Okay Avadon, you and I need to talk

[Burzmali]

Okay, I get that in the first chapter you have a lot of areas that are inaccessible. That's cool, you're playing hard to get, I like that in an RPG, you don't just give it up the first time I stroll by. So I made my notes, checked my journal and planned to come back later when I was better suited to mount your challenges.

 

So, imagine my surprise when you fork over a teleporter as soon as I wander home. I figure "Damn, this is too good to be true, with this I'll be all over your business!", but sure enough, I need a clear path to use my new trinket. That's fine, a little teasing is good in an RPG. But, I said to myself, "Burzmali, you remember that one quest where we need to get the MacGuffin from point A to point B and every time we reached the halfway point the MacGuffin jumped back to A?", and I responded "Good observation me, with this teleporter doohickie we should have that quest covered like a jimmy hat".

 

Words can't describe my disappointment when I popped on my shiny new teleportation gizmo and all you did was roll over and hand me the same tired old line as always.

 

So Avadon, we need to talk. If you are going to hand me a potentially sequence breaking device, I understand that you reserve the right to cripple it in ways that prevent me from breaking the story. But please, if I do something sneaky and make a decent effort to sequence break, at least acknowledge that you don't roll that way. I understand that it is more work, but I'd like that more than being given an award for figuring out how to talk to plot critical characters.

 

This has been my spleen, thank you for listening.

[Randomizer]

The reason it doesn't work the way you want it to is Jeff is a low down trickster. There is another way to do what you want, but it involves finding a hidden route and some fighting or at least some work in avoiding fighting.

 

That trinket does come in handy in other situations. Too bad it also doesn't work for those chests of treasure that lie just out of reach.

 

Welcome to Spiderweb Software. Please leave your sanity at the door. Then you will come up with more tricky solutions.

[Emmisary of Immanence]

It's probably accidental, though. Jeff took a very aggressive approach to various exploits allowing the party to make it out of the entire area with the MacGuffin in hand.

 

—Alorael, who will take the blame for that with pride. He'll also note that it's similar to another problem all the way back from A4. Jeff does not like people who get tricksy with sneaking items around.

[Randomizer]

I remember during beta testing some testers used the exploit and Jeff altered the game to prevent it.

 

Jeff started very heavily in Avernum 5 wanting to know exactly how we were doing things to prevent exploits. He started demanding to know in Avernum: Escape from the Pit after it was too late to fix the high dexterity attack avoidance in Avadon.

 

I miss being able to use a simple terror wand on a boss monster and having it cower in fear in the corner while the party attacked with impunity.