Preview Avernum 4 Screenshots and Release Date

[Astromarine]

Tags: Avernum 4; Jeff Vogel; Spiderweb Software

<a href="http://www.spiderwebsoftware.com/">Spiderweb Software</a> has just put up a webpage about their latest game, <a href="http://www.avernum.com/avernum4/index.html">Avernum 4</a>. In it, you can find a couple new screenshots of the game's highly modified Geneforge Engine. Also, the newsletter they sent out to announce this has the following information:<blockquote>Q: Does the game use a new engine?
<br>
<br>
A: Avernum 4 uses a HIGHLY modified version of the Geneforge engine. It
<br>
runs at a higher screen resolution, has nicer graphics, and is very
<br>
definitely an Avernum game.
<br>
<br>
Q: Does the game play like Geneforge?
<br>
<br>
A: Nope. It's an Avernum game. It is fully turn-based, and has the
<br>
Avernum game system. <b>People who like Avernum more than Geneforge will
<br>
not be unhappy, I promise.</b>
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<br>
Q: Is it big?
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<br>
A: It's enormous. A gigantic world, almost 200 quests, and as many
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characters and as much dialogue as anything we've ever done.
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<br>
Q: Will it be out soon?
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<br>
A: I sure hope so. If I avoid getting the flu, it should be out for
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Macintosh by Christmas and Windows 2-3 months after that.</blockquote>

 

[Major_Blackhart]

Interesting, I'll check it out a bit more.

 

[Hazelnut]

Hmmm, I wonder when Jeff decided to move from the "next game will have a new engine" to simply modifying the GF engine. It doesn't look too much different.

Not that I'm that bothered, as long as the game is cool! Higher res will be nice tho.

 

[Chefe]

Cowabunga dude.

I liked Avernum 3, great game. The new graphics on this one are a good step up. I'll be keeping an eye out for this title.

 

[Atrokkus]

OMG Can't believe that at least one new game will be completely smoothly-running on my low-end system!!!

 

[Elwro]

I don't see any difference in gfx. Not that I care.
The sad part is that the game won't have a Leadership skill influencing dialogue, which was good in GF and imo lacking in the Avernum games (which I played later).

 

[Jed]

I really enjoy all of Jeff's games, and while I don't really care about the graphics, I do find myself annoyed that he put the Character info on the left rather than leaving it on the right. It wasn't so bad in GF3 since it was significantly smaller, but it just seems really wrong in the A4 screenshots...

I'm sure it'll be good, though.

 

[Chefe]

I don't see any difference in gfx. Not that I care.
The sad part is that the game won't have a Leadership skill influencing dialogue, which was good in GF and imo lacking in the Avernum games (which I played later).

Avernum 3

Avernum 4


It's not that I care about the graphics, it's that I like how they've slightly evolved.

 

[Elwro]

Uh, OK, I forgot to say that I was talking about the world-window only. So the difference is a bigger resolution? The models, the world and the lighting seem the same for me.

 

[Naked_Lunch]

Hopefully they'll fix up the combat.

 

[Psilon]

I don't see any difference in gfx. Not that I care.
The sad part is that the game won't have a Leadership skill influencing dialogue, which was good in GF and imo lacking in the Avernum games (which I played later).

Don't remember where precisely he used it, but Cave/Nature Lore, Rune Reading, and a few of the other stats actually did influence dialog throughout the trilogy. Usually, though, these were world map encounters rather than town denizens.

Also, didn't joining the anti-magic faction get harder if you had mages in your party?

 

[TheGreatGodPan]

That pic of 3 looked better than 4.

Out of curiousity, if Avernum is turn-based and Geneforge is different, what kind of system does it use? The Spiderweb site talks a lot about back-story but not too much about the game-systems.

At the risk of starting another Oblivion thread, a lot of people have complained about the dialogue in Morrowind while praising Daggerfall. What was Daggerfall's dialogue like?

 

[Psilon]

Geneforge is also turn-based, but only within combat. It's real-time until the magic and calming anesthetic saliva starts flying. So, much like Fallout in that regard.

The reason I dislike Geneforge's system by comparison is that the combat sucks. There's no feedback about how much AP it costs to move, so you can easily get within range but have only 4AP left, thus screwing your character for the turn. There's no defense bonus for passing one's turn, which wouldn't be an issue except that you can't defer a move until later. Most of the bad status ailments don't hit until the beginning of a round, so for Shaper players it's to their advantage to move last so they can dispel harmful effects/heal/blast everything in range. Unfortunately, as soon as you purchase or accidentally receive (through books/quest rewards/canisters) points of Dexterity or Quick Action, you're screwed.

Regarding Daggerfall dialogue, it's less a Wiki and more an index. Choose a dialogue style (polite (Etiquette), normal (Persuasion), blunt (Streetwise)), and choose a topic. Topics include, and are more or less limited to, latest rumors, background info about $faction, directions to $place, directions to $person, and "Any work?"--essentially the nearest commoner/merchant NPC with a random quest for you. Harassing enough (i.e., 3 dialogues) NPCs for directions would eventually mark the target location on your map.

Rumors/background questions only worked once per session, though, and they could give you false information. So several guilds had Spymasters, who could provide an infinite stream of true information.

 

[Elwro]

Don't remember where precisely he used it, but Cave/Nature Lore, Rune Reading, and a few of the other stats actually did influence dialog throughout the trilogy.

That's certainly a good feature. But there are still situations in which a stat reflecting just the ability to influence other with words could be useful imo. Especially if "as much dialogue as anything we've ever done" means "as much dialogue as in all other Spiderweb games combined", and not "as much dialogue as in any other Spiderweb game". I'm afraid it's the latter.
I liked every bit of writing in Avernum games. The more of it, the better!

Also, didn't joining the anti-magic faction get harder if you had mages in your party?

No idea here.

 

[spacemoose]

Anyone remember Exile III's magic system? I loved that thing, it had something like 50+ different spells. And even though some of them were essentially upgraded versions of other spells, there were a lot of unique and just plain awesome spells - like quickfire for example.

The avernum series (and nethergate if I'm not mistaken) reduced this down to like 12 spells. All the same in every game. It was a huge disappointment for me.

 

[Elwro]

Anyone remember Exile III's magic system? I loved that thing, it had something like 50+ different spells. And even though some of them were essentially upgraded versions of other spells (...)
The avernum series (and nethergate if I'm not mistaken) reduced this down to like 12 spells. (...)

The Avernum series has 18 spells for mages and 18 spells for priests, and each of those spells has 3 levels of power that sometimes differ not only quantitavely but also qualitatively.
I really wanted to say that some of the 3rd level spell effects could be viewed as independent spells as they actually do something the weaker versions cannot and are not only "stronger" in the primitive sense.

 

[Second Chance]

I was never a fan of Avernum. Give me Exile any day

 

[theverybigslayer]

Hopefully they'll fix up the combat.

Change it to real-time like Dungeon Siege or Ultima 7!

 

[Saint_Proverbius]

Hopefully they'll fix up the combat.

I'm not sure what's wrong with Avernum's combat. It's somewhat simple, but it's still very tactical. I had all kinds of tactical fun the first time I ran across a Mung Demon.

 

[theverybigslayer]

Hopefully they'll fix up the combat.

I'm not sure what's wrong with Avernum's combat. It's somewhat simple, but it's still very tactical. I had all kinds of tactical fun the first time I ran across a Mung Demon.

You are right Saint (as always) the combat system is the best part of Avernum.

 

[Naked_Lunch]

I meant how if you attack with APs still left, it uses up the rest of your APs. Or is that just for Geneforge? I thought it was common to all Nethergate engine games.

 

[Saint_Proverbius]

Avernum does that also. I could understand if spending all your AP in an attack did something, but you get the same attack for spending 1AP as you do if you spend 4AP. Then again, Haste is a wonderful spell.

 

[Barbader]

WIZARDRY 8:

combat system - perfect

magic system- perfect

dialogue system- even more than incredible adding more dialogue lines...


we should make vandalic actions over our city requesting other wizardry...