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The best Avernum?

Heresiarch

Prophet
Joined
Mar 8, 2008
Messages
1,451
I don't have the patience and time to play through the whole 1 to 6. I've heard 6 is the best but would I miss anything if I don't play the other first?

Is the 3rd (or the 4th) the only one in the series with gameplay at the surface? Does the later Avernum suck because they all just play at the underground?
 

ElectricOtter

Guest
I prefer Exile to Avernum, but if you really want to play Avernum, go with 2 (3 if you like the surface i guess) and 6.
 

Micmu

Magister
Joined
Aug 20, 2005
Messages
6,163
Location
ALIEN BASE-3
No, 6th is not the best.
3rd is on the surface and it's the best.
No, later avernums don't suck because they're all underground, they suck because he switched the engine and some key concepts. And they don't really suck... they're just pretty worse.
 

Martin

Educated
Joined
Nov 24, 2009
Messages
678
Location
Lusitania
The first (1-3) avernums have a very different style of gameplay than the following 3 titles, they have wandering and exploring on a large overhead map and a different skill system.

The combat is poorer on the first 3 avernum's though, and it becomes repetitive fast. Its not awful and it's functional though, it compares well with classic good rpg's that had poor combat systems I guess.

The last two avernum's, 5 and 6 have a battle discipline system that adds some much needed options for melee characters and make combat more deep for all types of characters. 5 and 6 also have more interesting C&C in terms of factions and other details.

I would recommend playing 6 and only one of the first trilogy, Avernum 1 was the only one I finished, never tried 2 but I thought 1t was a better experience than 3. Personal taste I guess.

3 had some nice features, there were different menaces and bosses you had to get rid of, and time and the path you chose mattered because it affected what parts of the gameworld and cities were taken over or attacked more often.

I found avernum 1 more enjoyable though, the problem is that you do not have a functional quest journal like in 2 and 3, but you dont need to take notes since you can save the text of dialogs and event descriptions.
 

VentilatorOfDoom

Administrator
Staff Member
Joined
Apr 4, 2009
Messages
8,600
Location
Deutschland
Heresiarch said:
I don't have the patience and time to play through the whole 1 to 6. I've heard 6 is the best but would I miss anything if I don't play the other first?

Is the 3rd (or the 4th) the only one in the series with gameplay at the surface? Does the later Avernum suck because they all just play at the underground?

I'm playing Avernum 6 currently, and I like it. Very good game. you can't go wrong with that.
 

RuySan

Augur
Joined
Jul 11, 2005
Messages
777
Location
Portugal
I'm playing Avernum 4, and altough is very enjoyable, the interface is horrible. Is there anyway to redefine keys or to map functions to right and middle mouse buttons?
 

Jeff Graw

StarChart Interactive
Developer
Joined
Nov 27, 2006
Messages
802
Location
Frigid Wasteland
Probably between 2 and 3, and Blades also has some pretty good adventures you can download.

As in most things, original trilogy >>> new trilogy.
 

SuicideBunny

(ノ ゜Д゜)ノ ︵ ┻━┻
Joined
May 1, 2007
Messages
8,943
Serpent in the Staglands Dead State Torment: Tides of Numenera
out of the last three, which are the only ones i played, 6 is the best and a pretty good game on its own.
 

Heresiarch

Prophet
Joined
Mar 8, 2008
Messages
1,451
Ok, after messing a bit with all the 6 demos, I think I understand the main difference between the two trilogies:

At 1 - 3, it's very ultima 1 - 5 like. Big world map to travel in, and switch to a smaller map when you enter a random encounter, city, or dungeon. The graphics is also hideously bad too.

At 4 - 6, it's been switched to the Geneforge engine (amirite? I'm sure 6 is), and thus the mapping system is also changed. Especially in 6 it's changed to a big, continuous world. So 4 to 6 are like ultima 6 - 9. The fugly character dolls are still there but at least the sprites are much better.

Heck, I find 6 to be annoyingly alike to Geneforge 5 (the only Geneforge I've beaten). Instead of having creations following you have 3 adventurers. But there's no diplomacy skill in Avernum which made me sob.

I think I'll conclude that 6 is worth to play, as I firmly believe game sequels are always better than the older ones (LOLOL GOTHIC 3 OBLIVION DEUS EX 2) and at least it's much better than say Eschalon Book 2.
 

Monocause

Arcane
Joined
Aug 15, 2008
Messages
3,656
I'm sure that the best ones are A2 and A3. I don't agree that combat was more tedious in the old engine, quite the opposite. The old engine supported killing with your frontman without entering combat mode, making easier encounters in dungeons much, much quicker.
Also, play A2 and A3 at least on hard. You'll be thankful that you've got these summoning spells.
 
Joined
Nov 1, 2008
Messages
7,953
Location
Cuntington Manor
I never played Avernum 1-3 since I had already Exiled my way through those storylines.

Out of the new games....hard call. They are all ok.

Make sure you also check out the Roman/Briton game of his. I enjoyed the original, and I believe he brought out a newer version of it for any Next Genners that need that sort of thing.
 

Disconnected

Scholar
Joined
Dec 17, 2007
Messages
609
RuySan said:
I'm playing Avernum 4, and altough is very enjoyable, the interface is horrible. Is there anyway to redefine keys or to map functions to right and middle mouse buttons?

The mouse thing you can handle with a separate app. Some mice/gaming devices come with the software, but if yours isn't one of those there should be several perfectly fine freeware alternatives. Go-go-Google.

Unfortunately I'm not aware of any that can intercept your keyboard input, and if my memory isn't completely fucked the controls in Avernum 4 are hardcoded. So.. I think you'll just have to live with it.

@ Heresiarch: I'd stick with #6 too. It's pretty much the same as all the others, except with that little extra polish each of his games have over its predecessors.
 

VentilatorOfDoom

Administrator
Staff Member
Joined
Apr 4, 2009
Messages
8,600
Location
Deutschland
Bros, something terrible happened. I installed new nvidia drivers and now Avernum 6 is unregistered and I can't play on, nor register it again. I was at the eastern gallery already. FFS
 

Monocause

Arcane
Joined
Aug 15, 2008
Messages
3,656
VentilatorOfDoom said:
Bros, something terrible happened. I installed new nvidia drivers and now Avernum 6 is unregistered and I can't play on, nor register it again. I was at the eastern gallery already. FFS

There is no conceivable way installation of any drivers should affect your Avernum registration - unless nVidia screwed up again. Why don't you e-mail Jeff about it? He's known for good customer care.
 

Elzair

Cipher
Joined
Apr 7, 2009
Messages
2,254
Do any of the games have animated walking, or is that just Geneforge?
 

Martin

Educated
Joined
Nov 24, 2009
Messages
678
Location
Lusitania
Elzair said:
Do any of the games have animated walking, or is that just Geneforge?

You will be thankful for how fast you move across the maps due to lack of animation. Not that genforge 5 was too slow.


Im playing avernum 6 right now and its quite fun, very polished, more varied art assets, great special encounters and a decent amount of freedom in exploration and taking on quests, not as sandboxy as I expected from reading VD's post about it but then I only been playing for a couple of days. Haven't played enough to comment on the C&C but so far its pretty minor.
The game has got me pretty hooked since after the early game unlike Avernum 5. The battle disciplines definitely make the combat more enjoyable although it takes a while to unlock them.

I actually think I prefer this one to geneforge 5, but they are of two different styles. This one is going to take a while longer to finish it seems. Oh well its not a waste of time when you are having fun.
 

VentilatorOfDoom

Administrator
Staff Member
Joined
Apr 4, 2009
Messages
8,600
Location
Deutschland
Monocause said:
There is no conceivable way installation of any drivers should affect your Avernum registration - unless nVidia screwed up again. Why don't you e-mail Jeff about it? He's known for good customer care.
What else should have caused it? Got a new reg key from Jeff.

PS: Spell system in Avernum is a bit lame.
 
Joined
May 31, 2010
Messages
143
Does any Avernum game let you play as something else than a soldier ? As much as I like Avernum 5 and 6, it would be great to see the world from a totally different angle, and I know I'll eventually get tired of taking orders. Also, is it me (and my broken english) or does NPC's completely ignore the fact that there's more than one guy in your party ?
 

juggernaut

Educated
Joined
Dec 26, 2009
Messages
234
Location
Australia
mondblut said:
Exile 3 is the best Avernum.

This, although it doesn't work on 64-bit windows :( I think it works under windows 3.1 through dosbox though, I'll have to try that sometime.
 

mondblut

Arcane
Joined
Aug 10, 2005
Messages
22,205
Location
Ingrija
OldSkoolKamikaze said:
mondblut said:
Exile 3 is the best Avernum.

You slipped and put a 3 instead of a 2.

Nope. 2 is hardly any different than 1, in fact, it's worse due to several heavily railroaded chapters.

In 3, you for once get a proper world instead of the same stale dungeon, you get dualwielding and random jobs, and according to some posters, even major gameplay-driven C&C in form of "loiter too much, and you'll have a next major town wiped out by monsters, losing all the phat lewt you'd be able to buy in there".

Turning those alien freaks from helpful deus ex machina of Ex2 into genocidal monsters was also a good touch.
 

RuySan

Augur
Joined
Jul 11, 2005
Messages
777
Location
Portugal
Disconnected said:
RuySan said:
I'm playing Avernum 4, and altough is very enjoyable, the interface is horrible. Is there anyway to redefine keys or to map functions to right and middle mouse buttons?

The mouse thing you can handle with a separate app. Some mice/gaming devices come with the software, but if yours isn't one of those there should be several perfectly fine freeware alternatives. Go-go-Google.

Unfortunately I'm not aware of any that can intercept your keyboard input, and if my memory isn't completely fucked the controls in Avernum 4 are hardcoded. So.. I think you'll just have to live with it.
.

Thanks, i've downloaded Autohotkey and it works wonderfully
 

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