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Ironweed

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Everything posted by Ironweed

  1. Killing Redbeard? Yeah, the only help I got was from Heart Protus, who, like my character, was of the opinion that Redbeard must be killed for the good of the Pact. Since I played as a Pact loyalist, I slaughtered every filthy rebel and Farlander I came across. My character hated Dheless just as much as she hated Redbeard. Alas, the game forced her to become a Redbeard herself. Oh woe.
  2. It is strange that changing the system from within isn't an option, because the game constantly hints that it is an option. Several characters in the game (like Odil and Philana) make it clear that serving the Pact isn't the same as serving Avadon - and that opposing Avadon might in fact be the best way to serve the Pact. (Jeff even gives you the option to work undercover for the Council representatives.) Yet in the end, it is impossible to side with the Council and shut down Avadon. Seems power corrupts pretty goddamn fast.
  3. spoilers about the ending below . . . . . I played as a Pact lover / Black Fortress hater through the whole game. I helped the Pact in whatever way I could, while simultaneously harming Avadon as much as I could. (The game makes this possible so credit where credit is due.) I killed Redbeard solely because I wanted to shut down Avadon. And yet, in the end the game forces me to become the new Keeper and give the Pact the finger. The Council comes demanding that I shut down Avadon and I - according to the ending slides - send them packing?? No I don't, silly game. If it was up to me, I would have helped them burn Avadon to the ground. Why? Why didn't I have the option to say "to hell with Avadon, I'm a loyal soldier of the Pact"? Did I do something wrong? I'm perturbed.
  4. Originally Posted By: Sundays in the Breach the world of Calithon I remember. It was Arancyatar's idea, was it not? We were all supposed to design a different part of Calithon. I even made a rather detailed map of my part. (The northernmost part of the world, settled by a warlike and seafaring people. I can't remember what they were called - Irokesh? Arukesh?). But contributions were far and few between and people lost interest. Wasn't the original idea to use Calithon as an RP setting? Is Aran still around on SW?
  5. The main problem with G2 is that G1 is so damn good. G2 feels like a slightly improved G1 with a much less interesting plot. Once you pass through the Secret Tunnel, all sense of mystique is gone.
  6. Ironweed

    X

    If X makes an appereance in Avadon then Aimee had better make one too. She's been travelling through other planes of existence since A2 and I want to know what happened to her, dammit! Don't remember Aimee? Nobody ever remembers Aimee. Here's a link: http://encyclopedia.ermarian.net/wiki/Aimee
  7. Solberg was great in A1-A3, but I didn't like the way he turned out in the later games. A5 really ruined him for me. He was somewhat better in A6 (having him go out in a blaze of glory was a good decision) but by then it was already too late. RIP Solberg. I'll always remember you as you were in A1. Kelner's story is interesting enough. Also, he is not mentally unstable like 95 % of the mages in the game. As for important mages who were not in A6, I always liked Aimee. Whatever happened to her? Maybe she still "wanders strange worlds by thought" as the game put it. I guess we will never know...
  8. Originally Posted By: Lilith Avernum 6's promotional campaign literally promised "the end of Avernum" I think everyone understands that - it's just that making unsolvable problems the focus of your story doesn't make for a very satisying story. Even though A6 was about the end of Avernum, your adventures were not. Indeed, your adventures were essentially about preventing the end of Avernum; every single thing you did in the game was towards that end. Only there was nothing you could do. At times A6 felt more like a skillfully crafted slide-show than anything else; you ran from place to place witnessing the end of Avernum but being frustratingly unable to do anything about it. The Slith Horde-quests were especially frustrating. I killed the leaders of the Horde, I wiped the floor with the Scourge, I pretty much eradicated every single hostile Slith on the map - but the Slith Horde still conquers Northern Avernum in the end?? That's just unfair. I don't mind Avernum coming to an end, but at least let me feel like I have accomplished something.
  9. Originally Posted By: So Much Killing Originally Posted By: Lilith Successfully killing him does have a major effect on the ending, but, uh, good luck actually doing it. I think it would have been better to save the Scourge quest and have the dragon give something else, like kill Gladwell (which you could choose to do or not). Then after you fix the portal, the King says to you, "Okay, we've saved the people, but if Avernum is to survive, we have to kill the Scourge." And Jeff could have expanded the Scourge area a bit to maybe make it like three separate areas, each with its own defenses. Then when you're done, yippee!, you've saved Avernum. But you get sucked into some kind of vortex, find yourself in a new cave, maybe have another battle with something, and then find yourself in Upper Avernum or the surface, and the narrative pretty much plays out as it does now. That's just one possibility, but it does, I think, address the slightly unsatisfying nature of the current ending. Something like this, yeah. I didn't like the way the game kept changing focus all the time. First the game was about solving the Blight, then about stopping the invasion of the Horde, and finally about dealing with Melanchion. In the end, none of these problems were solved in a satisfying way. Well, you did get to kill the Scourge, but that was an optional quest, and there was absolutely nothing you could do about the Blight or Melanchion. The game teases you with the ability to change the future of Avernum, but in the end nothing you can do has any real impact. Essentially, the nation of Avernum is doomed before you even step out of the Castle Food Depot. Which makes your heroic struggle seem somewhat futile.
  10. Originally Posted By: Ephesos Originally Posted By: Mod. Agreed, zones = easier travel. I still miss the old Avernum-style movement with towns and outdoors being distinct areas. Created a much better sense of scope. Actually, I would say the Geneforge-style movement gives you a pretty good sense of scope. Much better than in A4-A6 at least.
  11. Am I the only one who found the ending of A6 to be a little... anti-climactic? I honestly wasn't expecting the game to end where it did. Being sucked into the portal was unexpected and exciting, but then... The End. What? What about Melanchion? I was totally looking forward to betraying him! And what about curing the Blight? Not to mention the Vahnatai colony - after refusing to sack Tenevra I was hoping for some diplomatic solution. But no, nothing. I guess your main objective had been to repair the Great Portal all along? Seriously, your last mission was to act as bodyguard for some crystal-workers! That's not very epic, to say the least. And the boss battle at the end (I guess I have to call it that) was really easy too. I think the Infernal Lord managed to do a total of 15 damage to my party before it was killed... Well, that's enough whining. At least the game brought some conclusion to what has been a truly great series. Thanks to Jeff for mentioning Upper Avernum and Valorim in the ending!
  12. Originally Posted By: Spidweb So I'm sitting there watching this, and what I'm thinking is this: Who is this Bluebeard guy? He's very powerful. Very rich. Has a castle full of magic doors. He mentions how he has great influence with the court. What's his deal? Where did all that wealth come from? What does he use those portals for? What is his day job? And here was my idea. He's a warrior. Or an assassin. Or a spy. That sounds rather dull, to be perfectly honest. The Bluebeard concept is fascinating and you ask some excellent questions, but why on Earth would you make such a mysterious character into a warrior / assassin? Surely there are more interesting things you could do with the character than having him be some kind of questgiver spymaster? Anyway, I will await the game with great anticipation.
  13. Originally Posted By: Excalibur Originally Posted By: Earth2025 Nephar: Hey Cordelia, cast Mass Sleep spell so we can loot this town. The mass sleep spell in the Exile series didn't cover a wide area though, unless you got lucky with the spray fields spell. Oh wait, this thread wasn't about Exile. Was there a Mass Sleep spell in the Exile series? Because I'm pretty sure there wasn't, at least not in E3.
  14. Having to worry about food is not a bad idea, but going back for more rations every day sounds like mindless backtracking. And having to ask guards to open gates for you is another chore I could do without...
  15. Originally Posted By: Drakefyre I always thought that Upper Exile sucked ... and the troglo/giant plague was my second most fun, next to the roaches. Doing the troglo "peace" mission, and going to the barrier cave were lots of fun. I'm curious as to why you didn't like Upper Exile. I think it was a pretty interesting beginning area. And having a base of operations close to the surface made sense, sort of.
  16. Has anyone here tried to beat the game as a completely non-magic Roman party on Torment? (By completely non-magic I mean no spells, no potions and no magic items.) I gave it a shot yesterday, but switched to Normal when in Goagh-Nar. Some observations (I'm no powergamer, so bear with me): The worst problem - by far - is healing. First Aid is great, but there is no way to heal in combat without spells and potions. This becomes a real problem on Torment, since you will be taking a lot of punishment (most critters could kill my poor Romans in two or three hits). Since I could neither heal damage nor prevent it, my only option was to keep as far from the enemy as possible. That meant I had to rely on ranged damage, which meant javelins. The "run, pray and throw javelins" strategy worked very well, especially combined with the Fast Feet trait. Javelins were cheap and the damage done was quite sufficient (at least until I ran into fomorians). In big outdoor battles, this was the only viable option. Getting swarmed meant certain death, no mather how puny the enemy was. When it was impossible to retreat or when faced with a single powerful monster, I had to rely on the old switcheroo. That is, to engage the enemy with one of my fighters, then pulling him out in the nick of time and having a new fighter take his place (usually after a couple of rounds). Lather, rinse, repeat. Needless to say, all the fighters who stood in the back were meanwhile chucking javelins like crazy. In this way, I could usually buy my party up to eight rounds. This was the only possible way (that I could think of) to survive bigger monsters. Sometimes it was surprisingly effective; Dolojan fell on my second try. I gave up when I reached Goagh-Nar. Fomorians have insane amounts of hitpoints on Torment, and while I probably could have gotten through with a lot of grinding, the game just wasn't fun anymore. So I switched to Normal. It wasn't about beating the game on Torment anyway, it was about beating it with a "realistic" Roman party. I am, however, curious about what kind of character build would be best for a run like this (on Torment). My characters were all pretty identical (since each man had to be capable of - quite literally - taking their wounded comrade's place). All were capable of dealing out some good damage with both spears and javelins. But should I have focused more on defense (endurance, defense, hardiness and armor use) or offense? Since I felt there was no way to prevent damage anyway, I focused on my offensive capabilities and pretty much ignored defense, aside from armor use and some points in endurance. Is there any viable way to prevent taking heavy damage on Torment? Putting 20+ skillpoints into hitpoints just so the monsters could kill me in three hits instaead of two, didn't feel like a smart thing to do... Also, what traits would you prefer? I gave all my characters Fast Feet (which turned out to be a lifesaver) and Rational Mind (a natural choice for my "realistic Romans"... and I'm not a powergamer, damnit!) I think Toughness might have been a good choice too, if only to prevent a little amount of the stupendous damage I took. EDIT: I have to say, though, that I enjoy playing as a realistic Roman very much. You live and die by your choice of battleground and your tactics... just as I feel it should be. You're Roman, after all, and you didn't conquer half the world by mindlessly charging into battle, now did you? Leave such foolishness to the celts...
  17. Originally Posted By: Dintiradan That's it! The only way to do justice to the series would be to bring back every single villain from the previous games. Imagine a Council of Evil ran by Grah-Hoth, Hawthorne, Garzhad, Rentar-Ihrno, Dorikas, Linda, Adze-Haakai, Sss-Thoss, Sss-Thsss, Pyrog, Elderan, Limoncelli, Vyvnas-Bok, Vahkohs, Anastasia, and Dirty Dan. Please Jeff, let Dirty Dan be the one who brings down Avernum! I can't even begin to express how incredibly, awesomely, fantasticularly funny that would be. It would be like a middle finger to every fan ever, a middle finger to the whole Avernum series and middle finger to yourself. It would be like an insult to God. Please make it so! At least let him assassinate Solberg!
  18. I think fighting the sliths again is a nice touch. The sliths were the first major threat to Avernum (excluding the demons) and it is only fitting that they should be the last. Besides, we have known there is a huge slith kingdom somewhere beneath Avernum since A1, and having those sliths reveal themselves now brings much needed closure. What have they been up to since A1, anyway?
  19. Originally Posted By: Untamed Banana Slug Why would the Vahnatai destroy the food crops that they themselves rely on? They can hibernate, remember? The vahnatai could easily destroy the mushrooms, hibernate for a few centuries and then awaken when the humans are gone and the mushrooms have grown back. But seriously, let's hope the Vahnatai stay out of this conflict. On another note, A6 sounds a lot like A3 and A4...
  20. Originally Posted By: human of the year This thread has made me install Exile 3 again. Thanks a bunch guys. I started playing E3 a while back, too, although I never got further than Karnold Province. Things get so repetitive after the roach plague. The demo area (Upper Exile + southern Valorim) is without a doubt the most inspired part of the game. Compared to the Isle of Bigail, the northern provinces seem bland.
  21. Originally Posted By: Micawber Personally I thought that was a really cool spell. It was the only way for priests to cast anti-magic cloud (good for Anama, and when mage spell points were a bit low) and all the other effects came in handy when you were swarmed - which happened A LOT in Exile. I used to cast it all the time in town fights. The problem was that the effect benefited the enemy as much as it benefited you, or so I recall. Your party was safe inside the circle, sure, but your mages couldn't attack the enemies with magic (because of the antimagic field) and your fighters couldn't reach them with weapons (unless they waded through a bunch of damaging fields - and in that case, why did you cast Protective Circle in the first place? The point of a protective circle is to stay inside the circle!). The enemy, meanwhile, was just as unable to attack you with weapons or magic. In my games, use of this spell would regularly lead to standoffs, during which both sides just waited for the fields to come down so they could get at each other. I guess you could say Protective Circle was the ultimate protection spell; it protected both your party and the enemy. Probably the invention of some pacifist deity. Yeah, I know, missile weapons. But I usually didn't bother with missiles.
  22. Quote: Did Holy Scourge deliver a more powerful curse than the regular Curse spell, though? I always thought it did, but I could have been mistaken. It did, supposedly. That's one charming quality about the Exile spells; sometimes it was hard to figure out what they really did. The spell descriptions were not very accurate.
  23. I usually didn't bother with Shockwave. The damage was kind of weak, wasn't it? And while it did hit a lot of enemies, it hit your party members just as hard. Still, it must have been a great spell for singletons. Holy Scourge was a funky spell. If cast by an enemy priest, it didn't only curse your party members, but slowed them as well. You, however, could not use it to slow enemies. How unfair. The evil priests had access to much better spells for some reason...
  24. Originally Posted By: The Mystic Here's my list of weird spells: Spark - In all my time playing E3, I have yet to find this spell useful. Scare/Fear - Two totally useless spells. The strongest monster I've successfully cast either of these on was a goblin. I think most of the first and second level mage spells were useless, even in the very beginning of the game. Flame, Minor Haste, True Sight and Scry Monster were the only ones I ever used. The priest spells were actually pretty good, especially the second level spells. Bless, Cure Poison, Curse, Move Mountains and Charm Foe are all pretty solid. Wound was great, as you pointed out. Quote: Divine Thud - I found this one to be moderately useful, because it did decent damage. And, bar none, it has one of the coolest spell names I've ever seen. Amen. Bring back Divine Thud, Jeff! You know you want to!
  25. The spells in the Avernum games suck. Nobody likes them. That's just a fact. The Exile games, however, were full of weird and curiously intriguing spells. So weird, in fact, that they found little use. Did you ever really need to cast Goo or Disease or Detect life? No, but you still did, for the exact same reason people climb up high mountains. Because they were there. And also because some of them were quite memorable. Here are some of my favourites: Scry monster - Because knowing your opponents made fighting them much more satisfying. It was very addicting to walk around looking for strange creatures and adding them to your bestiary. Gottacatchemall! Summon beast - A completely useless spell. But, it summoned a wolf. A wolf! Wall of Force - I enjoyed using all the wall spells, as they suited my playing style very well (I favoured long, convoluted battles with walls and summons all over the screen). The force fields looked neat. Stealth - Did anyone ever find a use for this? I guess stealth wasn't very well implemented in Exile 3. This spell was the president of pointless spells, and as such, totally irresistable. Antimagic cloud - Fun and useful. Made battles with magic-users somewhat less repetitive. Could be used for both offense and defense. Quickfire - Of course. Symbiosis - Good idea, not-so-good spell. Another one of the cheap spells I had a lot fun fiddling around with during the early portions of the game. I have not forgotten you, Symbiosis! Sticks to Snakes - Death by snakes! My absolute favourite of the summoning spells and one of my all time favourites. Just think about it. Snakes. Sssssnakes. The serpents it summoned were underpowered and weak, making it pretty useless in most fights - and that's why I love it! A favourite strategy of mine was to spam this spell over and over again, relentlessly assaulting my foes with waves upon waves of slithering snakes. There is a very special kind of joy in killing much stronger enemies such as drakes and khazis using only this spell and nothing else (except maybe some cursing and blessing if the snakes had trouble hitting). Oh, and the name is great. Summon host - Another semi-useless, endearing summoning spell. The deva graphic was neat. Mass charm - This spell was neither weird nor useless, but it was great fun, especially when you wanted to go on a murdering spree in a town. Just remember to add some snakes for good measure. Pestilence - ...and when they're being chased by snakes, hit them with pestilience. It's like the Old Testament all over again! This spell was insanely underpowered for a sixth level spell, but, like the Wall spells, suited my playing style very well. Protective circle - A spell so weird that not even I found any use for it. What the hell? There are probably many more weird/useless spells I don't even remember. Which were your favourite weird spells in Exile 3?
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