Mea Tulpa

Originally Posted By: Paladin95 Long story short, this build is broken in G3... My conclusion is that this build is not better than a Mental Magic and Battle Magic heavy shaper, just more practical. No, the build isn't broken. Shaping, if managed properly, is overpowered. In G3, if you make the right creations early enough, pretty much any smart build will feel broken. So if you want to call something broken, call the shaping mechanics broken; it is neither missile weapons nor the build as a whole that give it that capability.

Cordelia's unlikely, same as Miranda: Jeff just likes the name. Pinner, Darian, and Jaffee are all the names of college football players from 2001 or so -- not sure if this is a coincidence or not.

Um, no. Then there would be no challenge.

Email Jeff at spidweb@spiderwebsoftware.com -- he'll gladly get you a registered copy.

Denna doesn't show up there until you complete all parts of her quest from when she is in Mera.

I'm glad the book is better. Although there were some really wonderful things about the HMC film, it was a colossal disappointment for me; it was so talked up, but in the end it really couldn't compare to Spirited Away.

I think it involved completing the absolute minimum set of quests necessary and making good use of teleportation and horses. The horses are very important as they reduce travel time drastically in E3. If you knew where to look, it was possible to get some pretty strong equipment and consumable items without doing much fighting.

This reminds me of Drakey and his repeatedly finishing Exile 3 in less than a week. Pffft. An interesting challenge though. I wonder what the absolute lowest elapsed time you could possibly achieve would be? On casual I have to imagine it is very doable. It's probably even doable on torment, but that would be a secondary challenge. Onan the Barbarian's Quickie Challenge? And what would be the fastest faction? Astoria's the fastest to start but she's a bit out of the way from the action. Given that all factions visit mostly the same places, and Gazaki-Uss is one of them, I wonder if Ghaldring wouldn't be the fastest. No -- that Four Shapers quest (or whatever it's called) would slow that down quite a bit. Maybe Alwan?

I recommend Basilisk ][. That's what I have my copies of Exile running on. Also, I can confirm that CrossOver for Mac will run the Windows port of the original Nethergate. Yay happy skill point system!

Turn the difficulty to Casual. There's no point putting yourself through the wringer.

Wait, what, whoa.

Same time is probably correct. Esp as the G3 ending makes it clear that war has already hit Terrestia. I guess the quarantine was set when there had only been isolated attacks, such as on the school. It's kind of funny how many things had to happen for the drakons to get the geneforge. First Danette and Corata had to make the geneforge, as apparently nobody else wanted it. Defniel had to abandon, but not absorb, Rhakkus. Trajkov had to come and shoot down Goettsch. Goettsch had to cheat Trajkov and steal the Geneforge notes. Rhakkus had to read Goettsch's notes. A shaper had to report Sucia Isle to the council so that Zakary and Barzahl could be sent. Barzahl had to transport Rhakkus away and augment him so that he could shape. Of course other things were necessary as well, such as the help of other drayks and the takers, but all the items above were pretty much non-negotiable links in this chain of events. What an unlikely course of events...

*nod* Agreed, the Trakovite Agent idea is a good one.

More info: Geneforge 1 - Dillame is 50 miles from Sucia Island - "There are a dozen Shapers there, working to tame this wild coast, populate it with friendly fauna, and make it safe for settlement." - When transporting you from Dillame to the Shaper Council, they use a boat. - Time between G1 and force sent to Sucia Island = time to get to Dillame by boat, time to get to Shaper Council by boat, "a few weeks" before being interrogated, then they send Agents to Sucia and word comes back after "a few weeks" = likely about 2 months between G1 and force being sent Trajkov likes serviles - "Trajkov is true to his word to the serviles. Surprisingly enough, he took a liking to the loyal and intelligent creatures. They are given full freedom and rights, elevated to the status of full humans." - "Ellhrah, as always, insisted on independence and on his people being treated as equals. He need not have worried. Though the Takers hated the Awakened, Trajkov admired their spirit." - "Trajkov was a man of his word. After he conquered the lands of the Shapers, he rewarded the Takers for their assistance." Geneforge 2 - Both G1 and G2 state the PC is about to begin his "apprenticeship" - but in G1 it's a five year post at a remote colony while in G2 it appears to be just one mission with Shanti. - Travel time from Drypeak to Shaper Council on foot is several weeks - 9 people on council Geneforge 3 - "And then, finally, you can see the mainland and Poryphra, the city you have been aiming for. And you see, instantly, that when the rebels spoke of destruction on the mainland, they were not just boasting. Terrestia is the less settled of the two Shaper continents. Poryphra was one of the larger cities there. Over fifty thousand humans lived there, with many serviles and other creations. And it has been destroyed." - "Diwaniya was allowed to continue to rule this remote island. While he would normally be punished for his ineptitude by being sent to an even more miserable place, it turned out that none existed." (hah!) - Greta on Gull Island: "At first, it didn’t seem like things would be that way. But an outsider, a trainee who had failed to become an Agent, came there unbidden and befriended the serviles. Since she was not actually a Shaper, they took her in, and eventually found her counsel to be useful. It was her calm words that helped the serviles and drayks work together and settle their growing differences." Geneforge 4 - "The rebellion has been going for seven years. Three years ago, you left your village to receive training." - "Your band is led by Greta, an officer in the rebellion. You have heard tales of her, how she has fought the Shapers since the beginning of the war" The last two are important, as they address the time between G3 and G4. The time is 7 years at most, and probably not less; if the war had started someplace other than the Ashen Isles, the Ashen Isles would not likely have been quarantined, right?

I finally pulled all the intro and ending texts from G1-4 and put them in a file. The second continent is referenced twice, in the beginning and end of G3, but only in G3. I think the real issue is the G4-5 were unable to represent the gigantic world described in the earlier games. According to the G3 ending, Poryphra housed 50,000 people! That hardly seems possible in G4. The Geneforge map system, like Ultima's before it, was just not designed to represent entire civilizations and continents.

Where does this infamous "second continent" reference occur? Is it in one of the endings? Batch find of the scripts for all five games turned up nothing.

That's an excellent point. It opens up the possibility that the years given in the creation info sheets represent actual years since some date near the beginning of the Shaper empire. Wow, that's a long time.

No. We know exactly where Sucia Island is because the G1 ending mentions that it is actually not too far from a city by the name of Dillame. So it's east of Terrestia.

Make that 1-4 raw damage.

That sounds about right. The largest gap probably is between G2 and G3 anyway, given that there needs to be enough time for Litalia and Ghaldring to do stuff. Something I left off G5 is the wars with the natives. They were 200-300 years ago depending on what part of Western Terrestia. Interesting as among other things, it means Rivergate Keep in Dillame is younger.

I can't find *any* suggestion that Wingbolts were created a year before G4, sadly. Since the war had been going poorly for the Rebels for about two years, and Kyshakks were created two years earlier, I think it's reasonable to guess that Wingbolts were created 1-3 years before G4.

Geneforge 1 - "When the Shapers were here, when I was created, these ruins were already ancient and already infested with ghosts. The Shapers had just begun to explore them and try to learn their secrets when this island was Barred." - "Even though it was built several centuries ago... a Shaper training hall." - "These thick books contain a detailed ledger of supplies which have passed through here. You find one interesting thing. The dates indicate that this area was abandoned almost exactly 200 years ago." - "Then, about two hundred years ago, the island was Barred." - "This was once cramped workers quarters. Oddly, they don't look as old as the other ruins you have seen. Your best guess is that this place was built and used about a century ago. That is long before the outsiders came to Sucia Island and long after it was Barred. It's clearly Shaper handiwork. Who could have built it?" (not sure what this is from, it appears elsewhere re some tunnels.) - Goettsch came "months ago." Geneforge 2 - Captain Takena has been here "a long time. Years and years. I have been here almost as long as the colony has." - "Forces were sent to deal with the situation. Some people were taken off the island. Some were killed. And Barzahl and I were sent to help with the cleanup." - "They were loyal Shapers. They killed Goettsch and took control of the island." - Zakary and Barzahl came to Drypeak "about five years ago." - Ellhrah died "two years ago." - Zakary and Barzahl schismed and Zakary reported Barzahl's death "about a year ago." - Drypeak Village troubles started "about six months ago." Geneforge 3 - "Dhonal's Isle was the first of the Ashen Isles to be settled, over a century ago." - Isle of Spears "was charted about a century ago when the Ashen Isles were first settled." - "Lord Rahul and I came to this island thirty years ago." - "Who is Khyryk? An apprentice of mine and Lady Anjali's long ago." - "My part in this story began a decade ago, when I arrived on Gull Island." (Khyryk) - PC came to the school "years ago." - Hoge met Litalia three years ago." - Efforts to undermine Agatha began "about a year ago." - Gretchen "was thrown out of the school a few weeks ago." - "Not long ago, the monsters appeared on this island, on several of the Ashen Isles, if not all of them. This happened here about the time your school was attacked." - Agatha rebelled against a few weeks after that? Geneforge 4 - "Rivergate Keep. This fort was built about two centuries ago." - "Think of the drakons, who did not exist a few short decades ago." - Kyshakk "Only started appearing on the battlefield about two years ago." Geneforge 5 - PC found by Drypeak and taken to Rawal nearly three years ago.

IMHO it was quite clear. The verb "to rebel" does not imply exactly the same thing that the noun "rebels" does.

Had you recently removed an item, like a belt, granting +1 Int?

*facepalm* Just because you find a name on google does not mean it has anything to do with the character's name. And I thought hte Jeff cameo was E2 (eas ter egg). Was there an E3 one as well?