Synergy

The world really is at a critical crossroads, running out of time for business as before. I think this time it's all about choosing someone who has the power to make a very large impact, and giving him a vote of confidence and hope that he will carry forth what he has begun. It's almost a desperate, yet hopeful gesture. It's unusual. I agree, it's not based on deserving, per se, but right now, whatever will make the most impact on the most people might be the best thing we can do, as far as "Peace Awards" are concerned. Who else has the degree of world attention and potential influence currently, and is demonstrating intentions towards peace? The Dalai Llama is the only other who comes to my mind, and he has received the award in the past. Awards and the like are going to mean nothing in some decades on this planet if we don't find the way to peace with one another. I too would be horrified to ever find myself in political office. I think I could make good counsel for someone of influence one day. -S- P.S. - Enraged Slith - All of life feeds on life, for there is nothing else to feed upon. You are right. But we could feed all of one another right now. We don't need to be killing each other for food. Most of our warring is being fought over religious differences, oil, ethnic hatreds that span back centuries, and various resources. If we believe we are merely clever animals who have nothing better to do with our awakened self-awareness, ability to love, sense of a spiritual interconnectedness in the universe, and increasing understanding of the oneness of all life through quantum physics, biology, etc., then maybe we should just rape the planet, kill everything, and pollute, breed, and war ourselves into obvlivion this century. Life will go on without us. It wouldn't speak too highly of our great big brains, spirituality, or wisdom, though, now would it? What we are doing is badly broken. The only solution to things that aren't working is to...do something different. Our belief in competition rather than cooperation and unity as the ideal for survival is broken. Even your own body is a demonstration of cooperation for survival. You are a colony of 50 trillion cells which have decided to all get along for the survival of you and them together.

If you can afford it, the Panasonic FZ18 is an amazingly well-reviewed digital camera with an astounding 18x zoom. It also does fantastic super close-up macro shots, which I have great fun attempting. The pictures it takes are phenomenal. They make me look like a professional, yet the camera is not known for "coloring" your picture significantly. Resolution is fantastic. Highest res = between 3 & 4 MB per picture. I am absolutely in love with it. Other Panasonics of the last 3 years or more have been also very well-received. I am 100% happy with my purchase, have used it heavily for 1 year (42 GB worth of photos and videos and counting) and cannot recommend it more. And I'm pretty fussy about, well, nearly anything. You can probably get one of these for around $250 if you find a deal, or look for one on eBay. I held off buying a digital camera all these years till just last year, because I wanted to get something fantastic for my money. The technology is there now, quite affordably. Look for reviews that mention good user-menus, battery life, and low noise in the picture. Good luck! I think digital cameras are one of the most wonderful modern inventions to date. Fun fun fun. -S-

If we stopped waging war, we could feed the world, heal the world, and have cash for infrastructure and pleasures left over. What we choose to do, individually and collectively, says everything about what we truly value on this planet. We value property, possession, privilege and policy more than one another, do we not? Does not history readily demonstrate this, so far? We see our neighbor as separate from the life we are, something in competition with us to be beaten, something alien to us, something suspicious to us, something wrong compared to us because our neighbor believes in a different god or a different system than we do. We do not yet see how it is that when we hurt any other, we have done it unto ourselves. We are all responsible to change this first within ourselves (and therefore ultimately without) if we do not believe in the daily sanctioned murders and negligence unto death of our fellow human beings. To allow 20,000 people on our planet to starve daily, while we spend millions or billions on killing more of them, speaks for itself resoundingly. War will not stop in our governments until war stops in our own hearts. That takes seeing your brother/sister as neither inferior nor superior to you, to cherish them with their differences, Muslim, Jew, Christian ad infinitum, to see their existence as vital and precious as yours. And worth protecting. We have the means. We must choose. I see Obama's Nobel Peace Prize as a vote of confidence and a desire for the gestures and attitudes he has displayed to continue. The world, and its 6.7 billion souls is hungry for peace even more than for food. I don't know how much Obama can or will do, but I think many are seeing him as a hopeful shift towards peace in the world, talking to your brother, even to the "terrorist" who is lashing out in anger and in fear, because he has not felt heard by any other means. -S-

One thing I've found quite useful in the recent games is to give every PC 1 level of priest spells so they can self heal/cure/bless when necessary. I give my mage enough Priest skill to cast Repel Spirit. That's some very minor hybridization. I seem to keep making the same sort of party of four, when not running a duo or singleton. Nephils rule, and it can be quite good to have a slith pole fighter. Humans are simply a disadvantage, except they will gain a few extra levels by late game compared to the others. I run one or two humans simply because it annoys me to have to role play cats and lizards. I want to see some of my own kind. Every game during beta testing, I strongly encourage Jeff to consider giving humans an advantage (like extra intelligence/magical ability or extra melee ability.) Every time, he refuses. Therefore, power-gamers will be running around as furries and reptiles. On the upside, I recently laid out in no uncertain terms to Jeff the problem with some of the upper tier skills like Lethal Blow, Anatomy, and Riposte, and happily, he has chosen to make these more accessible for A6. Very happily. I look forward to the new Slartanalyses when the game is released. This is my typical party: 1) Melee (nephil or human) EW/DT 2) Pole/thief (slith) EW/DT 3) Priest/archer (nephil) DT/PS 4) Mage/minor archer (nephil or human) DT/NM The archery is a secondary skill for the magicians, which is easy if they are nephils, and aquiring bows and thrown is very useful toward unlocking Battle Disciplines. With a duo, I tend to run a slith pole fighter/thief EW/DT, and a nephil mage/priest DT/NM. You really do need to carefully structure your PCs to waste as little as possible and accent their specialties. I agree with SoT—melee fighters tend to be the stragglers by late game compared to pole fighters and magicians. In A6, with Dual Wielding, this has changed...or certainly can change, if you build your melee PC a certain way. -S-

Yay, stalagmites. -S-

Spoken like a true treasure-hoarding drake. Hi Slarty — yeah, I just meant I was curious how many people use the lists and how they use them. There's no practical way I could know, and I don't mean to be asking specifically. A personal musing by a curious sort. -S-

Perhaps it is social commentary by Jeff. By 2001, the mega-corporate conglomeration of the world had all but drowned out the viability and voice of the little people in the world. Perhaps, in an upcoming game, Jeff will depict a world filled once more with little people — little people who finally rose up and toppled the megalithic dinosaurs ruining their world. -S-

Originally Posted By: Randomizer We are still waiting for Synergy to post his humogous Item List. I haven't made an items list for this game, but will quite likely be back in listly form with one for Avernum 6. I would have been interested to know how many people find an items list with locations to be something useful for their gameplay. I know why I personally started making them: for convenience in maximizing a game in replay, and to save wasted time looking for things when you are ready for them, but can't remember where you saw them earlier. -S-

I only played the demo area of G1 a couple years ago. I was enjoying it, but not enough to ante up in order to play the whole game, unlike all the Avernums. It's hard for me to go back to clunkier games after playing the newer ones. I was playing as a solo character without any creations. -S-

Indeed. Magic, like blade of steel held in hand, also has two edges. -S-

I didn't test nearly as thoroughly this go around, having been very busy with an overtime job late summer and fall, but did play through the game with a sorceress build. I tried to play her much like I did my infiltrator in G4. Magic is still a very powerful ally, but is not the absolute killer it was in G4. Most of the game, I sneaked around solo and used mental and battle magic to manipulate and decimate. Fairly often, I had to sneak in and pick off one or two foes at a time. For some battles, I had her fashion some creations: cryoas earlier on, kyshakks later (I too found glaahks to be underwhelming this time). Wingbolts seemed fragile compared to kyshakks, so I used them more rarely, despite their better damage. I really like aura/acid damage in this game. I found it very useful to whittle things down while otherwise controlling or evading them or keeping them busy with 2-4 pets. That's why on the fly by midgame, I favored kyshakks with their useful ranged lightning aura damage. Of course cryodrayks rock, better than ever. I used some War Tralls when useful this time too. This game for me required more variation in strategy, but on Normal difficulty, was still fairly doable through and through. There are some very tough areas, like Lerman's Pass that required multiple attempts. My sorceress with around 14 intelligence in the late game was having trouble with green essence running out while using a lot of magic in combat. Creations really are key in a variety of confrontations. Typically, being the experience points glutton I am, I'd absorb the creations as soon as I was done until I really needed more again. Artifacts and gear seem to add more useful bonuses than ever before. And yet, the game felt a bit harder, all in all. I think I will try keeping creations if/when I play a new game, maybe as a Shocktrooper or as a Lifecrafter. I want a more hands on experience with minions to command as well as at the end of a pointy stick. -S-

Acid is ramped up in G5 compared to G4. I find it very useful all throughout the game, unlike any game since A3. It's very satisfying to employ. Lightning Aura and Acid are two of my favorite attacks. The gift that keeps on giving...or rather, taking. -S-

Perhaps you can only use a Geneforge multiple times after a good long time inbetween uses — like the 2+ years it's been for you in the game. -S-

Originally Posted By: BlueRivets Are you guys even trying to trick us anymore, or are you just saying random things? I'm not saying this is a timely response, but why do you think they call him Randomizer? -S- ADDIT: The dubious contents of this thread have, like a gas-filled dirigible, greatly distended it with sheer, kyshaak-like bloated bulk. Just don't light a match.

"The Future of Love." An exploration of and challenge to our concepts of relationships. -S-

He's going to piss you off even more when you try to kill him. The confrontation is a teeth-gritter. -S-

C i v i l i z a t i o n . It's virtual crack. -S-

Hey, another local. *nods* You've demonstrated that any class can be made to do quite well with the right strategy. But basically the warrior and shock troopers are kind of "half-way there" variants, whereas the Lifecrafter, Servile, and Infiltrator really shine at what they do best so efficiently. -S-

Heh. -S-

Diki - It's always been 100% for me with the cloak. You didn't experience an exception, did you? Thanks for the cue on the Tinker's Gloves. It's been a long time since I played the game, and I still remember those gloves were in the Purity Workshop B. Somehow I never seem to have gotten them listed, and they are a rather important item. Good catch! I have inserted them in the list, though I don't remember the exact location. What I think I remember is they are in the locked room kind of in the middle of the level as you are winding your way through the doors and barriers to the E half of the zone. -S-

You can attack your own charmed PC with whatever weapon is active with a non-charmed PC by mouse-clicking on the charmed PC instead of using the keyboard to try to "move" into him/her. -S-

Funny, if you think about it — all of Avernum is underground. Why is one particular plane of that more mapworthy than any other part? It's all caves, really. Up and down is almost irrelevant. -S-

Best not to accept rides from strange boats. Except in this game. -S-

Usually anytime you kill one friendly person in town zone, the whole town goes hostile. It's a pretty treacherous act to intimidate someone into agreeing to do something for you, and then stabbing them in the back immediately afterwards. It may be good strategy for the game, but you can be sure the entire town will be hostile to you after that. I realize that the Therile Colony doesn't seem like much of a town. -S-

Yeah, but I miss inserting visuals right into a post. There was something else I wanted to mention. My fighter started with one level of priest spells in order to heal and cure (and sometimes bless) himself, as I mentioned. I never bought or trained anything beyond that for magic for him: no more priest levels, spellcraft, or magery. Divinely Touched gave him 13 levels of magery by the end, and by the last third of the game, he could Minor Heal a significant amount of points. He could almost entirely heal my slith in one shot and was usually successful at curing. It's well worth having a second healer with a duo, even with this seemingly middling ability, if that PC is DT. -S-