Skippy the bush kangaroo

Quote: Originally written by Randomizer: Slarty is referring to the Priest spell Smite Here I thought it was some exotic sword that I had missed somewhere.

Quote: Originally written by Synergy: Earlier in the game and in the beta-testing, I found the slith to be very vulnerable, but Jeff beefed up sliths with more health subsequently (and possibly some other strengths?) I was lobbying for them to be tougher, more resistant to poison and acid too. Not sure if those were touched at all. Must have missed that change. Good to hear they can now take it as well as dish it out. That was a frequent complaint of mine - a Slith pole user is no good if he is dead. Was the change retroactive? Maybe that is why I missed it. What are the stats on the Bloodspear? I ended up with the Slith Warspear and a few others - but not the Bloodspear, must have missed it somewhere. Although I still like the Flaming Sword.

Quote: Originally written by Synergy: The advantage of this Waveblade dimishes by Chapter Three or so, and swords never match up to poles after that. Well, I actually found the Flaming Sword [11-33] (with an option on the Oozing Sword or plain old Blessed Broadsword when dealing with fire resistant creatures) to be very good. It tended to deal out more damage than my Slith with the Slith Warspear [12-48] (or Molten Halberd or Chaotic Halberd which were my chosen swaps at the end for the Slith). The key was the fire damage - it really kicked butt. Additionally, I was wearing the Mercuric Plate. This meant that I would reliably get two attacks when hasted even if there was some movement required. What are the stats on Smite and how do they compare with the Flaming Sword against a non-fire resistant monster?

Thirty fourth post!

For some reason I never particularly went for Divinely Touched. Not that I think it doesn't work - just that I think it's almost like cheating. So my party: * Human, Berzerker, Elite Warrior, something else worth about 8% XP penalty (Sword melee fighter) * Nephil, Rogue, Elite Warrior, Nimble Fingers (Archer and Lockpick) * 2x Pure Spirit/Natural Mage Hedge Wizard (with subsequent specialisation in Priest and Mage) It's not really about full optimisation - but it's hardly a challenge party. Maybe I'm pretending to role-play a bit. I'd probably go all Nephil if I wanted to push the limits but, where would the fun be in that? And I've never really liked Sliths. Towards the end I found the Flaming Sword to be a better bet giving higher damage than any pole weapon I'd found (provided you had a swap weapon for fire resistant monsters).

Quote: Originally written by Student of Trinity: The only significant complaint I have is that the very last battles, either way, were kind of anti-climactic for me. But I was only playing on normal, and was probably overpowered for that; plus I was getting really busy with work at that point, and kind of out of the mood. Well, I found the first iteration of a number of fights to be quite challenging (to the point of frustration). Getting Gladwell when summoned creatures had an insane amount of health - not fun. Getting General Redmark when the pylons protecting him were buffed to the max - not fun. I still haven't dealt with the evil shade that possesses your party in turn - but my initial experience with it; not fun. However, the final version toned some of these down such that I didn't consider them insanely difficult any more. And I really liked Gladwell. He had to die of course. But there were few downsides to his quests. I mean, so what if some cities don't like you that much - I wasn't going to go back there anyway.

Quote: Originally written by Cryfenril: Even my magic-user (who is so wimpy it's silly) can do a few points of damage, and if I give him a nice stunning bow it gives me some breathing room for heavy hitters. Until you get a nice bow, your magic-users should be casting firebolt or smite. They will do more damage than a bow, hit more reliably, and have a barely noticeable effect on your spell points. Indeed, even with a nice bow, you probably have a spell that is better. So you would only be using the bow when you need to conserve spell points on a minor monster that can't really hurt you anyway. Other tactics: * Always use augmentation and enduring shield/armour once you get them * Cast bless, shield, haste at the first sign of trouble * Concentrate your firepower, an almost dead monster does just as much damage as a perfectly healthy one * For the most part, just wade in and start hacking away * All monsters have some weakness - if you aren't doing much damage try a different type of attack * Remember to use daze or slow if they outnumber you * Save often

Quote: Originally written by Dreadknight: Another pointer about customs, if you have Pure Spirit/Natural Mage you will only spend 13/16 points for the starting spells, respectively. That's 62 extra points for Priests and 59 for Magi (or whatever you call your spellcasters). You get those bonuses with the pre-made characters as well. (Pure Spirit/Natural Mage) Hedge Wizard wastes 5 points on Melee Weapons and Quick Action - which is precisely the extra you get above going Custom. I hate to leave those on the table even if they might be marginal points. Also, the early game isn't hard (it's designed that way) so aiming for a better mid- to late-game character seems better to me. You don't need an optimised character at the start. But, certainly there are certain classes that don't make sense. My list of acceptable classes include Rogue, Hedge Wizard and Berzerker. I use the Rogue as the Archer base, Berzerker as the Melee base and Hedge Wizard as the Combo spellcaster base.

Have you saved games within the game that work properly?

On the Mac they are stored in folders called "Save0" through "Save19" with individual files called things like "data", "header", "items" and "journal". These files reside in the "Avernum 4 Files" folder which is in the same place as the application. Maybe that will help you with tracking it down on "the other platform".

Quote: Originally written by Zer0: ... and most people here use all Custom. Which is odd given that it is like throwing away skill points. Depending on the class, you get from 3 to 11 extra points by using a pre-made class rather than custom. Practically none of those extra points are wasted by the mid- to end-game.

While not strictly a race comparison - I've always preferred Elite Warrior to Slith as pure 'traits'. The XP cost of Elite Warrior is lower and, all other things being equal, a Human Elite Warrior will last much longer in a fight than a Slith (parry is great). The Slith can dish it out with a pole weapon, but he just can't take it. And, at the end of the day, a Slith is no use if he is dead because he got beat on and couldn't avoid all that damage. Nephil Elite Warrior - great; Nephil, Fast on Feet, Elite Warrior - even better.

Quote: Originally written by Kyrek: So I have to be a Shaper and then release half the Unbound? The key to the Trakovite ending is whether the Drakons can make any more of the Unbound after the first batch.

I thought the Trakovite ending was actually the most satisfying. (Although I have yet to experience the loyal Shaper endings.) Frankly, you can think of Shaping like nuclear weapons, or biological weapons, or any of the other things that are generally considered to be too heinous to use in the real world. But, it's a game, and I steal things and kill people for the hell of it and treat loyal followers like so much cannon fodder. Morality is, perhaps, completely underrated in these sorts of games. Although Ultima IV wasn't too bad on that front...

Further thoughts - maybe it is associated with the death of the servile tender in the Forsaken Docks. My messages go: Servile Tender takes 47 points of damage. You receive experience. (9) Fyora is cursed. Fyora is weakened. Istvan parries the attack. (%4) Starting new round. Could that be it?

I am playing as a servile and every so often a creation gets cursed and weakened when I parry their blow. (At least that seems to be what is going on.) I don't have any special equipment as I'm just at the forsaken docks. Has anyone else seen this? Is this a bug or a feature?

Quote: Originally written by Randomizer: ... and torrent gems to kill the Vlish when they come enmass. Or an eyebeast.

Actually, I think the most important thing is for you to try everything yourself. It is all fun and you can appreciate the good better if you have experienced the bad. You miss out on something if you just follow the advice of everyone else and artificially circumscribe your choices and you should be able to finish the game regardless of the choices you make. Notwithstanding that: It's Geneforge so I would recommend sticking with the lifecrafter for now - it is the most authentic experience. Also, for your first game - use canisters like they were candy. As a lifecrafter you need both shaping and magic skills so they are all useful. Later on you can worry about minimising your canister usage to experience different outcomes. You don't really need an 'army' of creations and you will be more effective if you have a reserve of essence to bless them heavily (see next point). I played through as a lifecrafter never having more than three creations. (I took the über-difficult 'secret' level using only two - an eyebeast and a drakon admittedly - but still only two creations.) As a lifecrafter the priority order in spell categories is blessing, then healing and mental (especially daze for the early levels) then, last of all, battle spells. Buff your creations with as many blessing spells as you can manage before every fight, daze the enemy and then hack them to pieces. (After a while daze doesn't work so well - but essence shackles is kind of nifty...) Also, as suggested earlier, battle creations are only so-so. Eyebeasts rock and drakons aren't half bad either. So that would suggest an early focus on fire creations and then an investment in magic creations starting around mid-game.

I guess I didn't talk to the right people. I talked to Shorass and all that was achieved with the east panel... but I've yet to see any discernible effect on any of the endings from adjusting those settings on the west panel.

...and Lft Lt Intensity Anyone worked out if these have any effect?

I got strength and leadership drained. Maybe I should abandon any pretence at loyalty and become the double-crossing back-stabbing bastard that we all know that role-playing games are designed for.

Quote: Originally written by Eigenvalue: 1. I remember that there was a discussion that with 11+ action points you should be able to attack, move, and attack again. I am even sure that I have managed to do this previously. However, now I am getting a message that "you cannot move after attacking". Where's the old hit-and-run tactic? This is a change from previous Geneforges. To answer the thread question. Yes, it is intentional. But you can now attack with less than 5AP. Thus, you can move 7AP and then attack. The no move after attack restriction is the quid pro quo for being able to attack with 1AP rather than requiring the full 5AP as in previous Geneforge's. No more hit and run but think about the possibilities using gems and pods... a lot more attacks in a turn are now possible.

Well - I figured out one other aspect of 'the change' that killed my first character. Experience. I seem to remember a lot of tweaks to that. Playing through as a lifecrafter from the beginning I'm already up to level 23 and I've just hit the Fens. My original 'agent' was at Quess-Uss and level 25. No wonder it was treating me so badly. Looks like the experience tweaks really accelerated advancement (especially since my lifecrafter typically has three creations and the 'agent' was always solo.) So, what sort of levels were people when they hit Chapter 4 or Quess-Uss or thereabouts?

I still haven't finished it. I got sidelined right after 10.4.8 came out because the game crawled to a halt on my Intel Mac until the universal version came out. That took a good three weeks out of testing. I had finished chapter 3 and had just started chapter 4. Until then my 'agent' had been kicking serious butt (the gruesome charm is great because you can offset its effects with augmentation and still have extra essence into the bargain). Then came 'the change'. I struggled to make it to Quess'Uss after that but as a singleton I just didn't have the staying power because my energy was depleted in 4 or 5 attacks (2-3 turns basically and I thought having 500 energy should be enough for anyone). To get through any meaningful fight I had to pop essence pods like candy and nibble away at everyone with frequent trips back to town. I pretty much gave up because it was so tedious and my character was messed up for the new balance. I started up a lifecrafter and there I stand.

Well, I suppose the equivalent trick would be to kill Starrus (or have him die) and not die yourself. Is there any loophole in the script? Is the script location specific? What if you aren't actually in the castle when he dies? (Either draw him away from the castle or poison/acid him and run.) Enquiring minds want to know. Well, that and I can't get to my home computer to try it out myself.