Spidweb

I was out of town, so I was slow getting back about the chitrachs. I like them and hope to use them.

- Jeff Vogel

I just fixed several of these, including the infinite Abisynthe problem.

The thing about dialogue triggers for fights is something I have been struggling to fix for several games. It's better than it was, but it still requires some work. It'll probably require some actual engine work in the next game.

- Jeff Vogel

Known issue, which will be fixed. More information at

http://www.spiderwebsoftware.com/avernum/avernum4/techsupp.html

- Jeff Vogel

"—Alorael, who places Alphonse ahead of Ambrose in his list of favorite talking bricks."

I mistyped. Alphonse is indeed a funnier name.

If you think you can be critical of my games, you should hear me with my game-designer friends when I really get going. "Yeah, so in my new game, you meet this farmer who says you need to find a rock, and then another rock, and then a third rock, and when you stack them in a bucket the farmer gives you a key you used to get the fourth rock OF POWER, and then you can kill the demon and win. Oh, and there's runes in there too."

- Jeff Vogel

"I respectfully call this a strawman argument for several reasons:"

It wasn't a strawman argument. It was a joke. Thus the smiley.

The real argument, such as it was, buried within had already been stated in a previous paragraph. Simply, I am far more interested in what the characters do than how they are told to do it.

I have been thinking of someday writing a whole new humorous rpg series. And, when I do, there will be a chain of quests given by Ambrose The Talking Brick. This I promise you.

As for interactivity, changing world, and so on, I love this stuff, and put in as much as I can stand. However, for me, the most time-consuming, exhausting part of writing the games is dialogue and prose. Every bit of world-changing is a straight shot of the hardest stuff to do. I WANT to do that stuff. But I can only do so much.

Kelandon makes an excellent point about the evolving world of Exile 3. But it mostly evolved in a way that was very easy to code (crumbling buildings) and didn't manifest itself in dialogue very much. I may try doing something like that in the future. It was neat. But I have to have a game where the plot, etc. lends itself well to it.

- Jeff Vogel

I am familiar with the "Bob" term, though I don't use it in my thinking about design.

Having one central character who gives orders for a large chunk of the plot happens for several reasons. It's realistic. It's easier on the player. (Lost in the plot? There's always one dude you can talk to to set you straight.)

And, perhaps most importantly, it's easier, so I can focus design time on the actual missions as opposed to the mission giver. Because, honestly. All my fondest memories of RPGs are of the dungeons, traps, foes, and so on. Not of the Jedi/General/Porn Star/Alphonse The Talking Brick who told me to go there.

As for an rpg with a deep interactive world with non-static characters and so on, that is a really tough nut. I need to be convinced that the payoff is worth the huge amount of work. When I'm planning Geneforge 4, I think my energy will be much better spent planning cool, badass (albeit static) dungeons to go through.

By the way, I've been reading D-Day by Stephen Ambrose. At first, I thought it was really exciting, but now I know that it is not. Eisenhower was such a "Bob" character. All he did was sit in the back and give orders. I had no idea that World War II was so uninterestingly plotted.

- Jeff Vogel

Any future Avernum graphics will have PC designs. PC graphics, however, take up the most time by FAR. A monster takes a day or two. A PC can take two weeks. They take longer to render, and there are more poses to do.

- Jeff Vogel

It is unfortunate that so many people don't like the Geneforge-style graphics (rendered with a program called Poser). I thought I'd say a word about what's happening with that.

Graphics and sound have always been our games' great weak point. Graphics are expensive. Hand-drawn graphics are very expensive.

So it was the greatest thing ever when we figured out how to use Poser. We are able to make reasonably neat animated figures (Linda does most of this btw) without spending a bajillion dollars.

But we are limited by the fact that it takes a lot of time to make them, and by the availability of premade models we can plug into Poser. This is why 3 of the PCs in Avernum 4 look so Geneforgy. We just didn't have time to make new PC models from scratch. As it was, we were rendering stuff right up to the release date.

At this point, Poser icons are the best solution we can find to a very real problem. And, to be honest, I really like them. The sliths and nephils in Avernum 4 are, in my opinion, the best those races ever looked.

The one thing that still causes me pain, however, is the chitrachs in Avernum 4. Having them look like clawbugs is Weak Sauce. But I wrote them into the game before I realized that I couldn't find a different, decent Poser model for a weird bug. The MOMENT I find one, that clawbug is SO out of there.

- Jeff Vogel

"Jeff is highly misanthropic and values his independence."

Oh, not "highly". You'd like me if you met me.

I greatly appreciate every bit of word of mouth people give me, but I wouldn't go out of my way to do it.

I resist the characterization, by the way, that I've gotten so lazy in plotting. Though Geneforge 3 had a lot of the same story structure as 1 and 2, I think there was enough neat stuff in there to let me sleep at night. The character of Litalia and the whole Dhonal's Isle thing in particular.

Geneforge 4 will go heavy in the opposite direction from Avernum 4, by the way. Avernum 4 was a simpler combat game because that was what I felt like writing. Now I want to write a cool story with lots of funky scripted events.

- Jeff Vogel

There won't ever be an editor for Avernum 4, but I am strongly considering relenting for Avernum 5, should it be written. (And, considering how crazy much Avernum 4 we're selling, Avernum 5 seems a good bet.)

- Jeff Vogel

Very interesting stuff. Thanks for posting that report. I am happy that singletons are workable with lots of care and thought. It's one way for the really jaded, super-skilled Avernum players to still find a challenge.

- Jeff Vogel

Very interesting stuff. Thanks for posting that report. I am happy that singletons are workable with lots of care and thought. It's one way for the really jaded, super-skilled Avernum players to still find a challenge.

- Jeff Vogel

This bug will be fixed in v1.0.1, which will be out sooner or later.

I'm not freaking out over it. Though it does give me a giggle that someone would be so desperate to save a lousy 25 bucks that they'd spend the whole game wandering in the dark.

- Jeff Vogel

My customer base is about 60/40 Windows/Mac.

I write games Mac first because I am far more proficient with Macintoshes than Windows, and the development tools I like most work best on Macs. So my games get done much quicker if I write them on Macs. If I wrote my games on Windows, it'd take longer to get them done, so you'd still end up waiting.

THIS IS NOT ME SAYING MAC IS BETTER THAN WINDOWS OR VISE VERSA. Don't start that argument. It's just my personal work thing.

- Jeff Vogel

We have just released Avernum 2 v2.0 for Macintosh as a public beta. Like the Avernum v2.0 update, this new version is fully Carbonized and will run natively on OS X.

You can download it at:

ftp://ftp.spiderwebsoftware.com/mac/Avernum2.demo.v20.bin

If you try it out and have any problems, please let us know at spidweb@spiderwebsoftware.com.

- Jeff Vogel

"Jeff, if you don't mind me asking, what are you going to do when Apple goes to Intel? "

I will make sure they work. But if, as I think they've said, Carbonized games work fine on the new platform, I hope to not have to rework everything. Making new releases of every old game in our catalog would devour a huge chunk of time I can't spare.

If they don't work on the new platform, I'll have to redo them, I guess.

- Jeff Vogel

"Yes, but does 100% resistance actually prevent 100% of damage?"

Nope. I tried to, for the first time, actually provide an explanation for how this works. It's in the docs, I think in the combat chapter.

Basically, each piece of armor eats a percentage of the remaining damage. I love this system and wish I thought it up years ago. It makes balance MUCH easier. It is the main factor that helps me keep the game a challenge at higher levels.

- Jeff Vogel

"Yes, but does 100% resistance actually prevent 100% of damage?"

Nope. I tried to, for the first time, actually provide an explanation for how this works. It's in the docs, I think in the combat chapter.

Basically, each piece of armor eats a percentage of the remaining damage. I love this system and wish I thought it up years ago. It makes balance MUCH easier. It is the main factor that helps me keep the game a challenge at higher levels.

- Jeff Vogel

Being able to respawn the attack is a bug, that should be fixed in the next update.

If Aelfin dies, you can't satisfactorily complete the quest, I'll try to remember to change it so the quest gets removed.

- Jeff Vogel

"If you want to play it natively in OS X, you'll need to download the Carbonized version and get a new registration key."

Almost. We will release a patch, so that you can upgrade your old Avernum to the OSX-native version without needing to reregister.

- Jeff Vogel

"I seem to remember having to dispel barriers to win, but now I can't remember where these essential barriers are. Anyone else know?"

If you do remember, let me know so I can remove/alter them. But if you do find a barrier you have to lower to win, I will be surprised.

The fight to get Dispel Barrier in the Tower Colony is a tough one, but also skippable (or, at least, muich delayable). So it shouldn't be an issue for singletons winning.

- Jeff Vogel

"I seem to remember having to dispel barriers to win, but now I can't remember where these essential barriers are. Anyone else know?"

If you do remember, let me know so I can remove/alter them. But if you do find a barrier you have to lower to win, I will be surprised.

The fight to get Dispel Barrier in the Tower Colony is a tough one, but also skippable (or, at least, muich delayable). So it shouldn't be an issue for singletons winning.

- Jeff Vogel

We have just released Avernum v2.0 for Macintosh as a public beta. This new version is fully Carbonized and will run natively on OS X.

You can download it at:

ftp://ftp.spiderwebsoftware.com/mac/Avernum.demo.v20.bin.

If you try it out and have any problems, please let us know at spidweb@spiderwebsoftware.com. A Carbonized Avernum 2 should follow in a week or so.

- Jeff Vogel

I am reading this thread, because I think it's pretty interesting. One bit of advice ... you do NOT need dispel barrier or high pick locks to win the game. I think the hardest door you have to unlock to win the game has difficulty 5. Passing doors and barriers gives you better gear and options, but there is always another way.

(This is, in part, to prevent Avernum neophytes from gimping themselves but not thinking to get one particular thing.)

I don't think you can win the game as a singleton without lowering the difficulty. This doesn't bother me. Balance is a tricky thing as it is. In the end, you have to pick a set of legitimate playstyles, balance to make them reasonable, and hope the borderline behavior works out.

The thing that makes a singleton hard is NOT how experience scales. It is the basic way the encounters are designed. I tried to set them up so that several characters need to work together to do whatever. In this sense, I find the problems singletons are having to be reassuring.

But I really do hope your singleton finds a way to win.

- Jeff Vogel

I am reading this thread, because I think it's pretty interesting. One bit of advice ... you do NOT need dispel barrier or high pick locks to win the game. I think the hardest door you have to unlock to win the game has difficulty 5. Passing doors and barriers gives you better gear and options, but there is always another way.

(This is, in part, to prevent Avernum neophytes from gimping themselves but not thinking to get one particular thing.)

I don't think you can win the game as a singleton without lowering the difficulty. This doesn't bother me. Balance is a tricky thing as it is. In the end, you have to pick a set of legitimate playstyles, balance to make them reasonable, and hope the borderline behavior works out.

The thing that makes a singleton hard is NOT how experience scales. It is the basic way the encounters are designed. I tried to set them up so that several characters need to work together to do whatever. In this sense, I find the problems singletons are having to be reassuring.

But I really do hope your singleton finds a way to win.

- Jeff Vogel