ThricebornPhoenix

I've not been getting experience for anything mechanics-related (picking locks, disabling mines, de/activating power spirals) unless it's also some kind of event trigger.

I knew that hardcoded drops would be a headache when I got a Girdle of Might from an otherwise ordinary Terror Vlish on Harmony Isle. It marked the first time in G3 that Normal felt too easy. I think that's also what instigated my record-keeping efforts.

I'm almost certain there are items in the scripts that are never available in the games. For example, I'm pretty the spore battons used in G1 are found in the scripts of some later games despite not being used.

I do recall seeing that in at least one game, and it makes sense in a copy-paste-edit sort of way, but that can't explain items that don't show up in what should be their first appearance. I believe the latter is the case for every missing item except G5's Girdle of Endurance.

 

I'm not looking for pixel-perfect coordinates, just something more than 'somewhere in this zone' (although even that wouldn't be so bad... if Monastery Caves wasn't the second and harder of G3's challenge zones). I'm also not really expecting much to come of this, since I know that dummied items are fairly common. At least if no one comes forward with more info, I can apply the dummied label more confidently. Something like "Probably dummied", I suppose, instead of "dummied???".

I have for some time been making my own item lists for the Geneforge series, sorted by item type for ease of reference (they're basically props for my spotty memory) and comparison. I've drawn from my own encounters, Matt P's guides, and in some cases from the scripts. I've also searched the forums when all those failed. It's possible some of these items simply can't be obtained normally, but I'm not one to give up hope easily, so here's what I'm having trouble with.

 

In Geneforge, I'm missing Vlish Skin Tunic, Clawbug Carapace, Girdle of Insight, and Stunning Blade - I haven't found them, no mention of them anywhere, gforscen.txt doesn't list them as drops. In further item weirdness, Rawbone (100% Student's Belt drop) shouldn't drop anything that a regular Thahd doesn't. An "Ancient Artila", which I can't recall ever seeing, does list a Student's Belt drop, at 100% chance, and the Searing Artila inherits this. According to Matt P's FAQ, Searing Artilas drop Artila Skin Tunics, but the script doesn't show this. Charged Artila also has a chance (1%) to drop a Student's Belt; I'm almost certain that's meant to be something else (Artila Skin Tunic?), and much less certain that it actually can drop.

 

Geneforge 2 holds a Drakon Skin Cloak, if you trust the script file. I trust it less with each day that passes. (And why are there two Tek's Spectral Dirks? Spooky!)

 

Geneforge 3 has a Demon Fang Talisman. A thread here mentions that it's found in Monastery Caves, but not the exact location (I would assume a drop?). I know I cleared the Monastery once, but that was some time ago. (I also couldn't find the Shaper Robe, which I've discovered is basically overwritten by the Specter Robe. I suspect that it was meant to be in the tomb in the Acidic Valley, which is one of the two locations I have for a Specter Robe.)

 

There's a Thorny Chitin in Geneforge 4, scriptwise. I've never found it, though.

 

The Girdle of Endurance seems to be absent from Geneforge 5. Well, it had a long run.

 

I would greatly appreciate any assistance in fixing up my files.

The question is, why not, when he's writing blog posts almost demanding that there be more in-depth critical analysis of video games?

Perhaps, at least in part, because forums tend to have a bad signal-to-noise ratio. There are plenty of posts that are full of praise, complaints, or questions, but few with any critical analysis at all, let alone in-depth critical analysis.

It is weird, though, that the writing doesn't have the character acknowledge the multiple explanations.

 

Dikiyoba.

I thought it was amusing... but then, I have a fondness for jokes that are completely unacknowledged by the characters.

 

No, and one of the Corruption constructs tells you that none of them is the truth and not even the city is really there.

Of course, the construct could also be lying. And the 'illusions' are quite similar, which suggests that maybe the truth is not so different (or this alleged embodiment of unbridled chaos is pretty unimaginative).

 

I wonder if "this ruin" doesn't refer to the dilapidated state of the buildings, rather than their existance.

Were you using only ranged attacks? You need to have someone who is close (three or four squares, maybe?) to the critter that dies for the blue particle to find them.

I must have forgotten that. Puts a damper on my narrative, doesn't it?

All because about 10 levels prior I was attacked while investigating after an NPC told me there was suspicious activiity going on there.

 

As a Hand of Avadon, I can go anywhere and do anything in the name of the Pact. Leaders of nations would hesitate to oppose my most appalling act, and even powerful old dragons fear my anger. I assert my intention to enter a camp, and before I have a chance to act on that intention, the Kva warriors attack me. Honestly, I expected to find evidence that they were working as spies for Dheless, or at least running illegal drugs. Something, anything, to explain this wild and suicidal overreaction.

 

But no. Apparently they only had Lynaeus Fever, a form of madness characterized mainly by a desire to claim the land of others through violence while playing the victim and blaming Avadon for all their woes. The only known cure is death (the malady which cures all other ailments).

 

They had no Scrolls of Resurrection.

-Impressive artwork and cool little additions to overall graphics.

 

This is probably the first thing that I noticed about Avadon 2... after the gender option at character selection, that is. It's something that I noticed again and again as I visited the two other main regions. The temples in particular look good.

 

There is another thing that kinda stands out for me. This game seems to have more of that old Spiderweb humor than the previous game, or the Geneforge saga. Possibly more than recent Avernums, too, but I'm less certain of that. It's not quite as off-the-wall as, say, the quarreling farm animals in BoE's Valley of Dying Things, or G.I.F.T.S., but I actually laughed aloud once or twice.

Granted, I play on Normal so maybe there are some levels of tactics I'm missing but the Shadowwalker just feels less useful than Khalida and Dendrik is just awful.

 

I also play on Normal. In my experience, Yoshiria did little damage and died frequently at the beginning, but greatly outclassed Khalida in both damage and survivability by the end (both were Strength-oriented, with only a few points in Endurance).

 

I'm not sure what the deal is what Shamans. In both Avadons, it doesn't really matter that they can have very high HP - it's almost as though every enemy has a hidden bonus multiplier when attacking them, like nothing ever misses them and they take more damage than other characters with the same displayed armor and resistances. No wonder the folk of the Wyldrylm feel oppressed, if the laws of the universe are stacked against them! (More likely, it's a case of numbers lying, as they are wont to do.)

Razor flinger is still pretty darn good though. It only damages a single target, but it damages that target quite a bit. So far as I can tell, it hits for roughly 2x what the bolt flinger does.

I don't think the upgrades are meant to be better than the lower-level skills in 100% of situations, though: they're just an extra option. That's why you can still choose to use the lower-level skill.

It sure would be nice if you could tell from casual observation that there is a difference at all (I'm pretty sure the Razorflinger should, at least, fling razors instead of bolts. Boltflingers already fling bolts. Except when they fling razors). Hard to do a side-by-side comparison when they use the same cooldown and the cooldown lasts 1/3 longer than the turrets. It's possible that I started using Razorflingers just as enemy physical resistance jumped again, and I definitely got Inferno Turrets right around the first time demons and such appeared, somewhat diminishing both through unfortunate timing, with the unfortunate result of discouraging me from bothering with them much since.

 

I don't think that the 'upgrades' need to be superior all around, even though they invariably cost more, and some of them are superior; I do think that a reason to use the higher level skill over the base skill, at least occasionally, should be apparent even for those who don't want to spend hours performing experiments and writing up a detailed analysis. At least when other skills are in conflict, you can see the numbers and effects. The turret skills' verbal descriptions aren't as helpful.

I think the problem is the graphics used and not the damage. A boltflinger has a chance at level 3 of a cone attack. A razorflinger fires higher damaging razordisks every round.

I think the problem is the descriptions, which (to me anyway) imply that the Razor Flinger does what the level 3+ Bolt Flinger does, but all the time. In fact...

 

Correct. It does more single-target damage than the boltflinger, though.

Not by much, as far as I can tell! I wonder if any of the 'upgraded' turrets are actually better than the basic ones. The Inferno Turret

• costs nearly twice as much precious Tinkermage Vitality as the Freezing Turret
  
• only does the cone attack, usually hitting no more than two enemies even versus groups of six or more
  
• inflicts fire damage, which is generally much more commonly resisted (or nullified - how often is any other element nullified, throughout Spiderweb's entire catalogue?*) than ice, though I can't say if this is true for this game yet
  
• doesn't seem to do much more damage or take more hits or have longer range than the Freezing Turret
  

all of which, together, make it seem significantly worse than its precursor! The benefits of the Razor Flinger and Healing Pylon also seem dubious. The Temporal Pylon is good (especially if you don't have a Sorceror with Slow), but not so much an upgrade as a... sidegrade? Some other classes have these questionable upgrades, but none so consistently. Am I missing something?

 

 

*aside from Energy in Avadon, which is seemingly only done to ensure that Shamans cannot ever be reliably useful

Now I want to see a game in which your attributes are all tied to things you say, decisions you make, your current mood - basically anything but murder.



Nonsense. Like any other sort of media, video games present diverse environments, scenarios, and attitudes. If you think that Grand Theft Auto is representative of the industry as a whole, or that there's something inherently wrong about 'dark' or 'gritty' games even existing, then you really need to get out more. There's a whole wide world of "fantastic" games, though I suppose if you're a cynic (and I lament the perversion of the term - alas) you'll have a hard time seeing them.

I grew up drinking tap water. The first time I drank filtered water, it tasted very strange, and a little unpleasant.


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I think I like the change, but I'm not sure. I'm already forgetting what it looked like before.

It sounds like you're saying that a flexible plot is not really a plot at all. I would say that a flexible plot is one of the very few things setting video games apart from other, more popular media, and really the only justifiable reason to play a game 'for the story'.

Are you saying that the novels are not as good as the short story collections? I actually feel the opposite - The Dying Earth was (for the most part) a slow, dull read for me, and I couldn't even get into Rhialto the Marvelous. What do you see in them?

Anyway, I've been reading Gene Wolfe's Strange Travelers. 'Useful Phrases' (and one phrase in particular) had a strangely strong impact on me, so I can't imagine the remaining few stories will be nearly as compelling.

My initial response to that article was a shocked "what?!", but if I had thought about it calmly and intelligently I might have said something like this:

 

Console games have been getting progressively easier for about fifteen years - I should know, I've been playing them longer than that. I'm not good at actiony games, but I can't remember the last game I played that presented a mandatory challenge (much less an insurmountable mandatory challenge) on the default difficulty setting, but which would have been fun otherwise. Even if you should happen to encounter one, you can probably find the story scenes on youtube.

 

I'm all for difficulty settings, but I feel that console games need them to make games harder, more often than not.

There's a problem with that.

In my opinion, though, the most offensive thing about Dan Brown's works is that it's so poorly-written (and obviously unedited). I can imagine his publisher saying "Just print it as is, they'll buy anything." Alas, that seems to be true.