Mea Tulpa

Yup.

I have to say, it's a very interesting dichotomy to look at. Thurilith wrote the authoritative article on this as it applies to BoX, but it's a bit different with Jeff's games. Time and again people in the forums say that the open-world SW games are more fun, and time and again Jeff laments the fact that open-world games are much harder to balance and result in more e-mail complaints. The disjunction between the crowd here and Jeff's customers in general is old news, so he may be right about that call. Or does it even matter? Exile 3 (100% open world) and Avernum 4 (semi-open) were both heralded as great commercial successes, while Geneforge 4 and Dark Waters -- the most grittiest and most linear of Jeff's games -- were forum favourites. Looking at a few comparisons: - Jeff's most cited and most obvious gaming influences from the early days were mostly open-world. Ultima and Wizardry were all open-world with nested quest sequences much like X1 and X2, while the most celebrated of the Gold Box games, Pool of Radiance, was open-world much in the style of X3. - Traditional console RPGs are mostly linear, but they also spend a lot more time on plot, notably including character development (PCs as well as NPCs) and plot that is actually shown with, you know, moving pictures. These seem to have limited relevance to both Jeff, his customers, and the forums -- I swear that every time I make a Chrono Trigger reference here, fewer and fewer people get it. - Newer generation "gamer" RPGs are mostly open-world, with long lists of quests just like newer SW games have, and other elements borrowed from MMORPGs. Jeff has been openly critical of many elements of these games, but he still employs some of those elements, and he definitely still plays the games. Really, even Jeff's more linear games have a lot more rollick than grit, and they have a lot more in common with modern open-world games than with actual old-school RPGs. Well, except maybe for not being real time... and thank goodness for that.

Well, clearly somebody has to modify the application so that it uses the GG password system. I'm not clear if it's GG or SW that would be responsible for that.

Yes, we've complained about this in A4 and A5 as well, but for whatever reason, Jeff seems like making us wait for multiple zone-loads and multiple animations. It's really annoying, though I suppose it's better than the G3 boats.

EITHER/WH… KIERKEGORE

I didn't notice this particular bug in UBB.threads polls until now. Percentages (and hence, display widths) for questions where you can choose any number of answers, are given out of the total number of answers given, not the total number of respondents, which makes the display widths lame and the percentages mostly useless. Sigh. Not the worst of the UBB.threads poll problems, though.

This question from the GamersGate FAQ would seem to address a parallel situation: Originally Posted By: GamersGate I found a patch at the games official website and now the game is asking for a CD. You can only use patches made for download versions. If the developer do not provide such patch and you think your game need the patch, please contact support@gamersgate.com about it. Include information about what game it is and the name of the patch you think we need to add. Please note, that it may take time to produce and acquire a patch, and that customer support has a main priority set to answering e-mails about problems, yet still your request will be transferred and handled after it is received and read. Basically, it sounds like you need to ask them to make a GG-specific patch and hope they do it soon. I guess this is one of the downsides to using a service like GG.

No, they don't refer to "us" at all. They refer to Jeff's personal site, Irony Central, which doesn't even link to these forums even though it shares a server with them.

...the reload cheat? o_O

Maybe he is really ripping off -X-...

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

As far as characters the PCs meet in one or more games who are presumed to have been alive during both E/A1 and A6, we have: - The aforementioned Solberg, X, and Kelner - Athron, Khoth, and Sulfras (confirmed by Melanchion to still live as of A6) - Most Vahnatai; of the important/recurring ones, just Prossis-Bok, Elohi-Bok, Abra, Bohen, Iglit, and Ghall-Ihrno - Avernite children who we've also seen grown up: Alice and Angarahad - Pythras the dragon and Morog the lich

Factions appeared -- actually and not just arguably -- in A Small Rebellion, just prior to Nethergate. The majority of E/A 2 is significantly less linear than A4 or A6. I also voted new and crazy.

Originally Posted By: Golgoth But the engine is not what he's talking about I think. I percived him talking about the ideas. Originally Posted By: BathosAndPathos No more features being taken from Geneforge. It sure sounds like he's talking about the engine.

The engine used by Avernum 4-6 is what they took from Geneforge. Avernum 4's engine is Geneforge 3's engine with a few big modifications -- namely, multiple PCs instead of creations, seamless map zones instead of discrete map zones, and grid stepping instead of freeform walking. Lots of the graphics, sounds, items, spells, enemy stats, and almost all the PC stats, come directly from Geneforge 3 and not from Avernum 3.

How the heck do you guys get grounded so often?

Solberg, X, and Kelner are the only characters who appear in person in both E/A1 and A6. Solberg may be gone, but he retains the dubious honor of being the only character to appear in all six games.

Morningtide/Eventide sealed is kind of a weird combination, isn't it?

A6 is definitely, definitely the most balanced game as far as mechanics and gameplay go. By a mile.

Originally Posted By: BathosAndPathos Exile's variety of spells More variety in weapons. Give me maces and one handed spears! Less magical items and more items with certain properties. Fine / keen items etc. The second and third items also describe Exile, fwiw.

There are more. *scratches head* Where'd they go?

What happened to the rest of the drawings?

FRACTIOUS FACTITIOUS SPIDWEBBERS!

Exile 2 FTW, always and forever.

Agreed. This is not as bad as the change in Drayk damage types in G4.