Gon

In Ruined World, make the Troglogytes a playable race with its own back ground story and specific spells and battle abilities.

Originally Posted By: Randomizer You can email the company and ask for alternate methods of paying. If you weren't in Germany I would suggest sending a check or money order, but you have the currency conversion to consider. I wouldn't recommend sending currency through the mail, although the look on Jeff's face at getting paid in coins.... Welcome to Spiderweb Software. You have encounter the first barrier to retaining your sanity. I once sent Jeff cash in USD by registered post in 1998, he had no problem with that. If ppl want to do the right thing, they can.

Click to reveal.. When I play this mission I always omit the fifth brooch because I feel the four brooch ending is the appropriate one Why would somebody like Erika Redmark, a high and mighty mage, bother to waste her time and power bringing back these, in her eyes, soldiers of fortune when she no longer has any use for them? Succeed or fail in their assassination attempt, they had already given her what she wanted.

Isn't his comment about the iPad version? anyway, all I know is that I brought the Mac version and recently found out why spell upgrades ingame cost so much gold lol :-( Probably I can use the same key on the Windows side since I can dual boot but I haven't tried it yet....

Originally Posted By: garo The new additions to the game fit nicely. Kyass and Thantria as example. I killed Thantria, I don't want imperial spies in formello, but that's just me... I only killed Thantria after through with her. I did all her missions and got all her rewards and then she was only good for the missionary cloak she will drop. I liked Kyass and respected him so I let him off, some time in the future, I will probably divvy up Avernum with him. I killed Micah and the castle didn't get mad, only gets mad does autokill if you kill Houghton.

I do wish secret passages and secret switches were just that : secret and well hidden and hard to find but extremely fun when you do. I remember a place in Exile III, right to the very edge of the map in the east where you had to walk over a bunch of islands and find an invisible path over the sea to reach a spot where herbs were growing to collect them. No THAT was secret. Now it is like you have signs hung over places saying "THIS IS A SECRET SWITCH, PRESS ME"/"THIS IS A SECRET PASSAGE, WALK THRU HERE". Though I do realise that some people still couldn't find it nevertheless

I think, not 100% certain, if you do the right thing (in the quest) but in the wrong order, as long as you go back and fill out the missing steps, then when you get back to the step where you were stuck, the npc will say something like "ah good, I see you've done that already, so here's your reward" or something like that.

I'd imagine that chain mail would be FASTER and more FLEXIBLE to fight in than heavy full plate armour but more vulnerable to a long reach weapon with a heavy thrust, like a spear, a halberd has thrust like a spear but is worse in that respect making up for that with the ability to cleave thru plate armour and chop mages and archers in half with one blow, if they can get to them. Big plate armour has great protection but you aren't going to be as nimble or agile in it. A great sword two handed zweihander was just the thing used in the 15th century to defeat pole weapons. Of course, you cannot use a shield with that, and though it is nearly as fast as a dual wielder, might be far less flexible in combat. A bashing weapon like a mace or flail might do extra trauma than a spear against plate and mail though it comes with the shortest reach, even shorter than a good ol sword. The point I'm trying to make is that VARIETY is interesting and every advantage in every tool, weapon or armour will come with a tradeoff in another respect. Anyway that's just my thought on the battle system, thanks for reading

I remember that you only put the scroll on the pedestal after he tells you to.

Is it possible to make it so that when you move away from an enemy in battle, instead of being slowed, they get an extra hit at you, like in Exile? Although I'd guess that is probably hard set too. The way I visualise the battles, I'd see something like a "stone paper scissors" effect between different classes of characters, weapons and armour. I prefer a more "organic" looking kind of party so I'd see a dual wielding swift moving melee fighter with medium chain mail, half helm and two swords, nimble and agile, lightning slicing their way through lightly armoured archers, a tall halberd wielder, long arms and long reach, wearing heavy plate mail and full helm, much more slow moving but powerful like a tank engaging and cutting down fast attackers with his physical power, long range archers standing at the edges sniping at robed spell casters and vulnerable fighters, mages completely without armour (how come mages can also equip shields in fights?) possessing far more types of offensive and defensive and support capabilities, very devastating, but a much shorter casting range than when they become vulnerable to archers, and completely at the mercy of melee fighters who are able to get inside their spell casting range. Encumbrance of armour will be a big negative affecting dexterity for archers who need to snap off their shots very quickly and aim accurately, and a complete no go for mages who can't do their casting encased in a suit of armour (coz they put their stats into intelligence by studying for hours and poring over text books and tutor notes rather than into strength by going to the gym and pumping iron!)

Thing is that investing in upgrades to win fights do not result in a larger dividend in the gold or loot that you sell for gold that you get out of winning fights. You really have to plan what you spend your money on or end up broke quick and still not able to win fights. Still, everybody was thrown thru the portal with the clothes on their backs, it's a wonder that there was any currency down there in Avernum at all.

Avernum/Exile were still fighting the Nephils and Sliths in AEFTP/E1, it's was only thru the actions of the player party that this situation is changed by the second chapter.

Exile III and AEFTP are number 1 and 2 respectively on my personal Greatest RPG Of All Time list. And Exile II which I am currently playing thru again is number 3! This from one who has played NWN, ME2, BG2, KB etc.....none of which made me fall in love like the first time BTW, I do not see AEFTP and the coming two ACS, ARW as being remakes anymore but rather a parallel universe to Exile. Anyone else feel the same way?

I didn't state it very well and maybe it is just me but it seemed not cost effective from the standpoint of gold to invest in attacks for the spell casters (mage/priests) Basically, you really have to highly specialise each character and pick stuff that upgrades that specialisation, or end up neither here nor there. I just concentrated all the attack upgrades for the two frontline fighters and the support upgrades for the spell casters. Besides, the way I played it, I wanted the female archer in the group coz she's fun to play besides having a cool avatar (G223), and I also wanted both dual wielder and pole fighter, so it ended up dual, pole, archer and mage/priest combo. The mage/priests are essential to the team healing, hasting, restore mind, that kind of thing on the battlefield, keeping the front line fighters going, what I meant was that unlike Exile, spell casters at high levels were no longer this unstoppable force on their own tearing their way thru heaps of enemy with invincible magic blasts lol, I agree that was too much but it was fun in it's own way Of course, from a balance pov, if you power up the mages too much, then the game play gets badly unbalanced.

Why is it that an Archer can equip a shield? Especially a big shield. You need both hands to work a bow. A small buckler strapped onto your forearm might work but still be in the way.... As for the mage in AEFTP their role is so nerfed compared to Exile, he/she is pretty useless in battle except as a healer and to reverse bad effects generally, eg haste I only found relevant when enemy used slow.

open source seconded,. Maybe I am just weird or old fashioned but I prefer Exile's 2D tiles and icons system over the isometric 3D system. This after playing NWN and BG2 and not liking either so much and now going back to the original series. Simple is better. I'd like to see an open source Exile go the route and graphics style of Battle for Wesnoth which is also open source. Add more weapons, items, attacks, spells. Make the game window much bigger, we're not on 640X480 anymore. Make archery MUCH more effective so that they are on par with fighters. In Exile it was annoying that enemy archers even at a low level could do more archery damage than my level 50 Nephil. I don't mean just give them more damage per attack but make them more effective overall so their role is as strong as the fighters, priests and mages. Unless you used them as thieves, which became irrelevant after the mage spell unlock, archers were not much use on the battlefield. Another dream if it did go open source, make the troglodytes a playable race with bonuses for bashing weapons and a whole new set of 2D icons for the trogs. I always wanted to see their side of the story.

What I missed so much was the sheer scale and depth of the original spell system and it's tactical flavour. Yes, it was overpowered but overpowered in an awesome, epic kind of way. The number of options gave you different ways to battle. For instance, fireball, firestorm and divine thud (never a more inspiring name for an attack!) are completely different in a battle. The problem is to make monsters and AI just as tough and powerful. Like as I said above with pestilence and stealth, neither were all that special, but combine the two... and you got to win a fight or take out a dungeon in an entirely new, original way. More favourite combos, mass paralysis and stealth (ends up with a castle of silent statues), or mass charm and stealth. Mass paralysis and mind duel all the enemy magic users until they all get drained of their spell points and keel over, IIRC there was no cap on spell points in E3... and then with high level priest spell summon host you got four shades and a diva that you could pin point their spawn location around enemies... whereas in AEFTP divine host was just one shade pops out lol. Don't get me wrong, AEFTP is just as great as Exile but in a different way. I'm waiting for the remakes of CS and RW but after AEFTP, I now feel Averum is more of a parallel universe to Exile rather than an update with its battle more of the hack and slash variety.

Hi, I am replaying the original Exile series in Mac OS 9 set up in Sheepshaver, works like a dream, much better than in Classic on a real PPC. I downloaded the demos, emailed them the codes and they got back to me with the keys. I registered all six programs, three games and three editors. Now I am looking for the preferences to make a backup copy to save to my OSX main drive out of the OS9 emulated harddrive. OS9 preferences should be in System folder, preferences, right? But I can only find the prefs to E2, E2 editor and E3. Missing the prefs to the other three. Are they stored elsewhere or as an invisible file? For now I'm backing up the whole emulated OS9 harddrive.

True you can leave things anywhere except outdoors and there they will stay. I suppose that may not be true if you leave things in Fort Remote or Skraagath(sp?) and go back again after it is destroyed. That's not the point tho. The whole idea is to take over a place and make it your own lair, usually somewhere you've driven out the previous hapless occupants by force hehe. Anyway, I am only speaking roleplaying wise within the story. Well, taking over Kyass' freehold doesn't appeal so much, I actually like him and the Freeholders a lot more than the other sides and preferred working for him than anybody else. The guy is quite an interesting, colourful character and like us probably was an adventurer himself. (canon wise, I wonder what happened to him eventually?) However, I gave Drath's spell book to Thantria in exchange for Radiant Plate. The Empire naturally gave the best weapons though Kyass' rewards seem more valuable in the sense that he had to win those himself also through adventuring before he had anything to give. It'd be nice to even throw in our lot with Kyass who seems much more true to the Exile ideals, imo, than the Castle "those who would create their own Empire down below", as one of the NPCs put it. Don't remember who said that but the gist of the words are about that. Houghton I especially loathe for sending around us as hired goons to threaten, intimidate and get rid of inconvenient political opposition like Kyass (but not Thantria whom Avernum does deals with the Empire through.)However, it is not clear what dealings Kyass also has with Thantria seeing Thantria sends us to aid Kyass. It's an interesting question; in context of the roleplaying, why should we be loyal to Avernum? Avernum didn't have any more right to the caves than anybody. Why should we help them do just as the Empire was doing on the surface? Which was exterminating everybody non human. Avernum may not have gone that far, eventually, but everybody else like Sliths and Nephils were certainly marginalised and living at the fringes ending up as minorities. (And being a Goblin with all these high and mighty adventurers running around couldn't be fun at all.) We were Empire subjects, thrown out and discarded, we could set up for ourselves like Kyass did. Maybe partner him. In fact, going by Hoth's ranting, his race were there first. And he took it from the Vahnatai who were there before him. Besides, taking over Freehold and setting it up as our own stronghold will attract the political enmity of the Castle and Houghton will send out another group to "warn" us then "drive us out" by force. He's the aide to saintly old King Micah who takes care of all these "little details" that Micah doesn't soil his nice clean hands with. To Houghton, the adventurers were probably just expendables. Succeed in your mission, the Castle profits; fail, that's your problem. Commander Houghton has never heard of these roaming ruffians who tried to assassinate whomever, no paper trail, he always pays us in coins and "trinkets". hehehe Currently I've taken the Empire outpost at Strange Cave to stash my trophies and gold and rubies and emeralds and everything else. (What, no diamonds, no blue ones?) Security wise it should be hard for normal Avernite citizens to get to since they don't have the Orb of Thralni. Then the place is secluded, out of the way of traffic, off the main freeway and very quiet, however, both Freehold and Bargha with its teleport transit system are within a quick marching distance. Even if some wanderer or another bunch of adventurers looking for loot could get to the cave, the base itself is well hidden behind a series of hidden switches, teleporters, a hell hound trap, an illusory wall, an old throne room and another concealed passage way! The base has a pantry, a kitchen, living quarters with lots of chest and cupboard space and a study for our mage! Finally, behind a last hidden wall is a secret vault for valuables! Just the thing for an adventuring, looting party like us.

Played Ruined World back in the day on my PowerMac until the OS itself died, then I was away from the Exile scene for over 10 years only recently to play AEFTP which, unlike the first Avernum remake brought all the old feelings back, except for the spell system which I thought was overly nerfed. I didn't follow the discussions over the years on these boards though I can somewhat gather that the old E3 system was considered too over powered. It could make sense within the plot though, if these were still the early, pre Vahnatai days in Exile and magic tech was a lot less developed at the time, it may have only been after Exile II with the Empire beaten back and humans getting Vahnatai magic tech that Exile magic really began to flourish. Other than all the enormous library of items, ranging form tremendously powerful to completely worthless, what I miss most is the whole also enormous E3 spell library of odd, quirky, useless, useful, cool, madly wonderful spells that made the whole spell system so fun. capture soul was useless, but going around the world capturing these powerful monsters and then setting them up against each other just for kicks was just incredible rpg. Some spells were just way ridiculously overpow3ered by the end, like Major haste and major blessing combined which made for a completely unstoppable force. Only problem was the enemies weren't equally ridiculously powerful by the time you got to that level. You could mix different spells, e.g : Stealth and Mass (or was it Major?) Pestilience, steal right into the middle of the enemy castle completely invisible and undetected casting Mass Pestilience repeatedly behind the walls as you walked. By the time you stepped out into the hall, you'd have piles of loot and dead monsters everywhere without ever being seen, getting into a single fight or drawing a blade. Incredible. If Jeff ever gets around to remaking E3 on the new engine, I hope he brings all this stuff back and more, it's the kind of thing that for me made Ruined World so unbelievably awesome, there was just so much stuff in a sandbox in which you could do nearly whatever you liked or thought of with totally unexpected effects.

One of the coolest things about 1997's Exile III was the ability to buy your own house (Hawke's Manse) and put all your junk and stuff there. I'm not sure if anybody did that before Jeff. And in this grand old mansion you became the master of, there was even a brilliant AlienWaveBlade that did Poison damage hidden by the previous owner! Was it the Venomous WaveBlade of AEFTP?! Greatest RPG EVER. As in all the Exile/Avernum games, you pick up, grab or capture or otherwise plain old steal a lot of loot in AEFTP but there's no really good place to put it. Leaving it around the teleportation hub in Tower of Magi is the logical place as somebody else said in another thread but still a travel hub doesn't seem a right spot for storing your war trophies. No privacy! Some other adventurers could drop by and help themselves hehehe. Still, the place to store it should preferrably be easily accessible by the teleport system. Now the great thing about AEFTP is that the world is persistent and stuff you drop in towns do not disappear. Nobody steals anything but our party. Some places to stick my loot that I'm considering; Droknarr's lair in Silvar's sewers ever since you killed Drok and got rid of the slimes. The secret place behind Dharmon you get to by boat. Brigand's Fort, but the place is too rundown and needs major renovating, besides, the Avernum Government might take over the place and use it as a fort again. Almaria's sewers in the pit behind the concealed passageway, unfortunately Cormac's hiding there already and you can't trust him alone with your stuff. The middle of the Spiral Pit, but I'm too lazy to keep walking all the way down there, maybe Drath's crypt could be a good place with undead to watch over it ....

Found it. It's in the castle treasury next to the box with coins after you fight four trained basilisks.

Somehow I don't think Garzhad, once having gained the pretext to start the war, could allow somebody else the glory of winning it, if ultimately he was hoping to make himself ruler of the Empire, chancellor to a figure head Empress Prazac. Going by Thantria's reaction when you tell her you killed Hawthorne, the old Emperor may have been hated by the Avernites but certainly had his supporters, Thantria herself seems a bit of a loyalist fanatic (is that why she was sent down to Avernum as an "envoy" but out of the way?), hence why Garzahd wasn't going to commit regicide himself. But Hawthorne assassinated by Avernites was his chance to swiftly seize power, lead an army into Avernum, wage and win a quick, popular war, popular because it was going to be successful and short. Again judging by Thantria's sneering way in which she tossed a few "trinkets" (as she put it) the way of the adventurers if they did her bidding(which to the adventurers were powerful items), the reality of the Empire's magic technology and the full extent of its resources was such that they could crush down Avernum any time they wanted. Garzhad had to lead the invasion personally and win a quick war or risk placing military power into the hands of a general who might be equally ambitious and dangerous, win the war and return as the victorious leader of an army. No matter how powerful Garzhad or Erika are as mages, they are not omnipotent, they cannot fight off hundreds and thousands of soldiers single handedly. They cannot always get their way through sheer blunt force but needs to work through subterfuge. What Garzhad didn't take into account was the Vahnatai.....

My archer in my previous playthru has it but I can't find it again? Value +3500 Armour +6 Missile +5 Critical Hit +1 Anybody know where it is? Thx

I can only imagine that non magic users like Hawthorne would traditionally view magic users with distrust at best, seeing what they could do, as was the case in Dragonlance. It should be true in any world where magic dominates and when normal mortal people have no access or at best very limited access to a plane of power mages/priests could freely move in. Even if Hawthorne was ultimately on top, politically speaking, he still wouldn't find a mage, way outside of his control, trustworthy, (the more powerful the wizard, the less an ordinary human could trust them) Erika, Patrick, for example, were in no way whatsoever beholden to the Castle or Micah. Basically, if these arch mages felt like it or if they thought he/she was useful, they might assist a lowly mortal to their own ends. Golems being robots made out of magic do not have loyalty one way or another to speak of. If Hawthorne wasn't crazy, it wasn't the Avernites/Exiles half starving, skulking around underground in rags and barely getting by on scavenged bits and pieces of Empire technology left in the underworld that he had to fear, but those closest to him, especially a powerful, ambitious, scheming wizard/chancellor like Garzhad Going with Superba's line of thinking, it's easy to surmise that Garzahd obviously was holding the real power way before the events of Exile 1. Possibly Hawthorne, who may have once been powerful, but with age, senility, had gone gaga, lost his grip on power. Unpopular and hated due to his policies, paranoid at attempts on his life (couldn't have been the only time) after all the extermination policies of the Empire, he had long since lost touch with all reality, politically and personally isolated at the top of a "Royal Spire" that was actually a jail full of guards, magic users and finally golems. (Where were all his courtiers, ministers, generals and people who normally inhabit places of power?) In which case, the golems were not so much Hawthorne's bodyguards, but rather his jailers placed by Garzhad whose purpose was to maintain Hawthorne's security until Garzhad decided what to do with him. Which, as it turned out, was to use the adventurers as a tool to make an assassination attempt on Hawthorne. It seems the adventurers are just pawns of these arch mages in their power struggles, (Garzahd, Erika, Rentar,....). If Erika was only banished to the underworld with the curse and not executed out right, it could have been because Garzhad was either not strong enough politically and/or magic wise to completely get rid of his magic rival(s) at the time. They had to be banished, if they couldn't be just killed, so they couldn't threaten him. Logically, the underworld, under "millions of tons of rocks" was the best place to put them. But Erika's sending adventurers to kill Hawthorne provided Garzhad with a great opportunity. Of course he knew of their existence and their deeds through Empire infiltrators and secret agents like Thantria. He may even have known in advance of Erika's plan to send them to the surface if he knew they were gathering the brooches and what they could be used for. It didn't matter if the adventurers succeeded or not; whether it was old crazy Hawthorne or young Prazac, Garzahd was still fully in control. This was the perfect setup to start the Avernum/Empire War of Exile II, which no doubt the hawks (generals) in the Empire Government fully backed. In one step Garzhad could get rid of both Avernum, and many many political opponents both above ground and underground at the same time..... And when Hawthorne's protective shield finally came down, it was likely Garzahd either withdrawing it's power or cutting off the power supply.