kkarski

I'm clueless. The suggestions I provided earlier didn't fix the problem. The worst thing is I have no idea what causes the slowdowns. Sometimes the dialogue/inventory window makes everything slow, sometimes not. Sometimes the combat slows down to a crawl when the PC is active, sometimes it goes on normally without a single lag. I turned the background sounds off, and there seems to be some improvement, though I'm not really sure if it's not my imagination. For those of you who insist that GMA is too weak to handle G5 graphics - it isn't Trust me. I think the problem lies in poor handling of the OpenGL architecture via the Intel driver. Another thing that wasn't posted yet and that may be helpful to Jeff - when I open inventory or dialogue starts, there is a brief flash in the background and several strange shapes appear as if, dunno, opening a window would reset the rendering. It is related to the GMA, as there is no such thing on my mac mini with an old Radeon inside.

Two things that helped on my computer (I've got GMA too). Check it out and post if it helped: 1. Go into your graphics properties, there's something like "3W settings", at least in my language version. There're OpenGL settings there, set the "Driver Memory Footprint" to "high" 2. Set the color depth in G5 settings to the color depth of your system, if you use 32 bit set it to "Always use 32bit". Hope it helps, it didn't kill the lag completely but now it lags only for a second or so when the effects kick in or when the dialogue starts, probably when buffering. Don't turn off the effects, it doesn't increase the performance.

As I have said before, the Trakovites don't present any solution to the situation. The world of Geneforge is completely dependent on shaping, starting from farming and simple labour, ending on more elaborate tasks such as medicine, tool making etc. And just as today's world would collapse without electricity, the Geneforge world would completely collapse without Shaping to sustain it. Trakovites just give a call for change, but aren't saying what are they going to do if they succeed. How will they keep order, how will they switch the economy to a completely human-labour based one, and how will they achieve it all and stop poverty and famine from spreading. The shaper council seems to me as the best option, simply because they're the less destructive one.

Jeff would make the greatest gag of all times by forcing the players to get through one of the fabulous strategy games that once haunted this website before enabling them to do battle with Dorikas and win A5

1. If looking for a plausible "In game" explanation of the differences in PC v NPC magic, some have been already posted up there. As Student of Trinity wrote, there is a matter of XP. PC's gain magical skills through killing monsters. It's not years of study - one explanation could be, that mages and priests in your party are using "magic for dummies" - they don't understand magic itself too well, they are just using certain ready-to-use procedures they were taught. A good analogy explaining this would be, for example, programming. One might run C++ and write something using procedures found on the net, copying and mixing them to get the efect he needs, but he couldn't write something out of the box since he hasn't studied programming and had just taken a big shortcut without bothering to understand the real thing. Ergo your mage can cast a predesigned spray acid spell that someone taught him, but he can't create a generic bolt of venom or create any magical effects aside from those that he copied. 2. I think that the real problem is just AI scripting. One, NPC's don't seem to have spell points, which is understandable, considering the fact that Jeff would have to write a script that would manage them efficiently. Second, area of effect spells would also require a script so that NPC's would make a choice between area-of-effect spell and a single target spell based on the PC's location, in case of casting a AOE spell it would need to choose the best place to cast it on, a place where a maximum number of PC's sticks in the area. It may or may not be a problem, depending on how the combat system is written. Anyway, Jeff seems to have chosen a workaround - aura spells (or using D&D jargon, spell-like ability), which simplify things. (Also it needs to be mentioned that allowing NPC's to cast AOE spells would make the game a bit tedious and in need of urgent rebalancing, as the party always marches in a column, starts the combat in a column and would be prone to repeated AOE attacks unless quickly dispersed - and dispersing isn't always an option. It wouldn't kill you outright, but it'd put you in a tactical disadvantage.)

Buy a mac and use bootcamp for any windows software you need to use. Among other advantages (macs are much more reliable, better for graphics and well, just nice) you'll get to play new SW games faster ;> What's the point of having a PC today if you can run both OS X and Windows on a mac? It is a fact that PC's are cheaper, but macs are a better long-term investment. Couple of years ago, I bought myself a PPC mac mini, and my friend bought a Athlon. I'm using the mini today, with no problems at all, the only downside is that I won't be able to run graphic-intensive games like Doom 3 (and seriously, I don't give a damn about it ). My friend's Athlon on the other hand had broken down about three times during this period. He had to purchase a new motherboard, a graphics card and a new hard drive. He spent more money than I did overall, and he's constantly frustrated because something doesn't want to work, or he's experiencing strange and critical errors of all sorts. Sorry for the OT, this post may be deleted if it'll be deemed necessary to do so.

Quote: Originally written by Ephesos: Okay, well it's not quite as general as Haste & blessings, but I've always found that Slow is really underrated. And Bind Foe is insane above level 1, so get that as quickly as possible. Also, it helps to watch which traits you give your characters... some of them are really pretty useless. Or if you're finding that you just need more xp, you could try giving your characters some negative traits. Hm, you know, I've never used slow before A5. Nor did I use bind foe. I'll try that, thanks. And about the traits, I usually give the elite warrior to my slith, and the wizard gets a natural mage and brittle bones, so that he gets more experience and can pump up intelligence and mage spells to get more spell points. I dinnae what to give to the Nephil and the priest, any advice?

Recently I've decided to replay A2, this time on hard difficulty. I found the game to be much harder and much more tactical, but maybe even a little too hard. I've finished A3 on hard without major problems, A4 too (almost, stopped playing after going into Spire fortress), but A2 seems much more difficult than these two. What I'd like to know is, what are your tips for a hard A2 party? I prefer to play with a Slith pole fighter/tank, nephil melee/archer/rogue and two human dedicated spellcasters. PS. I'm a longtime Spidweb games player (and a somewhat intelligent person as well), so tips like "Use haste and bless spells" etc are not necessary

I've finished the demo section of A5, and I'm enormously impressed. Avernum 4 was a bit disappointing for me. I never got to finishing it; I've tried two times, and in both cases I gave up after going into the Abyss. The plot was too thin, the fights were, in most cases, just plain tedious. Avernum was shrinked to suit the new engine better, and it just wasn't right - when playing A2 I always had the feeling that the cities are bustling with activity, and in A4 they felt strangely small and empty. There were many more things that i didn't like in A4, but... After playing through A5 demo I have a feeling that all the wrongs have been fixed. The story seems brilliant and it immersed me in no time. You travel through unknown parts of Avernum so the aforementioned old-new city problem ceased to exist. The job board quests are a lot more interesting and far less tedious. Jeff also made A5 full of choices. I loved that, for instance, you could choose to kill Dirty Dan (and possibly face consequences of killing an Avernite, i don't know) or let him go. That you could choose to give tip on the ratlord's land to either the man in pub or to Mother Alice. That you can constrain yourself when talking with Saulny or give out your anger. And, that's my favorite, that Dinicio pays you to talk with the giant and use peaceful means, but if you choose to kill him you discover that he has an unpleasant secret. That made the game less black and white, you have to make some decisions, albeit it's not so plain as in Geneforge series (of which I'm not a big fan). The battles are more tactical. Enemy attacks aren't lethal, but the important ones have a lot HP and can be nasty. You have to watch your step. The battle disciplines are an excellent addition and make combat more interesting. I experiment a lot with them - a simple but efficient strategy, for example, is to use Shield Breaker with your archer and then have your fighter stomp on the enemy with a well-aimed blow. Even better if he's blessed and hasted. Then you can add a smite or firebolt from your spellcasters to multiply the pain.I played the demo at normal, but I think that after registering I'll start again with a hard party. And about the core improvements, the return of elevations is wonderful, as is the return of keyboard targetting. More animations and character models made the game more lively, and the new sounds give a pleasant break from the old ones (some of which so old that I remembered them from Exile times). The game gave me as much thrill as A2 and A3, and i didn't expect this, so Jeff- thank you

Any new details about delays/release date of Avernum 5 that beta testers are allowed to share with the public?

Well, Jagged Alliance is a classic and has all the gameplay elements that you've mentioned. No, there is no mac version, but if you have bootcamp or any software to emulate a PC with, you can easily run them on emulated Winblows. I think it's worth the hassle. I've no idea if there is a demo. If you're interested in trying it out, I'd suggest starting with Jagged Alliance 2, as the first part has DOS graphics that are a bit too much for a modern gamer to take.

Quote: Originally written by The Crimson Coyote: What ever.... Well, my earlier idea (shock points etc) was for a stand alone game idea based off of a engine similar to BoA. only problem is I cant program... I have this idea you see. I think its a great idea, and although its not the fantasy stuff that you are all familiar with, it would make a good Multiplayer or mini game. Its an Armed Defenders Tactical Combat Simulation game with a few RPG elements. Its based more around the Devastation of gun fire, and the use of cover and what ever one can use to prevent there Team from getting slaughtered as they try to under go missions. One thing is, the game is played entirely in a combat mode system similar to Avernum's combat system. The game is more oriented on sneaking up on your foe and cutting his throat or using flash bombs on a room to knock everyone out. Rather than the system of Creating characters, I have this idea, you hire randomly created and skilled characters. as you play though the game, you loose people so you have to replace them (no Load save stuff) If you loose all your men, you have to hire a new team. I really think some one should try to create the game, even as a Freeware game. Ever played Jagged Alliance?

Quote: Someone offered you good money to open this pot and see what it inside. Might not be smart. Oil!

What makes Trakovite viewpoint flawed is lack of realism. They are idealists, presenting a philosophy that answers some questions of ethical nature, but they don't have a valid theory as how the world economics could be upkept in shape without shaping. Remember, in the Geneforge world shaping influences almost every aspect of life. The plant growth is aided with shaping, the tools are shaped, serviles were shaped strong so that they could do muscle-intensive jobs much more efficiently than humans. The Trakovites don't mention how would they see the world running without shaping. They only call it evil, period. As for the Shapers and the Rebellion, in both groups you can find different members, some compassionate, some very narrowminded, some with liberal views and some very conservative. But still, when looking at the top of these two organisations, whatever they say it is a simple struggle for power. The shapers want to keep their rule, the drakons want to replace them. You may think that the creations would be better off under the rule of the drakons, but it is very possible that humans would be used as a sort of slave race instead of serviles. And the drama would be the same, only with different actors. I would find it more feasible for me to join the Shapers, even just because that I don't believe in Machiavellan "The purpose makes every tool correct" that the non-human Rebellion puts into practice. Addon: I just thought of something funny. Imagine that the Rebellion is victorious, and the humans are completely annihilated as a result. You have a world ran by creations only, and because their creators ceased to exist, they stop being creations. Couple of hundreds years later, a member of the Drakon Council seeking to gain more power, in the secrecy of his laboratories started to create... Humans. Seeing how they are intelligent and useful, he started to make lots of them. Everyone starts to make lots of humans. Then the renegade Drakon goes to Sucia Island and takes his humans with him to work with no interference from the Council. Much later a young drakon-apprentice is sent on a living craft to investigate the island, and there you have it - Jeff could make another four games based on that, and it would create a loop of sorts, so that he could make hundreds of Geneforge sequels being obliged only to make some cosmetical changes (logo, about box etc.)

Now that really is... interesting ;> I haven't noticed that resemblance. I just hope that in the game Dorikas won't be hiding in a bunker, somewhere hidden in Avernum. And that the mission of the player won't be, among others, to find evidence of magic of mass destruction that Dorikas is said to have at his disposal.

The problem is probably the fact that you usually use a higher resolution than the game uses. You could try changing the resolution manually to 1024x768 before running the game. Maybe Vista doesn't properly execute the instructions from the application to do it by itself. You could mention it in the tech support forum. If it's a Vistawide bug, then perhaps Jeff would put a fix to that in the next patch (if he'll issue one)

The thing that can be easily introduced to almost every RPG and would make it a bit closer to what Synergy wants (and what I want too) would be to cut down profits gained from combat. I remember playing a usermade NWN module in which killing enemies gave you very little XP, and as such the module encouraged you to look for other options than combat - it was profitable for the player to try using stealth, or searching for another route, or using diplomacy if possible. It would also enlarge the "Role" in "RPG". When you have several possibilites and all of them give you the same benefits, the powergamer that always skulks inside won't tempt you, and you can try to make decisions like your character would - an evil fighter would make a roar and charge the enemies, a stealthy rogue would slip past them or assasinate their leader, a mage could make some sort of diversion with his illusions etc. etc.

@Synergy: While your ideas are interesting, they are nigh-on-impossible to implement in a cRPG. The lethality factor which, as you stated, would require careful planning of every step from a player, would turn out to be an irritating save-load nightmare. Making a game where it is too easy to die renders all the planning useless at some point - you can't take everything into consideration and just imagine how frustrated you would be if your great plan would turn green just because a giant hurled a rock at you, lethally, instead of charging you in melee as you predicted. Then you would reload and create another plan which would work, taking the rock-hurling giant into consideration this time. If it happens a couple of times during gameplay, OK. But if the world would have such a degree of realism, it would be a horribly common case. My point is, even with excellent planning, in a game like that there always will be a chance that you'll die, even if you have an excellent party pitting against two goblins, a stroke of bad luck and your PC lies dead. There are a couple of FPS shooters on the market (quite popular) in which you die from a single enemy shot. My friend plays it often on the net, and from what I've seen the majority of his gameplay is waiting for respawning instead of having fun shooting at other people. And you should've heard him swearing when he plays, my ears bleed at the very thought The same would apply to a realistic cRPG. Unless the game would have a suitably toned down difficulty, it would be only swearing, reloading and trying again. I don't see how the game could give the player information based on which he could sufficiently (having a good chance of winning without reloading) prepare for the battle. Besides, if it would, where's the realism? It's exactly the same - in Avernum, you don't die easily but still you can if you act recklessly. The same would happen in a game where you can die from one arrow shot but you always know where the archer will be. Like someone before said, what you want is a PnP RPG. There you have countless possibilities in which you can resolve a battle; you can make feints, try to outwit your enemy or deceive him, you can set up a successful ambush because there is nothing to limit you, just your imagination. In a cRPG on the other hand, there are many limits - the AI has it's limits, the game engine and system has it's limits. And with these limits in mind, requiring careful planning of every battle from a player would be like making him to play chess every time he faces enemies.

New Avernum 5 screenshot: Jeff really takes user requests into consideration.

I'd love to see a rage attack. When activated, your character would scream "This is Avernum!" and deliver a lethal kick in the chest to your enemy. Works only on enemies of Avernum. Preferably near a pit of sorts.

So like... This is probably going to be an OT, but what the hell Is there someone on these boards connected somehow with JV who could unveil a bit more precise release date for A5 than "we should have it done by november"? I'm waiting for it, and with each passing day I get more and more nervous and anxious ;>

Quote: Originally written by Igor: That was the thing that made in manageable rather than sanity-wrecking. If you couldn't find a secret room by the difference between the inside and outside volume of a building, you'd never find them. I think that it would be possible to make secret passages location somewhat discernable to an observant player; there could be some clues that would point you to casting faright or something. On the other hand, the hidden rooms' content would have to be nerfed so that the less observant(or dedicated) ones weren't too handicapped. Anyway, my posts in this topic are just a rant that the automap took the secrecy away from secret passages and room.

The secret door system from AV 1-3 had a one major flaw - looking at the automap you could usually guess with ease which wall to molest for hidden content.

On the human usefulness topic, I used humans through A2, A3 and A4 quite efficiently for pure caster characters. Why? Because the slith bonuses aren't helpful at all for a character that's standing in the rear. Nephil gymnastics and bows in A4 can be nice, sure, but I prefer to get more XP and SP to put in spell skills and intelligence.

I've recently gotten myself to play A4 again. I've reached Fort Draco and entered the haunted mines nearby, and... Something must have happened to my save game. Now the talk string got completely messed up, and when I'm talking with fe. Commander Anford i get only a blank window. On the other hand, talking with the miner you're supposed to bring seeds to gave me the line of Khrosth when you aproach him. Getting close to the talking crystal in the haunted mines gave me a conversation with Anford Is there something I can do to fix this, or it's lost and I've got to start again? Anyone had this problem before? PS. I suppose the A4 application and data itself are OK, because I tried starting a new game and the dialogs are correct.