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Avadon 1 (haven't played 2 yet) suffered from ultimately being a generic fantasy world without anything to stand out. Exile/Avernum had the whole underworld, "Cave Australia Land" thing going on where literally everything was inside a D&D dungeon and everything that exists wants to kill you and is also probably poisonous, and Geneforge was significantly more creative then both the A games put together with it's sci-fi/fantasy theming.
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Jul 28, 2014 13:28
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Zereth posted:You may have some trouble getting those games I mentioned to run right without using poo poo to trick them into running in in a window or something, though.
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Jul 28, 2014 14:14
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Kenny Logins posted:I've tested this method on Windows 7 with Geneforge 4 recently, and it will work. The native support for windowed mode in Geneforge 5 is much more stable by far, as you might expect.  Thanks, this is what I was thinking of I just couldn't remember where to find it.Geneforge 1 is really great for getting a grounding in the world and some important information about how things work, and 2 is the best out of the Geneforge games I've finished, so I highly recommend them.
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Jul 28, 2014 14:20
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Zereth posted:Yeah I only explicitly mentioned 1 and 2. I thought I remembered 4 working windowed without using this thing, though.
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Jul 28, 2014 14:23
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Mass Daze not having a failure chance is so ridiculous I love it. 
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Jul 28, 2014 14:29
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The demos for all of them are free, so you can always try those if you're concerned the games won't run, and if they give you trouble, you can get the gog versions. And agreed, the world of Avadon is a lot less immediately gripping than Exile or Geneforge.
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Jul 28, 2014 17:20
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"You're the secret police holding the evil empire together" made me feel interested. "Totally unique sci-fi / fantasy blend" and "underground fantasy Australia" just make me go "ugh, again?
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Jul 28, 2014 21:41
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The bit about being the secret police is definitely the best bit of Avadon, which is why I think #2 is so much stronger than #1. #2 has a lot more of the secret police-y things going on.
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Jul 29, 2014 07:56
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I like where Geneforge takes me. 
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Aug 1, 2014 10:45
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Xander77 posted:"You're the secret police holding the evil empire together" made me feel interested. "Totally unique sci-fi / fantasy blend" and "underground fantasy Australia" just make me go "ugh, again? Being a fantasy GRU/KGB htybrid is pretty interesting, yeah, but I'd argue that Geneforge 1-3 has similar tendencies, writing-wise. After all, they basically have you as sci-fi Komsomol, what with being an apprentice member of the On the gameplay front, I feel that both series are held back by rather lackluster combat mechanics. The early Geneforge games do a better job of making combat skippable, though. At least AFAIK, the Avadon series doesn't have much in the way of skippable boss fights. If Jeff ever found reson to branch out into text-based adventures a la Academagia or the 'Choice of' games, I'd be all over it.
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Aug 1, 2014 11:22
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I'm playing Avernum: Escape from the Pit right now cause I loved Exile as a kid, but man, is there a way to make loot on the ground more noticeable or something? I'm basically just spamming "g" every few tiles just to make sure I'm not missing anything.
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Aug 2, 2014 15:02
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The remake of Avernum 2 has finally been announced: http://www.avernum.com/avernum2/
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Sep 4, 2014 21:31
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Eddain posted:I'm playing Avernum: Escape from the Pit right now cause I loved Exile as a kid, but man, is there a way to make loot on the ground more noticeable or something? I'm basically just spamming "g" every few tiles just to make sure I'm not missing anything. I don't know of any way to fix that. Stuff is fairly visible, and it's usually garbage anyway. I wouldn't expect to find anything too valuable lying on the ground for the most part. Maybe after a big battle, just for stuff to sell off.
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Sep 5, 2014 04:53
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GreenNight posted:The remake of Avernum 2 has finally been announced:
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Sep 5, 2014 08:40
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Aw, poo. I was told that it was actually coming out in September, and now it looks more like Christmas season. I'm having bad luck recently with games I am looking forward to getting delayed... the Gauntlet remake was just pushed back at least 3 weeks and I have a sinking feeling about Smash Bros. for the 3DS.
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Sep 5, 2014 16:51
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 So in this preview image of the skill tree, it sort of looks like you no longer have to meet prerequisites to unlock higher skills (i.e. investing an equal amount of points in both lower tier skills in order to put the same amount of points in a higher tier skill). But there's still intersecting arrows between the skills, so it could mean you just need a minimum of 1 point in a lower skill now or that the character in this image is just a debug test case with no bearing on final skill mechanic. Sure hoping it's the former, though.
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Sep 5, 2014 22:16
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It could also be that the cap is based on the higher of the two pre-req skills. 13 bow -> 10 target -> 9 multi-arrow
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Sep 6, 2014 16:54
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Anything I should know about Avernum: Escape from the Pit before I start playing it? For that matter, the same question about Avernum 4-6 (assuming I'll enjoy the first one enough to go on)
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Sep 9, 2014 19:28
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Xander77 posted:Anything I should know about Avernum: Escape from the Pit before I start playing it? Look up a list of junk-looking items to hang onto for quests. Other than that you're probably good.
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Sep 9, 2014 21:42
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Xander77 posted:Anything I should know about Avernum: Escape from the Pit before I start playing it? You pretty much never need to buy anything from shopkeepers. You'll be able to fully equip your warriors early on, and your mages won't have the strength to equip a full set of armor in the early game (my mages ran around without pants up until mid-game). If you're going with a mage and a priest, which you should, throw a point here and there in the other magic skill early game. Really high scores in mage/priest spellcasting unlocks spells you'll only actually get access to in the end-game. So you'll end up dabbling anyway, might as well get some use out of the basic spells in the early game. Avoid throwing weapons altogether, and use your consumables if you need the effects, you get a ton of potions, scrolls, and wands.
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Sep 9, 2014 22:31
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R.C. Pro Am Porn posted:You pretty much never need to buy anything from shopkeepers. You'll be able to fully equip your warriors early on, and your mages won't have the strength to equip a full set of armor in the early game (my mages ran around without pants up until mid-game). This is correct for weapons/armor, but it seems like a good idea to buy/upgrade spells from the trainers in town. Finding spells in the wild is pretty rare. I also like to purchase healing potions from vendors, they're pretty cheap and not that common.
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Sep 10, 2014 02:45
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Xander77 posted:Anything I should know about Avernum: Escape from the Pit before I start playing it? Stockpile consumable items. One of the big shifts in gameplay that Spiderweb has done in their past few games (including Escape from the Pit) is making items much more useful. This is especially true with buffs - you'll usually find a few one-shot items long before you get the equivalent spell version. Bold Robot posted:This is correct for weapons/armor, but it seems like a good idea to buy/upgrade spells from the trainers in town. Finding spells in the wild is pretty rare. I also like to purchase healing potions from vendors, they're pretty cheap and not that common. Kinda depends on the spell. Since you will find a level 1 copy of every spell eventually, spending money on it should only be if it's a good spell that you don't already have or a spell that you use commonly and want to upgrade for the additional effects of being Level 2/3. Weapons and armor are never worth buying. Even if that shopkeeper is selling a sword with a cool magical effect, odds are, you can find a roughly equivalent sword for free in a nearby dungeon.
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Sep 10, 2014 04:41
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R.C. Pro Am Porn posted:If you're going with a mage and a priest, which you should, throw a point here and there in the other magic skill early game. Really high scores in mage/priest spellcasting unlocks spells you'll only actually get access to in the end-game. So you'll end up dabbling anyway, might as well get some use out of the basic spells in the early game. quote:Avoid throwing weapons altogether ... Anything particular about builds and skills? I'm using the default party - any classes that would actually be more useful? Any repercussions to stealing if I don't get caught and executed on the spot? Edit - Hah, the skill illustrations are done by the XXXenphile artist. Interesting. Xander77 fucked around with this message at 14:25 on Sep 10, 2014 |
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Sep 10, 2014 13:20
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Xander77 posted:Is this misphrased or am I misunderstanding something? You can have a character specialized as a mage (high intelligence, high mage skill), but if you spend a small amount of skill points on the priest skill, he'll be able to cast a few low-level healing spells as well. You can do the same with a priest, to let him cast low-level mage spells if there's no urgent need for healings or blessings. Also throwing weapons have often been suboptimal in older Exile/Avernum games. You're paying more in exchange for, in theory, more damage, but not enough that it justifies throwing away money in a game about hoarding resources.
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Sep 10, 2014 14:07
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I have time on my hands and I'm going to try to beat Avadon 2 on Torment. What class should I make my PC? I'm thinking Blademaster, for guaranteed access to Battle Frenzy even in the dumb party member quests.
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Sep 10, 2014 17:49
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DACK FAYDEN posted:I have time on my hands and I'm going to try to beat Avadon 2 on Torment. What class should I make my PC? I'm thinking Blademaster, for guaranteed access to Battle Frenzy even in the dumb party member quests.
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Sep 10, 2014 18:29
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So I just finished Nethergate: Resurrection lately. Assuming I'm trying to go from earliest UI to latest UI, the next one would should be the Geneforge series, right? (Or was Geneforge supposed to be first?) I don't see any tips for Geneforge on the beforeiplay site. Is there anything I should keep in mind?
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Sep 14, 2014 15:20
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Katreus posted:So I just finished Nethergate: Resurrection lately. Assuming I'm trying to go from earliest UI to latest UI, the next one would should be the Geneforge series, right? (Or was Geneforge supposed to be first?) Play a shaper, they are easy mode. Let your little dudes walk all over everything. Also, don't bother leveling up individual units that you've summoned, it's not worth it (they take more essence when they level up). Just level the spells that you use to make them and summon new ones. Look online for a spoiler about lockpicking, the skill directly reduces how many picks you need to open a lock of a given difficulty so beyond an optimal point based on how many picks you can get in the game it does nothing for you and you don't want to waste points in it. Otherwise go hog wild.
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Sep 14, 2014 15:26
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As a general tip, you should use your buff spells. A lot. Like "every non-trivial battle" a lot. War Blessing is a straight +20% to-hit and +20% damage buff, to everybody on your team. Protection is a straight 20% evade and 20% reduction to all damage. Etc. Note that as a skill, you should only invest enough points in Blessing Magic to cast everything; additional points only serve to extend the duration of your buffs (which is rarely an issue).andrew smash posted:Play a shaper, they are easy mode. Let your little dudes walk all over everything. Also, don't bother leveling up individual units that you've summoned, it's not worth it (they take more essence when they level up). Just level the spells that you use to make them and summon new ones. "Leveling up" in terms of keeping the same ones around for a while so they gain experience and levels, however, is extremely useful. A Fyora that's level 15 due to gained experience is wildly more powerful than a freshly created level 5 Fyora. If you're replacing a creation with a better BASE type (e.g., the weak Fyora is replaced with a Roamer), it's usually worth it*. But within species, a creation you've had for a long time is almost certain to be way better than a freshly created version of the same one. *Not always true - some creation types like Cryoa and Vlish are naturally overpowered enough to hold their own even against the next tier of creatures.
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Sep 14, 2014 15:51
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andrew smash posted:Play a shaper, they are easy mode. Let your little dudes walk all over everything. Also, don't bother leveling up individual units that you've summoned, it's not worth it (they take more essence when they level up). Just level the spells that you use to make them and summon new ones. It's fine to let your creations level up (although in Geneforge 1, levels gained from levelling up are strictly worse than bonus levels from creation skills, so you often are better recreating creations when your skills increase). Just don't actually invest the extra stat points they get and their essence cost won't increase, but they'll still get extra HP and gain stats on their own as they gain experience. You usually shouldn't be raising their stats manually except for the +2 Intelligence required for manual control, if that's what you meant. Also note that in most Geneforge games, you start to get diminishing returns when you raise creation skills above 10. For example, if you raise Fire Shaping to 10, your fire creations will get 10 bonus levels, but if you raise it to 20 they'll only get 15 bonus levels. 10 points already represents a pretty heavy investment in shaping, so once you've got a shaping skill to that level you're probably better off investing in Intelligence for more essence instead. You can always, always use more essence if you plan to be a shaper. Battle creations are kind of bad in every game except Geneforge 5 (where the fifth-tier battle creation is almost gamebreakingly good), so stick mostly with magic and/or fire. quote:Look online for a spoiler about lockpicking, the skill directly reduces how many picks you need to open a lock of a given difficulty so beyond an optimal point based on how many picks you can get in the game it does nothing for you and you don't want to waste points in it. Otherwise go hog wild. If you don't want detailed spoilers, as a rule of thumb, 8 leadership and 10 mechanics is enough to get past 80% of noncombat obstacles in most games, with 10 leadership and 12 mechanics it's more like 95%, and 12 leadership and 15 mechanics makes that 99%. Try to get to whatever values you've decided on by early-midgame and leave them there.
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Sep 14, 2014 15:58
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Something that's worth remembering is that Vogel isn't all that great at designing tactical combat systems; this isn't temple of elemental evil or even baldur's gate-level tactics you're dealing with. It looks like it at first, with a totally turn-based combat engine, movement ranges, AP, etc, but honestly the progression curve is basically that of a JRPG. The answer to encounters that are difficult isn't (generally) clever positioning, pulling, stealth, or ambushes - it's making your numbers bigger until they beat the numbers of the other guys.
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Sep 14, 2014 16:14
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MagusofStars posted:Etc. Note that as a skill, you should only invest enough points in Blessing Magic to cast everything; additional points only serve to extend the duration of your buffs (which is rarely an issue). And if you do go Agent, you want to focus on Mental magic for the control (but I think that doesn't really take off until Geneforge 2.) t
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Sep 14, 2014 16:55
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Thanks for all the advice. I rolled up a Shaper with a cute little fire lizard (fyora?) running around with me. I think I just got to the first town (with people! NPCs!) after surviving the murderous creation cow equivalents. No, really, my shaper died to them (and possibly any stiff breeze). Geneforge was actually made earlier than N:R, huh? Doesn't seem like there's a grid for combat, can't use wasd to move, and inventory is just on the side of the character box.
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Sep 15, 2014 14:59
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Anyone do singleton runs in avernum 1-6? Which game was the easiest for that?
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Sep 15, 2014 18:59
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Molybdenum posted:Anyone do singleton runs in avernum 1-6? Which game was the easiest for that? In general, it's pretty feasible in all of the first three Avernum games and significantly harder in the second trilogy, partly due to changes in how the experience mechanics work (the scaling of XP awards based on your level was made a lot sharper, so a singleton won't outlevel a full party by nearly as much as it did in the first trilogy) and partly because the later games are more offensively oriented in general, so it's a lot harder to achieve effective invincibility by combining defensive skills and buffs.
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Sep 16, 2014 15:32
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General OP-ness from my memory: Geneforge 1: Shaper specializing in Fire or Magic (choose one) Geneforge 2: Agent specializing in control Geneforge 3: Don't play Geneforge 3 it's mediocre Geneforge 4: Secret new class that's reverse Agent Geneforge 5: Shaper specializing in Battle
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Sep 16, 2014 21:22
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I managed to (mostly) steamroll the first game using nothing but battleshaping only to later find out they are underpowered until the fifth game. The most important thing really is to not generalize ever, just pick one combat thing to be really good at and roll with it (basically just pick between melee, magic, or ONE type of shaping) and pickup the mechanics/leadership skills as needed.
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Sep 17, 2014 01:39
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ProfessorCirno posted:General OP-ness from my memory: I'd mostly agree with this, although there are other good builds for some games too. A shaper/lifecrafter with an army of fire or magic creations and some blessing and mental magic for support is gonna be pretty good throughout the entire series, so if you like that playstyle you're in luck. If you like Guardians, they get to shine in Geneforge 2 just because Parry is broken as heck in that game: you can easily raise it to the point where you're blocking 75% of melee attacks and 50% of ranged attacks and heavily reducing the damage from half of the ones that get through. The new class introduced in Geneforge 5 is pretty OP as well. You can pump mental magic to high enough levels to reliably daze/charm anything that isn't outright immune, and still have good enough shaping skills and essence for a small army of powerful creations, letting you lock down an entire group with Daze and then focus-fire them to death one at a time.
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Sep 17, 2014 15:20
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Clever Spambot posted:I managed to (mostly) steamroll the first game using nothing but battleshaping only to later find out they are underpowered until the fifth game. The most important thing really is to not generalize ever, just pick one combat thing to be really good at and roll with it (basically just pick between melee, magic, or ONE type of shaping) and pickup the mechanics/leadership skills as needed. Also, if you're not playing on Torment, it's actually entirely feasible to use all the brands of shaping, as long as you're careful about which individual creation types you use from each branch (e.g., Roamers are just flat out underpowered, while a Drayk is end-game quality even though higher-tier creations exist) and abuse +Shaping items. Each individual creation might be a little weaker than if you specialized, but the flexibility is very useful and certain creations tend to synergize extremely well.
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Sep 18, 2014 01:10
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Dr. Arbitrary posted:Kids these days are spoiled. In my day we spent hours trying to find the Chief spider in a giant nest of spiders who are all named Spider. I liked finding the friendly roaches in Exile 3. Their names cracked me up as a kid. I still have fond memories of Crud Muncher. I almost feel bad about purging their home after I blew up the filth factory, make sure all the bugs are dead and whatnot. I do miss that you can't raise hell in Avernum the way you could in Exile, if you were tough enough to kill the ridiculously difficult guards, you could lay waste to any town you chose. I joined the Anama and used my early access to some of the best drat spells in the game, roleplayed as a radical Anama Inquisition, and wiped out every town I could when they had no further use. Nonono gently caress the Vahnatai Crypt, gently caress Chitraches, and gently caress Dahris-Bok's tomb. Chapter 2 of Exile/Avernum 2 is a goddamn exercise in torture. Horace Kinch fucked around with this message at 03:39 on Sep 18, 2014 |
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Sep 18, 2014 03:33
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