ErikH2000
Level: Legendary Smitemaster

Rank Points: 2794
Registered: 02-04-2003
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I've gotten a fair distance into Avernum 2. I think Oneiromancer called it a straightforward sequel. Yeah, I have to agree with him. At times I am disappointed that so many of the areas are practically exactly the same as in Avernum 1. Certainly it is realistic to keep the layout of a dungeon identical, but it also feels a little lazy.

The best part so far has been...


The dungeon design differs from Avernum 1 and I find them harder. There are more dungeons that have one really hard group of enemies at the end, and I have to leave them and come back when I'm buffer. I'll be doing fine in a dungeon and then walk into one room and a character will die before I even get one round of combat. Good thing I save a lot. Also, there seem to be more places where you are forced to fight your way out after entering, i.e. you have to drop down a cliff to get into a place and can't go back. This makes it harder to fight one group of enemies, leave, recuperate, and come back.

I began the game expecting Silver's Avernum 2 guide to handhold me all the way through, but HORRORS... what he has is just the beginning framework for the content yet to come. That means I am doing a lot more searching for secret walls (carpal tunnel syndrome here I come!). Hey, can somebody explain how Far Sight works? Does it only uncover secrets near you? Does it sometimes not uncover areas even if they are there? Can it be used reliably to uncover an entire map or will there always be a doubt that something was left uncovered?

-Erik

____________________________
The Godkiller - Chapter 1 available now on Steam. It's a DROD-like puzzle adventure game.
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silver
Level: Smitemaster
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Registered: 01-18-2005
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far sight gives omniscient map knowledge. when I was doing maps for avernum 1 using screen shots, I used far sight to fill out the maps to the borders (when I could get close enough to the borders. a few maps still have touches of gray around the edges).
later I wrote a map ripping program, because the Av2 screenshots showed granite floor the same as regular floor which lost a lot of aesthetic appeal to me. but I got hung up doing art for each new icon I didn't have pictures of. yawn. I think I might just rip pictures from the BoA editor since it has 'right sized' icons for everything.



[Edited by silver at Local Time:02-03-2005 at 11:10 AM]

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ErikH2000
Level: Legendary Smitemaster

Rank Points: 2794
Registered: 02-04-2003
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Late reply from me...

silver wrote:
far sight gives omniscient map knowledge. when I was doing maps for avernum 1 using screen shots, I used far sight to fill out the maps to the borders (when I could get close enough to the borders. a few maps still have touches of gray around the edges).
later I wrote a map ripping program, because the Av2 screenshots showed granite floor the same as regular floor which lost a lot of aesthetic appeal to me.

Ah, but I thought aesthetic concerns like this went against your philosophy of what the perfect game help guide is. Didn't you say that it is best to take screenshots directly from the game instead of prettying them up?

-Erik

____________________________
The Godkiller - Chapter 1 available now on Steam. It's a DROD-like puzzle adventure game.
dev journals | twitch stream | youtube archive (NSFW)

ErikH2000
Level: Legendary Smitemaster

Rank Points: 2794
Registered: 02-04-2003
IP: Logged

Every ten minutes or so I get a message saying I'm feeling nauseous and my hair is falling out, and then each of my characters gets attacked by a disease (and usually resists it). What's that about? I don't see any curses on my characters. None of my items seem to be cursed. What causes this annoyance?

-Erik

____________________________
The Godkiller - Chapter 1 available now on Steam. It's a DROD-like puzzle adventure game.
dev journals | twitch stream | youtube archive (NSFW)

Oneiromancer
Level: Legendary Smitemaster

Rank Points: 2936
Registered: 03-29-2003
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Hey Erik...glad you're enjoying Avernum 2...I actually never did play it. I only played the first one, everything I know about the others is from reading Silver's website (that's really cool that he's posting here, I remember checking that site out a loooong time ago, and it's still in my bookmarks) or from reading blurbs or talking to people. Eytan might have played it...and silver obviously has.

Game on,

____________________________
"He who is certain he knows the ending of things when he is only beginning them is either extremely wise or extremely foolish; no matter which is true, he is certainly an unhappy man, for he has put a knife in the heart of wonder." -- Tad Williams

silver
Level: Smitemaster
Rank Points: 915
Registered: 01-18-2005
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Erik:


for aesthetics v. "screen shots from the game" - the problem is that I found the new minimaps deletion of shaded squares makes it much much harder to use as a guide to where things are.

but, yes, probably I was overreaching though the map-ripper was also conveniently a timesaver in some ways. anyhoo, I could in theory make it make miniscreens that look just like ones from the screen shots of avernum 1. I probably should have been doing that



[Edited by silver at Local Time:02-09-2005 at 08:18 PM]

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ErikH2000
Level: Legendary Smitemaster

Rank Points: 2794
Registered: 02-04-2003
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Silver, regarding your secret advice...

No, I don't have one of those. I've looked over my inventory a few times (wearing, carrying, special items) and I don't see anything like that or even suspicious sounding. The "Special Skills" area doesn't list any curses either.



It isn't a terribly harmful effect, though. I just cast a cure spell for the few times I am unlucky and get diseased.

-Erik

____________________________
The Godkiller - Chapter 1 available now on Steam. It's a DROD-like puzzle adventure game.
dev journals | twitch stream | youtube archive (NSFW)

SKWERLL
Level: Delver

Rank Points: 77
Registered: 02-22-2004
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ErikH2000 wrote:
Every ten minutes or so I get a message saying I'm feeling nauseous and my hair is falling out, and then each of my characters gets attacked by a disease (and usually resists it). What's that about? I don't see any curses on my characters. None of my items seem to be cursed. What causes this annoyance?

-Erik

It's an item. Do you have an item called "Uranium Bar", or some unidentified item that looks like an Iron Bar? If you do, try dropping it. If you stop getting sick, don't pick it back up.

If that doesn't work, try looking for other, suspicious items, like items that seem like they'd disease you. Also, here's general advice: ALWAYS identify your items when you have the chance.

[Edited by SKWERLL at Local Time:02-12-2005 at 09:39 PM]

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SKWERLL? MORE LIKE THE DORK CHEESE!

The best hold in the world!

ErikH2000
Level: Legendary Smitemaster

Rank Points: 2794
Registered: 02-04-2003
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That's the thing. I'm not carrying anything like that. I don't have anything that sounds suspicious in any way. I've looked through carried, worn, and special items several times now.

I generally sell everything that I don't have some short-term use for so I have more space to carry my booty from questing back to a shop. And I identify everything. So it's pretty hard to overlook an item. I would have sold away a uranium bar long ago if I had it.

Maybe there is some bug where a flag for carrying the uranium bar wasn't cleared. If could find another uranium bar, pick it up, and then drop it, maybe the flag could be cleared. Where are those things at anyhow? (If you know, put answer in a secret tag.)

Also, I suppose I could strip my characters naked, drop all items, and see if the disease still comes along. Gets to be like my work though--troubleshooting a bug in a program.

-Erik

____________________________
The Godkiller - Chapter 1 available now on Steam. It's a DROD-like puzzle adventure game.
dev journals | twitch stream | youtube archive (NSFW)

SKWERLL
Level: Delver

Rank Points: 77
Registered: 02-22-2004
IP: Logged

ErikH2000 wrote:
Maybe there is some bug where a flag for carrying the uranium bar wasn't cleared. If could find another uranium bar, pick it up, and then drop it, maybe the flag could be cleared. Where are those things at anyhow? (If you know, put answer in a secret tag.)

____________________________
SKWERLL? MORE LIKE THE DORK CHEESE!

The best hold in the world!

ErikH2000
Level: Legendary Smitemaster

Rank Points: 2794
Registered: 02-04-2003
IP: Logged

Resolution to my problem...


-Erik

____________________________
The Godkiller - Chapter 1 available now on Steam. It's a DROD-like puzzle adventure game.
dev journals | twitch stream | youtube archive (NSFW)