Some more notes on Avernum 5.

i. Heights are in. I just got the first set of hill graphics.

ii. The world system (i.e. one seamless world) will, however, remain unchanged. Though Avernum 5's terrain is designed to better take advantage of it. I am, however, going to work on the graphics to try to create a clearer visual distinction between outdoors and dungeons.

iii. I was very, VERY happy with how death worked in Avernum 4. No changes.

iv. Dungeons will respawn monsters more. Outdoors, about the same rate.

v. The plot for Avernum V is very intricate and involved. I think it's quite cool, and I'm kind of looking forward to writing it.

vi. Work on more PC icons has started. There will be 2 more each of nephil, slith, and human, at least, and we'll work from there.

vii. Many improvements from Geneforge 4 will be in the game. Nicer fonts. Better AP system. Better graphics and spell effects. I will mercilessly purge all actual Geneforge elements, though. (No spawners. No pylons. Period. I will, however, keep the roamer icon as a clawbug, though, because I think it looks cool.)
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The spell system for Avernum 5 will be pretty much the same.

First off, I think that 40 spells is a pretty good number. It would be easy to pad it out with 50 (or 500) more junk spells, but it wouldn't add anything to the game except confusion.

Balancing spells is difficult. My goal is to have a good variety of spells that actually have uses some point in the game. Each individual spell is a delicate balancing act between making it useless on one end and too powerful on the other. I can't do that right with too many spells.

And, once again, honestly, 40 is quite a few.
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I've put in some hours on Avernum 5. Some more news.

i. Elevations are completely in the game. They look nice.

ii. There is now a system of battle disciplines. People with high combat skills will be able to use special abilities. Some of them are cool enough that some mages will be tempted to train in pole weapons.

iii. I have vastly expanded the keyboard shortcuts. You will now be able to target attacks and spells using only the keyboard. (This includes fireballs.)

iv. The plot is very elaborate and cool. I tried for a similar level of intricacy as Geneforge 4: Rebellion.

v. I have also borrowed the much less annoying action point system from Geneforge 4. And a ton of the nice graphical effects too.

vi. The most irritating thing left to be done engine-wise is boats. There will be a lot of water travel.

vii. The Anama are back. Solberg has a decently sized role. Rentar-Ihrno is still dead.​