The Almighty Doer of Stuff

I drink a lot of tapwater, seltzer and diet soda, and strong coffee with whole Lactaid twice a day. At least one banana a day. On Mondays when I go to the supermarket, I get either rotisserie chicken legs, a rotisserie turkey thigh, or sushi (this supermarket has an in-house sushi chef). I go for a long walk to another supermarket twice a week for exercise, and get some dried fruit and either cheese or cold cuts for lunch. Other than those three meals, I feed myself only Soylent (a powdered food) with a little bit of flavoring. Pretty simple diet, but I find it satisfying enough. And I feel a lot better physically. I'm hoping this will help me stay healthier and lose weight. I weigh 330 lbs and I hate it. Luckily my partners all seem to like the "dad bod" thing, but I really don't. The "dad bod" is painful. People call it the "dad bod" but for most people it's the "doesn't know how to take care of themself and is hurtling toward an early death bod". And my dad was a bodybuilder. I've also cut out gluten, hoping it would help my inflamed colon. It hasn't, but doctors have been telling me to avoid bread for many years anyway, so it's certainly not hurting me.

You need a keyboard to input text in-game, such as Ask About... in talking mode or the Text Response? node. Therefore, to make the game tablet-friendly or controller-friendly would require a virtual keyboard anyway.

Progress is very slow due to life events causing low mental energy. But I am still working on updating the text. I've reached the second version of alchemy potion descriptions, about 3/4 of the way down the program in my hex editor. Once the text is adequate, I'll add a small informational library to New Market City and make a few other minor changes (including renaming it Grand Market City so it's clearly, obviously differentiated from the original). Then I have to verify my changelogs, credits, and other documents, update the copyright notices in the three applications with the hex editor, and update the website. That sounds like a lot more work than it is, but the real issue is me maintaining focus. Motardo provided me with a patch to remove the Scenario Editor password requirement, but otherwise this next release will feature very few changes to the two editors. I'm focusing more on getting the game itself less buggy and easier to learn.

I don't know about New Game + modes in particular, but I've always liked collecting interesting items and equipment in RPGs and I also am bugged by some of the really interesting equipment and abilities in some games only being usable for about five minutes. I think I'd rather have in an RPG, a final dungeon where most of what you get is consumables, and equipment which is powerful but not as powerful as any "ultimate equipment" which is obtained elsewhere in optional side quests. Like, it's a reward for doing something difficult or clever, not just for generally progressing in the game.

I like artifacts, but I always prefer interesting artifacts, not just useful ones. Spiderweb Software games always have oodles of artifacts, but the really legendary ones are the best, even if they're not necessarily the most powerful. Artifacts with really interesting descriptions or a story behind them. I always collect any interesting artifacts I find in BoE scenarios, and put them on pedestals in my "hub scenario" so I can grab a couple before a new adventure. So interesting artifacts would be a cool thing to add to Geneforge.

I failed to take my own notes on a Jobs Dispatcher job, then stopped playing Exile 3 for several weeks. I come back, look at my jobs list, and see a request for "monster parts". Great.

It would have to somehow force you to point it at your own face, though. Batons are probably about as sentient as living tools but it'd take one heck of a mischievous Shaper to make one with enough telekinetic power to overwhelm a Shaper's control of their own arm.

A living tool that makes locks HARDER to unlock, as an act of rebellion.

Most people just save and reload until the trap disarms, and usually a regular fighter who'd have high Dexterity for combat could disarm any trap within a few reloads without even needing a single point in Disarm Traps. Some of those skills (especially Disarm Traps, Lockpicking, and Poison) are really only useful for novelty party builds with no or very limited magic (for Lockpicking and Poison which are both easier with spells) or no-fighter builds (where no PC would have high Dex and Disarm is cheaper) and things like that. They're not useless entirely, but they are unless you're trying for a challenge.

I love it! But is it missing the road overlay? I forget if that was in Exile I or if it was introduced later in the series.

I just found the Evil Acolyte in Bolton, in Exile III. He is named Oppenheimer and he is very, very nearsighted. He probably thinks you're monsters when you first enter. Why he's carrying a shrunken head on a pole is anyone's guess, though. Another funny thing I found is the storage building in Port Townsend, with four crates and four barrels loaded with loot, and a guard watching it, too close to block with webs. Several seemingly random tiles cannot have barrels and crates pushed onto them, including the door and in front of the door but if you figure out the path and position the container against the wall in the right spot, you can move diagonally and force it into the wall so it bounces back into an otherwise-blocked tile. Then you can push it outside. But there isn't anywhere private to loot the containers! So you have to set up a swath of webs with the Web spell, to block the line of sight for the townsfolk and guards, and the ogre at the dock. It's easiest to set up a web-free path straight south from outside the door, and when the container is looted, push it into the water and repeat with the next container. It's a hilarious, subtle puzzle.

"Oh, throw down your plow and hoe. Rest not to lock your homes." --- "The Battle of Evermore" by Led Zeppelin "Arise, arise, seaman arise. Each does it in his own way: One thrusts the spear into a man, another then into the fish." --- English translation of "Reise Reise" by Rammstein Those songs popped into my head when I read your post, Thaeris. It may even be a weapon designed for withstanding inter-tribe ambushes, which the Slithzerikai are known to be skilled at. You're out in the shallows spearing fish, and the neighboring tribe decides you have better fish than them, and they attack. If your fishing tool and your murderizing tool are the same, you don't even need to think about switching implements. You're already prepared to fight.

Oh, OK. Fair point.

I said "slith spear graphic", not "slith holding slith spear graphic". I should have clarified that I meant the item though. I would have said "Exile I" if I meant Exile I only, but I should have clarified that too. I definitely specified that I was not aware of what the lore was one way or the other, but was speaking only of the graphic.

Oh, that's really interesting. I wonder why some graphics were backported and some were given new graphics in the reskin. I always liked the old gold graphic more than the BoE gold graphic. A lot of new graphics for Exile 1 and 2 were not included in BoE for unknown reasons. I never would have suspected that an authentic slith spear would have been created for the older games, but replaced with an inauthentic one for the new games. Maybe it's because E3's Andrew Hunter graphics came first, and E1 and E2 were reskinned to match at a later date, and an authentic slith spear was made in that process, but after it was already placed incorrectly in E3. EDIT: To avoid looking silly again, I double-checked. E3 has a trident graphic, not a two-tined slith spear.