Sterno

I've finally gotten to a tougher area. Once enemies start charming/paralyzing your characters, things get more interesting. I'll probably up the difficulty for Avernum 2, but I think Normal is good enough for learning the basics. Thanks for the responses, everyone.

Finally got around to playing these, and starting with Avernum 1. Three questions I've run into so far: 1. Can you learn spells from scrolls? From what I can tell, the answer is no. Scrolls seem to basically be one-shot spells. Just wanted to make sure I'm not missing out. 2. How do you create potions? I've learned some alchemy recipes, found some herbs, and have a sorcerer with the potion making skill. But I'm not sure how to actually go about creating potions. 3. Since it's my first Avernum game, I figured I'd start on Normal difficulty, though normally I play games on the hardest setting. So far it's been a cakewalk, but I've only done the newbie quests (clearing out the bandits and the goblin cave, plus some random outdoor encounters). The hints on the site talk about going to the dungeon, killing a few guys, and then leaving and coming back, but I've found I don't need to do that (except to haul out the massive amounts of loot). Makes me wonder if Normal mode is a little on the easy side, or if the game just goes extra easy on you in the early zones. I'm probably still just going to go through this on Normal mode and then up the difficulty when I get to Avernum 2, but I'm kind of curious to hear some perspectives on game difficulty and how much of a jump the next two difficulty levels would be. And if any games in the series differ dramatically from the others in terms of difficulty.

Finally got around to playing Avernum 1 and I see the site with Annotated Maps is down. Anyone know if that's just a temporary thing, or is the site gone?

Steam led me to Eschalon, which in turn led me to Avernum. It went something like this: 1. I saw Eschalon on Steam. Bought it, liked it. 2. While reading the Eschalon forums, I heard about Avernum. 3. Took a look at the Spiderweb site and decided it looked like the sort of games for me. So I bought Avernum 1-6, Geneforge 1-5, and Nethergate: Resurrection. Even though there's no way I'll end up playing them all. Had the games been on Steam, not only would I have been more likely to buy (I was on the fence for a while), but I wouldn't have had to take the convoluted path I did before hearing about them. I don't think putting Avadon on Steam is going to make it an instant best-seller, but it will help exposure, and people like me who otherwise simply hadn't heard of it might give it a go. And don't underestimate the power of impulse-purchasing for idiots like me with too much disposable income. Steam makes it really, really easy to make impulse purchases. Exhibit A: See today's holiday sales and Steam collapsing under the weight of all the traffic and purchases.

Interestingly, it was Steam's sale of the Eschalon games that indirectly led me to finding out about Spiderweb Software a few months ago.

I'm a big fan of Steam. In theory I prefer Impulse, since they don't add DRM, but Steam has a lot more games, features, and bigger sales, so they tend to win. Digital download is a big plus for me. I hate having to keep tracks of discs, CD Keys, and Registration keys, and Steam largely does away with that. Sure, I can't resell my games, but that's not something I do anyway. The only complaint I've ever had about Steam is that they can be slow to patch lesser-played games. It took a long time for Eschalon Book 2 to get their 1.04 patch on there. When I was playing Sacred 2, it took Steam 2+ months for some of the patches, and during that time it was impossible to play on the official servers since you needed to be patched to the latest version to do so. It's rare that something like that happens, but it does happen, and it's frustrating when it does. Whereas on Impulse, they don't add their own DRM, so if the publisher releases a patch, you can just patch it yourself. I'd definitely recommend Jeff not ignore Impulse as a distribution platform, though.

Thanks for the response. Seems like my best bet is to download the Avernum 1 and Geneforge 1 demos, get the registration codes for one of my computers, enter those into the order form, and then play on that machine until the CDs arrive. After that, sounds like I should be able to install on multiple machines and just move my saved games around. Thanks! (Probably a moot point since I bet I won't even get through the demo content before the CDs arrive).

I'm getting close to pulling the trigger on ordering the entire Avernum series as well as Geneforge, but I want to understand how the DRM for these games work first. From what I can tell from the ordering page, when you install the demo, it'll generate a registration code for you. If you enter that when you order the actual CDs, you'll be immediately emailed the registration key. Does this mean I'll only be able to play this game on one of my computers? Part of the reason I like old-school style games like this is I can usually toss them on a flash drive and plug them into my desktop, laptop, or even my work computer, since system requirements aren't really an issue. It sounds like I'll only be able to play this on one computer. Is that true even with the CD version? After installing from CD, will I have to generate a registration code and then log on and get a key? And if so, can I do that for multiple computers? Just want to understand how this works before I make my decision. Also, I'd love to see these games on Impulse or Steam. I hate trying to keep CDs and registration keys around years after purchase.