Akhari Blaze

Version 2.2 with fixes: * Changes to spells: Haste at level 2 has 30% bonus instead of 20% (for 1 extra round duration); Spray Acid has cleave chance increased at level 2 and decreased cost (8->6). * Changes to disciplines: Flawless Shot depends now on Sharpshooter. Sharpshooter Spray depends now on Sniper, and is cone shaped.

I never used Flawless Throw before, and I thought it would replace automatically Flawless Shot whenever a javelin/razordisk is equipped. But it doesn't happen.. not even in the unmodded game, so I really don't know. Could you ever use it before? And how? If there's no solution, I can make the discipline dependent on Sharpshooter so that also a javelin user can benefit from it, and make Sharpshooter Spray dependent on Sniper.

New version 2.1 because there was really a problem with Flawless Shot/Throw (they used intelligence instead of dexterity).

Thanks for the feedback, I've taken the game for a ride and made some changes to my mod too, and fixed these two issues. Issue n.1 wasn't a problem actually, maybe the tooltip wasn't clear. You get bonus for Flawless Shot from Bows skill only, and for Flawless Throw from Thrown Weapons skill only. New version is 2.0 (link in first post). Thanks for the feedback and thanks if somebody wants to try it out.

Thanks, but I didn't know how to take screenshots in-game.. Ok, I did it with Steam

I've made a couple of modifications, the ReRemix was posted in the Remix thread, I'll post it back here. Moreover I made a graphics mod that replaces the cartoon-like pictures in the statistics page with fantasy pictures. Graphics Mod Avernum Graphics Mod Original Graphics Unpack in your "Avernum Files" directory and overwrite, the original graphics are there if you want to revert the changes. These are some of them: http://www.fastpic.info/image/20130313/f6523d1fd6_tn.gif NOTE : just to clarify, I'm not the author of any of these pictures, they were all found on the web. Many are from illustrations for cards of the "Magic: the Gathering" game, others are obtained from fantasy pictures of diverse authors. I simply resized/cropped the images or did minor edits. I hope this won't be a problem, if it is I will take it back. ReRemix v2 (changes at the end of this post) NEW ReRemix mod 2.6 (latest version) ReRemix mod 2.5 (previous version) ***************************** Details for version 2.6 ***************************** The ReRemix mod is based on the remix by Slartibus, but some spells have been reverted to the original ones (Icy Rain, Howl of Terror, Call the Storm, Summon Shade, Divine Fire), even if their damage is closer to Slartibus' Remix, and also some items (especially the First Expedition items). For items, often I reverted only the name to the original, and kept the altered stats. It also includes many more changes, I tried balancing it the best I could but maybe I'm not finished yet. I also tried to balance items in a way that it's very difficult for spellcasters to find gear that confers melee damage protection (in my now finished torment playthrough my mage had a final armor rating of 63%, 66% for fire/etc, my secondary mage/archer had much better ratings but had the swordmage trait). About the difficulty, I reduced overall spell damage (closer to Remix), and even increased casting costs in many cases. The goal (I don't know if I'm quite there) is to make the game slightly (only slightly) more difficult overall. Armors, Weapons and other Items Main change is that plate armors and shields are much heavier, and they confer a parry bonus. Low level creatures, archers and spellcasters use shortswords, higher level variants use broadswords (more damage, cleave chance), sliths use spears (immobility, extra damage!). Spells and Magical Gear Some spells have been reverted to the originals (Icy Rain, Howl of Terror, Call the Storm, Summon Shade, Mass Healing, Divine Fire). Other changes: Disciplines Disciplines benefit from improving skills. Compared to the original, expect the same discipline to be less powerful if the governing skill is undeveloped, about as powerful if moderately developed, more powerful if well developed. Fatigue is generally lower across the board, though. Discipline Skill Fat. Improvements ----------------------------------------------------------------- Well-Aimed Blow Blademaster 3 3/6/9/12 Flawless Shot Sniper 3 1/4/7 Shield Breaker Riposte 3 2/4/6 Leg Sweep Gymnastics 3 3/6 Blade Sweep Quick Action 5 3/6/9 Focus Spirit Hardiness 3 3/6/9/12 Mighty Blow Lethal Blow 4 1/4/7 Adrenaline Rush Gymnastics 4 3/6 Bladeshield Dual Wielding 4 2/4/6/8 Sharpshooter Spray Sharpshooter 6 3/6/9 Sword Dance Dual Wielding 7 3/6/9 Battle Frenzy Quick Action 7 2/5/8 Disciplines in detail: *************************************************** Changes in 1.0 Changes in 2.0 Changes in 2.1 Changes in 2.2 Changes in 2.3 Changes in 2.4 Changes in 2.5 Changes in 2.6

Yes but I don't really like when I have to be more honest than the game allows me to be. It's like 'don't sell stuff if you think there's too much money' (not the case in EFTP) or things like that.

What bothers me most is actually the fact you can hit things you can't see, like in locked rooms, with the monsters inside that can't get you. It's like cheating for me, yet you can do it. If you open a room to see inside, leave the area and come back, then the door is closed, but you can target the room inside and kill the stuff in it. Maybe it isn't efficient in terms of spell energy, but you don't die.

I'll add my opinion: the most unbalancing thing about AOE spells concerns, imho, non-cone AOE spells like Icy Rain. It's absurd that they have unlimited range, and even more absurd that they can target squares that aren't in your line of sight (like an adjacent locked room where you know a certain boss is hiding). It makes me feel like I'm cheating, still only cone-shaped spells is boring and sometimes unpractical. The targeting reticule should be disabled (or made of another colour) for over-range and out-of-line-of-sight tiles.

Well thanks I left it a bit unfinished though, I still have to finish my play-through, I really left it on hold. I think there are still things to correct (like weapons used by enemies, last time I checked it even skeletons had cleave since I brought back the distinction between short/broad swords), I should play the game to see what's left to do. Also, making spears 1-handed means they look in-game like swords, only 2-handed polearms have the sprite appearance of a polearm. I like them better 1-handed though.

I've come to a first conclusion, that cursing spells do have an attack roll, affected by intelligence, so a low-int mage will hit and therefore curse less often, above all more powerful monsters. I still don't know if the monster's resist effect check is influenced too.

Thanks, I seemed to notice that my main mage can daze/slow enemies whereas with my other mage (low int) I got statuses like poison for daze or 'daze immunity', but maybe it's just because I use those spells more with my mage so I notice them more. My fighter/mage still dazes and slows effectively, with very low intelligence (right now). I was wondering if I can safely skip intelligence for my fighter and specialize him in cursing spells without drawbacks.

Hi, can somebody tell me if spells like daze/slow/terror and other cursing spells benefit from having higher intelligence/mage skill? I suppose mage skill has an effect, but I'm not sure about intelligence. Thanks

Can't you choose another resolution by setting "Ask at start" in the settings and relaunching the game?

I made 2 versions of the mod, or better said 2 mods, since they have little in common. Downloads in its own thread The first one is based on the original game: same spells, same disciplines, same items, same everything. Only thing that has changed is the behaviour of bows and polearms, like in the remix mod. Also thrown weapons are not stackable, as in the remix. Other changes: ********************************************* The second mod has extensive changes. It is based on the remix, but many spells have been reverted to the original ones, and also some items (especially the First Expedition items). Often I reverted only the name to the original, and kept the altered stats. All changes: Weapons All changes from the first mod, plus: Spells Some spells have been reverted to the originals (Icy Rain, Howl of Terror, Call the Storm, Summon Shade, Mass Healing, Divine Fire). Other changes: Disciplines I changed a lot of dependences and set minimum skill requirements (in brackets): 1 = "Well-Aimed Blow" Blademaster (1) fat.3 2 = "Flawless Shot" Bows/Missiles fat.3 3 = "Shield Breaker" Blademaster (3) fat.4 4 = "Leg Sweep" Quick action (1) fat.4 5 = "Blade Sweep" Blademaster (4) fat.6 6 = "Focus Spirit" Parry (1) fat.6 7 = "Mighty Blow" Lethal Blow (1) fat.5 8 = "Adrenaline Rush" Gymnastics (0) fat.6 9 = "Bladeshield" Resistance (0) fat.8 10 = "Sharpshooter Spray" Sharpshooter (3) fat.8 11 = "Sword Dance" Double Wielding (4) fat.8 12 = "Battle Frenzy" Quick action (0) fat.8 Disciplines in detail: ******************************* Downlads: Normal game mod Enhanced mod ********************** EDIT: Many enemies use the same disciplines and spells used by the party, so there were conflicts (disciplines with requirements used by monsters didn't do anything at all). I imported the old disciplines as new abilities and changed all references used by enemies, so they use the original ones, there shouldn't be any conflict among them. EDIT 2: Some disciplines I modified depended on wrong attributes (as intelligence), now they mostly depend on strength (also Blade Sweep and Sword Dance) EDIT 3: I beefed up many disciplines (Flawless Shot isn't based on Sniper anymore), fixed some scrolls, and replaced invulnerability potions with heroism potions (bladeshield + battle frenzy). Halberds are better, extra damage for spears down to +50% from +100% (50% probability), since they are now 1-handed. Immobilize chance from spears lasts 2 rounds (since 1 round didn't seem to do anything).

I'll make a couple of fixes and check that there aren't abnormal damages, tomorrow should be ready.

Maybe you're not interested, but I'm tinkering a bit with the mod and trying to make some changes that I find useful. So far, this is what I've done, feel free to comment (or not to). Sorry if I changed some spells/disciplines from the remix, I can still bring them back. As a base I've taken the remix, not the original, so most items that were changed are still as in the remix. ****** Items ********** Short bows have the same bonus as long bows Long bows have additional +5% HC All magical bows/polearms have the same bonus that the normal weapons of the same category have (the bonuses introduced by the remix, with small variations for magical bows) ****** Spells ******** Some spells have been reverted to the originals (Icy Rain, Howl of Terror, Summon Shade, Mass Healing, Divine Fire). Reasons are, that one non-cone damage spell for the mage is something I didn't want to surrender, Splinter is rather awkward and dangerous for a spellcaster, idem for Heartshock, the last two because I wasn't sure. I kept Holy Scourge, Blink Burst, the new summons, the new version of Haste. Other spells are as in the remix version, if they were changed. ****** Disciplines ******* I changed a lot of dependences and set minimum skill requirements (in brackets): 1 = "Well-Aimed Blow".........Blademaster (1) 2 = "Flawless Shot"...........Sniper (1) 3 = "Shield Breaker"..........Blademaster (3) 4 = "Leg Sweep"...............Quick action (1) 5 = "Blade Sweep".............Blademaster (4) 6 = "Focus Spirit"............Parry (1) 7 = "Mighty Blow".............Lethal Blow (1) 8 = "Adrenaline Rush".........Gymnastics (0) 9 = "Bladeshield".............Resistance (0) 10 = "Sharpshooter Spray".....Sharpshooter (3) 11 = "Sword Dance"............Quick action (4) 12 = "Battle Frenzy"..........Quick action (0) Changes from the remix: Shield Breaker and Leg Sweep are as in the original (I introduced requirements and made them improve with investment in the appropriate skill, added Weakness Curse to SB as in the remix) Focus Spirit: regeneration at 3, +8 AP at 6 Parry. Adrenaline Rush: depends on Gym, so it's better suited for spellcasters. Gym 0-3 +10AP, 4-7 +15AP, 8+ +20AP, no curse as in remix, fatigue 6. Battle Frenzy is based on quick action and thus suited for fighters. 2 turns for QA 0-3, 3 for QA 4-7, 4 for QA 8+. No curse. Bladeshield is thought for spellcasters, to make it more similar to Avadon's, and it depends on Resistance (lasts 2 turns + Resistance skill). I think spellcasters need some extra armor more than fighters. Sharpshooter Spray is the same ability as in Avadon, with a recover time of 8. Only problem, chars with javelin use Blinding Throw instead, so I'll have to change that too. Sword Dance: I based it on Quick Action, since I think that Riposte is a silly skill and it's better not to consider it at all, just to get a discipline. The other "sweep" is based on Blademaster, so you can't develop both well, and every fighter build would have one to use. Blade Sweep is pure damage, Sword Dance have now ensnare (skill 5), ensnare + daze + 50% damage (skill 7), 2x damage (skill 9). I wanted to give it a property like earthshatter (knockback nearby foes), but I couldn't guess the number. BS is cheap but is based on Blademaster that gives more damage, SD is more powerful but comes later and requires QA (skill 4 minimum). Blade Sweep requires Blademaster (skill 4 minimum), so that archers and spellcasters will find it less appealing to get access to BS and SD. Note that Bladeshield, Adrenaline Rush and Battle Frenzy have no requirements, so they can be cast by anyone with sufficient melee/missile skill, but are far more efficient if cast by specialists. ****** To do / ideas ******** fix blinding throw adjust damages curse for Adrenaline Rush (only 2 turns) and Battle Frenzy (for its duration) maybe replace Mass Curing with Spine Shield, and give 1 curing effect to lev 2 Mass Healing.

I changed some spells in my game, then. Basically, I think priests are mainly healer, and mages should be somewhat useful. I changed the energy costs as follows. For priests, I reduced costs for healing spells and increased costs for damaging spells. For mages, I brought back in Icy Rain, and made Fireblast an area spell (Fire Storm). Cost of area spells (icy rain 20, fire storm 30) is higher than cone-shaped or single target ones (spray acid 3, lightning spray 10, arcane blow 20). Minor Heal 3 -> 2 Heal 8 -> 5 Holy Scourge 4 -> 8 Call the Storm 8 -> 20 Mass Healing 18 -> 15 Divine Restoration 40 -> 30 Return Life 75 -> 60 I also made splinter non-melee, and called it again summon shade (there's still something different from the original scroll, I don't know if the shade is stronger). Fire Bolt -> damage x level 1-4 instead of 1-3 Spray Acid 8 -> 3 Icy Rain (area) 10 -> 20 Arcane Blow 40 -> 20 Fireblast -> Fire Storm (area, not cone) 20 -> 30 (damage x level 1-5, for flamestrike is 1-4) Howl of Terror 30 -> 40 Haste 8 -> 15 I improved fire bolt too, wondering if it could be worth to add a small area effect (range 1) at level 3.

There is one thing that I find strange: ok, I'm finding the remix extremely difficult on torment, but maybe it's normal. But my mage sucks completely.. all of his damaging spells are cone-shaped (even the priest has flamestrike that isn't), and as a result he barely casts ice cones, either the fights are easy and it isn't needed, or the fights are so difficult that he must heal every turn. Only thing that saves me atm is a slith spear that I found near Fort Dralon. Has anybody else found this kind of difficulties?

Hi, I'm playing with the remix and I just wanted to ask: I read that in the normal game swords are better than polearms, and that the best magical weapons are usually swords. Has the remix changed this, that is, are there good enchanted polearms to make the skill investment worth it, or I'd better train swords for both my melee characters?

Very good then.. I could even avoid having to get that trait. Maybe there are decent armors without much penalty to hit like in Geneforge.

I'm going with these heroes, I'll see how they fare definitely I'm going to make some of them double class, or at least partially. He's going to be a dual wielder fighter/mage.. I just discovered that mages cannot cast spells in armor so I'll need that trait that I don't even know how it will work.. I'll see.. going without shield I might be able to spare some need for that trait, at least I hope. He's going to be my tank, with focus on endurance and strength. He's also my cave lore/tools specialist, but I might change this. I hope I will find some resurrection scrolls because he seems more likely to stay alive than others. She is my main healer and archer, with focus on dexterity and intelligence. She is my main mage, but I'd like to make her an hybrid mage/priest, with focus on wizardry, with high intelligence and some endurance, and no weapon skills. I'm wondering if it would be better to divert to her some tool/cave lore, because she won't need to develop many skills. Hardiness seems important, but for a mage that won't touch a weapon for the most time it seems too big an investment. Suggestions?

This is fantastic.. since I'm starting the game now, can I ask you if you use the remix or just the vanilla game? Because I'm starting it with the remix and I'd like also to have some "double class" characters, so I hope it's viable with the remix.

I killed him with pleasure since he's been so keen on murdering Shigaz who was totally innocent, and by the way he tried to murder me too. I don't know how he can fit the definition of 'good guy' only because he didn't murder his own folk like others. Anyway he wasn't so tough. He calls 3 incubus, all of them are immune to energy, 1 of them is immune to fire and 1 to physical damage. 1 razor spray, 1 firestorm and acid/ice cone are enough to kill them in 1-2 turns, before they can hurt. They didn't appear again in my fight because I killed the duke before he could summon more. Even if he has reflection, it's better to hit and heal than not to hit with magic, I think. You can also try to change your companions' stats (Shift-D + retrain), 20 in strength and endurance means you can't inflict much damage, I think it would be better to sacrifice endurance for dex/int depending on the class (personally I never raised endurance).

I finished Avadon too, finally. Wow.. It’s not been always great, but a couple of battles compensed for everything else. I played on torment with a shaman, it took me a couple of hours to beat Readbeard, a couple of days to beat Zephyrine. Both fights were really hard though. I chose the shaman because I never played one, then coming from the Geneforge series I wanted a summoner, just to keep the continuity. I chose it also because I read it is the weakest class and wanted some challenge. Ultimately I think she isn’t weak at all, certainly weaker than the sorceress (if I start again I would pick a sorceress), but definitely better (for my playstyle) than the blademaster. I gave her the fire/ice cones scarabs so she had some alternatives (acid/poison in the endgame really sucked). I liked to have 2 casters and one for physical damage, so the blademaster didn’t fit my party. I started it two times actually, the first time I arrived at the first Castle Vebaux quest, then started it over (I messed some item enchantments up and it did seem a good excuse, then it turned out unnecessary), in my first try I mostly went with the blademaster to accompany my shaman and Nathalie. Actually it seemed to me that a blademaster, with around 22 strength and the rest in dex, with missile damage items, did more damage than a shadowwalker, so next time (if there will be a next time) I’ll try BM+SO+SH. This party can even butcher enemies from the distance (sharpshooter spray + spirit charge + ice/fire storm, it’s enough to kill most weak enemies without even letting them move). A few considerations: 1. graphics are great, I mean they’re good on their own, not only in relation to previous SW games. 2. the story, although rather uninteresting for most part of the game, had a final rush where loose ends got tied, and made it enjoyable. I also liked that (as in Geneforge) the ending took in account your actions. I forgot to kill the wizard’s demon and it’s still trapped in the tower.. 3. the UI and the inventary system is a giant leap (thanks to the junk bag) from Geneforge. 4. I liked the tree-like skill system: I liked it because it forces you to specialize the character, but I found many 4th tier abilities not very good, and also the right branch wasn’t up to the others. Only with Shima I reached 6 (with items) to get steel tornado, and probably it wasn’t worth it. Generally I found better to maximize the basic attacks (ranged and melee and magic) and the whole left branch for the sorceress, specializing 3 times in the center branch to get the most defensive bonus. And 4th tier abilities, I could forget about them. I just got Janell have drakes for the last fight, since they could keep Redbeard busy. 5. as somebody else wrote, it woul be better if you could remove or “overwrite” enchantments on items. 6. often, when I issued the command to hit for a character that wasn’t in range, it moved for more squares than it would have been necessary, sometimes losing the turn, so most times I moved them personally 1 square at the time and had to check if they were in range to attack (for casters, the only way to check this is to select a cone-like ability and check if the target is in range). A bit bothering. I lost a fight with Redbeard (who had almost no life) for this.. Nathalie was in range to unleash its dark bolt but made a step too much, next turn my party was slaughtered. 7. I liked that some quests were like fake decoys, and you couldn’t finish them (Gavin, Tarkus). I didn’t like that quest givers told you “come back later”, what’s the problem if a quest is too difficult? You’ll face the danger later, and the next quest from the same person will wait the same. I’d prefer that the quest were assigned like in Geneforge, maybe with a hint that it could be too difficult. This also forced me to come back unnecessarily to places to see if I was ready to take another quest (like for the wrech envoy, Abi, Leira and others for which it isn’t clear that there’s a new quest waiting, as for others that you visit when you’re sent back to a certain region). Even in this last case, how can you know, without having played the game, that new quests will be available when you're told to come back by Redbeard? 8. I liked the map-to-map traveling system of Geneforge, where you can enter a map from different sides. In Avadon, instead, you enter a map always in the same spot, and you are forced to travel a lot and lose much time, since maps are very big (not a bad thing in itself). I think this was a major step back from Geneforge. I didn’t like much traveling through pylons either, they damaged the feeling of immersion and of world continuity, hopefully they’ve been destroyed in the attack in the end and won’t be there in Avadon 2, even if I doubt it.. I’d like much more to be free to travel like in Geneforge. 9. I liked that you cannot know how many HP creatures have.. Maybe a function for the right mouse button and mouse wheel support would be nice (I remapped the right button to the TAB key with Autohotkey to show the map). Also, the small map is a bit uncomfortable to scroll (maybe with press&drag you could be able to fast-scroll it? And maybe right click on the map to move the party where you click?). Also I read the suggestion to make the big map (TAB) clickable, I also think it would be good. 10. I also liked A LOT (contrarily to many other people) that secret buttons can be very hard to find, especially on brick walls (where you had to look for them with the mouse and couldn’t find them just looking at the screen). Secrets must be hard to find! I hope this won’t be changed just because some people complained.. maybe there could be buttons that are easier to spot, others that aren’t.. but it is like this already (depending on the kind of wall). Still, it is rather obvious sometimes, looking at the automap, to know were a secret wall could be. It would be nice if maps didn’t have a fixed dimension, that could have different width and height, so that you could never be sure that there isn’t a secret, if you don’t check it. 11. Overall I liked how characters were developed. Only, there were some clichés, like Kellemderiel being like elves or nordics, Kva being like southerners, Khemerians being like American natives (with shamans too) and so on. A bit of already-seen with changed names. I found Nathalie terribly stupid, after having become the keeper I would have liked to be given the choice to dispose of her (like hanged). To feel forgotten by Avadon just because it didn’t help her chasing a dragon in the middle of a civil war was too much to bear. In Baldur’s Gate you could attack your party members, and members had feelings toward each other so some would defend others if attacked (even by you). Now, I wouldn’t expect Sevilin and Janell help me in butchering Nathalie if I felt like it (and I did), but some help from Shima would have been reasonable. On the other hand, I felt really sorry when I killed one of the main characters (Lord Carsta'Arl, Lady Antje) and I even doubted having done the right thing when I killed Duke Gryfyn, I didn’t mourn him though; also Moritz'Kri was very enjoyable. 12. Also, another step back from Geneforge, is that you can’t attack neutral people. I don’t like this. It’s a big limitation for the sense of freedom. I cannot think a reason for this, other than making the game simpler and tightening the scope of the game, but I prefer freedom (maybe with consequences, like being fined, or executed, by Redbeard if you kill innocents and you are caught by doing it). Others will probably come to mind later.. very good game overall, now I’ll start the Avernum EFTP..