Genernumlover

That makes sense. Thanks for the information. I was looking around for an orange essence pool to charge them, like in Mutagen. Well, a different installment in the series has slightly different mechanics to play by.

Thanks for the advice! I was wondering if I had made a mistake in not getting Blessing and Mental Magic. It sounds like I did. I made it a point to get Blessing Magic, at the very least, in previous installments, but I was hoping that Weapon Shaping would replace it. It seems like Weapon Shaping is meant more to keep the Guardian going once he is in the battle, but you need Blessing Magic to make the Guardian strong before the battle begins. I was hoping that Evasion would stack and give me a 28% chance of dodging all incoming attacks and therefore I'd drastically increase my survivability. It doesn't seem to work that way though. I didn't know about the Retrain cheat. That'll be handy.

I put some points in Essence Mastery early on in my Shaper game, in order to get more Iron Clawbugs onto the field. I'm glad that I got this information before I wasted anymore points in that. I am planning on mixing Battle and Magic Shaping for a team of Rotghroths backed up by Vlish for ranged support and buffs. I want a wall between my Shaper and whatever is attacking. What is the best overall shaping specialization? I was initially thinking of Fire Shaping, as you can get Fyoras and Roamers to a fairly highly level in the earlier game. Vlish seems like they'd be the best support option though. I'm wondering about which type of shaping is best in general and which is best for a class who isn't mainlining shaping.

For reference, my level 17 solo Guardian has: 8 Strength, 7 Agility, 4 Intellect, 5 Essence Mastery, 7 Endurance, 8 Melee, 5 Missile Weapons, 7 Evasion, 8 Quick Action, 4. Healing Craft, and 8 in Leadership and Mechanics. He can handle most mobs with a hit or two, but spellcasters and bosses nuke him. They stun, slow, and acid him to death, even with equipment that is supposed him to help resist that. It sounds like a fixable problem is that I don't have enough Blessing Magic to buff my character before battles. I got the Intellect and Essence Mastery for boss battles, so that he could cast more. That didn't help as much as I hoped it would. Would a point or two in Mental Magic be useful? Daze was a powerhouse in my Shaper's early game, but I'm wondering how good of an investment it would be in the long term. Also, should I specialize my Guardian's weapon skills more? I added a few levels of Missile Weapons, but it sounds like I could've put those points to better use. I don't use many canisters either, so that avenue of power is limited for my Guardian.

I've tried repeatedly tried playing with a Guardian, my favorite class through the original Geneforge series, and it is hard. A solo Guardian gets nuked into oblivion by enemy casters and bosses. Meanwhile, If you play as the tip of the spear for creations, you have to tank all the stuns, acid, and poison, yourself. A lot of the time, the melee Guardian is just trying to stay alive instead of hitting back, even with Lifedrain. In contrast, a ranged Guardian doesn't have the spells to buff and support melee creations, leaving him reliant on spores. Plus, if you make a field of creations, you don't have much essence to use Weapon Shaping, and you have to return to town constantly to recharge. Serviles characters in the future Geneforge 4 remake will be pretty strong, due to having Weapon Shaping and better spells, but the Guardian is in an awkward spot right now.

Where do you charge the Feisty Slap gloves and the Helix Ring? I've defeated a special character while I have the ring, and gotten a notice that it is charging, but the stats are the same as when I got it.

True, that's quite a bit of work, both remaking Geneforge 2 and fixing the issues with the older games. So far, I haven't had any real issues with Avernum 1, 3, or Avadon 1 or 2, so it seems to be unique to Avernum 2 and Avadon 3. Although, if he reused the same codes like you said then that means that problems will creep up as newer operating systems and computers come out. I'll send Spiderweb Tech Support an email and hope for the best results sometime down the road. It probably won't be soon, but hopefully Jeff will be able to fix the games after the remake of Geneforge 2 is out.

So that means that both Avadon 3 and Avernum 2 need fixes. Is Jeff aware of these issues?

I'm using a MacBook Pro, so that's probably it. Is there a fix?

Avadon 3 won't even allow me to access the main menu as it says that there are no allowed resolutions. It sounds like a similar problem to the one some folks were having with Geneforge Mutagen. Any ideas on how to fix this?

It also depends on what he was controlling. If the majority were creations that didn't have much capacity for thought, worms, crawlers, or turrets, with a couple of advanced creations as the muscle, it'd be theoretically possible for him to control a lot of them. The wimp of Harmony Isle was able to control quite a few creatures in spite of him being inept. Also, the player character can control a squad of Eyebeasts or Drakons in later games, so controlling a bunch of nearly mindless creatures should be possible. Like JDubkins, I also noticed that the option to maneuver and subdivide your party was gone. That was irritating, especially if you had a party of mixed creations. I'd like that ability to return. And the ability to once again change our character's sprite color would be nice, as he requested.

Looks like it might hit the 60k new story, but I doubt it will reach the 80k or 100k.

Thank you!

How do I get this fight to start? When I challenge Candlesmoke she runs. Do I have to solve that Erudico puzzle? If so, how?

The Shapers and Awakened were kind of the default sane factions in Geneforge 2. Barzites were the extreme version of Shapers and Takers were the extreme version of Awakened. Because of that dynamic, there was a bit of the "good guys get less rewards" trope going on if you joined the Shapers or Awakened. The thing with Zakary is that all of his attempts at stopping the rogue factions hinge on the player helping him. He has, arguably, the most stable and reliable band of Shapers in the mountains. He should be able to do something more than he did. The Awakened ending needs some work too. In light of the later Geneforge games, Drakons go rogue so easily that the Awakened ending is more a prelude to disaster rather than the founding of a sanctuary.

Huh, I didn't know any of that. I mainly view Pyroroamers as Jeff's prototype for charged creations. I'm still probably not going to use them much though. I dislike having to constantly replace my team.

Roamers weren't that good in the originals, although they've gotten a bit better in the remake. Pyroroamers, on the other hand, have always been on my default "do not make" list.

Later on that's true, especially later on when charged creations became the norm. In the earlier games the alternates were more viable.

But it is something you can do without, whereas before it was harder. And that original difficulty made players sometimes have to choose between altering the ending with heavier canister use or having to adjust their gameplay. It was a point in Geneforge 5 that you could get to Cryoras, from reading a Shaper tome, so early on, as that made the start fairly easy. But in the more canister heavy games, why go searching for a level three Drayk canister when your one or two canister Cryodrayks are already enough to clear the game? And since you already unlock the special creations very easily, players have less cause to go hunting for canisters. There's by far less reason to be through or make plot-altering decisions about the number of canisters you are using now.

It makes them stronger, but without the new creation unlock, there is much less need to go for more canisters. I think that, going forward, there should be either preexisting special skills or new bonus skills that can only be unlocked by reaching level three. Preexisting special skills being slowly unlocked would likely do more to keep the power level between classes manageable.

Thanks! I kept circling the area to see if a new encounter had spawned.

I've had these messages pop up when I visit the upper Kranas Woods, as well as a remark about a woman singing under the bridge south of Timberland Keep. Am I missing some encounters? Or these just traps to lure you into battle? I've already fought an Elder Naga just above the Ruska Pass.

Good, Guardians and Agents need some special combat abilities going forward. Not only for balance and gameplay reasons, but because it makes sense, in terms of lore, for them to have those abilities. I'm glad that Jeff is on this issue.

I'm a fan of the combat classes, particularly the Guardian and the Servile. With that in mind, I believe that melee combat was overpowered in the first two games and it was better balanced in the later Geneforge games. But now, in the remakes, most combat skills are pretty mediocre for the main character. A Shaper is much more powerful due to the new creation skills. Battle Creations can generally outperform melee characters and ranged creations can exceed most batons. Going forward, with the more powerful creation types still to come, and stun, slow, poison, and acid being present on most of the endgame enemies, the partially combat classes are going to continue to struggle to keep up with Shapers and Lifecrafters. I think Jeff should bring Avernum's Battle Disciplines into the Geneforge world for all classes that rely partially on combat skills. It will liven up the gameplay from "Shoot it, fireball it, or walk up to it and whack it" to a more strategic approach with weapon-based ranged and melee combat, and it would allow Guardians, Agents, Warriors, Shock Troopers, and Serviles to compete with Shapers and Lifecrafters without nerfing the creation skills or returning to the overpowered melee combat of Geneforge 1 and 2.

I don't trust File Sharing websites so I don't think I'm going to take you up on that. However, I appreciate that you were looking for a solution. Thank you for the offer.