Randomizer

There are only a few barriers in the early part of the game that need dispel barrier: Fort Dranlon prison and in the Honeycomb. There should be enough piercing crystals available to be found or bought to deal with all the others before the Tower Colony. There is one in a cache along the lizard shore west of the Nephil Lands. Repeated use of piercing crystals is supposed to bring down the stronger barriers, but I never tried it and you should always save the game before trying.

A Geneforge FAQ will take longer because unlike Avernum, there are different factions that each produce different results. You have to play the game through once for each faction and I think for servile and human to get all the major information. Even then there are item drops that depend upon randomness.

We already had much of this debate here in Shaper hypocrisy vs. Shaper tragedy as little while ago. Most of the members feel that the end result of intelligence is more important than the origin, I didn't like any of the factions. The shaper loyalist seems the best in that it isn't causing chaos and destruction to achieve an end. That the drakons and ur-drakons are behind the rebellion means that they are using the process to eliminate everyone else and that the liberation of serviles is a smokescreen to their real ends.

The geneforge was left behind because the creators thought that after a reasonable discussion their fellow shapers would continue the research. Even when the island was barred, they sneaked back to continue in secrecy and were buried there. The shapers who used the geneforge in the endings of GF1 all seem to lose control. The apprentice playing GF1 hasn't got enough training to control his changes. The other shapers seem to all have personality disorders that were magnified by using it. These maybe be part of the shaper's arrogance that is manifest in GF3 when the apprentice makes demands for free supplies, etc. There seems to be hints that most shapers are normally this way.

Talking about a thread's death just keeps it on life support. Oh, no I'm doing it.

I based my results on using a party of 4 with 1-2 luck per member and singletons with 1 to 4 luck. I found that at higher luck I got more bows dropped and other items. The game seems to use total party luck. I prefer to have a minimum of 1 luck since this seems to trigger getting certain results in the older games where you luck out and don't die.

It sounds more like a traditional FAQ is what was requested. With the game being revised between beta testing and release some of the info will be altered. A FAQ probably won't be out until 2 months after release if Avernum 4 was any indication so any info will be in this forum.

Considering how quickly the Sholai became addicted to cannisters it might take only a few before desire for more becomes important. Even trained shapers became addicted and felt just one more will have a calming effect (GF1 - Sealed Lab). There will always be someone who finds a way to circumvent the rules. Either by finding a way to fake sanity or to get cannisters illegally from the weakest link in the distribution chain.

Actually all you need to do is reach the Nephil Lands to see that monsters don't always drop treasure. Having luck go from 1 to about 5 greatly increases the drop treasure and gives you better items. For more on luck read: luck-1 and luck-2

From what I remember as long as you do the tests in order there is no problem entering them. If you miss a test, the next one will not let you enter and is supposed to give a map to the previous one (It's easy to accidentally hit something to cause the map to disappear). There are some interesting messages for failing the tests.

Summon shade is worth the cost since the shades can't be charmed and are immune to cold spells. Against Nodicuas I summoned over a dozen as a singleton (torment) during the fight since they kept the demon busy and slow down Nodicuas from bothering me until it was just the two of us. The mage high level spells no longer have a really powerful attack. Priest's divine retribution is way better than arcane blow. The arcane shield spell is great defensively and now priests no longer have divine warrior (I'm replaying A1 as a singleton and divine warrior allows me to mop up the monsters).

I liked the pylon field beyond Fort Remote because of all the money you make selling the crystals they leave behind. Since Jeff restricted the amount of money you could get between loot and rewards you need every coin unless you want to steal every NY (not yours) item. Archery is helpful for the non-spellcasters for a range attack. Missle weapon weigh too much to use except for special cases like Nodicuas. Archery means that the fighters can do something when fighting pylons and turrets.

I liked the pylon field beyond Fort Remote because of all the money you make selling the crystals they leave behind. Since Jeff restricted the amount of money you could get between loot and rewards you need every coin unless you want to steal every NY (not yours) item. Archery is helpful for the non-spellcasters for a range attack. Missle weapon weigh too much to use except for special cases like Nodicuas. Archery means that the fighters can do something when fighting pylons and turrets.

Once you have taken the cannister that Lankan wants from San Ru then you have 3 options. The first is give it to Lankan and you've helped the Rebels. Second is to smash it and he and the Rebels go hostile. The third is to turn it in on Dhonal Island to the purity officer to get a reward [ruby necklace according to GF3 FAQ] and remove it from inventory. If it's not in special items then you can go see Lankan. The three icy roamers always appear in the same spots near a fire pit: Methane Swamp, Swampy Shore, and Roamer Marsh. They appear usually at random times after you have visited the area once before so keep trying by popping in and out.

This is a bit more useful than the last spell poll. The Arcane mage spells are not as powerful as the Exile versions. Arcane shield is great but in A4 by the time you get it there isn't as much use as in the earlier games. I've never used the mage summon spells and Arcane Blow is too weak compared to the priest spell Divine Retribution. Mages need a strong high level attack spell like the Exile spell shockwave. Divine host is weaker than in the A4 than in the older games. You only get one instead of more spirits and the few times I tried it it was killed as fast as I summon it.

The idea behind cannisters and the geneforge was to be able to systematically improve life instead of the hit and usually miss method in use. This would prevent the disaster that destroyed the original inhabitants of Sucia Island. The problem was that the rebels are indiscriminately passing out improvements without any control on who gets them. In stable trained hands it wouldn't be too bad, but most of the recipients are disasters that now have the power to destroy more than themselves. ET before he was banned assumed that might would be a good enough method of determining who should get increased power without worrying about the mental instabilities that would occur. While more research is necessary, it must be restricted until a reliable method exists to prevent madness.

I think the Abyss pool is the only hidden one and I went through most of the game around Luck 7. I don't think there are any others and I looked at the maps a lot during the game.

There would have been some familiarity with sliths when they were slaughtering them during A2. I doubt that the Golddale Mine sliths were the only group to make it to the surface. Besides Empire policy is to kill non-humans. A party with sliths will get attacked near Delis before you kill the Alien Slime if you encounter Empire patrols.

At worst to help reduce damage use items that reduce cold damage to help get through the area. Still just heal regularly with healing pods/spores to keep from dropping to zero.

A3 is on the surface where the Empire has tried to obliterate the Sliths. A4 has one major concentration "underground" near the Castle that is hostile. Basically between the Empire killing them in A2 and the Second Slith War there shouldn't be too many.

Try reloading GF3 to see if you have a corrupt file. I've had a few cases where the graphics files for the characters did funny things when there was an overlap as they moved around.

Archery is never is strong as the best melee weapons. The advantage of range attacks is to hit and weaken monsters before they close. Near the middle of the game there is the bow of decay with an acid attack. A few shots is as good as acid spray. There are times to use it and sharpshooter ups the damage. It's also useful when you can use a human or summoned shield to block attacks and shoot over at the enemy, especially pylons and turrets.

Archery is never is strong as the best melee weapons. The advantage of range attacks is to hit and weaken monsters before they close. Near the middle of the game there is the bow of decay with an acid attack. A few shots is as good as acid spray. There are times to use it and sharpshooter ups the damage. It's also useful when you can use a human or summoned shield to block attacks and shoot over at the enemy, especially pylons and turrets.

It's too late for GF4, but how about one that is bad at everything. Having high costs for fighting, magic, and shaping for those people who complain that the game is still too easy on torment. The slow curve for advancement would be a change.

Actually these days its more likely to have bored, skinny (anorexic) elite. Think Paris Hilton and the other trust fund idiots. Still ET had trouble between all R&D and basic R&D which is only a part. Since Bell Labs (Lucent soon to be Alcatel) decided to go from basic research to applied research there aren't many places in industry that do research without the emphais on the bottom line. Gone are the days where Xerox's PARC would develope ideas that other companies would use like the graphical interface (Apple), Ethernet connection, etc.