A4 - Quick newbie question

[How]

I am new to A4 and wondering if I really have to keep running back to town to recharge my casters mana? No way to Rest out side of town?

Sorry if I'm missing some other obvious way to regen spell points.

[Swimmin' Salmon]

Energy potions. That is it for now. Later there are mana pools which provide assistance, but don't count on them to be everywhere.

[Nioca]

Energy potions will help, along with occasional special encounters, but otherwise, no.

 

EDIT: Apparently, I am once again late.

[ef]

A4 is a mixture of Avernum and Geneforge elements, therefore no outdoors anymore. If you ask just me, it successfully got rid of almost everything that made me fall in love with Exile a decade ago, but those who like the occasional hack an' slash seem to enjoy it nonetheless.

[How]

Quote:

Originally written by ef:
A4 is a mixture of Avernum and Geneforge elements, therefore no outdoors anymore. If you ask just me, it successfully got rid of almost everything that made me fall in love with Exile a decade ago, but those who like the occasional hack an' slash seem to enjoy it nonetheless.

Interesting commentary. Thanks. As someone totally new to all these games, which one would you recommend I play first? Are you suggesting that it be Exile?
Appreciate your input.

[ef]

E1/A1 is your entrée into a cave world, an underground terrain where those unfortunates who didn't manage to obey the empire's strict set of rules were thrown into to die or struggle to survive with no option of return to the surface. You get the idea?

 

When powerful mages were banned to the caves they fought monsters and demons and created conditions that made life possible, even enjoyable down below. Your party arrives in Exile/Avernum, so you explore and get to know the world and participate in its struggles. You may finally assist a mage seeking revenge and assassinate the surface emperor.

 

In E2/A2 you are part of an underground world at war with the empire. The emperor's death has shown the cave world's unexpected power and the empire now seeks to annihilate the pit. While the war is raging, magical barriers appear everywhere, blocking the paths, barriers of a type unkown and not of surface origin. It appears that a people far older than you and natural citizens of the caves has taken offence because of a deed you know nothing about. You will have to be your people's ambassador and journey into the unknown.

 

In E3/A3 your battle with the empire has been successful and your people have started to contemplate means of returning to the surface. You are an insignificant party sent to the surface to explore; you are easily replaceable. But what you meet above is unforeseen desaster, and if you ever want a chance up there you'll have to support the surface dwellers, if they'll let you.

 

E2/A2's plot is by far the best and it is therefore the most highly recommended game.

 

E3/A3 gives you both cave world and surface experience which has a charm of its own. Also E3 is easier to get used to than E1 and E2, because of its changed dialogue system and overall appearance.

 

The Exile series is less streamlined, less linear and 'polished' than its Avernum remake. There's more freedom to follow your own paths and much more to explore. The graphics, though older, nevertheless are of higher quality than the Avernum ones. Avernum is technically more advanced and that's what a lot of people prefer, but the original draft had more content.

[Dikiyoba]

To answer your original question, you can also put points into first aid to recover spell points, but it only kicks in after you kill enemies.

 

Dikiyoba.

[Alorael at Large]

With enough First Aid you'll almost never have to rest, though, because most encounters with enemies will result in a net gain in energy to the point where you can keep healing yourself indefinitely.

 

—Alorael, who disagrees about Avernum being linear. The plots and their arrangements are exactly the same as in Exile. The major plot changes are the addition of Lost Bahssikava in A1 (a minor plot point) and the change to the food system that makes the Dark Waters section of A2 not nearly as scary as its E2 counterpart.

[Randomizer]

The only thing scary about the Dark Waters section of E2/A2 is all that treasure you have to leave behind because you run out of slots and exceed encumberance. Food is never a problem since you can find some further into the section. At worst there are always the mushrooms that make you sick.

[Drayk Armitage]

Yes, E2 makes a big deal out of taking away all your food... and then goes out of its way to provide opportunities to pick up hydra burgers and the like.

 

The Tomb of Delrin-Bok (Dahris? I always mix them up) can be a little scary. Also the optional Resting dungeon, if you aren't at a relatively high level. Even the Ruined River Fort has Quickghasts that used to do a number on me.

 

I love Dark Waters, probably because your inability to access anything outside of NE Exile means that intelligent players won't automatically outclass every encounter by having sought out useful stuff all over.

[Alorael at Large]

Dark Waters never actually involves starvation. In E2 you can just cast Manna over and over and rest in between. The difference is in atmosphere. Not having food is scary in Exile, but in Avernum it's unusual to have food and even more unusual to need it.

 

I like going from the relatively familiar territory of Exile to the unknown wilderness with absolutely no way back. For all that Exile/Avernum is supposed to be a scary wilderness, you rarely go anywhere without tripping over friendly towns, forts, hermits, and lunatics. Dark Water is one of the few times you're genuinely on your own.

 

—Alorael, who likes Za-Khazi Run for similar reasons, except it's got way too many friendlies and not enough stretches of man vs. nature.

[ef]

It should perhaps be mentioned that 'Dark Waters' is a part of E2/A2, while 'The Za-Khazi Run' is a scenario that comes with Blades of Exile/Avernum.

Quote:

Alorael, who disagrees about Avernum being linear. The plots and their arrangements are exactly the same as in Exile.

You are right of course, Alo. It was nevertheless what I felt when I first played Avernum. I didn't try to analyze the why and would have to replay the games to see what led to that impression.

[How]

Quote:

Originally written by Dikiyoba:
To answer your original question, you can also put points into first aid to recover spell points, but it only kicks in after you kill enemies.

Dikiyoba.

Oh?! That's a good one to know. How much does FA help with SP recovery?

[How]

Quote:

Originally written by ef:
E1/A1 is your entrée into a cave world, an underground terrain where those unfortunates who didn't manage to obey the empire's strict set of rules were thrown into to die or struggle to survive with no option of return to the surface. You get the idea?

When powerful mages were banned to the caves they fought monsters and demons and created conditions that made life possible, even enjoyable down below. Your party arrives in Exile/Avernum, so you explore and get to know the world and participate in its struggles. You may finally assist a mage seeking revenge and assassinate the surface emperor.

In E2/A2 you are part of an underground world at war with the empire. The emperor's death has shown the cave world's unexpected power and the empire now seeks to annihilate the pit. While the war is raging, magical barriers appear everywhere, blocking the paths, barriers of a type unkown and not of surface origin. It appears that a people far older than you and natural citizens of the caves has taken offence because of a deed you know nothing about. You will have to be your people's ambassador and journey into the unknown.

In E3/A3 your battle with the empire has been successful and your people have started to contemplate means of returning to the surface. You are an insignificant party sent to the surface to explore; you are easily replaceable. But what you meet above is unforeseen desaster, and if you ever want a chance up there you'll have to support the surface dwellers, if they'll let you.

E2/A2's plot is by far the best and it is therefore the most highly recommended game.

E3/A3 gives you both cave world and surface experience which has a charm of its own. Also E3 is easier to get used to than E1 and E2, because of its changed dialogue system and overall appearance.

The Exile series is less streamlined, less linear and 'polished' than its Avernum remake. There's more freedom to follow your own paths and much more to explore. The graphics, though older, nevertheless are of higher quality than the Avernum ones. Avernum is technically more advanced and that's what a lot of people prefer, but the original draft had more content.

I've heard that a major difference between A and E is that the E games allow for 6 in your party and the A games only 4. This would appear to be a significant change, imo.
I wonder why this was implemented? Anyone know?

[Lilith]

Quote:

Originally written by How:
Oh?! That's a good one to know. How much does FA help with SP recovery?

Having a little First Aid heals you to the tune of maybe 5 HP and 1-2 SP per monster you kill early on, and 2 or 3 times those amounts later on. Having more First Aid doesn't really increase the benefits by that much. Get 2 points or so on every character and then forget about it.

Note that you have to end combat mode before First Aid takes effect, so it doesn't help with emergency healing in combat.

Quote:

I've heard that a major difference between A and E is that the E games allow for 6 in your party and the A games only 4. This would appear to be a significant change, imo.
I wonder why this was implemented? Anyone know?

It's probably related to another change. In the Exile series, whenever you weren't in combat all your PCs occupied a single space; in the Avernum series, outside of combat your leader occupies one space and the rest of the party follows behind in single file. Having 6 PCs all walking in a line would get a little crowded -- the engine sometimes has enough trouble placing even 4 PCs correctly when entering a new town or ending combat.

[How]

Thanks for your help Thuryl.

[Drayk Armitage]

Quote:

Originally written by Hypertoroid:
Dark Waters never actually involves starvation. In E2 you can just cast Manna over and over and rest in between.

Nope. Manna isn't available until Mancuso, after Dark Waters, and Minor Manna -- which is tucked away in the Aranea cave, so many players miss it -- isn't much better than Light Heal All at stopping starvation, IIRC.

[Alorael at Large]

I meant Minor Manna, and I most definitely used it excessively to rebuild a food supply. Cast until empty, rest, repeat. It might not have been necessary or even useful, but it worked.

 

Avernum's four characters work just fine as a design decision. I never feel like I don't have enough characters to work with, and it makes some encounters require a little bit more thought because you can just throw more people around or use them as barricades.

 

—Alorael, who bought First Aid from money-only trainers and spent no skill points on it. By doing that for four characters you can get some very nice post-battle healing.

[Randomizer]

Avernum 4 first aid works great in the Honecombs where you have a lot of short battles where you can even wind up with more spell points than when you started after using protection spells.

 

I usually had more first aid in the fighters since the spellcasters need every skill point for going up in spell abilities.