Guardian of Eternity

Sorry to divert things from the topic of the (possibly) delayed release, but let me get this straight: In order to root out a villain who made an audacious attempt to strike fear into the heart of the Empire, they are sending troops to a distant (underground) land...

And they expect to be greeted as heroes and allies, but are instead met with paranoia and outright hostility? I smell geopolitics (pun about an underground kingdom totally intended).

This isn't quite thread necromancy, but it may be encouraging more speculation on a bad topic...

I really don't think it's Goettsch. Barzahl also seems unlikely to me. The commentary about the Monarch is so absolutely loaded. The silences from all the NPCs is either a huge red herring from Jeff or it really does mean something.

So, not Goettsch or Barzahl, simply because they don't seem important enough to become the Shaper Monarch. Just my two cents.

P.S. Whenever I see "the Monarch" I think of Venture Bros. It makes me smile to think of that guy ordering around creations or something.

To be fair, I don't know if rotgroths count as undead. Shades, etc. do (I assume) but other than decaying all over the place, I think that rotgroths are just regular, living creations.

Wasn't it Torsten at the Western Rise that got sick in GF3?

I can't think of where Darnor is from, but I do remember that name.

Also, when it comes to GF4 trivia, I was a big fan of the message in Aziraph Camp Gamma: "Many serviles died to bring us this information."

I think that the real issue here isn't whether or not a creation mount can be absorbed (although it is important).

The issue is that it's probably as easy to Shape a mount for a soldier as it is to Shape a creature that's better than a soldier riding something else.

Edit: typo fixed

You know, I think that there actually are some actions in GF3 dictated retroactively in GF4. And I'm not just talking about the endings.

It's mentioned (I forget by whom) that Rahul died. Perhaps Alwan? I likewise can't remember who was alleged to have done it, but I seem to remember that it might have been the GF3 PC.

Greta is the most telling about the PC, when you question her about her own history. She says she stopped adventuring with the PC, and went her own way.

P.S. Anybody feel free to contradict me. As soon as I went to post this, all my recollection flew out of my head. Similarly, my alleged info from Greta and Alwan would seem to be contradictory.

Point of order: Other people may feel free to shoot me down on this, but I'm pretty sure I killed Khyryk in GF3. Granted, his magical power is pretty awesome, but I did manage it, after enough tries. I'm pretty sure that I was playing a character backed up by creations in that particular game. Use that for fodder in the debate if need be.

The point of Khyryk being "killable" or not is moot, since (though I haven't played GF4: Rebellion), from what I gather, the canon ending of GF3 includes Khyryk living.

My personal two cents? One can't separate the Shapers from shaping. They've become the organization (for lack of a better word) they are because they've guarded their art for so long. The value that they've assigned shaping has affected everbody else: they established Shaper law forbidding "unworthy" individuals from using their art, they've made the penalty death, and they've created, at least in the Geneforge world, the distinction of inequality between magic and shaping by holding one "off limits."

Consider a Geneforge world where shaping was discovered but practiced by everyone with enough perseverance to become skilled at it, and not regulated as it has been.

I've read in a few threads that it's only necessary to wear gear that improves creations when you initially shape them. Does this mean that the gear I wear around that increase creation statistics while decreasing some of my stats isn't doing anything?

If this is incorrect, or there's another post out there detailing this, just let me know, please.

Actually, that works completely with a few things happening on my system, lately, when it comes to memory.

Plus I was indeed switching between programs.

Don't know if anybody cares... but in A1, you know the cows west of Almaria that stick with you? I was heading south from the Castle, they caught me, and I pressed the W key to wait, and the view was whisked away to view a part of the map in the black-behind-walls.

I know where the view took me, too, because on my automap, there was a big section of the black-behind-walls mapped out behind one of the walls on the north side of the cave just to the east of Almaria, in the cave-loop east of the cavern with the small, one-space pool.

Anyhow, whether or not anybody can understand my bizarre directions, has this shown up for anybody else?

What does the Ivory Skull forging item do? I read the description, and it says that it has "Curse Power." Is this a detrimental forging item, or does it do something useful?

Also, a sidenote to my intended question... what do Steel Spines do for your equipment?

SoT is right. It's important to remember that Jeff picks and chooses which endings he wants to carry through to the next game. I forget which ending carried through from G1 to G2, but the point stands.

I *know* there are tons of topics about how great the agent is, and even some about what sorts of stats one needs to complete certain tasks in the game, but I'm posting this anyhow. If someone knows where I can find the answer to these few questions, then refer me or lock the topic or whatever.

I've heard of several methods for the optimum agent, one being an battle magic method, and another being a mental magic method. What are the relative merits of these two, and are there other viable methods?

Related question: Is it possible to play the best agent possible with a well-rounded approach, putting points into leadership, mechanics, luck, et cetera? (not shaping--I know there are fanatics out there who would really pitch a fit if they thought I was shaping as an agent)

If you're playing a shaper and have creations, the essence you spend on them cannot be regained until they die or are absorbed.

Haven't actually tried to tint anything else, in fact. And I think that the town in which I've been test-viewing my creations is set to be "Fully Lit," so I'm really not sure why there's such a difference between the 3D editor and the game.

Uhm... I'm no expert, but I think at least one place is the hint books for each game. I don't own any of those books, but I hear that there's a calendar of sorts printed inside, with the days of each month, and the special days.

I am using the 3D editor, yes. And I have seen that red outline, because I've got to change it to a blue outline, because the majority of the sliths in my scenario are friendly. When I flesh out the creature customization in my data script, I'll have to change the default attitude to rid myself of that hassle... But, anyhow, despite the red outline, the sliths tinted in the 3D editor seem dramatically more red. But, never mind. By now I'm not going to worry about it. I'll either edit the graphic sheets, or settle for a slith warrior import, tinted or not.

Also, I meant to ask... is there any short and relatively non-technical explanation as to why the editor shows my red sliths as really red, and the game has them as more of a greeny-brown?

I'm sorry, I did try your suggestion first. It seems like when it's used on a basic slith, too, it turns them... a different color of green. Not as green, obviously, but not even brown. And the red tint on the warrior looks okay, but I think that to achieve a fire lizard-esque kind of red, I'll have go in and tinker with a copy of the icon sheet.

Is there a specific order in which the icon adjustments are done to an icon, i.e. swapping red and blue before swapping green and red?

I'm trying to dye some slitherkai red, and my current experimentation in adjusting the icons for the basic slith and the slith warrior haven't done me much good. I looked through Kelandon's data for Bahs, to see if he had some anything similar, and all I found (so far) was an adjustment to make a red *dragon.* Using the same number (4) on a basic slith has yielded nothing good.

Any help about the icon adjustment would be good. If that doesn't work out, I'll just have to go edit the icons manually.

It permanently moved my spellcasting skills to other skill areas, intentionally? I had no idea...

That's all it was. Of course, now I have to rebuild my characters' spellcasting skills after the error in Lord Putidus... I just looked at their stats, and I figured out where that scenario re-placed the skill levels... Thrown Missles and First Aid.

*sigh* Working on teaching a spell to the party via a super-elementary terrain script. However, the dialog it calls in the town script is giving me trouble. No problems rewarding the party with gold or an item (armor), but I'm struggling with teaching a spell. Limited help in the searchable board messages or the documentation. I know the problem is somewhere in this code:

 			w = 0;			while (w < 4) {				if (char_ok(w)) {					if (get_spell_level(w,0,15) < 3)) {						change_spell_level(w,0,15,1); }					}				w = w + 1;				} 

Hate to bump this again, but is there an explanation for why the Help links within the program won't work?

This question isn't very specific, but is there any documentation or anything that explains rules of thumb for making good-looking secret passages in outdoor sections?

It's easy enough to place the pass-through walls, and put some walkable terrain inside the tunnels, but how about making the walls inside the tunnels look all right? I'm guessing there are a few rules to observe, what with the isometric-ish view... but I haven't puzzled through them yet. Any tips?