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Rent-an-Ihrno

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Everything posted by Rent-an-Ihrno

  1. How have I overlooked this topic for so long? Goodness. Well, I have to say I'm very surprised - pleasantly surprised - that you are doing a feedback thread, Jeff. My #1 issue has already been adressed: tooltips for what skills scale off of. Hat's off. I will replay the Avadon games and try to formulate some meaningful feedback. Until then, friends.
  2. I see, thanks Randomizer. My concern here is this - if it's not worthwhile to invest in strength, I'll only have turrets and some special ranged attacks at my disposal, all with very high cooldowns and being potentially problematic to use. Also, if I max the left tier abilities, I won't have enough points for the turrets, right? At least that's how it was in Avadon 1. So either I use turrets and a weak melee attack, or 2-3 barely usable ranged attacks?
  3. About the Tinkermage - I've read through all the information I could find, and I'm still not sure how it works. Do his melee attacks benefit from strength, but his his grenades and wristfling-thingamajigs from dexterity? If so, then which do I invest in? And what do turrets benefit from? If dexterity applies to missiles and intelligence to magic, do skills labeled "magic missile" benefit from both? Or what?
  4. Guys, let's not get too deep into an argument about other games and sales and stuff. Whether or not Avadon 1 is well-liked or not is simply not something you can prove, you can only use the game to compare your impressions of its sequel. It's your subjective perceptions that count, and are encouraged in this thread. Now, I liked Avadon 1 alot. It was different from my beloved Avernum and Geneforge, sure, but I'm not one to close my heart from such nouvelles. The more streamlined, novelesque approach to gameplay and dramaturgy has its own place, and if I didn't like it the first time, I probably won't like it the second. The storytelling in Spidweb games is always slow at start. It doesn't give you a satisfying introduction to your future heroism. And I like that. I want it to pick up slowly over time. Since I just came back from work and haven't played more than 3 minutes of the game, I can't say if it does and does it well, but I can tell you that what I've seen of the introduction so far is absolutely typical of Spidweb games, and that reassures me an awful lot. If everything is special, nothing is. You know? The real charme in Jeff's writing is how - almost ridiculously - human the characters seem in all the different, more or less epic, settings. There's a certain amount of anti-fantasy woven into these fantasy-games. Anyway, I'm gonna go see how the rest of the introduction turns out now, and see if the alleged romance is really that bad. I would be surprised if the player were implicated in such a thing in a Spidweb game, but intrigued to see it!
  5. Share your first impressions of the game! No serious discussion and no spoilers, just give us the first thoughts and feelings the game is bestowing upon you. Me, I am already impressed with the game. I'm noticing small, well-placed improvements all over the place - the UI, graphics, music, basically everything that isn't mechanics or plot is extremely well-polished. The identity of the series is fully retained, while all the art has evolved to something coherent and beautiful. The setting is written subtly enough that I'm sure I wouldn't be picking up on any of the hints towards the storyline if I weren't so experienced with Jeff's style. I started up a tinker of course, being the only new class, and the turrets seem really nice. Also, the new choice of gender for each class is definitely appreciated! The female warrior totally looks like Emma Watson, btw I can't say anything about deeper mechanics, progression or lore, obviously, but I'm feeling good about it. I can see where things are going, and I'm nothing but enthusiastic to experience this new chapter (as I'm sure you can tell from my hyped up writing). It just feels good. What do you think?
  6. Nooooo I have to go to work in 1 hour!!! GRadkflösadjfkalsdöjsklö!!! ....*breathe* sorry. Congratulations on the release! I can't wait to plow through the plot! Everyone, let's conjure some luck for for Spidweb, so that the game may sell well! CHEER! CHEER! CHEER! chant with me im serious
  7. Fellow GIFTS, let's talk about some of the quality of life improvements we came up with at some point during our gaming of the glorious Spidweb multiverse. Personally, I went back to play some Avernum a few days ago, and thought "Huh. It would be really nice if we could have a more organized quest log." Remember how it was pre-Avernum 2? No quest log? It was hell. Then we got one, yay, but all the quests are mushed together in one uniform list, and you can't cancel them either. So if I'm looking for a certain entry, I have to click through half the repeatable quests, stuff I won't do for ages, and little things that are way past me that I never completed. My suggestion - 1. Have visually separated categories for major plot quests, minor side quests, and endless quests. 2. Add numerical counters to quests that require you to kill a certain number of pests, or collect a certain number of an item. 3. Do something about idle quests. The ability to abandon them would mean having to code it in a way that let's you restart the chain, which could mess with everything else, so probably not that. Mark them as inactive and put them in the inactive category, maybe? A hide/highlight system? This would make my life in Spidweb games a lot easier, as I'm an insufferable OCD guy. There's some other stuff, but I'll add that in the comments. What are some QoL improvements that you sometimes wish you would get?
  8. I've tried uninstalling everything related to Avernum, and Wine. Updated my system to 10.8.4. Re-downloaded. Nothing. Then, I opened the wrapped Avernum.exe using CrossOver, and after a while, the program started. However, the screen stayed mostly black apart from the regular pop-up window, and a message said "unable to load graphic 3001, you prolly got some corrupt shiz". Edit: I tried wrapping the humble bundle version myself, and I get the same graphics errors. Blank whites or blacks, freezing. Went and installed Wine 1.1.9 because that one was confirmed to work for Avernum 1.0.3. on the Wine database, that made the program not open at all though. I'm starting to suspect I need some sort of old utility that tells the windows bits what to do with the display.
  9. Do you currently have any other versions of the same games on your Mac? Maybe I need to delete some sort of cache or whatever. And are you using some sort of Wine extension? What version?
  10. They don't work for me for some reason. When I try to open the games, they appear as active on my dock and then absolutely nothing happens. They stop reacting. It's a shame, I really want to make them work on my iMac. Anything I'm doing wrong, with Wine maybe?
  11. Personally, I like that it's this way in Avadon 1. You're just an agent of a bureaucracy, you shouldn't be able to decide on the world's fate on your first day at work. Also, keep in mind that the game is just the first act of a series I expect to get a lot more tumultuous (and passionate <3).
  12. You can't possibly put everything you wanna talk about concerning an upcoming Spidweb title in one thread. The subforum will be there anyway, why not just create it when it's announced?
  13. I wish we could get a subforum for specific games when they're announced, not just when they're released. We need space for guesswork and conspiracies.
  14. Ah, this makes me happy. Like hearing a good friend will come to visit again soon. All our lurv, Jeff <3
  15. Guys, what are you talking about? What ancient crypts? There were no humans, and no Nephils. Only Reptiles or all shapes and sizes. Even the Sliths mainly lived deeper down than what we saw in Avernum, and the vahnatai as well. The First Expedition (and the Second one too, in a different way) might've seen a little bit of a bunch of stuff, but not enough to put together a game in the style we have known so far. No civilization, no infrastructure, nothing. How many camps can such an expedition have set up to be of any significance in the entirety of Avernum?
  16. @Randomizer: Yes, for other games, this would be a possibility. But for a Spidweb-style RPG, It's impossible. (Meaning it wouldn't be a Spidweb-style RPG anymore. Progression, and such.) @Alorael: I guess that would be an option. Explore the caves, find a way out. However, the gameplay would be very limited. Only sliths and demons, no settlements.
  17. ...or, realize that you're playing a game, and are not bound to some ethical system that's even made up IRL. Just imagine a character and play that guy. You can do this as often and as crazily as you want, that's the beauty of RPG gaming.
  18. Most of it is, actually. You can piece it together in quite some detail if you pay attention to the dialogues in A1-3. This is also where one of the most problematic issues of a First Expedition-game lies: we know that they split up. We know where and how and why they die. I'm not sure it would work out well to put the PC in a position where he has to choose - "Do you want to join the party who is hunted down by Slithzerikai and eventually seal themselves off in the Spiral Crypt to starve? Or do you go along this equally linear path of doom with the dude with the big sword, to get eaten by demons in that other corner? Either way, I hope all your characters go in the same direction bc otherwise things'll get real complicated!" No, no. We shall have a Avernum Magic-cards, Geneforge D&D-style boardgames and Avadon: Total War before that happens.
  19. Seconded. It's time for me to man up and finally do the right thing, the testing thing. And yea, Avadon 2 should be, and probably will be, alot bigger. A1's investigative style of storytelling was great, but where's the good in the implementation of player decisions if they are only presented along a linear path? Gimme dat open world, Jeff. Gimme aaall dat world.
  20. Please don't ban me. European arrogance is often mistaken for trolling, but I'm not. It's classy, trust me. Anyway, a certain sexual subtext can be found in many of Jeff's games, and I still don't see RaustBlackDragon's argumentation as valid. I find it a little sad, in fact. More is better! It's like the wine, you have to... ok you know what, let's not go down that road too far here. OH SNAP I DID IT AGAIN
  21. So you're saying if you can only be interested in the human body if you don't know anything about it? You must be American.
  22. Why in the world would Rawal not care about breasts because he's a powerful shaper? Do you somehow lose your libido with magical power? If anything, I'd wager them crazy isolated power-guys be rather kinky. They can create anything they want and control it (/her), after all. If anything, the text suggests exactly such a sexual context from the PC's point of view. If you see errors in the game text, maybe you're just projecting your expectations onto it.
  23. I see what you all are saying. And I do want to add that the whole reason I play Spidweb games is that they - much unlike most games of the last 10+ years - have heart. You can really feel the personal inspiration and honesty in Exile/Avernum, Geneforge, and all the rest. But then, maybe this is the reason a dedicated artist (and comparable workers), as Juan Carlo puts it, could be the way to go from here. Not because Jeff can't handle the workload or is clinging to an obsolete way of doing business - clearly, this is all untrue - but precisely because he would have a more intimate control of the various aspects of his products. Personally? I would never let someone draw a portrait or write a line of code for me if I don't know this person has played my games and shares or at least understands my vision. So yes, I get why Jeff still works like a student programming shareware programs in the 90s, but I also think he can take initiative and progress without losing any of his greatest resource - his own creativity. Doesn't mean he would magically become an evil corporate magnate. And I really don't want to see him sell out. I just want to see everything work out for Spidweb. ....aand I'm getting inexplicably emotional. I'm gonna go do something manly now, like... lift a truck or something.
  24. Hey guys, I'll cut it short - is Jeff hiring? Don't interpret too much into my asking, I'm just wondering. Having been part of his fanbase for more years than is healthy I'm aware of his business model and all that, but seeing Spidweb's success lately it struck me that maybe some expansion could be a thing right about now. Yes? No? Maybe? Whassup? - Rent-An-Ihrno, whose brain is mushy from the heat in Vienna. And who also insists that he started doing these endings to his posts from time to time before he knew Alorael, and has a divine, noodly right to it.
  25. Jeff has a really good grasp of dramaturgy, and usually writes his plots the way most people are used to and find exciting and aesthetical. That's why I think Redbeard will either be dead before Avadon 2, or right at the end of the series (trilogy?). It's standard storytelling. (It's not impossible Redbeard's overthrowal could be the center point instead of plot point 1 or 2, but I believe he is too important for that.)
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