Mea Tulpa

I can't, but maybe somebody else has one handy.

I assume you've looked in the app folder itself.  Some SW games put settings inside the Data subfolder, or somewhere else in there.  Otherwise, could be somewhere in the Windows system folders.  (Windows native file search is pretty terrible, so I wouldn't assume it doesn't exist just because it doesn't show up there.)

The actual problem could be as simple as trying to set a resolution that your system doesn't allow.  If it worked before you messed with the settings, that seems likely.

One last thought, you could try running as admin.  Maybe there's a permissions issue with where it's trying to save/read the settings.

Alternately, do any of these fixes help?

None of this sounds like a glitch.

More technical info is necessary -- in particular, your graphics card, and where did you get the game (Steam, GOG, Humble Bundle, direct from Spiderweb, etc).

The startup dialog is graphics related so this is probably a graphics issue.

If it did run fine with the original settings, if you can find and delete the preferences file those are stored in, it should start up fine.  Looks like the location should be %USERPROFILE%\Documents\Spiderweb Software\Avernum 5 Saved Games\ ... but sometimes OS changes can mess with this, and there have been quite a few since 2007.

So... what do we think the new subtitle for the A4 remake means?

It would have been a weird and unintuitive choice for the original A4, which was so tightly focused on Rentar and the Black Shades: which is revenge and obsession, but not really greed in any way.  It's hard to imagine how this part could be rewritten to be about greed.  Some other possibilities discussed on the discord:

1. Generic CRPG themed title, no specific related content.

This isn't impossible, but A1-3 all had titles very specific to their content.

2. Expansion of minor content from A4.

- The surface immigrants (like the "Goody" house-owners near Formello) who came to Avernum seeking wealth; easy pick for greed.  They were pretty minor and uninteresting as written, though, and there's no obvious way to turn them into a major story element.

- The Darkside Loyalists were revealed at the end of a minor quest series in A4, and of course have great relevance to A5.  It might make sense to give them more screen time.  That said, like Rentar, they are all about vengeance and not much about "Greed" at all.

- King Starrus, who appeared out of nowhere in A4 and wasn't particularly well-characterized, could in theory offer both greed and glory to adventurers in the form of rewards for serving Avernum.  This is basically just the "generic CRPG title" option.  It's also kind of a weird fit for A4's one-area-at-a-time-in-a-specific-order structure.

- Other random antagonists who had nothing beyond a name in A4, like the various bandits (Hanvar, Abisynthe, etc) or hostile mages (Nociduas, Hrickis, etc)

3. Addition of content leading into A5 or A6.

- Non-Darkside Loyalist Empire agents, perhaps connected to Manfred Redmark.  Like Starrus he could really benefit from some actual characterization and personality.

- Dragons.  Either an early (timeline-shifting) appearance by Melanchion, or a late appearance by one of the remaining Five Dragons: it could be Athron (relevant as Melanchion's mother, but not really greedy); or Sulfras or Khoth (where greed is an easier sell).

- Gladwell.  Gladwell technically did appear in A4, but as an extremely minor random NPC.  Gladwell could be rewritten as an actual option to align with (as in A5 and A6).

- Hostile Sliths.  Presumably not the Horde -- we'd wonder what they were doing for the decades between A4 and A6 -- but other hostiel sliths are an option.  Again, though, doesn't do much for greed.

4. Something else.

- Retconning Kyass to not have died randomly in A2CS, instead giving a proper continuation to the Freehold story (an AEFTP addition).

- Yet another incomprehensible plot involving Solberg.

- ???

What do you think?

If that's true, then would this same tendency true of isometric games from other developers?

There are also more types of wearable equipment in II.

Honestly, though, the inventory slot thing isn't a big deal.  "Useful items for the long dungeon fights" are pointless.  You can use one or two slots on energy potions and be prepared to anything at all.  It is annoying to leave more loot behind, but you eventually gain more than enough gold to max out a singleton's relevant stats with Silverlocke anyway.

This was a really common thing back in the day, believe it or not.  Not only is it reasonably easy once you figure out what's really strong in Exile's combat, it's much faster than playing with a whole party.

This has apparently been solved, per the other topic posted about it.  One topic is probably plenty

that's super weird and definitely sounds like a glitch with that site's emulator, rather than exile itself.  (considering it doesn't seem to have been reported once in the last 30 years)

The opening areas in A5 are on the maps of the other games, more or less -- it's the northeastern Abyss (around where Harston was in A2) and Northern Waters areas.  Then the rest of the areas are new areas that branch off of those, which aren't in the other games.

Friendly mod request: please do not resurrect 12 year old topics unless you have a really specific reason to.  Thanks!

Now, time to let this topic go back to its eternal repose.

On Steam, Avadon 2 is $10.  There's an Avadon Trilogy bundle which discounts each game by 30%.  And there's a giant Spiderweb bundle which discounts each game by 35%.  On GOG, the prices are the same but Avadon 2 isn't actually in any bundles.  Occasionally you get a crazy sale (it's $3 on GOG currently), but I doubt that covers anywhere near 98% of purchases, and zero percent go for $1.  Given the range, it seems likely the average purchas eprice is probably somewhere around $5-7.

Of course platforms take a cut and etc., but just comparing game against game, the newest release (Infestation) goes for $20.  There's obviously a sales volume difference, too, but then there's also a time difference.  A slow trickle of sales over a year adds up.  Jeff has actually talked about some of his games selling more in the long run than they did immediately on release.  So I don't think we can assume profits from a game like Avadon 2 are negligible even now.

There have sometimes been other updates.  Spiderweb is actually pretty good about fixing bugs compared with a lot of bigger developers.

But when there is only one bug to fix, and it's this minor (no meaningful impact on gameplay, and barely anyone's noticed it), and the game is 11 years old... yeah.  That would be a hard sell for anybody.

(As an aside, while it's presumably not a cash cow 11 years after release, "less than 500 copies a year" is definitely not the same thing as "stopped making money.")

No, this isn't an issue of being idealistic versus being practical.  The Takers and Shapers do have values, and the Awakened do compromise theirs.  It's a question of what those values are.

As oceanes gets at above, it's really about being self-centered versus having the empathy and humility to acknowledge that other people are as much a part of reality as you are.

5 hours ago, Randomizer said:

Part of your problem is Geneforge 4 was made with Windows 2000, but Geneforge 3 was Windows 98 and Geneforge 1 was Windows 95. You are probably seeing a compatibility problem.

G1 came out in 2001.  Surely the PC version was tested with Windows 2000?

And Avernum 4 doesn't use the same engine.  A4 came out 5 years after G1, and while there are certainly parts of the engine that are in common, there are large parts that are very different.

16 hours ago, alhoon said:

 

So, before you get access to Drayks and the good stuff, you have to steal from the Radiant college? That does eliminate the issue of getting tier 3 creations too early. 

So, I think, a good route would be to go to the Awakened, not explore the harder zones there and then make a quick line to the Barzhites, learn tier 3 (canisters around their areas or that guy that trains you without requiring to be Barzhite in Radiant college) and then sabotage the Radiant college. 

Cutting through the warbred Serviles in Rising would be actually challenging, I think, as you would be lower level and not have top creations. 

There are some other ways to gain access as well, but none of them are possible to access that early in the game.

22 hours ago, Randomizer said:

Overrun mod has an additional requirement that you have to do a faction quest after joining a faction before you can be trained by Tuldaric. Original version doesn't require that/

Only on Veteran or Torment difficulty.

Overrun does not impose that requirement on Normal or Casual difficulty.

(Shanti explains this in the opening.  It is also in the codex.)

Overrun does make a whole pile of changes.  Absolutely respect wanting to play without "reading the manual," but just be aware you may encounter other differences and be surprised.

fwiw, almost anything you download through steam is a full install that can be run without steam.  you just find the place it was installed and run the game directly, rather than launching it via steam.

That's only true if you send her away.

The option should be there.  If you've refused to pronounce Emily's fate at all, that might be holding things up somehow.  You might need to do that so Zakary will give you his cue on the next piece.

I'm just going to say again, the quote above is out of context and I object to it.

That quote was pulled out of an extremely specific context.  It was not a categorical statement, as you have presented it here, and it does not belong in this topic.

Regarding the other things you say:

- Weapons and spells do not have the same base hit rate.  (This is easy to see, as otherwise, weapons would always be more accurate than spells, but obviously this is not the case.)

- The healing from the Vampiric Lance is not very impressive.

- If you haven't invested in magic at all ("I have battle magic 1") then no, low-level spells are not going to outdamage a high-level missile weapon.  I don't understand why this is confusing.

You may also be ignoring other bonuses and penalties to accuracy, which can make a difference:

- War Blessing is +10% to hit, you want to cast this (and other buffs!!) before any difficult battle

- If you get cursed in a battle and don't bother to cure it, that's a -10% penalty

- Some armor comes with penalties to hit.  Weigh the bonuses and penalties of your equipment thoughtfully

- You get tiny bonuses from other skills; unless you're a Guardian, you will probably do better with spells (Firebolt is effectively free) than the Vampiric Lance

10% doesn't sound like that much but it can add up.

What level are your creations?  If you're making low-tier creations with low shaping skill, they'll be at a lower level and will have accuracy problems.

However, with your PC at level 17, your PC's personal attacks shouldn't really have accuracy issues.  (On any difficulty!)  If you yourself are missing 70% of the time, something else is going on.

Basically, it's only worth increasing Priest Spells or Mage Spells for the purpose of being able to cast new spells.  You do get a small damage increase from those skills, but it's not much, and it doesn't scale very well since it stacks additively with so many other sources of damage dice.  There are better options for where to put your skill points, including:

- survival (Hardiness, Resistance)

- utility (weapon skills so you can use Adrenaline Rush)

- damage (Spellcraft, which may be less noticeable than P/M Spells at low levels, but by mid/late game the reverse is true; also, Spellcraft helps out with buff/debuff duration, which P/M Spells does not)