shell

All battles suck bad ... except for rothgraths, man I love my pair of Rothies.

The Battle Beta out front will give you a hand if you lead the golems out there, that was one strategy I had to employ. As far as spells go, Searer is the best attack against golems.

Even if one of the shapers die, he will be alive again next time you return to the camp. So he should be there, unless you asked them to help you invade the Taker complex, in which case everyone will be gone.

Quote: Originally written by Thuryl: Quote: Originally written by Ald: But how come Mac only supports only one mouse button? Isn't it a lot more convinient to have four mouse buttons plus a wheel? Nowadays you can usually plug any multi-button USB mouse into a Mac and have it more or less work. But since the Mac OS is designed around a single-button mouse, most people don't really have any reason to do so. ctrl + click acts as the more-or-less equivalent of right click, although I only use it once every 2-3 weeks, so it's not much of an issue. No Mac users wants Jeff to mess with right-clicking; it would be a pain. I might have to go out and buy a two-button mouse just to play a game.

Or just let it be killed by rogues, if your skiumish about doing it yoursel.

I was a bit shocked at the dearth of spells in GF1, I had forgotten how many spells were added for the sequels.

Just try it out, Contra, make a fyora, a roamer, and an artila and then try and make a vlish. It's impossible to do, but there's no good reason for it. If I want to roleplay a shaper who makes seven different creation types, then I should be able to.

Get rid of the annoying three-creation limit. It limits the roleplaying options for no particularly good reason.

Quote: Originally written by Student of Trinity: Hey, do Ornks really count as battle creations? I wondered about that, but I didn't think any shaping skills would boost their level. I know you need at least one level of battle shaping skill to make an ornk, and I only assume that more skill would create a better ornk. My agent created an ornk just for the heck of it, using only the various skill boosting items and the chunky creature did about 60 points of damage per attack, not bad for a low-level creation. Of course, my ornk also had almost no endurance, so there are some drawbacks...

This could be doable, if you were a shaper and built up battle shaping enough. Since a shaper wouldn't be fighting directly, the requirement of only "using" rocks wouldn't be a handicap. Move over, Vlish Lord, Porky's the new mad shaper in town!

Quote: Originally written by Archmagi Micael: Quote: Originally written by Auri Fitzgerald: Is it possible to be with more than one? Like play two sides of the board and then doublecross one in the end? I think I am too much a person of principle to join the takers. Even the Barzites with their promise of awesome canisters so far don't tempt me. By principle I like the Awakened best (although I get so sick of "What your kind did to us" when it was never ME who did it!) Nijojo No. You can only be a member of ONE sect at a time. You can however, join all sects in turn. You can start with the Awakened and then move counter-clockwise through the sects, ending up either Loyalist or Barzite. Just rememebr that if you plan on ending as a loyalist then you shouldn't allow yourself to be shaped, otherwise, have at it. I never tried to move the other way, starting as a loyalist and then moving clockwise, but that should work as well. Learned Darian makes it all possible.

Quote: Originally written by Waylander: Quote: every time it makes a creation, Dominate it. Why fight fair when you can fight dirty? A good way to take out spawners is to Dominate them. The spawner will make a creation which will still be hostile. But since the spawner is on your side... well, the spawner has just sealed its own doom. I never tried that, but it sounds like a good idea!

Quote: Originally written by Aurora: Orois Blaze in Breeding Valley says, “It is five thousand coins for every touch, and each sort of touch can only be given once”. You know the "Breeding Valley" is the red-light district of spear Isle. Just look at the name!

I never cheat until after the game is finished, then I may use "iwanttobestronger" to gain a level or two just for the heck of it. I usually play on "Tricky" and the game is not hard enough to make cheating a necessity.

Quote: Originally written by Contra: 7 7 7 3? Man, you are wasteing some good skillpoints. Mental Magic does not need to be higher then 3 (2 from start, 1 p from Carnelian Gloves) and Blessing Magic only needs to be at 3 aswell, pump up Battle Magic and Spellcraft. Not quite, in the early game one should choose to build up either Battle Magic or Mental Magic, but not both. An agent specializing in mental tricks can be quite formidible, at high levels you'll find Terror to do the trick against most enemies. One of my favorite tactics when confronted with a group of rogues was to Dominate one or more of them and then back off letting them destroy each other.

Quote: Originally written by Slartucker: No, but given that there are several items that boost shaping skill, it really is a waste Unless you are playing a loyalist with minimal canister use! Specializing in fire shaping, the strongest creation available is the Cryoa, Roamer's aren't worthwhile and Pyroroamers are even less so, and a good loyalist would never make a Drayk. In that case, an Agent will never be able to make any strong creations, the only hope for getting a useful ally in the end game is to create a creation early and let it level up naturally. Since by the time you get off Harmony, you have a respectable level 5 Fyora shaping skill, you might as well get a couple shaping points and make some useful Cryoas, if you manage to keep them around till the end you'll find they can go toe to toe with any Drayk out there and don't fare too badly against Drakon's either.

Quote: Originally written by Delicious Vlish: The Golem Monstrosity in the corner of the lab. I had a buff Ur Glaahk keep him busy while I blasted away with whatever I had. I found that a Wand of Kill worked wonders on him. I burned up most of the wand, but it was worth every blast. That's a horrible waste of a perfectly good Kill wand! If you have any mechanics skill at all, and it doesn't take much, just power up the crystal in the southwest corner of the golem's enclosure. Leave your creations outside, and lead the foolish golem towards the crystal. A few turns later and the deed is done.

The whole question is moot as by the time you get the orb pretty much every enemy worth defeating has already been defeated. The shroud is probably the best bet, the +3 creation strength is tempting and +2AP plus quicksilver boots means a good three moves per turn. I wouldn't worry about the low armour; I never wear anything heavier than chainmail and get by just fine.

Quote: Originally written by TMH: the UR-Drakons could be involved as they evolve into more ethical and enlightened beings. The fact that both sides would end up trampling most of that world into dust would be missed by their arrogant fervour/devotion to their respective ideals. Would not that contradict the theme of Geneforge? A constant theme of all three games is the corrupting influence of power. You see this in the way your PC grows more and more hot-headed and arrogant as he continues to use canisters. And again you can see the generally peaceful Drayks of GF1 become crazy and bent on futile revenge once they start shaping themselves, and the Barzites are the posterchild for the corrupt misuse of power. No, the Drakons care nothing about shaping themselves into more ethical, enlightened beings; rather they want to make themselves stronger at all cost. The idea of creating a "master race" that will set the world to right is doomed to failure, as a certain dictator from the last century could attest. Although, one thing I would like to see is a new faction headed by a powerful Gazer, they seem smart and strong enough for the task, perhaps this faction can be a breakaway from the Takers that is not so much bent on revenge.

Quote: Originally written by Delicious Vlish: Endgame, with a jacked Spellcraft and high levels of magic, I had firebolts doing over 300 damage a shot... What on earth did Jeff do to the spell system? Essence Orbs was crazy nutty foo foo. I remember back when G1 came out and I talked about how to get 200 damage Essence Orbs... Folk started paying attention to the Agent. Now, those orbs can top out at around 400 or more damage. My agent was nowhere near that strong by endgame, and I had my magic stats fairly high (playing on "tricky") the most damaging spell, "Kill" did a good 150-200 points of damage, essence orbs where not too far behind when it came to damage, although, I relied much more heavily on mental attacks.

At the start of the game I only picked up Greta, but then she left me when she saw how loyal I was becoming. I was able to finish just fine without her, thank you very much!

Quote: Originally written by Waylander: Quote: I could see being an outsider human, but they have said they are unable to create life the way the Shapers can. Really? I know that the Sholai can use magic, and it is actually very similiar to shaper magic. I'm not sure about Shaping, though... I don't see why they couldn't. They are humans, and hence have no restrictions placed on them (like the Serviles have, who have been purposely created so that they couldn't shape/use magic. But even that failed). It's not that the Sholai can't shape, it's that they can't do it legally. You know how jealous the Shaper's are in protecting their secret's; the Sholai in GF1 got the ability to shape by stealing Shaper secrets.

I did notice quite a few spelling errors, particularly near the start of the game. But the movement this time was around was much better. I remember in GF2 I had lots of problems trying to move about in combat, quite often being told that I couldn't "get there from where you are," for no good reaon. However, these problems were markedly reduced in GF3, in fact there was only one time that happened to me I think. Jeff must have worked on that.

Quote: A very stupid question: are there birds in these worlds? You never see them, but I would say a definite yes, as you can hear them quite often in the soundtrack. The whole shade issue is a little confusing. At times it seems that a shade is the ghost of someone who once was alive, yet at other times shades are presented as just another type of creation, such as in the crystal caves of GF2. Yet elsewhare we are told that the Spapers do not know if there is a life after death, which seems a bit odd if ghosts were actually known to exist! So which is it? Could it be either one?

It is true that I dislike the new look for the Thads, now they just look like big clumps of dried cedar bark. Although, the new guardians are an improvement, as the old ones looked like people running around with a metal bucket on their heads.