Eugi

I've restarted playing as an Agent and it's been much smoother going so far. However I've boiled down this thread to pretty much two questions: 1) Lets say there is Trainer A and Trainer B that can both teach you the two levels of Mass Energize. If you don't use any books/canisters and get both levels of training from Trainer A, will Trainer B still be able to teach you two more levels of Mass Energize? 2) Other then EXP (and lack of augmentation vs equipment when joining Zakary) is there any diference in the rewards you get between joining one faction over the other? More specifically, where one faction would be more alluring to one class than others? Finally I am still a bit confused as to how best to powergame the factions - it's all a bit frustrating. I'm assuming that I can join and leave the Takers only once... but can I join and leave and rejoin the Awakened, Barzites or Zakary? As an agent I'm strong enough to join either Barzites, Zakary or Awakened right off the bat. I would really appreciate some advice on pwoer gaming factions =/ (If, indeed, factions need to be powergamed at all? See question number two )

Just wanted to chime in and mention that if Oozing Sword is anything as powerful as it was in GF3 you will totally rock after slapping a Golden onto it. About the only enemy that will give you trouble are the Rothgorths. Whip out the Lightning Sword (or Viper Sword, I guess that one's Poison instead of Acid?) and mince those suckers!

Alright so, as far as Trainers go, I get a sense that it's a good idea to stave off using Canisters/Books until you can be trained in that specific spell/skill. However once you are trained (or have had to raise the skill yourself) then just go ahead and use Canisters/Books as waiting any longer is pointless despite multiple trainers teaching you the same spells. In that case I just need a more complete list of trainers as I'm afraid MattP's has a few omissions (at least once that I noticed from the Magus Complex). Then it just becomes about getting the most complete training ASAP. Would anyone have any thoughts regarding my plans on "powergaming" the factions, e.g.: Awakened followed by Takers, Barzites (with the help of Learned Dorian) and finally "staying true" with Unaligned/Zakary. Looks like, one way or the other, I'll have to re-roll my Shaper. I think I'll play him untill I can get trained in Create Drayk and see how powerfull they are. Right now the three Cryoas (who are all level 28 ) are just barely cutting muster (and I doubt pumping Dex across all three creations would do me much good). That reminds me thought, as a Shaper, what creations, creation progression, and number of creations do you guys usually go for? Personally I thouught to go with Fire, start with Artillas, jump to Drayk and stop at either Cryodrayk (for low cost) or Drakon (for Searing attack). I'd love others' input. Thank you. Edit: As for the creations that can join you I have no plans on using any of them. Heck, with 10 Leadership I'm not persuasive enough to have the Huge Roamer join me!

Thank you for the answers and clarifications guys. Dikiyoba - I checked MattP's guide for GF2 and he mentiones the Barzites, the Awakened and the Takers having the power to alter you. I guess the alteration is the same for all three factions since (in a nutshell) all it allows you to do is to purchase the two top spells and creations in each category. That said, does anyone have any particular preference on who alters them? My other question about trainers is that some spells/skills have two trainers listed for them. Does this still mean that only one of those trainers could ever train me? If so, does anyone have any favorites as far as the cheapest/most diverse/best written trainers out there? So far I've only tried the Awakened and they are OK-ish. I've heard some good things about the Loyalist Encampment though (and it seems that you can get there fairly early by running while still "neutral"). Any suggestions? Thank you!

I'm about a third through the game as a Shaper on Normal difficulty and seem to be running into some confusion. First things first - the whole shaping business. I believe that the shaped creature gaines levels on top of its base level for every two levels of Shaping Skill (in that creature 'element') that you have and for every one level of skill in shaping that kind of creature, right? Also the shaped creature's stats increase only every two levels? That out of the way, about how many creatures should I be traveling with as a Shaper? Right now I have three Cryoas that (I suspect) are in dire need of a Dex boost as they only have a 35% chance of hitting the Queen Clawbug after War Blessing and despite being level 28 each. Talking about levels reminds me just how much of a pain HITTING anything has been as a shaper. Lately I've simply given up, bulked up on heavy armor (to compensate for incredibly low HP) and served as a buffer for my creations. Quite a 180 from being the ass-kicking Agent in GF1 Is it possible to strike a balance between being able to do damage with my main character and my creations? If I wanted to do that, should I focus on spells or ranged weapons for my main? Also, does anyone recall the Mechanics/Leadership point 'progression' they used? I believe you want to have 6 Leadership and 8 Mechanics ASAP... eventually getting 10 in both (probably with the help of the Inifltraotr Vest you find pretty early)? My problems with the Shaper class aside, I've been struggling with Trainers in GF2. Namely, if you gain a point in a skill as a quest reward the trainer can train you that much less... Does this also apply to manually raising your own skills? If so, what's the point of Barzite or Taker trainers since it'd take quite a headache to avoid raising your skills while waiting to get to them? I think I'm really missing something as far as Trainers are concerned. Take Learned Guas for one - he's in one of the hardest areas in the game and he'd be quite useless to me since I would have gotten training or quest rewards in the skills he teaches before making it to him? Finally, I've been having some second thoughts about my plan to "powergame" the four factions (I'm counting Unaligned the same as Zakary). I first thought to join Awakened, drain them of their money and then sell them out 100% to the Takers (my rep should be low enough after kissing servile ass with the Awakened). After that get help from Learned Darian to join the Barzites before coming full circle and killing everyone beyond Drypeak for Zakary. The probem is that I've been stuck with the Awakened a bit TOO long now it seems. I'm not too sure what is keeping me but I'm already hitting Geth and the point where I should be joining the Takers (I realize Geth is Barzite, but I'm following MattP's guide ). I guess my main concerns are twofold: Would I be able to be upfront about terminating my connection to Awakened through the dialouge option with their leader and how much of an impact would being augmented have on my endstory? The latter is another interesting point actually. I have used only a single Canister of Strength so far (and, whether I ultimately juice on Cans or skip the great majority of them I can reset that through the SDF 'cheat') but how much or will my ending change were I to be augmeneted by Tuldaric? Any difference if I were augmented by all or only one faction? Any 'code' to reverese the stuff done flag for the augmentation? Overall GF2 is a tremendous improvement over GF1 in all respects. I love how the narrative explores the differences between all the ideologies and the "third paths" that people try to carve out of all the madness. Right now the person who sticks most in my mind is Elissia and her almost fanatical devotion to her orders from the council. True, she may find peace in that approach but you just 'know' that she'll get screwed like the Obeyers of GF1 when the Shapers reclaim the area. Granted her fate would be better but I doubt she'll hear much praise for her decision (cherry on top: the work she's doing is most likely useless). Also I like Loyd Blade (and hope I can spare him). Most realistic opinion of Servile/Shaper relations I've heard from anyone. Kudos to his no-nonsence attitude and approach.

Quote: Originally written by The Mystic: Touche! However, I only use in-game cheats; for some weird reason, the script cheats crash my game, forcing me to reinstall. WHen you say "script cheats" I assumne you are referring to the character/item editors? Are you sure you are installing them correctly? Even if, for whatever reason, they are adversely effecting your game just be sure to make backup copies of the files you are replacing. I doubt there would be a reason to replace the entire game.

Quote: Originally written by Necro-Master: But it is your fault that you posted here. Maybe if you had anything useful to add, but Nalyd can't see anything to that effect. Dude, get a life. Replying to a nine-day old post on the front page hardly counts as thread necromancy by most measures yet here you are throwing a hissy fit over it, pretending to be a board Admn. Also, referring to yourself in third person (if that is, in fact, what you appear to be doing) is so 90's. If you want to complain about "content", my beef is that there's no way to reproduce the "showmeall" cheat in any games prior to GF3. That cheat is a must for any completionists (like moi) who need to massacre everything hostile on the map.

Oh stuff it. It's not my fault that a topic with a nine-day old reply is still on the front page.

Shaping as an Agent? I feel that that's a huge waste. I'm already onto GF2 so let me fire up GF1 and see what I have... Right, so... By the end of GF1 (where all that's left is deciding who to help and who to kill) I am level 24. Stripped down I have: Strength 6 Dexterity 8 Intelligence 11 Endurance 6 Melee Weapons 7 Missile Weapons 4 Quick Action 5 Anatomy 3 Battle Magic 15 Mental Magic 6 Blessing Magic 6 Spellcraft 23 Fire Shaping 3 Battle Shaping 0 Magic Shaping 3 Healing Craft 5 Leadership 13 Mechanics 14 Luck 30 Some notes: I skipped Missile Weapons in favor of spells as my ranged attack. Right now I mostly Melee using Tek's Spectral Dirk. Sure, it has slightly less damage than Guardian Claymore, but in my opinion the very high resistances it offers more than make up for that. Not many points in Quick Action or Anatomy since I originally planned to focus entirely on spells. (The fact that I'm mostly using melee just shows that I need to replay the game on Torment). Admittedly I likely went just a tiny tiny bit overboard with Battle Magic and Spellcraft. Nothing much in Mental Magic (Daze is for pussies) or Blessing Magic (I have Spellcraft to help me). Shaping as an Agent is for losers in my opinion. And yes, I purchased every single point of luck what with having too much money and nothing else to spend it on. Overall, anyone that's talking about using "helpers" on anything but Torment as an Agent needs to delete their save files and re-roll a Shaper.

I'm pretty sure Phil Foglio was the one that did the illustrations for GF1?

There are only two cheats that I use constantly - exitzone and showmeall Shame that showmeall isn't available in GF 2 or GF1

Personally I haven't met Komoa again after the thing at the inn... and now hearing about his reward I don't really want to. Does anyone know if he resurfaces in GF4 or something?

As other people have mentioned - finish all the quests in the city and drain Morigan's money, then kill everyone in it that turns hostile. You lose absolutely nothing for doing it that way.

Ooohhhhh, Ghaldring the other head Drakon! I thought Ghaldring was the name of one of the new Shaper creations in GF4.

Do you have to finish Gf3 as a rebel to hear about that?