Wishlist for A2CS/A3RW?

[Kalnnas]

*delurk*

 

So I'm wondering offhand what people would want, hypothetically, in terms of features (new or returning), spells, whatever, for the remaining titles of the new Avernum trilogy.

 

I'll start it off by saying I'd kinda like to have the option to have a 6-PC party again (perhaps at the cost of dividing the XP more). That's something I still miss from the Exile days.

[Davies]

For A3RW, I definitely want the return of time progression (things happen on certain days if you don't stop them from happening) and the day/night cycle.

[Earth]

there won't be 6 char party since it'd mean that enemies would need to be harder and/or more of them and other things.

[Sudanna]

It's not any harder to balance for a six-PC party than a four-PC one. There won't be six because there hasn't been six in any Avernum game.

[Kalnnas]

there won't be 6 char party since it'd mean that enemies would need to be harder and/or more of them and other things.

 

Not an insurmountable challenge by any means. Maybe a stat boost or penalty for enemies, depending on the number of PCs in the party. (Conservation of Ninjutsu!)

 

You're both probably right in that it won't happen, tho. Ah well.

[Earth]

let's take Final Gauntlet as example: with 4 party members its difficult as it is supposed to but with 6 chars (3 melee and 3 casters or 4 and 2) and same amount of enemies it'd be much easier.

 

Grah-Hoth would be also much easier battle with 6 chars if enemies stayed otherwise same.

[Kalnnas]

I had another random thought. When the barriers are taken down around the Formello area, you can see where they used to be because they destroyed the road in that spot. I'd be curious to see evidence of some of the other places where barriers once stood.

[Zummi]

Oh come on. Grah-Hoth and the Final Gauntlet wasn't THAT hard. I mean, I did it solo, on Hard, with no reloads. It's not that difficult really. For my Crystal Souls wishlist? Probably just have hirelings available again, probably a companion quest for some. And the ability to close doors again.

[yarrmateys]

i'd like an ability to make the text larger than it is alreadt (larger than the option that already increases its size. maybe instead of just standard and larger give a drop box with font sizes, so if default was 10 i could change it to 16 if needed).

 

i'm running it in my native resolution which is 1080p, and sometimes it gets hard to read because things are so small.

 

i kinda miss the darkness from the old avernums, where the light spells/light sources were actually necessary, as opposed to nearly useless in the more modern games where they just apply a transparent overlay on an already perfectly visible scenery.

[Mad Genius]

The thing that I feel the avernum games could improve is the possibility for the player to have a more active participation in changing the persistent world. This idea of mine was already discussed in this link: http://spiderwebforums.ipbhost.com/index.php?/topic/17458-changing-the-persistent-world-possible-suggestion/

 

The basic idea here would be for the player to get quests to bring materials (stone, planks, hammers, cloth, plates, etc.) to help a town to rebuild a wall/tower/gate or to help a NPC to set up some king of shop, or a tavern or other establishment that the player could then go to and buy and sell stuff.

Just little quests here and there that you make the player fill that he/she is actually helping to change the game map.

 

Another example is a quest to bring construction tools to help to dig a tunnel between to caves in avernum. After completing that quest the tunnel would be available for the player to travel throught it and even appear of the mini map.

 

You get the idea. Although I don't know if any of this will actually make it into the game since Jeff might have the development already in a very advanced state.

[Earth]

Avernum has rock underground so it'd take alot time before to carve tunnel for example from Formello to Tower of Magi. Casters could help but .........

[Randomizer]

Terrain changes require extra coding to remove the old and put in the new graphics. Jeff is lazy and dislikes anything that cuts into his drinking time or rolling around on the floor in all the money he is making.

[Lilith]

Terrain changes require extra coding to remove the old and put in the new graphics. Jeff is lazy and dislikes anything that cuts into his drinking time or rolling around on the floor in all the money he is making.

 

Well, I mean, it's not like nothing like it has ever been done before, even for basically cosmetic reasons. Avadon 2 let you buy a house and then have furniture put in it.

[Mistah Q]

Too much changing the world up and that's a LOT of flags in your savegame... could make filesize almost double lol. Not that it's a huge problem. But a lot to keep track of and the mechanism for too much sandbox would be pretty tedious to code, even if it is just a mile-long list of checksums.

 

My wishlist: more doomguards, more Burma Shave jokes, and no things like instant game over if the castle gets mad at you... would been funny if you could just killed everyone and got a secret ending where you become a hero of the empire... lol.

[Mistah Q]

I know it will never happen but my real wishlist is for Avernum: Ruined World to go mega-platinum (or something) and make Jeff so much money that he hires full-scale production team and makes "Avernum 7: Rise of the Slith". Where, emptying of Avernum caused the Slith to become quite brave, in fact the war bands are emerging from lost bodishava (sh?) to strike the surface world, and you got two choices:

 

-Play as Vahnatai, seize this opportunity to strike back at the humans and drive them out of Avernum completely,

 

or

 

-Play as Avernum, at first Lord Gladwell is mad with power, doesn't care about surface world, just wants to use excuse to broaden his power... but he slowly has change of heart, and you must journey deep into Bodishava and destroy the heart of Slith power (not without its own moral qualms) and meanwhile you discover the solution to fungus blight. Final battle you can either support Gladwell and he will turn out to be decent man.. or you can challenge him to answer for his tyrrany and restore old order. It's a hard choice because he made true character change, kind of like King Duncan of MacBeth. For several games you wanted to kill the guy but now it's maybe not best choice... what do you do?

 

In my wish, this Avernum 7 makes so much millions of $$ for Jeff, that next we see World of Avernum, massive mmorpg... Alliance is humans, nephil, others -- horde is Vahnatai, Slith, etc...

 

...kidding.

[Superba]

I would like a simple bar for volume control in preferences panel, when I play and listen to a streaming radio from the internet the fight sounds are too loud.

[yarrmateys]

if you use windows 7, you can technically control it already. every program has its own volume in the volume mixer, so you could make avernum's volume much lower while keeping the radio's louder.

 

the idea for that tunnel digging sounds a little bit like the freehold of kyass. it could maybe work, if it would be simply replacing the map area bit by bit every time you advance the quest line to make the tunnel longer, until it gets somewhere.

 

maybe uncovers a new, smallish, dark cave, ready to explore when you get tired of dealing with the vahnatai and empire and just want a bit of change.

[Earth]

the idea for that tunnel digging sounds a little bit like the freehold of kyass. it could maybe work, if it would be simply replacing the map area bit by bit every time you advance the quest line to make the tunnel longer, until it gets somewhere.

 

maybe uncovers a new, smallish, dark cave, ready to explore when you get tired of dealing with the vahnatai and empire and just want a bit of change.

 

or hits pocket of lava and gets fried.

[jeffreywilens]

The game definitely needs larger text (or adjustable text) and/or the ability to zoom in. At modern LCD monitor high resolutions the game suffers badly because it is hard to see the icons and text. This is an interface problem with many games that were originally designed for VGA monitors.

[Kennedy]

Given its proximity to the empire controlled lands, will the freehold of Kyass be playing a major role in the upcoming rewrite?

[Earth]

Given its proximity to the empire controlled lands, will the freehold of Kyass be playing a major role in the upcoming rewrite?

 

unlikely but possible.

[ArcticPrism]

if you use windows 7, you can technically control it already. every program has its own volume in the volume mixer, so you could make avernum's volume much lower while keeping the radio's louder.

 

Yes, but we shouldn't have to do that. Also, it resets when you close the game. You gotta do the thing every time you want to play lol.

[Goldengirl]

Playing as humans is boring. A2 should introduce the possibility to play as Nephils, maybe even Sliths! And it would be nice to see the Surface actually in the games. Maybe that could be A3?

 

The only real recommendation I'd have is to keep the Freehold, or else have another area like it that's a mostly independent group of people new to this generation. Avernum is supposed to be full of hardy, independent folk, so it makes sense, right?

[Arch-Mage Solberg]

I just can't wait to play the games. ????

 

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/34/USS_Jacksonville_SSN-699_Crest.png

[Earth]

Avernum 2 remake we should be able to have non-human party since it was possible in prev. games too, surface world will need to wait until A3 remake.

 

As I have mentioned elsewhere I hope JV drops that mirror moving since its highly annoying and also stupid.

[Jerakeen]

Avernum 2 remake we should be able to have non-human party since it was possible in prev. games too, surface world will need to wait until A3 remake.

Goldengirl knows that.

[jeffreywilens]

i'd like an ability to make the text larger than it is alreadt (larger than the option that already increases its size. maybe instead of just standard and larger give a drop box with font sizes, so if default was 10 i could change it to 16 if needed).

 

i'm running it in my native resolution which is 1080p, and sometimes it gets hard to read because things are so small.

 

i kinda miss the darkness from the old avernums, where the light spells/light sources were actually necessary, as opposed to nearly useless in the more modern games where they just apply a transparent overlay on an already perfectly visible scenery.

 

This is perhaps the best upgrade and one that should be doable. The text needs to be adjustable or at least much bigger and the items larger. Perhaps you can double click on the screen and it will zoom in or out. I don't even try to play at 1080.

 

The other major room for improvement is the pathfinding so if tell someone to go to X he does not take a bizarre path. If you tell a caster to cast a spell he does not run in the opposite direction to circle around to cast it.

 

These are FIXABLE. Some of the other things probably are not without a new engine or at least big modifications.

[jimbob]

I would like to see pole weapons made a more powerful option in comparison to dual-wielding. Sure, dual-wielding is cool and all, but it is far more powerful than pole weapons to the point that some people don't even use them (I always insist on having the warrior leader in a group be a pole weapon user anyways, but that's just me). The return of powerful pole weapons would be a start (in Escape from the Pit, the Jade Halberd was taken out for some reason), and some new ones would be nice as well.

 

Another gripe I have is how magic far outstrips physical damage, especially later in the game. I know that it kind of makes sense, but my warriors really weren't doing much damage near the end of the game on Torment (they were lucky to do more than two digits most of the time until I got the Chaotic Halberd and two good swords for the dual-wielder) (bows were never very good, though, and she was the main bowman/dual-wielder). The spellcasters were doing the vast majority of the killing (although I guess this has always been the case?)

[jimbob]

Edit: Weird double-post.

[Earth]

The other major room for improvement is the pathfinding so if tell someone to go to X he does not take a bizarre path. If you tell a caster to cast a spell he does not run in the opposite direction to circle around to cast it.

 

that happens only in tight corridors and similar where path to enemy can get blocked.

 

casters have always done most damage (even more when they had access to cloud of blades) and fighters just protect casters (basically).

[jeffreywilens]

that happens only in tight corridors and similar where path to enemy can get blocked.

 

casters have always done most damage (even more when they had access to cloud of blades) and fighters just protect casters (basically).

 

Actually I have had it happen in open corridors where the character could have moved forward to get into firing range but instead took a "shortcut" that led to more enemies or just took him out of action.

[Almny]

Three things:

 

1. On Mac, Full Screen mode uses the OS X 10.7+ full screen API. I prefer to play in full screen rather than windowed, but this has the consequence that I cannot easily switch to other applications or receive notifications. If the full screen game opened into a separate space, then I could more easily switch to other applications and receive notifications.

 

2. Gesture support for scrolling merchant lists or long text.

 

3. Battle speed adjustment. Usually battle speed is perfect, but sometimes I just want to to go faster so that I can get on with exploring.

[Earth]

Actually I have had it happen in open corridors where the character could have moved forward to get into firing range but instead took a "shortcut" that led to more enemies or just took him out of action.

 

autopath tries to goto from a to b via shortest path and if that's not possible then it gets confused and acts weirdly.

[Necris Omega]

I've actually found the pathing in Spiderweb games to be a lot less... well lobotomized than in a lot of titles.

 

For me the ultimate in change (both in impact and utter unlikeliness) would be to completely curveball the ending. Yeah, it would disrupt A3-6 somewhat (completely), but I can't imagine anything that would floor me harder is if in Avernum 3: Ruined World it turned out that, NOPE! This time the Vahnatai didn't do it!

[Davies]

Very unlikely, but yeah, that would be kind of cool. Maybe we actually killed Hawthorne's robot double and now he's back and pissed?

[Necris Omega]

Seeds of the Darkside Loyalists perhaps? Son of Garzhad? The Dragons did it after all? Erika? Eh...

 

Erika Redmark seems to be growing increasingly mellow as this series has come out over the years - originally she felt like this godlike dominatrix liable to vaporize you if you used imply vs. infer wrong, but lately she's really toned down.

[jeffreywilens]

Guess it's too late to change anything for Avernum 2?

[LINDYLOU]

I would also like the ability to make the text bigger.

 

Another improvement would be to change that horrible font that is used all the time to a more legible one.

 

That said I am so looking forward to this coming out.

[GiantFriendlyTalkingSpiderman]

I found a few scripted over world battles in A:EftP to simply have to many enemies for the party to deal with properly. Even if your a high level there is a high likelihood that 5 monsters will run past your entirely surrounded fighters and murder your mage/archer causing you to head back to town after. In the Exile games of old these were my favorite kind of battles, I would make barriers and walls of flame to funnel my enemies and feel like a cool guy, now I just feel like a dummy who let his mage get killed by low level creaps.

 

My suggestion is to have more battles like this but be able to hire mercenaries to follow you outdoors only (like the scripted fights at the Slith slave camps).

The mercenaries don't follow you in dungeons of course and probably expire every time your wards/cloaks would expire.

[Randomizer]

Jeff's tweaked the AI from the Exile days where monsters wouldn't run through damaging spell fields anymore than to leave them and go around. The safest spot in a fight is no longer sitting in a low damaging fire field and attacking at range.

 

Guess it's too late to change anything for Avernum 2?

Jeff's pretty much decided how he wants to do the game, but is still making minor changes to clarify it and remove exploits that unbalance the game in his opinion. For anyone that's played Avernum 2, this is going to be a different experience.

[Jerakeen]

Did he really incorporate a bunch of Slarty's mods?

[Randomizer]

The game has some Slarty mods that will make playing different. But he didn't do others.

 

It also has some new items and things from A:EftP.

[GiantFriendlyTalkingSpiderman]

I hope he included some things from the re-remix. haven't played it much but I like the idea of armor weight actually mattering.

 

(Though if he didn't some one could about as easily mod those values in the next game too; that's what I like about this remake )

[Gon]

In Ruined World, make the Troglogytes a playable race with its own back ground story and specific spells and battle abilities.

[Davies]

... how in the world would that even be possible?

[Earth]

... how in the world would that even be possible?

 

its possible although requires alot work (aka time) so fat chances that it happens.

[Zaego]

In Ruined World, make the Troglogytes a playable race with its own back ground story and specific spells and battle abilities.

 

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.

[Earth]

Nephils and Sliths were originally (and still are) enemies of Avernum so it wouldn't be 1st time playable race is former enemy.

[Zaego]

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.. )

[Davies]

Just thought of another wish for Avernum 3 ... I'd like an alternate good ending, like in 1, 5 and 6. An ending where you bribe the people controlling access off Valorim to let you past so you can just get the heck away from Avernum and the Vahnatai might be nice. So might one where you decide you agree with Rentar's plans and totally destroy the Empire.