Spidweb

Originally Posted By: Randomizer Originally Posted By: Spidweb For the next update, the pylon AEs will do less damage and the lich's two pets will be far more fragile. - Jeff Vogel PS Hey, all beta testers who told me again and again how the game was too easy ... You might want to remember this process next time around. I certainly will. You have to remember that most of the beta testers are insane powergamers. Of course we think your games are too easy. Now if we think something is too hard then it probably is too hard. PS That lich wasn't too hard once you get past the pylon damage. Don't get me wrong. It's my game. My name's on it. The balance problems are my fault. It's just, when I get three e-mails a day from a tester saying this is too easy or that is too easy, well, I'm only human. I eventually forget to ignore that tester. And then I release a less fun game that drives customers away. So I just want to gently point out, for next time around, that if your min-maxed mega party isn't being completely reamed out every step of the way, you might want to take the "too hard" threads into account when making suggestions. That's all. - Jeff Vogel

Originally Posted By: *i Quote: I'm playing on Hard difficulty and have a hard time... I think it is apt that combat should be hard when you are playing on a difficulty level called 'hard'. You are not, in fact, correct. - Jeff Vogel

For the next update, the pylon AEs will do less damage and the lich's two pets will be far more fragile. - Jeff Vogel PS Hey, all beta testers who told me again and again how the game was too easy ... You might want to remember this process next time around. I certainly will.

You will no longer be able to sell Demonslayer in the next update. - Jeff Vogel

Easy difficulty halves all enemy health and damage, which should easy carry you through the game. You did say that everything earlier was super-easy, which, on Easy, is at is should be. You can't hold against me the game being easy when it's set on Easy. :-) But there is one exception. If you fight monsters which you really shouldn't be fighting, you can still lose. You say that you are in Tranquility. What sentinels are killing you? Remember, the sentinels in the different quadrants will attack you unless you have the bracelet you need to pass them. If sentinels are attacking you in a certain area, go talk to Solberg. Even on Easy, the southeast sentinels will keep you from leaving until you help Solberg with his problem. - Jeff Vogel

Dude, I fixed the problem with 'backtostart' making items disappear years ago. - Jeff Vogel

We will fix this in the next update. In the meantime, typing shift-D and entering 'backtostart' should free you without causing any problems. - Jeff Vogel

Acid damage is the same, but fewer creatures inflict the ongoing damage. A certain amount of that is ok, but too much is annoying. - Jeff Vogel

In 1.0.2 go back and talk to Levitt. He will give you the key. - Jeff Vogel

Thank you ... Somehow a script got dragged out of a folder. (I blame my children.) I'll get this fixed.

Edit: v1.0.2 is now live. Thank you for the feedback! I have made a public beta of Avernum 6 v1.0.2 for the Mac available. I wanted to give it two or three days to make sure I didn't let a corrupted file slip in there somewhere. You can download it at [just use regular download page] If you try it and have any problems (or try it any everything is great), you can always send a note to spidweb@spiderwebsoftware.com. Or just post in this thread. There are a lot of changes in this version. A lot of bugs fixed, a lot of balance tweaks, and a few changes to make some regions less annoying: * The game in general is slightly easier. Your foes will have slightly less health and damage capability. * Fewer creatures cause ongoing acid damage. * Quite a few early side quests are now easier. We like for a handful of the side quests to be challenges, but too many were too hard. * You will now be able to complete the Fort Draco and Fort Monastery quests even after Levitt will no longer tell you about them. * The Hirickis encounter will no longer get stuck and unable to continue. * Resurrected characters will be cured of damaging effects (like poison). * Some other balance changes and minor bug and typo fixes. - Jeff Vogel (Edit: 1/13/2010: I just put up a new version. The missing dialogue script has been replaced and a bug which made it possible for the Khrez-Yss encounter to get stuck has been fixed.)

Originally Posted By: VCH I think Jeff should have placed more encounters with gropus of adventurers in the game. Isn't Avernum full of adventurers? Why do you not meet any then? You know all those bodies you're always finding in the back tunnels with tiny chunks of loot on them? There's your other adventurers. Also, every pile of bones and skulls. - Jeff Vogel

A small number of people using Snow Leopard have found that, when they try to install the full game from the CD, the installer quits with the error "This installer requires admin privileges to run." This happens even when they have admin privileges. This problem has inflicted a large number of installers and, alas, some of Spiderweb Software's games are affected. There are two workarounds for this problem. One of them is to install the demo and request a new registration code here: http://www.spiderwebsoftware.com/support/newkey.html Getting registration keys is always free. There is a second, more involved workaround. Insert the game CD and carry out the following steps: 1. Open the Install file. A window will open with the game art and an installer with the game icon. It will have a name like "Install Avernum 6 (Full)". Drag this installer onto your desktop. 2. Hold down the Control key and click on the installer. A menu will come up. Select "Show Package Contents." 3. Open the Contents folder. Open the Resources folder. 4. Open the file "installscript" If it asks you what program to open it with, choose TextEdit. 5. Scroll down until you find these lines: <key>Require Authentication</key> <string>TRUE</string> and change them to <key>Require Authentication</key> <string>FALSE</string> 6. Save and quit TextEdit. The installer should now work. This is an ugly situation and an ugly workaround, and we apologize for it. We wish this hasn't happened, we will do our best to make sure CDs printed in the future don't have the problem, and we desperately hope that Apple fixes this problem in an upcoming operating system update. The installers are written in a format provided by Apple, and their refusing to run even on an account with proper privileges is a serious problem. Please let us know if you have any problems, and we will do our best to get you up and running. - Jeff Vogel Spiderweb Software http://www.spiderwebsoftware.com

This will be fixed in v1.0.2. In the meantime, just leave the area, use a portal (to force the area to be reloaded), return, and try the fight again. Damage Hirickis more slowly. Killing the drake and horde upstairs again is entirely unnecessary. - Jeff Vogel

Originally Posted By: Euconfusion Exile, Exile 2, Nethergate, and Geneforge were all full of Jeff. None of his other games have lived up to this in quite the same way. I normally try not to step into these less concrete conversations, but I have to say that I find this statement to be pretty bizarre. - Jeff Vogel

All of these are by design. For special, scripted side encounters, you only get one bite at the apple. Even scuttlers are smart enough to know that if a bunch of spell-flinging ninjas rampage through their lair, it's time to find a new lair. - Jeff Vogel

Yep, this is another bug. Fixed in v1.0.2, out in a week or two. Thanks! - Jeff Vogel

I have a fix for this. This will soon appear on the support page: Entering Fort Draco In Avernum 6 v1.0 and v1.0.1 for the Macintosh, if you complete enough of Levitt's quests to satisfying him without ever asking about the Fort Draco quest, you lose access to Fort Draco. To solve the problem, download this script: ftp://ftp.spiderwebsoftware.com/mac/z69Tcastledlg.txt.zip Uncompress it and put it in the folder Avenum 6 Files/Scripts. You will be copying it over a script already there. Then start the game and talk to Levitt. - Jeff Vogel

This was a legit bug, which will be fixed in v1.0.2. Here is the support info ... Game Ends Unexpectedly During Vahnatai Quest In Avernum 6 v1.0 and v1.0.1, if you fail the Fort Draco quest and then attempt the mission for Tenevra, when you reach Clodeca-Tel, the game will unexpectedly end. Should you encounter this problem, just before you enter the room where you are told that you fail, press Shift-D, enter sdf 23 13 0 and press Return. You will be able to enter the room safely. - Jeff Vogel

Thank you ... This will be fixed in v1.0.1. - Jeff Vogel

When I return from vacation next week, I will release Avernum 6 v1.0.1. The experience for monsters will be increased and some of the encounters (like that eyebeast) will be easier. Some optional encounters meant to be very hard (like the aranea queen) will be looked at, but, since they are optional and easily bypassable, I may leave them alone. So yes, the game will become easier. - Jeff Vogel

All topics older then 60 days will be pruned tonight from this forum. This is part of general maintenance today and will help to keep our SQL Database size under control and less prone to corruption. Mariann Krizsan

There is a lot of long-standing confusion on this issue, so I'll add an entry to the support page. On CPU Usage and Laptop Heat There have been a lot of questions over the years about high CPU usage and laptop heat for our games. Hopefully the following will clear up questions on this issue. There isn't much we can do to make things better, I'm afraid, but we might be able to illuminate the issues involved. Our games, while relatively low-budget, are still games. To maintain a high frame rate, they require a lot of processing power. To fill all of the pixels on a monitor and run the game itself (the combat, the AI, the movement, etc) at a high rate of speed requires a lot of energy, whether the graphics themselves are 3-D or icon based. That is why, if you look at your activity monitor while playing, you will note that our games take up all of the available CPU power. This doesn't mean that our game keeps anything else from running. Our games just take up all of the processor energy that isn't playing music, checking e-mail, etc. If you switch out of our game and run something, it should work more or less normally. Alas, many models of Macintosh laptop have, historically, had a problem with heat management. This problem that has shown up in many models running many different applications. This means that, when playing our games, the fans might start to spin. If you are having a problem with this, there might be tips online to solve the problem. Do a Google search for your laptop model and "heat issues" and something useful might come up. Sadly, there is little we can do about how Apple engineers its laptops. Hopefully this clears up some of these issues. I'm sorry that we can't be of more help.

To answer the original question, yes. The game gets much harder. It's a long game, and I intentionally make the demo fairly easy. - Jeff Vogel

What resolution are you trying to run the game at? You say it has slowdowns after some time playing? Is the speed normal at the start? How long is it before things slow down. - Jeff Vogel