Smoo

In short, Settlers is not meant to level up your characters or beef them considerably. It's meant to show you how easy it is to design a scenario (it comes with a handy DESIGN_PROCESS txt-file). Still, playing through it is certainly not a waste of time, especially since this should take no more than an hour. About 90% of this consists of two fights. I still like all the little details in it. Rating: [rating]AVERAGE[/rating]

As usual TM has made the towns and dungeons pleasing to the eye. The outdoors use a seldom used tile set which made the scenario look unique when it was first released. I liked the flashback cut-scene, although it could have been less "let's walk over there" narratively speaking. One nagging little thing regarding general design: could the caches of useful items at least be in someplace remotely plausible instead of the "right here before the big boss fight in some barrels" or "at a corpse in jail?" Why did a prisoner have that many potions? I counted three fights, including the boss fight. Still those three got me killed a lot more than some other scenarios. It took me forever to figure out how to beat the (first?) puzzle fight. You'll know what I mean when you see it. You cannot kill the enemy with conventional means. I do not really think this a spoiler, but you could skip this paragraph just to be sure... I think TM rushed a bit to kill off everyone, I mean sheesh, when I first played through I didn't even bother to talk to the other twelve guys at the fort. Malachi was a bit too nice, how does a guy like that rise to be a Dervish? By being competent? I think not. I really didn't get the villains motives but who am I to understand the mind of a... That kind of thing. The plot was entertaining, although I think that Canopy had a more enthralling plot (meaning I had to play forward just so I could find out what was going on.), although at least the jist of the story was easy to follow. It's the fine details that get you. It's neat that the PC was implemented to the plot, but could the player have at least some saying to what the characters says? This isn't a book, you know. Why couldn't the player decide if the PC was good or evil in stead of it being decided randomly? Despite all my complaining (Oh, and the ending sucked! Boo! What a mood whiplash!) Mad Ambition is one of my favorite scenarios. Hence: Rating: [rating]BEST[/rating]

This is a TM scenario. Which means that the town design is enthralling, the coding tricks are astonishing and there are plenty of high quality custom graphics. Although the graphic for The Immortal was a bit blocky. It also means the plot can get confusing and the scenario is extremely linear. I liked how Katothen would make a custom item for me. That part is actually the only interactive part in the whole scenario. I'll say it again, the scenario is set firmly on a one-way railway track. When you start really messing around with complex scripts and such there are bound to be some bugs. Fortunately Renegade didn't have that many. A table did attack me, though, but this might have been fixed since I played it. The plot is basically a sequel to Mad Ambition (and possibly to other Echoes scenarios from BoE) but the PCs aren't the ones that went through the events in MA. Another character in the scenario foiled the nephilim uprising, Hunter. Unfortunately, Hunter is one those characters that are so full of themselves its annoying. I can't really remember the names for all the villains. They qualify as annoying which means I really wanted to kill them if only to shut them up. So as villains go, you could do a whole lot worse. As in Mad Ambition, the ending snuck up on me. When the words THE END were visible I had to sit for a minute and think... was that it? The player isn't even a pebble in an avalanche; nothing you do has any effect on anything. Sure you uncover shocking conspiracies but what I really wanted was to kill some more people responsible right now. I hate sequels. The combat is basically one flashy trick after another. There were also some regular combat but for some reason I can't remember any of it. Some of the basic grunts did have special abilities, though. What I liked was, the boat fight, the plummeting fight, the fight with Ruthus and the final fight with the Immortal. Seriously I'm basically just basing my score on the flashy tricks used in these fights alone. There were also some special spells. They probably provide some tactical aspect but I didn't really test them. I rate Echoes: Renegade as [rating]GOOD[/rating]. It is so close to being "best", but I don't think combat alone should be enough for that high a rating. If I couldn't stomach TM's style the rating would naturally be much lower.

Shades of Gray is pretty, but that is to be expected since the designer's name is Ephesos. Moving on. SoG takes place mostly inside a cathedral which means that it is not that long. The starter town was pretty pointless story-wise, but enjoyable. All in all the atmosphere wasn't as spooky as it could have been, but then again I'm not a big fan of ghost stories to begin with. Since the scenario is a ghost story, the enemies are all undead. The enemies are all custom made for SoG which is always nice. I'll give bonus points for the nifty rising ghosts cut scene and for the dialog with it's little unnecessary tricks. Like when you talked to an NPC then you could ask another NPC about the same things (and it was never plot critical). The premise is to go to a cathedral and deal with a pest problem. What pest problem? A bunch of dead Empire soldiers from the Avernum-Empire war. Gee willickers, how did they die? In a very kewl (<- Yes, I am an idiot.) way. Must they all die (again)? No, but it is an option. The only option that I've tried actually (I really ought to replay this). Nonetheless, I like it when there are alternative endings. So bonus points here. I entered Shades of Gray with a party that the HLPM had deemed to be level 17. I had no troubles fighting the undead of the cathedral but the archers were dangerous enough so I didn't get too cocky. Basically the combat was pretty fun, most of the fun coming from finding and killing the ghosts in the cathedral. I'm spoiling the ending here, so beware. Click to reveal.. Final verdict: [rating]Good[/rating]

Huzzah! Jubilation! I can't wait to see what you've come up with this time. Meaning I don't have time to play it now.

Quarhag Pass Levels 10-18 Version 1.0.0 Avernum Universe, Multiple Endings

This is my review. I'll start with the story. [/Redundancy] The scenario is not set in the world created by Jeff Vogel. So, there is no Empire, but there is a Republic which, as far as I gathered, is pretty much the same thing. In this scenario, magic is not as abundant as in Vogel's world and the player is pretty much forced to play a non-spell-casting singleton. No wait! That is not true. The player is not forced to do anything. If the player loads up the scenario with an inappropriate party, the game kindly informs the player that this will make the story nonsensical and might possibly make the combat unbalanced. This is how these sorts of things should be handled, so bonus points for that. Anyway, back to the story. My main problem with it is that since this is a 24-hour scenario, it is so very short. I had not enough time to get used to the idea of the Republic. I immediately sided with the enemy, because they are the underdogs, I suppose. There is no real time to focus on the drama which is why my reaction after the big reveal at the end was along the lines of "So what?" Maybe I was just being overly apathetic, but I was never really drawn into the story. Now as for the overall design, it is very good. The jungle looks incredible, but it is a bit too maze-like. The towns are all very well designed. I can honestly say that this is one of my favorite scenarios in terms of purely visual quality. The only glitch I found was that the yellowish jungle river inconsistently runs into a bright blue sea. This is a minor complaint. Unfortunately for tridash, visual quality does not rank very high in my "Awesomest Scenario Evarr" checklist. The combat in Incorruptible is easy. There is one mass fight and then the boss fight. Early on, the player receives a bunch of grenades (incidentally, I did not care for the modern grenade picture) which make short work of the enemies. The player also has a bunch of NPC soldiers helping his singleton and I would have liked to see more fights like that. You fight the boss fight solo, though it is not very hard either. (I did not care for the conveniently acquired uber item, either.) So how to make this scenario better? Make it longer, pure and simple. What's in here is good, but it is not enough. Still, that is all right, since this is but a glimpse of tridash's designing competence and I really want him to make more scenarios. Here's hoping the designer's next scenario will be longer and of equal, if not, better quality. It might just turn out to be one of my favorites. Rating: [rating]Good[/rating]

This thing has Nikki written all over it. The overall design is pretty. The dialog is atmospheric. There is no combat (really). It is so very short. Actually, that about says all you need to know about The Eternal, but let's try and be more in depth, shall we? The scenario starts with the player being washed ashore on a strange island that seems to be deserted... Or is it? Basically, the player wanders around the seemingly abandoned island, reads a bunch of nicely descriptive dialog boxes, and catches a glimpse of something strange/spooky now and then. Then the player discovers what the strangeness is and the mock fight begins... That is about as in depth as I can get without going into major spoilers. In short, there is nothing wrong with the Eternal, apart from its shortness. Some might also consider the lack of combat to be a problem, but it did not bother me. What I liked especially, though, was that there was an assortment of loot to be found, and the loot was appropriate for the level range of the party. The level range being otherwise pointless. And Heck, the writing alone is good enough to justify The Eternal's existence, although my PCs were a bit too wimpy if you ask me. Nobody did, though. Rating: [rating]Good[/rating]

Huh. This scenario certainly was short. It was made in twenty-four hours, though, so that might explain it. It actually explains all of the flaws in the scenario. Turn That Frown Upside Down is a silly, silly scenario. In fact, it is so silly that it is bordering on just being plain stupid. How so? Allow this intro screen from the scenario speak for itself. Gaze at the face of the enemy! Yeah, that is what you fight. Your allies are the polar opposites of the enemy and they really have no motive for killing each other and I did not know why I should have cared. But then again, TTFUD should definitely not be analyzed too deeply because, again, it is just plain silly. The twenty-four hour limit shows in the quality of town design. To put it bluntly, it is quite sloppy. There is a room, for example, with about a dozen empty chests. The outdoors are not an improvement and the player should not bother exploring. Everything is so very empty. The fights are all very easy, mainly because your allies are incredibly over-powered. The boss fight tries to make up for this by having the player fight something with ten times more hit points than what you've seen before. In the end, the fighting is pretty much the entire point of the scenario and I do not think that is enough. Still, the goofy premise itself was enough to make me finish the scenario. Some might frown upon the silliness, but it did make me smile. Rating: [rating]Substandard[/rating]

I'm having troubles coming up with keywords for Quarhag Pass. So far I've got "Avernum Universe" and "Multiple Endings." What else is it? Suggestions? Anyways, you can put Rats Aplenty up there for now, so: Rats Aplenty Levels 1-5 Version 1.0.2 Avernum Universe, Humor, Dialogue Heavy, Beginner

Fixed the Mac link. I agree with Ackrovan; it did take way too long.

I would consider this a gamma or maybe a public beta. Why? Because I was still hoping to get back from a beta tester who was pretty successful in breaking the early beta, but I suppose (s)he has been busy. Anyway, I doubt there are (m)any bugs still present. Prove me wrong! Play it! Here is the link to the PC version and here is the Mac version. Now let me clarify something: Yes, this was an April Fools scenario, but it is not a joke scenario. Incidentally, do any of the other designers consider that a job and BoA go hand in hand, like, SUPER-WELL? Oh, and there are no intro pictures and I won't be adding them.

I'm pretty sure the links in the first post didn't work before. Anyways, I got the scenario and played it through. It was... silly.

The download links be nay working for me. (Frowny face) Is there any other place where I can get this?

Done! That is, I'm finally done with fixing/adding all the stuff from the initial beta. After I'm convinced that nothing is broken, Quarhag Pass will be released... by Friday at the latest.

Originally Posted By: human of the year I didn't spot a review, Smoo. You didn't spot one because I hate that place (Shadow Vale) so much. Or. I like to post my reviews in chunks, so you're going to have to wait until I finish all the other new stuff that's come out since (and including) Triple Valley. Believe whichever explanation you prefer.

I just finished The Eternal and started playing Incorruptible. I'm also still trying to finish The Triple Valley. I don't design as much as I used to. I blame work and school.

So... I've gotten full reports from Turtle and Nioca. Ackrovan and I are working out some problems he's been having. As for the rest of you: what's your excuse? Are you going to do anything or are you dropping out of beta testing? Not that I'm in any particular hurry. I'd just like to know.

Where do I clock in? Or is that even necessary this year? Not that I've done anything yet.

I sent the scenario to youse guys and FYI, I won't be home much tomorrow so I won't be working on the scenario or probably answering you emails or anything. I look forward to your overwhelmingly negative feedback at any rate. Also, nobody outright admits that the sky is blue. Interesting...

Right! E-mail! Must have e-mail too! I just figured it would be more important to find out if the sky is blue or not.

It's all about the timing people. What better time to announce a beta call than during a 24-hour scenario contest? I'm certain you will all flock to my aid, desperately pushing each other out of the way in order to be among the first to catch a glimpse of my latest masterpiece: Quarhag Pass! Wait, that's not right... Anyway, all this idiocy aside, I am currently playing Quarhag Pass through with a god party rewriting parts that sound wrong and hoping I won't run into any serious bugs/continuity issues. I'm hoping to wrap things up today (it's 9:30 AM here) so if you want to help out: please be filling out this form: NAME: OPERATING SYSTEM: EMAIL (Not Optional!): IS THE SKY BLUE (Yes/No):

Eh, the 10th is good. I might have done all my exams/papers by then. So consider me contesting, or contested... Whatever. I got ideas you know. Hold it! You are allowed to have ideas, right? Hold it! Do you have to have talent? I might be in trouble if you have to have talent. Hold it! Can we design with our feet? ... I'll stop typing now.

1) Click to reveal.. I'm just getting into more detail here. Nioca had it right. Adrian comes back with you, asks where he is and decides that he kind of likes it. 2) I don't know. My coding seems solid. Are you sure you tried all six bushes? I just tested it and no matter how many times I tried, the snake always jumped out of the last bush which, in my case, was the bush behind the cemetery. It took me a second to find the last bush, though.

Originally Posted By: Master Ackrovan I demand an English version. The Last Archon I will NEVER give in to these kinds of OUTRAGEOUS demands!! Even though providing an English version was part of the plan from the get to go (<- Does this mean what I think it does?). I originally planned to have a complete scenario released on April 1st, but if any Finns have downloaded QP they will notice that the scenario is buggy and unfinished, though it might be possible to actually complete it. Anyway, I will be translating the scenario into English and adding all the stuff that's currently missing and will be announcing a beta call (hopefully) sometime in April. And indeed, the wall ogres were a product of 2007, as far as I am aware, it is 2009 now. Apparently they were so popular/successfull that they still haunt people dreams. I am pleased.