Mea Tulpa

Between all 23 of the different versions of games and scenarios Jeff has made, I would estimate he's named somewhere in the neighborhood of 2000 to 4000 unique characters. He's used names from all kinds of ethnic origins, from quite literally all parts of the world. We're not listing 4000 ethnic origins. "Shanker" isn't exclusively Hindi, anyway. Wikipedia for example lists three Shankers, whose origins are Polish, Singaporean, and Tamil, while the first google result for "Shanker name" is about English and Welsh families. Obviously it's a popular name in India, but Jeff isn't in India and he doesn't speak Hindi. With all due respect, you seem to be full of assumptions.

*sigh* Abhi, look. I'm sorry that we're half-frightening. I don't mince words, though, when incorrect facts are being spread and the topic is something I'm sure about. Please don't take offense at this suggestion, but maybe there are more language issues than we realize. We can get the gist of what you're saying, but sometimes your language is confusing. If you have the same experience reading the posts here, that would explain why it feels so hard to get you to understand even clear-cut tips. What you need to understand, is that you are dealing with people who have analyzed the game thoroughly, and written a lot about it before. It gets tiresome to have you constantly tell us we're wrong based on your (faulty) assumptions. For example, when you made assertions about what Torment is like, then told us you had never played on Torment before! I don't say this to be insulting, but to explain why we seem impatient. It's because we probably are. How to avoid this: if we say something that you are skeptical about, ask for more information or a better explanation instead of just saying it's wrong. You simply don't have enough of a knowledge base to accurately say things are wrong. --- Finally, about starting the game over: when I first played A5, I think I restarted about six different times, from as far into the game as the Drake Pillars. Granted, I was exploring game mechanics and formulating optimization theories while playing, but the point stands. Starting over is nothing to be ashamed of.

It was definitely there in X2. In E2, however, she was quite inferior to good old Waldby due to the fact that his shop stocked infinite quantities of its random items (likely a bug).

On Torment, it's almost impossible to dodge things, particularly later in the game. That means it's worthless to put points into Defense or Dexterity. (The Dex is okay, if not great, for your missile fighter as it helps his damage output, but for everyone else it's a big waste.) Also, buying Spellcraft early is also a waste because you can train it very early in the game at Shanker. If those things are there because you used premade classes instead of Custom, don't blame the game. Alorael told you you should use Custom. Personally, given the extremity of your challenge, and how early you are in the game, I would want to start over without so many wasted skill points, if I were in your shoes. Whether or not you do that, I highly recommend you read the links in Strategy Central. Undertaking a challenge of this difficulty without learning how the game engine works first is not a good idea.

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Ordinarily I'd call it a stretch too. However, given that Jeff himself has said he named the provinces after old girlfriends, given that very few people actually have "Sharimik" for a name, given that Monoroe also had its spelling changed (perhaps O. is her middle initial), and given that we can attest to that name in female form in Jeff's college years... I'd say it's practically a conclusion.

The resistances are all easily viewed in a5itemschars.txt.

Sure enough... also on FB, we find Cherilyn Michaels, who was at the Claremont Colleges same time as Jeff, perfect timing for exhood. Cherilyn Michaels --> Sharimik?

Thuryl is a binary wizard. A binhex, if you will.

Hmm, interesting. That could potentially fit with Jeff's comment about provinces being named after exes -- perhaps it's not Bigail that was named after one, but Shayder. What lends this argument additional support is the fact that one of the two province names we know for sure -- Monoroe -- is a slightly modified version of Shirley's last name. I think this could be something. *three cheers for aran*

So basically, you compensated for the wizard's power by augmenting or expanding the abilities of all the other classes. Edit: I'm liquifying my fortune in save-and-reload-maximized gems to research a new spell: Protection from Thuryl, 10' Radius

I heard they call oversized islands "continents" these days.

The whole concept of walking into a store selling a selection of magical items still baffles me, but I guess D&D had to catch up with computer-based gaming sooner or later. Ugh.

It's true -- magic really is a much more effective damage source in A5. This is more true than in A4 due to the degree to which Quick Action was nerfed. Now the most damage you can expect out of a halberd is 2.5 (average) * 1.25 (reasonable QA level) = about 3.1 per level of damage, per turn -- and that's before armor, which a large portion of enemies have at least 25% physical reduction from, and before any dodges, parries or ripostes. A5, of course, still has the good haste. Assuming A6 inherit's G5's nerfed haste, that will change the balance of power significantly. Spellcasters and archers will no longer get a guaranteed two shots per turn, so one of the primary drawbacks of relying on melee attacks will be removed entirely!

Why the heck -are- the classes so unbalanced in the first place? It sounds like it's gotten worse in modern editions, but even in 2nd edition (what I'm familiar with) wizards in particular had clear-cut power grossage. At 1st level they sucked; around 5th level they were either incredibly powerful or still somewhat sucky depending on how much adventuring happened between opportunities to rest and memorize spells; and by 10th level or so with a reasonably creative player they pretty much blew everyone else out of the water. Never mind the fact that they could advance to 20th level, memorize a kazillion spells and wish for anything they wanted.

Try making a new town that is completely empty, and just change the 2 to that town number. If the move works, the problem lies in town 2 somewhere (terrian code maybe). If not, the problem is somewhere else.

Sharpshooter just doesn't keep up, because it contributes less than DT to bows, and bow damage doesn't scale well. Even for a primary archer, I'd prefer Elite Warrior for the help with fatigue and parry.

Choosing traits like Nimble Fingers, Sharpshooter or Good Constitution over Divinely Touched is completely foolish. Also, taking a Human over a Nephil (or Slith) makes no sense whatsoever. For most of the other points we have disagreed on, there is room for debate. But the two points above are indisputable. We've provided plenty of explanations and links to further explanations. So, which of the following is correct? 1) You dispute the accuracy of the above two assertions. 2) You are intentionally choosing a sub-optimal build.

GREP TO THE RESCUE! batch grep, specifically. TextWrangler is an easy solution for this, on macs.

The Footracer Empire Archers definitely aren't any different from any other Empire Archers, so I think that settles it, it was just a random drop.

Because I haven't seen it. (And grep for "Delicious Vlish" turns up absolutely nothing.) Where is said appearance?

I should take back my definite "no". I misread the topic title and thought it was about E2, in which they definitely don't. I'm still skeptical, but it's possible.

Updated with yet another info source: Jeff's facebook friends! Yet another incarnation of facebook stalking...

Originally Posted By: Chokboyz Even less serious question: Why the heck does your PDN changes each time i see it (your avatar gives you though) ? Largely for kicks. I enjoy tiny bursts of poetry and esoteric references. Once upon a time, there were multiple members who varied their PDNs regularly, but now it is just Alorael and I. The static and easily recognizable avatar is intentional; I don't mean to be confusing.

The Heartstriker was indeed lowered to d4, it was quite sad. 8 and 32 don't just affect to-hit though, those 8 bonus levels (or however many there are) affect damage as well.