I really enjoyed the twist at the end of the Blade DLC ep 2.
I can see why others might not though for obvious reasons.
Me though? I played Kassandra as a bisexual egomaniac humping her way across the Peloponnesian War who also desperately wants real affection to save her from her own never ending revenge murder boner so this fits my run like a glove.
Seeing you slowly build a family over time is something I always wanted to see as a character arc in an AC game so this is pretty cool to see.
My playthrough is cursed though so this is going to end in a grisly tragedy, I'm sure.
It just felt completely jarring to me that after she developed a relationship and had a child she was just “well back to mercenary work who knows when I’ll see ya!”
I’m not liking this Blade DLC very much but it’s not so much about developments at the end of Ch2, the whole thing just feels disjointed and disconnected from everything else I’ve been doing.
It doesn’t help that I really don’t care for Darius either.
Battletag: Threeve#1501
PSN: Threeve703
0
DemonStaceyTTODewback's DaughterIn love with the TaySwayRegistered Userregular
Maybe it's because I came to this game after Ghost of Tsushima, but I'm not really feeling the combat. At least not early on. Note that I do not have many upgrades or perks unlocked yet, I'm only a couple hours into the game. But the combat just feels very spammy and like there's a very low skill floor. Maybe enemies will get more difficult and be less likely to be staggered and interrupted in their attack animations, but right now it feels like I can basically win any fight just by relentlessly swinging. There doesn't seem to be much strategy or ebb and flow to combat.
Well this is much more of an RPG so combat gets better as you get more skills and abilities to mix it and build your character more. So it will start out pretty barebones basic for you and the enemies and build up. But also probably a good reason to play on higher difficulties as well.
Ghost is an action game so the combat is going to feel very different in those ways.
I've read that on average non boss mooks in this have less health or feel less meat shieldy than Odyssey. Is that the general feeling here?
I mean I liked odyssey sure, but I was kind of hoping it would be patched to have a difficulty option like in LotR Shadow of War where all damage incoming and outgoing could be doubled.
can you ever get back to Norway? I didn't raid everything there I could before I left for my own camp
I'm just about do that as well, but I recall hearing that you could.
Also,
I found a spot the character doesn't have access to yet, so I'd say it's pretty much guaranteed.
With regards to...
...the area you don't have access to, if it's the waterfall cave above Kvotje's Fortress, then the "area not available" warning is a lie. I ran to the back, kicked through some ice, and read the book.
Controlling the longship is very weird around land. Combine that with the fact that getting out of your boat can lead to non-regenerating damage and it's seriously annoying me.
Also, did they really remove quicksaving? Why? This is by far the most annoying thing for me. Being able to push start and up to quicksave was great in Odyssey and Origins.
I'm playing on the second from the hardest difficulty for combat and the hardest on stealth and exploration. Can anyone tell me how the exploration difficulties change the way the map works/etc?
Switch: SW-7690-2320-9238Steam/PSN/Xbox: Drezdar
0
DemonStaceyTTODewback's DaughterIn love with the TaySwayRegistered Userregular
Controlling the longship is very weird around land. Combine that with the fact that getting out of your boat can lead to non-regenerating damage and it's seriously annoying me.
Also, did they really remove quicksaving? Why? This is by far the most annoying thing for me. Being able to push start and up to quicksave was great in Odyssey and Origins.
I'm playing on the second from the hardest difficulty for combat and the hardest on stealth and exploration. Can anyone tell me how the exploration difficulties change the way the map works/etc?
Adventurer is the most lenient of the three. It always lets you know when you can pick up missions in your vicinity and shows search zones on the map. It also shows more objectives on your compass, as well as the distance between you and them.
Explorer retains most of Adventurer's elements but provides less guidance when it comes to missions that require you to scout an entire area. You'll need to rely more on the hints given by the quest.
Pathfinder is the third and toughest Assassin's Creed Valhalla exploration difficulty options. You're no longer notified of nearby missions, having to keep an eye out for them yourself.
The distance to your objectives is also no longer shown, but your trusty bird companion can help with that. Lastly, you'll find fewer marks on your compass.
Controlling the longship is very weird around land. Combine that with the fact that getting out of your boat can lead to non-regenerating damage and it's seriously annoying me.
Also, did they really remove quicksaving? Why? This is by far the most annoying thing for me. Being able to push start and up to quicksave was great in Odyssey and Origins.
I'm playing on the second from the hardest difficulty for combat and the hardest on stealth and exploration. Can anyone tell me how the exploration difficulties change the way the map works/etc?
I think quick save is now in the quicktool bar. At least it is on PC.
Game is gorgeous on a series x, but man boss fights are pounding me early spoiler.
Like the guy in the not bear cave near the chick looking for her comb just basically one shots me, I hope its a gear/skills thing and not just the level he's at
I did win my first dice game because nerd
I would like some money because these are artisanal nuggets of wisdom philistine.
Controlling the longship is very weird around land. Combine that with the fact that getting out of your boat can lead to non-regenerating damage and it's seriously annoying me.
Also, did they really remove quicksaving? Why? This is by far the most annoying thing for me. Being able to push start and up to quicksave was great in Odyssey and Origins.
I'm playing on the second from the hardest difficulty for combat and the hardest on stealth and exploration. Can anyone tell me how the exploration difficulties change the way the map works/etc?
I think quick save is now in the quicktool bar. At least it is on PC.
Controlling the longship is very weird around land. Combine that with the fact that getting out of your boat can lead to non-regenerating damage and it's seriously annoying me.
Also, did they really remove quicksaving? Why? This is by far the most annoying thing for me. Being able to push start and up to quicksave was great in Odyssey and Origins.
I'm playing on the second from the hardest difficulty for combat and the hardest on stealth and exploration. Can anyone tell me how the exploration difficulties change the way the map works/etc?
Adventurer is the most lenient of the three. It always lets you know when you can pick up missions in your vicinity and shows search zones on the map. It also shows more objectives on your compass, as well as the distance between you and them.
Explorer retains most of Adventurer's elements but provides less guidance when it comes to missions that require you to scout an entire area. You'll need to rely more on the hints given by the quest.
Pathfinder is the third and toughest Assassin's Creed Valhalla exploration difficulty options. You're no longer notified of nearby missions, having to keep an eye out for them yourself.
The distance to your objectives is also no longer shown, but your trusty bird companion can help with that. Lastly, you'll find fewer marks on your compass.
Opals: So they are saved to your account, not to your save? THAT is confusing. Also, opal map markers seem to persist even if you already collected the opal there? I’m wondering if that is a bug.
Switch: SW-7690-2320-9238Steam/PSN/Xbox: Drezdar
0
GnomeTankWhat the what?Portland, OregonRegistered Userregular
Game is gorgeous on a series x, but man boss fights are pounding me early spoiler.
Like the guy in the not bear cave near the chick looking for her comb just basically one shots me, I hope its a gear/skills thing and not just the level he's at
I did win my first dice game because nerd
It's a skill/gear thing. This game is WAY more RPG than even the last two AC's. Everything is a stat you can raise either via gear or the skill tree. You'll notice a ton of the skill nodes are things like "+2.4 melee damage" and things like that.
The combat is much closer to Dark Souls than it is AC:O or AC:Odd. Until you open some abilities later on, and some of the skill nodes that allow for more flourishy combat, it's a bit slow and plodding. It picks up a lot as your character progresses. The other big departure from previous AC games is that this one cares not a whit if you want to stealth or not. A lot of the systems around "Someone saw you do something bad!" are completely gone. The game is fine with you just charging in like a maniac and slaughtering everything (short of killing civilians in a certain type of raid I'll not spoil). Which I think is totally fine since it's a game about vikings raiding and invading.
Game is gorgeous on a series x, but man boss fights are pounding me early spoiler.
Like the guy in the not bear cave near the chick looking for her comb just basically one shots me, I hope its a gear/skills thing and not just the level he's at
I did win my first dice game because nerd
It's a skill/gear thing. This game is WAY more RPG than even the last two AC's. Everything is a stat you can raise either via gear or the skill tree. You'll notice a ton of the skill nodes are things like "+2.4 melee damage" and things like that.
The combat is much closer to Dark Souls than it is AC:O or AC:Odd. Until you open some abilities later on, and some of the skill nodes that allow for more flourishy combat, it's a bit slow and plodding. It picks up a lot as your character progresses. The other big departure from previous AC games is that this one cares not a whit if you want to stealth or not. A lot of the systems around "Someone saw you do something bad!" are completely gone. The game is fine with you just charging in like a maniac and slaughtering everything (short of killing civilians in a certain type of raid I'll not spoil). Which I think is totally fine since it's a game about vikings raiding and invading.
Yeah I figured it had to be a gear/skill up thing. Like the optional fight literally felt like "maybe I should level up first" since he was like two shotting me and I was barely hitting his healthbar.
I would like some money because these are artisanal nuggets of wisdom philistine.
Game is gorgeous on a series x, but man boss fights are pounding me early spoiler.
Like the guy in the not bear cave near the chick looking for her comb just basically one shots me, I hope its a gear/skills thing and not just the level he's at
I did win my first dice game because nerd
Biggest think to watch out for with Ragnar's dengr is spacing. Keep close to him so he can't spam the throwing axe barrage, if you stay within 2 body lengths or so he'll just do melee combos. If he does get into his throwing motion, it's 4 axes, a slight pause, and a final harder thrown axe that'll do more damage. You can block all the axes but'll wipe out your entire stamina bar making you easy pickings for a follow up combo from him. I found it best to parry when he winds up a left handed attack and the parries will reduce his "armour" (the yellow line above his health bar), making everything you hit him with do more damage.
I wasn't that skilled up (power was 16 or so), gearwise I was rocking the whole Raven clan set (including shield) with their quality upgraded once (carbon iron at your blacksmith in Fornburg) and between 2 and 3 stat upgrades applied and your father's axe also upped in quality once and 3 stat upgrades and an attack rune slotted.
BlackDragon480 on
No matter where you go...there you are. ~ Buckaroo Banzai
Game is gorgeous on a series x, but man boss fights are pounding me early spoiler.
Like the guy in the not bear cave near the chick looking for her comb just basically one shots me, I hope its a gear/skills thing and not just the level he's at
I did win my first dice game because nerd
Biggest think to watch out for with Ragnar's dengr is spacing. Keep close to him so he can't spam the throwing axe barrage, if you stay within 2 body lengths or so he'll just do melee combos. If he does get into his throwing motion, it's 4 axes, a slight pause, and a final harder thrown axe that'll do more damage. You can block all the axes but'll wipe out your entire stamina bar making you easy pickings for a follow up combo from him. I found it best to parry when he winds up a left handed attack and the parries will reduce his "armour" (the yellow line above his health bar), making everything you hit him with do more damage.
I wasn't that skilled up (power was 16 or so), gearwise I was rocking the whole Raven clan set (including shield) with their quality upgraded once (carbon iron at your blacksmith in Fornburg) and between 2 and 3 stat upgrades applied and your father's axe also upped in quality once and 3 stat upgrades and an attack rune slotted.
Heh I tried at power level 5...
I would like some money because these are artisanal nuggets of wisdom philistine.
GnomeTankWhat the what?Portland, OregonRegistered Userregular
Black is actually describing a character with quite a few upgrades The combat is a bit more Dark Soulsy, so in theory, you can beat any enemy, at any PL/gear level, but the game clearly expects you to be at various stat thresholds for certain fights.
Game is gorgeous on a series x, but man boss fights are pounding me early spoiler.
Like the guy in the not bear cave near the chick looking for her comb just basically one shots me, I hope its a gear/skills thing and not just the level he's at
I did win my first dice game because nerd
Biggest think to watch out for with Ragnar's dengr is spacing. Keep close to him so he can't spam the throwing axe barrage, if you stay within 2 body lengths or so he'll just do melee combos. If he does get into his throwing motion, it's 4 axes, a slight pause, and a final harder thrown axe that'll do more damage. You can block all the axes but'll wipe out your entire stamina bar making you easy pickings for a follow up combo from him. I found it best to parry when he winds up a left handed attack and the parries will reduce his "armour" (the yellow line above his health bar), making everything you hit him with do more damage.
I wasn't that skilled up (power was 16 or so), gearwise I was rocking the whole Raven clan set (including shield) with their quality upgraded once (carbon iron at your blacksmith in Fornburg) and between 2 and 3 stat upgrades applied and your father's axe also upped in quality once and 3 stat upgrades and an attack rune slotted.
Heh I tried at power level 5...
Yeah...might need just a tiny bit more.
Kinda reminds me of my favorite world event I've ran into (Norway quest spoiler):
In the SW portion of the Norway map you'll run into a 90lbs weakling named Elldren. He regales you with a story of being a 7th son of a 7th son and having great things expected of him, but he's a spineless pussy that basically shits himself if anyone threatens him. You can offer to assist him in killing a dangerous animal, and he'll embelish the story when he tells his family. Go down the coast a ways and you run into 2 polar bears fighting a huge ass wolf. Peel off any one of the 3 and let them follow you back to Elldren's camp and he'll "attempt" to assist you. If you can make to where he strikes the killing blow you annoint him either Elldren Wolf/Bear-Bane the Terror of the Caves. He then proceeds to get high on his own supply and starts making up verse about himself as he wanders back home.
No matter where you go...there you are. ~ Buckaroo Banzai
0
BlackDragon480Bluster KerfuffleMaster of Windy ImportRegistered Userregular
Black is actually describing a character with quite a few upgrades The combat is a bit more Dark Soulsy, so in theory, you can beat any enemy, at any PL/gear level, but the game clearly expects you to be at various stat thresholds for certain fights.
Hey now, I'm still early, I haven't even left Norway.
But I am down to like 3 wealth and 2 mysteries left in the opening map area and I've blown like 1200 silver on iron and leather for upgrades, on top of what I've found exploring
I tend to be rather meticulous in my open-world games.
BlackDragon480 on
No matter where you go...there you are. ~ Buckaroo Banzai
+5
SnicketysnickThe Greatest Hype Man inWesterosRegistered Userregular
edited November 2020
A nice thing about the gear upgrades working the way they do is that the "free" store 2h axe "Moonlight" that I got from some twitch thing can be quality upgraded for free, so it's got 3 rune slots and is a nice shiny gold. The rest of my stuff is copper so it looks a bit odd in the inventory!
Black is actually describing a character with quite a few upgrades The combat is a bit more Dark Soulsy, so in theory, you can beat any enemy, at any PL/gear level, but the game clearly expects you to be at various stat thresholds for certain fights.
Hey now, I'm still early, I haven't even left Norway.
But I am down to like 3 wealth and 2 mysteries left in the opening map area and I've blown like 1200 silver on iron and leather for upgrades, on top of what I've found exploring
I tend to be rather meticulous in my open-world games.
Yeah, and there's more than enough Carbon Ingots to to upgrade the Raven set from "Fine" to "Superior", if you like that look.
+2
DemonStaceyTTODewback's DaughterIn love with the TaySwayRegistered Userregular
Game is gorgeous on a series x, but man boss fights are pounding me early spoiler.
Like the guy in the not bear cave near the chick looking for her comb just basically one shots me, I hope its a gear/skills thing and not just the level he's at
I did win my first dice game because nerd
It's a skill/gear thing. This game is WAY more RPG than even the last two AC's. Everything is a stat you can raise either via gear or the skill tree. You'll notice a ton of the skill nodes are things like "+2.4 melee damage" and things like that.
The combat is much closer to Dark Souls than it is AC:O or AC:Odd. Until you open some abilities later on, and some of the skill nodes that allow for more flourishy combat, it's a bit slow and plodding. It picks up a lot as your character progresses. The other big departure from previous AC games is that this one cares not a whit if you want to stealth or not. A lot of the systems around "Someone saw you do something bad!" are completely gone. The game is fine with you just charging in like a maniac and slaughtering everything (short of killing civilians in a certain type of raid I'll not spoil). Which I think is totally fine since it's a game about vikings raiding and invading.
My biggest complaints about the past two games were that they did not lean hard enough into the RPG stuff which made a lot of it feeling tacked on.
So glad to see they seem to have finally leaned in enough.
Game is gorgeous on a series x, but man boss fights are pounding me early spoiler.
Like the guy in the not bear cave near the chick looking for her comb just basically one shots me, I hope its a gear/skills thing and not just the level he's at
I did win my first dice game because nerd
It's a skill/gear thing. This game is WAY more RPG than even the last two AC's. Everything is a stat you can raise either via gear or the skill tree. You'll notice a ton of the skill nodes are things like "+2.4 melee damage" and things like that.
The combat is much closer to Dark Souls than it is AC:O or AC:Odd. Until you open some abilities later on, and some of the skill nodes that allow for more flourishy combat, it's a bit slow and plodding. It picks up a lot as your character progresses. The other big departure from previous AC games is that this one cares not a whit if you want to stealth or not. A lot of the systems around "Someone saw you do something bad!" are completely gone. The game is fine with you just charging in like a maniac and slaughtering everything (short of killing civilians in a certain type of raid I'll not spoil). Which I think is totally fine since it's a game about vikings raiding and invading.
I think Valhalla’s skill trees are a huge step backwards. Odyssey’s skill trees were a lot of substance with very little filler. Most of Odyssey’s skills were either active abilities, or passives that had big, noticeable effects on gameplay. Most of Valhalla’s skills are tiny stat boost passives. The ratio of filler to interesting, powerful abilities is much larger in Valhalla. I’m sure that the two games have a similar pace for their power creep because you skill up much more often in Valhalla. But... that’s not really an improvement, either.
And the fact that Valhalla skill tree is obscured until unlock is just straight bullshit. You can’t really plan out your build at all, and there’s just no sense of anticipation for obtaining some cool new skill that you spotted further up the tree.
Game is gorgeous on a series x, but man boss fights are pounding me early spoiler.
Like the guy in the not bear cave near the chick looking for her comb just basically one shots me, I hope its a gear/skills thing and not just the level he's at
I did win my first dice game because nerd
It's a skill/gear thing. This game is WAY more RPG than even the last two AC's. Everything is a stat you can raise either via gear or the skill tree. You'll notice a ton of the skill nodes are things like "+2.4 melee damage" and things like that.
The combat is much closer to Dark Souls than it is AC:O or AC:Odd. Until you open some abilities later on, and some of the skill nodes that allow for more flourishy combat, it's a bit slow and plodding. It picks up a lot as your character progresses. The other big departure from previous AC games is that this one cares not a whit if you want to stealth or not. A lot of the systems around "Someone saw you do something bad!" are completely gone. The game is fine with you just charging in like a maniac and slaughtering everything (short of killing civilians in a certain type of raid I'll not spoil). Which I think is totally fine since it's a game about vikings raiding and invading.
I think Valhalla’s skill trees are a huge step backwards. Odyssey’s skill trees were a lot of substance with very little filler. Most of Odyssey’s skills were either active abilities, or passives that had big, noticeable effects on gameplay. Most of Valhalla’s skills are tiny stat boost passives. The ratio of filler to interesting, powerful abilities is much larger in Valhalla. I’m sure that the two games have a similar pace for their power creep because you skill up much more often in Valhalla. But... that’s not really an improvement, either.
And the fact that Valhalla skill tree is obscured until unlock is just straight bullshit. You can’t really plan out your build at all, and there’s just no sense of anticipation for obtaining some cool new skill that you spotted further up the tree.
I like it. Reminds me of the FFX sphere grid. Though I guess you could hover over any sphere from the get-go to see what it was.
Game is gorgeous on a series x, but man boss fights are pounding me early spoiler.
Like the guy in the not bear cave near the chick looking for her comb just basically one shots me, I hope its a gear/skills thing and not just the level he's at
I did win my first dice game because nerd
It's a skill/gear thing. This game is WAY more RPG than even the last two AC's. Everything is a stat you can raise either via gear or the skill tree. You'll notice a ton of the skill nodes are things like "+2.4 melee damage" and things like that.
The combat is much closer to Dark Souls than it is AC:O or AC:Odd. Until you open some abilities later on, and some of the skill nodes that allow for more flourishy combat, it's a bit slow and plodding. It picks up a lot as your character progresses. The other big departure from previous AC games is that this one cares not a whit if you want to stealth or not. A lot of the systems around "Someone saw you do something bad!" are completely gone. The game is fine with you just charging in like a maniac and slaughtering everything (short of killing civilians in a certain type of raid I'll not spoil). Which I think is totally fine since it's a game about vikings raiding and invading.
I think Valhalla’s skill trees are a huge step backwards. Odyssey’s skill trees were a lot of substance with very little filler. Most of Odyssey’s skills were either active abilities, or passives that had big, noticeable effects on gameplay. Most of Valhalla’s skills are tiny stat boost passives. The ratio of filler to interesting, powerful abilities is much larger in Valhalla. I’m sure that the two games have a similar pace for their power creep because you skill up much more often in Valhalla. But... that’s not really an improvement, either.
And the fact that Valhalla skill tree is obscured until unlock is just straight bullshit. You can’t really plan out your build at all, and there’s just no sense of anticipation for obtaining some cool new skill that you spotted further up the tree.
You can respec, anytime, anywhere, for free. The fact that the skill tree is hidden is basically an annoyance, nothing more.
I enjoy the skill tree. I've never been one that hates filler, I like making a lot of smaller choices. I like old school WoW talent trees and things like the sphere grid in some of the FF games.
Game is gorgeous on a series x, but man boss fights are pounding me early spoiler.
Like the guy in the not bear cave near the chick looking for her comb just basically one shots me, I hope its a gear/skills thing and not just the level he's at
I did win my first dice game because nerd
It's a skill/gear thing. This game is WAY more RPG than even the last two AC's. Everything is a stat you can raise either via gear or the skill tree. You'll notice a ton of the skill nodes are things like "+2.4 melee damage" and things like that.
The combat is much closer to Dark Souls than it is AC:O or AC:Odd. Until you open some abilities later on, and some of the skill nodes that allow for more flourishy combat, it's a bit slow and plodding. It picks up a lot as your character progresses. The other big departure from previous AC games is that this one cares not a whit if you want to stealth or not. A lot of the systems around "Someone saw you do something bad!" are completely gone. The game is fine with you just charging in like a maniac and slaughtering everything (short of killing civilians in a certain type of raid I'll not spoil). Which I think is totally fine since it's a game about vikings raiding and invading.
I think Valhalla’s skill trees are a huge step backwards. Odyssey’s skill trees were a lot of substance with very little filler. Most of Odyssey’s skills were either active abilities, or passives that had big, noticeable effects on gameplay. Most of Valhalla’s skills are tiny stat boost passives. The ratio of filler to interesting, powerful abilities is much larger in Valhalla. I’m sure that the two games have a similar pace for their power creep because you skill up much more often in Valhalla. But... that’s not really an improvement, either.
And the fact that Valhalla skill tree is obscured until unlock is just straight bullshit. You can’t really plan out your build at all, and there’s just no sense of anticipation for obtaining some cool new skill that you spotted further up the tree.
You can respec, anytime, anywhere, for free. The fact that the skill tree is hidden is basically an annoyance, nothing more.
I enjoy the skill tree. I've never been one that hates filler, I like making a lot of smaller choices. I like old school WoW talent trees and things like the sphere grid in some of the FF games.
There’s not really many choices, though? Most skill-ups in Valhalla are “open the skills tab, click twice along the path of the next skill you actually want, close the skills tab.” The difference between Valhalla and Odyssey with respect to skills is that I have to open the skills tab 3x as often in Valhalla and also alt-tab to plan my build.
Free respec is nice, but Odyssey respec was cheap to the point that it might as well have been free.
Game is gorgeous on a series x, but man boss fights are pounding me early spoiler.
Like the guy in the not bear cave near the chick looking for her comb just basically one shots me, I hope its a gear/skills thing and not just the level he's at
I did win my first dice game because nerd
It's a skill/gear thing. This game is WAY more RPG than even the last two AC's. Everything is a stat you can raise either via gear or the skill tree. You'll notice a ton of the skill nodes are things like "+2.4 melee damage" and things like that.
The combat is much closer to Dark Souls than it is AC:O or AC:Odd. Until you open some abilities later on, and some of the skill nodes that allow for more flourishy combat, it's a bit slow and plodding. It picks up a lot as your character progresses. The other big departure from previous AC games is that this one cares not a whit if you want to stealth or not. A lot of the systems around "Someone saw you do something bad!" are completely gone. The game is fine with you just charging in like a maniac and slaughtering everything (short of killing civilians in a certain type of raid I'll not spoil). Which I think is totally fine since it's a game about vikings raiding and invading.
I think Valhalla’s skill trees are a huge step backwards. Odyssey’s skill trees were a lot of substance with very little filler. Most of Odyssey’s skills were either active abilities, or passives that had big, noticeable effects on gameplay. Most of Valhalla’s skills are tiny stat boost passives. The ratio of filler to interesting, powerful abilities is much larger in Valhalla. I’m sure that the two games have a similar pace for their power creep because you skill up much more often in Valhalla. But... that’s not really an improvement, either.
And the fact that Valhalla skill tree is obscured until unlock is just straight bullshit. You can’t really plan out your build at all, and there’s just no sense of anticipation for obtaining some cool new skill that you spotted further up the tree.
Oh god I thought the past skill trees were part of the not leaning in hard enough. Whatever build you were you just got all of those skills. And then you finished that whole section of the tree way too fucking early. Then you do what is one of my most hated things in every action game that tries to have a skill tree but doesn't want to be too RPG and you just have a fuck ton of extra skill points to spend on skills that just don't really do anything for you any more.
So like the entire back half of the game is getting skills that do little or quite literally nothing for you any more which feels so bad. So sooo bad. Odyssey was better than Origins but still didn't go far enough.
Do gear upgrades persist through quality increases?
I'm pretty sure each level of quality has it's own set of upgrade levels. They don't get reset.
Like you upgrade 3 times then to upgrade more you must increase quality then you get the next few upgrade squares opened until you increase quality again, yea?
It took me an embarrassing amount of raids before I realized that I could shoot some windows to get the unaccessible chest
The wicker/rushes looking bits of walls and windows can be burned with a torch or fire arrow and any timber blockage that isn't full logs can usually be knocked loose via melee. Also the little hearth notches on most roofs will have one or the other you can knock out if no windows near the ground are breakable. My Eivor is a damn good cat burgler now.
BlackDragon480 on
No matter where you go...there you are. ~ Buckaroo Banzai
+1
GnomeTankWhat the what?Portland, OregonRegistered Userregular
Game is gorgeous on a series x, but man boss fights are pounding me early spoiler.
Like the guy in the not bear cave near the chick looking for her comb just basically one shots me, I hope its a gear/skills thing and not just the level he's at
I did win my first dice game because nerd
It's a skill/gear thing. This game is WAY more RPG than even the last two AC's. Everything is a stat you can raise either via gear or the skill tree. You'll notice a ton of the skill nodes are things like "+2.4 melee damage" and things like that.
The combat is much closer to Dark Souls than it is AC:O or AC:Odd. Until you open some abilities later on, and some of the skill nodes that allow for more flourishy combat, it's a bit slow and plodding. It picks up a lot as your character progresses. The other big departure from previous AC games is that this one cares not a whit if you want to stealth or not. A lot of the systems around "Someone saw you do something bad!" are completely gone. The game is fine with you just charging in like a maniac and slaughtering everything (short of killing civilians in a certain type of raid I'll not spoil). Which I think is totally fine since it's a game about vikings raiding and invading.
I think Valhalla’s skill trees are a huge step backwards. Odyssey’s skill trees were a lot of substance with very little filler. Most of Odyssey’s skills were either active abilities, or passives that had big, noticeable effects on gameplay. Most of Valhalla’s skills are tiny stat boost passives. The ratio of filler to interesting, powerful abilities is much larger in Valhalla. I’m sure that the two games have a similar pace for their power creep because you skill up much more often in Valhalla. But... that’s not really an improvement, either.
And the fact that Valhalla skill tree is obscured until unlock is just straight bullshit. You can’t really plan out your build at all, and there’s just no sense of anticipation for obtaining some cool new skill that you spotted further up the tree.
You can respec, anytime, anywhere, for free. The fact that the skill tree is hidden is basically an annoyance, nothing more.
I enjoy the skill tree. I've never been one that hates filler, I like making a lot of smaller choices. I like old school WoW talent trees and things like the sphere grid in some of the FF games.
There’s not really many choices, though? Most skill-ups in Valhalla are “open the skills tab, click twice along the path of the next skill you actually want, close the skills tab.” The difference between Valhalla and Odyssey with respect to skills is that I have to open the skills tab 3x as often in Valhalla and also alt-tab to plan my build.
Free respec is nice, but Odyssey respec was cheap to the point that it might as well have been free.
I think there is more nuance to the trees than you're indicating here. There are definitely choices to be made, mostly routing choices. Want to get to a node deep on the other side of a tree? Well you can get there very quickly if you go through this ranged damage node that you might not use, but if you want to focus fully on melee and still get there, you'll need to open a few more nodes. It allows you to make choices on how fast to go for something versus efficiently routing to it based on your build. Plus you can come at each tree node from two or three different directions, as the colors join up in different ways along the edges. Even in one color area the trees join up from a couple of different edges, allowing you to make some interesting routing choices.
Free respec only makes this better. If you find a different route you want to take to a skill, just respec and route that way. Overall I think it's way more interesting than the ones in O/Odd.
If there was a thing I would get rid of it would definitely be the "fog of war" on the tree, but once you have 30 or 40 points you can sit and respec and go down different paths really fast just to see what's there. Not ideal, but doesn't ruin the thrust of the skill system for me. Having to go in to the skill tree a lot doesn't really bother me. I'll sit in there for 15 or 20 minutes respeccing and playing with different routing anyway as I open up more points.
The adaptive quality setting is so good I am able to set things to 3K with some high settings and getting 55-60FPS solidly, even in The Settlement/Towns. I am now a happy camper.
"Get the hell out of me" - [ex]girlfriend
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GnomeTankWhat the what?Portland, OregonRegistered Userregular
The adaptive quality setting is so good I am able to set things to 3K with some high settings and getting 55-60FPS solidly, even in The Settlement/Towns. I am now a happy camper.
On what hardware? Might be useful for others to know if they are running something similar
Posts
I’m not liking this Blade DLC very much but it’s not so much about developments at the end of Ch2, the whole thing just feels disjointed and disconnected from everything else I’ve been doing.
It doesn’t help that I really don’t care for Darius either.
PSN: Threeve703
Well this is much more of an RPG so combat gets better as you get more skills and abilities to mix it and build your character more. So it will start out pretty barebones basic for you and the enemies and build up. But also probably a good reason to play on higher difficulties as well.
Ghost is an action game so the combat is going to feel very different in those ways.
I mean I liked odyssey sure, but I was kind of hoping it would be patched to have a difficulty option like in LotR Shadow of War where all damage incoming and outgoing could be doubled.
Well, goddammit.
But yes, that's exactly what I was referring to.
Controlling the longship is very weird around land. Combine that with the fact that getting out of your boat can lead to non-regenerating damage and it's seriously annoying me.
Also, did they really remove quicksaving? Why? This is by far the most annoying thing for me. Being able to push start and up to quicksave was great in Odyssey and Origins.
I'm playing on the second from the hardest difficulty for combat and the hardest on stealth and exploration. Can anyone tell me how the exploration difficulties change the way the map works/etc?
I think quick save is now in the quicktool bar. At least it is on PC.
Like the guy in the not bear cave near the chick looking for her comb just basically one shots me, I hope its a gear/skills thing and not just the level he's at
I did win my first dice game because nerd
pleasepaypreacher.net
Ohh okay thanks
Thanks.
It's a skill/gear thing. This game is WAY more RPG than even the last two AC's. Everything is a stat you can raise either via gear or the skill tree. You'll notice a ton of the skill nodes are things like "+2.4 melee damage" and things like that.
The combat is much closer to Dark Souls than it is AC:O or AC:Odd. Until you open some abilities later on, and some of the skill nodes that allow for more flourishy combat, it's a bit slow and plodding. It picks up a lot as your character progresses. The other big departure from previous AC games is that this one cares not a whit if you want to stealth or not. A lot of the systems around "Someone saw you do something bad!" are completely gone. The game is fine with you just charging in like a maniac and slaughtering everything (short of killing civilians in a certain type of raid I'll not spoil). Which I think is totally fine since it's a game about vikings raiding and invading.
Yeah I figured it had to be a gear/skill up thing. Like the optional fight literally felt like "maybe I should level up first" since he was like two shotting me and I was barely hitting his healthbar.
pleasepaypreacher.net
I wasn't that skilled up (power was 16 or so), gearwise I was rocking the whole Raven clan set (including shield) with their quality upgraded once (carbon iron at your blacksmith in Fornburg) and between 2 and 3 stat upgrades applied and your father's axe also upped in quality once and 3 stat upgrades and an attack rune slotted.
~ Buckaroo Banzai
Heh I tried at power level 5...
pleasepaypreacher.net
Yeah...might need just a tiny bit more.
Kinda reminds me of my favorite world event I've ran into (Norway quest spoiler):
~ Buckaroo Banzai
Hey now, I'm still early, I haven't even left Norway.
But I am down to like 3 wealth and 2 mysteries left in the opening map area and I've blown like 1200 silver on iron and leather for upgrades, on top of what I've found exploring
I tend to be rather meticulous in my open-world games.
~ Buckaroo Banzai
D3 Steam #TeamTangent STO
Yeah, and there's more than enough Carbon Ingots to to upgrade the Raven set from "Fine" to "Superior", if you like that look.
My biggest complaints about the past two games were that they did not lean hard enough into the RPG stuff which made a lot of it feeling tacked on.
So glad to see they seem to have finally leaned in enough.
I think Valhalla’s skill trees are a huge step backwards. Odyssey’s skill trees were a lot of substance with very little filler. Most of Odyssey’s skills were either active abilities, or passives that had big, noticeable effects on gameplay. Most of Valhalla’s skills are tiny stat boost passives. The ratio of filler to interesting, powerful abilities is much larger in Valhalla. I’m sure that the two games have a similar pace for their power creep because you skill up much more often in Valhalla. But... that’s not really an improvement, either.
And the fact that Valhalla skill tree is obscured until unlock is just straight bullshit. You can’t really plan out your build at all, and there’s just no sense of anticipation for obtaining some cool new skill that you spotted further up the tree.
I like it. Reminds me of the FFX sphere grid. Though I guess you could hover over any sphere from the get-go to see what it was.
I don’t know that I’ve actually seen an Opal. Are they the Valhalla equivalent of Orichalcum?
pleasepaypreacher.net
You can respec, anytime, anywhere, for free. The fact that the skill tree is hidden is basically an annoyance, nothing more.
I enjoy the skill tree. I've never been one that hates filler, I like making a lot of smaller choices. I like old school WoW talent trees and things like the sphere grid in some of the FF games.
I haven’t seen anything like that on the PC version.
I figured it out I had to put some points into blue to up my "power" and unlock more trees.
pleasepaypreacher.net
There’s not really many choices, though? Most skill-ups in Valhalla are “open the skills tab, click twice along the path of the next skill you actually want, close the skills tab.” The difference between Valhalla and Odyssey with respect to skills is that I have to open the skills tab 3x as often in Valhalla and also alt-tab to plan my build.
Free respec is nice, but Odyssey respec was cheap to the point that it might as well have been free.
Oh god I thought the past skill trees were part of the not leaning in hard enough. Whatever build you were you just got all of those skills. And then you finished that whole section of the tree way too fucking early. Then you do what is one of my most hated things in every action game that tries to have a skill tree but doesn't want to be too RPG and you just have a fuck ton of extra skill points to spend on skills that just don't really do anything for you any more.
So like the entire back half of the game is getting skills that do little or quite literally nothing for you any more which feels so bad. So sooo bad. Odyssey was better than Origins but still didn't go far enough.
I'm pretty sure each level of quality has it's own set of upgrade levels. They don't get reset.
Like you upgrade 3 times then to upgrade more you must increase quality then you get the next few upgrade squares opened until you increase quality again, yea?
Not sure but they have a little egg like map icon with a king of glyph graphic.
The wicker/rushes looking bits of walls and windows can be burned with a torch or fire arrow and any timber blockage that isn't full logs can usually be knocked loose via melee. Also the little hearth notches on most roofs will have one or the other you can knock out if no windows near the ground are breakable. My Eivor is a damn good cat burgler now.
~ Buckaroo Banzai
I think there is more nuance to the trees than you're indicating here. There are definitely choices to be made, mostly routing choices. Want to get to a node deep on the other side of a tree? Well you can get there very quickly if you go through this ranged damage node that you might not use, but if you want to focus fully on melee and still get there, you'll need to open a few more nodes. It allows you to make choices on how fast to go for something versus efficiently routing to it based on your build. Plus you can come at each tree node from two or three different directions, as the colors join up in different ways along the edges. Even in one color area the trees join up from a couple of different edges, allowing you to make some interesting routing choices.
Free respec only makes this better. If you find a different route you want to take to a skill, just respec and route that way. Overall I think it's way more interesting than the ones in O/Odd.
If there was a thing I would get rid of it would definitely be the "fog of war" on the tree, but once you have 30 or 40 points you can sit and respec and go down different paths really fast just to see what's there. Not ideal, but doesn't ruin the thrust of the skill system for me. Having to go in to the skill tree a lot doesn't really bother me. I'll sit in there for 15 or 20 minutes respeccing and playing with different routing anyway as I open up more points.
On what hardware? Might be useful for others to know if they are running something similar