Randomizer

Also Giant Intelligent Friendly Talking Spiders (GIFTs) have appeared in Jeff's old Dungeon and Dragons campaigns according to previous threads so they have appeared in all the Exile and Avernum games. Geneforge has been spared for now.

I think Jeff is making a request to see if there are any people out there that haven't applied that have what he wants as the two ends of Windows operating systems. He still wants to test different versions of Windows XP and different hardware configurations so you might have something that interests him. After all the first revision to the final version of Mac GF4 was for an operating system that wasn't among the beta testers.

Chapter 3 - The Fens Using the pass from Alwan, Cordy goes first up the Western Rise and into the Shaper Camp Gamma to pick up some quests. Shaper Darnell increases her spellcraft as well as teaching her strong daze, major heal and creating kyshakks. Now she can add two kyshakks, Shocker and Sparker, to her growing army. After looting and getting General Crowley to help the refugees it back south and on to the Eastern Rise to loot and kill bandits. Into the Golem's Fens and first to kill the vlish and then the mines to get to the golem. After that it's the clawbugs and rats before heading into Rebel Camp Aziraph. Talking to Mose about the refugees, Greta about her mission, and then Jared about the lab before going to kill the rats and loot the place. Back to the fens and into the workshop. Killing the rothgroth is easy with speed spores and blessing to help out the army. Then it's loot and leave. Jared cuts his prices and Captain Archibald provides training. The rotgroth's tooth makes part of a mental focus charm. Then I go back and make Eliza pay for not giving a reward. That agent cloak and the mindwarp seal from Pirik for killing her make up for her rudeness. This makes the party ready to go and clear Sandros Mines. With an army it's easy to clear the Imprisoned Soul and the Soul Twins using mass energize, but the old golem cost Cordy Rime the cryoa before he collapse. The Forgotten One has that nice Shaper's Trueweave to replace the spidersilk robe. Back to the Fens to rescue Cantor from the rogue creations of the Southwest Fens. Then back across it to reach Southern Grosch to find the eight lost serviles. Down into the Pit to destroy the warped creator and the packs of rogues patroling the area. Finally a meet with Khyryk and a return to claim her rewards. Now to go after Monarch, Picking up three servile techs, they go through the Northern Fens through the electrified fields into Northern Grosch. Down through Monarch's old home and deactivating all the traps. Finally Monarch is confronted and destroyed for making her go through all that mud. Then it's back to the top to kill all of his creations and loot. Greta gets Monarch's notes and gives her a mental focus charm. It's time to learn how to create a wingbolt from Shaper Darnell and get the missions to go north into Burwood from both sides. Level 35, health 82, essence 134/622, spell energy 1091, skill points 5 Strength 5, dexterity 3 (+3), intelligence 12 (+5), endurance 3 (-2) melee weapons 5, missle weapons 4, quick action 4, parry 4 (+1) battle magic 1, mental magic 5 (+2), blessing magic 4 (+4), spellcraft 6 (+2) fire shaping 7 (+1), battle shaping 2, magic shaping 7, healing craft 6 (+1) Equipment - shaper's trueweave, shaped shield, oozing blade, acid baton, nimble sandals, gloves of the hammer, agent cloak, lodestone greaves, mindwarp seal, guardian stone, girdle of genius, lucky charm, fyora fang charm, cryoa claw charm, clawbug charm, physician's charm, gruesome charm, and 2 mental focus charms. Alternate equipment - captain's boots and shiv, tinker's bauble and gloves, infiltrator's cloak and tunic, volcanic fetish, and shapers robe. On to Burwood.

The Soul twins were the only use I every really had for swarm crystals instead of using essence orbs. The old golem I have only fought as a single character using a servile with all the buffs and some extra endurance to have the 400+ health to survive at the end. I had to spine shield myself and after the second golem form I think all I cast was major heal, major healing pod, major heal. He made the Forgotten one look easy.

I could usually guess in Exile and Avernum where a hidden room would lie by looking at the automap. Geneforge 4 is the first game where I'm really wondering how much I missed in previous characters. I checked back with an early beta to see that the room was there all along and I walked past the control at least 8 times. This game has more obscured bodies, chests, piles of sacks, and levers than any other game Jeff has made, Almost every run through I pick up another one.

You might be able to do the rest of Sandros Mines after getting all the spells from the two camps in the Fens. The Shapers trueweave is a little better armor without the weight of the better armors. You'll probably need a kyshakk for the old golem to suck up damage but it should be doable.

He is a ghost tied to the area with no way to leave.

There is a zig-zag path through the stalagmites. Go east first and check each square until you find the path which includes going through a wall if I remember it correctly. If you keep trying you should figure it out in a few minutes.

Later on in the game you can buy fake Anama rings to explore that level safely. No need to use the character editor.

Did anyone else find the hidden room in the Boiling Mudpits? The control is a spore box behind a pillar in the northernmost passageway just east of the electrified field and north of the three mines, It opens a concealed door to a small room with a living tool, healing spores, and venom thorns. Edit - correct last item

It called the Cultist Safehouse in the zone east of Valeya Road and west of Quessa-Uss. He's just off the west entrance.

Just spent an hour replaying Shardfield from first entering the zone to get different drops. The fights with the artila and the thahds/fyoras after 7 tries gave once with an artila eye, once with a nice fur, once with an extra fyora scale, and the one I kept was a nice fur and a fyoraskin cloak. No thahd tunic in any of them which is what I wanted. Forgot this was with luck at 1.

Most people won't go through the effort to learn to control themselves including to stop using something that is making themselves worse. Consider all the people out there with drug habits, smoking, alcoholism, etc. who derive some benefit from doing something that is killing them. Considering that canister produce some sort of high as well as increased power it takes a strong will to stop, As to the idea of using canisters on children in hopes that it will give them time to control themselves, you might just raise a group of sociopaths that have no moral control in spite of training.

In one of the last betas before release, Jeff increased the effectiveness of charm, mass madness, etc. making the mental spells really useful. Before the change they rarely affected the most powerful creations.

Quote: Originally written by Facepalming Hecatonchire: A couple rounds of Essence Orbs will barely take out a single Fyora unless you also have at least a moderate amount of training in some form of magery, be it battle magic or general spellcraft. By the time you get essence orbs you do have several levels of battle magic and hopefully a few of spellcraft. I wonder how far you could get as an infiltrator without using more than the first six spells in each magic group and no creations. I know the last chapter will be difficult without elemental cloak to reduce the damage and charm to gain allies, but the attack spells should do. If you save madness and torrent gems for key fights you should get through most areas with some care.

Heustess is the last "survivor" of the opponents of the original Shapers. He represents what went wrong with the Shapers attempt to win the war.

The last drakon canister is in Northforge Warrens and can't be reached until after you test the Unbound. There isn't much left for ur-drakons to do unless you saved the expert area. At least cryodrayks can be gotten in chapter 3 so you can play with them for a while. If Jared has left, then you need to unlock the right door in Rebel Camp Aziraph to get to the canister.

They both provide fire resistance in their descriptions. I think it's a mistake that crept in the game. Edit - I checked through saved files and they do both provided the stated fire resistance. Agent's Shelter - Poryphra Ruins -3rd Reward from Shaper Grim - 14% armor, -10% chance to hit, +15% stun resistance, +1 spellcraft, +1 dexterity.

Actually until you talk to the drakons at the far end of the Inner Shaping Hall after doing Northforge Citadel you can go anywhere you want. So you can wander in there to stock up on essence pods and restoration spores if you need them. The game is a little flawed in that you can wander around after starting on the "disturbance" when you should have no spare time.

Buff yourself up in the last 2 chapters with elemental cloak, steel skin, and protection to reduce damage to bareable. With augmentation and essence armor to increase health you can get by with original endurance even lowered by the gruesome charm. The only problem is surviving when slowed. Going two rounds of damage can be deadly depending upon what you face. That's why I always cast essence shackles as soon as I can to even things up. Enough essence shackles on the Titan and he is a minor annoyance for damage.

Since the beta testing I have gone through Monarch three times on torment. A servile using mostly melee weapon skills has an easy time using missle attacks. If you go into melee with Monarch then you get slowed almost all the time and eventually lose even with essence shackles on Monarch. A servile with battle magic as the primary attack and backed up by two channelers can sweep through with no difficulty. Firebolt will do 150+ damage and take out most creations. Searer is about 300 damage and cuts him down. Shock trooper with a cryoa and two kyshakks can take him out with some difficulty if you get swarmed by summoned creations. Just watch your health. The real challenge is Matala as a single character. I had to create a drakon to go with my servile battle mage to take out the summoned rotgroths. I had too much trouble by myself doing enough damage to force Matala to go into the next area. Servile battle mage gives the stats going through my game.

You should see Alwan in the Poryphra Ruins if you go there before entering the Grayghost Mountains. However unless you have a strong pro-Shaper reputation you probably will be attacked on sight.

Actually a couple of rounds of essence orbs will take out most creations. Higher level spells will do the job faster, but if you know what you are doing a mage can destroy a creation army. Just because you haven't seen a mage teaching or using spells doesn't mean they aren't out there. The ones you deal with are usually shaper controlled and restricted in what they are allowed to teach without specific permission.

Shaping started on Sucia Island, but it was hit and usually miss in figuring out what to do. This had a dreadful result when it was used in war against the other inhabitants. After centuries it gradually improved to it's present form. GF1 has that Sucia Island was barred because the research Shapers had found a systematic way to shape and it extended to shaping themselves. Drayks were one of the creations that was given too much intelligence and became independent. The other was gazer which also has been barred and is being hunting down. Both creations used Sucia Island techniques to shape themselves resulting in drakons and eyebeasts. Now they are taking over.

As Delicious Vlish has pointed out from game playing, it's better to let you powerful opponent shape a creation and then charm it. Charm, dominate, and madness gems let you convert a creation army over to your side without having to waste essence making them. While it won't last, all you need is long enough to destroy the shaper. Magic when used correctly can negate a creation army. Just daze and strong daze will leave most just standing there.