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Clintone

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  1. I just started playing this mod. Thanks to all the people who worked on it. It's been awhile since this was originally made, but thanks anyway. It looks like it definitely improves many of the issues the game originally had. It was always a good game...but it did have a few irritating aspects. I especially appreciate the infinite thrown weapons modification. It'll be nice actually being able to use a fine razordisk without thinking about how I'm throwing money down a hole.
  2. Day 1: Into the Darkness, into the Cold Bruce was the first to awaken. There was dim green light, oddly sourced in the ceiling and the walls themselves. He squinted and looked closer. Green algae appeared be giving it off. His awareness heightened as he spent more time in the waking world, and he noticed in the dim light that there were three bodies of men in this cavern. He swiftly checked the pulse of each. Then, finding them only asleep he gently coaxed them all awake. "Where are we?" said Jonathan. Hiccus only grunted. "What part of hell's anus is this? It's both cold and wet," said Zool, groggily. "I don't know. I awoke from unconsciousness, just like you. Did you three also anger the Empire?" "I think I'll wait to tell about myself until I know you three better," said Zool. "The first step to building trust is openness. Fine. I'll go first then," said Bruce. "I fired an arrow through an Empire soldier as we was slaughtering noncombatants in a nephilim tribe, and I'm proud to have done so. I'm surprised they let me live for that. They probably shouldn't have. If I get the chance I'd like to teach a few more of those men a lesson." Zool was grinning like a Jack o' Lantern. "Well...I suppose the look on my face spilled the beans about me a bit. You already know I'm not working for the Empire. I was arrested for practicing illegal magics mostly. All the illegal narcotics, banned sexual activities, and the fact that I ran a cult may have had something to do with it too. I'm no rebel...but I dislike being told what to do." "You ran a cult?" asked Bruce, concerned. "It was a nice cult," said Zool. "Now how about you...stoneface...and you...the scowler. What's your background?" "My Brother and I were Empire soldiers. We assaulted a superior officer for planning just the sorts of things you mentioned," said Jonathan, looking at Bruce. "My name is Jonathan. This is my brother Hiccus. He doesn't talk much." "I'm Bruce," said Bruce. "I am Zool. Do we have anything on us that might be of use?" "I have a few coins I had in my pockets, when last I was conscious," said Jonathan. "Well, we have some money then...assuming that's still used here. I have a dull dagger...not much use for fighting, but maybe useful as a cutting tool." "They gave us all these little knives, it looks like. Bruce, you have one?" said Jonathan. "Both rusted and dull," said Bruce. Hiccus had dropped his knife to the ground in disdain and picked up a sturdy rock in its place. "If you don't want it, I'll take it. Maybe we can sell it," said Zool, picking up the discarded knife. "There's a door. I bet we're supposed to go through it. I think one of you muscle-men should be first...rather than me." Alright. Let's go, said Jonathan, and they walked to the door and opened it, cautiously entering into into another, higher-ceilinged, slightly larger room. "Hello. Is anyone here?" asked Jonathan. At first there was nothing, and then they heard light footsteps. "We mean you no harm. We awoke here just recently. My name is Jonathan. What is yours?" said Jonathan. A knife in the dark sped towards Jonathan's heart. Bruce was faster though, knocking it aside. "Be still," shouted Zool, and the new form froze in time, along with two of its catlike brethren, knives held out, emerging from around a pillar of stone. "They're nephilim," said Bruce in surprise. "Kill them quickly, one at a time, before the spell fades," said Zool Hiccus did not hesitate, rushing forward to bash the first nephilm's head in with a rock...then the second, and finally the third. "That one seems to have more sense than you two. They wanted to end our lives...based on our looks. Isn't that the crime that you two opposed when others did it? Next time, don't hesitate. My spell doesn't last long. If we'd have let them live, maybe they'd have stuck knives in our backs rather than our fronts," said Zool, speaking to Jonathan and Bruce. "Why did the Empire put nephilim and humans together in the same caves? Why not just kill us all, rather than taking the trouble of sending us down here?" questioned Bruce. Jonathan spoke up: "If they do that...then they look bad. Their public relations will go better if they just drop us all into this other world together. They'll say we got what we wanted...freedom from the rule of law and order. Then we can just all kill each other down here in the dark and solve a problem for them." -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The four walked further into the caves. "Who's there?" came a quaking woman's voice. "We'll kill you if you come any closer. We have weapons. I have a spear." "We're human, not nephilim," called out Bruce. "Oh thank God! I've been hearing them hissing and snarling in the dark for the longest time! I thought they were going to come for us eventually!" "The three nephilim are dead now," said Jonathan. "Thank you! I'm Brissa. I have a spear...but these three are too scared to move. We've been hostages of some thugs up ahead, led by someone named Lagran, with delusions of grandeur. There are people up above these caves...lots of them. They have wealth, and Lagran wants to barter our lives for some of that wealth. I think he's a dead man walking...he betrayed them...broke their trust. This isn't like the Empire's lands. Down here, there won't be many places for Lagran to run. I just hope we live longer than he does." Zool broke in. "Don't worry. We'll free you from these caves. I know magic, and these three are competent brawlers. Now, what gifts are you willing to give us, in return for us risking our hides for you?" "Gifts...I don't have much..." said Brissa. "Anything will do. Have any jewelry perhaps? Maybe a little food?" said Zool. Bruce gave Zool a sharp look. "What are you doing? This isn't the way to gain allies." "You think it's not...I think it is. I think she wanted help from us for nothing. I think she'll respect us more if we insist upon some form of payment. We may be wounded. Some of us may even be killed...not me...but perhaps one of you three, and she's just going to stick here, perfectly safe," said Zool. Brissa broke in, "I would fight if I could. There are nine men up ahead...and I've never even trained with a weapon, but you're right...you deserve thanks. I have thirty coin. It's yours'." "Thank you," said Zool, with an approving nod. "Let's go end a few lives then. They're double our number...or more...it sounds like...but you have me. Do what I say, and you'll be more likely to live than otherwise." The four walked deeper into the caverns. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- "Halt! Lagran says all hostages are to stay back!" came a voice in the dark. "We won't hurt you. We just want to talk," said Bruce. "We want to join you," said Jonathan. "Not an option. Lagran isn't taking more followers. We have archers. Stay back or we'll fire." "Then freeze," said Zool. The four slew the five one at a time, as each watched their allies die, but could do nothing, frozen from Zool's spell. It lost its power as soon as the afflicted was touched, so lives had to be ended quickly, before the victim could strike back after the first blow. "Well that was refreshingly easy," said Jonathan, as Zool began looting. "Hopefully the remainder of our fight continues to be so," said Bruce, and the four moved on. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Rolan, is that you? said Lagran into the dark as he stood near the steps leading out of the pit. A gate kept them locked inside, and kept the warriors above out. Lagran wore the key around his neck. "Be still," came Zool's voice from the dark, and the three men around him took on glazed looks and stood still as statues. "Kill them quickly," said Zool. Lagran remained very still as the four approached out of the dark. He knew how some of these wizard's tricks worked. You could fight them with your mind. It was easier if you understood what was happening to you. He behaved as if frozen, and watched. There was a lanky, dirty man in what looked like a robe made out of an old bedsheet. There was a scowling, scarred, hulking brute holding a shield in one hand, and a rock in his other. There was a taller man, and a shorter one, both muscular, one holding a javelin, and the other a knife. Lagran waited until they came very close, then lunged out his sword at the javelin-holder. Bruce's gauntleted arm knocked aside the blade headed for his ribs. He then held up the javelin like a spear. "I see you're a quick one...and your friend is a magi. This should be fun," said Lagran. "Kill the others before they awaken!" said Zool. "No...wait...let's just talk. I could use soldiers like you," said Lagran. "He's buying time! Kill them all now!" shouted Zool. "Fine then...I guess you'll die first," said Lagran, pushing past the confused Bruce and aiming his sword at the mage. "Feed my flames," said Zool, and lifted his hand to jet a firebolt at Lagran's face. Lagran held his harms up to protect himself, and Zool backed away, readying another firebolt. Hiccus and Jonathan began slitting throats and crushing skulls of the paralyzed, and Bruce stabbed his javelin at Lagran. It was knocked aside by Lagran's sword. Despite both the firebolts, and Javelin stabs Lagran stood his ground. It wasn't until Hiccus and Jonathan were done with their butchery that Lagran began looking nervous. "It's four on one now. Now...don't do anything rash. I'm beaten. I surrender. Just don't hurt me and I'll let you tie me up," said Lagran, putting both hands behind his back...but then he pulled one hand out in front of himself, holding a green globe. He smashed it against the ground. Horrors ran swiftly through the minds of Bruce, Hiccus, Jonathan, and Zool. Zool remembered back to his early youth...to his oldest memories of being a lost, alone, scared little boy. Bruce remembered the anguish of the death of his mother. Jonathan remembered the trauma and guilt of many battles...more from doing the slaying, or even surviving while his comrades had not, than from the risks to his own life. Finally Hiccus...Hiccus became bored. Nothing could frighten Hiccus but monotony...that gray clouded horror that forever haunted him, that he was always trying to escape. He feared the anguish of dullness...of feeling nothing. He sunk into a depression, and stared into the ground, still as a statue. When the four warriors came to their senses, Lagran was nowhere to be found...but the gate was open. "All's well that ends well, I guess. We're alive. We have a way out." said Zool. "Let's go get Brissa," said Bruce. The four warriors, and Brissa and the three terrified civilians moved past the open gate and up into the light. "I'm going to take a nap now. I don't care where. I don't care if when I awaken I've been robbed of my shoes and all my clothes," said Zool
  3. Prologue: Into the Pit Bruce was the son of a Druid in the wildlands of Valorim. His mother was killed in his youth in an ogre raid, but he harbored no ill will against the creatures. His father had hunted down his wife's killers himself, but after the deed was done, he told young Bruce "I have killed...but only to stop killers from harming others the way they've harmed us, my son. Those creatures who slew your mother had lost the light. After they died, I saw their camp. It was a place of squalor and misery. They ate rotting meat. They wore rotten clothes. Like most evil men and beasts who kill for shallow reasons, it was conditions that cursed them before their birth that put their wickedness in them. Their parents would have been wicked. Their culture would have been wicked. At worst, they would have been cursed with fool's minds as the source of their villainy...and fools are to be more pitied than hated. Never forget, my son, that each time we loose an arrow from our bow, whether for food we are hunting, or to dispatch our foes, we shed the blood of beings much like us...who feel the piercing of the arrow much like we would. Killing is to be done with care...and anger is to be tempered into a weapon if necessary, but never to guide our minds. The first time Bruce had ever shed the blood of a man had been in middle age. He'd honed his skills with a bow hunting mindless, but dangerous beasts in his woodland home. He'd learned healing skills from his father, and wandered the little villages as a traveling doctor. The first man he'd killed had been an empire soldier. He'd been nearly encased in full steel armor...aside from a missing helmet. The soldier, and others, had been in the process of exterminating a nephilim village. Bruce saw the smoke of fires while hunting, and heard cruel laughter amidst catlike panicked cries. He immediately understood that, regardless of what raids the nephilim may have engaged in, this butchery was not the seeking of justice of any kind. This was indiscriminate killing of young and old and everyone in between...so Bruce shot an arrow into the forehead of that helmet-less soldier, and that was the last thing Bruce remembered before he was clubbed unconscious and awoke in a place that was damp and cold and dark.... _____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ There was once was a little boy named Zool. He'd given himself that name. He'd never known anything resembling parents. His earliest memories were of scavenging through the trash heaps in the outskirts of the poorest cities of a land he knew was called Aizo. He had been fairly hopeless as a child...living only to find a few scraps to eat, and to defend them from his fellow urchins...until one day, he snapped his fingers and a spark emerged from his hand. His eyes grew wide. He'd never tried to snap his fingers before, but he'd seen another little boy doing it, so he wanted to try it himself. He failed to make that snapping sound fingers can make that the phrase "snapping one's fingers" is named for...but he swiftly forgot about that failure and focused on his apparent, weird and eerie, spark-making skill. He silently attempted to snap his fingers a few more times, and each time the spark grew a little brighter, eventually becoming a flame. After a few weeks of practice, he could hold the flame above his hand without his skin being burned (before that, he had burned himself quite often...his whole hand was covered in burn blisters and ashy scorch marks in different stages of healing) and as Zool held the flame before himself, he thought about how lonely he was, and so he started talking to the flame. "Hello Flame," said Zool to the flame, hovering above his hand. "You're not much of a talker, are you?" The flame (naturally) did not respond. Zool suddenly experienced a moment of insight. "Well, of course you're not a talker. You're not a human. You have no interest in discussion...but I think you might be kind of alive...at least a little...just like me. You're hungry, aren't you? That's what you care about...sating that hunger that drives you. You know, if you grew big and strong, you could feed on as much as you wished." And with that statement...or more specifically...that thought, the flame in Zool's hand erupted into a a high torch. Over the years Zool found other ways of "speaking" to stuff that speaking to traditionally wasn't supposed to have much impact on. He could mentally "speak" to flesh and mend wounds. He could "speak" to people, without words, in ways that would freeze them in time. He could mentally "speak" to the rats in the streets, and in so doing gain allies. Zool found a purpose in life beyond mere survival. He became fascinated, obsessed, and deeply in love with the weird and eerie forces of magic. He developed some skill as a priest too, but he preferred to think of that craft more as "soul-twisting" than anything religious. As far as he was concerned, any gods had abandoned him long ago, so he had no use for them. He preferred to worship himself. He was the source of his priestly power. He was the god he prayed to for divine might. Over the years Zool's growing skills earned him quite a bit of attention. He even created his own cult. This wasn't the evil sort of cult...not a cult of personality worship or one which demanded blind obedience to the authorities in charge of said cult...nothing like that. It was, rather, a cult that revered above all else individuality and exploration...both mental, internal exploration and external worldly exploration, and discovery. Within Zool's cult every presumption was challenged and every social norm was questioned, debated, and critiqued. There was a great sharing of knowledge, and a constant bickering, so prevalent that It was like a harmonious droning of mosquitoes that can sometimes be heard just before nightfall in some lakeside wildernesses far away from the domain of man. The cult continued mostly unnoticed by empire officials until one day when one of the members summoned a demon. Most of the cultists viewed this act as more intriguing than alarming. They hungered to learn and explore...and sooner or later, if such hungers are strong enough, summoned demons tend to be the end result. And that was how Zool, and most of his friends, ended up tossed into Avernum. ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ There once was an Empire soldier named Jonathan, and his brother, and fellow soldier, named Hiccus. Jonathan had always known there'd been something wrong with Hiccus's mind. He didn't have the reservations about violence most people did. In battle Jonathan had seen Hiccus go berserk and slaughter his foes without concern for himself...diving into piles of enemies, leading the charge with Jonathan rushing behind trying to keep up. Once, the two brothers had been scouting about on a mission in the young continent of Valorim. A giant approached them, coming out from behind a hill. It roared. Hiccus roared back. The giant spoke in a booming voice, "Little one want fight? Aha! I like little man! We fight! We fight hard, but we not kill! If little man wins, I, Crugo, owe little man a boon. If little man win, little man owe Crugo a boon." Hiccus, without hesitation, rushed toward the giant, and pulled out his sword, trying to sever the leg tendons of the massive humanoid. The sword bit deep into the Giant's flesh...but not long before the giant's fist came down upon Hiccus's head, knocking him unconscious in one hit. "He owe me a boon," said Crugo. After checking his brother's pulse, and being reassured of his survival Jonathan spoke to Crugo: "More humans will be coming here. My brother and I will pay our boon by treating your wound. In return, try to avoid them if you can...but if you can't, don't cause them harm unless they try to harm you first." Crugo looked down at his bleeding leg, and felt himself limp. "It is a good deal. I don't like humans anyway. I avoid them now. I like the little fierce man though...if he is a man. He has the courage of beasts," said Crugo. Hiccus soon awoke. After the brothers washed the giant's wound, and wrapped the cleanest of the rags the giant possessed around it to halt the bleeding, they returned to their camp and Jonathan told his commander about their adventure with Crugo. To Jonathan's surprise, his commander was furious, shouting, "You're not supposed to befriend these beasts! We're here to kill them! Now it'll have fled off somewhere and we won't be able to find it. After several days of protests of the newly discovered ultimate goal of the leaders of their encampment, followed by Jonathan assaulting a superior officer...and, for once, Hiccus being the second to join the fight, the brothers were hog-tied, taken all the way back to the continent of Aizo, and thrown through a portal into the dark, wet, cold, caverns of Avernum.
  4. This is the easiest Spiderweb game I've ever played...but like the above person says, it matters heavily how much you pay attention to key mechanics. I tend to be careful. Other games have more random elements that make them harder for careful people like me. You have plan ahead more in this game. That's pretty much the difference between hitting a solid wall and breezing your way through.
  5. I don't remember what contract you're referring to. There's one where you get an agreement with the Mascha at their capital city. You agree to terms and agree to fight on their side and make a contract with them. There's something else where you can reap profits from an organization that buys and sells Owen. There's also an agreement to trade with the main Vol cities. I first took the agreement with the Mascha and told them I'd side with them, but then sided with the Owen anyway. I don't know if that damages your reputation or not. I also agreed to trade with the main Vol cities.
  6. I was convinced as soon as it was said that the Nisse lived underground, have grey skin (didn't the Vahnatai have grey skin?) and were harmed by sunlight.
  7. So, I posted two other posts about this game on here. I'm going to post a third now. I've re-built 6 of the seven fortresses. I still think the game should involve more freedom, especially in the beginning, but the plot contains some wonderful writing. I especially like the stuff in the Ukat areas. You do get more freedoms as the game goes on. Bloodletting of the Ukats is great for boss-fights, as it's cumulative. The Ariel have some phenomenal mind control abilities and mental defense resistance abilities. The Vol have some options that can let you be more evasive. I can imagine different strategies. You might have 3 Vol so that your group's evasion goes sky-high, or 3 Ukats so you can knock out bosses quickly and worry about their minions later...kind of like assassins. You could have 3 Ariel so that you can control minds and keep your foes fighting amongst themselves so you never get hit, or some combination of the 3. I still don't think it's up to the standards of Geneforege 5, Avernum 5 and 6, but I think it's about the level of the Avernum remakes. I like it, and I'm glad I chose to keep playing. Don't be too turned off by the beginning. The world feels extremely real too...probably more real than other Spiderweb games I've played.
  8. So...let's see...magical creatures were originally created in the Geneforge series. Dragons and drakes and etc. spread outwards to colonize the world. Next comes The Queen's Wish series, a proto Empire from the Avernum games. Its diplomatic, assimilation-based approach eventually conquers most of the known world. Avadon gets stick in there somewhere too. I didn't play enough of those games to know where. Next comes the Avernum games. After the Avernum games comes the new Avernum games - Avernum 7 through Avernum 22, which just keep being made forever. By Avernum 23, the Nethergate game begins and the last magical creatures in the world are hiding out in ancient Britannia. Finally there's a game that takes place in modern times in which archeologists find the ruins of many ancient civilizations with a map leading to a portal. The archaeologists enter and find a bunch of lizard people who hiss when they talk. You now play as the modern military and you battle the Vahnatai who are annoyed at all the fracking.
  9. So...I just finished the demo on torment and here are my thoughts. I've bought about half the spiderweb games and played the demos for about everything else except for the Exile series...so I'm a fairly large fan of these games. The Queen's Wish is definitely more forgiving than past games. Past games paid far less attention to what we might call "fairness." Humans in the early Avernum series had more or less no advantages. In the remakes they were kind of broken and there was little reason not to use all humans. In Geneforge, the guardian class was horrible pretty much all the way through the games. In the Avernum remakes melee weapons were almost totally obsolete compared to bows and magic. Magic has been overpowered for pretty much ever single Spiderweb game I can remember except for The Queen's Wish and Avadon. What was even more annoying was that most of the time you had no way of figuring that out until far into the game...especially in the Avernum remakes that were a lot less forgiving of doing anything the wrong way. Now, in the Queen's Wish you can reset your skill points just by going back to a fortress and the skill trees seem reasonably even. Nothing seems extremely overpowered or extremely useless. However, I, and apparently lots of people were more than willing to play through the pain and the temptation to throw our computers across the room and the making of voodoo dolls with Jeff's name on them that we'd stab with needles in rage...partly for the storylines, but also because it was neat to have such control over the characters, for me at least. I like the idea of building my own character, making mistakes with it, and trying to trudge through. I think what I was hoping for was something closer to what we might call "fair" than the older games but with countless different strategies to beat, that you had to experiment with to figure out, not just in terms of strategy but in terms of character creation. I like to feel like I can mess everything up if I build my character the wrong way. So, I think, personally...I'd like something less "fair." I'd like something with less emphasis on balance, but more of the Avernum remakes' neat looking spells. I'd like more neat options (like stealth...if someone introduces a stealth skill you can train in I will be euphoric for years to come). I'd like something where it feels more like you're dropped into a real environment that doesn't care about you and you have to find ways to survive in. I'd like the fortress building system to have more options you can mess up your game with. I would like the keeping of the option of resetting your skill points though...but maybe that could be an important part of the strategy. Maybe you find out that bows are literally designed to be completely useless, except in rare circumstances, and you learn from that and re-train your character to get through the game. For me, balance has little to nothing to do with finding games fun. What I enjoy more about games is the mood - if there are interesting spells that enhance the mood like the awesome blink, call the storm, and daze from the Avernum remakes?. Can I creep through the darkness stealthily as a solo character? Can I surge through my enemies, crushing everything in sight as a warrior? ignoring arrows with my steely skin and knocking people out of the way with my war hammer? Can I have a team of archers agilely sniping away then fleeing, luring foes who chase them into traps? I think both the Geneforge series and Avernum 6 had all that...and the Avernum remakes had most of that (although I still say every melee weapon and polearm in the game was totally useless, and so was multi-tasking, and not figuring that out until halfway through the game made me want to throw my laptop across the room) It seems like though, both the Avadon series and The Queens Wish lost a lot of that personality. I can't choose whether or not to be stealthy, or snipe as archers, or plow through barbarically, or control people's minds with magic as much anymore. I just kind of go into dungeons, and then there's a best way of doing things, and that's a pretty strait-forward path, and you can veer away from that path a little, but not as much as I'd like. I do like the game though. I just had a lot of ideas for improvements for past games...and none of the big ones really went into this one that haven't been in past games before. Even the fortress building system, while interesting, seems like it's just the beginning of something that could be more interesting if there were more potential ways to mess everything up. Maybe we could build two or three alchemist shops or taverns (and other buildings) per fortress rather than just one so we could specialize in one area of skill a bit more, or have the choice of multi-tasking a but more, or spending more on gold-producing taverns that might make things harder at first through having less access to weapons, but help more over the long run...stuff like that. In my opinion, a more complicated, more free, fortress-building system alone would bring the game up to the level of being something really new and special.
  10. I completed the Demo on Torment. 3 points: #1. The stun skill and the terror spell are extremely useful. #2. The only good healing spell is the one only your main character can get, but it's very useful #3. After most fights each of your characters regains 1 energy, but no more health.
  11. I've been very impressed with the writing. My favorite games had been Geneforge 5, Avernum 5, and Avernum 6 and I recommend everyone at least try those. I've been a bit disappointed with the way things have been going ever since then, with the simplification of the character design system. I loved the interesting spells in the Avernum remakes...but Avadon seemed to lack those and the Queen's Wish doesn't seem to have many interesting spells so far...but it's still early. I would like one of these series letting you cast mass madness on level 1 goblins. I do get the impression your speech and actions are going to have a lot more of an affect on your environment than past games though, although I'm still in the demo. The conversations seem very realistic, and I think I like exploring this new world and learning about it and I'm enjoying not knowing whether I'll do what the queen wants or what direction things will go. That's something different I appreciate a lot...that not having the faintest clue how the ending will go. I think this is my favorite of the new generation of games anyway, that began with the first Avernum remake, so far. For all I know though, I could decide I like this as much as Geneforge 5 and Avernum 5 and 6 though, just in a different way, depending on where things go from here. I don't like the graphics, but I think that's to make it easier to play on phones or something. Your relationship with your royal family seems very real, and I like how you're in the ruling class now. You're the person most of your characters from past games used to steal from all the time. That's an interesting change. I do very much like the fact that you can re-assign your skill points whenever you want. I'm sure that'll keep me from wanting to throw my laptop across the room like I've been tempted to do in past games upon realizing I've been investing in useless skills for the past fifteen levels.
  12. Try playing as a sociopath. I just started a game like that...insulting the queen and my siblings and demanding to be sent home and complaining to the locals about how my character doesn't care about their rotten little trash-heap of a nation.. Right now, my character is a raging narcissist. My idea is she'll learn to become more Machiavellian and subtle in time so that the "herd" will give her more things she wants. You'll have the opportunity to flog a war hero for complaining in the early part of the game. I haven't done much yet, but given how much your speech and behaviors appear to affect your environment, I'm thinking this game would work pretty well with roleplaying. If you tell your butler to polish your armor, fix your hair, and make you a drink after either behaving like that or...or answering some question in some way, he says, I forgot the exact words, but they were something like, "I'll go do my daily cry now." Whereas if you're a nicer, or more tactful person, he merely is glad to be of service.
  13. it worked just fine on my windows 10 32 bit laptop, full graphics and all. Mine's an HP computer, by the way.
  14. Oh...I get what you're saying...going back to your comment: It recommends 64 MB of vram, with 32 MB required. And it requires 32-bit color depth. These are both different questions from processor bit architecture, which is not actually mentioned. Soooo.... who knows.
  15. Here's where I looked just now: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1058130/Queens_Wish_The_Conqueror/ Minimum: Requires a 64-bit processor and operating system OS: Vista or Later Processor: 1.2 GHZ Memory: 250 MB RAM Graphics: 256 MB VRAM Storage: 400 MB available space Maybe I didn't look around on that website enough. That's where the steam link from the Spiderweb page sent me though. Nothing about 32 bit options there, at least.
  16. Also, if you think about the height of many of the monsters - wolves, giant lizards, giant spiders and such, and you think about their average eye and more importantly, mouth height....
  17. Yeah, I saw that just now on the Spiderweb page. I had only checked the Steam download page, where it only mentions a 64 bit processor. The Spiderweb page recommends 64 bits, but says it can work with 32.
  18. Thanks. I actually have Windows 10...it's just that it's 32 bit, rather than 64.
  19. Any way I can reduce the graphics to play the game on a 32 bit computer? Thanks.
  20. I also saw a big message of the games to be rebelling against corrupt authority figures. I saw another important theme I thought was a major part of the games too: The games made me think of the story of the Hawk and the Nightingale. In Hesiods's "The Hawk and the Nightingale," a hawk grasps a nightingale in its talons...and there's nothing the nightingale can do about that. It doesn't matter what the nightingale's opinion of that is. It doesn't matter whether the hawk is right or wrong. The hawk has the power, because it's the stronger of the pair. Might makes right. I saw that theme throughout all of the games frequently. 1.Before the events of Avernum, the Empire is the undisputed hawk. It has all the power. It doesn't matter whether it's right or wrong, for most citizens. Nothing they can do can stop it. 2. Eventually, the Empire finds an enormous series of caves that would come to be called Avernum in the future. The Empire leaders are used to seeing themselves as hawks. They can't imagine not being hawks, so they send their explorers down to the underworld to conquer that, just like they conquered the surface world. They soon find out there are bigger hawks down there than them. The Slithzerikai, for example, are perfectly at home down in the dark tunnels, and the Empire explorers soon become nightingales caught in their talons, and none of them survive. It doesn't matter who was right or wrong. The sliths were the stronger. 3. The empire finds a useful purpose for the underworld: a prison. People are terrified of the unknown, so throwing malcontents into the underworld terrifies the populace into obeying all the more. Those who rebel find themselves thrown into the underworld, where they have no more power. The best they can hope for in the underworld is to survive. It doesn't matter who is right or wrong. The Empire is the strongest...at least on the surface. The prior rebelliousness of the new citizens of the underworld pretty much, probably, amounted to nothing. 4. With the first Avernum game (Escape from the Pit) we find that hawks can come in different forms. The new human residents of the underworld, which they now call Avernum, are weaker than the Empire soldiers were in almost every way. They lack the arrogance of the prior underworld visitors though, and they're fighting to survive and preserve their homes...not fighting for some distant emperor or treasures. They begin to build families, and that makes them all the stronger. It gives them more will to endure. The Avernites become the new hawks of the underworld. It doesn't matter whether they're right or wrong. They're the strongest...although that strength gives them the ability to build a fairer system of government than the empire they came from had. 5. The second Avernum game shows some of the problems that occur when a nightingale attempts to rebel against a hawk. Erika Redmark wanted vengeance against the Empire, so she helped assassinate the Emperor. The game never really makes it clear whether or not this was the wisest choice, and I like that. The choice to assassinate the Emperor kicks off the next five games, but it wasn't necessarily the best choice. Avernum might have been wiped out as a result, and it wouldn't have mattered whether they were right or wrong, because the Empire would have been the stronger. The Empire made the same mistake they made in their first incursion into the underworld though: They forgot there were other hawks under the Earth, such as the Vahnatai, who promptly wiped the floor with them after the Empire made the mistake if irritating them. 6. The third Avernum game, Ruined World, shows some of the positive consequences of Erika's vengeance. The assassination of the old emperor, combined with stomping some humility into the Empire appeared to have taught them that they can't just stomp everything they don't like into no longer being problematic, because there will always be a bigger hawk somewhere, and some of them may come from unexpected places. Again, it was strength that determined everything. Erika's assassination of the old Emperor might have doomed Avernum if events had occurred only slightly differently, but Erika's actions might have also saved the last tribes of nephilim and magical creatures on the surface of the world from the genocidal attitude of the old leadership. 7. Avernum 4 shows more of the consequences of Erika Redmark's vengeance...again making me question the wisdom of assassinating the old Emperor. 8. In Avernum 5 you play as soldiers of the Empire, which is now on more or less friendly terms with Avernum. You see some of the positive effects of Erika Redmark's assassination of the old Emperor. The Empire now has entirely ceased its genocidal ways. It allows nonhumans into its military. You explore the frontier...but humans can be found doing what humans do. In many ways, they don't seem to be improving life in the underworld for its original nonhuman residents, so much as expanding and taking land from magical creatures who already lived there. The Avernites have no genocidal tendencies like the Empire had...but nonetheless drakes, Vahnatai, and other magical creatures can be found expressing hostility towards the expanding humans, or feeling resigned to their eventual extinction. There are circumstances in which you don't have to side with the expanding humans. You can side with the nonhumans in certain ways, and push the humans back. Avernum has become wealthy and free, but despite its success there's a lingering attitude of...would it have been for the best if humans had never come down to the underworld? 9. In Avernum 6 you play as soldiers of Avernum. Humans aren't built for life in the underworld, and it's beginning to show in multiple ways. Even the more peaceful nonhumans are beginning to push back. Avernum never turns into a glorious and powerful and free nation. It starts to fade and keeps fading. Despite all the struggle in defense of it, the game again asks the question: Would it have been best for humans to never enter the underworld? I don't think the game ever tells that answer. 10. So, the game leaves you not knowing whether or not it would have been better for nobody to ever have rebelled against the Empire. It's a genuine possibility everyone would have been better off if they'd just all bowed and scraped and passively stood by and let the nephilim and other magical creatures be driven into extinction...and I like that. However the game also makes the point that hawks can be found in unexpected places, and made in unexpected ways, and in the end the weakest members of society who had feebly rebelled against the godlike Empire, ended up saving it, assassinating its emperor, and teaching it humility and a better way of perceiving the world around it.
  21. Unlike some of the commenters here, I thought the difficulty was quite tough. I think this could be moderately challenging for level 30 parties. About level 25 seems like it would be about the appropriate level to do this scenario. There are some impressive goodies and training, although I wonder if they're too impressive. On the other hand, you really have to earn them. I have no idea how players thought this was easy. Good
  22. The difficulty is good good for a beginning party. Not too tough or too easy. The 1-5 level difficulty rating is accurate. It increases between the main map and the final dungeon, so it gives your party a chance to grow before fighting the toughest areas, so I liked that. There are lots of secrets, which I very much enjoyed. Lots of humor, which I very much enjoyed, but how much you do will depend on your taste in humor. Some nice items are here too for a low level party...though nothing to dramatically overpower your party. Rating: best Four years later, this is still my favorite scenario.
  23. Thanks for the input. Regarding my aforementioned testing of what affects the duration of blessings - I was almost always, but not always, casting protection spell immediately following protection spell without waiting for the spells to fade. I did some more testing with that same party I tested before. They had no items that should have affecting blessings. I had the party saved at level 1. I used a cheat code to gain enough experience to bring them up to level 20 and started several new rounds of testing. I wanted to see if the seemingly negligible effect of intelligence, spellcraft, or other stuff was magnified by five levels of the trait that improves blessing spells. Therefore, in all of the following tests the caster had five levels of the blessing focus trait. Also, each time I cast protection I waited for all the turns of protection to fade from my characters before casting it again, for all the rounds of testing. Note that I found out that the blessing focus trait makes it so that your characters might get different amounts of turns of blessing from one another when a blessing spell is cast. Without that trait, (or presumably items that say they enhance blessings) all four of my characters would get the same number of turns of blessing spells as each other every time the spells were cast. First, I gave my caster character 9 intelligence, 2 priest spells, 2 mage spells and no spellcraft (at level 20). They had five levels of the blessing focus trait. 10 casts resulted in 186 turns of protection. Then I cast protection ten more times with that character again. This resulted in 199 turns of protection. For the next to rounds, I gave the character 33, rather than 9 intelligence, just through using the skill points and traits I'd gained from getting to level 20. Again, the caster also had 5 levels of blessing focus traits. I put all the extra skill points and traits not used for intelligence into skills and traits that would have nothing to do with blessings, like endurance and weapons skill. Ten rounds of casting protection resulted in 210 turns of protection and the next ten casts resulted 196 turns of protection...so with a lot more intelligence the duration could have been improved a little. Next, I kept the same character but used the editor to bring their intelligence up to 55. The first ten casts resulted in 209 turns of protection. The next ten casts resulted in 194 turns of protection...which was better than with 9 intelligence, but actually a little worse than when the character had 33 intelligence. Maybe there's a cap for how much intelligence can help, or maybe I just got unlucky, or maybe the lower than expected success rate was a result of using the editor to increase my character's intelligence rather than using skill points earned from leveling up. Next, I reloaded (my character was back to level 20 now, but with no spent skill points). I kept their intelligence at 9 and mage spells at 2, but I got 10 points of priest spell and 10 points of spellcraft. This had a more noticeable affect. The first ten times I cast protection resulted in 242 turns of protection and then next ten turns resulted in 245 turns of protection, so that was a massive improvement over anything I'd gained from increasing intelligence. Next, I reloaded and, through using skill points gained through levels, I gave my spellcaster 33 points of intelligence, 10 priest skill, and 10 spellcraft (along with the 5 blessing focus traits I'd gotten with every protection-caster so far). The first ten casts resulted in 247 turns of protection. The second ten casts resulted in 238 turns of protection...so about the same as with 10 points of spellcraft but 9 levels of intelligence. Next, I tested to see if either priest skill or skills of other characters besides the protection caster improves blessing spells. I gave all four of my characters about (give or take a point or two) (and all four characters had 5 levels of the blessing focus trait) 33 intelligence, 5 luck, 10 spellcraft, 6 mage spells, and 21 priest skill. Mostly I was interested in whether or not priest skill had an affect. The first ten turns I cast protection my group got 249 turns of protection. The second ten turns they got 218 turn of protection, so it was still more turns of protection than they got for my caster maximizing intelligence, but it was less turns of protection than when my caster just maximized spellcraft. Presumably, I just got less lucky than I'd been in my most recent rounds of casting before these 2, where the caster had low intelligence but high spellcraft. Also, it seems that priest spells, luck, and abilities of other party members than the caster don't affect blessing spell duration. So, so far, it seems pretty likely that spellcraft assists blessing spells. I finally decided to test just intelligence again. I exited the game and restarted first, just in case that might be a factor in something. I gave my caster 33 points of intelligence through using their points gained through level up (and the 5 blessing traits). They also had 2 mage spells, 2 priest spells. No luck. No spellcraft. I cast protection 20 times again. The first 10 casts resulted in 219 turns of protection. The next 10 resulted in 194. Then I reloaded and gave that same caster 9 intelligence, 2 mage spells and 3 priest spells (and the 5 blessing traits). I cast protection 20 times again. The first ten times resulted in 217 turns of protection. The next ten casts resulted in 195 turns of protection. So, that was one turn less than with 33 intelligence. It seems like intelligence is useful for increasing the duration of blessing spells in the same way that dumping your water bottle into a lake is useful for helping to keep the fish from becoming thirsty...which while technically true (I presume).is not particularly cost effective. Then I reloaded and gave my caster 9 intelligence, 10 priest spell, 10 spellcraft, and 2 mage spell (with the 5 blessing traits). I cast protection 20 times again with this character. The first ten casts gave 234 turns of protection. The next ten turns gave 238 turns of protection, so spellcraft appears to give a noticeable, reliable bonus to blessing turn length. Finally, just to make sure it was spellcraft and not priest spells responsible for the blessing boost, I gave the character 21 points of priest spells, 21 points of mage spells and 9 intelligence (and no spellcraft) and cast protection 20 times. The first ten casts gave 202 turns of protection. The next 10 casts gave 213 turns of protection. So, it seems like it was spellcraft, rather than mage or priest spells, giving the boost to blessings. So, the things to focus on if you want to improve your blessing spells are the blessing focus traits and spellcraft. I also did five turns casting rain of curses on my group (who had zero curse resistance) with and without spellcraft. All five of the times I cast it without spellcraft it gave five turns if whichever curse or curses the character received. When I cast rain of curses five times on my team with the caster having 10 points of spellcraft, it resulted in several incidents of characters being cursed for 6,7, and 7 turns, in addition to some 5 turn curses. Most of the curses lasted for longer than five turns...so spellcraft assists curses in addition to blessings, noticeably.
  24. I made a level 1 four member party. One of the characters had a priest spells of 2. That character had 2 intelligence. That character cast the protection spell at level 1 fifty times on my four person party. I added up the total turns of protection that resulted in after those fifty casts. It gave a total of 844 turns of the protection spell. Next, I used the give experience cheat code to raise my party up to level 25. I then spent that original protection caster's new skill points to give them 32 intelligence and 26 priest spell skill. I had that original protection caster cast protection 50 times. I added up the total turns of protection my group received. It was 864 turns...20 more turns than when the same character at level 1 had 2 priest spells and 2 intelligence. Next, I kept the protection caster's level at 25 but used the editor to bring their intelligence back down to 2 and their priest spells back down to 2. I had the character cast protection 50 times again. It resulted in 848 turns of protection, only 4 more turns than when the character was at level 1. One thing that was weird, was that this time whatever amount of turns of a blessing one character received, all the other characters received that same number of turns of the blessing. I'd cast blessings in past games and the characters had gotten different numbers of turns of those blessings before...maybe from items or something giving blessing bonuses. I'm not sure. The only thing that really gave me the impression intelligence/level/or priest spells had any impact on blessings was that when I was casting the 50 protection spells with the character with 32 intelligence and 26 priest spells might do anything was that four of the fifty times that character cast protection, the group received 6 turns of protection, rather than 5,4, or 3 turns. The level 25 character with 2 priest spell and 2 intelligence, and the level 1 character had only ever gotten 5,4, or 3 turns of protection. That's assuming I didn't miscount. If levels or intelligence do affect blessings, unless I counted wrong it seems like it affects them in such a small amounts I don't even know why that modifier exists, unless it works better with some spells than others, or it's exponentially better with higher levels of spells or blessings-improving traits and items or something. Your description of damage bonuses is clear. Thanks.
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