Let's Play Geneforge 5

[Blxz]

I guess I know what choice you made... I made the same choice hence I haven't seen all the endings.

 

Well, if there is sustained interest in the series then I may well go back to my save point and try to get the other endings. Probably via a more condensed version where I edit out the repeated stuff and just focus on the missions and new story elements.

[alhoon]

Nope, I would like to listen your reactions when every faction leader asks you to do some very dirty stuff.

You may hate the rebels but they're the most straightforward in what they ask you to do...

[Blxz]

Nope, I would like to listen your reactions when every faction leader asks you to do some very dirty stuff.

You may hate the rebels but they're the most straightforward in what they ask you to do...

 

Oh yeah, if I were to go back and complete every faction it would involve reading through everything as per normal. I wouldn't however do the normal exploration readings that are popping up. Once is more than enough. I'd only cover new stuff.

 

EDIT: Also, 99 subs right now. I seriously never expected to get so many people watching my stuff. I just started making videos for some sort of personal motivational excuse to force me to play right the way through games and to stop restarting with a 'newer and better build'. Big thanks to the Geneforge watchers in this thread. You've helped put a personality to some of my viewers and that means a lot to me.

[Alberich]

Well, thankye! I may not be a typical viewer; I never watched a let’s play before, and probably won’t again, but GF5 was a very special game and you bring charm to this one. The combination is especially good in this game because the player has so many real choices to make. So I’m not just hearing someone do the same as I did, which might get dull (though in fact a lot of your thinking is similar to my own), but instead I get to hear someone else reason his way through the same challenges. It makes a nice break at the end of the day, while I wind down with a few minutes of a casual game and listen to something from YouTube.

Liked the last two…85 was just necessary plot exposition, but 86 left me wanting to see where your new commitment takes you.

 

 

The War Trall named “Dragon” reminded me of Lord Julius from Cerebus the Aardvark (a 20^th century comic one of my pals was deeply into). He kept his enemies confused by calling his security chief the “Kitchen Staff Supervisor”…

[Blxz]

The War Trall named “Dragon” reminded me of Lord Julius from Cerebus the Aardvark (a 20^th century comic one of my pals was deeply into). He kept his enemies confused by calling his security chief the “Kitchen Staff Supervisor”…

 

A far more mundane reason for the name unfortunately. Someone watching episode 52 asked for a name in the game and I'm selling out for subs

 

Hence the name of the episode - 'Tralling (trolling) for support'.

 

Still, we can just pretend that I had some devious scheme in mind to deceive my enemies.

[Blxz]

[Alberich]

Best line: "No, that's called running away."

[alhoon]

Bennhold? I guess that's Bennhold!

I wish I could get him to join the Rebels instead of killing him. I'm totally going to mod that in at some point...

 

I shouldn't do that in my busy schedule, but that's too much GF talking these days. I have to watch a couple of episodes.

[Alberich]

Alhoon, Bennhold takes up two episodes. Be prepared for the groan-inducingest pun in a Blxz title so far...

[alhoon]

Episode 55: (The one where Blxz returns the book to Rawal)

O_O 7th time recording the episode?

 

And Rawal doesn't disappoint "Amazing! The details! I can see why the author had to be executed"... lol.

Wingbolts were a slight disappointment for me in this game.

 

I'm really disappointed I didn't hear your original reaction when you found out Taygen's mad plan.

Alas, I can still look forward to your reactions when you join a faction and be told to start the atrocities...

 

I am pretty sure that if you kill Platano, you'd be locked out of Taygen's faction. This is BTW the only one I haven't done: Taygen's storyline.

 

About the bug quest: I frankly don't remember what I did with the vial, but I think I kept it (cause that's what I would do). I can't be sure, but I don't remember it being useful anywhere except in that area to draw out more bugs for me to get XP from.

 

I see you found a wand of the inferno in there thanks you to your insanely high mechanics. That would have been handy...

I laughed aloud when you opened the door saw no enemy and... went for the canister without even talking to your host first. So much for your "Shaper laws should not be broken" Blxz.

Also, if I may ask, what exactly you thought an outsider mage would do when you told him you would report him for learning to Shape? Shapers would not only execute him, they would go over all his contacts probably and arrest them. They are completely intolerant of that kind of thing and it's one of the main reasons of the Rebellion.

Of course, it could have helped if the Life-crafters weren't shaped but secretly trained in deep hidden chambers for a few years. Geneforges are too damn dangerous.

 

Episode 56: Drayks really don't seem to hold up any more.

 

Episode 57:

I suggest you start enchanting your stuff more, especially the artifacts. Misty orbs and gold crystals are really good.

You also mention in the episode frame cuts etc. I didn't notice anything till you brought it up.

 

Episode 58:

I think it was a good choice to kill the monsters off-screen. And I totally agree that the podlings are the most annoying enemy of the game.

They are even more annoying than even Unbound that shape podlings!

I actually surrendered to the bandits of the woods, thinking they would take me to Bennhold or something. They just... murdered me off screen. Like, "they take you away and kill you".

If I may, I cringed a bit when you used so many charges of the powerful baton on the lone mage bandit. The area damage would have been handy later with many enemies.

 

As for the bandit fights of the episode, perhaps you could use that nice trick of speeding up the battles with music, as you did in the cave?

[Alberich]

You'll get his reactions to Taygen in time...best not to say too much just yet though. A huge part of the fun is seeing Blxz's unforced, un-influenced reactions to the moral multilemmas of this game.

[alhoon]

He hasn't been there yet? Oh, I'll edit my post.

[Alberich]

He's been to Taygen's headquarters though not to all his locations....and he is in fact on the edge of picking a specific faction to join. Bennhold was a sideshow on his way to doing that.

[Blxz]

All this talking and I still don't know Taygen's mad plan. It can't be that bad can it? If I had to guess, build an army and kill the various leaders. Probably due to his shaping aversion it might involve a raid on the citadel to destroy some plot MacGuffin that is like the 'geneseed' or whatever for plans to shape more creations, etc. Worst case scenario might involve setting up those control pylons/torture devices that were used in G2 to mind control everything. I don't expect to be shocked at anything that Taygen throws my way.

 

Still, I am curious.

 

------------------------------------------------------------

"Be prepared for the groan-inducingest pun in a Blxz title so far... "

 

My best work

[Alberich]

"Then wonder on, 'til truth make all things plain." And keep those fun episodes coming!

[alhoon]

I don't think you'll be surprised, there have been hints even from the episodes I am at. Don't worry. All factions deal with his plan. You'll find out.

[Blxz]

Not been posting much since crunch time in the Australian election came up. In good news, I am now jobless having lost that election so I will have more time to record videos. Watch this space for the rest of the series.

[alhoon]

Well, you'll find work soon enough I hope. Geneforges would be come hot once you finish yours, so you would find employment soon enough!

[Alberich]

Then I'll hope things work out for the best for your country, and look forward to some good videos!

[Blxz]

Thanks for the thought guys. Nearly done shredding paper, 2.5 tonnes done yesterday, then after that I'll be free sailing and recording. Appreciate the patience.

[alhoon]

In 650 years, a group of serviles will trade stories about how their race was created because the first Shaper had to spend days on end shredding paper before he decided to do something about it. Make something about it.

[Alberich]

Glad to see you're getting new inspirations for voices....there was a little Peter Lorre in that last eyebeast. Looking forward to the next

episode, as I suspect things will get more “political.”

 

You asked for recommendations for next games. At Good Old Games (gog.com), there’s a newish RPG called Age of Decadence that I greatly enjoyed last year. (No, it’s not a naughty game; “decadent” in the sense of a collapsed Roman-style empire.) It’s a CRPG but runs much lighter on combat than most of them…I think you might enjoy it and maybe your viewers would enjoy seeing you play it.

[Blxz]

I've had a look at that game. Sadly I don't like it very much. It is billed as an open RPG but in reality it is a puzzle game. You need to select the right skills in the right order to go through properly as opposed to building a character and roleplaying them.

 

So thanks for the suggestion but not this time.

 

Now, I realise that the last episode I linked through was 87. So here are all the ones that have come out since then including today's episode:

 

 

 

 

 

 

And a bunch more are recorded.

 

In case you've missed my most recent channel update, I've decided to spend the time I was normally at work doing productive things such as recording. This will let me release twice a day. One of these will always be a Geneforge 5 game since I absolutely adore the series and consider G5 the centerpiece of my channel. The release time is generally 10am AEST so that may actually be the day before for some of the americans who watch the channel. (midnight for any of you from the UK)

 

[shameless plug]

Hope you enjoy the content and keep smashing that thumbs up button. And watch without adblock if at all possible. That extra 0.1 cents that your view equals might buy me an extra day of survival without a job. [/shameless plug]

[alhoon]

I will soon have something for you to check... but I won't say more at this time.

[Blxz]

I will soon have something for you to check... but I won't say more at this time.

 

Well my interest is piqued.

[Alberich]

As am I by the latest episode. I liked the muffled voice effects (and the additional dialogue by your cat) and am keen to see which way you jumped after this.

 

 

Sorry to hear you didn’t like Age of Decadence much…I grant it has that “puzzle” aspect (modified by the fact that there are so many ways to win it, and so many endings to go for, that even a successful game is tailored to what kind of personality you’re playing).

 

 

 

As I mentioned, I’m not a big let’s-play listener, but I’m enjoying your trip through G5 partly because the dialogue-to-combat ratio is high for a CRPG, and you have real choices to make…sometimes hard and ugly ones as you have just demonstrated.

 

Arcanum is a good (though now old) one, but there’s way too much combat to make it interesting to see someone else doing it (and the game does its own voices anyway).

[alhoon]

I was interested in AoD too until I read the reviews that you have to stick to a character path progress and keep it, or you start failing skill checks pretty quick. I have found a very rough solution to this (namely, cheating and increasing ALL the skills so that I could explore other options) but that's not what the game developers wanted; they obviously wanted to make it "stick to what you know and don't deviate much".

[Alberich]

That's an exaggeration of what the game is like....in fact, in my first play-through, I changed factions pretty quick, and I found there was a lot of flexibility (especially in whom to support, but also how).

It was helpful to save skill points for when I needed them, but important…much more so than in a standard CRPG…to accept that there were certain pathways that were simply not meant for this play-through. (e.g., a hard fight when I’m not specializing in combat.) It was also very strong on replay value.

[alhoon]

You may both be interested in this. It's a mod I made, that I am very proud of. I've modded many, many games (practically all modable games I have) but rarely I am so pleased with the result.

 

It's Blxz's videos that renewed my interest in GF5 and thank you for that.

[Blxz]

Nice. Checked out the thread. Looks like a lot of fun. Will install it when I start playing through the alternate endings. Will keep everything 'pure' for now so that I can get the original experience for my first run-through.

 

In G5 video news:

 

 

I've also recorded past episode 100 just today. Somewhere between episode 94 and episode 100 a choice will be made that will decide the future of the war. No spoilers just yet but make sure to watch and find out who eventually wins me over.

[alhoon]

Without spoiling much, there'll be a tribute to both of you in the next version of my mod:

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Blxz]

Cool.

 

If I could offer a grammatical suggestion without seeming rude:

 

[You have to rely in part on the works of a particular Shaper who, in contrast to the usual paranoia and secrecy, liked to record everything; except, as it turns out, his or her name. They are known only by their initials: "Blxz".]

 

I've tried to keep your style of writing but there were lots of pronouns floating around and I simplified it a bit. Feel free to use or ignore as you see fit.

 

And thanks for the honour of being part of your creation.

[alhoon]

Well, I can't add many words in the same paragraph. There's a limit. Go over the letter limit and it crashes. I had to figure the hard way. But I'll see what I can do.

[Alberich]

Why, thank you! (Mind you, I was a dedicated Drayk maker right down to the end, but as Drayks are suppressed creations, no doubt those pages have been suppressed.) And congratulations on a tough project....when I replay that game someday I'll try it with your mod.

[alhoon]

Episode 59, I got to admit, you could take the Bandits AND the turrets together. Taking over the turrets to fight low-level bandits was plain cruel...

 

I laughed, and I laughed hard when you were so excited about the cannister and the artifact ingredients in the bandit camp that you... forgot to heal the poison and you died.

I could picture the Shaped cannister-junky turning green but crawling towards the Cannister as his vital organs fail with an outstreched hand saying "Mine! Mine!" and after using it dying content with a smile, the cannister's broken remains in his hands, last words being "my precious..."

 

Episode 60, that Rot from the trap... worse than an Unbound. Or at least close. I don't understand why the Shapers and rebels make so much fuss about them since bandits have access to as powerful creations in traps.

As for the chain misses of 2 85% misses followed by 2 90% misses.

I am quite convinced that you didn't stumble upon the 1/4500 chance that this had to happen. From this and other signs I believe the randomness generators of the game are not working well*.

I rarelly parry but if I parry, I chain-parry often even at 5%.

 

*Or perhaps it's by design. It could be that the numbers are random but correlated. As in, in 1000 hits, you would hit 850 times and miss 150. However those 150 miss chances are not uniform; they're close to each other to clusters of "bad luck".

I don't know how much you know (or are interested) by stochastic processes, time series and Markov Chains, so I'll not go further.

 

When I parry with my 3% I parry often twice.

However the "parry-heavy" periods are 3%. I.e. in one every 30 battles I go parry-heavy and in 29/30 battles I fail to parry consistently.

 

Another thing: OMG, Perikalia guards are really tough. Again, why the panic over the Unbound? Three of those can take one without casualties.

I think the reason the guards are so insanely tough here is because they represent more than "one" guard. Instead of putting in 3-4 guards with 150-200 hp and lower stats, they put 1 with 1000 hp that will be about as hard (less attacks, more hp).

 

Episode 61: You were right. The lag makes the episode harder to watch.

Ahh... Felicia and the quite open crush the belaguered commander of Rockfall has on her.

Along with Semini and Makar (and Makar nevered seemed to even acknowledge Semini's affection) they're my favorite "what-if" couple. I was trully sorry by their demise.

Unlike Makar-Semini Felicia seems to respect commander Rossi and at least realize her role in his life (the "I'm the only think that keeps him sane" remark).

 

Episode 62:

Wow! You're braver than I thought! You picked a fight with a Drakon and 6 Rots, with just your 5 creations (3 of which are tier 3).

Brave indeed. Not exactly reasonable or realistic, but brave.

If I may, what I did is after more or less shouting "THIS IS SPARTA!" to his face to play tough (like you), I ran back through the reaper turrets. They reaped them appart!

 

But alas, the frame-rate is really bad in this one...

And the discussion with the poor servile in Vengeance that wanted something more than her life... NOW I remember who is Preva! I hope you haven't turned her in.

In case you still can, you could talk to Preva about this gal. I think. I'm not 100% sure.

 

And another thing, one of the few times that I found GF5 to be short-sighted. If you recall (min 15) you find in Fort Vengeance some creations that are becoming dangerously close to rogue... and auto-calm them.

No choice about whether you WANT to do it. My character, quite pro-rebel at this point, walked around a corner and helped the enemy. Just cause.

Anyway. Cyprien, the snobbed and discontented mage of Fort Vengeance. Did you find any way to turn her rebel? She seems the prime candidate I would target for recruitment if I was a rebel. Skilled, powerful and 2nd-class because the Shapers said so. Literally robbed of her potential by a controlling and powerhungry elite.

 

Alas, rewatching this episode (Cyprien + Tima and Thoma the Serviles) I remember while I despise Shaper law so much and why the rebellion was necessary. If only the Drakons had a lesser hand in it...

Alas, it is what it is. It probably took me quite some effort around this time in the game to not go full Rebel but remain somewhat in the middle.

I won't start another long rant of why the rebellion is a direct consequence of the Shaper law, not a result of the SLaw not being followed though.

 

To return to commenting on your comments... You're right that she seems a trakovite candidate too. Perhaps that's why I didn't find a way to make her rebel.

[Blxz]

But alas, the frame-rate is really bad in this one...

 

Worry not, it is almost at the point where I realised the actual problem. I'm playing the game and recording on a solid 800mhz which is clearly not powerful enough to do both. Once I fix my cooling issue in a few more episodes it goes beautifully smoothly. I'd quite forgotten about how bad it all was. The image quality improves as well since I can set the settings higher.

[Alberich]

I see the latest episode is called “Sliding In Through the Backdoor.” There’s a website I like sometimes, popular with comix geeks, which highlights funny moments (intentional or not) from twentieth-century comic books. Your title brought this Western-themed one to mind: http://www.superdick...-gay-desperado/

 

Oh, and you said we might thank you for speeding up some of the fights. Yes, thank you. (What is the music you use? Sounds a little bit Hawaiian…is it Aussie easy listening?)

[alhoon]

Well, don't speed up ALL fights. I like to check on your tactics. A couple of fights in an episode is fine. It's when it's a combat heavy episode that things seem to become slightly less interesting.

[Blxz]

Haha, nice link. Never seen that one before but you are correct in the point I was hinting at. Most of my episode titles have some sort of link like that. Sometimes I wonder if any of the viewers will ever actually pick anything up. I was actually most impressed when you got the Ella Fitzgerald one some time back (but you've missed some of the other Ella ones).

 

And Alhoon, I've started doing it for some of the lengthy 'rinse and repeat' battles in a few episodes when I have non 'boss' battles. Very short ones stay in because it takes more effort in post edit than it saves you guys and the boss ones (and other strong single characters) stay in because they are marginally interesting. But fighting three consecutive rounds of shredbugs and battle alphas for the 100th time is being sped up for brevity and so I can cram more into an episode (uploading times and all that). It also does wonders for my voice. I do hope I've struck a good balance but ongoing feedback is always appreciated.

 

Finally, the music. I believe the music is 'Carefree' by Kevin MacLeod. Super free and super common. I like the light-hearted swing to it. I think it contrasts nicely with the fact I am murdering big beasties in the background. I had thought about something a bit heavier but didn't like the feel; was too serious and I'm not a serious person for the most part. As always, this LP is a work in progress and there will be some more experimentation in future.

[alhoon]

Well, the caves one you did ... several episodes before where I am was good balance IMO.

[Alberich]

Well, the phrase "can't take my eyes off of you" is more likely to bring this to mind --

-- I don't say it's better than

the great jazz standards, but it comes up a lot more on American radio stations.

 

 

I enjoy an incongruously cheerful selection for sped-up fights…’course the world is full of them, everything from sleepy bossanova to the “Nyan Cat” tune up to Yakety Sax…but I’ll wait to see what variety you give us in any of the duller fights you do.

 

 

 

I never made a drakon myself (I don’t think you can learn the skill from trainers, and I spent G5 on “canister cold turkey”) so I’ll be interested to see how your experimenting goes. Enjoying it! And may I say you do have a knack for calling the episode right when I’m keen to see what happens next…which is a good sense of timing. Keep it up!

[alhoon]

Drakons? They're awesomely better Drayks. I always tell myself that I'll keep my trusty Drayk since it's competent to the end. And then I get Drakons.

[alhoon]

EPISODE 63!

The first post-cooling problem episode.

First thing that came to my mind when reading about this "very young" and noob Guardian commander. That you can even mock about how he is placed here before his time:

He has wingbolts and war-tralls. By the dozen... Apparently, this guy is more talented than half of Astoria's crew.

 

I see you're considering raising leadership to 12... I think with the items you have (or would soon have) you would reach that without paying skill points.

For mechanics, the same.

I got intel 19 and finished at level 47 I think. And I had essence to spare. I would suggest that 20 intel is an overkill; do you really need 5+ tier 5 creations?

[Alberich]

Oooh, you do have a knack for cliffhangers.

Your dialogue with Dragon brought to mind a bit of 70’s US TV….”Gentlemen, we can rebuild him…better, stronger, faster.” This is the A$ 6 million Drakon?

If you get caught gambling in Cuba (I see the band name is right), just send home for Lawyers, Guns, and Money…

[Blxz]

EPISODE 63!

The first post-cooling problem episode.

First thing that came to my mind when reading about this "very young" and noob Guardian commander. That you can even mock about how he is placed here before his time:

He has wingbolts and war-tralls. By the dozen... Apparently, this guy is more talented than half of Astoria's crew.

 

I see you're considering raising leadership to 12... I think with the items you have (or would soon have) you would reach that without paying skill points.

For mechanics, the same.

I got intel 19 and finished at level 47 I think. And I had essence to spare. I would suggest that 20 intel is an overkill; do you really need 5+ tier 5 creations?

 

I used to almost never buff the core stats. I'm testing it in this game and I love it. I think I've realised that I can never have enough intel. Cost is the only barrier. I think I even end up taking intel buffing equipment that drops other stats just because it is cheaper to buff those other stats up to compensate.

 

But I am aware that this is in no way an optimal build. I just want my shaper to do everything, especially magic stuff when I should probably be specialising a bit more.

 

Alberich, No planning goes into these cliffhangers. And yes, this is indeed the $6 million drakon.

[alhoon]

I also don't increase the other stats and concentrate on intel most. And in the end... I could have at lvl 47 (with kinda better creation-boosting \ creation making equipment than you due to artifact choices) 2 war-tralls, 2 gazes, 1 drakon, 1 cryodrayk and something else I forget. At +8 to +10 to their stats from equipment.

I won't spoil the end fight, but I'll say I don't even need buffs up. (Although to be sincere, I usually go half-mechanics route to make it easier).

 

And you're like 1-2 levels higher than I was already. At the power level you are at episode 63, the end fight is possible. Challenging, but not frustrating if you do a couple of right tactical choices I won't spoil. And you're half-way through the 2nd to last area.... O_O

 

 

If I have one criticism for GF5 is that it gives a bit too much XP. By ... the level you are Unbound are not only doable, but EASY. By the end game, I went to the Oklavano Barrier and killed the whole rebel force. That included 4 Unbound. Together.

 

Also the game allows too much "I'll run out to get my essence back \ make creations and return." You don't do that, but I do. Too few "closed door!" instances.

[Randomizer]

Jeff altered the limits on where you could still gain experience comparing your level and the monster's level so you get more than in previous games. But the exploit of leaving a zone and returning is just one that he never considered and wouldn't block since it involves altering the game engine too much to fix it.

[alhoon]

Not really... there are cases that the door shuts behind you etc etc. But they're mostly in the early game, not the late. For example, you can't get out of the Stoneworks without defeating Makar. Truth is, that the places where you can't just leave are the reasonable ones. Same with those that you CAN leave... If you're in an open map there's literally nothing that would stop you from leaving, resting and returning.

All in all there are just a handful cases where locking you in would make sense and it doesn't happen.

[Alberich]

Just popping in after #98 to say -- great voices (even your interpretation of your own dialogue), interesting decisions! I might've called it "Omega Blxz."

[Blxz]

Just popping in after #98 to say -- great voices (even your interpretation of your own dialogue), interesting decisions! I might've called it "Omega Blxz."

 

Well, I'm set on a path now. Wonder where it will take me.