of those doors needs to be activated by a switch before they'll open normally. Each door has a switch, but only on one side – usually one that's harder to get to. If you're near the spawner, there should be a switch nearby!

Hello txmimi, This is a little strange, and I’m not quite sure why you’re seeing this behaviour. It sounds like a flag has broken somewhere. The game is coded to try and make it so that you simply can’t walk through into the castle unless very specific requirements are met. I think I can fix this for you but, just to try and figure out what has happened, could you answer me a few questions? 1. When you walked into the little foyer area with windows on either side right at the entrance of the castle, did any text or dialogue come up at all? If so, what was it? 2. What specifically are the first dialogue options you are presented with when you meet the King? To fix this, enter the castle from the outdoors. Hold down ‘shift’ and ‘d’, and a prompt to enter some text should appear. Type this: sdf 28 8 0 Now, exit the castle to the outdoors and enter again, but don't move the party any further. Sorry about that – it slightly reduces the number of changes you need to make! Use shift-d again and enter these codes, one at a time: sdf 28 12 0 sdf 28 17 1 sdf 28 16 1 sdf 28 13 0 Now, walk into the foyer. A message should come up, and you should be taken to see the king. You’ll skip the part with the history scroll, I’m afraid, but the encounter should play as normal after that. Don’t save until you’re sure everything is working as it should! It might be best to use a separate save slot if you have one available. Let me know if you have any problems. This should work, but there might be complications if, say, the game isn’t recognising your diplomatic papers. I’ll need to come up with another workaround if that’s the case, or if the cause of your problem is something unusual.

Hello Muscleguy, Jeff has coded the Avernum games so that the meat of their content – the scripts – is the same regardless of what platform you're using. It's really quite a nice system! The advantage is that, if someone makes a mod like this, it will work in exactly the same way for all platforms. The only difference between a PC and Mac user is that they'll be putting the files in a slightly different place. You're right that, as a Mac user, you'll want to put these scripts in the Resources folder inside the application. Before making any changes, I highly recommend making a backup of the entire Avernum 2 application, just to make sure you can go back to it if something goes wrong, or if you don't want to use the mod any more. All you then need to do is to drag the several text files that make up the mod into the Resources folder. These will overwrite the originals (which is why I recommend making a backup!), and the game will then be modded. I haven't used this mod myself, but all the text files it provides are also included in the standard Mac version of the game. The PC and Mac versions use the same set of text files! In order to make big changes like this, only a couple of important scripts need to be changed. That's why you're not seeing hundreds of text files. In fact, most of the files in the mod are just changes to the help dialogues – it's only 'a2itemschars' and 'a2objsmisc' that carry all the gameplay changes. Just drag all the text files over and see what changes the modder has made to the engine!

Hmm, that's interesting! I think it makes sense that spawned and dropped items have different 'behaviours' for a situation like this. Items that the player drops already exist somewhere in the game's memory and are just being shunted about, but spawned items have to actively take up a new address. Perhaps dropped items don't mind overwriting old items, but spawned items do? Either way, I shall have to be more careful with item piles in future, just to be on the safe side! Have fun! I have a soft spot for the first Geneforge, and I'm sure you'll have a great time. Try to solve the mystery of the ancient pylons later on in the game if you can – you learn something quite interesting about the island for doing so!

If my memory serves, items start disappearing when you go over the item limit for an area. It's hard to do, but not impossible; some towns already have quite a few items as it is. Generally, Jeff's coding is really very solid. In my experience, it's pretty rare to find something that actually crashes his games. I wouldn't worry too much about it, Chopkinsca. Just leave items where you feel most convenient. If you start piling up lots and lots of items, just make a second pile somewhere else! No zones in Geneforge 1 are ever overwritten completely, so if you leave items somewhere, they will stay there forever.

Yes! But did you know that this rakshasa was also magically pretending to be Pyrog in Exile I? And that she initiated an emergency teleportation to the surface after the party ‘defeated’ the ‘dragon’? After all, Prazac and Pyrog are never in the same game. Their names even start with the same letter! Coincidence? I think not. I thought it was unusual that you didn’t comment on the link the first time. I wonder what the problem is? Maybe it's something odd with the permissions? In any case, to get around it, I’ve downloaded the files and uploaded them elsewhere, briefly. Here they are for your perusing delectation: https://we.tl/526MBGlLhz