Men are from Slars

The shared graphics are admittedly a little creepy. Drayks and drakes are one thing, but chitrachs are definitely not clawbugs, and replacing 2/3 of the equipment with Geneforge equipment was also a bit much. IMHO.

1. It still shouldn't take as long to drop a friggin sack as it does to cast a spell.

2. This is a huge hassle from the streamlining and convenience point of view. It's one thing if you're carrying 20 iron bars, but if you have a lot of 1 and 4 pound items it takes forever to put down and pick up. Even using keyboard and mouse at once.

You know, given all of Jeff's efforts to streamline the game, I'm a little surprised he didn't get rid of encumbrance (from weight, not from equipped armor). Heaviness rarely if ever restricts my equipment choice, but it just makes me have to constantly pick up stuff and put it down when exploring -- very annoying. Whatever happened to the idea of putting all your junk in a pack, and putting the pack down automatically when those chitrachs jump out at you?

If 4 Divine Retributions a round didn't always seem like enough, it seems personally like a rather foolish tactic to rely on as a singleton. I'd rather pump defense. That way, you have longer to put on the hurt.

If 4 Divine Retributions a round didn't always seem like enough, it seems personally like a rather foolish tactic to rely on as a singleton. I'd rather pump defense. That way, you have longer to put on the hurt.

Quest XP is adjusted by level, but the "base" level is generally somewhat higher than the monsters you fight, so there is much less penalty for being high level.

Is Divine Retribution really that necessary?

Quest XP is adjusted by level, but the "base" level is generally somewhat higher than the monsters you fight, so there is much less penalty for being high level.

Is Divine Retribution really that necessary?

Honestly, more than anything else it's the balancing of the game engine that makes singletonity more difficult. You can no longer cast bless four times (for 8 mana) and be immune to damage with a nice attack even though you have 1 strength, 1 dexterity, and 0 weapon skills!

Yeah. You can think of it a bit like Geneforge minus the zoomed out map. I miss the map, but it honestly works quite well.

It reminds me a lot of some of the Ultima games. Ultima V and VI (and maybe some more, I can't remember) had single, seamless maps where on one screen a house takes up the whole view, move south fifteen steps and suddenly the scale has "changed" and there are five mountains onscreen. This may not be a coincidence - I think I remember Jeff citing Ultima as a major influence on Exile.

To be honest, I thought Prossis, Glantris, and Elohi were among the best characterizations in the series, along with maybe Motrax and Solberg. There are few major characters in Ex/Av that are given the chance to show much of their personality beyond their occupation and one or two exaggerated qualities; the Council received many dialog boxes worth of narrated prose, in addition to plenty of regular dialogue, so they had the chance to really develop.

Jeff does a better job than anyone else in the business of incorporating mundania and regular people in the games in interesting ways. Look at the attention given to characters like Elspeth and Nance. But people who are powerful or in charge are almost always blobs devoid of personality, like Micah.

People have been ending up at what, 32, 33, 34, with parties of four, right? Perhaps 36 is a little optimistic, but the difference between level 34 and level 36 is pretty minimal.

Honestly, the EXP cap has NOTHING to do with the feasability of a singleton. There's always been a cap, and it's never been particularly lenient. In Exile, you got less skill points at high levels, too (4 after 20, 3 after 40, and you couldn't exceed level 50). But in Exile you could also buy infinite knowledge brews from Silverlocke, and I gather you could in Avernum as well.

(Spoiler warning: Minor not-quite-spoiler in last paragraph.)

Thuryl, you made me very happy. Jewel of Arabia: Dreamers is one of my favorite games of all time. I've never liked resurrection, as it absolutely cheapens all the death in the plotline. Personally, I don't see how having essential members of your group die can constitute success, and part of the challenge of the game ought to be to keep everyone alive. Jewel of Arabia requires that for 2 of your 6 characters; I've seen one RPG require that for all of them (Arcana, on SNES).

Duality, I feel your nostalgia. The A4 engine is definitely new, though. And it does one thing for which it and Jeff deserve IMMENSE praise: the click-and-frameskip movement system. While I do miss hitting 978987978978 to go north really fast a little bit, this is a really wonderful innovation. (Now, if only the damn thing would turn off during combat! I'm sick of clicking on a square that it looks obvious to get to only to see my PC take a circuitous route, or needlessly step next to an enemy, in either case draining his AP and preventing him from attacking!)

The plot -is- extremely slow to get going. From what I've seen so far, I'm cautiously optimistic. I always wished that something more had been done with the Bon-Ihrno Prossis-Bok vs. Rentar-Ihrno Glantris-Bok dichotomy, and it looks like that might happen. After Ex/Av 3, though, my expectations aren't that high.

Never mind all the past pessimism, this is TOTALLY doable for a singleton. I did some scripting to put a new character (Nephil DT Natural Mage) at level 36 and provide a selection of dodge-enhancing equipment. I pushed Mage Spells to 11 and Tool Use to 8, giving myself a very conservative discount to account for trainers, wisdom crystals, and so on. Then I pumped dodge. After putting on the right equipment and being careful with my skills, I managed to reach:

20 Gymnastics

14 Dexterity

14 Defense

10 Luck

Total dodging bonus: +191%

This is enough to usually evade level 30 enemies attacking physically, and close to 50/50 against level 40 enemies. I'm pretty sure there are actually more skill points available. I really have no idea how much knowledge brew can be had and if a certain level of Nature Lore can provide a skill point bonanza.

You can inflate the available skill points even more by replacing Divinely Touched with Nimble Fingers; or, you can replace it with Fast on Feet for a flat 10% bonus to dodge. DT however gives you a pretty nice bow attack (14 dex, 10 bows, 12 sharpshooter) and fair mage ability.

I also wonder if it's possible to skip Tool Use entirely? Unlock Doors works on everything except traps, so it just depends on any traps being in really critical places. So far, I haven't seen any.

One problem: As I suspected, most spells get a full 50% bonus to-hit. (Assuming I am reading the script right, and that does not mean Bolt of Fire never misses.) I also haven't figured out if the bonuses accrue at the same rates apply against spells and missiles. I think they do, but if they don't, that could be a big problem. Thoughts anyone?

Boooooooo.

I am actually starting to think it's doable after all.

Also, I am concluding that in the long run, DT + Elite Warrior and Deadeye are not the best combinations. At level 32, DT alone gives +9. The other skill gives you an extra +6 or +5, but this becomes effectively +3 given the 10-ceiling. On the other hand, Natural Mage gives the full bonus. For a singleton I think it's a lot better, as it allows you to focus all your SP on tanking.

Given enough trainers and a few wisdom crystals, and the right armor selection, I think a singleton *may* be able to boost dodging enough to keep up with enemies. Very few attacks can't be dodged, and those can I suspect be handled on a case by case basis.

Boooooooo.

I am actually starting to think it's doable after all.

Also, I am concluding that in the long run, DT + Elite Warrior and Deadeye are not the best combinations. At level 32, DT alone gives +9. The other skill gives you an extra +6 or +5, but this becomes effectively +3 given the 10-ceiling. On the other hand, Natural Mage gives the full bonus. For a singleton I think it's a lot better, as it allows you to focus all your SP on tanking.

Given enough trainers and a few wisdom crystals, and the right armor selection, I think a singleton *may* be able to boost dodging enough to keep up with enemies. Very few attacks can't be dodged, and those can I suspect be handled on a case by case basis.

To be fair, Jeff did make singleton play more possible after Exile, and all the endless whining about how a singleton with 20 Mage Lore couldn't get the best spells... now at least if it's too hard, it's too hard for genuine reasons and not artificial limitations.

To be fair, Jeff did make singleton play more possible after Exile, and all the endless whining about how a singleton with 20 Mage Lore couldn't get the best spells... now at least if it's too hard, it's too hard for genuine reasons and not artificial limitations.

There are 25 F/C/E % for you to account for -- you forgot to discount the points I had foolishly thought Divinely Touched provided. That suggests to me that you get that 25 from your armor, and your other 7 points of armor come from Luck. Armor from Luck does not add to FCE, as each point of Luck instead adds one FCE %.

You can test this yourself... just write down your resists, put on or take off a piece of armor, and see what happens.

I don't remember any base armor score and I'm pretty sure there isn't one. For the three unaccountable points of armor, I'd recheck your math, make sure you aren't miscounting the Clover Boots or anything like that.

Also, re 8-10 strength for a fighter and whatnot, something else that's worth taking into account is bonuses you expect to get from items, in addition to race and traits; these bonuses provide reduced benefits above 10 for many scores just like bought skills do. With the girdles, etc., some of this may be worth thinking ahead on.

You know, when I played G1-3, even on Torment, I generally refused to use any of the trainers. It was too annoying to hold off on vital skills just to save a few skill points. Frankly I wonder if that isn't the healthiest attitude

There are 25 F/C/E % for you to account for -- you forgot to discount the points I had foolishly thought Divinely Touched provided. That suggests to me that you get that 25 from your armor, and your other 7 points of armor come from Luck. Armor from Luck does not add to FCE, as each point of Luck instead adds one FCE %.

You can test this yourself... just write down your resists, put on or take off a piece of armor, and see what happens.

I don't remember any base armor score and I'm pretty sure there isn't one. For the three unaccountable points of armor, I'd recheck your math, make sure you aren't miscounting the Clover Boots or anything like that.

Also, re 8-10 strength for a fighter and whatnot, something else that's worth taking into account is bonuses you expect to get from items, in addition to race and traits; these bonuses provide reduced benefits above 10 for many scores just like bought skills do. With the girdles, etc., some of this may be worth thinking ahead on.

You know, when I played G1-3, even on Torment, I generally refused to use any of the trainers. It was too annoying to hold off on vital skills just to save a few skill points. Frankly I wonder if that isn't the healthiest attitude

Update:

Base chance for an enemy to hit you is 50% + 5% per level of the enemy.

By the end of the game, most enemies are about level 30, it looks like; the most powerful are levels 35-40. That means they have base chances to hit of 200% - 250%. (Unless this bonus also follows the half after 10 rule, or has its own ceiling, but that seems unlikely.)

10 points each in Dex, Gymnastics, Defense, and Luck will improve your dodging ability by 150%. So the most powerful enemies will still hit you 99% of the time, and weaker ones will hit you half the time... and that's after an investment of 240 skill points (not counting the 4 points of Strength to get to Gymnastics, although those coincidentally cost the same as the 4 points of Gymnastics a level 30 Nephil wouldn't have to buy), which is about all one character is likely to have at the end of the game. Even a dedicated tank will be hard pressed to spend that much skill on these skills.

So maybe Gymnastics isn't quite as killer as we thought. Vlish, how's your tank doing?

Update:

Base chance for an enemy to hit you is 50% + 5% per level of the enemy.

By the end of the game, most enemies are about level 30, it looks like; the most powerful are levels 35-40. That means they have base chances to hit of 200% - 250%. (Unless this bonus also follows the half after 10 rule, or has its own ceiling, but that seems unlikely.)

10 points each in Dex, Gymnastics, Defense, and Luck will improve your dodging ability by 150%. So the most powerful enemies will still hit you 99% of the time, and weaker ones will hit you half the time... and that's after an investment of 240 skill points (not counting the 4 points of Strength to get to Gymnastics, although those coincidentally cost the same as the 4 points of Gymnastics a level 30 Nephil wouldn't have to buy), which is about all one character is likely to have at the end of the game. Even a dedicated tank will be hard pressed to spend that much skill on these skills.

So maybe Gymnastics isn't quite as killer as we thought. Vlish, how's your tank doing?

Okay, that DT thing was the result of REALLY poor observational skills on my part. Here's what's really going on:

Half your Armor rating is added to Fire Cold and Elec resists.

That makes good armor a lot better, since it also reduces damage from magic! It also makes me suspect that Hardiness, Resistance, and Luck all secretly increase your armor rating, which the hardiness description suggests anyway.

Also, the 10 and 20 caps on skill gains apply to some Luck bonuses (Stun, Mental, Poison and Acid) but not to Fire/Elec/Cold. Weird!

Okay, that DT thing was the result of REALLY poor observational skills on my part. Here's what's really going on:

Half your Armor rating is added to Fire Cold and Elec resists.

That makes good armor a lot better, since it also reduces damage from magic! It also makes me suspect that Hardiness, Resistance, and Luck all secretly increase your armor rating, which the hardiness description suggests anyway.

Also, the 10 and 20 caps on skill gains apply to some Luck bonuses (Stun, Mental, Poison and Acid) but not to Fire/Elec/Cold. Weird!

You know, we've seen lots of Slith nurseries... and Aranea nurseries... but never any Nephil nurseries.

Maybe they spring forth fully formed like Athena. They are all divinely touched, you know

Another suspicion, though I haven't checked this one out:

To-hit gets an additional bonus equal to 5% per level of your equipped weapon. This is a hidden stat, but it can be guessed based on the "base damage" of the weapon, which is the base damage for that weapon type times the weapon's level.

Monsters get a bonus to hit which I am guessing is dependent on monster level. Perhaps also 5%? They may get a level-based dodge bonus, but it must be a lot smaller if they do. Base chance for a monster to hit is 50%, I think? Base chance for a PC to hit is 35%?

(Need to check: do these numbers change on different difficulty settings.)