Kestral

Could be this known bug, which had been fixed in 1.2: bug a-4) "Both ranged battle disciplines did not take levels of damage from an equipped weapon. Whoops. Now Flawless Shot should actually do the full 3.5 damage per level."

I think the idea of 2 is that Avernum rebels succeed in getting the attention of the empire, and assassinate (perhaps with your help in the first game) Emperor Hawthorn. So the empire decides to send down huge armies and crush avernum like a bug. The second game is about surviving that invasion. The third game, I think was about avernites finally returning to the surface after a long period of no contact - what they find there and what has happened on the surface in their absence. That's my understanding of the gist of it. I remember in E3 or A3 (or whatever I had a demo of when I was a kid) there was a global timer mechanic - you literally had to beat the game within a certain number of days, and what quests you spent time doing in which order effected what ending you got.

It's ok. I don't hate you.

It's worse if he's charmed and kills the priest. =P

Beating this game without any magic would be...like adding extra torment sauce to your torment burger with french-fries of torment on the side. =P

Escalation of resistances and armor ratings as level increases is just another part of progression. It means that fights get longer at higher levels, since both HP and armor/resist are increasing on the defensive side, but damage increase is roughly linear (unless you get lots of +% damage effects along with your increasing number of base damage dice...those effects seemed pretty rare though).

Originally Posted By: Randomizer Slarty has said that he probably won't fix the remix since he doesn't remember what he needs to do to modify the game to make the needed changes. "doesn't remember"? Say it isn't so! I even made a list and everything just like one page ago. What about the fixes already discussed since the original 1.1 posting? Are items a-1 through a-7 as well as b-1, b-2, and b-4 already fixed in the version currently available for download? It seemed like the work on those was already done, and I'd been waiting to try the remix mainly because of them.

What does character level contribute to your hit chance? I think the primary stat is 5% per level, so it basically dwarfs the contribution of your skills at 1-2% per level.

I remember there being a point for me around lvl 12 or so (on Hard) where I was strong enough to handle the sliths on the bottom floor of all the slith dungeons except their castle and strong enough to get to the center of the Mertis Spiral, but was not strong enough to beat the final groups/bosses in any of those places. In retrospect I should have gone and done the run-around and fetch type non-combat quests in the great cave at that point. Instead I ground out another two levels killing respawns and wandering groups of sliths (not casters though, cause they could still stomp me if they got off multiple AOEs in a round). Awkward stage to be at.

The function of magical efficiency is similar to that of first aid, which restore spell energy after each engagement. I wonder which is more effective. I have a few points in magical efficiency on my priest, but I'm never sure how much difference it's actually making. No idea how often or by how much my SP usage is actually being reduced.

Hey, about that portals thing... can someone explain how to learn how to use them in exquisite detail? Cause I'm lvl31, have gotten rid of the Hakki Lord upstairs, and am well on my way to finishing the game, but never found anything like that in the Tower of Magi. Edit: I've even tried looking this up elsewhere, but I just find places that say "Go to the Tower, that's where you learn it."

So I have this fighter in my party, who is first in the turn order of the party. The rest of the party recently presented him with an award for "Most Likely to be Charmed by anything from a Brain-Rat to a Cryo-Drake and then brutally decapitate your nearest friend in a single blow". Since my whole party often moves before the enemy and my fighter is first in the party's turn order...no one's turn comes up to unshackle his mind before his turn...and he has a 95% chance to one-hit-kill anyone else in the party from full HP. This is probably the cause of about 75% of deaths in my party overall since lvl25 or so. =P Is there a way to switch it up and have my priest go first instead? Is turn order just determined by the order of their portraits from top to bottom? Can I reorganize the portraits? If that's how turn order is determined, then what exactly does quick-action do? Thanks!

Perhaps releasing the current crop of fixes as either 1.2 or 1.15 would be a good path. (Or are these bug fixes included in the currently available DL of 1.1?) What significant work is still planned for 1.2 that is not yet done? b-2: Design a solution for proper use of a new spell concept (a melee-ranged, aggressive spell that is also a summon). Potentially a significant job. Investigate b-5 and b-6: Possible animation/sound bugs. Anyone can move this task forward by doing some testing and reporting specific results - 1.) are either of these issues reproducible? 2.) If reproducible, are either of them unique to the remix or they also reproducible in vanilla? The last large task I recall being mentioned was a possible overhaul of the cloak spells, potentially replacing them with entirely different spells since the cloak buffs themselves cannot be altered. I'll come out in full support of this, personally. But it probably should not be a blocking issue for the next release. Getting things like all the battle discipline and gear fixes into people's hands ASAP should be a higher priority. Thanks so much! Your work is hugely appreciated!

Yeah, there's still some kinks to iron out in the UI. For me the most annoying is often not being able to easily click on the square I want if the surrounding area is crowded with enemies. There's a lot of little improvements I hope they make for the next game (and maybe release in a patch of this game as well?) that can take it from good to great. They've already come a long way though, with all the UI improvements and streamlining of game play starting with Avadon and continuing in A:EftP.

Any news on the remix front? Any way the rest of us can help? Here is a list of changes/bugs that I believe are slated for 1.2 based on review if the thread so far: Fixes confirmed by House of S: a-1) Changed all short bows to use long bow ability, too. Now all bows have the chance of bonus damage so bows don't suck early. a-2) Fixed Warmth Ring and other rings. Whoops. It does give melee damage in addition to the resistance. Just not 15%. 2%. :-P a-3) Lightning scrolls already fixed, all radiate abilities were fixed. a-4) Both ranged battle disciplines did not take levels of damage from an equipped weapon. Whoops. Now Flawless Shot should actually do the full 3.5 damage per level. a-5) Increasing the bonus percents or base damage of ALL the direct damage battle disciplines. a-6) Flawless Shot also fixed from causing ensnare which it wasn't supposed to in the remix (ranged battle disciplines have 2 variants, and one one was correct before) a-7) Fix for bug that caused Bladeshield to give you weakness when it was not intended to. Reports that I don't think were confirmed as fixed (some may not be confirmed as being real bugs): b-1) Cloak of Curses level was listed incorrectly on the screen when you check buffs. b-2) Possible problem with Splinter spell fixed (had issue with targeting at range which caused your turn to be wasted) b-3) Re-balance Bronze Bracers vs. Fine Steel Gauntlets (in vanilla the bracers are strictly better despite much lower value) b-4) Bug that caused Bladeshield to end your turn after use when it shouldn't. b-5) "Incorrect animation for throwing javelins"? b-6) "Pole weapons don't seem to have any sound effects indicating hit or miss"? Hope this helps!

So I just noticed when leveling up my archer from 29 to 30 that I can still click the + next to dexterity but the number does not change from 40. Are stats capped at 40, and this is a bug that lets me waste the stat point, or am I missing something? Also curious whether items which increase a stat have any effect when the base value of the stat is already 40.

Boo!! Well, good to know I guess. There's always the character editor. But really the only thing that could make me feel better and restore my faith in humanity at this point is if the A:EftP Remix 1.2 were released. =P

No, no, no! It does not matter when you train them. There is a cap of 2 on the number of times you can train a skill. There is an entirely separate and unrelated cap of 10 on the number of skill points you can put into a skill when leveling up. So the total max of most skills is 12. Am I wrong about this? If so, it's kinda a serious bug IMO. It would be like a return to the kind of bull**** there was in A4 where the order mattered and I think you had to wait until after you'd paid to train the skill before you put points into them otherwise you'd loose the option to pay a trainer and had wasted those points permanently. I was so glad they'd fixed this is A:EftP; I'll be super disappointed if it's actually not true and the order still matters. I mean...it'd basically make training irrelevant/a trap (except for cave-lore, I guess?) for most of the game.

Hehe. You know what? I think we could learn something from Diablo 3. Diablo 3 lets you experiment with every build imaginable without forcing to grind pointlessly thought the process of leveling up a whole new character for every build you want to try. IMO, this is a real advance in game design. I would love to see the remake of Avernum 2 include an in-game option for *retraining* (I know we've got the character editor already, but I shy away from it cause I don't want to feel like a "cheater"). If fixing a mistake didn't involve starting over/grinding through the whole beginning of the game again then the fear of making a mistake that will haunt you forever would be removed. We'd be free! A in game retraining option would also set us free from any "short term vs. long term" choices in character creation (which basically amount to "suck now or suck later" when you'd rather not do either). Suddenly tons of things that don't work well in the long term become viable early or mid-game strategies which you are free to try out and experiment with. Of course in-game retraining shouldn't be completely free...it should cost something, like money or xp, that you can get by doing a *little* grinding with your *existing party* (instead of hours and hours of starting all over with a brand new party). That way you feel like you had to earn the right to fix your mistakes or try something new, but you aren't doomed to be haunted for all time by most of your character choices. Maybe this idea should have its own thread somewhere. (or already does?)

Placement of raised characters seems to be based on where there is some open space near other party members. I've had them show up in the midst of enemies and get immediately ganked again as well. I've also seen resurrection fail in tight quarters if the game doesn't find an empty space where it wanted to put the returning character. It's not like there literally wasn't a single empty space anywhere nearby - we were just in a section with some narrow tunnels. While the placement is unpredictable I don't think it is technically random in the sense of involving a random number generator. I suspect the algorithm just takes into account the locations of the surviving party members and ignores enemy locations. Thus, rezing a character once, having him die again, and rezzing him a second time without moving any other characters seems to always put him in the same place he rezed the first time. So if a resurrected character appears in a bad spot, try moving your other characters a bit before you try again.

Hey, I guess this is a thread about an older version of the game, since I could read Drath's Tome and then also take it with me when I left. I was going to give it to Kyass, since he asked first, but I was just wondering who else wants it and what they will give as rewards.

1.) I find that positioning my party to avoid AOEs hitting everyone can often be quite effective. I'll often send my tank to attract enemies and then retreat to a choke point. Exception is when encountering a group outside, but even then it can still help to have the tank far enough ahead of the party that AOEs targeting him will not hit anyone else. For bosses, I have the tank skirt to one side when moving up to engage on turn one so that cone attacks against him will not hit the rest of the party. (this assumes you have a tank who is tough enough to take all the hits any only needs to be healed up to full once a turn) 2.) Single target healing doesn't seem to require line of sight/effect to the target, and has a pretty long range; so a priest has an especially easy time staying out of trouble (and then running out of the dungeon back to town if the rest of the party bites it...if you managed to kill even one enemy before dying, then you can come back and have an easier time on the 2nd go). 3.) If my tank gets unlucky and is killed, Return Life is a great spell and can really save the day, though the mana cost is really high, so it usually means a trip back to town afterward. 4.) If my tank gets killed *without* needing to be really unlucky? Run! =P

I have a full archer on my team as well, and she definitely doesn't feel useless. However, I do have to admit that her only advantage over a caster seems to be never running out of mana and always having a good chance of a 2nd attack, due to sniper, even when the haste runs out. I also gave her my only +AP item so far which works great with gymnastics. But if I ever find a second one, you better believe I'm giving them both to the mage. =P Only point on which I kinda disagree with House of S is that Sniper doesn't feel "practically worthless" at all even when Haste is on...it seems like they both have an independent chance to activate. With just one or the other I seem to get a proc about 1/2 the time, but with both it seems more like 3/4 that I'll get one of them. So it's usefulness is reduced, but not eliminated - it's definitely still worth investing in IMO. (And honestly, for a lot of less difficult battles I don't bother to constantly cast haste, so there's that. =P Also, my haste is only Lvl-2. Perhaps at Lvl-3 it procs more often, leading to a further degradation of Sniper's value.) So yeah, archers are tons of fun and not terrible at all. They'll just never be as powerful as the most powerful builds in the game, which are apparently 1.) a dual-wielding guy with 2 +AP items and the two best weapons in the game (which happen to both be swords) and 2.) a mage guy who uses Blade of Discipline and other items to boost weapon skills so that he can unlock Adrenaline Rush with just a couple points and then spam 3 AOE spells in a row (or even 4 if haste procs first, and *then* you use adrenaline rush) at the beginning of every battle. But neither of those guys are on my team, so my archer fits right in and doesn't feel out-classed by anybody.

My perspective: I must say I really love this remake. My pattern with with previous AV games was always this: "start out, get a few levels, realize that the builds I'm using are crappy, start over, get a few levels again, still die a lot (on normal), change my mind about builds again, start over again, eventually go online for help about where I should put my skill points, read about all the different opinions on every skill and trait, get totally overwhelmed with it all, give up/get distracted by another game." I'd never finished an Avernum game, despite multiple attempts and really liking the idea of them...but I think I'm actually going to finish this one. I'm actually getting to go through and experience all the story!! And despite my party being sub-optimal I'm still able to use a combination of tactics, consumables, and determination to get though the game on Hard. So...I know the old skill system was much loved, but at least for me ditching it and replacing it with something less complex and punishing has made the game much, much more enjoyable.

1.) Is there a running list of changes/fixes that are/will be in 1.2? 2.) Did you add more special bows/thrown items? In my first run at lvl20 I still have only one magic bow (a poisoning one from a demon in the castle) and it does less base-damage than a cavewood longbow so I don't even use it over a weapon I've had since lvl5. The original game didn't really have any unique/magic thrown weapons, since it would have been pointless. 3.) I actually like the "50% chance to do much more damage" idea for bows since it leads to a tactical choice between targeting enemies with low hp to take them out of the fight faster, or hoping to do big damage to an enemy who is still strong. I *am* curious whether having a hit do "x2.5 damage" means that the final damage number will be exactly x2.5 what it would have been otherwise, or whether defense is factored in such that it might be more than that. It seems like weak attacks are likely to do little/no damage and that the damage that penetrates from a stronger attack increases very quickly after a certain point. It seems like sometimes a small % increase in the original attack power can lead to a larger % increase in the damage that penetrates, but that's just my impression from one play-through so far...haven't really tested/researched it.