Spidweb

I'll look at this. Probably my fault, and I'll fix it in 1.0.1. - Jeff Vogel

Thanks, I'll take a look at this. - Jeff Vogel

At the normal setting, the game will take up 1600x1200 of the screen. There is only a different with larger monitors than that, so this isn't the problem. Perhaps, at the new resolution, the OS is leaving part of the monitor black to compensate for the different aspect ratio. (1300 x 1008 is a slightly unusual resolution) The game's setting for how much of the monitor to take up shouldn't make a difference here. - Jeff Vogel

Sounds like a corrupted game or graphic file. Throw away the Avernum 6 folder (in Applications) and download a fresh copy. If the crashing continues, you might need to force the mines to reload. Walk to Dharmon and back and the game will be forced to completely reload a fresh copy of the area. - Jeff Vogel

It mistakenly says Geneforge 5. This will be fixed in v1.0.1. First, the obvious question. Is the game being played from a hard drive you reformatted? If so, is there any chance at all that it is case-sensitive? Also, try playing Geneforge 5. Let me know if the graphics there are working. That will help me to troubleshoot the problem. - Jeff Vogel

The game doesn't "officially" come out till Friday, 11/20, but well here you go.

Good news from the Avernum front. The game is done. It has been passing smoothly through beta testing. It should be out for the Macintosh before the end of November. A lot of work recently has been on balancing the late game. A lot of people had trouble with the difficulty of Avernum 5. I've been working hard to make sure that when you're playing on Normal difficulty you don't need to be super-skilled to just get through the storyline. Of course, if you want a challenge, Hard and Torment difficulties are available. Also, if you want things to be really easy, the character editor and cheat codes are still in there. Almost all of the graphics in the game have been redone. I'm putting the final touches on the completely refreshed item graphics. The game is, as is traditional, enormous. There is a LOT of stuff to do, and the main storyline alone is full of excitement and incident. And be careful about who who help. Your actions can result in drastically different futures for the world of Avernum. Today, I am putting together the final version of the application and sending it to testers. Then, barring disasters, I'll start on the million different bizness things I need to do to finish a game. I hope to have more screenshots up very soon. So keep an eye on the main Avernum 6 page: http://www.avernum.com/avernum6/index.html Onward to victory! - Jeff Vogel

For the entire month of October, everything we sell is 10% off. Games, hint books, even the entire Geneforge saga on one disc. Remember, you can get any of our games sent on a CD. Get some holiday shopping done early! Go to the Sadness Sale.

I just wanted to check in and let Avernum fans how things are shaping up for the final game in the series. Things are still looking on track for a late November release for Macintosh. It's a huge world, but I'm almost done with it. I'm getting pretty exhausted, but I'm still kicking out a lot of cool, elaborate dungeons. (For example, I just spent 2 days on an encounter where you escort a band of soldiers through caves infested with gremlins. Rest assured you will face a wide variety of peculiar and lethal practical jokes.) The structure of the game is an overarching storyline, alternating with going out and putting out fires in most of the major locations in the series. Each of these semi-optional quests (you only have to do so many) is very elaborate, with lots of cool scripting, characters, and enemies. Of course, there are also multitudes of optional dungeons, quests, and so on. The tradition of big Avernum games continues. And the demo is unusually large too. Probably not good for business, but it just works out that way sometimes. :-) A beta tester decided that his day wouldn't be complete without going out and unnecessarily panicking everybody, so he wrote that there is a harsh requirement to have food in the game. This is not true. I actually was in the process of strongly dropping the food requirement. You need food every once in a while to remind you what is happening in the world, but this will not be something people will find a hassle. Finding food is tough for most Avernites, but it won't be hard for you. Unsurprisingly, the brigands and bad guys you are hunting tend to be the ones who are hoarding the food. And the ending for Avernum itself is now written. It's, well, it's a very "me" sort of ending, bittersweet, neither triumphant nor utterly disastrous. (Assuming, of course, you don't try to wreak havoc.) I'm really happy with it. So that's it for now. Game still being written. Out soon. Lots of cool stuff. - Jeff Vogel

The window is now closed. We got enough applications. Thanks to everyone who applied!

We need Macintosh Testers for Avernum 6. Please apply if you are interested. Beta testing application page.

Geneforge 5, running in Snow Leopard, does not draw creature icons correctly. I changed the graphics format and it seems to work. I put a test version at ftp://ftp.spiderwebsoftware.com/temp/Geneforge5Demov104test.dmg Please feel free to try it out, even if you don't use Snow Leopard. Any comments can be sent to spidweb@spiderwebsoftware.com. - Jeff Vogel

Geneforge 5, running in Snow Leopard, does not draw creature icons correctly. I changed the graphics format and it seems to work. I put a test version at ftp://ftp.spiderwebsoftware.com/temp/Geneforge5Demov104test.dmg Please feel free to try it out, even if you don't use Snow Leopard. Any comments can be sent to spidweb@spiderwebsoftware.com. - Jeff Vogel

I mainly got my ideas for creations from what premade Poser models were available. Disillusioning, I know, but this is how sausage is made. - Jeff Vogel

I am finally posting some long overdue information about Avernum 6. I was hoping to release screenshots and more detailed plot information next month, but here is a bit of what's been going on. Avernum 6 is in full development, and the demo section is almost done. I still hope to have the Mac version out for Christmas. It will be the last Avernum game. (OK, I think it'd be really neat to do a game about the first days of Avernum, like Avernum: Origins, but not until the far future.) The storyline is the most detailed and twisty of any Avernum game. I think it's really cool. It's definitely very apocalyptic. Much of Avernum is going to be trashed. (Or trashed again.) Many characters will return, and some of them will get the dramatic ends to their stories they deserve. Much of the future of Avernum and its place in the world will be settled. (And, of course, the player will make a real difference in this.) Other things of note: * Every graphic has been redone. All of the icons will be anti-aliased and have shadows, which makes the game look much nicer. It's the prettiest game we've ever done. * I will use and expand upon all interface improvements from Geneforge 5. Being able to play in a window, play at any resolution, etc. * The buffing system will be very similar to Geneforge 5. Haste is weaker now, and you can have fewer buffs overall. Haste potions will be full double actions, though, the sort from the older games. * A bunch of game and system improvements. Dual-wielding weapons is back. The world map will be much more useful, as will quest destination marks on your map. You can see full information about items by mousing over them. (Finally!) * My favorite trio of wizards, Solberg, Lark, and Gladwell, return. As does X. And many other familiar faces. * The game takes place in Avernum. The old Avernum. But, for the first time, you start in the Great Cave. * The final fate of Avernum, it turns out, is something I've been foreshadowing since Exile 2. * Anama, no. Skribbane, yes. And yes, the first hit is free. Hope this information is of interest. - Jeff Vogel

We have finally gotten around to creating a Spiderweb Software area on Facebook. Become a fan and get all of the newest Spiderweb news (and learn about updates of our blog). We're at http://www.facebook.com/pages/Spiderweb-Software/61765053139?ref=nf (And the blog, for those who missed it, as it http://jeff-vogel.blogspot.com/) - Jeff Vogel

You don't have Dirext9 installed. Check the Geneforge 5 support page. It will explain what to do. However, if your graphics hardware is underpowered, DirectX probably won't help very much. - Jeff Vogel

The color flipping won't happen ion the DirectX version of the game. We hope to have this rectified in future games ... it'll take a bit more work. SOrry about this, and we've updated the support page. - jeff Vogel

Darkdread, Try uninstalling the game completely. Go into Program Files > Spiderweb Software and make sure the Geneforge 5 folder is gone. Download a fresh new copy and reinstall it. There might be some old files hanging around. Defragmenting your hard drive might help too. - Jeff Vogel

I am about to add this to the Geneforge 5 support page: Character Colors Not Changing If, in Settings, Graphics Extras are set to Don't Draw, then characters won't be drawn with shifted colors. Your main character will look the same no matter what your color setting, cryoas will look red, etc. If you selected Run In Fast Graphics mode when you started the game, Graphics Extras will be set to Don't Draw. If the game is running slowly but you want the character colors to change, leave Graphics Extras set to Draw All and set the Resolution to Run In 16 Bit Color.

Originally Posted By: beren terino If I've already paid for the original version, what do I do to get the upgraded version? Do I just download the new demo and install it? If so, will I still be able to use saves from v 1.01? Just download and install the new version. Saved games and registration will be unaffected. - Jeff Vogel

While Geneforge is not an allegory for parenthood, it is an analogy frequently used by Shapers throughout the series to justify their actions. - Jeff Vogel

Originally Posted By: Darkdread Does this also replace the v101testc.exe patch which was designed to improve the slowness of some machines due to graphics conflict??? Yes, just uninstall v1.0.1 and delete the test patch. Then get the full v1.0.2. - Jeff Vogel

agreenhill - That both the OpenGL and DirectX versions are messed up suggests something is wrong in your drivers, your card, or your system. It is not impossible that the newest drivers for the card don't work well with it ... it's a fairly old card, so it's not impossible. There's probably nothing else I can tell you. If the machine is failing to handle graphics correctly on DirectX _and_ opengl, it's a pretty tough situation. All I can suggest is trying running it with Fast Graphics Mode turned on and off and see if that makes a difference with either version. - Jeff Vogel

Originally Posted By: agreenhill Hi, Still having missing text problem. I have updated all my drivers, re-installed DirectX and Geneforge5, re-started, and so on, multiple times. The standard version of the game has text, but runs slowly with a white background, as described above. The DirectX version does the opposite: runs quickly and has graphics, but no text. Here my computer specs: Windows Vista on a Dell Inspirion 1501, AMD Turion 64 X2 Thoughts? It's not impossible that the 64 bit architecture isn't handling the graphics correctly. What is your video hardware? - Jeff Vogel