Randomizer

I killed everyone in the Refuge, and found you need to augment the party if you don't want anyone to die when they go hostile. Maybe attacking first instead of triggering them by going into a locked room will work. There is an iron sword in a back room and some pods. Nothing special unless you are running a guardian. I guess I came out ahead on money for burning 2 essence pods.

Today's Wall Street Journal has a review of Parallels Desktop. The Windows emulator currently doesn't support 3D graphics, but it should be upgraded in the next version for gamers. Parallels supports Windows going back to version 3.1, Linux, and OS/2.

Following my dissertation advisor's advice if you want people to reply put out a statement that people will want to corrrect. I'm wondering how far into the game people have run shapers before making their first creation? Running a bullseye shaper allows you to delay until you are able to make a higher level creation or have several levels in a shaping skill. In GF2 I can get through 8 sections before I need a creation. The Crags and Western Drypeak Mines are too hard for a lone shaper without considerable retreating using speed pods to avoid getting swarmed. I'm trying something similar in GF3 since Alwan and Greta substitute for creations. I'm holding out until after at least the Testing Grounds where I can get an artila and concentrate my shaping skills in the magic area. This way by the time I can get vlish, I will be able to create ones with about 10 levels in magic shaping. Is it better to wait until you can't get at least one level of shaping for each level of advancement?

Sometimes it's easier to kill a non-hostile NPC by going through the dialog options and then finish and go into attack mode to get first strike. Some dialog options where you say you will kill it cause you to get killed when they strike first. I didn't think about killing that mage. I did kill them in the Refuge after watching Greta die when I was exploring the back rooms. I found augmenting the party helps you survive long enough.

In GF1 there are a few bodies left over from the evacuation/return period. The first one is found in the second area. Agents are picked for their abilities to function on their own and think out a solution. Guardians are brawn and not much brains, since they have lower starting intelligence and like Alwan prefer to take orders. Shapers are the researchers and go in groups of creations and guardian bodyguards. Agents can get by without the cannisters since they mostly just give them power a little earlier. The searer spell in GF3 is the first one. An extra die of damage doesn't make a difference. In GF2 the cannisters are a little more helpful like strength and vlish.

If you are in a hurry then you can always buy it in Silvar. There are more than enough in the Eastern Gallery if you haven't sold them. It will take time to gather them otherwise.

The test northwest of Cotra is in the chitrach tunnels. The easiest access is from the building east of Fort Dranlon. In the tunnels go north into the next map section. Follow the tunnel until it splits into 6 directions. You are coming from the southeast. East leads to arachnea. Northeast eventually leads to the 3rd test. Southwest goes to the south map section. The other two ways go to spider types.

For torment I still prefer agent for the multiple attacks of essence orbs. I did try guardian for the first dozen zones and could see playing it out as a missle guardian. Maybe when I finish GF3.

Intelligence is useful for range attacking creatures like fyora, artila, and vlish to increase the number of times they can use their attacks. When hasted they can run out during long combats.

I had trouble with the rune not working only after I killed Dorikas and was going back to finish looting. This only happened once so I'm not sure what triggered it. I recommend saving the game before entering the ruins and using another save file as you go through it.

I know a couple of pylons aren't obvious, so some people might like a list.

You could always get the Windows versions and run them in the Windows mode. Although it might be a waste of money just to have them all on one machine.

A fist works as a weapon. I found out by accident when I sold all my weapons on my spellcaster intending to get some from the goblins. Blademaster increases the damage. However the amount never gets that high that you could use a fist through out the game. I think I got around 22 at blademaster 12 with blessing vs. Crain. Goblins were about 8 damage. Mad monks aren't the only ones that can give a fiesty slap of pain.

Jeff could tweak the AI for torment to keep targeting a character instead of retargetting each round on the last one that damaged. It would end the strategy of two widely spaced characters alternating attacks to keep monsters running back and forth. Also have monsters not run past a character to get at another. Although that prevents them from wasting attacks on a shield character.

I'm partial to vlish and the way the wave their tentacles when attacking. Do they raise a middle one? It depends on the starting point when you count.

Alwan's got the basic problem of all melee guardians in that he wastes AP getting up to attack. With daze to stun a group, then he can stroll up to the monsters and pick them off one at a time. Pumping strength and some endurance makes him useable early on in the game, but he sucks up damage worse than a sponge with water.

Pyroroamers are probably the easiest thing to kill in the game since one shot of anything is enough, Just stay a few paces back from the closest.

If you are going the battle shaping route, then thahds are cheaper and you won't feel as bad about them dying. Vlish are great for the stun and can replace beginning artila.

Guardians vs. Vlishs - try getting into melee range when the range attack is so stunning (bad pun intended)

Once an area is hostile, they do stupid things like attack you. Avernum is even worse than Geneforge in how they go after you.

Start with 8 skill points to buy 2 levels of missle weapons, raise mechanics to 6 and leadership to 2 at the start. Kill everything that you can in the first 2 map sections (rats add up). Remember to switch from dagger to javelins before you see the first fyora. Open every locked door that requires only 1 living tool. It's possible to get to 2000 experience before leaving the 2nd section if you are lucky and kill all the rats before Shanti gets bored and nails them and rush to the main encounter. When you get to the Dry Peaks Warren go to the southwest corner to get the venom baton (you can fight almost anything). This should get you up to level 3 before the fighting gets hard. Then get the iron bars for experience. If you want to wait on creations, then you need 2 levels more of quick action from your early levels. At this point you can raise your leadership to 5 and do the options for experience for another level. Talking to serviles, guards, etc. Then you can decide whether to go with a fyora or artila. Either one will help. If you are careful you can do the Dry Peaks Fields and the east part of the mines without help from a creation. If you can do that then the Infested Forest (get the Vat Thrad) and Sharon's Grove are possible. I've done all of them before creating anything and it makes it easier to start with a cyora or a decent artila. Speed pods, icy crystals and daze help to even thing up. The hard part is slipping through the Salt Marsh without getting swarmed by clawbugs and roamers. Once you can do that it's easy to reach Medab and later Magus Complex to get Vlish.

There's the Castle's treasury if you want to see the king's stuff. Jeff just put a high difficulty lock on the door so he didn't have to fill it in.

Everything I hate about A4 came from Geneforge except Rentar-Ihnro. Hopefully A5 will go back to a more Avernum style and just keep the combat engine and only a few of the graphics. There were too many Geneforge items replacing what were good Avernum types just to save time in getting the game ready.

After reading some of the threads on characters I was playing with missle based types. Quote: PC Missile attacks: Bonus = Dexterity + Missile Weapons + Level of item used I thought in GF2 that I could make a shaper where I started with 2 extra levels in dexterity (8 skill points) instead of 2 extra levels of missle weapons and get the same result. After 3 tries I found that the attack bonus from dexterity was so much less than missle weapons that I missed about 20% of the time, The damage bonus only occurs with missle weapons. Killing fyoras in the tutorial section shouldn't have been so difficult. Each level of missle weapons adds a die of damage. Still for the beginning part of the game, having missle weapon skill at 4 and later raised benefits all classes. Using a baton is better at the start unless you are an agent. Before the end of the demo, an agent has raised battle magic and spellcraft so he has a higher average damage. Once an agent gets a multiple attack spell like essence orbs the advantage is definite. Shapers can't get spells raised as easily so missle weapons is better because batons do 6 dice of damage as a base so the skill point cost is as high to match spell damage.

Have a few saves going back to different areas. In GF2 the Magus Complex turned hostile just because I killed a few submission turrets in the Experimental Area next to it. If I hadn't had a saved file from before then I would have had to start over.