Mea Tulpa

*nod* Wise words from Alo. A few bones to pick, though: Exile *2* had tuneups. Exile 3 changed things entirely. The graphics were completely redone. If you thought seeing the trees mutate in A4 was a shock, imagine having the pale gray cave floor suddenly turn neon blue. Neon blue! Every piece of text in the engine changed font and size, often drastically. Loads of new mechanics were introduced, including Spiderweb mainstays like acid and one-shot widgets like owning a house and the first job system. Athron had a sex change. The list goes on... A4 basically has a linear plot surrounded by exploration elements. I agree that the linear plot actually works decently, and I suppose it is more creative than the surface plagues. There are some nice touches, like Almaria. The problem is that the without the underlying need to gather information about a mostly unknown world in order to accomplish your goals, as in the first two games, the exploration gets extremely, extremely repetitive. Oh look, another bandit. I'll kill him. Oh look, another demon. I'll kill him. Let's find a quest reward. Anyway, I really disagree with your comment that A1 (and mostly A2) have no plots. A1 has a marvelous plot, which unfolds at the pace of the player. You're thrown into the underworld - minor plot point there! - and you gradually become more and more involved in a huge tapestry of events: the nephil and slith wars, Sss-Thsss, the legacy of the First Expedition, Erika and the other wizards, Grah-Hoth and Adze-Haakai, the destruction of Fort Remote, the Abyss and the Scimitar... it's simply that instead of moving from A to B to C to D and so on, there are a number of different plot tracks that you can follow simultaneously. In the end, most of them crisscross. The big difference is really that there's nobody telling you "now go do this." A2 preserved this "gather information and resources from all over the place" format while centralizing the main threads. The Olgai Council, Mahdavi, Micah, and Erika help frame things, but without linearizing the story. Finally, while the tactics are definitely a step up from previous games, I hesitate to call them better than fine. They are sometimes more interesting, but they are also sometimes more repetitive. That's what happens when you give all the monsters more HP than usual. Okay, I have now officially turned into an old geezer rambling about the good old days, so I'm gonna shut up.

Years ago, a foul incantatrix put a curse on all the caverns, making potions, herbs, and small items of all variety take on a different appearance every time somebody looks at them. No doubt this was part of the reason identification was so necessary in the early days of the kingdom. We should all be thankful for Rita and Patrick's scholarship -- but even they were not powerful enough to break the curse, it seems.

Alo said: "other Avernums have been more interesting in the plot department, although I think that A4 is actually better than A3 there." Dikiyoba said: "I think old-timers, if I may use that word, I disappointed because A4 is very different than the Avernum series..." Well, if you guys are old-timers, then what the heck am I? A mummy? It's worth remembering that A4 is basically the first new Avernum story that Jeff has created in almost NINE YEARS. E3 and BoE came out in 1997, and while A1-3 and BoA contained new embellishments, the vast majority of the story is not new. No doubt the man behind the curtain is very different now. I agree with Alo that A4 is on par with A3 plotwise. Actually, it reminds me a lot of E3 in general: E3 had comparable upgrades to the graphics and changes to the engine that not everyone liked, but which ultimately were very important for the longevity of the series. The story was a natural continuation of the previous game without the sorts of contextualized details that made the world of Exile so rich. It will be very interesting to see what happens in A5. Whereas A1 and 2 had heaps of loose threads leading into the next installment, A4 has pretty much nothing. The multiplicity of endings means that it will be hard to do much with a certain archvillain, and the whole Dorikas thing is frankly less interesting than the A1/2 plots that *didn't* get followed up on.

It's definitely possible to lose more than 1 AP per round, if you're heavily stunned.

The Quicksilver Bulwark. +1 AP is easily, easily, easily the most powerful item ability in the game. The Bulwark still lets you use a top caliber weapon, and it doesn't penalize your strength or deny you Gazerskin Sandals.

Also, stunning often persists for more than one round. Like all status effects, it will weaken with each passing round. However, it's cumulative, so the more heavy hits you take, the more stunning you will accrue.

*nod nod* It's very reassuring to hear you don't like the chitrachs, either. If you put more time into the graphics, though, the PC graphics should *really* be the first ones to work on. The nephil and slith graphics are nicely done -- but it's frustrating to see so many available for enemies and so few for the party. Particularly when nephils are almost categorically the most advantageous race -- 2 options leaves a lot to be desired. If nothing else, why not allow each race to choose any graphic? A nephil in a suit of armor is going to look more like an armored human graphic than a furry nephil graphic anyway. -- who you may want to ignore, since he's one of the silly people who still prefers pre-Exile III graphics. They created such a great atmosphere.

Yeah, I have to suspect that Jeff isn't alone in his misanthropy, to what degree it exists.

Yeah. Come on guys

Yeah. Come on guys

Aaahh! Synergy, I should never have doubted you. Something foul is at play here. The manual is wrong. I added a line in the door script on my testing copy of A4 to tell me what my Unlock strength is. The result goes up 1 for every point of Tool Use, and goes up 2 for every 3 points of spellcraft/etc! Synergy was correct. It also gets a bonus of 1... or a bonus of 2, with 2 points in Unlock Doors. I don't know if this is really a +1 bonus, or just a +.66 bonus -- it was enough of a chore walking through walls to Formello to buy the first two levels (hey, it's a testing copy). However, it is definitely an UD level bonus and not a flat +0.75 like the manual says.

Aaahh! Synergy, I should never have doubted you. Something foul is at play here. The manual is wrong. I added a line in the door script on my testing copy of A4 to tell me what my Unlock strength is. The result goes up 1 for every point of Tool Use, and goes up 2 for every 3 points of spellcraft/etc! Synergy was correct. It also gets a bonus of 1... or a bonus of 2, with 2 points in Unlock Doors. I don't know if this is really a +1 bonus, or just a +.66 bonus -- it was enough of a chore walking through walls to Formello to buy the first two levels (hey, it's a testing copy). However, it is definitely an UD level bonus and not a flat +0.75 like the manual says.

I'm not so sure. I think the base .75 might just be referring to the .75 you get for the first point of Unlock Doors, which you must have if you're casting the spell. If you look at Synergy's excellent data here (you may want to ignore his slightly less excellent conclusions ) we see that a level 35 door was opened by Edit: See below. Synergy's conclusions turned out to be excellent as well.

I'm not so sure. I think the base .75 might just be referring to the .75 you get for the first point of Unlock Doors, which you must have if you're casting the spell. If you look at Synergy's excellent data here (you may want to ignore his slightly less excellent conclusions ) we see that a level 35 door was opened by Edit: See below. Synergy's conclusions turned out to be excellent as well.

I believe the bonus works the other way around, Aloreal. When picking a lock, you can open a lock of strength: = Tool Use When casting Unlock Doors, you can open a lock of strength: = Tool Use + ( (Mage Spells + Spellcraft + Magery + Unlock Doors level) * 0.75)

I believe the bonus works the other way around, Aloreal. When picking a lock, you can open a lock of strength: = Tool Use When casting Unlock Doors, you can open a lock of strength: = Tool Use + ( (Mage Spells + Spellcraft + Magery + Unlock Doors level) * 0.75)

The script files contain almost all information about item types, terrain types, creature types, and attack types (except for the graphics). They also contain combat scripts and dialog. They do NOT contain information on actual terrain placement, object placement, character placement, etc. and so on. That stuff is stored in non-text form. Good luck finding and/or editing it. You won't.

1. Open up the Scripts folder (preferably on a copy of your game, and not the original) and look for "av4itemschars.txt" -- this stores most information about items. Find the entry for an item you want to modify (say, a hatchet) and then find the entry for an item that does what you want it to do (say, a stick). Most of the parameters have pretty obvious names, so just change what you need to to make the hatchet function like the stick, and voila. (One important note: if you see "import = XX" that item will "import" the parameters from another item to use as a base. If you don't, it will import the parameters from the item right before it in the file.) 2. Doubtful. 3. Also doubtful. I don't think any characteristics related to PC race are stored in the scripts.

It sounds like you may have played some of the Exile games? If that's the case, you'll be up to date on the story as the story is almost exactly the same in each of the original trilogy games. Avernum 4 tends to hit you over the head repeatedly with summaries of what happened in the older games, so you won't be confused. What you will miss out on are all the details of the world of Avernum. Avernum 4 tends to skim over many of these things. If you like intricately developed fantasy worlds à la Lord of the Rings, you might prefer to play Avernum 1 and 2 first -- the Sliths will seem less barbaric, the names of the powerful wizards you keep hearing about will mean a lot more to you, each city will have its own character, and (perhaps most significantly) the Vahnatai will seem like a real people and less like weird cartoonish supervillains.

To be fair, it does cost you 12 MP per door to cast Unlock Doors. So there is a *teeny tiny* advantage to just using Tool Use on doors. How teeny tiny, you ask? Very teeny tiny.

To be fair, it does cost you 12 MP per door to cast Unlock Doors. So there is a *teeny tiny* advantage to just using Tool Use on doors. How teeny tiny, you ask? Very teeny tiny.

1. A Bronze Halberd will do more damage if you have a high attack bonus (Str + Pole + Blademaster). If you don't, the Spear will. Try them out. 2. While I like the new armor system very much, it does mean that the difference between different pieces of armor becomes very small, as far as protection goes. Given how easy it is to heal, an extra 10% protection is never really going to be significant unless you are stretched to your absolute limit fighting some powerful enemy. The protection you get from a Blessed Breastplate over a regular one is significantly less than the bonus from the Protection or Steel Skin spells, too.

Unless you're playing Geneforge 2, 4 points of Parry is rarely going to block acid breath. Are you sure something else isn't happening?

Well, the Vahnatai did get hinted at a lot in Exile before they made their grand entrance in Exile II.

Update: As expected, getting past Almaria gave me a big boost in power, most importantly from the Cryos Spear allowing me a natural 10 AP, but also from Steel Skin and Divine Fire. The natural 10 AP is nice as it makes dealing with regular enemies much less of a chore. I went and mopped up Nociduas, who was pretty easy, although I did have trouble the 10% of the time that his demon pal hit me -- for the first time since the goblin caves, I had to use healing potions (an elixir, in this case) to stay alive. I probably should have cast my own Enduring Shield rather than using the fountain's Enduring Armor, which had a weaker dodge effect. Oh well. Sort of a pointless victory, since the Emerald Chestguard isn't useful for me. At the moment, I'm dealing with my frustration at finding ANOTHER big system of tunnels under the Great Cave. Those chitrach tunnels really made me hate tunnels forever. The Honeycomb didn't help, either. All these tunnel systems are making it increasingly unlikely that I'll play through the game a second time. Soon, I should be able to grab an Enchanter's Robe from the necromancer (I don't want to craft one, as that Mandrake is gonna turn into knowledge later), and then I'll have my +3 to Mage Spells earning me Dispel Barrier. Then I get to go loot my list of 26 unpierced barriers. Oh, yeah. The Sulfurous Flats dungeon didn't ruffle my feathers at all. I don't know what all the fuss is over. (Well, it didn't ruffle my character's feathers; I'll admit to being a little annoyed by all the Searing Geneforge Creature Clones... honestly, if you're going to copy the graphic, at least change the !@#$ adjective!)