The setpiece missions do make me realize why the Baldur's Gates included a handful of class agnostic overpowered melee abilities in the main character design. It's a lot easier to get these kind of things right when you know that, by this point in the game, the character has the option to turn into a murder demon if they have to.
Yeah, the everburning torches should work, although you should also have alchemists fire I think because the alchemist quest giver hands that to you when you start the quest. Unless you've sold it or used it elsewhere. Or you have an old / unpatched version of the game.
I'm still not a fan of that encounter that early in the game. Swarms are laser targeted to make martial characters feel useless, and that's not a great situation to have as essentially your second real fight after the prologue/tutorial.
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FairchildRabbit used short words that were easy to understand, like "Hello Pooh, how about Lunch ?"Registered Userregular
edited October 2018
I do have the Alchemist Fire potions but my guys are less accurate than a Dallas Cowboys quarterback. They chuck them all over the place but only do 1 point of damage or miss completely. Idiots.
I got lucky with the part you were talking about that you do solo. I forgot about it until I was level 8 and just kicked shit in.
I still haven't done it and I'm playing an Arcane Archer.
I should probably just mosey on over and snipe everything from the wall at some point.
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FairchildRabbit used short words that were easy to understand, like "Hello Pooh, how about Lunch ?"Registered Userregular
Fiddling around with new toons last nite, I created a Fighter/Two-Handed Specialist with high strength and Weapon Expertise/Trip. Holy Cow is this guy powerful with a 6-foot polearm. At low levels every mook fails his save, so they are dropping like flies.
Fiddling around with new toons last nite, I created a Fighter/Two-Handed Specialist with high strength and Weapon Expertise/Trip. Holy Cow is this guy powerful with a 6-foot polearm. At low levels every mook fails his save, so they are dropping like flies.
Trip is a Combat Maneuver check - so it's keyed off your BAB, your Strength, etc.
Ah, so I'm asking the wrong question. What do I need to do beyond leveling up the kingdom stats to open those additional advisor slots?
You need to level up the stats, and then do the appropriate “level up” task (14 days, takes a current advisor and your character, etc.) when it becomes available.
IIRC, it takes the High Priest to unlock the Magister, the General to unlock the Warden, and I forget the rest.
FairchildRabbit used short words that were easy to understand, like "Hello Pooh, how about Lunch ?"Registered Userregular
So, Goblin Fort:
After noticing the game hinting strongly that I should bring Nok Nok to fight the Goblin King, I remove a very powerful character from the party to make room for him. This triggers a story sequence for Nok Nok's duel against the King which features a bunch of outrageously high checks which Nok has ZERO CHANCE of passing, so that I'm dumped back into the game and need to kill the Goblin King the hard way.
Whiskey Tango Foxtrot, game, why do all this for such little payoff ? I have to believe that the devs had some other storyline in mind here but dropped it before release.
The Lost Child is maybe the worst designed quest I've encountered in one of these games. Just...wow.
Have you gotten to the
Womb of L. yet?
Let's see...
Facing the "mother of monsters" you only fight creatures you've seen before and mostly spiders
Lots of enemies warping into your backlines
Lost of enemies with poison
Lots of enemies doing stat damage
Warp maze
Ponderous cutscenes
Traps with unpreventable (stat damage dealing) swarms popping out of them
Inscrutable moon logic puzzle
Side area with a literally unkillable enemy who goes aggro as soon as you enter the side area preventing retreat
Required split party
More and more enemies warping into your backlines
I guess at least there isn't a monster or trap that steals levels? Yet?
I really don't want to leave this game unfinished at 60+ hours in. It is so close in so many ways to a game I would very much enjoy. Every time you get on a roll, though, the game just sticks its thumb in your eye with unfun events and level design. The game, more than any other top shelf CRPG I can think of, requires savescumming to get intel on what's coming down the pike. I can't imagine doing an ironman run. Even the achievements are unfun. Win 100 random encounters? Hitting "fight" almost every time I think I'm at 40 or so for my 60 some hours played. So grindy.
I'm sorry to be grousing so much. I guess just stop playing, right? It's just so frustratingly close to being fun...
Delay Poison Communal, never leave home without it.
In fact, bring two.
And all the Death Ward's you can get.
This game leans really heavily on poisons, ability damage, and later, level drain.
But really, the worst enemy in the game is the dreaded loading screen.
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FairchildRabbit used short words that were easy to understand, like "Hello Pooh, how about Lunch ?"Registered Userregular
The Lost Child is maybe the worst designed quest I've encountered in one of these games. Just...wow.
Have you gotten to the
Womb of L. yet?
Let's see...
Facing the "mother of monsters" you only fight creatures you've seen before and mostly spiders
Lots of enemies warping into your backlines
Lost of enemies with poison
Lots of enemies doing stat damage
Warp maze
Ponderous cutscenes
Traps with unpreventable (stat damage dealing) swarms popping out of them
Inscrutable moon logic puzzle
Side area with a literally unkillable enemy who goes aggro as soon as you enter the side area preventing retreat
Required split party
More and more enemies warping into your backlines
I guess at least there isn't a monster or trap that steals levels? Yet?
I really don't want to leave this game unfinished at 60+ hours in. It is so close in so many ways to a game I would very much enjoy. Every time you get on a roll, though, the game just sticks its thumb in your eye with unfun events and level design. The game, more than any other top shelf CRPG I can think of, requires savescumming to get intel on what's coming down the pike. I can't imagine doing an ironman run. Even the achievements are unfun. Win 100 random encounters? Hitting "fight" almost every time I think I'm at 40 or so for my 60 some hours played. So grindy.
I'm sorry to be grousing so much. I guess just stop playing, right? It's just so frustratingly close to being fun...
I'm trying to play the game without relying on Intertron guides, really I am, but that Season of Bloom questline beat me. The game doesn't provide anywhere near enough information for you to figure out what the heck you are supposed to do next.
Encounter design in this game is generally horrible.
Relying on inflated numbers, either numbers of enemies,or the numbers on enemies, or both.
Add in game positioning you in stupid way before combat, not allowing you to attack enemies while the are talking, and the incredibly stupid AI, and you have a game with incredibly frustrating combat.
So i turned enemy damage and stat sliders as low as they go and now just faceroll through combat, makes things way more tolerable.
I think I might have hit a game-breaking bug, but I'm not sure. Armag spoilers:
So I killed the creepy sisters and freed Varnhold, then had to go fight with Amiri and the Swordlords and also track down Tristian. Did both, fine, now I need to find where Armag has gone. How do I do that? I tried a few projects to find him and they finished. I went to the place one suggested I go and was told it wasn't available. Meanwhile my barony is perpetually Worried, I'm facing frequent barbarian Problems, and apparently Armag has found what he was looking for? I have yet to unlock all the advisors still (the Arcane one and maybe another?) so I'm also getting other Problems that I cannot send someone to resolve.
It feels like I'm in a death spiral here, what with a huge amount of stuff hitting me all at once (literally, I got back from the Varnhold thing and had like 15 meetings in my throne room). Oh, and after the thing with Restov, I guess I permanently lost my General guy (the Half-orc that Restov provided). All of these things COULD be intended, but I'm gunshy thanks to all the other bugs I've seen.
Is not being able to access those areas intended? There was a red flag "New Event!" thing there, so that especially says bug to me. Also, general advice re:my predicament is welcome.
Took a long break to let the patching happen, and came back because of the holiday break and tiefling DLC. It’s much better, in both stability and game flow. The developers have been steadily releasing patches since release, with more coming regularly.
I went back to an older save to erase my many, many kingdom mistakes. The combat and the kingdom events feel more merciful in a good way. It’s less a game of punishing hard choices and more a constant balancing act so far.
In terms of story, there is a little bit more direction in dialogue and in the journal. They still like to be a little too coy sometimes, but at least the journal entries usually point to a specific place now.
Otherwise, I haven’t had a bug or crash in hours. It is worth picking up, or back up, if you were waiting for it to get better.
Decided to give this game another go with the release of the Tiefling DLC. Made a tiefling.
Except the DLC also came with a tiefling party member. Now about every playable race in the game is potentially represented in the party, except aasimar. So I'm tempted to start over... again... but with an aasimar player character this time.
Yeah I think that's a smart move overall. New race and class plus a new npc that is that race and class. That way you don't have to make a new character to get both.
This game is good! I kind of agree with BSoB that it has a lot of flaws, but... it's also scratching my itch for a hardcore isometric RPG better than the recent offerings from inXile or Obsidian.
That being said, I have a confoundingly basic question: how do you advance the plot?
I've...
...founded my Barony and been adventuring for a good while...
...and my quest screen is showing...
...that the following major quests are complete:
Stolen Land
Troll Trouble
Season of Bloom
...as well as a fair number of companion quests. Basically, most of the things that are still incomplete in my quest log is stuff that feels minor: talk to some village crafters and run up my Barony stats.
There's also one quest called "Annexation" that says, "They say sometimes you don't have to seize territories – you can reach an agreement to gain them. I wonder what kind of ruler would voluntarily give their crown to someone else?"
I can't find anyway to annex some other place, though. I've visited Varnhold and even tried to cross into Pitax. There doesn't seem to be an annexation option for either.
There are some mods available for this game that, I think, really work to make the experience better. I've got 5 running at the moment, in addition to several metric tons of portrait mods.
Bag of Tricks: Cheats and Tools: Allows you to, basically, mess with just about anything. You can add or subtract gold or build points or abilities, change how often you need to rest, alter XP or gold awards, take 10 or 20 on certain skill checks, and integrates several useful (and fun) camera mods. I rarely use any of the really cheaty stuff, mostly using it for the quality-of-life adjustments, but it's a super convenient one-stop-shop.
Respecialization: Sometimes, you make a mistake when you build your character. Restarting the game is fine if you actually want to do that, but it doesn't make much sense if all you really want to do is tweak here or there. Also, the tabletop PF rules include Retraining rules that aren't implemented in the game, so until they are, you can use this. Until recently, it was also the only way to change your character's portrait - but then ...
Visual Adjustments: ... came along. This allows you to alter your character's portrait, hair color, class outfit, weapon display, turn on or off cloaks, helmets, and backpacks, etc., etc., etc. Super cool if you want you some tweaks, like if you were to forget to press the "Custom Portrait" button when creating your character and you really, really, really don't want to restart.
Vendor Progression:: The main shops in your capital - both the blacksmith and the temple - will start including additional items to their inventories based on your kingdom's stats. Importantly, you'll be able to find magical versions of basically every weapon and armor available, which is good if, e.g., you want to specialize in one of the less common weapon types. There's a better way to fix that, though, and it's ...
Craft Magic Items: This implements all but one of the magic item creation feats (Craft Rod is missing) from the PnP game, allowing you to, e.g., take that masterwork kunai or earthbreaker and turn it into a potent magical item, or make your own rings, staves, and scrolls. Unable to find a decent set of magical hide armor for your druid? Make it yourself! A recent update even gives you the ability to make weapons and armor out of mithral, adamantine, and other special materials. It includes a host of tweaks, including things like changing the money and time required to craft items, changing whether or not the crafting feats are required, etc. A hugely ambitious and awesome mod.
There are some mods available for this game that, I think, really work to make the experience better. I've got 5 running at the moment, in addition to several metric tons of portrait mods.
There's also Kingdom Resolution, which lets you shorten kingdom events and projects, nerf their difficulty, and pause the plot timer.
Definitely something I'll be using on a second play through. My main complaint about the game so far is the builder/event stuff. It's a cool idea, but the tutorial is inadequate and the difficulty ramp is way too severe at the start.
There are some mods available for this game that, I think, really work to make the experience better. I've got 5 running at the moment, in addition to several metric tons of portrait mods.
There's also Kingdom Resolution, which lets you shorten kingdom events and projects, nerf their difficulty, and pause the plot timer.
Definitely something I'll be using on a second play through. My main complaint about the game so far is the builder/event stuff. It's a cool idea, but the tutorial is inadequate and the difficulty ramp is way too severe at the start.
They have made them a lot better since launch. I started over because I'd screwed up my kingdom so much (got a ton of Troll Attack spam that decimated my stats) but didn't want to just turn it off. The second time around was a lot smoother, partially because I had a better handle on the system but mostly because they nerfed the penalties and "bad" event repeats to the point that it wasn't just continual death spirals.
This free DLC adds the following new spells to the game:
Create Pit
Spiked Pit
Acid Pit
Hungry Pit
Rift of Ruin
Battering Blast
An arcane scroll merchant will appear in your capital. The quantity and caster level of available scrolls depends on how high your "Arcane" kingdom stat is.
Furthermore, if you like turning into giant dragons as much as we do, you'll definitely enjoy the fresh, improved models for chromatic and metallic types of these formidable creatures.
Finally, on a more serious note, the last part of this DLC is a new pet. One of our players and our friend, known to the community as Stratagemini, lost his beloved cat Tiger just weeks before the launch of our game. Stratagemini has been with us since the earliest days of development, supporting us every step of the way, providing extensive and enlightening feedback in the alpha, and helping to shape this community into what it is today. As a token of our eternal gratitude, we've recreated Tiger in the game so that he may roam with his human friend once more - if only in the Stolen Lands.
Have they made changes to house at the end of time? I made a pure support character and even after saving a couple of party members that whole section was me save scumming for lucky rolls. Eventually I just gave up and never finished. I guess I could just grab one of those mods and cheese my way to the ending.
Oh man, I just discovered this, and it's like the best thing I never knew I needed. I'm still having a really hard time adjusting to travel speed, resting, and weight, but damn this is enjoyable (and gives me the correct Feels I felt from Tyranny and other recent CRPGS like Pillars). I'm totally new to the Pathfinder world, though I guess discovering AD&D at 2nd edition kinda makes me feel like a lot of this is famliar already.
Man it sure would be nice if Eldritch Arcana updated at some point. Having to do fiddly activations and deactivations to do certain things has gotten old.
- The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse (2017, colorized)
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mjn6172King of the Lurkers, also secretly a Freemason (shhhhh.)Registered Userregular
End Game Spoilers
I just finished the game yesterday, running through the House at the End of Time and all of the Lantern King's shenanigans.
Nothing hit me as hard as Linzi dying/being turned into a book. Almost everyone else made it, but losing Linzi hit me hard. She was always on my team, no matter what, and was the best Sidekick. She will be missed.
LORD, WHAT CAN THE HARVEST HOPE FOR, IF NOT THE CARE OF THE REAPER MAN?
The other day I remembered I never beat this so I'm starting a new game. I can't decide between Ecclesitheurge (Air/Weather domains) or Air Element Sorcerer for my hero. I typically prefer to play divine classes but I already get Tristian (though I wouldn't use him anyway) who is pretty similar. It would be helpful to have a full arcane caster along with Octavia. The other issue with Ecclesitheurge is the uber-squishiness since it doesn't even get Mage Armor. I anticipate a particular solo section I recall in the early game causing me fits.
Posts
Steam: Elvenshae // PSN: Elvenshae // WotC: Elvenshae
Wilds of Aladrion: [https://forums.penny-arcade.com/discussion/comment/43159014/#Comment_43159014]Ellandryn[/url]
I'm still not a fan of that encounter that early in the game. Swarms are laser targeted to make martial characters feel useless, and that's not a great situation to have as essentially your second real fight after the prologue/tutorial.
I still haven't done it and I'm playing an Arcane Archer.
I should probably just mosey on over and snipe everything from the wall at some point.
Trip is a Combat Maneuver check - so it's keyed off your BAB, your Strength, etc.
Fun times.
Steam: Elvenshae // PSN: Elvenshae // WotC: Elvenshae
Wilds of Aladrion: [https://forums.penny-arcade.com/discussion/comment/43159014/#Comment_43159014]Ellandryn[/url]
Steam profile.
Getting started with BATTLETECH: Part 1 / Part 2
You can get advisors ready to go for advisor positions you haven’t unlocked yet, so as soon as you do you can appoint them.
Steam: Elvenshae // PSN: Elvenshae // WotC: Elvenshae
Wilds of Aladrion: [https://forums.penny-arcade.com/discussion/comment/43159014/#Comment_43159014]Ellandryn[/url]
Steam profile.
Getting started with BATTLETECH: Part 1 / Part 2
You need to level up the stats, and then do the appropriate “level up” task (14 days, takes a current advisor and your character, etc.) when it becomes available.
IIRC, it takes the High Priest to unlock the Magister, the General to unlock the Warden, and I forget the rest.
Steam: Elvenshae // PSN: Elvenshae // WotC: Elvenshae
Wilds of Aladrion: [https://forums.penny-arcade.com/discussion/comment/43159014/#Comment_43159014]Ellandryn[/url]
Whiskey Tango Foxtrot, game, why do all this for such little payoff ? I have to believe that the devs had some other storyline in mind here but dropped it before release.
Steam: MightyPotatoKing
Have you gotten to the
Let's see...
Lots of enemies warping into your backlines
Lost of enemies with poison
Lots of enemies doing stat damage
Warp maze
Ponderous cutscenes
Traps with unpreventable (stat damage dealing) swarms popping out of them
Inscrutable moon logic puzzle
Side area with a literally unkillable enemy who goes aggro as soon as you enter the side area preventing retreat
Required split party
More and more enemies warping into your backlines
I guess at least there isn't a monster or trap that steals levels? Yet?
I really don't want to leave this game unfinished at 60+ hours in. It is so close in so many ways to a game I would very much enjoy. Every time you get on a roll, though, the game just sticks its thumb in your eye with unfun events and level design. The game, more than any other top shelf CRPG I can think of, requires savescumming to get intel on what's coming down the pike. I can't imagine doing an ironman run. Even the achievements are unfun. Win 100 random encounters? Hitting "fight" almost every time I think I'm at 40 or so for my 60 some hours played. So grindy.
I'm sorry to be grousing so much. I guess just stop playing, right? It's just so frustratingly close to being fun...
Steam profile.
Getting started with BATTLETECH: Part 1 / Part 2
In fact, bring two.
And all the Death Ward's you can get.
This game leans really heavily on poisons, ability damage, and later, level drain.
But really, the worst enemy in the game is the dreaded loading screen.
I'm trying to play the game without relying on Intertron guides, really I am, but that Season of Bloom questline beat me. The game doesn't provide anywhere near enough information for you to figure out what the heck you are supposed to do next.
There is actually.
mission. I complained previously about the solo run that incredibly unfun trap is part of. Because I am a big complainer.
Steam profile.
Getting started with BATTLETECH: Part 1 / Part 2
Relying on inflated numbers, either numbers of enemies,or the numbers on enemies, or both.
Add in game positioning you in stupid way before combat, not allowing you to attack enemies while the are talking, and the incredibly stupid AI, and you have a game with incredibly frustrating combat.
So i turned enemy damage and stat sliders as low as they go and now just faceroll through combat, makes things way more tolerable.
It feels like I'm in a death spiral here, what with a huge amount of stuff hitting me all at once (literally, I got back from the Varnhold thing and had like 15 meetings in my throne room). Oh, and after the thing with Restov, I guess I permanently lost my General guy (the Half-orc that Restov provided). All of these things COULD be intended, but I'm gunshy thanks to all the other bugs I've seen.
Is not being able to access those areas intended? There was a red flag "New Event!" thing there, so that especially says bug to me. Also, general advice re:my predicament is welcome.
I went back to an older save to erase my many, many kingdom mistakes. The combat and the kingdom events feel more merciful in a good way. It’s less a game of punishing hard choices and more a constant balancing act so far.
In terms of story, there is a little bit more direction in dialogue and in the journal. They still like to be a little too coy sometimes, but at least the journal entries usually point to a specific place now.
Otherwise, I haven’t had a bug or crash in hours. It is worth picking up, or back up, if you were waiting for it to get better.
Understandably so. There have been a lot of patches.
Except the DLC also came with a tiefling party member. Now about every playable race in the game is potentially represented in the party, except aasimar. So I'm tempted to start over... again... but with an aasimar player character this time.
It is so close to being great, but just fumbles in so many places that it becomes impossible to ignore them all.
Still a good game, but it really could have been great. Maybe someone will make a huge mod that fixes the laundry list of problems.
That would be sweet.
That being said, I have a confoundingly basic question: how do you advance the plot?
I've...
...and my quest screen is showing...
Stolen Land
Troll Trouble
Season of Bloom
...as well as a fair number of companion quests. Basically, most of the things that are still incomplete in my quest log is stuff that feels minor: talk to some village crafters and run up my Barony stats.
There's also one quest called "Annexation" that says, "They say sometimes you don't have to seize territories – you can reach an agreement to gain them. I wonder what kind of ruler would voluntarily give their crown to someone else?"
I can't find anyway to annex some other place, though. I've visited Varnhold and even tried to cross into Pitax. There doesn't seem to be an annexation option for either.
There are a few long lags meant to give you time to focus on building your kingdom. That's one of them.
Steam: Elvenshae // PSN: Elvenshae // WotC: Elvenshae
Wilds of Aladrion: [https://forums.penny-arcade.com/discussion/comment/43159014/#Comment_43159014]Ellandryn[/url]
There are some mods available for this game that, I think, really work to make the experience better. I've got 5 running at the moment, in addition to several metric tons of portrait mods.
Steam: Elvenshae // PSN: Elvenshae // WotC: Elvenshae
Wilds of Aladrion: [https://forums.penny-arcade.com/discussion/comment/43159014/#Comment_43159014]Ellandryn[/url]
There's also Kingdom Resolution, which lets you shorten kingdom events and projects, nerf their difficulty, and pause the plot timer.
Definitely something I'll be using on a second play through. My main complaint about the game so far is the builder/event stuff. It's a cool idea, but the tutorial is inadequate and the difficulty ramp is way too severe at the start.
They have made them a lot better since launch. I started over because I'd screwed up my kingdom so much (got a ton of Troll Attack spam that decimated my stats) but didn't want to just turn it off. The second time around was a lot smoother, partially because I had a better handle on the system but mostly because they nerfed the penalties and "bad" event repeats to the point that it wasn't just continual death spirals.
- The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse (2017, colorized)
Nothing hit me as hard as Linzi dying/being turned into a book. Almost everyone else made it, but losing Linzi hit me hard. She was always on my team, no matter what, and was the best Sidekick. She will be missed.