madrigan

NO. Keep the switches, or get rid of secret doors entirely. Or anything. But don't make me waste time bashing into every inch of empty wall on a map. That is not my idea of entertaining gameplay. If you have to create a door finding spell, that means the doors are too hard to find. NO NO NO NO NO NO NO Absolutely not. There are things from the older games that I don't like -- such as indoors/outdoors -- that I can nonetheless appreciate the arguments for. But having to creep along walls to find secret doors? No way. I want more entertainment value per minute than that.

The idea that I might be able to play a new release of Avernum IV when I am fifty, sixty, and seventy years old makes me happy.

Originally Posted By: Randomizer Some of those curses can last a lot longer than you expect. I'm guessing the undead slowed you several times. The undead were brutal. This is probably the 3rd or 4th non-cheat A6 game I've played, and I don't remember ever having this much trouble. I only got through the map because my main melee guy reached the speed burst battle discipline. I was able to have him run right past all the enemies and break the crystals before the whole party was cursed, nearly dead, and running around terrified.

Originally Posted By: HOUSE of S Two thoughts. 1) For the slowing, what traits (advantages/disadvantages) does that character have? 2) For the tab issue, try disconnecting and reconnecting your keyboard cord. Don't tell me that's dumb, just try it: this really fixes a lot of mac input issues. Well, on my next reload, the tab thing went away. And, after I had walked from Nociduas's pad back to Fort Dranlon, I noticed the slow thing had gone away. To answer your question, he has Natural Mage and Deadeye. I am very curious as to what you had in mind here. I would not have told you that the keyboard cord thing was dumb. I bet that would have worked if the problem hadn't magically healed itself. Thanks everybody.

Originally Posted By: Earth Empires does he have heavy armors etc equipped and that way encumbered? That occurred to me. But he doesn't.

I am replaying A6, I'm in Nociduas's lair which you reach by chasing the bandit leader on the quest from Fort Dranlon. One of my characters has a "slow" symbol next to his portrait -- the one with the guy sort of falling over with spikes in his back -- and it won't go away. I tried walking out of the lair, back to the surface, walking around, it just stays there. I'm not certain if it's affecting play at all, but it's annoying. Furthermore, I just re-opened my game to verify the above, and the description text now appears as if I am pressing Tab, except that I'm not. It doesn't appear to be a keyboard issue. Are these two things related? This is on a Mac with version 1.0.3. Maybe I should download 1.1?

Originally Posted By: Rogue Walker I'm looking forward to the rest of the Avadon trilogy and Avernum Origins (if it ends up being made), but I feel this remake will be more than just retreading old grounds. If Avernum: Origins is ever made, I will buy it. But I would be much more interested in Avernum: After the Apocalypse, which would take place after the events of A6. Also, I am very excited about this remake. I never got much more than 1/50th of the way into A1, because I don't like the interface. But there will be new content in the remake anyway.

The new Avernum 1 looks freaking awesome. If I were not at work I would be jumping around the room in fanboy glee. As I have said on these forums a dozen times, I don't like the indoors/outdoors thing. But I admit, the outdoors graphics look great. With the improved graphics and interface it might not be as annoying. Maybe it won't be annoying at all! It looks like the character improvement system will be fun. And as a bad player and non-min/maxer, I am reassured by Jeff's statement that he will make it as difficult as possible to build a really terrible party. I am not clear on the discount Jeff mentioned. Is the discount for anyone who bought any Avernum game, or just people who bought the original Avernum 1? Yes, I realize the game was not called Avernum 1, and that World War I was not called World War I. And so on.

I understand why people like the old approach. Despite that, I like the new approach.

Originally Posted By: Kyronea There was something gained by eliminating the outdoors? For me there was. Personally I see no reason to prefer the indoors/outdoors arrangement. When you are driving on an interstate, and then drive into a city, does the scale of the world change? Do you suddenly become larger, or the buildings more detailed? No, none of that happens. You are at the same scale at all times. To me the outdoors-to-indoors transition feels ridiculous, as if I've stumbled into the city of Kandor. I don't like the outdoors interface at all, I feel like I am moving pins on a map instead of walking through the landscape. In this aspect I find A4 superior to A1-3 in every way. I never had a problem believing that the world was huge in any of A4-A6. It is the narrative and the flow of the plot that makes the world seem bigger. In A4 it took forever to get to the Great Cave. It is called the Great Cave, it is described as vast, it has the largest map (I think), and I played for dozens of hours to reach it. It seemed huge and it seemed very far away from Fort Monastery. It was similar in A5. Harkin's Landing seemed quite remote from New Harston because of what the characters had to do to get there. In A6 the Western Excavation feels like the corner of the world, because of the way that the path leads so indirectly to the entrance and because the dialogue emphasizes that you have reached a place that is far away both physically and psychologically from where you have already been. I know that people have practical and personal reasons to prefer the old approach, but I think the old approach was terrible. Jeff fixed this in A4-6 and unfortunately I think he is going to go backwards for this rewrite.

As a non-veteran whose first Spiderweb game was A4 and who finds A3 almost unplayable, I hope that Jeff eliminates the indoor/outdoors thing entirely in the new A1, even though I think I already read that he is not going to do that. The new rewrite should be judged on its own merits, and not based on how similar it is to any older game. I think Jeff is quite aware that some people think he should still be using the E1 engine for all his games, and that others think the A6 or the Avadon engine is ideal, and so on. I don't doubt that the design of the new game will be strongly influenced by his perception of what features will bring him the most purchases, and that will inevitably mean some kind of balance which guarantees that someone will totally hate it. FWIW I thought I would hate A5 because Jeff said it would be less open than A4, but I loved that game even though it was more linear. If the plot is compelling and the battles aren't too repetitive, and I can develop my characters more or less how I want, I am very likely to enjoy the new game as long as the controls don't annoy the hell out of me like those of A1-3.

It's a role-playing game. Play on the easiest difficulty and create whatever characters you want. In A4-6 you can make significant design errors and still finish the game if you do this.

When you change the timeline, do you work from notes you took while playing, or directly from the text files? ADDED LATER: There's a forum thread where it is generally agreed that the events of A6 begin in 880. I'm just curious what made you change your mind about that. I suppose I should put all this on the wiki page, but I don't know if anyone will see it.

That's too bad. Someone has been updating the timeline, though. It has the primary events of A5 and A6. A few entries have references to A5 or A6 also.

Not really sure where this post belongs. Is anyone still updating the Encyclopedia Ermariana? Does anyone plan to? I don't have the knowledge to do any big updates, but I could probably fill in a few details from A6.

That worked. Thanks.

Thanks. I haven't bothered with that option because I thought she'd say "Supplies? Ha! No one has any supplies, boy! It's war!" or whatever. I will walk over there and try it out.

I decided to try A6 again, and for some reason I am locked out of the barracks in the Castle. The job board is in there. Is that normal? I don't remember it happening the last three or four games. Should I just reinstall, or do I get access after I am promoted or something?

This is assuming that Redbeard is, in fact, one person. It's possible that the current Redbeard killed the original and stole his identity, which might account for some of the discrepancies. Anyway, he's obviously from the Empire, and learned the ability to prevent natural aging from the Shapers when he found a tunnel from Avernum to Terrestria.

Originally Posted By: CRISIS on INFINITE SLARTIES Right. I think it's fair to say that the writing in Spiderweb games is generally superior to the writing in most other CRPGs. The quality of the storyline, on the other hand, varies significantly. Isn't the storyline part of the writing?

I don't know if the OP is still following this thread, but if so -- What did you decide to do?

The companion NPCs are all rigid, obsessed narcissists. But I can overlook that. The only one I really don't like dealing with is Nathalie, because I think she's crazy. Arrogant, belligerently nationalist, possibly psychopathic, poor impulse control, her inborn talent must really be huge because I don't see how she stopped complaining and plotting long enough to learn any spells. She is too young to be so bitter, I find her very unpleasant despite her intelligence and ability.

Originally Posted By: Randomizer Jeff's started the remake of Avernum 1. He's using the Avernum 6 game engine as a starting point so I guess we'll have that type of seamless world. Good, good, and good.

Originally Posted By: Master1 Originally Posted By: madrigan Originally Posted By: Enraged Slith ...but it made me think about self defense and how helpless I would be if I couldn't escape from a dangerous situation. Does anyone have any expertise in this matter? My point is, the original question was not actually "how do I avoid fighting?" it was "what if I can't avoid a fight?" Not all fights are avoidable. You can be jumped without warning. Someone may attack you with the goal of doing you harm, not getting your wallet. You can end up in an altercation against more than one person, making it difficult or impossible to escape. You may be with someone else -- infant, elderly family member, handicapped person -- who cannot run away. You may need to protect someone else. The best answer is to avoid violence when you can but be prepared in case you can't. Actually, the question is how to deal with a dangerous situation. That doesn't necessarily indicate violence, only the threat. Being held at gunpoint for your wallet counts as a dangerous situation without being violent (unless you start something). I think that it's far less likely that someone comes at you with the intent to harm rather than the intent to profit. Knowing how to deal with a dangerous situation includes knowing how to fight.

Originally Posted By: Enraged Slith ...but it made me think about self defense and how helpless I would be if I couldn't escape from a dangerous situation. Does anyone have any expertise in this matter? My point is, the original question was not actually "how do I avoid fighting?" it was "what if I can't avoid a fight?" Not all fights are avoidable. You can be jumped without warning. Someone may attack you with the goal of doing you harm, not getting your wallet. You can end up in an altercation against more than one person, making it difficult or impossible to escape. You may be with someone else -- infant, elderly family member, handicapped person -- who cannot run away. You may need to protect someone else. The best answer is to avoid violence when you can but be prepared in case you can't.