TriRodent

I don't think that it does, but I'm not entirely sure from personal experience. Most of my characters tend to play 'clean' for the most part (maybe a little experimentation in college...). I'd rather be in control of their actions/reactions than have them take some form of bath salts & suddenly they wander off to go try to hump a parking meter (or something similarly weird). I don't 'think' that it would impact the assorted endings too much as, and making a BIG assumption on Jeff's thoughts here, anyone who is 'that' addicted to skribbane wouldn't be able to finish up the assorted quests/game ending scenarios. They would wind up hanging out with all the other serious addicts in the hidden store in Gale & forget all about all the world changing chaos around them. So, to get to the actual ending, they'd be at most (in our terms) hardcore recreational users. Ones able to keep a job, focus on things going on in the future, rather than looking around for something to steal/sell to get their next hit (now granted, a group of adventurers tend to go through towns like a horde of locusts, stealing everything not nailed down, but that tends to be spent on better equipment/training rather than bottles of mental escapism). Again, no idea if that's the way Jeff viewed things, but I don't think it's an unreasonable assumption given the various opium/skribbane dens filed with spaced out blobs that you occasionally run across throughout the different games.

Conversely, it could be like the real world here & now. Most everyone (with at least a grade school education & not in some isolated tribe deep in the rain forest) knows that the Earth is round & could probably draw a VERY rough map of the assorted continents. Some people would struggle with just that while others could give you a fairly accurate map with most countries outlined & named. Most would fall in between those extremes & most of them wouldn't even think about such knowledge unless directly asked a question about it. Point being that here is usually a baseline of information that everyone just 'knows' & there's really no reason to talk about/describe it. The same could be said of the serviles on Suchia (sp?, not going to go look it up) Island in GF1. They all 'know' that they're on an island, & most 'know' that they don't want to go wandering around the northern parts of that island for assorted lethal reasons. But, unless directly asked, they don't talk about it among themselves because that's their baseline of what everyone 'knows' Gimli in LOTR - John Rhys-Davies is 6'1"... that's some good movie magic right there... (of course he also voiced Treebeard so it could also be argued that he's much tinier than portrayed) And I agree, to say Jeff doesn't care/think about such things is complete nonsense. Creating a universe/s for us to play in took a LOT of behind the scenes brain sweat.

Look around where you killed the 'Slime Queen' (for lack of remembering what she was actually called...), there's a little side room there. As you've played other games, you've probably noticed that Jeff like to fill pretty much all of an area map with 'something'. If there's a decent sized blank spot in your automap, chances are better than even that there's something in that void. If that's where you are in the game, you've got a looong way to go. Enjoy the journey, it will be an awesome trip. I wish I was seeing A3 for the first time again

Well this one I can maybe, kinda, sorta, not really answer. With all the shaped vegetation, the climate is, at the very least indirectly magical. (if we're assuming that the vegetation has an affect on the immediate land around it (borne out by assorted 'lore' talking about how Shaper 'X' came up with a plant that would reclaim the local desert or how Shaper 'Y's" disastrous attempts at growing plant 'z' created vast areas of distruction,. etc, etc, etc)) . Shapers causing rain/snow/etc in an area ... probably not as their skills don't seem to drift in that direction, but eventually, over time, what they can do seems to impact the area window that you're in one way or another. IE: Providing/inserting anything other than letting the natural vegetation do it's thing - such as putting a ton of spray shrubs in an area and the acid from them over time turning the area into a more or less barren desert. Or providing a luminescent fungus to cling to the upper reaches of ... oh wait ... never mind.... (emilylitella.jpg)

Melanchion has a LOT of clones, you killed one of them (George Lucas stole the idea/filed the serial #s off for Ep.2...)

There is all map area south of the Tower of Magi/Almiria/Great Cave. I can't imagine that such a huge cave system just 'stops' right there at the edge of the map. I mean, if nothing else, all that water draining out of the Great Lake & passing by Almiria has to go 'somewhere'... The problem (as you touched upon) is what kind of story would actually drive the game. A6 did a reasonable job tying up the entire series/humans living underground in mass numbers. You would have to come up with something really interesting/logical/compelling to make sure that opening up an essentially closed series is really worth it. We'll see. Myself, I'm not really holding out hope for an A7 somewhere/somewhen down the line. The remakes of Geneforge & the new Queen's Wishes (I know he has plans/ideas for at least 2 & 3) will probably take most of the 2020s, pushing Jeff into his mid 60s/probably seriously thinking about retirement. I could 'maybe' see a new game based on the First Expedition as that would be somewhat simple (simple...ha) to write as much of it is already in Avernum's lore & would just require a lot of fleshing out (compared to creating a brand new story). So I could sort of see that one being written sometime after QW3 if he's tired of mentally living in the QW/GF universes. However I wouldn't be willing to put much money on betting on that... Time will tell...

I don't think so (other than a nebulous 'something has happened'....) but it's been a really long time since I've played A6 & in most playthroughs I don't think I released them as it seemed to not be such a good idea. So, I dunno...

I don't use Steam very much (been a few years actually), but at Good Old Games (GOG.com) you can download all the games & play them completely offline. They also occasionally have bundles of SW games on sale if you want to keep an eye out for one of those sales while playing Nethergate.

I finished up another run through A3RW last month & am contemplating another run through the Avadon universe after I finish/get tired of the current non-Sw game that's filling time. After that I'll probably go back to Queen's Wish. Probably, as a beta tester I got a little burned out about it a few months ago. Hopefully by now I'll have forgotten enough/played enough other things to be able to enjoy it again ('not' that it's not an enjoyable game, far from it - I just had to play it in strange ways to try to break things - a 'normal' run through should be fun). Anyway, things are fine/relatively normal around here. Being sort of disabled/sort of retired, I spend a lot of time around here anyway. My volunteer activities were shut down a while ago & I miss that/the people there, but it was for the best to do so. MrsTR was sent home to work from there 6+ weeks ago by her employer (ahead of the state shutting things down). So other than a couple of stocking/restocking up trips to the grocery store we've been more or less isolated here for closing in on two months. However, thanks to phone/computer I/we've probably been in touch with parents/siblings/other family/friends more in the past few weeks than we have over the past few months. Thankfully everyone is still healthy & for the most part employed. Sadly, with spring ... er ... sprunging, the grass is growing & I fear that I'll be out driving the mower in ever decreasing circles over the next few days...ah well, that certainly falls into 'first world problems' Stay safe & healthy everyone.

Oh, & ThomasCats, the spoiler filled discussion that E-E & I were having was about things that you will discover in Avadon 1 (again, keeping in mind my initial comment, you'll know it when you get to it). So feel free to come back to see just what generated such a fuss...one never quite knows where things will drift off to around here...

Re: hidden lore. Ok, that makes sense. I was just going off of a somewhat remembered side trip in a game I played (a few times) years ago. And yes I know Jeff doesn't come to the forums very often (usually only on the launch of a new game & essentially never in an old game forum - but the point was the humor value of some of us taking how things run in his assorted created universes so seriously.

That might be technically true, but if so it was built on the ruins of a previous fortress (spoiler is about something that you 'will' encounter later as you move through the Avadon series & is more a minutia type of thing. So read if you want or better, come back here after keeping my above statement in mind as you're exploring...) So the Black Fortress itself may only be a century or so old, but the location of it seems to have been of strategic importance to Avadon/prior to them rulers of the region over the years & was a place of central power (I wonder how often Jeff needs a laugh & browses the forums just to see how seriously some of us take the continuity of the various worlds he's built...)

It's been so long since I've played A2 that I don't remember exactly what it did. That said, did you open up your journal & check under 'special items' (or whatever that section is called)? If you got a special blessing/curse then it should be listed there. There also might be something listed in that game's 'Strategy Central' here describing what your options are.

I remember (again, it's been a loong time...) a couple of spots near the start of GF4 where you have those choices. In the southern fortress (?) up in the training area there's a leadership check that might let you absorb the creations rather than just killing them. Also downstairs there's a request to go calm or absorb a 'going rogue' creation or two. Same with the starting areas of GF5 (although thinking while typing, they both (4&5) may just be a calm or kill type of situation rather than calm or absorb (as there are plenty of refreshing pools in the area so you really don't 'need' those essence points)

Like a situation where you run into 'X' & he/she says, "I'm having problems with 'that' creation almost going rogue. Could you go calm it down/reabsorb it please..." In that case, I'm 95%+ certain (it's been quite a while...) that you do 'not' gain essence from absorbing them. Which kind of makes sense in an overall picture kind of way (rather than, in game, you 'need' this essence) as most of those encounters iirc tended to come in a friendly city/area where your hit points & essence were just topped off to begin with.

I thought that she let you know about the statues in one of the dialog trees (although you may need to read through the library to get the idea - been a while since I've played through so...). I 'think' it was while talking about the teleporter (or the western exit)

Go read my post upthread, it will tell you where to poke around if you don't want to wander around & find it yourself.

Yeah, Kyass wound up in the Tower of Elderan and it wasn't pretty. I had hoped that, once the Empire arrived, he would make his way up the falls to the north & into the area that A5 would later cover...but alas.

It's been a looooong time since I've played A1, but I don't think so. I have vague memories of wondering the same thing way back when & discovering the same thing in later games. Shrug - I understand your frustration as my OCD tendencies want things neat & clean too. However I also understand Jeff, being the sole programmer for the game, not being too concerned with something that works as is (the journal) & not spending his limited time/wanting to get the game to market making an, in the grand scheme of the game, relatively insignificant part of it slightly better. One workaround that I've developed over the years/games is that rather than taking journal notes on everything, say for instance you run across a L3 spell that you can't learn yet, I keep a tab here open to that game's 'Strategy Central' as the people here have notes/suggestions on most everything. Later on, once my spell level/arcane lore is enough, I'll check the L3 spell list/location to remind me that 'oh yeah, I need to dig around in Erika's library to learn that...' Regardless, enjoy the game, it's a good one.

WOO HOO, over the top. We get a new area in GF Really not too hopeful on getting another $25k for the better sound though...but there still is 5 days

$2918 needed in the next six days to get the new area... getting closer

Jeff should light a fire under his marketing department (snort...) & send out a FB update/another newsletter giving an update on how the kickstarter is going (almost double the goal) & how much is needed to hit the $75k level (about $16-17k). I have no idea how many people were involved with the QW kickstarter, but this one is at 1400 people, I really wonder just how many new people/money are out there if it isn't pointed out again just how close we are to having an entire new region in the GF1 remake. If only I was really rich/had stupid money to throw around... but alas...

It put a bit smile on my face this morning to see that the whole thing was fully funded within a day. Now to fund those extra areas....

In the golem swamp if I'm remembering correctly, you can kill it but some prep work is needed to the zone before fighting it. As for the endless hordes to the west...yeah they suck. Avoid them as much as possible and get underground to take care of the source/s.