Drayk Armitage

The data doesn't show that. See my post above that you already incorrectly summarized. I'm not arguing with shadows anymore.

You're completely ignoring the difference between a remake and a fresh game created from scratch.

Ah, good call on the codex entry. Given the hundreds-of-years timeframe that most creation types have existed, "recently" could really mean anything, but yeah.

All we truly know about Stalkthorns is that they weren't on Sucia. Maybe they aren't actually a brand new creation type, just one that didn't exist when Sucia was shut down. That would explain why they aren't news and even the various plant-focused shapers in the Drypeak area don't have anything to say about them.

This is a 3 year old topic, so the "new player" probably isn't new anymore :-) Let's close this up.

Alhoon, you know very well that we have lots of lurkers, lots of casual players who google questions about the game and end up here. It is misleading at best to talk about things you can hack into the game as if it's something you can do in normal play. This shouldn't require an argument. (And yes, if you are editing game files directly, you are "hacking." It's not a dirty word, and it's a very widely used word in modding communities on the internet, so if you don't like that, your argument is with the rest of the internet and not us :-)

Note for casual readers: Most people finish the game somewhere around levels 19-23, what's described here is not sane. Via Pigeon on discord, looks like it is in fact possible to hit level 29 without any cheating. Steps: 1. Reach level 26 by killing the Door Golem repeatedly. Note that this will take somewhere around 2500 kills, so "tedious" doesn't even begin to describe it. 2. Kill all exceptionally high-level targets that won't anger the Servants or Barzites. This includes the denizens of Gazak-Uss and other high level zones, as well as all the Takers, Learned Thani, etc. 3. Learn each creation type besides the fyora; read all codexes; turn in all Shaper Records and all Iron Bars; complete Zensital's quest. (You need to have not done any of those things previously.) 4. Finally, kill Zakary, Barzahl, and anyone else you had to leave alive. Steps 2 through 4 provide enough XP to go from level 26 to to level 29. If you kill literally everything there's even a little wiggle room. As an additional point of amusement, if you do this, it's possible to shape a level 50 creation, specifically an Eyebeast. You need to be a Shaper will all skill points put into Magic Shaping, Shaper Robe equipped, with all 5 points of Create Gazer, and purchase all the augments for said Eyebeast:

You don't. Alhoon likes to discuss things you can do by hacking or modding (or that the developer could obviously change) as if they are things any player could do.

Per usual, if you initiate combat via a conversation option, the rest of the zone doesn't turn hostile. That option does exist here... it just doesn't appear unless you've completed the Emissary's quests. In this case, it looks like this was done so that the option can be witty. Attacking a friendly creature in combat mode normally turns the whole zone hostile, so that's not really a surprise.

do any characters in any geneforge game actually refer to Fire, Magic, or Battle shaping in dialogue? I'm not sure, but I can't think of any. it's certainly not a distinction many shapers appear to be at all concerned with.

I'm curious about editing scenarios to fix bugs and compatibility. It seems like, with so many scenarios, if there are compatibility issues, it would make more sense to just fix them on the engine end? Even if it's in a clunky way that's equivalent to patching changes on every scenario. That seems like it would be a lot less work, and it sidesteps any questions/effort about getting in touch with authors, keeping original versions available, etc etc. But maybe I'm misunderstanding what's in play here.

Well, if they really wanted to stop the chaos, they would have needed to destroy the vial. Giving it to Thrackerzod would be more negligent than leaving it with Yu-La IMO. Frankly he seems even less capable of hanging on to it than she did.

Alhoon, you played 15-year-old games in backwards order and expected everyone else to cater their independent conversations around you. Frankly, it was ridiculous, and bringing that up definitely does not support the argument for avoiding spoilers.

you are welcome to look it up yourself if you don't believe me. in fact that would be a lot more helpful than just asking "are you sure?" all the time and expecting somebody else to put in the effort. (but yes, i am sure.)