Gerry Quinn

Realistically, if you are raiding a bandit fort they will set extra guards and watch out for you and the tactics you use, so it should be harder next time if you attack them and do minor damage. But the dopamine hit is a player-centric thing. Most people do like to be 'paid' for their efforts in a game, and modern game designs only encourage this attitude.

For me it's the annoyance of having to remember where everybody is. I think I would actually like the game to record everyone I met in a town, and give me a menu option of "Visit Joe (Captain of the Guards)", "Visit Sam (Armour Shop)" etc. The game would then auto-zoom me to that person. Not very atmospheric... but darned convenient, I'd say!

It's not an RPG if there are no giant rats.

I tend to play on Hard, making character choices that are reasonable but hardly optimised, but not taking on the real impossible tasks like killing dragons you don't have to. I find SW games usually work well for me in this mode.

It depends where Jeff is going with the story, but here's a possible scenario for Avadon 2: It's five years after the events of Avadon, Redbeard is dead and his assassin (whoever it was) did not last long, no character from Avadon is in the story, the Empire waxes stronger but is not yet capable of attacking the Pact.. but the Pact is disintegrating, and rebels make much of the brutality of rule by Avadon. You're a conservative in a land of progressives, standing for the Pact because you believe the alternatives are worse, and knowing that those who oppose it are ultimately dupes of forces who wish to impose a far more brutal rule...

It's a fair enough demo IMO except I think it might leave an experienced player thinking the game will be too easy. Not that it's hard, but it ramps up and so the demo is pretty much a stroll in the park to a practiced player. Except I think for one place you're obviously too early for.

Just a tip: to see spells you have found rather than bought, look at the skills of a melee character who never buys spells.

I found Shadowalker, usually combined with Sorceress and Shaman, worked just fine. Some people don't like the Shaman because her DPS is not great, but her pet is a useful meatshield that increases your options, and combined with her heals will keep your Shadowalker alive, even if he isn't the perfect tank.

I bailed on the Hivemaster fight - cleared everything up to him. I think another level or two might indeed be a good idea for him. The dazing is a nuisance in Areana fights, but the warriors will get their chance sooner or later, and my mage's Icy Rain wears them down nicely.

I'm level 10 now on normal and I've found the difficulty quite balanced so far. I've cleared the Formello area and am in Areana City, where I got my first wipe (unexpected appearance of demons while fighting Areana). My hardest fight before that was the ogre mage in the cat fortress who reduced my party to one, but I could have beaten him more easily on a second try anyway. I might have to leave here before clearing it, but I reckon that if I do I could take on the Slith island fortress which I bailed from earlier.

I played on PC and I remember those. They were slightly annoying but not a game breaker. Can't imagine what caused thewm, though - there is no good reason for them.

The level cap depends on how you play. I didn't do all quests, and I only hit the level cap shortly after the start of the endgame. Which I thought was nice timing on Jeff's part.

It would probably be a good idea to terminate animations if the player enters a new instruction. Console players may not expect this, but computer players do. Mind you, this is a complaint made about Skyrim too, so Jeff is in good company.

File it under "Your mileage can vary", I guess. Avadon and Geneforge 1 are the only two Spiderweb games I have completed. Largely because they are relatively short, and (to me) the stories were compelling. As for being a minmaxer, I played Avadon on hard and I didn't have to be. I stuck with the same two companions, and took the build options that seemed like the most fun, and it worked out fine. I didn't take on the challenge fights such as Beloch, Redbeard and the blue dragon though. For me the Avadon games were longer than I like, and I lost interest part way through.

Have you a friend with a decent connection who could download it for you? Even if they don't live nearby you could mail them a USB stick, or they could burn a CD or something.

I enjoyed Avadon more than most Spiderweb games, though I can see where some people might not have. For one thing, I actually prefer short and non-repetitive games. Avadon and Geneforge 1 are the only Spiderweb games I finished, and of course it's satisfying to get there. Level caps: don't care so long as it is not hit too early. In my case I was into the endgame when it hit, so no problem there. Skill trees: I did find it a little annoying that you have to pump up both lower skills to 6 if you want to get a succeeding skill to 6. As for the middle column, I didn't go overboard with it and I still could complete the game on hard. Nobody makes you minmax to death doing things you don't enjoy. Linearity... most non-linearity in CRPGs is a bit fake anyway, so I don't really mind. You could still choose which quests to do and which to skip etc.

Originally Posted By: Necris Omega The whole idea of "unconsciousness" seems to be a major shift in convenience for players in recent games (Dragon Age). Some old timey RPG purists (which I can honestly qualify for in a lot of cases) might find it disturbing, but I really like the idea. It's not actually new at all - many of the earliest games had it. I think it applied to Bards Tale, early Might and Magic, and perhaps Eye of the Beholder. If you went to 0 HP you didn't die but went unconscious. Only if you then got knocked down to -10 HP were you dead. Back in those days game designers still had an idea that players would play ironman, so they tried to make it at least theoretically possible.

You could import from Dungeon Master to Chaos Strikes Back. And I think in the Bard's Tale Games you could import also. Never did in any of them though. I don't think Might and Magic ever had it, but they tended to change their classes and number of party members every game anyway.

I let the mage go - I wouldn't be surprised if she is one of the harder enemies. As Lilith says, the difficulty continues to ramp up, but not to excess, and the hardest fights are made clearly optional.

Daggerfall didn't exactly have a random map, but it had thousands of more or less randomly-generated dungeons, of which you'd expect to see only a fraction. And it had randomly-generated quests in these. I think it's a free download from Bethesda these days.

It wasn't that tough - did it first try. Obey the cues related to the pylons and move to the west or east when necessary. Apart from that just stay alive and kill the puppets. You can't hurt the dragon, I think.

I think you didn't reveal the whole map. There is an island in the NE, and a dungeon on that island. Perhaps you missed a trapdoor.

I remember the 3D effect in Nethergate... it was kind of off-putting to tell the truth! That said, I never played much of that game. (Always thought, though, that it was maybe one of the classics I should download again and have another go at.)

I completed it on hard with shadowalker, Jennell and Nathalie. I didn't find it too bad, and while I did use up the standard health potions, I think I had most of the stronger health elixirs left at the end. Maybe your battles are running on too long? Haste, regen etc. at the start might save on health potions later. I know the shade only managed two teleports when I fought her (and the shadowalker managed to get back to the fight). Also, I advise killing minions as a priority in most cases - they are much easier to kill than bosses and in aggregate they can do lots of damage. Try to do splash damage to the boss while killing minions if you can. Nathalie has more spells than ice blast - she has ice storm and steel shards for example.

Adrian Werner wrote: "After all..I don't see many pc gamers doing 25$ impulse buys. Such money is spent mostly by people who already know what they want." That is 90% of Spiderweb's customer base. People who want old-skool isometric CRPGs and don't care about (or perhaps even actively dislike) fancy graphics. It will be interesting to see how Avadon does on iPad, in that it may well turn up a greater percentage of customers who do not know exactly what they want!