Evnissyen

Originally Posted By: Randomizer *sigh* lousy 14 inch laptop. And here I was actually looking forward to getting a new 13" Mac laptop. (...Waiting for the prices to drop.) I'm sure the graphics card is sufficient, though. At any rate, I miss my old Mac, I hate this buggy Windows system, the fan's disorderly conduct is driving me crazy, and I like the portability of laptops; I've never had a laptop before. Anybody here think it's a bad idea? No doubt the desktop computer is superior in numerous ways, but... especially for a writer, I'm sure that the laptop must be, in comparison, like a kind of faithful traveling companion, always there when you want/need to write something. I don't want to use the word "notebook". Having a laptop means you can always have your computer by your side, whenever you travel anyplace, whether it's to visit your parents, or an old friend in another city. You can always sit down to write... or check email. Or post on Spidweb. There's a Mac store practically next door. I really should head on over there and check out their products. If there's an option to shrink the resolution beyond 1024x768... that would be real nice.

...And you call yourselves gamers.... As for dangerous assignments... hell, she's just being playful. I know when an NPC is flirting with me.

(After a quick check...) At Harkin's Landing there's a woman named Duaria in the back room at the pub, she's an Empire spy. She asks you your opinion of the "worms" and of Empress Prazac's friendlier treatment of Avernum. That's whom I was referring to. One would think that giving her your opinion would affect a certain faction's attitude toward you. I mean... I thought that that's what that particular dialogue option was for?

I also appreciate a good, forceful narrative. That's just me. The open-world thing was exciting when I was a kid, but it gets old, I think, and requires constant new invention, or else you're left with mostly hack & loot. If somebody can create a game that's like that... that constantly surprises you with interesting inventions when you just wander around a huge map like in the old days... then that would be cool, too. It just doesn't seem to be the direction Jeff is heading in. EDIT: I would expect, at any rate, that independent game developers grow up just like the rest of us, and start adopting different interests and looking for different reasons to keep making games.

Hmm.... In that case: when it comes to sympathies toward Avernites... it might've been nice if the game had allowed me to realize some of the romantic feelings I found myself developing toward Shanker. I mean... the dreads were nice, but being an eccentric rebel with dreadlocks is even better, and being a genius eccentric rebel with dreadlocks is just beyond my ability to resist.

Forgive me if this has already been asked and answered, because, well, these Update threads are long, man, and I don't remember this being answered fully. But... people have noted that Jeff has said that G5 would 'tap some of the power of our graphics card'. Considering that the Spiderweb games have been considerably and eminently easy on my computer's graphics capabilities... what kind of dazzling graphical effects can I be looking forward to? Some more (& better) animation, I hope? Honestly... based on the screenshots: although it is graphically prettier than any of SW's predecessors, the graphics aren't drastically improved (and actually the game seems to be retaining many if not most of them in literal form).

In fact, regarding Shanker: I think that maybe reporting her to Cienna should also account for something a little more than some generous XP from Cienna against some lost jobs and training options. (Sure, I could wait and report her later, but her jobs extend too far into the game, and I have to try to protect her in order to get the training options.) In fact: Is there any significantly comparable value at all in turning Shanker in? When I weigh one against the other... it seems to me that only a fool would turn her in, even for somebody who's doing a first run (considering that you get an idea, when you first meet her, that this is a valuable person to befriend). It seems to me there should be a stronger benefit to turning her in.

Originally Posted By: Polly I think it was more interesting when you could run into something big and evil and had to come back when you were stronger to defeat it. But that's still the case, in numerous situations.

So... I suppose that giving your radical opinion to the woman at Harkin's Landing accounts for nothing. (Why is it even an option then, if the game isn't looking for something from you? At least in the GF games: what you say matters.)

Of course, the solution to all of this is to film an interpretation rather than an adaptation. Then, nobody gets offended. Anyhow, back to the topic... I've been looking through Lewis Carroll's stuff again, and... well... come to find out: the Dormouse never actually told Alice -- or anyone else, for that matter -- to "feed her head". He never said anything even similar to it. I'm outraged. At Grace Slick. How could she mislead us like that? I... I believed in her.... (In regard to film "adaptations" of Alice in Wonderland & Through the Looking Glass . . . just in case it should happen to come up . . . my favorite among those that I'm aware of is Jan Svankmejer's version... actually, his version is not really an adaptation at all... not even an interpretation, really, but I guess a little more along the lines of "this is what you get when you cross a Jan Svankmejer with the works Lewis Carroll". It's Alice Transformed. One of my favorite scenes in the film is the one with the room full of living socks. This does not appear in the book.)

Ah, the movie was lame. (Why? Because I read the book first.)

No... now I remember, it was the northwest (I think) region of the Vahnatai lands. There was an inaccessible building there. Underground, there was a tight cluster of ladders, each one at the end of its very own little hallway. EDIT: Yes, I think we're remembering the same place. There was a collection of trapdoors inside the building, and I think there was a dead body in there as well.

I seem to remember a whole bunch of ladders, I believe it was under Thalants, that I found pretty gosh darn annoying, or maybe it wasn't the ladders but some other areas that I couldn't figure out how to get into (probably the ones that Maddz was referring to) until I finally cheated and used the "ghost edit" that Randomizer just mentioned. There were also one or two areas I couldn't get to because I'd allowed Gladwell to geas me all up. I've just started a new game with a party of two (Nephil both, plus divine blood)... no Gladwell this time.

It seems that a lot of people didn't like the extended mass assaults that you had to plow through in two particular parts of the game... but those were my favorite parts. Particularly the Howling Depths, where you couldn't just back up and go to the portal to freshen up; you were constantly being pushed from behind while being assaulted by force after force of Dorikas' men. It was fun. I do like the splitting monsters, also... except for one of the splitting slimes that was especially hard for no good reason (I don't think it was guarding anything important, if I remember correctly).

I don't know.... There're other games for war-play and war strategy, and I'm not sure I want to see Avernum start shifting toward that category. Let's stick with the lone adventurer in a lonely world, eh? But... I do agree with Earth: No more lava blisters! Those things are truly annoying. (Although not as annoying, I think, as Geneforge's hot labs.)

Also putting screenshots into your journal. Haven't I mentioned this before? It'd be pretty helpful. But just being able to write your own notes would suffice. I always have to keep separate wp files for this purpose.

Feo: Considering the length of some of the threads on these forums, and the fact that I haven't noticed any problems yet... I'd guess that if 20 long posts was once the point where that bug kicked in... it's probably no longer the case. ...But I'm not the one, obviously, to answer that question. Anyhow... As for the Dragonlance series, wow... I actually do remember reading the original trilogy when I was a kid. I loved that series. But when I picked up the first book of the second trilogy... honestly, I hated it. Elastic metaphors featuring dwarves and hammers wielded carelessly in order to illustrate a certain unpleasant quality of our protagonist's hangover was not really something that drew great interest from me... nor was the same protagonist's newly-found drinking problem of much interest, and... weren't there marital problems in there as well? They were "poorly matched", I think, right? A beautiful and delicate young woman attracted to a brutish and highly masculine man? I think I was longing for the days of adventure that they'd left long behind. I never got through enough of the book to find out if it ended up evolving in a manner that might've made me clap my hands in glee. EDIT: I was just a kid... what can you expect? I wanted Adventure, man.

We'll have to rename it. To justify our action. Of course, if the software doesn't actually possess such a bug as mentioned above, I'll say what I always say: There's no reason to put your eggs in 5 different baskets if you can fit them all in one. I'm also re-reading Ingeborg Bachmann's Malina. As for Hawthorne... his style really is pretty tedious. But he did write a few interesting pieces... well, maybe three, so far as I remember.

Currently reading "The Complete Plays" of Sarah Kane. Really interesting stuff. I suggest everybody dig in, if you can find it. (I had to special-order this copy, from my library, through the state-wide ILL service rather than local service.) That's Sarah Kane, everyone. Check her out. Support your friendly literary crazy people! Also, somebody recently emailed me about a serial work he's writing, and a new website for it (I rather like the way the site looks, actually)... I couldn't list it on the G.L. site, but some of you might be interested; it's fantasy fiction, with some nods to Celtic folklore... but he says he's planning on making it a more audio-visual affair, which sounds really interesting to me (I love that stuff). Anyhow, here it is: Winternight Productions : Lifting of the Veil, by Jared Michaud The PDF-self-publishing movement still seems very small, but it also looks like it's gradually growing, which is nice to see.

I agree with the Completeness Doctrine. And if I remember right, I think that I, too, was able to clear the Sandros Mines without any creations... eventually. My second character, who was an agent and didn't have creations, I never took all the way to the end, so I can't say for sure.

Not to mention that Eschalon really does get boring after a while, just as a player (I never got past level 10, myself; though I think I'll pick it up again eventually). I truly hope BW makes some significant improvements in the narrative in Book 2, but I suspect he won't. Diablo 2 I stopped playing at the end of Act 2 because the boss character was just about impossible to defeat. It ruined my ability to enjoy the game. (Not to mention I find real-time games that don't give you save-slots highly annoying and stressful. (Hey: Aren't games supposed to reduce stress?)) This is really, maybe, the extreme end of RPG's with nearly impossible bosses. (Strategy isn't always an option since the character you've chosen isn't always adequately equipped to take down said boss, nor would any of the available mercenaries, I don't think; I'll have to check again to see if there are any other than archers available, I don't think there are.) With G5 & A6, I don't think I'd want to beta test, because I really do want to enjoy the game. And when I have other projects/responsibilities that are pressing me for my attention -- specifically my writing and the GLE Project (both of which I've been horribly neglectful of), I doubt I'd make a very good beta tester. ...Plus I'd undoubtedly end up constantly complaining about the writing/narrative... thus annoying the developer no end.

Ghaldring: The problem was only that Nikki seemed to be implying that the fact that G1 has precisely one more playable faction than G3 means that it has more options. Since this ignores the fact that G3 has a stronger narrative, has charms and the ability for the player to create or enchant his/her own items... it happens to be incorrect. That's all. It's fair to note that experiences with G1/2 or G3/4 depend on which pair you began with. Those who began with G1/2, as well as A1-3, might prefer the free-roaming style and abhor the narrative force of G3/4. My first SW games were A4 and G3, and the first game I payed for (and played all the way through) was G3... so undoubtedly this accounts for much of my perspective. But coming from the same perspective, I still think it's unfair how so many people coming from the earlier free-roaming games are still so harshly critical of G3, as if it were the worst game ever created. It's simply not. I try my best to look at the earlier games with as little prejudice as possible... but I can't help but be bothered by all the little things. I've mentioned these a bunch of times before. However... one of the not-so-little things is the fact that, in G1, there is no direction. There's very little narrative. Perhaps if the game were designed to better accommodate that, then I wouldn't have a problem with it. I don't remember having a problem with other games of that sort, when I was a kid. Having to plod through 10-12 areas where you get 0 XP because you didn't realize you'd been "meant" to go through there many levels earlier... is not fun... and, to be honest, it's not good game design. To be clear: I'm not at all trying to say that everyone should agree with my prejudices and biases. I'm just saying that people should stop trashing G3 for reasons that are, honestly, not adequately supportable.

I think I remember doing it just to see how easy it would be, and finding it was quite easy. Getting out of the place alive is maybe a different matter. Getting the egg upstairs is not easy at all, if I remember correctly. ...But... don't trust my memory: try it yourself.

Exactly my point: You said nothing about narrative depth or game-play depth.

Ex: Like I said, make sure it's the David McDuff translation (Penguin Books, greenish cover)... the other translation is an outrageous evisceration. I hope you enjoy it.