Mea Tulpa

Mine is from late 2006. That's weird -- I can't think of any reason to remove it. Then again, this would not be the first time that Apple has removed functionality for no reason. (!@#$@#$%, iTunes 9!)

Live-A-Live is great. The new translation patch is great too, I highly recommend it. The feudal Japan chapter is one of my favourite segments of any video game ever. Chock full of creativity and variety while all fitting together and having immense replayability -- in some ways it's what I would want a D&D scenario to aspire towards, in a format that fits it perfectly. And of course, there's Buriki Daioh, about whom I have nothing to say, except maybe that he perfectly encapsulates SoT's point in the other thread that a character can be cool despite being cardboard. Oh -- and the caveman chapter. Talk about good storytelling. But really, IMA WA MUKASHI NO BABIRONIA

That's an excellent summary of some excellent tactics for singletons. We should use it as a reference piece for singleton play in SW games. You are much better off with Elite Warrior. Your Parry skill would be much lower without it, your damage would be lower due to fewer battle proficiency uses (BM fatigue reduction) and the Blademaster damage bonus, and your carrying capacity would be lower as well forcing you to waste more points on Strength.

The standard vanilla MacBook that I am using right now has a virtual numeric keypad accessible with the function key. If the newest generation doesn't have it, that would be a surprise to me. I don't like it because the keys are not in perfect vertical alignment, but it is there.

ALL MY FINISHED PROJECT ARE BELONG TO YOU

*nod* Yeah, I was thinking of those as well. It's a good system.

THE FINAL RHAPSODY IS CLOSER THAN YOU INK

I never liked X. He struck me the wrong way in Exile, where he seemed like a poorly-written cliche in a world full of wizards named Linda and Erika with full personalities instead of flashy names. The writing hasn't gotten any better, and having one of the most powerful wizards in the whole series have no character or personality beyond an obsession with anvils is not so great. *ducks* And as for the others, oh please. Lark is a pathetic nobody Bob with, again, no character; Gladwell is a slightly more interesting cliche with a ideologically-based drive that is rich enough in philosophy, and poor enough at fitting into the game context, that it could have come from a TM scenario; Kelner has yet to do anything other than whine, after six games; and Solberg went from a nuanced proto-Khyryk in X1 and X2, to a total nobody, to a cliche crackpot, and while the arc may be interesting he himself has become less and less so. *ducks again*

Yes, there's nothing special about their skills -- they are treated just as if you added them yourself.

Originally Posted By: Sade In my opinion, having basically infinite SP is probably the worst balance problem in Avernum games. Given that offensive magic does less damage (per target) than melee, I don't think this is a problem at all, at least in A6. And the trade-off needed to get a good return out of ME is fairly large -- lots of skill points either directly, or indirectly by choosing NM/PS over another advantage. Certainly, being able to cast buffs without using much SP doesn't unbalance the game. Nearly infinite healing is a tougher sell, but that's really an issue of game style more than game balance -- gone are the days when you really did need all 99 HEAL potions to make it through Gurgu Volcano. Attrition is out of style, resource management is out of style, and being able to max your HP after every encounter is in style.

It remains to be seen if Jeff is doing a traditional RPG class system, where, for example, each magic-using class gets access to its own set of totally unique abilities that other classes can't ever use. He might not. Technically, Geneforge has classes, even though the only differences between them amount to very broad skill point subsidies that are no more significant than the difference between Elite Warrior and Natural Mage in Avernum. This even seems likely since Jeff has repeatedly and consistently railed against traditional, locked-in class systems. But singletons usually work fine with traditional class systems. People will quickly settle on one or two classes that are easiest for singleton play (often, paladin and cleric type classes). But almost any will be playable. Thurilith beat G4 on Torment without making a single creation or casting a single spell -- these things are always doable.

Smells like a bug. Nice find!

No, he's clearly willing to learn them. That's what making all his observations and trying to analyze what's going on is. He's just unwilling to apply the is-ought fallacy to them. I use the mac version, and I've experienced the same thing about clicking on an enemy and running around it. Actually, I'm not sure if I've noticed it in A6 or in other games with the same engine, but I've definitely seen it on rare occasions. I'm fairly sure that it's only happened when there were an unusual number of impassable terrain squares nearby.

Eh, I don't think so. The AoE spells aren't actually overpowered compared to non-AoE spells. Additionally, Magical Efficiency is good, but not so good that it makes investment in Intelligence irrelevant (at least, not without an impractically large investment in ME).

Nope, the wording here is deliberate: "Unlocks after buying 2 Intelligence, 7 Melee or Pole Weapons" -- emphasis on "buying". Skill points you have because of race or trait bonuses, or equipment bonuses, or that you start out with (2 Int, for example) don't count towards unlocking anything.

More specifically, Fantasoft extracted a font from the Theldrow game, which they called Theldrow, and used it in Realmz.

Luck and Hardiness are both quite useful. Luck is especially nice early when dodging is sometimes possible and when hitting may be difficult on Torment (both of those circumstances change quickly).

Originally Posted By: Lilith Originally Posted By: CRISIS on INFINITE SLARTIES Plus, you can't Simulacrum them to kill anything for, what was it, something ridiculous like 4 SP? 10 SP, but that's still not bad for what's effectively an instant-death spell that can hit several targets over the course of a few rounds. In Exile II, it was definitely lower. I think Ur-Basilisks were 9 or 10, but regular Basilisks were very low.

Yeah. Enemy hit rate increases steadily with enemy level, as well as with any skill bonuses they get, and the rate at which it increases is dramtically faster than the rate at which you can pump your dodge skills, which both start costing more to increase, AND start giving the 5% bonus only every other point after 10, every third point after 20, etc. It just isn't doable.

I largely agree, but I have to give A5 props for Battle Disciplines. Not only were they the first new mechanic in a SW game since 2002 (!), they were a really good mechanic that added to the game without taking anything away from it. Because I weigh atmosphere pretty heavily, my ranking ends up looking like: E2, E3, A2, A1, E1, A6, A5, A3, A4

Plus, you can't Simulacrum them to kill anything for, what was it, something ridiculous like 4 SP?

Theldrow FTW

Yeah, that's another option. What I meant was actually saving up skill points -later- in the game to use the buy-unbuy exploit. Your way you miss out on training in Parry, but you get to start out with tons of Parry which is very helpful. Dex and Defense help you dodge, but on Torment hit rates quickly get high enough that you'll almost never dodge even with high Dex and Defense.

Looking at the admin logs, nobody has deleted any posts in the last couple of days, so I'm guessing the internet hiccuped and your post didn't make it in in the first place. Either that, or you are talking about this post.

TENSE HURTS TENSE KILLS