Randomizer

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.

You don't get more XP for the higher level. The monster's level for calculating XP remains the same, but the difficulty in killing it increases and its ability to hit you increases.

When you try for augmented creations, you should have a good chance of getting it to turn rogue like in GF1 with the Sholai researcher killed by the beta. Of course save/reload would eliminate any bad result so Jeff would need to make it hard to get to the point where you learn enough to try augmentation of creations,

The earlier engines were alot better in getting the monsters out of there when the going got tough. In A4 the monsters ran up to get whacked and only ran away when they were almost dead. My favorite was to acid spray a monster so it ran up and died at my feet. It saved time in getting their treasure. In A1, the monsters used to pick up items that appeared when another monster died and if useful they used it. So there would be in the Nephilim castle west of Formello a goblin would pick up a healing potion for it action and use it in the next round if you didn't kill it.

Quote: Is that true? Does that mean my party wil get more XP, because they fight higher level monsters? It means that you will have to work harder to stay the same as an easier level. It's supposed to be a challenge,

I found summon shade useful only as a singleton. There were a few encounters where I needed a friend like Nodicuas, the dragon under Reptile Island, and to block the chitrachs from coming out near Fort Remote (if I had kept summoning shades I might have kept that lieutenant alive). When you have a full party then they aren't as helpful. Divine host spell is weaken from the earlier games where you got a group of shades at one time. Shades are nice because they can't be charmed or take cold damage. The mage summons don't give you the control over what will come.

I can't remember if slow works on that shade, but a hasted party can outrun it. Just have one priest type around to heal and destroy the creatures that form when you hit the shade. It's not that hard to attack and retreat if you're buffed to start. I got out with almost no injuries. You can use ranged attacks without any problems.

The idea is that agents are the invisible assassins and the enforcers of the Shapers. Shanti in GF2 is there to intimidate the shaper and guardian as well as get information. They don't need anybody else to do their job. First thing the shaper did in GF1 was create an army to protect him and mine the route in to his area. In GF2 there are all those turrets and guardians as bodyguards. Even in GF1 there was a mention that the shaper going to investigate the ruined temple area of the Spirit City needed guardians to protect him. Agents are sent in to enforce the Shaper Council's decisions. There may not be many of them because of the difficulties in training them (they die in a strong wind). Guardians are the bodyguards and army. Shapers create serviles and other creatures so they can't go anywhere without their creations.

Now that Grah-Hoth has been released the two barriers that blocked access to his lands are removed. You fight some demons and wander north. There is a demon east of the Great Cave and north of the lava fields in the next cave that can help. There are some angels and demons that give advice. You don't need move mountains or a hammer in Exile 1 to get to him in his fortress. Save often because it's easy to die. Demonslayer helps a little but I preferred the buzzsaw effect of 2 weapons over the extra damage versus demons.

I've seen it at least twice before and I don't usually read this forum.

I went all the way back to the Castle to ask King Micah. Guess what? I got no reply. You're in for a fight so get ready.

There is a limit on the number of items you can place in an area before the game starts removing them. It helps to separate the piles and makes it quicker to find items.

Use an area effect spell to determine which one. You will have this problem with a twist in the Spire Fortress,

Everything scales downward with the highest party member's level. Monsters and trap disarms provide so little experience that quest rewards are the most noticeable. At least you don't see the Geneforge message, "You are too high a level to get experience" every monster kill.

Everything scales downward with the highest party member's level. Monsters and trap disarms provide so little experience that quest rewards are the most noticeable. At least you don't see the Geneforge message, "You are too high a level to get experience" every monster kill.

Also it's easier to do it in Blosk rather than Dharmon. Make sure you're hasted so you can just flee east or west through a deserted area to get away after you get the sample. There will be a message when the Shade returns to the wasted area. There is no sense risking the loss of an NPC that might provide a quest/reward later in the game.

You can do the 3 tests without the Ritual of Welcoming, but you will find that Vahnatai outside of Avit speak gibberish.

It might just be my playing style, but I always wind up with extra crystals and other items at the end. While spells are technically unlimited, if you use wands and crystals as backups for above your level monsters and extra attacks there are enough. I still think the base number of dice damage should be 1 or 2 lower to make them competitive with spells. You can increase missle weapon almost as fast as agents increase battle magic so there is little difference between them. Without dexterity in place of spellcraft the damage is almost the same.

If Sleater has already "blessed" you so you can more easily attack undead, then it doesn't make much difference. You did get his experience reward for telling him that the way was clear? There are some people that you shouldn't kill until you are sure that you got everything from them. There was an earlier thread where the portal mage below Fort Avernum was killed so the endgame couldn't be reached. Most NPCs are killable with no real consequences.

While tweaking the item weights gets rid of an annoyance, it eliminates the main restriction on agents and shapers. They usually can't afford to carry much because they don't increase strength like a guardian. If you reduce too much weight even for minor items then you pile up junk that you wouldn't collect until after an area is cleared and would probably carry it around. I thought that baton damage should be reduced to keep it in line with spell damage reductions. Batons and crystals with missle weapon skill are almost as deadly as spells, but easier to obtain.

Playing on torment means you have to pay more attention to the game. There is less room for making mistakes. On the lower levels you can get sloppy and do things that won't work on torment mode. Besides finals are a great excuse to relax with a game to escape the pressure.

There are certainn spells that don't really improve past the first level. Augmentation, shield and armor spells increase duration with level, but you usually go back to town before they wear off.