Coach

Great replies, thanks! Ess-Eschas, thanks for your heavy work on the beta testing. I sure didn't mean to imply that you all were somehow deficient, says this person who once sent an entire grant application to the NSF minus two critical paragraphs. (We got it anyway, but sheesh...) And I love the game! I just have a thing about typos. I'll send the report to Jeff via email. Appreciate it and you guys! The hard work shows!

I don't know where to put minor bug reports so I'm putting this here. Moderators, please correct or move at will. At end game, if you have joined the Takers, you can sneak into the Guarded Docks with the right timing, then take the southern path, disarming mines as you go, until you can leave in the boat. This is without even entering the Geneforge yourself and without meeting Trajkov. The ending prints the story where the Shapers return to the island and kill Trajkov, then prints the part where Trajkov overcomes the Shapers. Then it gives the best Obeyer outcome and the best Awakening outcome simultaneously. Best guess, no one beta-ed the ending where you don't enter the Geneforge.

Thanks, folks. Game's a lot more fun now. I made the adjustments to buff way earlier and make sure my creations were maxed out on extra levels (they were missing a few, my oversight). I'm trying to keep in mind to spread them out to reduce AOE damage. Daze is acceptable if I want to focus on one opponent at once, don't have charm yet, will work on it.

Okay, great help. I think I see the problems I've been having. I'll put this advice into action and see how it goes.

Thank you! Do you think a Shaper should try to use attack items or focus more on healing/buffing the party?

So I admit I'm kinda new to this version, but I keep dying. A lot. My Level 10 Shaper has three cryoa and a roamer, and I'm still getting clobbered. Could someone please walk me through basic battle tactics against a group of opponents so I can stop repeating the same fights over and over? What should I do first? Which formation? Should I speed up the Shaper first or just hit shield and blessing? Thanks for any overall help you can give.

Switched over to a build with freeze turrets as top priority. Wow. Now that's powerful. Maybe a little too much so, but to advance the game, I'm hardly complaining. Good plan.

Ah. You are correct. Now I have four turrets. For some reason, I thought I could only produce two turrets total regardless of the number of Tinkermages. * whistles casually * That makes more sense, although it does throw the balance heavily in my favor, not that this newbie is complaining.

So another question: if ranged attacks are the strongest, but two tinkermages can only create two turrets between them in a given fight, what's the use of a second tinkermage over a sorcerer?

OK, good, so I'm on the right track. I figured out the usefulness of the Tinkermage right away, but I was wondering about the other two. It's good to know the value of ranged attacks in this one. I was leaning that way, but early on the melee attacks are more efficient. Sounds like I want to make sure I distribute points favoring range, as well.

Late to the party here, but I couldn't find this in the forum, so... In character levels 1-15 on hard/torment, what are some examples of good party balance? Right now I'm favoring Tinkermage, Sorcerer, Blademaster, but that seems kind of conservative. The old model of tank+range fighter+spellcaster is obsolete, obviously. This is before any of them get the awesomely powerful buffs and spells at the later levels. Suggestions for balanced parties?

Jeff, you son of a you-know-what. Here I am on a major deadline to finish a huge project by New Year's, and you release the rebuild of Avernum One. I try to ignore it, but your demo sucked me in. You have all the ethics of a drug dealer - the first hit is free. It's dynamic. It's beautiful. It's logically structured. It's intuitive. It eliminates the old weak spots and adds challenging new goals. It makes me want to play around the clock. And I can't, because I have a New Year's deadline. So now I have a choice - blow deadline and play Avernum 1, or suck it up and wait to play until January. AAARGH!! (And by the way, an amazing job.)

Imagine my surprise and delight to wake up this morning and discover that Jenell, level 26, has suddenly acquired 448 health points just by hanging out in Avadon Fortress. Is this Jeff's idea of an April Fool's joke? I'm amused, but not kidding. She's only wearing one item that ups Endurance by one point.

Just to throw fireworks into the chaos, "mu" is also the most basic syllable of Sufi chanting. My first thought was, "Bovine Sufis! Brilliant! Can they spin in circles to call up spiritual powers?" Now there's an interesting game design option... Other cool writing: Rats: "Watch out for witches." Natalie on seeing Moritz's labs: "What amazing work. It'll be fun to destroy it!" Bring Jenell and Sevilin (sp?) to the Khemerian legal library. Jenell makes a snarky comment about how written laws have ruined the honorable spirit of her people. Sevilin, "What's wrong with a little codification..." then "looks at Jenell and shuts up." Or words to that effect.

Thanks much. Compiling.

Where should I report minor bugs like typos and spelling? E-mail?

Okay, that makes more sense. Thanks. I've been playing around with it and still need to fiddle a bit since I haven't used skill trees before, but these are good explanations.

My level 9 Shaman still can't use Spirit Claw (the lowest level ability on the left tree). I've pumped 3 points into it and 10 points into Intelligence, and still nothing. Same for the other classes; some low level skills are not available yet, and the characters are level 9-10. What am I missing? Is there something else I need to train?

Just got the newsletter today, in my regular folder, two days after buying the game. If there have been no updates between last week and now, I'm not sure what the reason was. Glad to have the game, though!

Hmm. I always check my spam folder because sometimes my friends' e-mails end up there, but it's possible I overlooked it. My guess, however, is I didn't get it for some reason. Just want to make sure I'm on the list for updates etc. Update: I just ordered Avadon and made absolutely sure the newsletter e-mail box was checked "yes." Hopefully this will hold until next time.

Never thought I'd actually write a company to request advertising e-mail, but hey, this is Spiderweb. For some reason, although I used to be on the mailing list, I didn't get an announcement that Avadon had been released. Lucky I remembered or I would have been deprived of dozens of hours that would otherwise have been devoted to (shudder) housework. Was there something I missed?

You know that old Infocom games line, "Oh, no! A lurking, slavering grue has jumped out of the shadows and devoured you!" Waiting for Avadon makes me feel like a lurking, slavering grue.

At endgame, outside on the SE Formello wall, there's a little bit of land that snakes around the corner. It contains at least one mandrake root and a wall button that appears if you search for usable items. I can't find a way to get there. Searched Formello and environs for tunnels and secret passages to no avail. What next? Is it meant to just sit there taunting me?

Got it! Thanks very much. Couldn't have found that with a magnifying glass and three bloodhounds. :-)

I still have the quest to find a secret route to Farrar's Keep. Would this be because I killed him? I couldn't find a way to open the secret passages below his keep without going through him.