Acky

Recently finished In the Company of Soldiers by Rick Atkinson. It follows the 101st Airborne division's first few months during the invasion of Iraq, specifically following General Petraeus and his staff. It's a very fascinating look at the logistical difficulties of launching a modern-era military movement of a huge scale and tactical choices that come with being in command during a war like Iraq, with all of the legitimacy issues analyzed in excellent objective detail. It takes a very armchair view of the war, so don't expect to get into the grittier parts of combat. Atkinson himself has an exceptional talent of military history as well, and it shows in his descriptions and observations of the entire operation. I would definitely recommend it to any military enthusiasts out there if you haven't picked it up already.

Hi SW. Long time no see.

In the last month I've been revisiting a lot of Spiderwebs games and I got around to picking up Avadon 2 about a week ago. In predicable fashion of me, I binged through the game in about 3 days.

Overal I did enjoy the game well enough. Of the two Avadon's I prefer The Black Fortress, but Avadon 2 was still a solid game on the whole. My biggest problem though is the writing...which is definitely a first for a SW game.

Did anyone else feel like Jeff over did the humor in this game? It's not one little piece, it's more like a hundred or more dialogs throughout the game that seemingly exhibit an attitude of self-depreciation to the games own plot and backstory, and even a bit to fantasy as a genre. It became over-saturating after a while. I'm not sure if Jeff was rushing on this one, but it feels like it.

I'm not saying I don't enjoy humor. I do, quite a bit. Jeff has always had humor and little jokes nestled in his games. But here it felt way too much. I can't think of any specific examples at the moment, but the whole time playing this game, I kept getting the feeling that the writing had regressed a bit. Anybody else feel like this at all, or am I just a horribly mean nitpicker?

I'm anticipating that the PC and your party will remain loyal to Redbeard. From my experience the option to rebel felt a bit tacked on, never really as fleshed out as it could have been. I remember reading Jeff plans on improving this. I'd also wager that we're going to get a new ending that takes from the events you can make from the first game,

And, the actual ending to Avadon is pretty much the same. The only significant difference is whether your in charge of Avadon or not; everything else is more or less reduced to how strong Avadon's enemies are. But other than that, there isn't a ton of variation. The Pact is still in turmoil no matter way, the Kellem and Holklanda are on the brink of war, the Farlanders are getting more aggressive. In retrospect, only the Kva seems to be significantly different depending on whether or not you end up killing Zepherine (Zephrine? Zephrene? The blue thing). From all indications Jeff is planning on expanding this, which is what I'm most excited about.

As for the PC/Party returning, I would wager so. I personally predict Jenall and possible Sevelin are going to defect, while Shima and Nathalie will decide to remain in Avadon. The PC..hard to say. I'm hoping he/she doesn't just disappear. Perhaps take him/her off screen, still working for Avadon, just not participating in the same missions as you. Hell, if Jeff goes that route, I'd really love it if the first PC ties back into the story, helping the second PC in more roundabout ways.

SOoooooooooooooooo happy there's going to be a simultaneous release. Good luck Jeff, you've only been getting better in your cranky old age.

Happy holidays and whatnot! Or just happy December 25th, whichever you prefer.

Has the "drayk ship" affair been cleared up or is it still a complete mystery, especially when every Shaper seems headstrong on killing every one of them save for living crafts?

I always assumed that the Drayk-Boats were heavily modified to the point of no longer retaining any intelligence, to the point where it's more like a big, floating Fyora.

I was also wandering to what stock servant minds belonged to. Is it reptiles? They seem mammalian, but that was never quite clear to me.

Reptiles is a good a guess as any. It seems like Reptiles have a high chance of developing intelligence in the Geneforge universe. Plus they totally look like frogs.

There are RPG's outside of Spiderweb?

 

Wait. There is LIFE outside of Spiderweb?

Since Geneforge remains my favorite game series by SW (although that might change to Avadon depending on how the next two games go), I would recommend starting there.

As mentioned before, A:EFTP is a remake of Avernum 1. Avernum 2 and 3 have not yet been recreated, so unless you want to start with an older system (thus buying an additional two games), I would suggest playing through EFTP first and just waiting until the next remakes get released.

A4-6 is very self-contained from the first trilogy, so you shouldn't worry about ruining your experience if you want to start with them. There will be a few spoilers, but the experience should be largely intact. Generally speaking however, most people consider the second Avernum trilogy to be inferior to the first.

Avadon and N:R are currently standalone games, with Avadon getting a sequel next year. Both are great games which are worth your attention.

Why isn't anyone suggesting Avadon? Is it like the step son or something?

Really? Completely missed that. Do you remember who mentions it by any chance?

Jeff said he plans to do a Geneforge remake at some point, at least the first one. I would not expect it until after the Avernum remakes are completed however.

To be fair, unless you edited the scripts, you can't have more than 3 classes with you on a mission. I'd rather have male/female graphics for the current classes then new classes altogether.

Just to reiterate, Jeff said the date for beta testing was around June. It may end up being mid-late spring too.

I thought that he would speed up since most of the work on the game engine was already done.

On a slightly related note, I wonder how Jeff's going to address the fact that there was only 4 portals in Avadon to begin with, but one would certainly think they would have at least a half dozen more to get to the other area's in Lynaeus. Complete speculation, but the bluebeard play Jeff got Avadon from had 7 portal-doors in Bluebeards castle; maybe he's planning on mirroring that.

I've never played them and I've heard mixed things, but I really want to try "Winter Voices" at some point. I know a lot of people hate them, but they just look so strange that I have to try them. I don't want to pay full price, though, in case they end up sucking so I've been waiting and hoping they will go on sale on steam this Christmas (here's a link if anyone has never heard of them):

I'd like to co-sign a Winter's Voices playthrough. I'm about half-way through the second episode and really enjoying it thusfar. The atmosphere of the game, particularly in the writing, is excellent. I would recommend trying the first episode at least, you may very well enjoy yourself.

If you want to experiment a little bit, I would also recommend trying out To The Moon. No combat to speak of, so it's also story-based. You're a pair of scientists entering a dying man's dreams, trying to relive his life. It gets extremely deep at points and is very immersing. The graphics are pretty eastern-inspired. It is linear though, not much exploration involved. Still, a great game for a weekend.

I actually emailed Jeff an inquiry about this about two weeks ago. He said that he wants to get beta-testing for Avadon 2 up by at least June, although the date is tenuous. No word on A2CS. I wouldn't expect that until well into 2014.

Hoge is a possibility, but wasn't he severely damaged physically due to canister use? His body was falling apart last time we saw him. Most likely he died in between G3 and G4 due to a body that couldn't handle the changes being done to him.

I personally like to think we're playing Shaper Monarch, simply because it adds a nice dimension to the story (aside from Litalia, we've never seen a pyscho-canister user come back to sanity, because even she could still function in G3 without too much trouble) without dictating a players pre-game actions/beliefs (something that Jeff never does in his games). It's never stated that Monarch didn't use a Geneforge, which I always assumed at the very least considering how crazed he had become. Of course, since I play a Warrior/Guardian, I don't really need to explain the possibility of species transfer. Maybe Monarch transferred his power to a servile he created, as an effort to prolong his life? I understand this doesn't do much to explain why Alwan, Litalia and Grete all claim to recognize him/her though..

I never got the impression there was supposed to be a connection to the Geneforge world with Avernum. Aside from what you mentioned, pretty much nothing is similar, especially with the way Magic works. I think it's just Jeff using inspired ideas from his other products rather then a direct callback.

But why do you want to change the HP/SP/ES modifiers instead of the values themselves ?

Does anyone with some scripting experience know how to change the HP/SP/ES modifiers for the classes, or if such a change is possible?

Actually, Obama won the electoral college because he had enough of a lead in the right places.

 

Which is the point of the original post, I think. Are you saying that neither the electoral college nor the popular vote should determine the outcome? If so, what do you suggest?

Actually I am in the camp of a straight forward, popular vote to determine the president. My problem is exactly your point; Obama shouldn't win a reelection because his votes are in the correct geographical place. People who voted for Romney in, say, California or New York had virtually no influence in the race. If one more person votes Dem then Rep in a swing state, the latter's vote becomes null and void because the entire states vote goes Dem.

Which is not to say having a popular vote would be perfect. I'm not idealistic. But I do believe it would be an improvement.

As more votes have been counted, Obama's lead in the popular vote has expanded. It's now up to about 3.5 million (http://elections.nyt...sults/president). I believe the one million number that was quoted on election night was from before they had counted most of the west coast votes. We may be three hours behind the east coast, but we still exist!

 

But your point about the silliness of the whole electoral college system still stands. It's possible to lose the popular vote and still win the election (e.g., Bush v Gore), which doesn't sit well with a lot of people. And Nate Silver's final simulations this year had over a 5% chance of Romney winning the popular vote but Obama winning the electoral vote. I believe this number was even higher right after the first debates, when Romney started moving up quickly in the polls.

My mistake, my number wasn't up to date.

I suppose to be fair, it is rare for a president to win the electoral college without the popular vote (Bush vs Gore, Adams vs Jackson, Hayes vs Tilden, and Harrison vs Cleaveland are the only times if I remember correctly). But all of these elections were pretty well publicized scandels for their time, which may be avoided in the future if dropped the College.

As a merely tangential comment about Ackrovan's signature: that's an old joke, and it's still partly funny, but it's also outdated by at least 30 years. London is a gastronomic destination these days. The idea that the Dutch are mechanically inept just seems bizarre. French poetry is great, though you might want to read it in French. And I think I'd rather be arrested in Germany than in the US, if I had to be arrested.

 

I'm not sure about the Swiss lovers, Irish managers, and Italian bankers. Those stereotypes might still be current.

Heh. Upon double checking my source I actually messed up my Eurocentric quote. I've corrected it.

Presumably due to the porting of A6 and A:EftP to the Ipad, it's safe to assume we aren't going to get any new Spiderweb game this year. Has anyone heard of any relatively recent news on Avadon 2 that didn't get listed on News? I find it very surprising we're so late in the year and we haven't recieved any sort of screenshots or more concrete information about the game.

I find that the older I get the more disillusioned to the current political system I become. Had I been able to vote, I would have gone for Johnson, mostly on the premise that even though I don't agree with some of its proposals, it would be at least comforting to know that he's remained consistent with his platform. As was stated earlier, 90% of politicians change their views depending on what their running for. That alone bothers me more than any amount of lobbying that could take place. In my opinion, with the current system we have in place, only a handful of the states can actually meaningfully impact the course government is on, which is extremely unfair. The popular vote showed a mere one million difference between Romney and Obama, but Obama took the college home because he had just enough of a lead, which is pretty ridiculous.

Personally, I've come to greatly prefer the new stat system of the last two games over the previous skill-point based builds. Being someone who never really plays RPGs for the builds and mechanics, I appreciate Jeff making it easier for folks like me to not mess up their character. Although the I personally read the Strategy guides for when new games come out, I don't really think its fair to assume that people are going to when first encountering a SW game.

Congrats Sylae! You'll do great.

If Jeff were to start putting together DLC packages post-release, then his games would take longer to come out. Jeff has a good schedule for putting out the next game as well, so I don't feel like we don't get new content soon enough. I could do without Jeff catching the DLC-craze.