[ 3 / biz / cgl / ck / diy / fa / ic / jp / lit / sci / vr / vt ] [ index / top / reports ] [ become a patron ] [ status ]
2023-11: Warosu is now out of extended maintenance.

/vr/ - Retro Games

View post   
File: 119 KB, 590x440, Blades of Exile.gif [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
672885 No.672885 [Reply] [Original]

Any Vogel fans around? This was released after Exile three, and basically took the same engine and applied a massive scenario editor to it. It was quite nice. I was recently replaying Falling Stars, (goddamn, I love/hate that map) and whoo boy, took me for a nostalgia ride.

if there are any other arc fans, I'd be super happy to chat. I got way too into that series even fought and won the major battle in An Apology that you weren't supposed to do, just to see if it would have any effect.

>> No.672981

Oh come on, I thought you guys liked indie games here.

>> No.673089

I'd never even heard of it. It looks derivative of D&D (well, most games are), but not altogether bad. Do these games play "fast" or are fights pretty deliberate?

>> No.673104

>>672981

>indie

Jeff Vogel is anything but "indie". Unlike the many kickstarting faggots who oversaturate the market with YetAnotherLOLretroPixelGame, he never begged for money and always released complete works, like any proper INDEPENDENT (note the emphasis) developer should before asking to be payed. He is more akin to japanese doujinn developers, who take their craft as a hobby and each creation is an act of love.

That aside, I did enjoy all three Exile games. Or at least, whatever I was allowed to do within the limits of the shareware void/chasm. I really liked just losing myself within the many nooks and crannies of the world, finding secret chambers and stumbling upon strange evil cults. I spent many an afternoon just wandering around, dicking with the editor while listening to old Chrono Trigger midis.

I kinda like that he's remained in semi-obscurity (aside from the fact that he still keeps making games to this day). I wouldn't want to see what kind fo person would he turn into if he happened upon the prospect of receiving thousands of dollars before having any work doen.

>>673089

It's a more simplified D&D style game. It's more like a traditional turn-based RPG.

>Do these games play "fast" or are fights pretty deliberate?

I don't understand the question.

>> No.673105

BROTHER

I loved Exile to death. Never bought the full games, just dicked around in the shareware, but man, I always wanted to as a kid.

I actually did play Blades of Exile, it was awesome.

Did you try Avernum? I couldn't get into it, I dunno what it was but it seemed to lack the charm of the originals.

>> No.673110

The Exile games are fun, but tend to start strongly and peter out into hack and slash fests in the end.

Sadly, his later releases aren't that great at all.

>> No.673128

>>673110
I thought the first Geneforge looked interesting but didn't get that far into it.

I'm really amused that others only played the shareware games. Is he still selling the full versions of Exile 1-3?

>> No.673154

just nostalgia'd hard

loved exile and geneforge

>> No.673424

>>673128

Yes. Unfortunately, he's still selling them at the same price he's had them for the past 2 decades or so. People have been bitching at him to lower the price, but he says that he can't since he has to get money somewhere to pay off server costs.

>> No.673446

>>673424
Well, I don't mind that, I'll gladly pay top dollar for a piece of my childhood I enjoyed for free thus far. He's earned it.

Of course I'm a rich asshole so I can understand others being upset, but hey.

>> No.673501

I snatched the Geneforge 1-5 collection on GOG.com a while ago. They are pretty much the last few games from Vogel that I haven't played to the end, or at least tried the demo for.

I gotta say that I'm finding it very hard to get into them. Even after finishing the first Geneforge, I felt like I'd somehow tricked or cheated my way through them instead of "earning" the end.

Right now I'm going through Geneforge 2, but already in the early parts I'm running into walls where I get anally raped no matter where I go. I'm sure I'll be able to save-scum my way further like in 1, but still.

>> No.673510

>>673110

I really liked exploring the big open world in 3 the later games such a linear disapointment

>> No.673521

>>673510

Getting out of that cave and seeing grass for the first time was pretty damn amazing, that's the one moment I remember the best out of the entire series. Well, that and running into the friendly spiders for the first time. As much as I liked Avernum, you're right, they didn't have the same charm as Exile 1-3.

>> No.673572

>>673501

All games in his series have a rather steep difficulty that it's very hard not to use cheats to overcome.

I remember in Exile 2, there was these 2 spells or something, one that allowed you to capture the essence of monsters in a crystal ball (up to 4), and another one to summon as many of these as your MP permitted. Holy fuck, did I spend like 30 minutes spamming that spell on Motrax (savescumming all the way) until I finally "caught" it. Then I went and got me some Vahnatai warriors or priests (don't remember) and one of those weird crystal pedestal things.

Then I went to Formello, and let all hell loose.

Or just casting Wildfire. Holy shit, watching the entire city go up in flames. Every single fucking tile was a fire tile. So satisfying.

>> No.673610

>>673089

No, the fights are fairly straightforward. Spam bless/haste and curse/slow for your opponents and then charge. You don't need to plan shit out unless you're in way over your heads.

>>673104
Forgive me: I spoke stongly to try to provoke a reaction.
>>673105
Played avernums 4,5 and 6. Not sure if there have been any subsequent. 4 was terrible, just a re-hash of 3 in different places, 5 was okayish, and 6 was pretty good, but none of them compare to the original 3.

I've heard good things about Geneforge from my brother, but I never got around to playing them.

>>673572
You know, I remember finding them very hard, and on my first playthrough for exiles one and two, I needed to use the editor to get started. When I replayed them a bit, I found the combats almost trivial. I'm more inclined to ascribe it to a steep learning curve than actually being "hard" in the classic sense.

>> No.673625

Oh.

My.

God.

You've played the arc? I fucking LOVED an apology, especially with that weird "story as narrated" divide.

"And then the heroes ran into a party of troglodytes"

Fight for a few rounds. "Oh wait, they were slithzerikai" (all the trogs get turned into sliths) A few rounds later "no, no wait, they were trogs" (The remaining ones get turned back). I thought it was really cool.

Although it still boggles my mind that pathetic little Sajon is actually the sovereign

>> No.673639

>>672885
>that fucking screenshot
>That fucking default party

oh my god if someone asked me if I missed Thissa, Frrrrr, and Feodoric I wouldn't have even gotten it

fucking Feodoric always dying

>> No.673647

>>673610

I was never a big fan of quickfire, but that was mostly because I loved to take my time and take every last little thing, and didn't want to walk through fires to do so.

And yeah, capture soul on Motrax could be broken, but I actually found more mileage out of

1) Basilisks
2) Quickghasts.

Neither as tough as motrax, but considerably cheaper to summon. The quickghasts seem to ignore enemy armor, which makes them great for boss smashing.


You ever defeat Garzahd via minddueling him to death?

>> No.673656

>>673610

>When I replayed them a bit, I found the combats almost trivial.

I think they really aren't that trivial, in the sense that you know now how to approach them. The thing about these games is that they don't give you any instructions on where to go. After you exit the fort you came through, you're practically free to do whatever the hell you want. And this usually involves going to places that you're obviously not meant to go, which ends up having you fight against monsters that you really aren't properly leveled up/prepared to engage.

After you figure out how to get the story rolling, you realize that all those other places you visted were pretty much sidequests.

Took me 2 months of dicking around before discovering that secret passage in Formello.

Oh DEAR GOD did that thing fucking blow my mind. I loved every single minute of it, and I've never encountered something like that ever since. And then suddenly Chapter 2. Too bad I'll never get to experience that for the first time again.

>> No.673657

I'm beside myself here. There's some magic to /vr/.

I was actually thinking of starting a thread about Exile and wondering if anyone would even know what it was, and here this is.

While I have fellow mac shareware kids (tfw no pc games growing up, I guess we at least get to have obscure cred): I am TRYING to remember an adventure game much like Exile. It was on one of those scads of shareware discs that came with Mac magazines, the demo area was basically a little town, you didn't move directly...you pretty much clicked on areas to go, read dialog boxes, and if you got into a fight you'd see your guys. But you could see big detailed sprites for the items you got while shopping. Everything had this pretty realistic look to it, gritty...there was catchy music too.

ANY idea what I mean?

>> No.673670

>>673656


I actually wasn't referring to the open-endedness, although I do realize that's a part. I more meant, when you first play, you don't really know how much balance you put between things like strength, defense, weapon skills, intelligence, magic use, how many levels of luck to get, when to get assassination, what spells are useful and what ones aren't, etc.


Now, I know that I can win most early fights by casting bless three times each on my fighters, sending them forth while they're nigh invincible, and fireballing any enemy mages. You don't get a very good indication of which spells are good and which ones are useless, and finding out how to win the bless/haste war is what really did it for me.

>> No.673671

>>673647

Nope. I only got as far as the shareware version allowed me to... which was basically up to the point where I asked (or was aksed?) help from the Vahnatai. And then a portal appeared that said THIS IS AS FAR AS YOU GO ON THE SHAREWARE VERSION. BUY THE GAME OR SUFFER FOREVER IN SHAREWARE LIMBO.

I can only imagine Jeff Vogel maniacally laughing his ass off somewhere, thousands of miles from my home.

>> No.673674

>>673671

That's a shame. The full game is amazing. I seem to recall though there were a bunch of shareware chasms, and while you couldn't get past all of them, you could cheat yourself the orb of thralni and bypass a good chunk of them.

>> No.673678

>>673670

Well, that too. I never did stop to think that maybe I should have refocused my team to be a bit more specialized instead of recreating fictional characters from my imagination. I think that I might be able to pull it off legitimately now that I have more personal experience, but I haven't gotten around to it.

>> No.673680

So...I haven't actually finished these, so no spoilers if you can, but...

As a young kid whose parents didn't buy him the games, I DID poke around in the game files using resedit. And I remember finding something...odd. In Exile 3? I think it was 3, yeah.

There were two event dialogues I found. One with Anaximander (was that his name?) and the other with one of the prominent female questgivers. They seemed to imply, um, REWARDS for something. Rewards. Naked rewards.

I could never tell if there was a way to get those ingame or if it was just a joke put in the code, but I swear they were there.

>> No.673682

>>673674

I pirated a while back.

Sadly, I haven't gotten that urge to play through them yet.

That, and I want to play with the old-ass graphics, not the revamp he made a couple of years later. They're on an old shareware disc that I haven't bothered looking for, though.

>> No.673693

>>672885
>Oh come on, I thought you guys liked indie games here.
You're an idiot if you like indie games because they're indie.

>> No.673692

>>673682
The OLD-ASS old ass graphics?

That's a tall order. Those old 16 bit color graphics or whatever they were are pretty obscure. THAT would be worth uploading, since it's impossible to find otherwise.

I really loved the full color graphics though...was it 256 back then? Great spritework, really brought the caves to live.

Avernum, didn't care for that update.

>> No.673695

>>673680

I don't remember anything like that. I do know that somewhere on the surface there was a brothel, and if you paid for it, you selected a party member to go in, and you got a message about how much more relaxed you were afterwards.

Then in about 50 moves, that character gets a disease.


Or that might have been one of the BoE scens, now that I think about it. Don't really remember.


>>673682

I don't remember how offhandedly, but I know that my brother figured out a way to do it, if you have the old version and the newer version, I think it's just a matter of simply substituting the old version's graphic files for the new ones, and it'll insert them right along.

>> No.673718

>>673692

I remember some 10 or so years ago, they were on Spiderweb's website. I haven't checked lately, but maybe the installers are there? Or maybe you can find something through the web archive? I dunno. I'll try to look for those discs, along with many others, sometime during the weekend. And if my discs haven't rotten away, I'll upload the installers if you want.

>>673695

Yeah. They were basic sprite sheets. I used to have several copies of these because I liked editing them around and seeing changes in-game. But I don't have any on me anymor AFAIK.

>> No.673741

>>673695

Found them posted on Spiderweb's forums.

Exile I:
http://www.sendspace.com/file/tlum87

Exile II:
http://www.sendspace.com/file/otdgqq

>> No.673752

>>673741

Fuck. Except the second download doesn't work.

Found some other links here (beware the eyestraining background color):

http://harehunter.info/Exile1/index.html

http://harehunter.info/Exile2/index.html

>> No.673775
File: 69 KB, 800x800, G170.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
673775

Oh my childhood.
I remember washing cars door to door to get enough money for exile 2: crystal souls.
I also remember getting in a literal fistfight with my sister over who would get to go after which ending, I eventually took kill Garzahd and she did the portal. After that it was a rush through exile 3 when it came out, thankfully had a job during the summer at that point. Still wish he had done something more with the slimes, both the alien slime ruling them and the Mage Jordan who was figuring them out, was some real potential for further story there.

Geneforge I enjoyed, though it is a bit heavy handed with its messages at times. Shaper the whole way through, making creations to fight ahead of me. Only really makes it hard in a few spots where the game forces you to walk into the middle of an obvious trap or ambush, then starts the fight and gives you no time to get your scrawny self behind a thad or something bigger.

Anyone ever follow the AvernuForge theory?

>> No.673779

>>673775

>Avernuforge theory.

First I've heard of it. Care to elaborate?

>> No.673810

>>673779
In both Exile 2 and 3, you find hints and then outright proof that the Vahnatai are capable of creating life.
In Exile 2 there is a little child Vahnatai in the northern section of their caves that knows about Humans and Slitherzka and Nephilims and so on from a book.
In 3 it's the entire plan, creating and throwing the plagues against the empire.
We also know that the Vahnatai are not native to the caves from the first couple introductions made in exile 2, and that once they get their shit back together after a resting, hydra become a domesticated beast for them.
It is also slightly implied that they fled underground to escape some horrible calamity once upon an ancient past.

Now look at geneforge. Shapers create life, and time and again that life has a habit of getting away from them. The Geneforges themselves, Drakons, Serviles, in the last game there is a shaper who has figured out enough microbiology and viruses to create a plague that will wipe out every unnatural creation in the world. Depending on player action, you can get several endings, but a good number of them (throughout the series, not just the last game) end with the world on the fast track to becoming a barren wasteland.
Add on to this the way Shapers like to build underground for safety purposes when doing research, and the sheer amount of crystal used in their various means of magical power generation and the like.

So it was proposed that the Vahnatai are what is left of the shapers, self shaped and changed to better fit the caves they fled into.

>> No.673823

>>673810

That..... makes a frightening amount of sense. Dammit, I really need to play through Geneforge at some point.

>> No.673850

>>673657

Realmz? That was released at near the same time that Exile 2 was. It was developed by Fantasoft, and didn't have a main story per se. You fired up scenarios and played them from start to finish, kind of like a D&D campaign.

>> No.673858

>>673823
There are a lot more bits of evidence then that.
You can find Vahnatai ruins and artifacts on the surface, they use monsters that the empire drove to extinction during a long period where all their clans were supposedly at rest.
Shapers are hinted at having discovered the 'scrolls of life' (dna) several times before, each time prompting either a huge cover up and burning of records once the potential is realized, or a war that reduces everything to near wasteland before the surviving shapers not in the know rebuild civilization.
Play through both series with the idea in mind, you'll find tons of supporting evidence, and Vogels reaction of near violent denial every time its brought up just starts to sound like 'he doth protest to much' to me.

>> No.673865

>>673850
>see name
>skeptical
>look it up
>find this

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fHX1Zivd7Xs

HOLY SHIT. NOSTALGIAGASM.

Thank you, bro. This board really is magical. It sounds SLIGHTLY different...probably midi rather than my memory...

>> No.673871

>>673865
Also wow, I REALLY do not remember the graphics looking this primitive.

>> No.673891
File: 856 KB, 320x240, drink.gif [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
673891

>>673865

Anytime. I remember registering the character editor and that one Necronomicon scenario, where you had to stamp out a lot of demon infestations and go to the Abyss to do some stuff there. Featured Morbius the Demi-Lich, which was kind of awkward since there was a paladin named Morbius in my party at the time.

I got all the named NPCs in that scenario and let them fight alongside my party throughout all the scenario. Then when the main story was ended, I went to all the places where you dropped them off and bid them a nearly tearful farewell. Shalutie, wherever you are, I hope that group of civilized underground goblin tribes treats you better than that city of pissants you tried to whip into shape.

>> No.673961

>>673858

There are an awful lot of ancient crypts on the surface too. Shapers loooooove crypts that they can haunt long after they're dead.

I wonder where all the vampires and undead came from. Necromancy wasn't a thing in the Geneforge series, was it?

>> No.673976

I remember getting a shareware/freeware compilation disk in the 90's and Exile was on it. Out of the 100 or so games, this was the only one I really enjoyed (and Nightmare 3d).

I recently downloaded the full collection but haven't gotten around to playing it yet. Might be time to get back into the action.

>> No.673982

>>673976
I just got rid of all my old mac shareware cds like a year or two ago...

now I wish I kept them

>> No.674021

>>673982
I feel ya. I only have 2 of them sitting around today, lost a lot of rare goodies on the others.

>> No.674292

>>673671
Same with Nethergate. When you try to cross the bridge connecting west beyond the eastmost realms of Shadow Vale a Shareware Demon appears to say that. Afterwards and invisible force prevents you from crossing.

Also why nobody ever discusses Nethergate in these threads?

>> No.674323

>>674292
Because it's not a big series like Exile/Avernum or Geneforge.
I enjoyed Nethergate (as well as the other Spiderweb games) but I couldn't import the full version.

>> No.674489

>>674323
Isn't Nethergate Resurrection on Steam though?

>> No.674553

>>674323
>>674489
Nethergate is pre-Avernum right? But it has the same perspective?

I found Avernum to be inferior to Exile... would you guys say Ressurection is better or the original?

>> No.674613
File: 244 KB, 800x600, nethergate-_resurrection-327335-1263193267.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
674613

>>674553
>>674292

nethergate is the only one i've ever played, and i've only played dozens of hours worth of the demo. for those who have played other spider games, how does nethergate compare to the rest?

>> No.674647

>>674613
I felt Nethergate to be more immersive since it has history providing background on the setting. Plus the magic circles were nice way to handle spells. Also Resurrection is more casual since it buffs celts. They weren't allowed to wear platemails in original.

>> No.674665

>>674647
i haven't gotten to the celt part of the resurrection demo. i have played the old demo completely though, both sides. i was always running out of monsters to get experience and money from.

>> No.674690

Between Exile 1 & 2, and Metalknights, late 90's, early 2000's was a pretty fun time for me when I discovered these games and played them on my family's crappy re-used PC.

>> No.674695

>>673671
When I was a poor kid I just used a hex editor to manually move my party past the shareware demon

>> No.674942

>>673961
Undead in Geneforge are either 'naturally' occurring, things like old burial mounds in magically active areas, a lot of death due to magical experiments gone wrong, etc.
OR
Very rarely created by Shapers, since the research of essence and soul together to create undead is strictly forbidden by all their laws. Still happens occasionally, and I think its in the 4th game that you can open up a sealed research tomb where there are two ghostly shapers trying to each be the one to kill the other and get free to wreak havoc on the living world.

>> No.674978

>>674695
You clever bastard. Sadly such things were beyond my ken at the time I was playing these games.

>> No.674991
File: 92 KB, 640x480, GF4introscreen.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
674991

Tell me it's name guys.
Tell me the name of that one Fyora, that one that stuck with you from the start, that leveled up and grew along side you. It was there to save your bacon the first step you took out into the world, and it was there at the endgame, throwing fireballs in majesty and able to best a Drakon from all the time and essence you had put into it.
Tell me how it fell, how it lived a heroes life and died a heroes death defending you from your enemies. Did you remake it with a new body, or create another out of its essence to carry on its name in good memory?

>> No.675017

I shared this story the last time we had a thread about these games:

>playing Exile 2
>make a slith character with 20 starting STR, a nephil with 20 DEX, and another slith with 20 INT
>racial bonuses take them above the normal maximum
>mfw my warrior slith has +50 damage bonus, my nephil has +255% to-hit, and my caster slith's bless spells last for days

>> No.675040

is this sum RealmZ?

>> No.675061
File: 80 KB, 664x573, Screen shot 2013-05-16 at 7.13.57 AM.png [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
675061

>>673424
Bullshit; they were $25 each back in the day. Now you can get all three of them on a CD for 15 bucks.

>mfw you can still buy blades of exile even though he made it free and open source

>> No.675065

>>675061

Yeah, but did he ever fix the bugs? Like the "Undead ignore armor" thing?

>> No.675068

>>675061
Also the hint book used to cost money and now it's free. I wonder if the character editor is free now too.

http://www.spiderwebsoftware.com/exile/Exile1HintBook/Exile1HintBook.html

>> No.675070

>>675065
Whoa, they do that? I had no idea.

>> No.675085

>>675070

Yeah, easiest way to beat a doomguard is to capture soul a bunch of quickghasts and then summon about 5-6 of them. As opposed to your guys who will be hitting for peanuts, the Quickghasts will hit for about 30-40 a mauling, so the doomguard splits fewer times.

>> No.675110

>>672885

>tfw you cast wound about 10,000 times and actually managed to defeat Legion.

>Tfw the game won't acknowledge your feat of strength.

>> No.675292

Guys a question
Is Avernum:escape from the pit a remake of the first 3 avernum games, which are a remake of the exile saga, right?

>> No.675309

>>675292
Basically.

>> No.675315

>>675309
Is escape from the pit on par/superior to exile 1-3 and avernum 1-3?

>> No.675326

>>675292
The avernum series is a remake of the original 3 exile games, then continuing into 4, 5, and 6.

>> No.675327

>>675309

Wait? They're basically merging the three games into one supergame?

That doesn't even make sense, it's heavily implied that your group in Exile 1 (never played the Avernums) escaped to the surface and hid out there, and I'd imagine the group of Exile 2 is too infamous with the Empire to make good spies, they'd probably scream that it's an invasion if anyone saw you.

>> No.675341

>>675327
That's not what I meant; I mean it was a remake of the first one.

>>675315
The original Exile games are the best IMHO. The others are decent and each offers various things that the other iterations don't have, but overall I have to go with the originals. They're just cooler and feel less casualized.

>> No.675351

>>675341

ahh, ok. Then to answer this guy.


>>675292
The only avernums I played were 4, 5, and 6. They shrink the party from 6 to 4, and they make it a lot easier to carry loads of junk that you're not equipping. Battles are less decided by haste/slow/bless/curse spam, and in general, it's a lot less lethal on both sides, fights take longer.

Overall, I liked Exile's more, I think the combat system still worked a little better (it wasn't great, but Avernum had a lot of ways to exploit stuff too, especially spamming riposte skill, and a lot of enemies were essentially puzzle combat, vulnerable only to one thing but once you figured it out you could crush them), and it also had a much larger world, it made the exploration feel a lot more vivid.

>> No.675376

>>675315
Well, it might be nostalgia talking, but I found Exile to be better atmospherically to Avernum, but Avernum improved on mechanics. Escape from the Pit IS a nice improvement on Avernum 1 in several areas, though. I reccomend playing it.

>> No.675374

I prefer the originals for things like the barrier spells, move mountains, quickfire, simulacrum, party size and so on.
Also the riddles and puzzles.

>> No.675380

>>675374

The riddles: nice.

Some of the "puzzles" though, like finding the Orb of Thralni in Exile 2, is "walk amongst the identical pillars and get stabbed and shocked and zapped by basilisks that spawn out of nowhere until you die, reload, walk the safe path you found by trial and error, and eventually reach the prize".


I could do without those.

>> No.675390
File: 39 KB, 361x361, 1310531718681.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
675390

I just can't get into these games.

I don't mind shitty graphics, but shitty audio ruins even games with 10/10 gameplay for me.

>> No.675391

>>675351
No, no no no. Avernum 4-6 was a barren waste to the series. They took out the outside travelling mode, which gave the games their massive feel. They turned what used to be a 80 miles walk is a 10 minute walk down a large hallway.

They also fucked with controls, trying to mix Avernum 1-3's reliance on keyboard with Geneforge's reliance on mouse. All this did was make it unplayable for me.

And just a pet peeve, you immediately enter combat mode when an enemy appears. If my characters are veritable demigods, able to casual genocide a cave of goblins, I want to walk right through it, not enter combat mode.

>> No.675397

>>675351
Honestly there are a million things I like more about Exile than Avernum, though I'm sure a lot of it is just subjective. The party felt a lot more customizable I guess. The game didn't spoonfeed you powerful spells one at a time; instead, you could choose to get them early by investing your skill points accordingly. You'd still have to find someone to sell them to you of course. And of course, starting out with Fireball was fucking great. Getting a new spell is always more fun than just upgrading an old one. And I don't really like having to manage cooldowns for warrior abilities and stuff. The combat just feels clunkier and less streamlined I guess.

>> No.675409

>>675390
Aww, I like the audio. All those radio-drama door opening sounds and cheesy clangs and screams. You can play your own music if you want music.

>> No.675414

>>675397
Ah, fireball. If I had to choose one thing in particular that I missed during the Exile-Avernum shift, it's Fireball.

It has the power, the range, hell, the versaitility. The most perfect spell. Then came Avernum: "What, you only get to hit one person?"

Also, the Slime Pits in 3. When you fireball a spawning pool, you even get treated to a mini cutscene as it blows apart the pool. In Avernum you get minilaserokdone.

>> No.675416

>>675391
Yeah, I liked how the combat mode worked in Exile. Speaking of which, how many games even had something like that? It seemed pretty unique to me that the dungeon exploration would just seamlessly transition to turnbased party combat like that.

>> No.675425

>>675416
Ultima 6 for instance.

>> No.675431

>>675425
Interesting; I guess I never played enough CRPGs to be able to judge how common that feature was. But it always seemed to me that most games either had discrete combat encounters in the dungeons (like those old first-person games) or were in real-time. Exile's system is my favorite, since it makes the dungeons feel more like real environments while keeping the more cerebral qualities of turn-based games.

>> No.675437

>>675391

Ahh, oh well. I admit, I never played A1-3, and I played 4-6 more out of a sense of loyalty to the series more than direct enjoyment.


Despite it all, 6 was pretty good IMO. It had this sense of fading glory that was very poignant.

>> No.675590

>>675431
There were plenty of first person games with turn based combat like the Might & Magic series (though turn basing was optional in 6 and 7).
There were also games with real time exploration and turn based combat like Fallout.

>> No.675836

Holy shit guys, last night I actually redownloaded Exile 1 because of this thread.

Anyone know an easy want to zoom the window in further in Windows Vista or above? Playing this fullscreen would be godly

>> No.675840

>>675836

You could just set the executable to change your desktop to a fixed resolution everytime you launch it.

>> No.675851

>>675840
I manually switched my resolution to the lowest setting possible for this monitor (1280x720) and it's still not fullscreen in that mode

Maybe I can look in the accessibility options for a screen zoomer for people who can't see well.

>> No.675871

>>675851

I think that follows your cursor around. Might be a bit annoying.

Maybe try this?

http://www.entechtaiwan.com/util/multires.shtm

Can't say if it's useful or not, as I haven't fiddled with it myself. The lowest I can (natively) go on this dingy laptop is 800x600, while some games allow me to go even lower.

Use at your own risk!

>> No.675898
File: 334 KB, 1680x1050, checkem.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
675898

>>675871
>>675851
You can uncheck all the "follow cursor" stuff

It's crude, and it took me some careful futzing to pull off, but guess what son

>> No.675929

>>675898
Nice. Damn I wish I could play that right now.

Oh well, I'd probably just get bored of it after a few hours anyway, which seems to be the case for me with all games these days. But it'd be nice to revisit it and see how accurate my memories are.

>> No.676015

>>675414
You get a few spells that target a bunch of people but nothing with area of effect.
I used to fight against patrols in the shareware version of Crystal Souls by luring them on bridges and then sealing their fate with the wall spells.

>> No.677302

I love the immersion of this.

I just fired up Exile 1 for the first time in decades. I love JRPGs to death, but this really highlights the distinct style and differences of WRPGs/CRPGs. Just how there's such a strong SETTING, but no NARRATIVE.

I'm having a hard time articulating it. But it's like...here is a very clearly realized world. There is an evil empire that gets rid of all undesirables by throwing them through a one-way portal to the Underdark, with no idea at all what awaits them on the other side. An entire generation or so of exiles have built up a crude society amidst this alien world as involuntary settlers. Humanity is small and vulnerable but tenacious in this world.

But that's it. You're here at the portal. The NPCs are aloof and indifferent for the most part. They give you a worn-out, token welcome to their depressing world, apologize for how shitty it is to be stuck in it, and then leave you to your devices. It's been so long since I played an RPG where you weren't led along by YOU ARE THE CHOSEN ONE or SOMEONE HAS TO FIND ALL THE ARTIFACTS TO SAVE OUR WORLD that I was dumbfounded at first. I kind of just wandered around town and what led me to the next spot was not any kind of story hook but mere boredom. By the time I got to the third town I realized that I was searching for my place in the world rather than trying to follow the plot.

Am I making sense? I can't put my finger on what it is that's jumping out at me here.

>> No.677534

>>677302
Immersion vrs being led down a hallway by the nose.

>> No.677573

>>677534
It was more than that, it had to do with the sense of purpose

Like even in a game like Skyrim where you're told "Hey go do whatever you want", you have that hook where you are THE DRAGONBORN, you are told directly by the game you are Important, you are The Player Character and you are given a kind of prophetic purpose. You go find quests to do because that is what you do, it is your job as the chosen one or hero to fulfill a grand purpose.

Here in Exile you are straight up told you're probably just another schmuck. Hi, another face in the crowd, welcome to our pile of rocks. There's some towns nearby, check out the castle they need warm bodies, bye.

>> No.678036

>>677573
It feels like you're writing the story yourself, not following a tale someone else has laid out.
Like in the third game, where whether or not you've got your act together, things are going to happen, events will proceed with or without you, so you better catch up.

>> No.678698
File: 68 KB, 800x800, G406.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
678698

>>677573
I imagine it's the same feeling I got. The feeling of this huge open world to explore, that couldn't give two shits about you. The freedom of being insignificant, and thus unnoticed.

Related to the wonderful feeling I got when I realized my choices mattered and that there are at least 3 endings to each of the Geneforge games. Though for continuity only certain endings are cannon, or multiple occur at once.

>> No.681864

Come on guys, don't let this thread die.

>> No.683336

I have the open source version of Blades of Exile, which is the only one of these games that will work on my computer. I'd love to try out some of the cool user-created scenarios that I wasn't able to play years ago with the demo version. The problem is I don't have a party beyond the starting one and most of them call for high-level parties. I really don't feel like playing through "Valley of the Dying Things" again (I already played it twice back in the day, and it really doesn't deserve any more playthroughs than that), so does anyone have any recommendations for low-level scenarios to play? Is there a good party leveling tool somewhere, or maybe just some strong party files shared online that I could download?

>> No.683372

>>683336
Doesn't Blades of Exile come with the Exile Editor? Being able to directly create your party with whatever the fuck you want has always been directly supported by Exile, hasn't it?

>> No.683413

>>683372
I can create and edit a level one party, but that's it. I don't think I can give my party any more than the starting number of skill points or better equipment -- I don't see anything like the cheat tool that Exile 1 had.

>> No.683454

>>683413
Can't you just create a scenario designed to boost them up? Like just one that's a level 1 room full of loot and shit and some easy to kill enemies that award however much XP you want

>> No.683476

>>683454
I could try that. I was hoping I could just download something like that since I've never used the scenario editor before, but it could be fun.

>> No.683636

>>683632
Or Blades actually, if that's around too.

>> No.683632

I don't seem to have Exile 1 or 2 anymore. Does anyone know where I could grab them online?

>> No.683667

>>683636
You can get Blades of Exile here:

http://code.google.com/p/openexile/<wbr>