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I think Jeff is overstating things quite a bit there. The AEFTP skill tree system actually was very well received. But his last highly popular game using that system was 6 or 7 years ago, so right now his vocal customers are used to other things, particularly Geneforge's system. But yeah, A4's was extremely similar to G3's. The main addition was just the hidden skills, which players have always liked (though the hidden skills did almost zero to expand gameplay in any way, they were really just a adjoining closet of slight variations on crunch hidden behind a curtain).

Grimwing: is this a Transformers reference? Looks suspiciously drayklike. The Herringbone hatchet quest is obviously a Monty Python reference and we know that was a backer insertion; was Grimwing also?

100%, you got it. Except you can generally stop caring about your own Intelligence once your party is full. And you can get a few extra levels on your creations by leaving out the 2 points of Intelligence (at first), too. In G2, G3, and G4, Magic Shaping is the way to go (for Vlish in the first two, and Wingbolts in the latter). In G5, there are more options. And in G1, levels creations gain from experience are only half as good as levels they gain when they are created, odd as that sounds, so freshly-shaped, disposable creations are the order of the day - but once again you want to invest in a single shaping type. Fire and Magic are both good there.

It depends on the exact game, but it is optimal to put a bunch of points in initially to boost their starting level, and then later rely on them gaining levels on their own. Importantly, creation XP scales according to the player's level, NOT the creation's level. So if you boost a shaping skill by +10 before shaping, your creation will permanently be 10 levels higher than it would be otherwise. And a creation that starts 10 levels lower will never actually catch up. This makes a pretty huge difference.

One convenient thing about putting Mass Healing on multiple characters is that it also comes with Unshackle Mind, so mental effects shouldn't be too bad for this party.

It sounds like you're having a blast, which is awesome. A few thoughts: 1. Ranged weapons are significantly stronger in the remix. So in the remix, archery is definitely a legit option. 2. One thing I couldn't really change in this mod is the fact that hybrid characters are suboptimal. Because Str/Dex/Int have such a significant impact on damage, any character who goes after more than one damage path (i.e., melee, ranged, or magic) will be significantly worse at it than a character who just picks one. (You can hybridize OK with utility functions like healing spells, since they don't rely on stats.) Even against heavy resistances or armor, the loss from stats is significant enough that having an auxiliary damage option won't generally help. Warrior/archer is especially unfortunate -- warriors can go really deep into the skill tree still getting good mileage out of them. 3. 15 points in archery isn't actually required for AR -- trained points in the other 3 weapon skills can free up at least 6 points to go elsewhere. And there are some items that give weapon skill, so even 9 isn't necessarily needed. Where else might those points be more effective? Well........ It sounds like you're running a sort of fragile approach -- you can't take a hit, so you have to act first; you can't kill things immediately, so you have to do some dodging after that. (I think all of that will get harder as the game goes on, but def speak up if that's not the case by endgame.) I'm willing to bet the missing element is Hardiness and Resistance (and Parry for front-row folks, especially in the remix). Those skills are incredibly powerful at high levels. You already mentioned Adrenaline Rush for casters, so you can generally nuke things before they can move. Even without high initiative, it's often possible to do with this with thoughtful positioning; in the cases where you can't, Hardiness/Resistance mean you survive long enough to get there -- and without sacrificing your attack stat for more dodge, which means the nukes are more effective, too.

Thank you for saying so! This was a very old project (and frankly I wish I had done a better job finishing it) but it's great to hear it's bringing someone happiness even now. And some credit has to go to wackypanda, too! This is definitely not a thing. The standard advice is to ignore dexterity entirely. (If you were an archer you wouldn't want to, but archery is not up to par in the vanilla game.) If you're playing Torment and relying on Dex to avoid taking damage, you're going to be in for a rude awakening, as you won't be able to keep up with enemy hit rates, and by the end of the game all of that Dex will be useless (on non-archers).

Bump; made some miscellaneous updates. More to add: I know there's a bunch in QW and probably QW2 that I haven't sorted through -- any suggestions from that? Likewise feel free to call out any Kickstarter additions that are references.

Isn't Disarm Traps separate?

Hmm. I may be wrong on that. I guess Pick Locks is even worse than I thought it was...

I believe Magic Lockpicks allow you to open magically locked doors using regular lockpicking skill.

There are wands of fireballs in the Shayder sewers and Golddale mines.

I don't think there's a Move Mountains replacement. I also don't think you 100% need it to complete the game successfully, though it's been a long time...

So, you've replicated the Nephar Archers appearing. Which just confirms they are regular, expected enemies to find there. Now, can you replicate them disappearing? (Or appearing in the back of the fort at all?) It might be helpful to use "showmeall" so you can easily see all the enemies on the map, in determining whether they disappear versus are simply offscreen.

How do you even know you're talking about the same exact enemy units in both of these cases? Answer: you don't. It's a pretty big assumption, but you're presenting it as simple fact. So literally all you did was return the banner and do one level up for your team? No other fighting, you didn't visit any other zones, just Draco and back? (Also, I assume you'd have mentioned if you were using any mods or doing any script editing.) Look, there's two options here. Option 1 is that you have experienced a bizarre but significant glitch -- improperly appearing and/or disappearing enemies -- that no other player in the just about ten years this game has been out, has ever reported. Option 2 is that you are mistaken. There's a lot of enemies in that dungeon, and they mostly look similar. It wouldn't be hard for a few to get lost in the mix.

It's very possible, and it's not actually all that hard. The canister boosts are nice, but they aren't generally game-breaking. Still, you get achievements for each sect's victory; wouldn't be crazy to have a no-canister achievement too. I say, request this for the G3 remake.

"Rely on Bless" can definitely work, if you layer it enough consistently enough. Dex gives you +5% every so often, they come fairly often at first and are spread further apart as your Dex gets higher. Weapon skills use a lookup table to determine your base hit rate. The bonus is going to be greater than Dex until you get to a very high level, so you're right, it's more effective. What Dex gets you instead that does matter is dodge rate. (Although it probably doesn't matter at all if you just rely on Bless...)

Google suggests: - you may have an antivirus program blocking Avernum 5 from saving its prefs file.

Right-click on the app and choose "Show Package Contents" (IIRC) from the menu that pops up. This should then show you the data folders that are always visible on other platforms. (And make a copy of the app before you do that, just in case.)

Hooray! It won't save your prefs even if you run as admin? That's weird. I guess not a fatal error at least.

Which dungeon are you even talking about? If it's "the beginning dungeon" you have to leave and go to the world map in order to move between the two entrances. Which you've described doing in two different orders, in your two posts above, along with some reloading, and then a long time passing before you returned. It just sounds like the exact sequence of events in your save file is quite murky. If you're really invested in this, you could try to duplicate it with a fresh play, paying close attention to exactly where they are and what you do in between. But yeah, it's a pretty big leap from what you've observed to "glitch."

I can't, but maybe somebody else has one handy. I assume you've looked in the app folder itself. Some SW games put settings inside the Data subfolder, or somewhere else in there. Otherwise, could be somewhere in the Windows system folders. (Windows native file search is pretty terrible, so I wouldn't assume it doesn't exist just because it doesn't show up there.) The actual problem could be as simple as trying to set a resolution that your system doesn't allow. If it worked before you messed with the settings, that seems likely. One last thought, you could try running as admin. Maybe there's a permissions issue with where it's trying to save/read the settings. Alternately, do any of these fixes help?

None of this sounds like a glitch.

More technical info is necessary -- in particular, your graphics card, and where did you get the game (Steam, GOG, Humble Bundle, direct from Spiderweb, etc). The startup dialog is graphics related so this is probably a graphics issue. If it did run fine with the original settings, if you can find and delete the preferences file those are stored in, it should start up fine. Looks like the location should be %USERPROFILE%\Documents\Spiderweb Software\Avernum 5 Saved Games\ ... but sometimes OS changes can mess with this, and there have been quite a few since 2007.

So... what do we think the new subtitle for the A4 remake means? It would have been a weird and unintuitive choice for the original A4, which was so tightly focused on Rentar and the Black Shades: which is revenge and obsession, but not really greed in any way. It's hard to imagine how this part could be rewritten to be about greed. Some other possibilities discussed on the discord: 1. Generic CRPG themed title, no specific related content. This isn't impossible, but A1-3 all had titles very specific to their content. 2. Expansion of minor content from A4. - The surface immigrants (like the "Goody" house-owners near Formello) who came to Avernum seeking wealth; easy pick for greed. They were pretty minor and uninteresting as written, though, and there's no obvious way to turn them into a major story element. - The Darkside Loyalists were revealed at the end of a minor quest series in A4, and of course have great relevance to A5. It might make sense to give them more screen time. That said, like Rentar, they are all about vengeance and not much about "Greed" at all. - King Starrus, who appeared out of nowhere in A4 and wasn't particularly well-characterized, could in theory offer both greed and glory to adventurers in the form of rewards for serving Avernum. This is basically just the "generic CRPG title" option. It's also kind of a weird fit for A4's one-area-at-a-time-in-a-specific-order structure. - Other random antagonists who had nothing beyond a name in A4, like the various bandits (Hanvar, Abisynthe, etc) or hostile mages (Nociduas, Hrickis, etc) 3. Addition of content leading into A5 or A6. - Non-Darkside Loyalist Empire agents, perhaps connected to Manfred Redmark. Like Starrus he could really benefit from some actual characterization and personality. - Dragons. Either an early (timeline-shifting) appearance by Melanchion, or a late appearance by one of the remaining Five Dragons: it could be Athron (relevant as Melanchion's mother, but not really greedy); or Sulfras or Khoth (where greed is an easier sell). - Gladwell. Gladwell technically did appear in A4, but as an extremely minor random NPC. Gladwell could be rewritten as an actual option to align with (as in A5 and A6). - Hostile Sliths. Presumably not the Horde -- we'd wonder what they were doing for the decades between A4 and A6 -- but other hostiel sliths are an option. Again, though, doesn't do much for greed. 4. Something else. - Retconning Kyass to not have died randomly in A2CS, instead giving a proper continuation to the Freehold story (an AEFTP addition). - Yet another incomprehensible plot involving Solberg. - ??? What do you think?