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So Much Killing

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Everything posted by So Much Killing

  1. Originally Posted By: Mestalidd Seeing how much skribbane you can get, thats like a more time consuming character editor......hense why it was fixed. As I understand it the players with a less rigid game playing ethic reasoned that since they could trade gold for skribbane and trade skribbane for skill points, that it would be more efficient to simply use the character editor to add skill points based on how much gold they had. It isn't a much bigger leap to then reason that one could run around collecting every little item that isn't nailed down and selling it for gold, but it would be more efficient to simply assume you have a lot of gold. I believe a related kind of logic led to the financial meltdown of 2008.
  2. 2. IIRC, there was at least one of the six games where one of the skills you could develop did increase the amount of gold you would get when you sold items. But it is not A6. 4. Dual wielding is definitely the best for front-line fighters in the mid to late game. Early on, a pole weapon does more damage, so makes the early game easier. But there are a lot of good swords in the game, so were I to create a new group, I'd definitely make my front-line fighters all dual-wield. Humans are widely regarded as a bad choice -- which is unfortunate because I'd rather my PCs were human, and I like the pictures better. But the cats are the probably the best choice, with the Slith a close second -- especially if you're going to go with a pole user. If you read the Strategy Central stuff, or other party-building threads, you'll find that Divinely Touched is recommended for all PCs, and warriors should be Elite Warrior, mages should be Natural Mage, and priests Pure Spirit. The loss in XP is more than made up for by all the extra levels of important skills.
  3. Originally Posted By: CRISIS on INFINITE SLARTIES Just the qualifier "bothers to register a message board account" already restricts you to an extremely narrow slice of Avernum players. Good point. I played the first five and most of the sixth Avernum before I ever came here. I'm sure there are many who never come by at all. Quote: I think my problem with how much these "player choices" are hyped up, is that they have become extremely formulaic. [...] There's nothing wrong with this, mind you, it's just hard to be excited about it any more, or see it as a real selling point. It would be nice to play a game where all of your various choices affected the way things went. But I can imagine that it would be very hard to code, especially if there was some overall plot that needed to be shepherded to a resolution. Giving the player more substantive choices could make the game exponentially harder to program and debug. I think the game designer has to confront the choice between making the game bigger, or making it deeper and richer. Since most people are probably going to play it once and judge it on that, the choice to make it bigger seems the obvious one. I, for one, could do with a little less plot, and a little more adventuring and mystery. A6 started to seem like a bit of a slog after a while, and you ultimately had very little choice about what you did. In fact, most people probably did everything in order to level up their characters so they could fight the tougher enemies. So the choices were, as you say, nothing to get excited about.
  4. At this point we have a fairly small sample, so I'm not sure how much we can glean from the results. The people responding are likely the dedicated types who are repeat players or still check the forum months after they finish playing the game, and a few new players who come along. Still, it looks like the majority favor the monarchy ruling Avernum without challenge from power-hungry dragons and wizards. If you add in the people who do the minimum (also favorable to the monarchy, though desiring some checks and balances in the form of a brainwashing dragon), you're around two-thirds of the votes. The anti-monarchy group comes in around one-quarter of the votes, fairly evenly split between favoring Gladwell, Melanchion, or both. Looking at the original thesis, it would seem that most people side with the expressed sentiments of the game's creator, though a significant minority resist that guidance.
  5. To answer the question in your original post, there is a lot of food throughout the game. As long as you collect what is available, you will have more than enough to get you through. And you can sell or give away (for experience) all of the bags of meal that you find. If you're an obsessive collector (like me), it's easy to finish with more than 100 items of several different types of food.
  6. EE, there is something about your avatar that is frustrating my browser. It never seems to load, and the page just spins until it times out. Is it a dead link, or being hosted from somewhere with no bandwidth?
  7. Originally Posted By: The Turtle Moves Complete all of Gladwell's quests then kill him. Complete 2 the two of Mel's quests that align with the interests of Avernum: scourge and darkside loyalists. Leave Melanchion alive. Outcome the same as option #1. Ah, yes, I missed that one. But you're right -- it's basically the same as option 1, so let's call it that. I can't seem to edit the poll, so we'll have to live with it. I was going to post a separate poll of which Melanchion quests people do, but it appears that most people (so far) do all of them. I wonder, for instance, if anyone ever finishes the game without killing the Scourge.
  8. Originally Posted By: Dantius Yes, but my ending is feasible both in the game and in the context of other games Jeff had made. If you don't like it, just throw out the bit from "execute a coup" onwards and you'll have my ending. Okay, so you're pretty much Option #6, but with an eye toward making yourself king. I would have included killing the king, but I believe it results in an instant "Go to jail" ending. A good avenue for a coup would be to somehow delay the delivery of Mel's pylon to the great portal. Then you could whip up the mobs of people waiting to get out, and storm the castle. Then you'd deliver the pylon and be Savior of Avernum. But that's another game...
  9. Okay, but by "other ending" I didn't mean one you make up. I meant one that is actually possible within the context of the game as it is written, but that I had missed in the options I gave. For instance, my favored ending is that Megan Fox is so impressed with my brilliant gameplay that she wants to be my girlfriend and then I don't have time to finish the game. But that doesn't really help to answer the central question of this thread.
  10. I'm mostly thinking about situations where you are told how you feel about something or what your reaction is.
  11. In A6, the actions you take can result in different endings (whether you realize it when you are playing or not). Some of us feel that the game creator's preference was apparent in some editorializing in the descriptions and conversations, but the question is, what do the players choose? This poll contains a list of the major endings. If you have only played to one ending, pick that. If you have played to multiple endings, pick the one you favor (e.g., the one you would play to if you were doing it "for real" in your role as citizen/soldier/adventurer/unholy killing machine.) (Note, the '#' symbols in some of the options don't mean anything -- they are just a result of my incompetence.)
  12. Okay, I've edited the option where you complete both sets of quests to show a standoff resolution. Any other fixes? It's interesting that killing the Scourge doesn't help Avernum, only Melanchion. Mel is always telling you that what you're doing for him will help Avernum, too. Apparently he's a big liar.
  13. Originally Posted By: Randomizer If you have trouble then invulnerable potions will let you survive a pylon. This is my favored option. With the potions, you can just stand there and pound on him, and he doesn't last long. I'm not a big fan of using the invulnerable potions, but there are a couple of spots where they make things much simpler. If a fight is tactically fun, they feel like a cheat, but I found the Kavaris fight more annoying than fun. Not sure why.
  14. Originally Posted By: Lilith Killing Melanchion is difficult enough that I'd say it's really more of a semi-hidden option than something you're expected to do. I'd say the closest thing to a basic "default" ending would be to do the bare minimum number of Melanchion's quests (Darkside Loyalists and Slith Scourge) and not complete Gladwell's quest line, so that Starrus remains king of Avernum, Melanchion is alive but has been unable to expand his sphere of influence, and the Abyss is ruled by Lord Farrar. That's no more "canonical" than any other ending, though. Agreed, though I think a lot of people may kill Lord Farrar, too (which I think is easier than killing the Darkside Loyalists -- and if you don't kill them, you can't do Gladwell's last quest). Killing the Vahnatai is quite hard, and you've helped them earlier in the game, so some people may draw the line there. In that case you don't have to kill Melanchion to get the "balanced" ending. The path of least resistance just leads you there. On the other hand, many players of fantasy RPGs are compulsive enough to want to do everything. So who knows? That's why I'm thinking of doing a poll. Here are the options I'm thinking of. Let me know if you have any additions, subtractions, edits, etc. I may not have all of the outcomes correct. Proposed poll of favored endings: Do not complete all quests for Gladwell and Melanchion. Starrus rules Avernum in standoff with Mel. Complete Gladwell's quests, but not Melanchion's. Gladwell rules Avernum in standoff with Mel. Complete Gladwell's quests, kill Melanchion. Gladwell rules Avernum. Complete Melanchion's quests, but not Gladwell's (or kill Gladwell). Starrus remains king but bows down to Mel. Complete both Melanchion's and Gladwell's quests. Gladwell rules Avernum in standoff with Mel. Complete both Melanchion's and Gladwell's quests, but kill both. Starrus rules Avernum. Other ending. Please post an explanation. I note that Melanchion's outcomes are not symmetric with Gladwell's. Mel still has power if you don't complete his quests, but you get the same net result with Gladwell if you don't finish his quests, or if you do, then kill him. Are the Lord Farrar outcomes important enough to include as separate variations in the "don't complete Mel's quests" choices? Maybe we could have a separate poll of the Mel quests? Once we come up with a list, I will post the choices in poll form.
  15. EE: I agree that there are a lot of possibilities, and many of them are not well explored by the various ending texts. I was a bit disappointed with that. By 'canonical' I was mostly thinking of the OP's request for the ending that, if he wrote it into a story, would be the one that most players would agree was the typical ending. Helping Gladwell and/or Mel to become the dominant power(s) are, I think, somewhat aberrational endings, even if they're a bit more interesting. My reading of the clues in the conversations and the ending texts is that Jeff did not favor those endings. But, for all I know, those are more common than the one I am advocating. It may be that a lot of people do all of Glad and Mel's quests and then can't or don't kill them. I find them annoying, so I kill them (along with everyone else who is even mildly annoying and a lot of people who aren't), but others may not be bothered. Maybe we need a survey.
  16. You may be correct that there are other factors that affect parry and riposte. It's possible that the number displayed is some base chance that is modified by other factors (or is just plain wrong). But at this point it probably isn't worth the effort of chasing it down. If I notice the same thing when Avadon comes out, I'll bring it up again. Or you can look for it in the beta if you're one of the testers.
  17. I don't know, EE, there is plenty of editorializing by the author to suggest that both Gladwell and Melanchion are jerks who can not be trusted with power. Gladwell intends all kinds of havoc that would be very hard on the poor, disenfranchised people of Avernum. And Mel's followers are a bunch of mindless zombies who have been brainwashed into serving His Magnificence the Dragon (who, like a coward, sends you out to assassinate his opponents). Given that the PC is a citizen and soldier of Avernum, I think the canonical ending is that you do what is necessary to help the people through the crisis, and for the King to retain power. Or do a bit more and kill Mel, too, so that the people of Avernum don't have to pay tribute to him.
  18. Quote: Alorael, who certainly wouldn't expect another Avernum until Avadon has come and gone and a few sequels have rolled around. But if Avadon flops, or if Jeff is struck by inspiration, the old cash cow and flagship property is waiting. Personally, I think a return to Avernum after, say, fifty or a hundred Avernum-years would be really fun. I got very tired of the totally civilized Avernum (or Empire) of the later games, and enjoyed the exploration of the early games. Going back to see what became of various areas, what moved in when people moved out, what new critters emerged, the local fiefdoms that eke out a living in the wilderness, etc., would be cool. The pattern of running from huge town to huge town (or fort), the endless conversations with everyone there, doing their local quests, solving their problem, then moving on, got very repetitive this time. I want some adventure and exploration. I really hope that Avadon isn't going to be as political as I fear it will be.
  19. You're definitely going to have some tricky fights, and some that go on much longer than they would otherwise. But part of the fun of the game is to make it challenging, and if you hit something you can't beat (even when you come back later after leveling up a bit), you can always turn the difficulty down.
  20. Hanto, if you've unlocked Riposte, you're far enough along to be missing out by not using QA and QS. With QA above 10, your dual-wielder will hit three and often four times per attack. With increased battle speed and/or QS to get you to 10AP per round, you double that number, and can triple it if using haste in combination with adrenaline rush, speed potions, speed burst scrolls, or rods of alacrity. Even tough opponents die pretty quickly when you take 600 hp out of them each turn.
  21. Slarty, regarding your analysis reposted by Randomizer, and in particular your comments at the end on expected vs. actual damage, there is definitely something off about Jeff's random number generator or the way he uses it. It seems streaky, or he is caching some of the results and re-using them when we wouldn't expect. The best evidence of this is the weird streaks of parry and riposte: you will sometimes get a guy with a 6% chance of parry succeeding three time (or more) in a row. On average, that should happen maybe 1 in 5000 tests, but it happens much more often than that. The same happens with low riposte numbers. It usually lasts a turn, then things go back to "normal". It's so obvious that when I see it happening in a turn, I switch my later PCs attacks to another enemy. If I'm right, statistical tests may never match up with the formulas, even if the formulas are correct.
  22. It doesn't appear to add a lot of damage (but then, none of the bows is all that great), but it makes a cool "boom" when you shoot someone with it. It's very satisfying.
  23. Yeah, it would be nice if the Venomous Blade did poison, because then in combination with a pole user with the Jade Halberd (or someone using the Oozing Sword) you'd do poison and acid damage every round. Not that they amount to much damage at that level, but in some of the bigger battles, it could add up.
  24. Yeah, I meant the Venomous Blade, not the Oozing Sword -- the Venomous does a bit more damage.
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