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THE MACHO MAN posted:I've been plugging away at Avernum 5. I never played much of 6 but played the others to completion or close to it (my comp blew up right towards the end of 4). Am I alone in thinking that 5 is probably the best game that isn't 3? Everyone thinks 3 is the king of the series right? I wouldn't say there's a clear consensus on which game is the best in the series. Some people like 2 best for its plot and atmosphere, some people like 3 best for its sheer scope and variety of things to do. Avernum 4 revived the series and brought in a lot of new players who regard it well, although some older players feel like it rehashes Avernum 3's plot in a less interesting way. 6 is probably the second-largest game in the series after 3 and the most well-thought-out in terms of gameplay design, but some people find the plot a little too depressing and hopeless. Avernum 5 is basically meant to feel like the gauntlet sections many SW games have where you're stuck in hostile territory with limited ability to turn back or resupply but stretched out to the length of a full game, and opinions vary on how well that concept holds up in practice. TooMuchAbstraction posted:I found 4 to be rather weak, and I can't remember which of 5 and 6 I played but I remember making it halfway through the demo and realizing that my warriors were totally incompetent compared to my mages, who were vastly more effective at killing things and had tons of SP capacity, which could be easily refilled by walking back to town. Presumably this got less bad as the game went on but it was very clear that early-game fighters were solely there to present a barrier monsters would have to hack through to get to the mages...and whatever plot hooks got set up clearly weren't enough to get me to stick with the game long enough to pass that hump. Spellcasters outmatch fighters to some degree in nearly every Spiderweb game ever made, honestly. Some games just make it easier than others to use them to full effect.
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Jul 7, 2015 05:39
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Thuryl posted:Spellcasters outmatch fighters to some degree in nearly every Spiderweb game ever made, honestly. Some games just make it easier than others to use them to full effect. Yeah, if I recall correctly my fighters, who were fully-specced as fighters and had reasonable stats, were struggling to kill basic mooks, while my casters could fling something like 20-40 basic attack spells before needing to recover, and those spells did full damage and always hit. In most Spiderweb games your casters can't afford to be profligate with their attack spells and are usually most effective in the early game when acting as fighter support/alpha-strike characters. Maybe I just got an unlucky start for some reason. 
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Jul 7, 2015 15:52
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In case anyone was waiting for it, Spiderweb has just announced an iPad release of Avernum 2: Crystal Souls that actually works on the latest version of iOS this time around.
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Jul 8, 2015 06:34
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So I just finished up the Geneforge Saga series, and I'm planning to try the Avernum series next. Any general tips for Avernum 4-6?
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Jul 19, 2015 23:15
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Hey folks, I'm starting a screenshot LP of Avernum 1 if anyone's interested. Saddle me with a useless character to haul through the caves!
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Jul 25, 2015 01:45
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So if I'm going into Avernum 2: Crystal Souls, are the functional limits for skills (12-14 Item Lore, 12ish Arcane Lore after traits, 16ish Mage/Priest spells, that sorta thing) the same?
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Jul 30, 2015 05:50
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Stelas posted:So if I'm going into Avernum 2: Crystal Souls, are the functional limits for skills (12-14 Item Lore, 12ish Arcane Lore after traits, 16ish Mage/Priest spells, that sorta thing) the same? Mage and Priest Spells still need to be 17 to learn every spell. The highest Tool Use you need for anything you can't get by other means is 15, and most of the highest Tool Use requirements are for pretty minor treasures so you can get away with around 10-12 and not miss out on too much. The most Cave Lore you need is 12, and you can buy two points of that per character with money instead of skill points after doing the salamander sidequest at Tor's farm. The highest really useful Arcane Lore requirement is 13; there are a number of spells and other events that the Sage Lore trait doesn't work for at all, so you should probably ignore Sage Lore and just buy up Arcane Lore with skill points.
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Jul 30, 2015 08:24
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http://spiderwebforums.ipbhost.com/index.php?/topic/21035-avernum-2-crystal-souls-item-list-by-randomizer-spoilers/ is my main source for such info.
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Jul 30, 2015 09:03
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That's perfect, thanks. I'm not really worried about exact spoilers, so a rough idea's cool by me. Glad I didn't gently caress up with Sage Lore ahead of time.
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Jul 30, 2015 10:14
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Btw, quick spoilerish question. Am I misremembering from my youth or did one of the Exile games include a timer which meant that towns would slowly get overrun as time went on and you didn't deal with stuff?
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Aug 6, 2015 16:37
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Munin posted:Btw, quick spoilerish question. You remember correctly. The game in question is Exile 3, which is why it has so many towns that are of basically no consequence -- those are the ones that get wiped out. Important NPCs from those towns (e.g. the ones directing you towards the artifact sidequests) get moved to other towns as necessary, so you shouldn't get locked out of content. There's also an important event that occurs on the 90th day, though if you know what you're doing you can readily win long before then.
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Aug 6, 2015 16:40
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TooMuchAbstraction posted:You remember correctly. The game in question is Exile 3, which is why it has so many towns that are of basically no consequence -- those are the ones that get wiped out. Important NPCs from those towns (e.g. the ones directing you towards the artifact sidequests) get moved to other towns as necessary, so you shouldn't get locked out of content. Ta. I was just having a go at the re-remake of Exile last night and that question was kinda bugging me. 
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Aug 6, 2015 20:15
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Wait does Avernum 3 do this? Is something we'll have to deal with in the Avernum 3 remake?
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Aug 7, 2015 05:31
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mr. why posted:Wait does Avernum 3 do this? Is something we'll have to deal with in the Avernum 3 remake? Yes, and probably.
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Aug 7, 2015 08:40
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I seriously hope it will be included. I generally dislike that kind of thing in games but I remember it being really nicely implemented in Exile 3. It does help the world feel much more dynamic, realistic and alive.
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Aug 7, 2015 11:00
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I don't recall - was that strictly a function of days passed in-game no matter what, or only a function of days passed while the local issue had not yet been dealt with? In other words, is a town going to go to poo poo on day 60 (or whatever) no matter what, or only if you don't resolve the local slime/roach/etc. problem by day 60?
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Aug 10, 2015 15:43
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Vil posted:I don't recall - was that strictly a function of days passed in-game no matter what, or only a function of days passed while the local issue had not yet been dealt with? Once you encounter a monster plague for the very first time, that sets off the timer for that region. So the first time you encounter slimes, towns in the Kriszan province are endangered. The other regions will remain unharmed until you encounter their respective plagues. Sharamik/Lorelei is particularly irritating because you have to deal with two plagues simultaneously.
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Aug 10, 2015 19:19
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mr. why posted:Wait does Avernum 3 do this? Is something we'll have to deal with in the Avernum 3 remake? Munin posted:I seriously hope it will be included. I generally dislike that kind of thing in games but I remember it being really nicely implemented in Exile 3. It does help the world feel much more dynamic, realistic and alive. I agree. It's one of those things that would usually be horrible, but since it doesn't affect anything important, it's not a huge deal. A big part of the good implementation is the fact that it happens so slowly that you can easily go through the entire game and not have it happen. Also, even if you waste tons of time, it doesn't ruin anything important. My first play-through of E3, I really took the time to map every single square, wasted a ton of time resting to abuse junk shops and spent a lot of time running back and forth for Mandrake...and still only lost about 1-2 towns per region. I think my end-of-game was at something absurd like 470-days. Which is crazy now that I think about it - I'm pretty sure you could get absolutely everything in the game done, with appropriate resting before dungeons, and not trigger the Day 160 Major Event.
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Aug 11, 2015 01:17
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My most recent playthrough of Exile 3 was not a 100% playthrough, but came pretty close, and easily came in under that deadline. Also, protip: if you're going to abuse the miscellany shops, there's a debug command (I think it's just typing shift-W) to force refresh the shops. So you can just refresh, talk to the guy, open the trade screen, view contents, repeat. Get all four characters with Rings and Boots of Speed!
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Aug 11, 2015 01:47
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Even though it feels like a time limit it really is of little consequence, given that the sources of the plagues are fairly contained nearby so dealing with them isn't too harrowing. The roach plague in particular stands out since it's entirely contained on the Isle of Bigail, and the golems are such a pain in the rear end to fight that stopping that plague becomes priority #1 really fast since navigating the endless forests around Gale is already a pain. The only thing you really can't ignore is the demonic invasion of the Tower of Magi around day 160. If you put that off for too long it's game-over. Horace Kinch fucked around with this message at 01:07 on Aug 12, 2015 |
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Aug 12, 2015 01:04
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Is there anything in particular I should be dumping points in to as an Agent in Geneforge 2? So far I've dumped my starting points in to Mental Magic, Spellcraft, and Battle Magic. Anything else I need to keep up with? I'm assuming I need Intelligence and Leadership for stuff. Also what the poo poo is with the little light things on the ground near doors that make a wooshing noise and light up when I'm near them? That and the MUNCH MUNCH MUNCH sound are driving me nuts. Also aslo, are there any penalties for stealing whatever's not nailed down? How's getting caught work, line of sight? Robo Reagan fucked around with this message at 05:05 on Sep 15, 2015 |
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Sep 15, 2015 05:02
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Robo Reagan posted:Is there anything in particular I should be dumping points in to as an Agent in Geneforge 2? So far I've dumped my starting points in to Mental Magic, Spellcraft, and Battle Magic. Anything else I need to keep up with? I'm assuming I need Intelligence and Leadership for stuff. And those are Shaped motion-sensitive lights. The sound design in the early Geneforge games is not the best. EDIT: Line of sight yeah. Genforge 2 I think doesn't let you pick things up around a Creation anymore while checking line of sight for your PC like 1 did.
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Sep 15, 2015 05:07
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Robo Reagan posted:Is there anything in particular I should be dumping points in to as an Agent in Geneforge 2? So far I've dumped my starting points in to Mental Magic, Spellcraft, and Battle Magic. Anything else I need to keep up with? I'm assuming I need Intelligence and Leadership for stuff. Sounds like you're doing pretty well for yourself. Mental Magic and Spellcraft are the two big skills to pump for an Agent so you can lock down enemies, plus some Battle Magic so you can actually do damage and enough Intelligence that you don't run out of spell energy mid-fight. Leadership and Mechanics are good to invest in if you like non-combat solutions to quests and extra treasure; I forget what the exact sweet spots are for Geneforge 2, but in most of the series getting 10-12 Leadership and 12 or so Mechanics by midgame and leaving them at those levels for the rest of the game will let you do basically everything.
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Sep 15, 2015 05:08
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Cool, thanks. By the way, where can I get Mass Daze? I was reading the thread and earlier someone said they got it super late in to the game but apparently it's possible to get it earlier. Oh, and if anyone is interested, GOG is having a sale right now. Geneforge Saga for $2.99, which seems sort of criminal considering how good these games are. 
Robo Reagan fucked around with this message at 05:44 on Sep 15, 2015 |
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Sep 15, 2015 05:23
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This is shameless thread necromancy, but has anyone heard anything about Jeff's next release? It's been about 10 months since Crystal Souls came out this past January, and I believe that the plan was to do Avadon 3 followed by remaking Avernum 3, then move onto remaking the Geneforge games - I just wondered if Jeff has been posting about his progress on (presumably) Avadon 3. He's had some health issues in the last year or so and I am a little worried about that as well.
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Nov 29, 2015 03:36
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JustJeff88 posted:This is shameless thread necromancy, but has anyone heard anything about Jeff's next release? It's been about 10 months since Crystal Souls came out this past January, and I believe that the plan was to do Avadon 3 followed by remaking Avernum 3, then move onto remaking the Geneforge games - I just wondered if Jeff has been posting about his progress on (presumably) Avadon 3. He's had some health issues in the last year or so and I am a little worried about that as well. His blog is still active as well.
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Nov 29, 2015 03:45
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This is a bit of a niche question, but does anyone know how to get the Geneforge 1-4 games to work properly when windowed using DXWnd? The issue I'm having is that my windows cursor is not correctly synced with the game's software cursor, which results in different acceleration speeds, and a total desync when my windows cursor leaves the game window. After playing Geneforge 5, I'm just about ready to call it my favorite Vogel game (although I eventually came to despise the over-abundance of enemies who tack acid and poison onto their attacks -- it's got to be at least 90% of the total mass of enemies you fight; it's that stupid), and I'd like to try playing the earlier games, but the default system that automatically brings my monitor back to the 1990s isn't playing nice with my GPU at all, causing massive frame and input lag.
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Nov 29, 2015 03:58
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Heavy neutrino posted:This is a bit of a niche question, but does anyone know how to get the Geneforge 1-4 games to work properly when windowed using DXWnd? The issue I'm having is that my windows cursor is not correctly synced with the game's software cursor, which results in different acceleration speeds, and a total desync when my windows cursor leaves the game window. Unfortunately getting older Spiderweb games to run properly on newer computers is often an exercise in frustration. Jeff Vogel's made some noises about how remaking the Geneforge series might be his next project after Avadon 3 and the Avernum 3 remake are out, so I guess you could wait and see what happens on that front. The one silver lining of the ubiquity of acid/poison is that the damage on them doesn't scale up beyond a certain limit, so as your HP and resistances increase they become mostly irrelevant by the late game.
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Nov 29, 2015 06:37
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Heavy neutrino posted:This is a bit of a niche question, but does anyone know how to get the Geneforge 1-4 games to work properly when windowed using DXWnd? The issue I'm having is that my windows cursor is not correctly synced with the game's software cursor, which results in different acceleration speeds, and a total desync when my windows cursor leaves the game window. If the issue is your cursor going off-screen, there are some free programs out there that allow you to lock your cursor to a specific window. I use Cursor Lock personally, but there are a bunch. It's not just a Geneforge issue, basically any game older than early/mid 2000's has a similar issue where you can move your mouse to the edge of the window trying to scroll the map or whatever, move a smidge too far and click out of the game (particularly if you're using multiple monitors). JustJeff88 posted:This is shameless thread necromancy, but has anyone heard anything about Jeff's next release? It's been about 10 months since Crystal Souls came out this past January, and I believe that the plan was to do Avadon 3 followed by remaking Avernum 3, then move onto remaking the Geneforge games - I just wondered if Jeff has been posting about his progress on (presumably) Avadon 3. He's had some health issues in the last year or so and I am a little worried about that as well.
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Nov 29, 2015 16:08
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Heavy neutrino posted:This is a bit of a niche question, but does anyone know how to get the Geneforge 1-4 games to work properly when windowed using DXWnd? The issue I'm having is that my windows cursor is not correctly synced with the game's software cursor, which results in different acceleration speeds, and a total desync when my windows cursor leaves the game window. Have you tried the GOG version of the Geneforge games? Those guys are almost wizards, and they have a pretty impressive track record of getting older, difficult games to work on modern systems. Steam by and large doesn't give a toss and the versions that you can buy directly from Spiderweb probably haven't changed a bit (pun intended) since they were released years ago. MagusofStars posted:I haven't heard anything about the schedule, but since there's no news about the release dates, I wouldn't get your hopes up till late 2016. There was a post on the Spiderweb Forums where Jeff said that he planned to make major changes to Avadon 3 and release in the summer of 2016, but that was in May of this year. I'm far more interested in the reremake of Exile 3, but I understand why he is doing that one after Avadon even though I'd rather that he didn't.
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Nov 29, 2015 16:33
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I played Geneforge 1 ages ago and remembered kinda liking it, so I recently tried geneforge 5 because why not and It's surprisingly good even in 2015. There aren't enough of these style RPGs nowadays. I should really try Pillars of Eternity again, I played it a bit early on and a gamebreaking bug ruined my character so I stopped playing.
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Dec 1, 2015 05:29
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Wolpertinger posted:I played Geneforge 1 ages ago and remembered kinda liking it, so I recently tried geneforge 5 because why not and It's surprisingly good even in 2015.
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Dec 1, 2015 06:59
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KICK BAMA KICK posted:I was finding Fallout 4 so devoid of role-playing and just personality in general that it was mostly making me want to go back and play some of the Spiderweb games I never finished. I finally got to Goodneighbor and am seeing enough of a spark to continue, but it's amazing how this huge AAA release was just making me nostalgic for a one-man show running at 800x600. Exile/Avernum doesn't have much roleplaying outside your head. The characters are essentially ciphers and RP dialogue options are few and far between and generally have little impact. But yeah, buckets of character in those games. That said I love them and I find it funny how in many ways they are a low tech precursor of the many open world RPGs of today. The feel of exploring a strange, large and alien world has rarely been bettered. I am a bit sad that he stripped out the ration mechanic from the remakes as it did immensely help immersion imo.
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Dec 1, 2015 07:19
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Munin posted:Exile/Avernum doesn't have much roleplaying outside your head. The characters are essentially ciphers and RP dialogue options are few and far between and generally have little impact. But yeah, buckets of character in those games. Its a weird thing to have fond memories of, but I always enjoyed rushing to the little farm outside Kirzan to buy as much food as my gold could get for the incredibly cheap price at the start of Exile 3.
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Dec 1, 2015 07:35
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In Geneforge 5 is it possible to find out conclusively who the PC used to be? I got a bit in the ending where it said something like "although you never figured out who you were" and I'm wondering if it's possible at all, given that I've explored just about everything except the optional superdungeon because gently caress that place really.
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Dec 1, 2015 07:36
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GodFish posted:Its a weird thing to have fond memories of, but I always enjoyed rushing to the little farm outside Kirzan to buy as much food as my gold could get for the incredibly cheap price at the start of Exile 3. It's mainly fond memories of taking trekks into some of the caves far away from what passes for civilisation in Exile like the voyage to the Vahnatai in 2. In those cases the supply stuff really adds to the feel of being on an expedition. The issue was 90% of the time when you were just travelling between places like Formello and Silvar it was just another slow ticking, annoying, drain on your money.
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Dec 1, 2015 07:55
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Munin posted:Exile/Avernum doesn't have much roleplaying outside your head. The characters are essentially ciphers and RP dialogue options are few and far between and generally have little impact. But yeah, buckets of character in those games. Losing all of my food in the waterfall caves from Formello --> Vahnatai Land and watching my party starve to death was the exact opposite of fun.
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Dec 1, 2015 08:03
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sitchelin posted:Losing all of my food in the waterfall caves from Formello --> Vahnatai Land and watching my party starve to death was the exact opposite of fun. Why the myopic focus on fun? It added tension and really brought home the fact that you're in a remote place and that if you didn't get things right then you couldn't just pop back to your home comforts and that non-one else is there to pull your rear end out of the fire.
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Dec 1, 2015 08:22
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Munin posted:Why the myopic focus on fun? It added tension and really brought home the fact that you're in a remote place and that if you didn't get things right then you couldn't just pop back to your home comforts and that non-one else is there to pull your rear end out of the fire. Because that's why I play games, to have fun. Losing is the opposite of that. As immersive as being in waterfall hell is, my party dying isn't going to take the barriers down. I can't be the ambassador to the cave aliens and rescue their gemstone grandparents on an empty stomach. I always hated having to manage food (aka lose all of it to waterfalls and gremlins) in the Exile games and I wasn't sad to see it go in the remakes and the remake remakes. Horace Kinch fucked around with this message at 08:41 on Dec 1, 2015 |
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Dec 1, 2015 08:34
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Heavy neutrino posted:In Geneforge 5 is it possible to find out conclusively who the PC used to be? I got a bit in the ending where it said something like "although you never figured out who you were" and I'm wondering if it's possible at all, given that I've explored just about everything except the optional superdungeon because gently caress that place really. Probably not, I think it's deliberately ambiguous because by that point you've had four PCs and any one of them might reasonably have been the one to survive. One of the things I like about Geneforge is how well it manages to avoid making any one of the choices in previous games canon. Like, Shaper Monarch in G4 might be your PC from G1, but he might equally well just be a powerful-rear end rogue Shaper if your PC didn't go down that road.
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