Zaego

I haven't tested it either, but I'll try to keep my eyes on it, if I remember. If I had to take a wild guess right away, however, I would like to say that the range would propably be maxed around the party's theoretical view range, not excluding areas that the party can't directly see because of physical obstacles (cave walls, mostly).

Alternatively engaging into a battle with a group of wandering monsters (outdoors encounter) will force all of the other wandering monster groups to disappear (reset). At least that's what I've come to notice. And it's a refreshing change from the original Avernum 2: when you'd see multiple groups of hostile creatures (i.e: Dark Wyrms etc) between you and your boat, you just knew you were absolutely done for...

Agreed, as well as replacing hellhounds with hydras (if nothing else then just replacing the graphics and names). I just can't get over the fact that Jeff went and threw the hydras out of the remake. And dark wyrms and spine beasts. Ok I'm going to stop now. Mind you, all of this would propably render the Minor Edits Mod into something like a Complete Overhaul Mod.

Thank You, Lilith, much appreciated!

I have a (daft) question, if You don't mind. Does using shift-D codes prevent one from gaining medals (or Steam achievements)? For example using the "resetboats" command. I had to use it once in my current playthrough to prevent myself from getting stuck.

The story has been deleted and discontinued. Thankyou for reading.

The story has been deleted and discontinued. Thankyou for reading.

I'm afraid I don't have the time to answer all of the points in the OP but I'd like to make a correction concerning the money in Jeff's games, especially Avernum series as that's what I've been playing the most. Especially at Hard and Torment difficulty settings I've found myself buying a lot of potions and scrolls and other goodies, because whenever you get into a boss-battle, every little item that can be used is extremely necessary and can mean the difference between life and death. Also in the newest remakes, Escape from the Pit and Crystal Souls, I think the skills cannot be raised above 10 by purely leveling up, and as thus for a good portion of the early game the skills should not be raised by buying as one can raise the skills above the hard-cap by first maxing them to 10, then buying several training levels. This leaves a lot of the money to be used to buy items. These few points came to mind off the top of my head and thus I feel like money is quite useful in the Avernum-series. (In hind-sight, this is just my personal, humble opinion. Someone like Randomizer etc. may have a much better view unto this topic as, from what I've understood, he/she has played a lot of Torment playthroughs.)

A fair point. I was just thinking that making the Troglodytes a playable race (hypotethically, for example in a BoA scenario) would show us a race that has been described always from start to finish as simply and purely evil with no redeeming features. It would allow for some pretty interesting plot twists as we don't know much anything about the society or code of conduct of the Troglodytes so the designer's imagination would be the only limit to the amount of surprises. (PS. EDIT: oops, sorry for getting side-tracked off-topic.. )

The story has been deleted and discontinued. Thankyou for reading.

An interesting idea - to see a race, one that you've fought as an enemy, from a totally new perspective. Maybe that'd be a good way for some skilled Blades of Avernum scenario maker to pass some freetime... That's really the only way how I see it would work, as the game canon concentrates on the Friendly Species.

I think it's a kind of a quasi-secret, if my memory serves me correctly. Somehow I recall that it's not exactly a known location and that there are people who seek the magical crystal cavern. Could be that many a adventurous soul doesn't wish to risk his or her life in search of a place that may or may not be there. EDIT: For example in the first game there's a guy, a wizard, in the Darkwyrm Inn who gives you a hint of the crystal cavern after you finish a quest for him, almost as though it was a mighty reward for a heroic deed. That'd certainly imply towards the rarity of the knowledge of this cavern. (Or maybe it wasn't a quest... maybe you had to mention someone's name before he would divulge the hint.)

The fanfiction was an escape during a hard time, and an experiment to writing. Too many flaws in the writing made it an impossible story to bring to a close. The story has been deleted and discontinued. Thankyou for reading. ---

All righty, sounds fair enough - I appreciate the helpful responses, thankyou everyone. ^^

I appreciate all of the replies so far. And fear not Sylae, I would never even dream of trying to make profit off of Jeff's work - his (and the company's) games have acted as an inspiration and as a place to escape to from the harshness of the reality for me. The intention would be purely and simply to lengthen and widen the world of Ermarian he has created. One question remains to be clarified, however. (Well, a couple). Seeing as how people have written Avernum related fan-fiction before, have they submitted their story to these forums, and if so, where specifically? Simply to the general section of the forums or the section that handles Avernum?

Greetings to everyone. I'm a long-time fan of Avernum and Geneforge but only recently I've managed to force myself to register unto the forums, as I confess myself to be rather slow to warm up to new ideas and my general shyness hasn't exactly helped much. Anyway, onward to the important question that burns within my mind. Ever since I played the "Avernum 2 - Demo" for the first time, I knew I had found the best gaming series ever to have seen the light of day. From that moment onward, I've mingled with Spiderweb's games as often as possible, with Jeff's games helping me through some very, very dark times. Over time I grew so fond of these worlds that I started to find inspiration to create content of my own within the boundaries of the Ermarian world. Scenarios, none of which I have finished so far; pictures, which I have uploaded to a specific artsite; and finally a story that I am having a great time with writing and creating. At first this story just started as a means to pass time and do something to help myself not to actually go crazy, but more and more it started to feel like "something". I gave myself a slap on the cheek, sent the first drafts to a close friend and received a critical, if very much approving response. Now I have come to the point where I am considering to start writing the story in a serious manner - and thus I'd like to ask the good people of these forums, how does submitting user-created content (such as a fan-fiction) comport with copyrights to Spiderweb Software and the forum rules? Is it legal to upload a fan-fiction or does it need to be approved by Jeff Vogel and/or someone else? And perhaps even more importantly, would people want to read something like a fan-fiction in these forums or is there a more suitable location for it? (The way how I see it would be that it'd be logical to upload fan-fiction to this site as it is the single greatest concentration of Spiderweb Software's fans on the web.) With respectful regards, - Z.

One thing that I like to do is that I think of real life people I know, listen to how they talk and then use those as templates for different characters in game. Maybe someone you know has a weird sense of humour, maybe a specific word they use unintentionally and subconsciously. Maybe someone has an exploding, fast-paced temperament, talking and switching between topics faster than you can keep up. The surrounding world, for me personally, is an endless well of inspiration when I write characters. As for fleshing out details, just have shamelessly a look at what Jeff has written in his special events for Valley of Dying Things, for example. How does he describe the surroundings, settings, etc. Watch and mimic, learn that way but also in the same time keep your personal touch to it. Hope this helps!

Semi-related to the topic, does anyone remember if there was (in one of the Avernums, 1 through 3, I'd like to say...?) a nephar actually living in a human town? Like as an innkeeper or as a boatcrafter? That would imply that even if the nephar are in general stupider and meaner, some of them might actually be born a tad bit smarter than their other unfortunate nephar cousins.