Serene Tempest

If you're asking when or how you get access to the basement, there are two parts of it. One part you won't get access to until the endgame. The other part you can find a way into as soon as you get to Fort Foresight.

I think this is the part of the code where it tallies up Avadon's military and political strength, based on what you have done:

sf(100,24,0);

if (gf(16,66) >= 3) // saved ft foresight

inc_flag(100,24,1);

if (gf(12,13) + gf(13,12) + gf(20,23) >= 2) // kill 2 biggies

inc_flag(100,24,1);

if (gf(0,40) >= 2) // honor tokens

inc_flag(100,24,1);

if (gf(1,23) > 0) // chabon

inc_flag(100,24,1);

if (gf(0,29) >= 4) // callan quests

inc_flag(100,24,1);

if (gf(0,47) >= 4) // laria quests

inc_flag(100,24,1);

if (gf(4,22) >= 6) // eye dymas quests

inc_flag(100,24,1);

if (gf(16,29) >= 10) // jazlyn papers

inc_flag(100,24,1);

// 3 quests yutsua deniz monitor sabre

if ((gf(4,21) >= 6) && (gf(4,29) >= 6) && (gf(10,27) >= 6))

inc_flag(100,24,1);

// this happens in main code now

//if (gf(9,12) == 2) // kill odil

// inc_flag(100,24,-1);

//if (gf(17,27) >= 10) // cybele papers

// inc_flag(100,24,-1);

Does it interact with regeneration?

• Although the game intentionally includes hard moral choices, as far as I can tell there are no decisions that would prevent you from finishing the game, or accessing major parts of the game. So you are free to choose what you think is best.
  

Although this is true for most of Jeff's games, Geneforge 5 did have a game-losing faction (out of six total). He dropped some hints that you might want to consider a different path, but they were nowhere near as obvious as most of the hints he drops.

• There is no way to rest and recover Vitality (the ability to use skills) without returning to a Pylon. However, there are enough Vitality potions and fountains to get you though every quest without being stingy about using skills.
  

I find the Tinkermage to be an exception to this, since Turrets have such high Vitality costs. Though probably the most powerful class, I found I did have to be a bit stingy about when I took out the really good turrets, or he would run out of vitality long before his companions.

Does anyone know what items that give you a % bonus to blessings and curses actually do? I haven't noticed them increase the duration (at least not in the skill tooltip... I haven't checked to see how many rounds they actually last), and the strength of most of them seems to be pre-determined (ie. Resistance Chant gives 20% resistance to magic and elemental damage).

Same things for skills. For example, Shadowalker's focus gives haste and spine shield for 5 turns, and at level 3 gives regeneration for 3 turns. Dues raising the skill above 3 actually do anything (aside from unlocking Bladeshield)?

Hmm. Probably the easiest implementation would be to have a range counter appear below the cursor. That would assume a straight path, though, so it wouldn't be a perfect guide. But the only way to get a truly accurate measure of movement distance would be to recalculate the pathfinding algorithm every time the cursor moved, which would likely make the interface bog down.

The Battle for Wesnoth (a freeware turn-based strategy game) came up with a good solution to this, though it handles ranged combat very differently than most turn-based games.

I would love for "Avadon 3" to have more mission for varying party sizes...

If I recall correctly, in Avadon 1 when you do your companion side-quests, isn't it just the two of you? I at least seem to remember that being the case for Jenell's quest.

And having a handful of "all hands on deck" moments (like, say, the final Miranda fight or storming Konstantina's stronghold) would be pretty awesome, and also heighten the dramatic tension.

Another request along the same lines would be the ability to abort the special companion quests. I initially accepted Dedrik's quest, and then changed my mind after meeting the Kva mercenaries, so for the rest of the game every time I traveled to the contested lands I had to take Dedrik with me whether I wanted to or not.

Perhaps Jamie doesn't particularly want you to watch your step. Or say anything else to encourage you to keep your guard up.

From what I've gathered, we're actually more likely to see an Avernum prequel than an Avernum 7.

Also note that you can change the difficulty level on the fly, so if you start on torment and find that you're not enjoying the game, you can just turn it down rather than having to start all over again. Though this might disqualify you for certain achievements, if that matters to you.

If you have the time and inclination to email him, it's worth a shot. He'll probably read it, at least, even if he decides to ignore it.

Might I suggest not doing this right away, but leaving the topic open for awhile (perhaps even stickying it?)? Then, once you feel most new suggestions are either fringe requests or redundant with things already here, call it finished and send the email.

If you watch him closely, he does have some of that text that appears above characters heads saying something like "We'll let you live. For now."

I'm personally looking forward the most to the G1 remake.

Avadon also has a long history of letting people who have committed major offenses against it (Claw, Xenephone) off the hook because they're too valuable to be severely punished. Considering that you have (depending on how far into the game you are):

...you are most likely in the same boat. Even if your offense is greater than those two, so are your achievements.

And perhaps we would go through a few more rounds of counteroffers... but even if we still ended at an impasse, and I still had to choose between either burning the records or fighting the Grey Raptors, that's different from a character development perspective than immediately defaulting to one of those two choices.

There are other parts in the game where there are "neutral" answers to questions. I guess what I'd (realistically) want to see in cases like this would be for the "neutral" options to still be there even if they don't work. Like at the end of Dedrik's quest.

When you ask them to help you kill Redbeard, it's with the understanding that you will be the next keeper. So their decision is would they rather have you as a Keeper than Redbeard. If you haven't done their quests, they probably don't see you as being much of an improvement (or, in Alacander's case, he doesn't owe you anything).

One of the limitations of a game such as this is you can only have so many choices. For instance, for Yorshiria's quest, had this been a tabletop game with a live DM, I would have made a counteroffer to the Grey Falcons: give me information on the specific records you want eliminated and, if they indeed have minimal intelligence value, I will eliminate them in a much quieter manner than setting the records hall on fire. In addition to providing a middle ground, this would also help to figure out if the real goal here was simply to protect their clients or if it was to weaken Avadon. And if they tried to tow a hard line, I'd remind them that I had no problem slaughtering the whole lot of them and any other assassins they sent after me and my companions, and ask them just how many of their people they were willing to get killed out of stubborness. The problem is that this isn't a game with a live DM who can adapt to the situation and respond intelligently (form both a roleplaying and a game balance perspective) to whatever solution I'd like to come up with. And part of the game balance perspective is forcing the player to take a side.

Perhaps a improvement would be conversation options allowing you to try and plot a middle course, even if in the end it just leads back to choosing a side. Even if attempting to be reasonable ultimately proves futile, it at least allows you to roleplay the attempt.

They'll stay with you for 99% of the game either way.

I find the biggest drawback of spears is that you lose two item slots for them, so you're forgoing two chances to get bonuses like Bonecleaver's +20% critical hit chance or the Shock Trooper Shield's bonus action point. I never used them past early levels when I didn't have anything special to put in the shield slot, and have to concur with your assessment that you're better off with your current setup. Especially if you get your hands on a sword that also has special abilities.

I had noticed that the actual damage was pretty modest, though I didn't know the reason. Still, since you want to maximize your basic attack for a melee character you basically get it for free, and it has tactical uses.

A melee shadowwalker is actually pretty good thanks to the backstab bonus, it's just kind of a boring class build to play since it'll mostly just be using normal attacks and the occasional Shadowstep. Your general point is well taken, though.

I actually find the shadowwalker to be one of the most fun classes to play. Shadowstep is both cool and very useful, and it's usefulness scales with your understanding of the game's tactics. I also get plenty of use out of Shadowwalker Focus and their melee AOE, which pair nicely to get mobs to focus on the shadowwalker instead of some of the more delicate characters and then take spike damage every round while the shadowwalker regenerates. Plus, if you maximize Earth Discipline they get an amazing set of resistances.

They're from the Geneforge series, first appearing in Geneforge 3 and staying through the end. Broadly speaking, they represented the two main camps of the conflict (there were many more than two factions by the end).

This probably won't happen, but I'd like to see a de-emphasis on the scavenging and looting aspect, and the fact that this is the largest part of the in-game economy. To me, this is the least interesting part of the game - far less than the story, making ethical/philosophical choices, and the combat tactics. Instead of carrying 20 sets of leather armor plus everything else that wasn't nailed to the floor back to town after every adventure, I'd rather see missions (or even a stipend) be your primary source of gold, and random drops/lootable items be fewer but less trivial.

I don't recall their names, but we meet one possible Holklandan/Kellem couple on the border outpost next to the Corruption. Though the precise nature of their relationship isn't clear, they're obviously very close.

I think that was supposed to be a reference to the arcane and overcomplicated nature of internal Holkland politics. (I'm using "arcane" according to it's real world definition here: "understood by few, mysterious, secret").

And perhaps no one in the pact having the slightest concern with fairness is part of what brought them to this impasse in the first place. While in the long historical view the Tawon Empire may have brought this on themselves, Avadon/Pact policy has essentially backed them into a corner where they have no other way to achieve basic security and dignity. This conspiracy is as much Avadon's creation as it is the Farlander's.