Zeviz

Quote: Originally written by Micro Phage: ... Basically I was waiting for enough feedback to help make the best, most versatile, editor I can, wasn't sure about permission (the scripts used are copy righted) to make editor itself available widely... Ah, that makes sence. If I am not mistaken, Jeff told Croikle (the maker of original Geneforge Editor) that it was ok to distribute, as long as he clearly indicated that the editor was unofficial and unsupported, so everybody else just assumed that this permission applied to their editors as well. (And since Jeff had obviously seen the editor threads and didn't complain, this assumption is probably correct.) Quote: PS Have you checked the editor out? It would be great if you had some time to do so and give some feedback. Thanks again! Sorry, I don't have A4 registered. (I am not too enthusiastic about the game.) Quote: PPS Member 335's posts and style and the constant name changes and signatures specifically addressing every post/reply kinda makes it seem that "-" is like a title or something. Definately gives the impression you are talking to 2 different people in same post/reply. Will use only "Alorael" in future. Heh... It's a strong enough impression that maybe I was subconciously thinking: "-Alorael, who's reply to a PM, got Micro Phage..." ... Yes, I thought you might be making a joke about "that -Alorael, who guy". However, his name is just Alorael. He started changing his displayed name some time ago to protest something related to custom titles, and liked the changes so much that he still keeps going. EDIT: Your page looks good. For the editor, it might be good to include the disclaimer about editor being unofficial and unsupported, along with brief summary of instructions on how to use it on the page from which the editor is downloaded. If Google picks up your page, as it picked up a couple other editors, it would be helpful for people to see these instructions and disclaimers before downloading.

Quote: Originally written by Micro Phage: ... Basically I was waiting for enough feedback to help make the best, most versatile, editor I can, wasn't sure about permission (the scripts used are copy righted) to make editor itself available widely... Ah, that makes sence. If I am not mistaken, Jeff told Croikle (the maker of original Geneforge Editor) that it was ok to distribute, as long as he clearly indicated that the editor was unofficial and unsupported, so everybody else just assumed that this permission applied to their editors as well. (And since Jeff had obviously seen the editor threads and didn't complain, this assumption is probably correct.) Quote: PS Have you checked the editor out? It would be great if you had some time to do so and give some feedback. Thanks again! Sorry, I don't have A4 registered. (I am not too enthusiastic about the game.) Quote: PPS Member 335's posts and style and the constant name changes and signatures specifically addressing every post/reply kinda makes it seem that "-" is like a title or something. Definately gives the impression you are talking to 2 different people in same post/reply. Will use only "Alorael" in future. Heh... It's a strong enough impression that maybe I was subconciously thinking: "-Alorael, who's reply to a PM, got Micro Phage..." ... Yes, I thought you might be making a joke about "that -Alorael, who guy". However, his name is just Alorael. He started changing his displayed name some time ago to protest something related to custom titles, and liked the changes so much that he still keeps going. EDIT: Your page looks good. For the editor, it might be good to include the disclaimer about editor being unofficial and unsupported, along with brief summary of instructions on how to use it on the page from which the editor is downloaded. If Google picks up your page, as it picked up a couple other editors, it would be helpful for people to see these instructions and disclaimers before downloading.

Quote: Originally written by Micro Phage: ... My intent was for people to have access to it only through this forum. But, in retrospect, it's still that way because I haven't posted about it anywhere else. ... PS And major thanks to the ever amazing mysterious -Alorael who's reply to a PM got me pointed in the right direction to fix this! I am curious, why do you want to make your editor available only to those who visit this forum? (If you are trying to increase forum membership here, making a home page with a link to this forum sounds like a more effective idea.) PS Alorael's name doesn't have a dash in front. He just starts his signature that way.

Quote: Originally written by Micro Phage: ... My intent was for people to have access to it only through this forum. But, in retrospect, it's still that way because I haven't posted about it anywhere else. ... PS And major thanks to the ever amazing mysterious -Alorael who's reply to a PM got me pointed in the right direction to fix this! I am curious, why do you want to make your editor available only to those who visit this forum? (If you are trying to increase forum membership here, making a home page with a link to this forum sounds like a more effective idea.) PS Alorael's name doesn't have a dash in front. He just starts his signature that way.

I agree with Alorael. The problem with a prequel is that you know how things are going to end. I also would want to see Nethergate engine used for a new game. I am tired of sequels to sequels to sequels. There are plenty of settings that wouldn't involve recycling Nethergate world: Ancient Greece, Native American tribes, etc. I guess that answers what I'd want to see in Nethergate 2: the same engine with a few minor tweaks (like Avernum-style dialogue system) used for a new setting that would introduce an equally compelling world.

If I understood you correctly, the 3 scenarios can be summarised as follows: 1. All Shapers are just hypocrites, talking about control, but taking every opportunity to grab any bit of power that comes their way. 2. Events of Geneforge are completely unique and represent an unexpected crisis. 3. Megalomania is human nature, and Shapers are struggling with it as well as they can. I think it's a combination of cases 2 and 3. On one hand, it looks like experiments gone wrong are common enough to have standard procedures for dealing with them. On the other hand, Shapers have built a stable empire spanning two continents, and the Geneforge War seems to be an unprecedented challenge. (At least that's the feeling I am getting from Geneforge 3.) There are unstable hermits, power-hungry maniacs and unscrupulous researchers in any society. The areas we've seen so far are exactly the kinds of areas where such people would lurk: - Gf1 was set in a remote research center that was digging up ancient knowledge and was shut down as soon as authorities found out what kind of experimentation was going on. - Gf2 was set in a desert frontier settlment so remote that a whole valley of terraformed land could be hidden for years from the outside world. - Gf3 is once again set in a frontier so remote that there is no worse place for them to send Diwanya, and, until recently, just getting to the testing center to take Shaping Tests was considered to be a part of the test. Gf4 will be set in more central areas of Shaper empire, so only after seeing that game will we know whether all the rogue experimenters we've seen are the exception or the rule. PS There is also a simple consideration that without sealed labs and mad scientists, there would be no side dungeons for the party to fight through. (It's a lot easier to throw a few monsters into an area and call it "sealed lab" than to make "enemy camp #10" that is different from the previous 9 enemy camps the PC had to clear.)

A GIFTS PC would be too annoying and out of character, but A GIFTS joinable NPC could be an amusing Easter Egg. It would probably act like a Xian Skull, constantly bothering you with "You are cute" dialogues. It might also make "You are cute." a dialogue option when talking to any NPC, but that would probably be too much work for Jeff for a single joke.

Quote: Originally written by bigfix: I know but i started pressing enter one day and i never stopped. If you don't have enough respect for your readers to follow standard rules of English, including capitalization and punctuation, why should we read what you write? Valcrist, same applies to you. Also, please use a spell checker. You can not expect people to put more effort into reading your posts than you've put into writing them.

So would you recommend banning all research? The Shaper controls are already strong enough to cause resentment in population and rebellious tendencies in the cases you've mentioned. So if, as you suggest, these controls are fundamentally flawed, the only option is to completely ban new research and punish any experimentation by instant death. Somehow I doubt the viability of such an extreme solution.

About difficulty, when I first loaded the game I wanted to see what the graphics looked like, so I took pre-made party, didn't get any equipment besides the sword you have to take, and headed to the fort to the east through nephil lands. I made it to the checkpoint, where I got swarmed. Later, after a little more experience with the game, I tried the same challenge and got to the fort, killing the evil Nephil chief in the process. (I had to return to town 3 times to heal/resurrect and there were several reloads involved.) So I guess the game is very easy, if the default party with no equipment can skip starting areas and quests and still survive. This is probably due to monster AI which causes monsters to attack one at a time, with archers wasting all their APs getting in range of my fighters. As for the game itself, I've figured out what the problem is for me: Everquest influence. Earlier SW games were influenced by older CRPGs that focused on story and game world, while A4 seems to take its inspiration from MMORPGs, with their focus on endless hack'n'slash combat. In A4, the lack of outdoor map combined with a constant stream of enemies that come at you one or two at a time make the whole game feel like one massive dungeon. And when I want to play a game that's one massive dungeon crawl, I prefer Diablo. So unless Jeff is trying to outdo Diablo and MMORPGs, I'd prefer if he stuck to making games with better stories/world and less hack'n'slash focus.

SoT recently posted a very good way to get rid of annoyance of carrying loot without getting rid of encumrance for the pack: Quote: Originally written by Student of Trinity: Encumbrance is a good way to force tactical choices, but I agree that it is merely tedious when all it really does is force you to trudge through an area again in order to pick up all the loot. What I'd suggest is keeping encumbrance, but allowing the player to Fedex loot to towns, by means of a variant of A4's portal technology. Have a mode or a button or something that makes it so that you can click on things, and designate them to be carried away by creations when you leave the zone. The items thus designated will arrive at a specific spot in any friendly town that you have explored. So I guess you'd have to have some way to choose the destinations from among known friendly towns. This seems to me to be plausible for Shapers, much easier to implement than pack mules, and wonderfully convenient for the player. And while it would make carrying treasure very easy, it would not help at all with carrying items that you need to actually use. The encumbrance limits for those could even be lowered, now that the PC doesn't need to carry any treasure. A nice added feature would be the ability to sell items directly from their arrival point, without the need to go and pick them up and carry them to the merchants. An extension of the last paragraph is that perhaps you could designate the auto-carriers to take items directly to a shop, so you'd find the gold at the pickup point without having to separately pick up and sell every robe and dagger that you find.

I can't think of any way to be able to get back to a random position in a random town, so here are some possible alternatives: 1. Allow the item to be used only in specific places of specific towns. (Make it triggered by a special on the ground, rather than item use.) Use an SDF to store the number of location where the item is used, and use that value to figure out where to send player when returning. (If 1, send to (21,20) in town 3; if 2, send to (12,31) in town 1; etc.) This is the easiest to explain to the player: amulet is activated at an altar, or something like that. 2. Allow the item to be used anywhere, but always send the player to specific spot in town of origin when he comes back. (If returning to town 1, send to (14,23); if going to town 2, send to (29,5); etc.) This will be much harder to explain to the player. In fact, I can't think of a plausible explanation. 3. The easiest thing to do is just let the player exit new town normally, which would put him outdoors, next to the last town he entered. However, this is the hardest to explain to the player. 4. If your entire scenario consists of very few small towns and your extra town is also small, you can use large towns for your scenario towns and hide a copy of extra town in the opposite corner of the map for each town where the item can be used. Then use Split Party to send one of the characters into your town and Reunite Party to send him back.

Congratulations with getting it done. The last version that I saw looked pretty good already. Sorry about not testing the 3rd version.

There are some passages that are very hard to see. (Very narrow passages that are easier to spot on the mini-map than on game map, because of the way trees are positioned.) You might need sertain level of Luck skill to "find" them. However, I don't think there are any secret passages of the Avernum "bump into the wall" kind.

Until recently I would have said "yes", but I now have a new monitor. However, many people who are still using old computers probably prefer 800x600. (Even if computer itself isn't very old, 6 year old monitors might be too small for high resolutions.)

Quote: Originally written by Shard of Fire: ... That could be the creature update for that game—give each creation a third level, such as fyora to cryoa to charged fyora. ... Tremble in fear before the unrivaled might of Zyoar!

Quote: Originally written by Bobby Pendragon: The message box tells you leveled to level 8 in Shot 1. If you are talking about "Debug: Tyrol alert level up to 8", that has nothing to do with your character level. It's a debugging message that probably has something to do with creature scripts or towns, depending on whether "Tyrol" is an NPC or an area name. Quote: Originally written by Spidweb: ... I have also revamped the secondary creations types to hopefully make them more interesting. For example, some creations will be unstable. They're much stronger, but they rapidly decay after they are created. I'm working on the 31st area today, btw. It's coming along. - Jeff Vogel Unstable creations sound like a fun new mechanic. Does "working on 31st area" mean that the game is more than 1/3 done?

Quote: Originally written by Ghost of Starman: wait! is the 18 the kind of 18 you get at 18 (9.. 10.. 11.. 12..) or the kind you get at 29? (9.. 10.. 10.. 11..) cuz for the second kind it's the maxmimum which would make more SENSE I am not sure how you are counting, but 18 in this case really means 18. You get extra 5% chance per level for each kind of parry you can get, until it gets to 50%. Riposte gets to 50% at level 18. After that, there are no new parry types, so no reason to raise the skill beyond 18. Which is a good thing, because parry 18 makes you almost invulnerable already (partial damage is usually blocked by armor, which is pretty heavy by that point, so you only take damage on 1 out of 8 melle attacks, while reflecting damage 50% of the time).

Quote: Originally written by Kelandon: Quote: Originally written by megamad: I don't mean to say they were bad, but it was not the same feeling like playing any of the Exile games (I have played At the Gallows as well). I have had this feeling, too, and I've been trying for the past two years to pin down exactly why. If anyone can articulate it, I'd be grateful. ... I think the reason is that every author has a different style, so different authors have more appeal to different readers/players. There is a very wide variety in the content of BoE scenarios, despite the similarity in medium, which causes them to have a different feel. (The importance of story v. combat v. environment, the balance and format of combat, the type of story, etc.) I personally liked some BoE scenarios more than I liked Jeff's games, and my opinions about Jeff's games themselves also varly widely.

Firebolt is the only spell my Shaper, who ignores battle magic, can cast for large part of the game. It's usually ineffective in his unexperienced hands, but sometimes better than doing nothing while waiting for creations to get the job done.

If you wanted only people who play on torment to vote, you should have given the option to view results without voting. I voted for guardian in G2, because of overpowered Parry skill, and Shaper for the rest of them, just because I like to play Shapers and DV's Vlish Master build seem pretty good for Torment.

There are some BoE scenarios whose size and quality match those of Exile series games. Stareye's At The Gallows has been commonly called "Exile 4" for many years. As for limitations and problems of BoE, they are the same as the problems of original Exiles and designers have found plenty of ways to get around them. If you, as a player, weren't disappointed by original Exiles, you will not be disappointed by scenarios by top designers.

Cronocke, the main point of my post was that Spiderweb games are programmed and designed by a single person, so the more time he spends tweaking the engine, the less time he has to make a good story, as we saw with A4. Jeff probably could implement these skills and balance them so that they are useful, but not overpowered. However, the time he spends doing that is the time he doesn't spend improving other aspects of the game, and I think combat system is fine already, unlike some other important aspects. Quote: Originally written by Nezumi: Quote: Originally written by Zeviz: PS These ideas could work better in Geneforge, where the player controls a single character, rather than an entire party, so it's more important to have a good balance among the classes than to have a variety of roles within the party. Okay... I joined this forum _just_ to say this, although I'll probably stick around. Yes, Geneforge allows you to just let the computer control the rest of the party and only lead your main. This is generally a BAD IDEA. It's possible to fight much more effectively if you lead your entire party. You can more effectively execute strategies and divide or concentrate your force if you direct your creations. (Or recruitable PC companions, in 3) To clarify, I didn't mean to imply that I always let AI control my creations. What I meant was that in Geneforge, your character is a single person who leads his creations/allies, while in Avernum you control a group of up to 4 individuals, each of whom has all character attributes (as opposed to Geneforge creations/allies who have just 4 base attributes).

Quote: Originally written by Enraged Slith: I do not think combat was the point of Avernum 4. This isn't Diablo 2. ... This is exactly my feeling. There already was too much focus on combat and graphics engine in A4. Continuing down that path would cause even more disappointment for people who enjoy the RP part of CRPGs. Quote: Originally written by Cronocke: ... Or such. A small handful of abilities that aren't really any better than the standard attack, but would have their uses in specific situations. This is exactly the problem: either these abilities would be so weak that they are a waste of time, or they'd be essential to winning, in which case fighters would just become mages with a different name. PS These ideas could work better in Geneforge, where the player controls a single character, rather than an entire party, so it's more important to have a good balance among the classes than to have a variety of roles within the party.

Quote: Originally written by chibi kaie: I killed Aiglos by accident once by convincing him to join me in the artila hunt and not bothering to heal him when he got hit with acid (I say it was his fault, he kept rushing ahead), but I didn't think to see if he stayed dead (i.e. if I could then explore the Refuge with impunity). Is there anything good there (i.e. is it worth doing it on purpose, presuming I'm being ruthless anyway)? Considering the difficulty of the enemies in the Refuge, as somebody said before, if you can defeat them, you don't need their loot. So the only reason to do it would be as a challenge for your low level party.