VCH

Originally Posted By: All the VAgaries of Space & Time You could even try claiming that you like the game but are angry about the price and demand a $5 refund. Jeff's a pretty nice guy, curmudgeonly presentation aside. You could probably make it work. —Alorael, who is most convinced by customer service. If anything goes wrong with his registrations, he knows Spiderweb will fix it. He's asked for plenty of replacement registration codes and there's been no delay and no hassle. The App store has some security built in, but if things go wrong or you lose access to your account, well, you end up paying again. That's $5 of insurance. Originally Posted By: CRISIS on INFINITE SLARTIES Okay, here's the real problem with the "I feel cheated" argument: SW's famous, money-back-for-any-reason policy: Originally Posted By: www.spiderwebsoftware.com Money-Back Guarantee! If you don't like our game, we don't want your money. We have a no-questions-asked One Year Money-back Guarantee. Game stops working? You wake up one morning and realize that it sucks? You decide that you hate us personally, and our adorable children too? Money back within one year. You might think, "Hmmm. I wonder if people ever buy the game, play it through, and demand a refund." The answer is: No. This has never happened. You know why? Because our customers are awesome people. There's nothing stopping you from asking for a refund and then buying the Mac App Store version instead. Personally, that seems petty. But I know that when I was 12 and $5 was a big deal, I might have done it. No, I like Jeff too much to ask for the money back. I'll just have to be more careful where I buy the game next time.

Originally Posted By: jlsgaladriel As to rpgs, I'd say the final fight in NWN2 is fun (although I hate the roomsful of trash mobs on the way to that fight.) Yeah, that fight was pretty cool. But I agree with Slarty, Spidweb games are better than most. I suspect it's the turn-based combat that allows for more creativity.

For me the biggest problem is that I didn't know I could buy Jeff's games from other retailers. He doesn't make that clear on his website, and maybe he shouldn't. But I always just assumed I could only get Spidweb games directly from his site. If I had known there was going to be an appstore version, I would have waited for it. Originally Posted By: Soul of Wit Would anyone feel cheated if Jeff put the game on sale at some point? You know, like a once-a-year sale on all SW games? Complaining about price changes is just as silly here as it is in the iTunes App Store. The developer charged $5 for the game when I bought it, and now it's on sale for a dollar. Tiny violin... Time value of money. Enjoying the game sooner has value. If you don't agree then wait for the sale. You know people get really pissed off when new products are released, then within a month are dropped in price. It does happen, but it's just not a good way to foster goodwill towards your company. If I remember correctly, Apple was forced to offer credit for the price drop on the original iphone. It's the time frame of the price cut that matters. Jeff's game sales normally occur well after a game is released.

Originally Posted By: othersean Originally Posted By: VCH And I would definitely feel cheated if I bought a game from his website, then found out I could have bought the same thing cheaper at the App-store. Oh, FFS -- it's $5. Skip the drink the next 5 times you eat at McDonald's. I'm hardly rich, but I don't mind the $5, and would rather give $(X+5) to Jeff than $(X*0.7) to him and $(X*0.3) to Apple. But who pays more for a loaf of bread if they don't have to? The ability to edit scripts is not something I care about, so to me both games are identical, yet priced differently. I could buy a whole sack of potatoes for $5.00, something far more important than giving Jeff a few more dollars. He makes good-money as is, he's not a charity case. I'm not saying he shouldn't do well, I'm saying that I feel no moral obligation to feed his family.

Originally Posted By: Dantius Originally Posted By: VCH phat? what is this, 1990? Are you listening to Ice Ice Baby? If so, than yes. no, Dr. Dre

Originally Posted By: CRISIS on INFINITE SLARTIES There have always -- at least, since Geneforge 1 -- been licensed-environment versions of SW games. You could buy most of the Geneforge series at a slight discount from various website stores that require you to be online to play. The Mac App Store is a significantly less restrictive environment, but I'd still rather have the regular application. When I test mechanics stuff, I need to be able to edit scripts once in a while. But most users don't edit scripts. And I would definitely feel cheated if I bought a game from his website, then found out I could have bought the same thing cheaper at the App-store. His site should say "if you don't want to pay $25.00 go to the appstore. Also, the other retail options sound horrible in comparison to the App-store.

Originally Posted By: CRISIS on INFINITE SLARTIES I had a number theory professor in college who decided to spice up the class by referring to ideal sets as radical sets. He realized at some point that 'radical' was out of date and asked for a replacement term. Hence, I spent the next two months writing about phat sets. On the up side, this made it easy to abbreviate them all with Φ. phat? what is this, 1990?

I guess I'll be buying Jeff's games from the App store from now on. There's no point in paying more money than I need to. If I was a windows user, I would be upset at paying more than a Mac user. The price drop must be a request from Apple.

Originally Posted By: The Ratt A little late, but does using backtoavadon in the last quest mess things up? The game wont allow you to use that cheat. It says that doing so will mess up the story.

he want people that can type good english

I still think we should just delete the post count part of profiles.

I still fail to see the problem with the shaman or sorceress. In my torment game they rarely died. It's a simple matter of keeping them as far back from the main action as possible, and healing them when necessary. And, like I said, you have to make sure they aren't the first PC the game monsters lock on to. I didn't put any points into shadow charm because it seemed unnecessary. If she was swarmed I did something wrong in the first place.

Originally Posted By: CRISIS on INFINITE SLARTIES IMHO, glass cannons are not really a viable option in Avadon, at least not on the higher difficulties. If you face a large number of generic enemies, they'll eventually get knocked out, and bosses use enough AoE attacks, ranged attacks, and all have multiple attacks per round, that you need everyone to be able to take a few hits. Glass cannons work, it's just you have to keep distance between them and the main battle. I've found that Avadon's monsters focus almost exclusively on the first character they bump into. So as long as you thrust your tank into the mob first, your glass cannon should be fine.

Originally Posted By: Pretty in Pink If I remember correctly, in Exile you could also get hurt if you failed your attempt at "bashing" the door... I kind of miss having a "sorta-kinda" alternative to opening locked doors. Yeah you could. I think even if you did open the door you took some damage.

Originally Posted By: madrigan Originally Posted By: othersean That said, it's just plain un-fun to reach a point where a strategy that has worked well so far can't complete the game (e.g. "you need Dexterity 17 to open this door"). I don't think such obstacles should exist, and if they do, they should be blatantly hinted-at in advance. This is very true. There should always be multiple ways to solve a problem. In NN, if you couldn't pick a lock you could usually smash the door or chest. I would really enjoy the addition of object smashing to Spiderweb games. Exile let you bash some doors.

Originally Posted By: CRISIS on INFINITE SLARTIES Why in the world would you ever increase a melee shadowwalker's dexterity? Because dexterity makes them harder to hit?

Originally Posted By: tehpineapple Blasphemers! Building decks is 90% of the fun of magic! I also view character building like a puzzle, and in Avadon the puzzle is still present, but the answer is already given to you. Yeah, the people at the Magic shoppe where I play say the same thing. Originally Posted By: CRISIS on INFINITE SLARTIES Hmm. I wonder if a good way to satisfy everyone on this account would be to include an "auto-allocate" button whenever you have stat/skill points to allocate? This allows you to put a fair amount of interesting complexity in the system for those that enjoy thinking about it, and it allows just-get-on-with-it types to, well, just get on with it. Yes. NeverWinter Nights 1 and 2 seem to do this well enough, at least for the fighter class any way. Like I said before, I'm more interested in the story and interacting with the world than the numbers.

You know I don't actually like increasing stats or abilities in RPGs. In Neverwinter Nights I just click the recommended button and get on with the game. I guess I approach RPGs more like an action game, but with a good story. Similarly, I like playing Magic the Gathering, but have absolutely no interest in building decks. For many of you I'm sure this is complete heresy. Am I alone in this?

Originally Posted By: CRISIS on INFINITE SLARTIES Originally Posted By: VCH Maybe I'm wrong, someone check it out. But then what's up with the Greaves of the ramparts? I take it that your statement was just an assumption, then, and was not based on any actual gameplay observation? You are correct.

WTF does that mean lol?

Maybe I'm wrong, someone check it out. But then what's up with the Greaves of the ramparts?

The +15% to healing means your character heals 15% faster, not that the healing spells are more effective.

I didn't use any top-tier skills. I instead worked my way from the bottom up filling everything to capacity (except things like challenge and heal beast) before moving on.

I think she does. She says something like "it's over there near the wall".

I like the weapon restrictions. In Avernum you might equip a sorceress with a blade, but realistically she'll never be much of fighter. So why bother?