Mea Tulpa

Not possible for many reasons, but being turn-based is definitely not one of them. Most of the pioneering online RPGs, like the original Neverwinter Nights and the Shadow of Yserbius, were turn-based.

Do you mean return, rather than reduce? In G1 and G2, most melee damage was 1-8 per level. In G3 and G4, most melee damage was 1-4 per level. (This is a little misleading because spell/breath damage also went down between G1 and G3, but it was less drastic, particularly for the better spells and abilities. Melee got nerfed much harder.)

No, Parry does better than add 2% per level, because it does not contribute to the 90% cap on armor. It reduces damage at about 2% per level. Parry is amazing, despite being weaker than in previous games. Blademaster is also incredibly important since it lets you remove fatigue twice as fast as usual.

The U.S. Civil War was definitely not between "established civilization" and the "frontier". For one thing, the South was anything but frontier by the 1860's. Additionally, most of the Southern states were first settled in similar time frames as the Northeastern states. And the actual frontier, the West, consisted entirely of Union-loyal states and territories, with the sole exception of Texas.

Riposte also follows the G1 points schedule, so gains above 10 are very slow and reaching 50% requires getting to 26 Riposte. Good luck indeed.

I know the same words have been used in other fantasy settings (particularly nephilim, given its biblical derivation), but what fantasy books have Nephils and Sliths in them? None, right?

Uh, nephils and sliths are nothing like elves and dwarves.

If the other creations are nerfed, then shaping as a whole becomes too weak for a game focused on it. With nerfed Magic & Fire creations, there would be no reason to play as any character other than a Servile, or an Infiltrator/Agent.

Unless your hard disk is full or you have weird user permissions set up, it sounds like you might have file corruption. You might want to try the steps listed in the Tech Support forum header, especially step #2 (re-download and re-install).

Battle Creations: Plain old offensive damage is really what needs to be upgraded. Defense and HP are good, but not enough; just look at the degree to which the Wingbolt is preferred over the Kyshakk. Now picture a Kyshakk with no breath weapon, but even higher HP. Nobody would use it! The lack of ranged attacks are a HUGE inherent disadvantage the Battle Creation line has. Ranged attacks provide flexibility, as you will never be unable to get at the enemy you want to hit, and you can always get two attacks in when hasted; plus you get access to different elements to attack with. The fact that they also -- all of them! -- do more damage is kind of ridiculous. (And, I suspect, it is an artifact of the fact that creation battle skills were not updated when all melee damage changed from 1-8 per level to 1-4 per level between G2 and G3.) Being more survivable is a very poor substitute for a ranged attack. Quick Action is better, but it's inconsistent, which only compounds the disadvantages caused by reliance on a melee attack. Battle creations need to be better at battle -- not worse.

Jeff -- more health is fine, but the Battle Creations really need better attacks. Right now, their melee attacks are CONSISTENTLY weaker than breath attacks from corresponding Magic & Fire Creations, even though breath attacks have a host of advantages over melee attacks! What's even worse, their melee attacks are usually weaker than Magic & Fire melee attacks, and are never significantly stronger. For example: a Glaahk and a Drayk will BOTH do more MELEE damage than a Battle Alpha! And yes, this does take into account the Battle Alpha Strength bonus. Given that the Glaahk slows and the Drayk also has a missile attack, Alphas are useless. Similarly, Vlish outdamage Clawbugs IN MELEE (and both poison). The Vlish also have a missile attack; Clawbugs are useless. On average, Gazers outdamage Rotghroths IN MELEE... do I need to go on? And War Tralls... hah! Battle Alphas outdamage War Tralls in melee! You probably don't want to see the math, but it's all available here if you do: Board post here

Geneforge 5 will however have a windowed mode as well as variable display resolutions, according to the latest update.

And in pure statistics, War Tralls are horrendous. That problem really lies in the fact that the entire Battle Shaping line has been CATEGORICALLY worse than Fire and Magic Shaping from G3 onward. This is not good. The War Trall is a good place to start, but the others need attention too.

Yeah, Evasion is a very solid strategy on Normal in all of Jeff's games. Unfortunately (fortunately?) it's pretty useless on Torment and even on Hard.

I have an idle suspicion that the Awakened might show up again, in some form. Jeff has indicated that he wants the option of satisfying, happy endings. In earlier games, the Awakened provided this option for many people; they were probably the most popular sect in G1. Khyryk, similarly, was very popular in G3, at which point he had not yet adopted a Trakovite viewpoint. I'm not actually sure that I expect the Shapers to split. Although there were some internal ideological differences in G4, there was nothing to the degree of the drakon-human tension among the rebels. Additionally, it seems unlikely that the Shapers would not put aside their differences in the face of Unbound-style aggression. If anything, I would expect the really purist Shapers to join the Trakovites. (And surely, after the destruction of G4's ending, the Trakovites will have greater numbers, even if they are still small and weak overall.) A rebel split seems more likely -- particularly because such a split facilitates creating a situation where FIVE different sects all have a chance of coming out on top. The fewer huge powerful sects there are, the more plausible this seems.

What's the point of pack animals? They were originally suggested to deal with encumbrance, but G4 stopped counting items in your pack against you. No point in pack animals anymore.

Jeff has said that there will be five game-winning sects in Geneforge 5. What do you think they will be? Cast your votes and discuss in the thread. This is a pre-emptive poll for the sake of legibility.

SWEET. What a great update. Categorically. Windowed mode, and customizable keyboard shortcuts -- very nice!

I think memory management is part of the reason the screen size has to stay reasonable. Judging by Eschalon's ridiculous problems in that area, I'm glad Jeff is more conservative.

Nethergate also had cows.

Time for me to eat my words. Well, sort of. You guys are definitely right about ME being better than I'm saying. I still think it's not particularly important given the ease of replenishing SP in other ways. But it is nice! Here are the results of my test. I tested with Minor Heal (2 SP) and Augmentation (15 SP) 20 times each at 5, 10, and 20 ME. 5 ME, 2 SP Cost: Mean 1.4, Range 1-2 10 ME, 2 SP Cost: Mean 0.8, Range 0-2 20 ME, 2 SP Cost: Mean 0.8, Range 0-2 5 ME, 15 SP Cost: Mean 12.0, Range 8-14 10 ME, 15 SP Cost: Mean 7.7, Range 3-11 20 ME, 15 SP Cost: Mean 3.6, Range 1-7

CAN cast fireball (I assume you mean bolt of fire?) without using SP, but they don't do that every time, right? Really, the only time you need so much SP at once that you need an elixir is in boss fights, or other prolonged fights. So while the bonus is neat, it's not particularly necessary. I guess a natural 15 is pretty good, though I am curious if you passed up other equipment in favor of items boosting ME.

Magical Efficiency just requires a buttload of skill points to get up to a level where it's really making a difference. And considering the ease of replenishing spell points in A4/5, this is not a particular need.

I'm skeptical, SoT, simply because the levels gained from the bad traits wouldn't (I expect) be any larger than the ones lost from the good traits, if both are compared to plain humans. By midgame an advantage of 10 or 15 skill points is really only worth a 2-3 points in skills you care about. Most of the penalties sound worse than that, though we don't have hard data on them.

In both A4 and A5, there is a cap to how much healing/restoration First Aid will provide per enemy defeated, scaled by enemy level. In A4 this cap is relatively high and it takes a lot of First Aid skill to get there. In A5, for most (but not all) enemies, the cap is very low and reached by only a little First Aid. The skill is in fact so much less useful in A5, that it actually makes Magical Efficiency slightly less awful. And that's saying something.