Men are from Slars

Weird! I just tested and the same bug is present for me. It only seems to affect the area of effect damage spells.

Not exactly: http://encyclopedia.ermarian.net/wiki/Khoth

Originally Posted By: Nioca they were usually limited/nerfed in such a way that... the party was never in any real danger... Originally Posted By: Nioca Who said anything about swarms of weak monsters? I didn't say a word about making them weak. In fact, the implication in the part you quoted is anything but. ???

If it's in the forum, post in the topic and a mod will sticky it.

evileye is correct about the damage. There are no caps. I thought I used Arcane Blow on one or the other of my ME tests, and it worked just like any other spell. But I could be misremembering. An odd bug if that really is what happens.

Syn - you can still link to an http address with an image, so people can all look at them.

I'm not sure it's even been explored thoroughly. The FAQs say they add "a little damage" per point. I don't think any of the resident mechanics analysts played much of A1-3.

That's a bigger lag than is normally seen. Are your other PCs humans with disadvantages?

I think Randomizer mistook your question as being about Avernum 4. I wouldn't know, but I think A 1 and 2 use different algorithms. Either way, that derivation of damage dice is wrong. If in a later game you had a 2-20 weapon, it would be the equivalent of 2d10 (min d max/min), not 10d2 -- which would produce a range of 10-20 instead.

In retrospect, it does seem like creating new scenarios might have made BoA sell better. Of course, it also would have extended the time it took to develop BoA, which already was the highest of any game he's made, IIRC. DWTD was released with BoA, though, wasn't it? That was new, though admittedly I didn't like it very much, either.

The Exile engine actually did precisely that. It didn't track when you got poisoned, but every other round poison damage occured and the odd rounds it didn't, globally.

I am pretty sure that all these rewards don't care how big the packs of crystals you hand in are, only the total number you've given. Once you hit a certain target, i.e. 10, a reward may be given. I don't think she gives a reward at every 10 though. What guide says that?

Investing in shaping skills does not make a particularly big difference, beyond allowing you to make the more advanced creations. It's not bad, it's just not as useful as buying other skills, especially magic skills. (as a lifecrafter, you will likely get the most benefit out of blessing and mental magic.) Strictly speaking the power option is probably to just raise magic shaping and eventually make wingbolts. Fire shaping does have good creations, though, especially the cryoa early and the drayk midgame. investing in both gives you more versatility early on, at the cost of a little power.

Somebody else will know this better, but I think physical and magical damage were balanced fairly differently in different Avernum games -- although the general formulae were similar, magic was more powerful in one, and weapons in another.

I forgot about another thread where I had emailed Jeff asking about the obscure ones. This still refers to G3, but it might be relevant to G4. http://www.ironycentral.com/forum/ubbthr...ents_#Post64447

I have never really understood why VoDT is insulted so much in the Blades community. I liked it too -- and it is obviously the Urgeneforge as well.

Infinitely reusable spellbooks worked when spell knowledge was boolean: either you had learned it or you hadn't. Now that it is a number describing strength, it would require a whole extra set of arrays to track who had read what book. It would be messy, and take time to do, and it really wouldn't add anything. Deleting and replacing PCs is almost always a bad idea.

I still hold that Serviles, Infiltrators, and Lifecrafters have more or less comparable ground in terms of powergaming ability. Lifecrafters have the most raw power, Serviles have the most flexibility to utilize different tactics, and Infiltrators are a happy medium.

Exile was probably harder if you didn't take advantage of the less balanced parts of the engine (bless, curse, haste, slow, armor bonuses, antimagic fields, simulacrums, silverlocke). If you did, it was pretty much a cake walk, although still one with a lot of tactical variety and points of interest.

My favorite was casting Fire Barrier to block the line-of-sight of the stubbornly immobile NPCs.

I think the only list for G4 is Synergy's, which gives all the effects known: ENHANCING ITEMS — ARMOR/WEAPON EHANCEMENT BLESSING CRYSTAL — Armor: Avoid Blows / Weapon: Bonus to Hit RUNED RUBY — Fire Essence — Armor: +7% Fire Protection / Weapon: Fire Damage CHARGING STONE — Cold Essence — Armor: +7% Cold Protection / Weapon: Cold Damage RUNED AMETHYST — Acid Essence — Armor: Acid / Poison Resistance / Weapon: Drips Acid IVORY SKULL — Curse Power — Armor: Bonus To Hit / Weapon: Curse Target RUNED ONYX — Magic Essence — Armor: Resist Effects (Fire 3% / Cold 3% / Energy 8% / Acid 10%) / Weapon: Slow Target TINY ORB OF MIST — Speed Essence — Armor: Harder To Hit / Weapon: Faster Blows STEEL SPINE — Armor: Damage Attacker / Weapon: Extra Damage ETHEREAL BINDINGS — Stability — Armor: Stun Resistance / Weapon: Drain Life GOLDEN CRYSTAL — Strong Blessing — Armor: Resist Effects (Fire 10% / Cold 10% / Energy 10% / Stun 5% / Mental 5% / Poison 5% / Acid 5%) / Weapon: Stronger Blows I did some more detailed exploration for G3, some of which still applies. It may give you some idea how some of the abilities not described work: http://www.ironycentral.com/forum/ubbthr...tions#Post67654 The Tiny Orb of Mist is very poorly understood.

I think it is just checked to see if you have used it at all. If you used it, deleted all your PCs one by one and replaced them, you still couldn't use it again.

I will say that one of the things I like least about the Geneforge engine games is the fact that most equipment gives teeny tiny bonuses that aren't even incredibly noticeable when stacked. 1% hostile effect resistance does not add to the game, and neither does 5% fire resistance, or a 2% armor helmet. Annoying, annoying...

It's probably an acronym in Nephilian

You also claimed you were donating a prize to the Themed Party contest. You didn't