Thaluikhain

Originally Posted By: Celtic Minstrel but it's not like I can stop you. Well, that's not stopping the OP from trying...

Originally Posted By: Celtic Minstrel You didn't even list all the summoning spells; you missed Summon Spirit, Summon Host, Sticks to Snakes, Guardian, and Daemon. I think that's all... Summon beast? Something like that, though not very useful, IMHO. Summoning can be useful, but having random monsters pop up is annoying...it's useful to have, say, giant spiders or vapour rats standing back chucking stuff at the enemy to weaken them, rather than attacking them. I prefer using charm spells, though, as you can choose your monsters, and they don't disappear.

Originally Posted By: Excalibur I admit to accessing some sites by googling their names... (Not this one though) Me too...when can't be bothered typing in the whole address. Or, to avoid it filling my internet history with sites I'm not that interested in, making it easier to find the ones I want. Oh, and: http://galactanet.com/comic/view.php?strip=378

Just finished this and I have mixed feelings about it. The plot, generally, is fairly good. Yes, it's just another secret conspiracy of non-humans taking over a government agency for their own sinister taking-over-the-world ends, but with enough creativity to stop it being such a tired cliche. I thought it could do with a bit more to really stand out from all the other variants of this, though. Some parts I rather liked...the hints that the Empire fort is up to something wrong weren't much different from all the other depictions of a cruel Empire, but enough to raise interest (I was expecting them to be making mutants made from captives, personally). I also liked how in the destroyed fort, most of the bodies are clustered next to the blocked off exit without a message about how they were trying to escape and couldn't. The creator just placed them there and left it at that, which worked fair better at being creepy. I also liked hastily looking for the last survivors...though in part this was becuase I knew I only had until day 4, because I saw it while checking the walkthrough for something else...if this had been told to the player, it would have helped the tension alot, IMHO. I wasn't quite sure about the setting...it was set quite definitely just north of Valorim, only they've got a dam for producing power, and modern seeming offices with air vents and cafeteria and message boards...was this set in the future of the Empire? Why didn't this group do anything of note during the Exile 3 time period, given that they are almost literally next door to the problems? The conspirators, I thought, were fairly inventive. The acid splash thing got annoying very fast, though, especially as it did 20+ damage to everyone and the game mechanics weren't able to tie into the description (it affects everyone in the party, regardless of where they are, for example, not in an area centred on the dead thing). I liked how after you found out who they were, they became known as "hunters" rather than "dark warriors". Though...how they were able to wander round Kleptus without anyone noticing seemed a bit suspicious. They could have been explained as teleporting in or whatever, but this wasn't the case. The "ordinary man" thing was a nice idea, but didn't make too much sense...he can blend into a crowd in a totally empty room even if you suspect everyone nearby is hostile. Walkthroughs...absolutely ESSENTIAL. I spent most of the game wandering around, knowing there was something I was supposed to do so I could go onto the next thing, but not being able to figure out what it was. There was much swearing while in the Spire in particular. Wandering round not knowing what you are doing AND being drained AND being unable to go back AND monsters keep popping up AND it makes no logical sense AND you can get sent right to the very beginning again, right at the very end. But worst of all was that it didn't do anything to advance the plot, which was the strength of the scenario. All it did was make me wonder if it was worth persevering to see what happened afterwards. The Lorax were almost as bad (the mega-lorax excepted), and the barrier bit and the end boss likewise. Almost literally had to end combat mode and save every round, to use the editor. 40 odd damage, then lose all positive conditions, get slowed and dumbfounded than 40 more EVERY round...that's no fun. Eventually I gave up on fighting him at all, summoned a bunch of low level monsters with my one action point remaining after drinking the invulnerability potion I needed to survive the next round. Everyone had to drink 1 more potion every round, and I still had to save and edit far too many times. The custom graphics, I thought, were quite good. Not too many bugs, one or two messages that should have been displayed once were displayed every time, some annoying "can't enter in combat" nodes in awkward places, but mostly ok. Some parts were oddly repetitive; at least 6 characters had the same description about not looking like someone you'd want to mess with when you talked to them, and a number of chests with exactly 13 pieces of gold in the Spire. Although it had some quite good bits and ideas, it also had too many insanely frustrating bits, so I'm going for AVERAGE.

One of my favourite BoE scenarios. Although pretty small...with only one "town" town, and with not many people in it, the creator really made the valley come to life. The characters have believable motivations and desires, which conflict with each other in a nicely awkward way. The custom graphics were fairly good, and I liked the idea that the story is never really explained, but that there is plenty of backstory for you to guess at the truth of things. There's a few little annoyances though...the scenario is spent in a giant swamp, meaning you spend too much time casting weaken poison on yourself, which gets annoying fairly quickly. The town on the river was a nice idea, but it means you have to walk through the town every time you simply want to cross the river, which also is annoying. Those are only petty annoyances, but, for me, they spoil enjoyment a bit. Also, the end dungeon is a large, multi level maze which you are locked in until you blunder across the area you are supposed to be looking for, and find the way to proceed. I really hate things like that. Admittedly, this one is broken up by plenty of inventive features, and the dungeon makes perfect sense from an in-game perspective, which helps alot, but it's still a pain. Not sure about the last shopkeeper at the end, sort of snaps you out of character, though it was handy. GOOD.

This scenario was a bit hit and miss, for me. It had some clever and innovative bits. The way you solved a problem by travelling back in time and preventing it from occuring, which changes all sorts of things in the present, beyond what you intended, was rather nice. Also, the society was inventive. On the other hand, the ancient civilisation with their strange magical nuclear weapons was a bit cliched and felt rather tacked on. Also, why where there aliens? What was the point of them, beyond some half-hearted Star Trek speech about peace they give you? Also...the "message" of the scenario was a big let down. Mind you, I'd just played Nephil's Gambit, so I was comparing it to that a bit, which'd make anything look bad, but...to find out that the scenario has a deeper meaning, and then to be told it was "really about" an argument between anime fans over which of two anime creators was the best...um. That really lowered the tone of it, right at the very end...which is where you really don't want it to, because it's what you take away from it the most. I'm torn between GOOD and AVERAGE for this one...I think I'll got for AVERAGE.

Sorry to bring up an ancient post, but was looking at the BoE scenario reviews and thought I'd give this one a go. Aaaand now I'm stuck in the Spine, o- EDIT: Nevermind, I'm just thick.

Originally Posted By: Earth Empires Not that easy to proove which is more true than other. Which means they are taking liberties by labelling it "historically accurate" instead of, say, "not totally at odds with the little we know".

Originally Posted By: Celtic Minstrel In theory, if we simply set their race to "Undead" this should be handled automatically. In practice, though, "Undead" is not a valid player race (it's only valid for monsters), so that would have to be dealt with first. Well, I meant for a specific scenario where being undead was the backstory, using a premade character/s taking whatever traits available to normal players that seem the most undead-ish. Having "undead" as a player race to use in general would be fiddly, unless it should be established in the background that throughtot Exile undead are tolerated as much as everyone else, holy ground isn't holy enough to keep them out (and split the party every time they visit a temple), priests are sporting enough not to cast turn/dispel undead at PCs etc. Sliths and nephils are minority groups, but the living dead would likely be something else. Originally Posted By: Celtic Minstrel Yes. Change the "summon type" to "No summon" in the monster Abilities dialog. (Certain specific monsters are also summoned by certain spells; if I recall correctly, Daemon summons monster 85, Summon Spirit summons monster 65, Summon Host summons that and monster 126, Sticks to Snakes summons monsters 99 and 100, and Guardian summons monster 122. These cannot be changed at present.) Ah, ok, thanks.

Originally Posted By: Earth Empires Which Arthur game should be made? King who had his knights and round table in his castle (like mythologies say) or warleader for Roman empire (like recent discoveries suggest)? Both! And the one where Merlin is really an alien. (IIRC, the "Arthur as Roman" thing takes an awful lot of liberties with history.)

Hmm...a thought. If you were to create a scenario in which you played as undead (or, for that matter some other supernatural monster), how would you go about giving the player the usual abilities and invulnerabilities? I mean, would this be a Pants of Undeadness which you couldn't remove which was a lvl 10 cold protection item, together with a Hat if Being Un-Alive which was lvl 10 in poison protection? Alternatively, you could go and get rid of all poisonous monsters and ice creating things, and say magic spells are using magic ice and magic poisons and so on, I guess. (Is there an easy way to stop monsters from being used...and for that matter, taking them of the list of potentially summonable things? I think it's a bit odd to have sliths and nephils as PCs and as random monsters you teleport from theire homes and throw at the enemy).

What if you were chasing after the Green Knight because you fancied him, and there was Benny Hill music playing? Yes, a decent game could be made about Arthurian legends, but then a decent game could be made about more or less anywhere else...it's not the setting, it's what you do with it. Personally, though, I think Arthurian legends are a bit overdone...I like Exile because of the novel setting, and the way it's put together. "King Arthur" seems to be one of those "licence to suck" labels to stick on things. There's no reason why someone couldn't do it properly, though, and done right it could be done very well...the knightly virtues et al are something that doesn't get explored much.

An innovative scenario, with plenty of atmosphere and history...the customs graphics were very impressive, though the pop culture references got a bit painful at times. After a while, though, alot of the uniqueness wore off, and the scenario involved lots of wandering round looking for something else to kill. Something with a novel theme and using different graphics, but even so...perhaps a smaller island would have been better. GOOD.

I liked this scenario...it's fairly innovative, with a very different twist on things than usual. I found it veyr hard, though, definitely requiring a waakthrough to work out what I was supposed to be doing, though that's not unusual with me. On the other hand, perhaps it's too innovative...people tend to make similarish scenarios, presumably becuase they like them, which'd make this one not for everyone. But all I can say is that I liked it. Good.

Definitely lol worthy, that.

Originally Posted By: Master1 Not true. Not true at all. There are hoards of bacteria all around you, and you have no conscious awareness of any of them. There are myriad organisms and forces acting on and in us constantly, yet we are unaware of most of them. Um...if we know that, then we aren't unaware of them, by definition. Anyho, "spirits" et al can't be something we are unaware of, because if we were unaware of them this discussion would not be happening. If pre-historic man was aware of spirits, which did in fact exist, why then are we not aware of them now, to any extent at all?

Well, it would help if the terms involved were at all defined. But, generally speaking, if it can interact with us, we can interact with it. And if it can't, it is immaterial.

In my opinion, one of the very best scenarios around, which challenges the quality of the official Exile games. A great deal of this, IMHO, is due to the way the world of the scenario is set up. A lot of detail is provided on the history, politics and even ecology of the area, making the world alot more immersive and realistic than most. The plot is well thought out and interesting, and more than that, covers areas unusual in BoE scenarios, dealing with politics and intrigue in a fairly complex, but logical way. I did need to use a walkthrough for this scenario, but I seem to need to use those alot more than others. Some of the puzzles are very obscure, requiring a bit of thought, but they make in game sense. Some of the fights can be very difficult...more than once, I had to save, cast multiple web spells around the area I knew the enemy would spawn from last time, and run for it, and this often took a few goes. BEST

Might also be cool to have creatures designated as being more vulnerable to certain things as well.

Well...as it stands, for most races, you have to be in a wealthy nation that can afford to have you constanlty monitored and assessed for your training practices, and use the latest expensive gear to stand a chance. Artificial limbs might be a problem if we start taking fairness and equality seriously, but until then, not so much.

Not unless you could have more than one ability. Though, I think that'd be cool, could make for more characterful monsters.

Originally Posted By: The Mystic Originally Posted By: Randomizer You aren't familiar with the concept of server crashes. Lots of people have lost data that was supposedly safe when it happens and backups only have part of the lost data. Microsoft had it only this year. Nice try; I already anticipated this, thanks to my old laptop's hard drive finally dying almost a year ago, causing me to lose the backup copies of nearly all my programs (I save the documents elsewhere). I plan to make at least two or three full copies of myself on separate servers immediately after the initial upload, thus ensuring I'll live forever in one way or another. A reasonable idea, but then what happens when you become abandonware? And, do you really want 3 different copies of yourself floating round cyberspace, all claiming to be the real you?

Welll...the distinction is a tad arbitrary. Especially if you are citing going from planet to planet instead of town to town as a major difference. Although, yes generally science fiction means IN SPAAAAACE, but Geneforge, IMHO, includes quite alot of science fiction elements, and I would understand people sticking it under that heading (or maybe "speculative fiction"), instead of automatically lumping it under fantasy.

Originally Posted By: Joseph Kerstein I'll definitely keep my eyes peeled. I'd be interested in a scenario like that. Wonder how the story would pan out, though? One idea was that you were some kind of wight of a long conquered land, who'd awakened because the foreign invaders had become morally corrupt, or somesuch, and you'd spend the scenario searching out other groups that wanted to overthrow them to ally yourself with. WAsn't really sure how to bring the "being lond dead" bit across, other than forever mentioning that town X used to be smaller and unimportant, forest Y seemed much smaller last time you saw it and that kids today have no respect.

I tried creating a scenario where you are an undead thing at least once, but I'm not good at sticking to a scenario for more than 30 minutes, so it never got made. One idea I had was to use the timer to keep track of what fraction of the day it was, hopefully to have day and night versions of towns, and every so often you'd gain or lose spell points depending on the time to represent being weaker during the day and more powerful at night. Mid semester holidays are coming up, maybe I might get something going then.