ex post slarto

The bottom monitor was handcrafted to fit your neck and chest with a blowtorch. Duh!

It is just you.

...and the moderators frown on topics whose only impact is to cause fighting. Khyryk, be kind. About the topic, there's nothing inherently evil about it, but the things you mention have already been discussed in numerous other topics you can find on this board. It would make more sense to post a specific question or request.

The Nine-Headed Cave Cow frowns upon your syncretistic name.

i'm in ur playthrough maxing ur skillz

As usual, the Quick Strike description is incorrect. You get TWO INDEPENDENT chances to get +1 AP, each equal to 5% per point of Quick Strike. So with 5 Quick Strike you have two 25% chances, which means you have about a 43.5% chance of getting at least +1 AP. With 10 Quick Strike you have two 50% chances, or about a 75% chance of getting at least +1, but still only a 25% chance of getting +2. And so on.

The possibility of a zombie muffin brings a whole new, disgusting meaning to juju zombie.

Also, the two Ornks in charge of everything are named Benjy and Frankie.

ResEdit won't work on newer systems. You need a newer application, such as ResFool.

Thanks for advocating the harrassment, belittlement, humiliation, threatening, and embarassment of everyone who isn't a member of these boards. Seriously, though, personal invective has no place here. I don't care who you're targetting. It's contagious, it threatens to turn these boards into the same cesspit of flames that most internet message boards eventually collapse into, and on my watch, I'll swat it down faster than you can say "Feisty Slap of Pain!" And that, as they say, is that.

Suspicious Vlish, please don't make personal attacks.

Indeed, copy the save files.

One important thing to note is that mage spells and priest spells are equally effective on the offense. Mages have a little more versatility, but a priest doesn't really need a melee backup any more than a mage does, particularly given the strength and ease of using archery as a backup. It is useful to have at least one strong hand-to-hand fighter to deal with highly resistant enemies like pylons. You can either make him a tank who attracts all the melee attacks (using nephil for the dodge bonus, and edged weapons to use shields) or a focused attacker (using slith for the pole bonus). A slith pole fighter will do upwards of 30% more damage than a nephil fencer (formulaically). Normally that doesn't matter much, but against pylons et al it's quite useful. Either way his role is to protect the spellcasters.

Quote: Originally written by Suspicious Vlish: By the time I've levelled up my cryoa, I can usually create a shiny new cryoa that is exactly the same level, or higher! Or they will be overshadowed by a creation from a higher tier. This simply is not the case. Although creations do not level up at the overly advantageous rate they did in G3, there are very few levels of Create X skill available -- particularly for a second-level creation like a cryoa, where you already need three to make it -- and equipment that boosts shaping skill is rare. And if you're going to keep your creations around you need to spend skill points on shaping skill BEFORE making them, obviously. What constitutes the 'shoulder on the curve' for me, anyway, is mental resistance. All the fourth and fifth tier creations have it and the others don't, and it becomes very annoying not to have it later in the game. The problem is that drayks remain the best value for your essence, except for that one flaw.

Being better than others is not the same thing as being good. Vlish are good, but in G4, they are no longer spectacular and amazing. They are probably the best option through chapter 2 IFF you are running disposable creations. If you build your creation levels, a vlish might be useful but cryoa will be better and artila nearly as good but cheaper. As for this 'mysterious intrinsic dodging' I've heard that before and I don't buy it. I've never seen any evidence of such a thing. Give me the results of a test where the exact same enemy entity uses the same attack against a vlish of level X with dexterity Y and against some other creation with identical dexterity and level. If those are different, I'll listen.

I'll third the quicksave/quickload keys bit.

Right, so presumably you don't start with 8 AP under such a system, because then everyone would get two attacks per round unhasted.

...hmmm. Batons that don't need ammo. The simplest edit yet, and I can't believe I never tried it. For somebody like me, who goes crazy if he has to conserve his primary offense, that would make playing a missile-based character fun again.

One of the things Avernum 4 was tremendously successful at was making missile weapons more viable. Actually, I was really impressed with that -- the hassle of using them was gone, they were strong enough to be worth using, but still weaker than melee enough to compensate for their range. I notice that the screenshot has Aldous with 8 AP. I thought I remembered reading in a previous thread that A5 would go back to the older E/A AP system. Did I make that up?

Quote: Originally written by Spidweb: I am not looking for ways to enable the player to do less. Sometimes, less is more. To use an extreme example: if there were an ability that let you destroy every enemy instantly and you could use it every turn, that would quickly take the fun out of the game.

Quote: Originally written by Spidweb: "Will magic cause fatigue as well? The partial reason magic was so overpowered in GF 4 compared to weapons skills was that the player could consistently do lots of damage to lots of creatures over and over again." Yes. Magic will drain these things called "spell points." When you run out of them, you are "magically fatigued", and can't cast any more. :-) - Jeff Vogel The problem with this is that spell points don't actually pace casters in Avernum. Energy potions are easy to come by, and don't even take a whole action to quaff. If the more useful spells used fatigue in addition to SP, and so could only be cast every so often, it would balance things a lot.

Dungeon Master was the first game I know of to use some kind of fatigue stat (it used stamina). Wizardry 6 and up used it as well. I am skeptical Jeff would put this in Avernum 5, though, as it would significantly change the logistics of combat. (Well, either that or it would be the kind of meaningless fluff Jeff always crusades against.) My guess would be that it's somehow parallel to spell points, but is used for battle disciplines, and perhaps has different rules for replenishment over time. (Essence and spell energy, anyone?)

Quote: Originally written by Adventuring Muffin: Speed...well dexterity is basically that. Dexterity being mechanics/stealth seems pretty dumb. I realize this isn't your fault, it's the fault of the games you've played; but for crying out loud, go look up dexterity in a dictionary!

I look forward to a legion of Vahkohs-related jokes in betatesting and early release.

I have to admit, after all the talk about not bringing back Rentar-Ihrno, I really didn't expect another twice-recycled villain. Meh. Otherwise it sounds cool. Battle disciplines sound like the biggest change in the Avernum skill system yet -- could be quite neat.