Avernum 2: Crystal Souls

[Infinitron]

The remake of the remake of Exile 2, coming soon: http://store.steampowered.com/app/337850

Available: 14 January

It's going to be pricier than usual, back to Spiderweb's old $20 price tag: http://www.gamebanshee.com/news/114394-jeff-vogel-on-avernum-2-crystal-souls-pricing.html

Let's see how it does in an age of Kickstarter incline.

 

[Lhynn]

Fuck this shit. Tell him to re-release Exile 2 instead. Then ill give him my money.

 

[Infinitron]

Fuck this shit. Tell him to re-release Exile 2 instead. Then ill give him my money.

It's free http://www.spiderwebsoftware.com/exile2/winexile2.html

 

[ASTRAL]

Some big publisher needs to offer Vogel a CEO position the man sure knows how to milk the shit of his IPs

 

[Lhynn]

It's free http://www.spiderwebsoftware.com/exile2/winexile2.html

I know. But if he cant make a remake with the level of quality of the originals, he shouldnt bother. Just make a E.E. and milk it, better than raping your glory days.

 

[Mr Fantastic]

Some big publisher needs to offer Vogel a CEO position the man sure knows how to milk the shit of his IPs

I know. But if he cant make a remake with the level of quality of the originals, he shouldnt bother. Just make a E.E. and milk it, better than raping your glory days.

Somebody introduce him to Beamdog aVENGER

 

[JarlFrank]

Re-release Geneforge series with better graphics and music instead.

 

[vonAchdorf]

Re-release Geneforge series with better graphics and music instead.

He eventually will, if he thinks there's a market for it.

A large part of my professional life now is acting as curator for the things I made when I was young. I spend my time trying to be respectful to the work of my younger self, bringing it into the modern day while preserving the stuff that made people love it in the first place. It's a very different sort of job, with its own challenges, but I do enjoy it. I wish more people did a better job of respecting what they made when they were young. (CoughGeorgeLucasCough)

http://www.rpgcodex.net/forums/index.php?threads/jeff-vogel-creatively-bankrupt-and-proud.94111/

 

[JarlFrank]

What he should do is invest in better art assets and a full soundtrack, then he can get a much larger target audience.

 

[Mr Fantastic]

What he should do is invest in better art assets and a full soundtrack, then he can get a much larger target audience.

Unfortunately both these things didn't help the Eschalon series much, However, the Eschalon team did make a couple of critical mistakes, primary being not making their game party based and having a weak character system, and adding a run function. Otherwise their engine and graphics were top notch.

 

[SCO]

What someone should actually do is to port the entire Geneforge series to D:OS just to piss him off.

 

[Jaesun]

D:OS only allows 4 character parties. Wasn't the original Geneforge a party of 6?

 

[Night Goat]

I'm actually looking forward to this. Exile II is my favorite game in the series, but getting it to run on a modern PC is an ordeal I don't want to attempt.

 

[Mustawd]

Will probably buy. Going through his old version of Avernum and would not mind seeing a bit clearer graphics. Plus, I heard he fixed that stupid journal system he used in his older games.

Now if he could just fix all that filler combat...

 

[Morblot]

I'm actually looking forward to this. Exile II is my favorite game in the series, but getting it to run on a modern PC is an ordeal I don't want to attempt.

It's not that hard, although it does take a bit of an effort. It can be done by running Windows 3.1 in DOSBox, here's a handy guide: http://www.sierrahelp.com/Utilities/Emulators/DOSBox/3x_install.html (don't forget to install the video and audio drivers!)

 

[Crooked Bee]

D:OS only allows 4 character parties. Wasn't the original Geneforge a party of 6?

It also has summons that act essentially the same as other party members, so technically the party size is larger than 4. Dunno if summons can be modded into regular (permanent) party members though.

 

[Jaesun]

It also has summons that act essentially the same as other party members, so technically the party size is larger than 4. Dunno if summons can be modded into regular (permanent) party members though.

From my understanding of the engine, no. It is only 4 Characters with 2 slots for summons. Which is a damn shame, BUT I understand why they did that (faster combat resolution).

 

[Spockrock]

in the "green goo" Geneforge you have 8 slots (as a Shaper, at least). and once you summon something, it stays with you until you send it back or it dies (it persists on zoning, in other words). how many of those slots can be used for actual party members I do not know.

 

[Correct_Carlo]

G1 only had 1 possible party member, but had 7 total slots for summons (you could summon 7 additional creatures apart from yourself).

So there were, more or less, 8 party slots in Geneforge given that if you summon a monster you could keep it the entire game if it lived that long. And each summoned monster had their own stat screens and leveled based on experience gained. The only thing the summoned creatures didn't have was an inventory (the main character's inventory was built directly into the interface and wasn't a separate screen).

The only Geneforge game that had non-summoned permanent party members was G3, but if I remember correctly, the added party members were treated like summons in that they had stats, but no inventory (although, unlike summons, I don't think they perma-died if they fell in battle). All the other Geneforges, technically, were solo games, though, in that the player character is the only permanent party member apart from summons.

 

[pippin]

What he should do is invest in better art assets and a full soundtrack, then he can get a much larger target audience.

Not having soundtrack actually helps build a special atmosphere while exploring the caves in the first Avernum remake. I do agree with art assets, though, and especially character animations. Otherwise it's good enough to get me interested.

 

[Hobo Elf]

I will probably pick this up. I dropped Avernum 5 halfway through after playing through Avernum 4 entirely, so I should probably go back to that first, but I'm a sucker for Avernum for whatever reason. Something about that world is just a cool setting for an RPG and the games are always just massive and full of stuff to do.

Have you tried the first remake? How is it? With luck it'll be on sale when Avernum 2 comes out so I might pick it up then, but right now I'm going through the Geneforge games so it'll be a while before I get to Avernum.

 

[Morkar Left]

It was on sale on gog just a few days ago. But now 7,99 € is still not too much. It's definitely worth the money but the mechanics are somewhat dumbed down. I'm missing stealth, proper thief/exploraton skills, proper healing mechanics and maybe a diplomacy skill.

Personally I like the art assets now. The are good enough and polished enough to not distract from the gameplay. The pictures and character pictures are even top notch.

 

[Night Goat]

Have you tried the first remake? How is it? With luck it'll be on sale when Avernum 2 comes out so I might pick it up then, but right now I'm going through the Geneforge games so it'll be a while before I get to Avernum.

Do you mean Avernum: Escape From the Pit? It's good, a lot better than the first Avernum. Better looking and better mechanics.

 

[Nim]

https://s3.amazonaws.com/SpiderwebSoftware/Avernum2Demo.exe

 

[Infinitron]

Well, it's out on GOG: http://af.gog.com/game/avernum_2_crystal_souls?as=1649904300

Steam later today.