Eugi

Quote: Comparisons are odious, you know. Baldur's Gate was made by a team of dozens of programmers, designers and artists. Spiderweb Software is basically one guy and his wife. On the one hand I agree. I'm glad that Geneforge (and other games that I'm looking forward to trying) exist and I do enjoy my time with them so far. On the other hand, allow me to flip that argument on you by reminding you of the events on the second island in GF3 where the Lankin et al whined that Diwaniya did not do enough to fulfill his part of the social contract despite the player seeing first hand how stretched Diwaniya really is. Same applies here. Regrettably there are some situations where your best is simply not enough. Quote: As a general rule, expecting game mechanics to make any kind of sense is expecting too much. I understand. I am not trying to imply that I expect hyper-realism from RPGs but it's frustrating to be banging your head against conventions not found in many other games and that seem to exist with no attempt at an explanation. Quote: Geneforge 4 at least improves the "pack mule" aspect somewhat, as you're no longer slowed down just by carrying a lot of items. You mean the PC is no longer "encumbered" by going over his weight limit in a fight? Overall, after re-reading what I wrote I'd say that I don't mind this decision per say. The other characters (Alwan/Greta) not having an inventory (in my opinion) detracts from their "humanity" but being so limited does force me to make strategic decisions in regards to my stats and how I travel. Quote: If you could get a full party without making creations, there wouldn't be much point to being a Shaper, now would there? You make an excellent point. Checking the screenshots for the other GF games I see a similar GUI design (character slots) in play. I do wish this was changed somewhat so as to not raise player's expectations of having a full eight-person team whether or not they play a shaper though Quote: Regarding a relationship between Greta and the PC, though, I should mention that Jeff Vogel doesn't believe in characterising the player character; his philosophy is that the PC belongs to the player, and the game designer doesn't have a right to say what kind of person the PC is. Ok, fair enough. In that case I am surprised that Jeff does not, at least, leave that option on the table. Meaning, having the NPC approach (or giving the PC the option to approach) the other party member and leaving the outcome of those interactions in the player's hands. I feel that as long as the player is given a choice (ala whether the PC wants to help the Shapers or the Rebels) Jeff does not break his principle. Quote: What's your point, exactly? You'd rather the game had fewer women? Why does it matter? The sad thing about the society we live in is that if 95% of the characters you met had been men, you probably wouldn't even have noticed the lack of women. My point had nothing to do with men and women as a sex per say. I am surprised and somewhat agitated by the fact that everywhere I turn there seem to be women to the point of abnormality. Unless the GF society (based, as I see it, in part, on the Middle Ages) is radically different from ours I see no logical explanation for so many female guards! To be more specific I am befuddled only by the female guard captains I speak with (not Latila or anyone else). Anyway, I'm nitpicking. If this trend persists I will simply go and edit the conversation scripts for the game Quote: Geneforge 3 is widely considered the worst in the series, so if it's the first GF game you've tried, you might just want to try another one instead. I am somewhat apprehensive when it comes to trying the older games in the series because if GF is so open ended (when it comes to player choices) having only two factions and has so little fan-base support (it seems) I have no idea what I'd do when faced with three or four competing factions in GF1 or GF2. Quote: With a player base only 1% the size of BG's, it's hardly surprising that there are fewer people around who can give you gameplay advice -- and besides, isn't one good walkthrough enough? Not when it s...uc..ksssss.... Zevis and Spent Salmon - Thank you for pointing out the problems with the Search function. It'll suck having to manually read the threads (since most of them have really lame titles like "NEED HELP PLZZ") but hopefully google will help me out

Even though Geneforge (Geneforge 3 that I'm playing now, to be specific) has some unique sides to it I can't help but compare it to Baulder's Gate when I play through it. As such I am baffled by some of the design choices made in GF3. Particularly frustrating (and, in my opinion, plain dumb) is the Flask/Spore issue. Namely, you can use Flasks only on yourselves and have to scrap together spores for your teammates. What gives? What's logically preventing me from using a flask on a teammate or giving it to them to drink? Oh yeah that's right... ...the fact that I'm the ONLY character with an inventory. While I understand the added strategy aspect this brings the game (especially since there are no bags you can use) I am severly upset that I act as a pack mule (sweating under pounds and pounds of burden) as my companions stroll through the countryside. An ugly picture that leaves me confused! On this topic the equipment can only be changed for the PC leaving your two human companions (I've yet to hear of any more that can join you as actual party emmbers) as nothing but glorified summons whose stats you can increase. Ok, I understand, I guess I can deal with that but... Edit: This reminds me - there are eight party slots and in most adventure games all these slots are filled by the end of the game with new allies/pets/summons. In GF, unless I'm playing a shaper, I can expect to solo most of the game (especially as an agent). This seems like an incredible waste to me! ...what's up with the lifeless dialogue of these characters? Alright, I understand they represent two sides of the "debate"/"moral quandary" of the game. That's cool. Some of Greta's speeches are actually quite well written. However the two characters focus so much on the "hate rebel"/"help rebel" aspect that they come across as flat! Two dimensional! (both literally and figuratively!!) This is quite a turn off when compared to the intricate relationship in Baulder's Gate. Greta is the worst since there's no relationship between her and the PC - no sexual tension no nothing! I swear, I will violate her with an Acid Baton if she keeps preaching to me! Finally I am confused and befuddled by the abundance of women in the game. 95% of the guards I've spoken to are identified as women. Strangely some are referred to as women in one dialogue and then as men in the next. Is this some crazy bout of politicall corectness on the creator's part or something else that I'm missing? Aynway, apologies for the rant, just wanted to get some things off my chest. GF is a great game that I hope to finish but it can be quite frustrating at times. (No dedicated shortcut list? No way to remap keys? WTF!?!?!?!?!) Hope GF4 is better as I fear some players may be turned off the series due to (what I feel are) some clumsy design decisions. Oh, and allow me to pre-empt any "don't like it don't play it"/"go back to Baulder's Gate then"/"how dare you criticise Geneforge" people. As I said, I like the game but find it frustrating flawed at times. PCG was spot on when they nailed GF as a diamond in the rough. Edit Edit: Final gripe - what's up with what feels like a total lack of community support for the game? I realize it's a smallc ommunity and Geneforge 3 is an "old" game but there's only one attempt at a walkthrough online and finding relevant threads on this forum is worse than looking for a needle in a haystack. Makes me wonder what the 1,000+ threads were all about

After scanning the FAQ and searching the forums I have found absolutely zero information about this. My problem is that I grabbed the Lankin's Canister as soon as I saw that. When I go to the rebel camp he gives me the quest to destroy the crystal (something I've already done at that point) and then immediatly pressures me into decideing how I want to handle the cainster. (Off topic I chose to break it. There's a funny bug in the game though. The first time you are asked you have the option of Escaping from the conversation (red checkmark button at the lower right). If you rapidly hit escape you can navigate out of Lankin's range so the entire dialouge dissapears. Of course when he confronts you again you can no longer do this.) Regardless of what I've tried, even when I'd give him the canister, he won't reward me for destroying the crystal or at least even taking the quest off my quest list. Suggestions (besides restarting and not grabbing the canister right away)? Thanks!

Macs are far from the answer. I assure you that you need not spend thousands of dollars on gawdy bauble with blinking lights. From what you describe you simply emptied out your Recycling Bin instead of Shuft+Deleting your items. If so, recovery should be pretty easy. Take a few minutes to search Google or download.com for a program (possibly like this one) that allows you to recover deleted files. Use said program to get your files back.