Clocknova

What's the deal with the Mac App Store version being a version ahead (1.0.2) and $5 cheaper? I feel cheated.

%15 faster healing is worthless. All characters heal in just seconds as soon as the battle is over. What a waste!

So I just dismiss one of the other two and they travel back to Avadon without me? In that case, maybe I'll see how it goes with a party of two.

I am about to do the first of the companion quests, and I was wondering if I should take a full compliment of three party members, or if I should take just one and leave a space for the other companion I am going to meet. If I have a space open, will she join with me in the field, or does it matter at all?

Avadon 1.0.1 no longer recognizes the F13-f19 keys on my keyboard. I had switched the quicksave and load keys to F13 and F14 because F3 and F4 did not work, but I actually like those functions better at 13 and 14. Going back to version 1.0.0 until this is fixed.

Of course, the other way to do it is the way that Fallout did; give a low intelligence player different, but equally entertaining dialogue options. In that game, NPCs actually treated you differently if you were dumb. With the lowest possible intelligence setting, all your character could do was basically grunt. It was still fun though. It actually made it worthwhile to play through the game as an idiot.

Originally Posted By: The Amaster Well so far I actually enjoy the preconstructed characters, mostly for the great party talk. I don't mind the auto-heal now that combat is an actual challenge. On the other hand, my biggest peeve doesn't seem likely to go away: not being able to discover other regions until they're given to you by quest-givers. Seems like it cuts down on spontaneous exploration a lot. I agree. That really irritates me too. It's a feature of may older RPGs that I've always detested. I just don't understand why I can't just walk out of a region and into a new one to explore. It's like nothing else exists unless someone tells me it does, and then new regions are simply spontaneously generated. But then, I generally prefer sandbox-style RPGs like Morrowind over more rigidly structured ones. In my opinion, if you have to limit the player's movement through the game, the way that Avernum 6 handled it is best; you know the area is there, but something (like a locked door or a guarded bridge) prevents you from getting there until you complete the right task. Still, total freeform is best, I think, but there are good compromises. Also, think about how the first two Fallout games handled it. They both had a large map dotted with explorable regions. However, not only did your travels across the larger map get presented to you as an actual animation moving across it, you could enter any area that you could reach if you managed to stumble across it on your own. If someone tells you about an area, it shows up on your map, but you didn't need them to; you could still find areas on your own. I don't yet know how this is going to affect my overall feeling about the game. I'll get back to you.

I found the lack of initial character building mildly disappointing, but that's mostly just my expectations from Avernum being carried over. I generally prefer stat-building to skill trees, and a choice of character portraits would have been nice, and I miss those hidden extra skills that you could find in Avernum. I'm sure I'll adapt to the new system, and Jeff will probably find ways to improve upon it in the sequels, of which there is sure to be many. I really like the idea of creating one starting character and selecting companions from a pool of NPCs. It gets the player into the game much faster, and it allows for party members to have distinct personalities, as well as giving opportunities for banter. That was my favorite thing about the Baldur's Gate series, and it's nice to see it here. I hope Jeff expands upon this in the next game. It would be nice to actually be able to initiate conversations with my party members whenever I want to. All complaining aside, though, I like the game. The level of polish is evident everywhere and I'm really enjoying it so far.

Originally Posted By: tehpineapple Originally Posted By: Clocknova Perhaps if the rate of heal were slowed a bit. It's ridiculously unrealistic. More unrealistic than talking dragons, and the most powerful person on the planet being a ? Actually, yes. The things that you mentioned are all true within the "world" of the game. They all have explanations and are accepted as part of the reality of Avadon. The auto healing, on the other hand, feels like an artificial game mechanic, and I just wish I had the option of toning it down or eliminating it. That's all. Although I must admit that after stumbling upon the caverns beneath the dragon's aerie while only level seven, the auto-heal got a lot of use. Still, I would enjoy the game more without it.

Perhaps if the rate of heal were slowed a bit. It's ridiculously unrealistic.

I guess that I just feel differently. I feel like the whole "planning for an expedition" stage of each trip outside of friendly territory, which I really like, is lost now. I'm sure the game will get harder, but right now I'm breezing through it on "hard." It used to be you had to be at least a little selective of the fights you picked. Not so much anymore.

I'm not saying it's a bad game. But Jeff's games are usually geared towards more "old-school" RPG players; how "they" tend to do it now shouldn't be much of a consideration. Still, you have a point, which is all the more reason to make such things optional. Here's hoping that Avadon 2 gives us the option to take it back old-school.

I am finding find the automatic full heal after combat feature rather annoying. It makes combat virtually meaningless, at least, so far as I've gotten into the game. I think some amount of partial healing is nice, but total? Again, this should be something, like the quest markers on the map, that should be scaled back or eliminated with increased difficulty levels. Or at least make it an optional feature. I read Jeff's blog on game difficulty, and I agree with his opinion in theory but, in practice, it takes a lot of the excitement out of the game. Does anyone know why he didn't make these things optional? It seems like the logical choice to have made. I sincerely hope that the overall lack of difficulty doesn't keep me from fully enjoying the game, as I so desperately want to like it but, so far, it is.

I agree with much of what you say. My only concern is that Jeff may have gone a bit too far in his simplification of the game system, making it way too easy for hard-core RPG players like myself. I'll reserve my judgment for after I've completed the game, though.

I for one absolutely loved the difficulty and complexity of Avernum 6. I really hope that Jeff can find a way to make this simplification more optional, as I think over-simplification will kill much of what I love about his games. Again, we'll see how I feel after a playthough.

That's disappointing. I hope that the rest of Avadon hasn't been dumbed down like this. It's a Spiderweb game, though, so I'll give it the benefit of the doubt. In my opinion, though, the quest markers should be made optional, or should not appear at higher difficulty levels.

I've noticed that Avadon has a rather unwelcome (by me, anyway) way of adding quest goals directly to the automap. Now, I can understand why such handholding might be viewed as a good thing by more casual gamers, but I find it entirely unnecessary, as I relish exploration and finding things on my own. Being shown where my targets are located is extremely irritating. Is there any way to disable this "feature?"

Yes, I just figured that out, although he needs to change the store page to reflect that. Unfortunately, the registration key they sent will not work. Has anyone had that problem yet? EDIT: Ahh. They just replied and corrected my code. Another Spiderweb RPG awaits in all its registered glory. No need to demo it; I know I'm going to love it.

Still cannot find my registration key. It's usually on the lower corner of the title screen, but I see nothing at the moment.

Refresh your browser window. You're drawing from your cache.

Is anyone having a problem finding the registration code? It's not located on the title screen as usual.

I thought that I won this thread?

If only there were a prize. . .

And now the game is online in the FTP server (ftp.spiderwebsoftware.com). I just downloaded it and am getting ready to play. Woo Hoo! As soon as Jeff makes it available in the on-line store I'll send him some money.

I didn't find that to be true at all. I had one character take the curse, but all of my characters were able to damage him, even after the cursed character took the cure. They were only able to damage him a small percentage of the time, but they eventually wore him down. It was a very easy fight, if a bit long.