Avernum & Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder

[Fermata]

After the Save-Happy thread, I got to thinking; Avernum is pretty much one of the most obsessive-compulsive games I've played. Besides saving, there's:

 

- Obsessive wall-checking. I swear, it's like I can't rest until I hump every single wall in the area. I can't keep going forward until I know there's no undiscovered secret behind me.

 

- Obsessive loot gathering. I usually set a minimum value for collecting loot to sell (right now anything 20+ in value), and I absolutely cannot leave anything above that value behind. If my guys' inventory is full, I MUST return to town and sell off all my junk before continuing. I'll also feel quite uneasy if I know I left valuable loot behind on the floor. That just makes me feel... icky.

 

- Obsessive item storing. Right now, I have to save every cursed item I find, and at least 1 of every item that I feel may come in handy later (like eggs in A2, which I feel will be a quest sooner or later). I pile the cursed items + stored items separately in Formello. I make it so that pressing "G" will not hit anything except for the given pile (and not some merchant's inventory, or a loose rock or something). It drives me nuts when a rock comes up amongst my stored items. Really.

 

- Obsessive note-taking. I started this halfway through A1, and I've pretty much perfected a system for A2. I make a list of: Completed Dungeons, Uncompleted Dungeons/Towns (and even if it's just a book I can't read, the whole dungeon is uncomplete), Herb-picking locations, Skill-training Locations, Item Storage Locations and Weird Stuff (those random three letter words seen on a few obelisks and such). I cycle back and forth between Notepad and Avernum constantly.

 

 

So yeah, this game series is just one big OCD trip. And I like it, dammit!

[Rent-an-Ihrno]

That last part is definately a useful thing to do. Maybe not to that extent (there are, after all, websites which list trainer locations etc.), but Avernum is far too vast to complete without having a plan. Missing out on things is almost inevitable.

 

Other than that, however, I must repeat myself: chill, dude! That sort of stuff gets back to you, trust me. You don't get any gold from selling items worth 20 coins, storing things is utterly useless, and loose rocks are there for a reason! Don't drive yourself nuts, you're just conditioning yourself.

 

As for wall-bumping: I had that problem too, until I discovered a much less annoying and more effective obsession - going crazy with Far Sight. Give it a try, it changed my life.

[Fermata]

Heh, I probably exaggerated a little. I'm still near the beginning of chapter 2, so 20 coin things sell for about 12-13, which is still worth it. Even with collecting everything 20+, I only do 2-3 trips per medium-sized dungeon.

 

In terms of item storing, I just had to "clean" out (i.e. make sure there are no other items) a space once, and then it stays clean for the rest of the game. The storage spots are next to where I would sell items anyway, so it doesn't actually add much time at all to a loot run (and I don't run across storable items every dungeon anyway).

 

These OCD things in general don't add much time (note-taking SAVES a lot of time), with the sole exception of wall-humping, which will probably be made obsolete when I get Far Sight. I just find it funny how I am not an OCD person in real life, but in Avernum, you can definitely interpret it that way.

[Balladeer]

I can totally relate. I do everything except the note-taking which I probably should do.

[Dikiyoba]

Originally Posted By: Fermata

It drives me nuts when a rock comes up amongst my stored items. Really.

That just means you haven't looted properly. When Dikiyoba loots a place, Dikiyoba takes everything. Even the rocks and trash. The stuff that is utterly worthless gets dumped outside, but everything else is either sold or horded.

[Ghaldring]

Originally Posted By: Dikiyoba

Originally Posted By: Fermata

It drives me nuts when a rock comes up amongst my stored items. Really.

That just means you haven't looted properly. When Dikiyoba loots a place, Dikiyoba takes everything. Even the rocks and trash. The stuff that is utterly worthless gets dumped outside, but everything else is either sold or horded.

You have way too much time on your hands.

[Tyranicus]

Why do you save the cursed items?

[Toby-Linn]

I do all the usual OCD stuff people have already mentioned, like bumping walls, saving, picking up items (though I only pick up good items, like steel stuff to sell).

 

But apart from that, one weird thing I do is pants related....I only like wearing the straight pants (the ones that look like pants in the item list) and not the ones that look like they're all folded and wrinkly. Oh and cloaks too...I only like the nice green ones not the ugly purple ones. The only reason I'd wear a purple one is because it's magic.

 

In fact, Avernum 1 had a bad habit of making my cloaks and pants disappear when I got killed (I would die and use the editor to bring myself back to life but the clothing would be missing from the items on the ground) so I would pick up extra pants and cloaks and stash them away.

[The Mystic]

- Obsessive wall-checking: I used to do that a lot; still do when I can't find the hidden passage I can't remember the exact location of.

 

- Obsessive loot gathering: I always do this, especially early on when I'm strapped for cash to buy spells. And I always return to pick up what I left behind, if possible. My minimum value limit: saleable for 1 coin when my party has a combined Barter skill of 20.

 

- Obsessive item storing: In every game, I set up a cache for items that are useful (or in some cases, useless) or are worth a lot of money, but I just don't feel like selling them. This is especially true for E3/A3; the storage area where your starting gear is in Fort Emergence, I make that room into my alchemy lab.

 

- Obsessive note-taking: I do this when I first play through a game, but not so much afterwards. No matter what game I'm playing, or how often I've played it, I take notes. These notes are generally used when I start playing again to determine what I was doing before I quit.

 

I have my characters wear pants, and they all must match.

When wearing non-magical cloaks, I prefer Vahnatai cloaks to normal ones.

I get all spells/abilities/skills, even if I never use them.

I use Far Sight against every wall.

Whenever I find a weapon better than what my PCs are using, I immediately switch it with that PC.

I don't wear heavy armor.

I don't wear anything that decreases my stats.

I don't use missile weapons of any type.

In A3/E3, I defeat all the monster plagues, and in a specific order.

No matter how starved my characters are, I never pick up Weird Meat.

[Toby-Linn]

I don't like the weird meat either, you don't know what's in that stuff.

 

If the monsters are eating it, then it can't be good

[The Mystic]

Originally Posted By: Toby-Linn

I don't like the weird meat either, you don't know what's in that stuff.

Exactly. The picture doesn't make it look too appetizing either.

[Feo Takahari]

Originally Posted By: Toby-Linn

I don't like the weird meat either, you don't know what's in that stuff.

If the monsters are eating it, then it can't be good

Ugh, thanks for reminding me of Garzahd's "pantry." Just to spread the pain: inside are a whole bunch of corpses with Weird Meat piled on top of them. In theory, you could pick it up and eat it . . .

[The Loquacious Lord Grimm]

I have a rule when picking up items: given worth must be at least three times the given weight. If I encounter more items worth picking up, I trade out the most "cost efficient" items, and come back for the rest. The sole exeption is arrows, which I upgrade as supplies allow.

 

This rule will later evolve as supplies and general enxpenses vary. Going back for piles of bronze longswords gets tedious after a while.

_________________________

The Silent Assassin believes that the only items truly worth keeping are dice, skulls, and boardgames.

Dice are always good to have; free boardgames are hard to come by, and skulls make great competitors when playing them.

[Ghaldring]

Originally Posted By: Toby-Linn

But apart from that, one weird thing I do is pants related....I only like wearing the straight pants (the ones that look like pants in the item list) and not the ones that look like they're all folded and wrinkly. Oh and cloaks too...I only like the nice green ones not the ugly purple ones. The only reason I'd wear a purple one is because it's magic.

OK, now I'm scared. I share your peculiar fetish for the green (including vahnatai) cloaks, and would never equip a purple one unless it's the archer's/pilgrim cloak.

As for the pants, I hate the straight ones. I always equip the brown ones.

Apart from this, I tend to horde magical items, especially scrolls, potions and wands. Magic (used) to be so rare in Exile, that it seemed like a waste to go trading it for petty coin.

[Lilith]

Don't vahnatai cloaks actually provide more protection than the regular kind?

[Callie]

Yes, vahnatai cloaks block 1-4 and I think normal cloaks are only 1-1.

[Toby-Linn]

Usually the magic cloaks (I think there's dragonskin cloaks too?) are the nice green ones. The only magic cloak that's purple is the Archer/Pilgrim one.

 

I equip the purple ones in the beginning of the game, but as I find more green ones I switch them over. And yes, I was including the Vahnatai ones in my liking of the green cloaks.

 

Ghaldring, I'm scared too, we actually have something in common?

[Maledictis]

OCD and Avernum go hand-in-hand. Aside from literally having one hand on ctrl+S at almost all times, I will generally save and cast far sight every few steps... I've practically got it down to a science. And anybody who were to see my single-character's room in Hawke's Manse in A3 would immediately be able to see my obsessive gathering of remotely rare items, and absolute kleptomania, and that's not easy to do with only one character's inventory. I don't even try to justify it by saying I might need it anymore. The entire game is an exercise in OCD, and I love it to death.

[Balladeer]

Back in the good old days, all you had to do was save once, cast magic map once, and restore once to know where every extra nook and cranny was without using up a ruby.

[Alorael at Large]

Sapphire.

 

—Alorael, misses his stockpile of reagents in Avernum. In the post-trilogy games even the alchemy ingredients hunt has wound down.

[Balladeer]

*squints at Alo*

 

I remember having a 'ruby skull' worth 100 uses of magic map that I got out of Strangers Quest. I could even be wrong about that but it's why I said ruby at least.

[Randomizer]

You needed sapphires as ingredient for magic map spell. No idea about special items that do it too.

[Ghaldring]

Ahhh, good ole' magic map. None of this 'Farsight' nonsense.

 

Too bad Jeff didn't institute a magic map spell that worked outdoors. That would have been epic.

[La paix]

Indeed.

 

Funny, I have the same problem with the purple cloaks, and I hate the brown pants. They look like old man pants. Very unappealing. In A3, I collected every potted plant in the game that I could and decorated Hawke's Manse.

[The Mystic]

Originally Posted By: Nabbanai

Alorael, misses his stockpile of reagents in Avernum. In the post-trilogy games even the alchemy ingredients hunt has wound down.

I miss that too, especially since I liked to set up an alchemy lab and brew up my own stock of potions. It may have taken a little bit longer when preparing for battles and such, but it was definitely cheaper.

Originally Posted By: Ghaldring

Ahhh, good ole' magic map. None of this 'Farsight' nonsense.

Too bad Jeff didn't institute a magic map spell that worked outdoors. That would have been epic.

Magic Map was a great spell, even with the required use of a sapphire. Maybe he couldn't be bothered with coding the spell to work outdoors.

[Maledictis]

Quote:

Too bad Jeff didn't institute a magic map spell that worked outdoors. That would have been epic.

I seem to recall a wizard in the game whose life's work it was to try and make Magic Map work outdoors. Besides, the visual shock would probably kill you.

[The Mystic]

I remember that; I think there were several wizards in the trilogy who dedicated their lives to this cause.