blackwight

I don't suppose the developer will see this, but... I revisited Avadon recently and I liked the story text and dialogs better than in the more recent works. It was less verbose, and had bits of surprises in it that kept my interest. I tend to just glance at the dialogs from recent years, scanning for something relevant. Sometimes I just don't read it. Shorter is better. Like that guy who asks you to read his 'chart'. I remember him. And the lesbian armor shop. A few lines of text only, but I never forgot them. Keep the old text, please!

Really there's too much paranoia. My lawyer is afraid to tell me the things he's afraid of. Quote: His example was a cool sword sound effect donated by a player that was taken from another company's game. The cease and desist letter from that company wasn't the thing he ever wants to repeat. From a commercial game?? How can you compare this and that? Scott Adams (Dilbert) had a drop box for years, I put something in it once. Scott Adams is a dozen times more sue-able than Spiderweb. You cannot live in fear of litigation when you're doing nothing wrong. It will constipate your business! Common sense and a little erring on the side of caution will serve a small business better than living in a contract-clad castle. Quote: Listening to fans is the start of a slippery slope towards pandering to fans, and a dropbox for ideas would be a step too far down that slope for my liking. I can't agree with that. Certainly there would be a lot of crap, but that's the way it goes. The central plot is easy, it's the gritty details that kick it up a notch; and junk piles are a good place to look for them.

I can tell you that writing comes from everywhere, as do bits of imagery and music. People who worry too much about copyrights produce nothing. Mark the box: "If you have an idea you would like to see in the game, drop it here. In the unlikely event that it is used, your sole reward will be to see your contribution immortalized in game form." Do you suppose someone will go to court? The useful ideas are short and modified to fit the need, the damages are trivial; the box is clearly marked, the work bore no copyright, gimme a break. It's a mistake to be unduly concerned about lawsuits when your business is honest and low-dollar.

Oh it's not that bad, look how long the credits are already. He could even just say "thanks to all the people who put something in the drop box." I really think the ideas would be worth it.

The developer should implement an idea drop box for puzzles, plots and gadgets which is not visible to the public.

You put them down the underpants of your enemies.

Quote: The thing is, to do it smoothly, this would take a few seconds. A because of that, it would definitely annoy lots of people. Not with a delay. As you leave town, every square you move would budge the camera up a bit. It could be smoothed, but no delay. I don't mind the random encounters so much, as long as they stop chasing you when the party reaches a certain point of competence. Random encounters provide a means of gaining experience when you're lagging, and that's a better punishment for making a few bad decisions than starting over. I would like to see random encounters that never run out in every zone, so that lagging players can catch up. Imho, it might also break up the culture of perfectionism I see here, since you could keep fighting them until you reach a ludicrous level if you want to spend years doing it. When you fight a looney wizard, your thinking should be: 'What do I know about this looney wizard?'; not 'What do I know about the game engine.'

I agree the old towns would be nice, especially with fewer rats... but decisions like that one have probably been committed to already. A nice effect would be to zoom the camera out smoothly as the party leaves town until they dwindle to tiny figures. Entering a battle or town would make the camera drop again. That would require a mixing of two tile sets, but it can be done by making the big tiles correspond to collections of little ones in every case.

Fewer rats, please.

If you sneak in, you can attack them one at a time. Crowd around blue first, I think red has a good ranged attack. The worms were the worst thing in there.

I can't find any mention of the Neron above Ft. Dranlon. Does anyone know who he is and what he's up to?

Originally Posted By: Spidweb So yes, the game will become easier. - Jeff Vogel Victory is mine. Another level below 'Casual' might also be nice. BTW the term 'casual' brings casual gaming to mind, which has a sort of granny reputation. I used 'relaxed' to encourage people to adjust the difficulty down; which they still refuse to do. Have a good vacation.

Originally Posted By: When I was an ice sculpture You get experience for kills by summons, and they really shouldn't be better than your characters. —Alorael, who still wants to see your character's skills, traits, and races. It's hard to figure out why the game is so tough when he doesn't know what you're working with. I think there must be some other source of positive feedback then. From the oldest non-edited saved game are my stats: Difficulty: Normal Seargent first fighter, human male: Level 19 Health 127 Spell energy 51 Armor 64% Fire 45% Cold 41% Energy 41% Stun 56% Mental 6% Poison 21% Acid 45% Strength 8 Dexterity 4 Intelligence 2 Endurance 6 Melee 9 Pole 0 Bows 1 Missiles 1 Quick action 4 Mage 0 Priest 0 Arcane lore 0 Spellcraft 0 Hardiness 5 Defense 3 Tool 0 Nature lore 6 First aid 3 Luck 0 Blademaster 2 Dual wielding 2 second fighter, slith male: Level 17 Health 116 Spell energy 47 Armor 48% Fire 44% Cold 30% Energy 30% Stun 42% Mental 6% Poison 38% Acid 47% Strength 9 Dexterity 4 Intelligence 2 Endurance 5 Melee 4 Pole 11 Bows 1 Missiles 0 Quick action 2 Mage 0 Priest 0 Arcane lore 0 Spellcraft 0 Hardiness 4 Defense 5 Tool 0 Nature lore 2 First aid 2 Luck 0 Parry 2 Blademaster 1 Gymnastics 1 Dual wielding 1 Riposite 1 no traits priest, human male: Level 19 Health 111 Spell energy 231 Armor 38% Fire 7% Cold 7% Energy 22% Stun 16% Mental 35% Poison 21% Acid 18% Strength 2 Dexterity 2 Intelligence 11 Endurance 5 Melee 3 Pole 0 Bows 0 Missiles 1 Quick action 0 Mage 0 Priest 8 Arcane lore 1 Spellcraft 1 Hardiness 3 Defense 2 Tool 10 Nature lore 2 First aid 2 Luck 0 Delicate skin Minor heal 3 Curing 3 War blessing 3 Protection 3 Repel spirit 3 Smite 3 Summon shade 4 Ward of thoughts 5 Unshackle mind 4 Heal 5 Mass healing 3 Mass curing 4 Control foe 1 mage, human female: Level 19 Health 97 Spell energy 211 Armor 40% Fire 22% Cold 13% Energy 35% Stun 25% Mental 42% Poison 18% Acid 18% Strength 2 Dexterity 2 Intelligence 10 Endurance 4 Melee 1 Pole 0 Bows 0 Missiles 0 Quick action 3 Mage 10 Priest 0 Arcane lore 8 Spellcraft 5 Hardiness 2 Defense 1 Tool 0 Nature lore 1 First aid 0 Luck 0 Delicate skin Bolt of fire 3 Call beast 1 Cloak of curses 3 Daze 1 Haste 3 Slow 3 Icy rain 4 Spray acid 3 Minor summon 1 Summon aid 1 Current quests: More jobs for Meryhew Aid tower colony The Blessed Athame Corrupted mushrooms The buried seal Tower colony notes Great portal papers Get help for Silvar Flawless crystals Second construct test Hunting Holda Donating meal Skribbane infestation Chrysander's theives The crackling demon X's anvil The ogre's muck Honeycomb horrors Checking the wards Locate Cundo Find Murdock The horror's lair Delivery: undead spiral The dancing bones The dragon gate Bounty: tunnel hunters Message: Bargha Fort spire records Abyss thugs Like I said, these are from days ago. The more recent stats are pretty meaningless with all the frustrated clicking I've been doing. The next saved file was edited. If you like I can post it. Thanks

Originally Posted By: darint The "Hidden Brigands" you found aren't the Brigands Spire wants dead. Those are in a hidden cave far closer to Spire. Oh. Thank you. Originally Posted By: Thuryl The trick to this one is to make sure the last character in the turn order attacks the eyebeast every round. I often will lose my priest to charms, and sometimes my entire party. Of course I use Unshackle when my priest is working. Originally Posted By: ThurylI actually did the Aranea Queen [... Magic is the most effective form of attack against her, so you might want to wait until you can cast Cloak of the Arcane, if you can't already. This stabs at the issue because my mage was nowhere near that level when I last tried that quest. I noticed in A5 as well that it's possible to accumulate an XP deficit while playing sometimes, even when every quest is completed. I suspect that once you fall behind in XPs, it snowballs until the game becomes unplayable. If so then it's the progression that needs fixing. Is it true that when a summoned monster gets a kill, the XPs for the kill are lost? Here's what I think happens: If a party takes missions that are too hard, summoned monsters start getting the kills and sapping the XPs away. As reliance on summoned monsters increases, the loss accelerates. My summoned monsters are presently better fighters than the two in my party. Unless I summon a mouse of course. If I'm right then the fix is to credit the party with the XPs their summoned monsters are presently wasting.

Thanks for the replies. I have completed every mission I've found, including all 3 from Meryhew. Of course I cherry-pick them as best I can. I've ignored a few quests, such as 'The Dark Spiral' and 'Ogre Treachery!'. My current mission from Levitt is 'Slay Ghavassa-Oss'. I have 19 current quests. My characters average level 30. I'm using the default party, I have 1 mage and 1 priest and 2 fighters. Everyone is adequately equipped with the spoils of the quests so far. Undoable: The eye cultists: after trying several times, I increased my fighter's intelligence to 10 each; otherwise the eyebeast can control them without resistance. Casting 'Ward of Thoughts' had no noticeable effect. There was no other way to do it. It was easy after editing. The Aranea Queen. This is simply impossible. I've killed her a few times, but never survived it. I won't usually keep the victory if more than 1 character is killed-- I assume that experience points are badly lost when characters don't survive. Hidden Brigands. I'm trying to complete this one. I mopped up the rabble quickly, then returned for Gavrahoss. With difficulty I can get him down to his last pixel. I have yet to get out without everyone being killed. Yes, I am aware that his shades have weaknesses. I try to find the ones that are sensitive to melee, cold, heat and dispel attacks. I get a few licks in on at least one of them before they go away again. I have re-edited my characters and I still can't survive it. Many quests, such as the second sentinel testing, required many attempts-- maybe 10 or more. I normally don't like to rely on 'perishables' such as wands, scrolls and potions. I never buy them, or there would be no cash left for spells. Is the game tested only on people who have completed the previous releases? Are the testers instructed to use the default party or test under poor conditions? Are they isolated from other sources of information about the game? I must insist, the easy setting should be easy. If I find it entirely impossible, then it is not easy. I would say the difficulty on the easy setting should be turned down by a whopping factor of 5.

I'm playing on it's easiest setting-- and after massively editing all the players (8 endurance + many others) each, quests that should be easy are still unplayable despite many tries. Repeatedly editing the players really saps my interest in the game! An easy setting should be literally *easy* to all but the most inept player. Characters should almost never die on the easiest setting, even when the game is played badly. Avernum 5 was, imho, at least twice as hard as it should have been on it's normal setting, but I didn't have to edit the characters to get to the finish line. I should add that was without the help from Gladwell; I set the drake free. The game would have been a good bit more enjoyable at half the difficulty. Let the masochists turn it up if they want to. I've been playing games of this genre since Leather Goddesses of Phobos. I am not inept. Is there some trick or point that I'm missing? I've noticed that skribbane is used by the other players, something that I would not have considered. Any help would be appreciated, or better yet, an update with big adjustments in it from our Mr. Vogel. Chris

If you encounter Weylin on the road, far from the brigands, he gets stuck there. I can send a saved game file if you want it.