Kyronea

Originally Posted By: Randomizer Originally Posted By: Dantius 20 years from now, Jeff will probably be retired. He's in his mid-40's, right? In 20 years Jeff will be paying for his two daughters weddings. After they have finished college. At that point Jeff will be wondering what happened to his retirement savings. Obviously it will be up to his daughters to continue remaking Exile. Make it a family tradition.

I have to admit I'm not entirely sure how he could do a prequel either. I mean obviously we can't play as the First Expedition, or else we'd be locked in by canon to do a number of things and then die. And as adventurers we can't find things like Demonslayer or the Orb of Thralni either, because those have to stay lost for the adventurers of Avernum 1 to find. It'd be difficult to do. Still, if anyone could pull it off, Jeff Vogel could.

Considering how often his games get extremely poor reviews on the basis of the fact that the graphics aren't exactly as powerful as the latest Mass Effect or Elder Scrolls game(which is a bunch of horse droppings about as large as the Empire State Building--the reviews, I mean) a lot of gamers pass over his games anyway. I mean if he solely developed for Windows he would not make anywhere near the amount of money he does. And now I finally understand why his primary platform is Macintosh. I never did understand that before, but it's all so simple now.

Didn't most--if not all of them--come straight out of D&D? Adapted to the setting and to the specific manner of combat, yes, but I would swear I've seen most of those--if by different names--in a D&D sourcebook. Not that that's a bad thing.

Indeed it did.

It isn't? I'm not sure how it wouldn't be true. I mean, let's take a look at Haste for example. Haste level one is like Minor Haste. It doesn't last long. Haste level two is the regular Haste spell. Still one target, but much longer lasting. Haste level three is the Major Haste spell, which hastes the whole party. You can go on and do this for most of the spells, but I won't. My point is that once you got certain spells in Exile, you stuck to casting only those. Major Blessing. Kill. Firestorm. Sometimes Fireball. Revive All. And so on. The effects of these crucial spells are all duplicated in Avernum, from things like Divine Warrior(like Avatar, only castable on other people) to Death Arrows(aka Arcane Blow level three) and so on and so forth. Yes, there are many effects missing, which I went on to talk about in my previous post. The important stuff wasn't however. Again, not saying it's better necessarily, but it's not as if it's as bereft as it might seem at first. It's more like...it's like the cliff notes, so to speak. It lacks the depth but has all the important details.

I know what you mean. I first played E3 in 1998 myself. It's been a long time since then. T'is why I look forward to this remake, because so far nothing seems to be ready to disappoint me. Though I must admit I'm hoping for a bit of resizing capability with the party window. It seems a bit too big for what it's used for at the moment. I know I can technically minimize it but I like being able to keep an eye on those stats at all times.

Originally Posted By: Enraged Slith He did it in Avernum. Completely flubbed it up too, as far as I'm concerned. Exile's spell list is unbeatable. I'm...not so sure about that. I mean, sure it IS massive...but often those same effects were duplicated in the Avernum spell system as well. Even if it had far fewer actual spells, it still had almost all the same range of effects. At the same time it had its own flaws, in that certain effects couldn't be duplicated after you raised spells to level three(such as webbing a foe) and that certain effects/spells just weren't in existence anymore, like magical fields, Mindduels, and so on. So there are pros and cons to both spell systems. I did however still like Exile's system better though--one of the many reasons I chose to play Exile 3 rather than Avernum 3 in my latest playthrough.

But that's just it. This is the perfect time to redo the system, if he's going to. After all, it IS the first game in the series. A remake of a remake is the best time to introduce a new system.

Yeah I don't think the Avernum engine can handle that sort of thing, unless you use a tongs image while making the item technically a ring or an amulet and then equip it that way. I have not actually made any BoA scenarios though, so I will happily be proven wrong if I am in fact wrong on my guess.

There was the Cult of the Anama in E3/A3. And priest spells were always described as being about shouting prayers and such while mage spells required hand movement and other delicate movement that kept them from being cast while wearing armor unless you have a trait that lets you do that. But other than that there wasn't anything, no.

Originally Posted By: Necris Omega I was half expecting to see a Fork of Horripilation reference rise out of that last page, but hey, everyone loves the Tick. I don't. I wouldn't mind a Fork of Horripilation somewhere in Avernum though. Or being able to bake bread with the blood of someone's dead father and then feed it to them.

Originally Posted By: Shelagh Yeah, no. It floored me because it was so dumb and stupid, not because I never knew which enemies used which weapons in this game, but thanks for the thought. Also, I'm pretty sure the Serendipity Knife was in E3 - on an island in the north of Krizsan province. Maybe it was just a diamond dagger though, I dunno... Nope it was a Diamond Dagger. Having been playing through E3 and having just beat it a couple days ago, I can say that with some fair certainty. And if you want me to double check, I can go run through the E3 Editor real quick to see if it has a Serendipity Knife, although I'm 90% certain it doesn't. It does, however, have DemonSlayer, which wasn't anywhere in E3 at all(but was placed in Rentar's Keep in A3, for whatever reason. Me I'd have stuck it somewhere a bit more potentially useful, like, say, in a secret area in the Tower of Magi only accessible during the attack.) It also has an Adamantine Axe, also seen nowhere in E3.

Although affording those spells was fairly difficult for a new party. Gathering together the necessary gold was not easy. Particularly with the max limit of 9000 gold, affording all you wanted to buy required multiple trips back and forth from dungeons to get loot then back to shops. I hope that's something this remake dispenses with, or at least sets the maxmimum at something much higher, like 60,000 or something.

If that is the case, Kennedy, then it would actually be a return to the old Exile manner of handling spells, where you only needed a maximum of seven to be able to cast all mage spells, and a maximum of seven for the same in priest spells. Though the skills were expensive. Six skill points for mage, five for priest, meaning a grand total of forty-two and thirty-five skill points invested in each for maximum casting. And unlike in Avernum you don't get any spell points for this beyond an initial three points per skill level in mage and priest at character creation. (Emphasis on at character creation, because if you add the skill later on you don't get any free spell points.)

The variety of weapon types may have shrunk, but the number of weapons for each type has only grown with each entry in the series. Things like the Serendipity Knife, for instance, never existed in the original Exiles. Though I do admit I miss being able to do something silly like dual-wield a mace and a broadsword on one of my characters. But there's always tabletop for that.

Okay okay, so dual-wielding poles is silly.

Well I'm only talking about dual-wielding the one-handed spears, which pretty much rules out almost all the other polearms...which then arguably makes the point to dual-wielding them moot. Anyway it was just an idea.

Fair enough then. I'll be giving it a go.

Originally Posted By: HOUSE of S I know dual-wielding swords isn't realistic, either. But dual-wielding spears doesn't even make any sense in fantasy pretend land. But...dual wielding! Can't we just invoke rule of cool here? The problem with poles in the Avernum series is that they're rarely useful next to swords, and this would give them a bigger use than what they have right now.

Now, I've heard on this forum elsewhere that Geneforge 3 is looked at like Avernum 4 was by a lot of the fandom. I'm in the process of playing through the Geneforge games now, and while I'm not quite to 3 yet...the way people keep talking about it makes me want to ask if I should skip it, or play it anyway.

Perhaps later levels could give more skill points. Like, say, levels 1-10 give 5, levels 11-15 give 6, then 7, and so on. But that assumes he hasn't redone the system entirely, which it seems like he might have. Also, let's see if we can't figure out some of the skills based on the skill tree images. http://www.avernum.com/images/avernum/AvernumTraining.jpg So far we have--obviously--Edged/Bladed Melee, Pole Melee, Bows, and Thrown Weapons. (Interesting he chooses a razordisc image given that the Vahnatai don't really show up until Crystal Souls.) Above Edged Melee, we have...a guy holding a sword over his head...not sure what that could be. The thing above it seems like some sort of armor training, and the thing above that looks like it could be for something akin to assassination. Above Pole we have a sword with...sound waves coming out of it? No idea. Then we have what looks like someone running away, or it could be running into combat...I think that's actually one of the old autocombat images, which makes it even more confusing. Then we have DUEL WIELDING! Always fun. Makes me wonder if we'll be able to duel wield one-handed poles this time around...dual-wielded spears would be pretty cool. Above Bows is something that looks like a target, so I'm guessing that must be accuracy or something. Above that is...poison, maybe? Or maybe that's the assassination skill and the other thing is something else. Then above Throwing we have something that might be to increase AP, and something else that I have no idea what it is, except maybe allowing a throwing weapon to shatter on impact and deal smaller damage to other targets, like some sort of chain lightning, except with throwing weapons. Which sounds fairly ridiculous so that's probably not it. Yeah I'm probably wrong on all of these guesses except the basics and the duel wielding, but it was fun to try to guess!

Heh, I noticed that the distances on the sign for between Fort Avernum and Fort Duvno, and Fort Avernum and Silvar, have been radically scaled down. Eight and seven respectively. Hrm. Anyway, that FAQ has me very intrigued, and I hope we see more details on the skill trees and traits and such in the near future, because they definitely sound interesting.

And The Fandom Rejoiced. I see nothing here that makes me think this remake won't be awesome.

Originally Posted By: Enraged Slith I don't think it's healthy to support delusions. There are microchips and untraceable chemicals in the water supply for that. But it's true. It's perfectly fine to like something that someone else doesn't. I'm sure I like things you don't, and vice versa. Originally Posted By: Harehunter Think of it as matter of perspective. When indoors, spaces are enclosed and more confined. There is also a greater amount of detail that needs to be paid attention to. While traveling outdoors, the distances you can see are more vast. There is also greater distance between points of interest. The indoor/outdoor engine portrays this difference the best. The thing I missed in the A4-A6 engine is the ability to build multi-level structures. Everything is on two planes. Sometimes you ascend to the second plane above the main plane, and other times you descend to the second plane below it. However it is always just the second plane. What is really peculiar is to be on a 'lower' plane and be able to see nearby terrain that is actually on an 'upper' plane. Indeed, it's always jarring and immersion breaking to see something like that. Though the older Avernums were not immune to this either, such as the case with the royal palace from Avernum I where you assassinated Hawthorne being obviously on the same map as the escape exit back in Avernum. As for sprawling dungeons, what might be nice would be to see respawning dungeons. Not necessarily "Oh hey it completely respawned even though all you did was step outside for a brief moment to rest" but more along the lines of respawning after a set amount of time, preferably at least a few in-game days and not while you're still in there. I like not having a finite amount of XP in the game.