Spidweb

Follow the directions you see when you enter the tech support forum, at the top. This fixes the vast majority of these sorts of problems. - Jeff Vogel

Follow the directions you see when you enter the tech support forum, at the top. This fixes the vast majority of these sorts of problems. - Jeff Vogel

"Baldur's Gate I - II is crap compared to Planescape Torment." While I am a huge fan of Planescape: Torment, I feel that Baldur's Gate II is one of the all-time great RPGs. I felt just as caught up in the story, but there was more game there. Torment was beautifully written, but I spent a lot of time going, "Oh, will you shut up? I want to hit something!" As for the weight limit, that is a major part of game balance in the Geneforge system. It's how I keep the more fragile, magic-based character builds from wrapping themselves in 5 inches of steel plate. - Jeff Vogel

i. Back up your save folders. ii. Do a full uninstall. iii. Redownload a fresh copy. Reinstall. (just reinstalling is not enough, you have to do it clean) iv. Replace your saved games. v. Load one of them. Hit Shift-D. Enter "backtostart" You should be fine. - Jeff Vogel

"Seriously, this is awesome. No need to play a pacifist just so I can stomach it anymore! Random creations related to the plot! NO MORE HACKING AND SLASHING!" Oh, I wouldn't want to overstate that case. There are plenty of zones swarming with monsters in need of ass-kicking. There is a war going on after all. It's just that the ratio of story to fight is higher. Once change I did forget to mention, though. I am making an effort to replace swarms of individual monsters with groups. I want to reduce the "walk 10 feet, tiny fight, walk 10 feet, tiny fight" syndrome. This change should extend to all future games. - Jeff Vogel

One more thing that I think I should throw out here is that I do not think that the Sholai will have a major part to play in the rest of the Geneforge saga. This is why. The rest of the games will focus with the full, sickening unleashing of the powers of the Shapers, and everyone, human and creation, dealing with the aftermath. That is why I don't really want the Sholai to be involved. They are staying well back from the crazy people. The Shapers and rebels are going to have to fix their problems on their own. - Jeff Vogel

Despite a new infant, food poisoning, and general inertia, I've now completed the first 5 areas of Geneforge 4. I have a lot better idea of the shape the game is going to take. I hope to have actual screen shots and PR available in a month or two. The game will be smaller in size than Geneforge 3, but with a much higher plot density. I've tried to make the game have a more intricate plot and more involved quest chains, battles, and characters. I have some concern that the amount of talky interaction in the game will cost me hack-n-slash gamer money, and this bums me out, but it ended up being the sort of game I wanted to write, so here we are. Avernum 4's relative success bought me some extra time, and, when I wasn't spending that time parenting, I spent it polishing Geneforge 4 and reworking a lot of stuff that was overdue for it. I added a lot of polish to the graphics, to the item system, and to the creations for starters. There will be some weather effects. They have no effect on gameplay whatsoever. They're just pretty. There are five basic rebel character types. Four of them are human. As said before, their are 3 new creations and eight new spells. I am also making some major changes to the alternate creation types to make them more interesting. The game still tracks your allegiance to one side or the other, but the system is now based far more on actions and less on conversation. A lot of encounters have a pro-rebel and a pro-shaper resolution. Still hope to have it out for the Mac by Christmas. - Jeff Vogel

No picking flame wars about Avernum 4 please. It makes me sad. Some people like it and some people don't, like every other game I've ever written, better or worse. - Jeff Vogel

Ancalagonthe Black asked a question in another thread that I though deserved its own topic. "Jeff-why did you go from the exile system where 50% reduction + 50% reduction = 75% reduction to the more recent system of being 100% reduction? (This applies to traits as well)." I think you have this backwards ... it's the new system that has 50% + 50% = 75%. (i.e. the first piece blocks half of the damage and the second blocks half of the remaining damage) The reason for the new system (which I am VERY happy with and will stick with indefinitely) is that it makes the game much easier to balance, while continuing to have additional armor make a difference. With the new system, you can never entirely block out damage. The foes can always hit you. But new pieces of armor will always help out more. In the older games, it was possible to stack up pieces of armor to make yourself immune to damage. This is a very very bad thing for a game. Of course, some people still find Avernum 4 too easy. But then, I've never played an RPG that I wasn't able to make too easy with care. But I have to balance the games so that more casual gamers have a chance. If the hardcore Avernum fans find the game hard, it's too tough. - Jeff Vogel

Ancalagonthe Black asked a question in another thread that I though deserved its own topic. "Jeff-why did you go from the exile system where 50% reduction + 50% reduction = 75% reduction to the more recent system of being 100% reduction? (This applies to traits as well)." I think you have this backwards ... it's the new system that has 50% + 50% = 75%. (i.e. the first piece blocks half of the damage and the second blocks half of the remaining damage) The reason for the new system (which I am VERY happy with and will stick with indefinitely) is that it makes the game much easier to balance, while continuing to have additional armor make a difference. With the new system, you can never entirely block out damage. The foes can always hit you. But new pieces of armor will always help out more. In the older games, it was possible to stack up pieces of armor to make yourself immune to damage. This is a very very bad thing for a game. Of course, some people still find Avernum 4 too easy. But then, I've never played an RPG that I wasn't able to make too easy with care. But I have to balance the games so that more casual gamers have a chance. If the hardcore Avernum fans find the game hard, it's too tough. - Jeff Vogel

"And I’m a LOT less optimistic when you come on these boards and tell us that legions of people love your new action RPG and compare those of us who don’t like it to crazy luddites who hate all change and will never be happy anyway." I think this may be overstating the case a wee bit. In my mind, Avernum and Avernum 4 are a pair. To me, these two games feel very similar. In my mind, Avernum is a pretty plotless affair. You may see it differently. And, in my mind, Avernum 2 and Avernum 5 will be a pair too. Avernum 5 will use the same engine and much of the same graphics as Avernum 4, but it will be a very different game. No question. - Jeff Vogel

"The customer is always right." I profoundly disagree with this statement, which is why I always say, "You can't win an argument with a customer," instead. Sometimes the customer thinks the game should be free (or a trivial amount). Sometimes, as you said, different customers will have redically different points of view. And sometimes the customer is a paranoid schizophrenic who thinks that my game is spying on him. (Yes. It happened.) Sometimes people don't understand how personally I take their critiques. No matter how many people like Avernum 4, the number of people who didn't like the new direction makes me genuinely unhappy. But what can you do? Looking back, there are some small things I would have changed, but, in Avernum 4, I feel I wrote the game I had to. Of course, I'd be a lot more angsty about Avernum 4 if I wasn't selling a lot of it. :-) - Jeff Vogel

I do get negative E-mails too, of course. But I have noticed that, whenever I do ANYTHING different, there is a portion of my fan base that are full of rage and will leave and never come back. I still get wrathful E-mails about switching from the Exile engine to the Avernum engine. Still! You can't win an argument with a customer. If someone hates Avernum 5, they hate it. But, I am sorry to say, a lot of people love the direction I've taken with the series. Their feedback gets kinda sorta taken into account. - Jeff Vogel

"am i the only one who thinks this" Not at all. There are a lot of people who love the game. I read their E-mails every night. - Jeff Vogel

It will definitely be 800x600. - Jeff Vogel

I have gotten a few reports of Avernum v2.0 for Macintosh being unable to load saved games. I've tried multiple times, but I can't reproduce it. If you are able to make the problem happen and can answer a few questions, could you drop me a note at spidweb@spiderwebsoftware.com? - Jeff Vogel

The reworked Nethergate would use the same engine, just beefed up. Probably Avernum style dialogue (this would take some time). Some new content. Interface and game system improvements. The interface would likely look a lot like Avernum's in the end. A lot of the major encounters would be reworked to be more in the current style (multi-phase encounters with adds and other special abilities). And the game would be rebalanced to make it more challenging at the end (something I have long felt is a major flaw in the game). The update would most likely be $10 for registered users. In addition to the general, overall reworking, there would probably one decently sized dungeon for each side (one for Romans, one for Celts). All of this, is, of course, at least 9 months in the future and subject to drastic change. - Jeff Vogel

This is a new one on me. This is the only way I know of in the newest versions to make the game unwinnable. Part of me wants to patch the game to fix it. Part of me doesn't. - Jeff Vogel

No more Erika. No more Rentar. No more Garzahd. - Jeff Vogel

It shouldn't be possible to be in debug mode at all. It should be completely disabled. I suspect a corrupted game file. Follow the standard advice in the tech supprot section (back up saves, uninstall, redownload). - Jeff Vogel

Look on this page, section C. Should solve your problem. http://www.spidweb.com/misc/download.html - Jeff Vogel

Look on this page, section C. Should solve your problem. http://www.spidweb.com/misc/download.html - Jeff Vogel

Get a new copy from our web site and install it. That shouldn't unregister your copy. If it does, we can give you a replacement key for free. Just E-mail us. Of course, it might be the saved game that got corrupted, not the game files. That's why it's a very good idea to go to a game from before things went wrong. - Jeff Vogel

I think I removed experience drain in Avernum 3. I CERTAINLY made sure experience drain never takes levels away. Nothing takes levels away. What this looks like is a file corruption, either in the game or the saved game. I suggest chucking Avernum 3, downloading a fresh copy, and reinstalling. Then go back to a saved game from before the levels mysteriously disappeared. There is nothing in the game as designed to cause that effect. - Jeff Vogel

I did read this whole thread. I've done complete engine reworks several times now. There will always be people who love the changes and people who hate them. Most of the changes I made in Avernum 4 are, I feel, all to the good. For example, I have absolutely no apologies for: i. Unlimited arrows. ii. The new first aid and death systems. iii. The new seamless world. (Avernum 4 would not exist if it weren't for this. I was completely fatigued with designing in the old system. Also, I'm not sure why people say there is no outdoors. Most of the game is outdoors, and the Avernum 4 outdoors has more detail and characters and stuff than any of the earlier games!) iv. No secret passages. (Bumping into every wall was just lame.) Things that are neutral: i. The movement system. It's sort of a sideways switch. But I really don't think Avernum 4's system is bad. Just different. And you can always move using the keyboard. Things that I will likely rework in Avernum 5: i. How locks/lockpicks work. ii. Having a proper character editor. iii. The lighting system. iv. I want elevations to return. I have to think a lot to see if it's feasible. Elevations didn't make the cut because it was already months of work just doing the Avernum 4 engine as it is. As I have already said in other threads, it was already a huge expense in time and money to have the graphics Avernum 4 already has. There will be more new graphics in Avernum 5. But the economics of the thing means that we have always reused old graphics and always will. You don't like it. I don't like it. Nobody likes it. But it absolutely can't be avoided. - Jeff Vogel