Zeviz

I don't know why, but for some reason even if you don't order a CD they still send you a package by regular mail. That package contains registration code, a catalogue of their games, instructions on backing up your registration, and maybe a manual (don't remember exactly).

When you register, you'll recieve instructions on how to back up your registration, so you will not have to e-mail Jeff every time you reinstall the game.

A cryoa that I kept from the start of the game (made it the same way you did) was half as strong as Dryak for about 1/10th of the cost by the time I could get Dryaks. Eventually I did get rid of it because of the 4 creature types limit (I had more essence than I knew what to do with by that point), but a pair of cryoas (along with some periodically-replaced creations) served me well for most of the game. I didn't even invest any additional essence into them, so all stat gain came from level-up.

 

And a note about XP: the penalty is much smaller than the gain for other creations. (You lose about 20%, while your creations gain 100%.) Also, the higher your level, the less experience you get from killing same monsters and doing most quests, so there isn't much advantage in not making extra creations.

If I am not mistaken, the amount of experience you get for killing things depends on level of your highest-level character. So the levels of all of your other characters were held back by the presence of that high-level disadvantaged priest. It sounds like you did fine anyway, but I wonder if you would have had easier time in the end-game with a more conventional party.

I completely agree. Variety would be pretty good. Otherwise, canister-crazed Shapers and Geneforge-building Drakons are going to become the evil Vahnatai of the Geneforege world.

It depends on what you want in your games. If you want a good story and fun gameplay, Exile is great, especially Exile 2 and some BoE scenarios. Think of it like a book: books don't have 3-D graphics or special effects, but some books are more fun than most computer games.

If what you want in your games is realistic graphics, realistic real time movement, etc, buy The Elder Scrolls: Oblivion. (However, you might have to buy a new computer to play it. )

There is some way to change your character's graphic to whatever you want. (I don't remember how to do it, but some people have done it.) It's not very easy, but if you really want it, you could try. I think you have to overwrite the character picture with the picture of Drakon, but somebody who knows will have to give you the details.

Any "office" program has a text editor with a spell-checker in it. And there is nothing embarrassing about using it. I use it myself whenever I want to make sure that my post is completely correct. (Like this one. ) In fact, it just found a typo for me. (I've originally typed "emberrassing", instead of "embarrassing".)

As for the ideas in your original post, some of them you can try in some games already: If you use the Genefoge in Geneforge I, you don't turn into a Drakon, but still become powerful enough to destroy almost anything. Also, there are some places in Geneforge 3 where you get to command parts of Shaper army. It's not much of a command, but still gets a bunch of soldiers to follow your orders.

PS And thank you for trying to make your posts easier to read.

RE-EDIT: Thanks, now your post is far more readable than before.

If I remember correctly, there is an important piece of information hidden in Patrick's room in Tower of Magi. I think it's either a portal code for Angerech(sp?), or something related to Empire Portal quest, but I don't remember exactly. (Assuming you are talking about E2.)

That's how I've played my guardian in G2. I had get enough other skills to survive, but Parry was top priority until I got it to a point where collecting all Parry canisters and +Parry equipment would get me up to max (18, I think).

What does Parry do at such high levels? I was under impression that it's useless to get it above 18 (or whatever level you need to get Riposte chance to 50%).

Don't forget the most damaging priest spell: Bless (Battle Rage in Avernum series). By the amount of extra damage dealt per point of manna spent, this spell is stronger than anything in Mage's or Priest's arsenal. (Especially when you run into monsters with a lot of resistances and immunities.) The blessing spells are even stronger in the dungeons, where blessed fighters can just go from encounter to encounter, clearing large areas with the help of only a couple castings of these cheap spells.

PS About area of effect spells in A4, I was disappointed that they don't cause friendly fire. Positioning your fighters to avoid getting fried by your own fireballs is an important tactical decision in Exile combat.

About useless spells, Blades designers are pretty good at setting up situations in which you have to rely on such spells. In various BoE scenarios I've had to use obscure spells like Web and Poison to get through some encounters.

 

And I also prefer the variety of spells in Exile. (Antimagic Cloud, damage fields, "bolt", "arrows" and "ball" type spells, barriers, mindduel, etc.)

In that case, the answer is probably "wait for A5". From what I've heard, neither plot nor atmosphere improve after the end of the demo. So if you are uncertain by the time the demo ends, chances are you'll get bored long before the game is over. This game has the smallest fraction of the game available in the demo compared to other Spidweb games and that alone should tell you something.

I personally am waiting for A5. In A4 Jeff was focusing on rewriting the engine, so plot and atmosphere got the back seat. In A5 he'll be able to spend a lot more time on the story, atmosphere, and other such elements, instead of tinkering with the engine.

To "clear" the zone as an enemy of Awakaned, you probably have to kill Tuldoric, or steal something (I don't remember what you are sent to do).

 

To "clear" the zone as a member of Awakened, you probably have to speak to Tuldoric.

If this is Geneforge2, get your Parry up to about 14 or 15. With several items that give bonus to Parry, this should give you enough to max out chance of Riposte. The rest of points can go into combination of Endurance, Weapon Skill, Quick Action and Luck. I'd also recommend a slight increase to Blessing Magic to be able to cast Haste. However, if you don't have enough energy for it, don't bother.

One fun use of fight-end-teleport trick is exploring areas where you aren't supposed to be. For example, exploring Celt village as Romans in Nethergate. There is usually nothing interesting in those areas, but it's fun if you are bored.

I'd say that knowing less is far worse, because in most cases character already knows at least a little more and there is a standard way of dealing with this:

"You haven't talked to Alwan much, because he is in another grade, but you know that he is one of the top students and always exibited examplary behavior..." is a much more natural way to cover gap between player and character knowledge than:

Narrator: "Serviles are supposed to be dumb and you are extremely surprized to find one that appears to be intelligent."
Character: "Wow. An intelligent servile!"
Player: "Surprized?! I've just played two whole games of interacting with intelligent serviles."

A better way to handle above situation would be:
Narrator: "You finally see one of the intelligent serviles you've heard so much about. He looks just like a regular one, but you remember from your briefing that these creatures posess dangerous cunning and intelligence."

Things that character knows and player doesn't are parts of the game world that can be wowen into the story. Things that player knows and character doesn't are things that he has to forget in order to connect with the character. And in all RPs, the less disconnect there is between IC and OOC knowledge, the easier it is to enjoy the game.

It could also be a sign of genetic differencies between Shloai and Shapers. From what I understood, Shapers are at least a different ethnicity from other humans, and Shloai are yet another ethnicity, so perhaps canisters have more side-effects for them than for Shloai.

If I remember correctly, some Barzite asks you to find that letter, if you join their sect. I think it might be one of the guys in their main city, who gives you quests if you join them. However, I don't remember exactly.

 

EDIT: After checking Shrodinger's faq, I've found that you don't need to be allied with Barzites. From the FAQ:

In computer programs "Easter Egg" is a surprize hidden by the programmer. They are hard to find (often requiring pressing random key combinations on keyboard, or as in example in this thread, taking several unusual actions) and are often funny.

An industrial revolution wouldn't be completely unprecedented.

However, I don't think canons and other gunpowder weapons are very realistic in a magic-heavy world of Avernum:

Early guns were very unreliable and slow to load. It took a long time to develop gunpowder that could explode well. It also took a long time time to develop guns that could be loaded sufficiently fast to fire more than once before the enemies get to you. In a world where any apprentice mage can cast a bolt of fire and any powerful wizard can use shockwave spell to damage enemy walls, governments wouldn't bother investing into early gunpowder research, because results would be inferior to available magic. So gunpowder-based weapons would never get a chance to develop to a point where they can compete with magic.

Sanity is overrated.
I think Dikiyoba's post was supposed to be a joke.

And while we are talking about victims of turtles,
Most computers still have floppy drives. You can use WinZip (or any other Zip program) to make a zip file from the demos and split it into 1.4MB (floppy-sized) chunks. Then use floppy disks to copy the files to friend's computer and recombine them.

Or you could get a USB flash memory key-chain thing that holds 128MB for about 10$.

Here is BainIhrno's post at Lyceum:

And there I thought that Uni-Drakon is a well-educated Drakon who is studying at a Uni[versity]. Or it might be a fearsome Unicorn-Drakon hybrid, with a Drakon's body and a Unicorn's head.

 

PS Felix, there has been an over-saturation of polls lately, so for people to take your poll seriously, you have to at least use correct spelling and put serious thought into answer options. (e.g. Warrior Servile and Guard Servile are just better trained Servies; regular townsperson would die the moment he was attacked, etc.)

Congratulations.

 

I'd suggest swinging back to pick up the NPCs anyway, because, in addition to never dying, spedning their skill points doesn't cost you any essence.

 

And one more thing, I didn't notice any mention of blessing magic in your battle reports. War Blessing and Shielding spells can make any fight much easier, especially if you Haste your strongest creatures. And Augmentation can help your Shaper survive getting hit.

 

Good luck with the rest of the game.