Aran

Besides, Avernum 3 wouldn't be half as much fun with huge armies of Empire soldiers tearing apart the plagues. What would be the point of the game?

Brett wrote a trilogy of scenarios, titled "Riddle of the Spheres", "Quest of the Spheres" and "Destiny of the Spheres" (hope I didn't jumble this). I don't know if there is a collective name for this series.

With the tongue firmly in cheek, I might briefly explore the possibility of an allegory to real world politics. Always take into account the views of the author.

After all, Avernites could be described as terrorists...

Since the original topic largely served its purpose (though I must add that I find the name "Adze-Haakai" wicked cool), I guess we could get off on a tangent and discuss PDNs.

 

I've changed mine on a regular basis in the last few months, until I started participating in the last RP. When I play an RP, I always change my name to the character's name to avoid confusion.

Ouch. Anaximander. Emperor, not King.

Someone check it, but I'm pretty sure thousands were never sent down to Avernum. The teleporters would not have sufficed for that amount of troops.

Also, the teleporters to Avernum were in the established parts of Ermarian, where a lot of soldiers can be mustered rapidly. Sending these soldiers over the mountain ranges to defend Valorim would have been very tricky. Although they have, in fact, managed to do so: A huge host of Empire soldiers is camping in a small valley southeast of Blackcrag.

Well, the player group are the heros. If heros were as mortal as Non-Playing Characters, this wouldn't be called an RPG, right?

Yes, a logical paradox left by the switch between Exile and Avernum and the addition of the first party. I suppose you could make up a funky conspiracy theory to fill that plothole...

 

On the other hand, it does make sense if they really *never* reported back, not even after first reaching the surface. Which, again, would make them rather incompetent operatives. Or could there have been sabotage?

I do wonder why the first party failed so miserably when the player party is, after all so successful. The only conclusion is that the first party considered of a bunch of lousy imbeciles, which makes one wonder why Unspec. Services chose them.

And Erin was a woman, and the other three were men?

In Avernum 3, the first party of adventurers sent to explore the surface never returned. The player's party is sent as the second one.

 

I don't have the time right now to play all through the game and find out about these characters, so could someone please tell me what were their names, and where did they each end up? I know one was lying dead in the slime pit somewhere, but I can't remember the others...

Jeff's marketing policies make a lot more sense to me now.

Actually, I don't turn it off on the new PC, and don't have trouble. But then again, it is a lot faster.

On my old XP computer, it regularly froze the entire pc forcing me to pull the plug, or alternatively caused the pc to pretend I had pressed the reset button. But that says nothing, because it regularly did that with all games. No problems now.

 

And I have never had any health bar failing to update for any character or creation on any machine. It sounds weird; perhaps there was some program running in the background interfering?

Actually, there is one thing I noticed which is not strictly speaking a bug as such, but rather an annoyance that you can avoid if you know about it. The floor/terrain outside the town boundaries uses the last row of squares inside the town boundaries and repeats it forever in line of sight.

 

This means that, when placing frills, you have to watch out that no frills are placed in the outermost rows, because the effect will be a long row of the same frill continued as far as the eye can see (looks highly artificial).

 

The problem is mostly with the "Place Random Frills" option, which has to be followed by a manual sweep of the outer rows. Perhaps this effect could be modified to only affect the area two squares in from the town boundary...

What is Clomipramine?

 

Edit: This.

I have named my thahds after anyone from former teachers to relatives to current and former US presidents.

 

They just look so stinking cool. And dumb, which is the point.

Dryads are a whole lot cuter than Gremlins, you know. It isn't fair to throw them both in one pot.

 

Oh, and this is a double topic. Seeing as this is the one that got replies, I'd suggest that the mods delete the other.

Hello, Motrax was never exiled by the Empire! At least if you think short-term; I heard the Dragons were driven underground centuries before.

 

There are plenty of NPCs that struck me as likable. Erika is one of them, at least as much for inspiring sympathy for her curse as for that vengeful personality. Micah is a nice person too, and with a lot of wisdom.

I think I remember it happened to Djur when he tried to wget the forums shortly before the purge. But I'm not sure.

You can get the Xian portable battery from Trajkoff, but only if you first remembered (every time you enter an area, within ten moves of entering it) to create a fyora, absorb it, create a Thahd, absorb it, *then* create an ornk and keep it alive until you reach the end of the area, then absorb it. If you entered a single map without doing this, you have lost the chance and have to start a new game.

Once you have the Xian battery, you need to recharge it with a special ability canister. There is only one canister that can recharge the battery, it's the one in the first map, that gives you Firebolt. I hope you didn't use it, because you have to reload otherwise.

To recharge the battery from the canister, plug it into the Xian cable that you can find in the cellar of Learned Pinner's house. In the cellar, you will need to evade the Giant Intelligent Friendly Talking Serviles (GIFTS for short), because they will make your life miserable and may take the battery from you. In the southeast corner of the cellar, there's the cable, but it's plugged into an alarm that alerts the entire Awakened village. So once you take the cable, prepare to run as soon as you go up, because the Awakened are going to come after you.

 

Quickly return to the canister, plug the cable into the battery, smash the canister with the other end of the cable and hold the plug inside the essence until it's all evaporated. Take care not to touch the battery while that's happening though, because it'd give you an electric shock.

 

Congrats, you have now gotten a fully charged Xian battery, which you can use to activate the portal and escape to Fort Emergence! Way to go!

Mostly because the servant minds aren't really creatures you easily sympathize with. Basically big ugly blobs vaguely resembling fourlegged animals, with an even more vaguely human face. Most of them are deranged, and those that aren't behave like robots.

 

Since the servant minds were made to have more mental capacity than serviles, I wonder why Jeff never included a servant mind that could develop its own thoughts...

I do like neutrality, which is why I joined the Awakened. I can understand that the Takers have gotten a rough deal and want some backpay, but it's not my job to help them get it. At best, it'd be to convince them of a more efficient way to improve their lives than revenge.

 

Interesting nobody here agrees with the Obeyers (in RL terms, not in game terms)... is this just because we're all kind-hearted, freedom-loving and openminded?

Well, duh, FBM. I don't see why anyone would hype that site if it's not their own?

Damnit, I've never tried Cloud of Blades.

Silly maybe, but effective. That's exactly what made me win the battles in DwtD.

 

And I agree that in some cases you might want an Undead boss to be immune to Simulacrum. Right now, that's only possible at the cost of having him immune to Repel Spirit as well... that might make sense if casting it gave a message like "This Undead is too powerful to be affected." When it instead gives the message "This monster is not undead", it looks rather dumb.

I'm normally predisposed against any websites that play sounds or music. Especially because in spite of my broadband connection, the mid file frequently freezes while the site is loading, resulting in a sound much like a badly stuck record. And if I could, I'd strangle every single web designer who causes Javascript alerts to pop up automatically when loading.

 

Other than that, the site isn't too bad. Just another Exile site with a different design, so?