*i

Quote: Maybe demons are inherently more prone to evil than other species but their drive to murder wouldn’t be their only motivation in attacking Avernum, they want their freaking home back. Again, we are back to the tired old paradigm of some group trying to take over/destroy something. True, they might have more motivation than sheer evil, but it would be revenge at best. Essentially, we have Rentar-Ihrno in a different form. Why was she not well received? Not because of her inherent lack of motivations, but that her motivations and actions are so classic, so mundane, so predictable. Yes, it followed logically, but too logically. A4 has no real surprise (other than the Darkside Loyalists) in it. By the end of the demo, we pretty much know who the bad guy is and exactly what is going to happen in the end. That's the main critique of the A4 plotline and the same critique the demon plotline as it stands would apply. Not saying that the demons cannot be used, they can, but should be done so in a novel way.

I reiterate: Quote: Originally written by *i: You don't until you are told to.

Quote: Originally written by lordofdc: Maybe it should be made that a giant earth quike happend in the eastern part of avernum and reveald a giant path to a new series of caves thats even bigger than avenum and that thetres a new breed of slith.....more powerfull than the ones in avernum and that they have encredible magic and they are more bigger and are a giant portal has bean created and grah-hoth and other mightier demons that lived long before the empire discoverd avernum in avernum and were banished but returns through this portal.And a powerfull magician died but upon his death something happend......all five dragons have returnd.....completely heald and that includes motrax thats slightly yonger.and it would work great with the avernum triology engine. Bigger! More Powerful! Bring on EVERYTHING at ONCE!! ... In all seriousness, this is a typical plot of the inexperienced. It rests upon the assumption that more is always better. When I was younger, naive, and far less cynical, I had similar thoughts and beliefs. Give the monster another 500 HP I thought, they'll love it...but then I realized the dearth of creativity that it was. It's never about how much or how big, but on how detailed, how personal, how elegant. Sure, more can help when needed, but more for the sake of more is almost always less. Finally, I'm happy to read that A5 will be on a "smaller" or "less epic" scale.

Quote: Grah-Hoth is a Haakai lord and a prince among demons. The context shows that "prince" is a methaphorical one. Do you have any citation of there being a "demon king" or that Grah-Hoth was his "only son"? Revenge has been done overly much in Exile/Avernum and is pretty much as mundane as the he's evil because he's evil argument. Finally, why must there always be someone attacking/invading something? Can't we do better?

Quote: Hey. Grah-Hoth is the Prince of Demons. Chances are there are numerous spells preventing him from returning, but what about daddy? The King of the Demons is sure going to angry. Once again, we are back to evil demons because demons are evil. Also, where do you find reference that Grah-Hoth is an actual Prince and not just metaphoric? Citation please. Quote: WHat's more the angry dragons, that's good. I like this idea, the Empire is being attacked by the Dragons. The worst thing about A4 would be the utter predictability of the plot. The worst thing about this is the same reason. Come on! Can't we shift the paradigm away from someone attacking somewhere? These games have milked that concept dry.

You don't until you are told to.

I agree with Ephesos. You have to free yourself of the monster plague and evil/vindictive powerful being paradigms. A natural disaster, for example, can serve as much of a plot motivator as any bad guy.

Capitalization and punctuation are good, rantalot, it's very difficult to read your posts. The house and quest aspect is cool, but I'd rather see a well developed and original main storyline first before adding any frills. If I ask for anything, that's what I ask for first.

Quote: ok so demons are admitebly a little 2 dimentional but what else is there to threaten the empire??? It's Avernum we are worrying about, not the Empire. Jeff could come up with a lot of things, an undiscovered Slith kingdom, a powerful magical being, a natural occurrence such as a massive cave quake that disrupts order, etc. In other words, tons of things as long as you don't restrict yourself to the monster plague/evil bad guy out to take over the world mentality. I'd just like to see something else, like a game based on survival or escape.

Quote: i am up for a masive all out demon invasion Please no. Demons have been used to death in so many media, it's not even funny anymore. Demons invade because they are demons and demons are evil and like to invade, circular logic. No thought involved. The First Expedition would be a really nice change. Bring us back to survival, escape mode.

He also mentioned the help manuals, I'm not sure what platform he is on. It's times like these a screenshot would be extremely helpful.

You have not furnished details of the program you may be using to view the documentation, I need those. Also, I'm moving this to Blades of Exile where I think it would be a little more appropriate.

Is there a way to zoom in?

I don't think it's said officially, but one can infer that he is indeed a half-breed based upon the morphology described.

I believe the personality field is used with things like the INTRO text, but not a lot else.

I would say Blades of Exile in its entirity including all of the scenarios because from a player's perspective it would be a bit skewed just to include Jeffs work.

Easy to use, months worth of great scenarios to play. A true success story for an engine. Sure, there might be some quibbles with it, but overall one of the best programs ever written. Too bad Blades of Avernum is not nearly as easy to use as this one. 10.0

You cannot rest outdoors anymore. I do not believe you can "loot faster". I've never really had an issue with this.

I agree with Kelandon's sentiment. If this were a BoA scenario by a newer designer, I would rate it significantly higher. However, because of the experience of the designer and the price tag, I will be a bit more harsh. The innovative concepts and engine mimic a lot of modern BoA ones and add new ones. For this I congratulate the designer on. I would give a 9.5. The plot, or absence thereof, is lackluster. The atmosphere to the previous Exile/Avernum games was far superior and in this I found quite lacking. Temperol inconsistencies from A3 are a big minus also. This end sorely needs a lot more effort and in the absence of length (which I feel is more than negated by having to pay $30), I would rate it a 5.0. My personal preference is to weight plot and atmosphere higher than gameplay (I'll do a 3 to 1 ratio) and give it a ranking of 6.1.

Did you activate the beam projectors in the Town Details menu?

You mean parenthases. I don't understand by not knowing where to look. It seems simple, modify the code in ways you think should work, load up the scenario, activate the state in question, and see if it errors. You can even use the print_num() call to help with debugging. If you cannot figure anything out, then come to the boards.

aaaarrgh -- This is your final warning, any future pointless posts will result in permanent revokation of your membership privledges.

Quote: Originally written by Kelandon: 1st prize: $100 2nd prize: $60 3rd prize: $40 4th and 5th prizes: a free game My advice with this is to ask for more and come lower when challenged, it gives you more room for compromise. This is a typical tactic used in negotiation: always ask for more than you expect to get. The caveat to that is you cannot ask for too much lest the person whom you are negotating does not take you seriously. Also, the $40 cash prize is rather silly because it is little more than a free game from Spiderweb. I propose an alternatively higher prize structure this: 1st prize: $250 2nd prize: $150 3rd prize: $100 4th-5th: Free game Although the prizes are a bit high; Roughly $560 total seems like a bit much, but it does start higher. This is one of the cases where more is better.

The time has come. Blades has been host to great minds and innovators, but now the community is moribund. One of the last vessels of creativity and inspiration in cyberspace is but a fleeting memory. The demise of Blades was long foretold and is now at hand. All things must die, all circles must close, and Blades has reached its silent end. This will be the topic of the next (and perhaps the last) Blades Chat on Saturday, February 18 at 6 pm EST.

Quote: Why do you refuse to change things? Because graphics are expensive and difficult to develop. Spiderweb software is a company of three on a low budget. Square is a company of hundreds with a budget of millions so they can make each Final Fantasy game have a whole new set of graphics. Quote: Watching the same people run around killing stuff has a short-lived entertainment factor. I was reading the Lord of the Rings the other day and I noticed the Tolkein kept reusing the same words over and over again in each of the books. Yeah, the sentences were different, but the words themselves kept popping up.