Difficulty of solo Agent in G1?

[MrRoivas]

Thought of replaying G1 for the umpteenth time with a twist: a solo agent.

 

While solo agents are the norm in all the other games, due to the lack of spells in the first I usually played with one creation, usually starting with a fyora and sticking with fire creations till the final cryodrayk.

 

How difficult would it be to pull of a totally solo agent? Not that bad? Terribly difficult? Actually easier?

[Mod.]

Less creations = faster experience, that is the advantage of not using creations. However, This doesn't necessarily mean more. Geneforge 1 had a level cap of 31, instead of the 61 of later games. This means you wont have much more skill points to spend on yourself than a creation user would during late game. So not easier.

 

I guess difficulty for this would be greatly affected by the game's difficulty setting. You can do it on easy, as someone has beaten the game without using a canister. I think all (if not a very huge majority) of the ways to learn creations come from canisters in G1. Torment? I don't think you would take many hits before you fall. I don't know what the hardest difficulty this is playable at, as I have never tried it. I doubt anyone here has really, so try for yourself instead of asking, and tell us the result.

[Hypnotic]

There is 'A' single creation you can get without a canister. Thats also 'A' single level of that creation.

[MrRoivas]

No one has reported doing this particular challenge before? Wow. That's unexpected.

 

Anyways, I suspect the way it will work is that my Agent, Diane, will need less intelligence, as there is a bunch of essence freed up by not having creations, and some more endurance, to make up for the lost meat shield.

 

Anyways, only thing big I've done so far is the abandoned school, and that was tough. I had to get things one on one, or I was dead. I defeated Rawbone by aggroing his group, and then running far away enough that they only came in staggered groups of one or two. Rawbone was pure luck. I had to hope that his hit wouldn't kill me, pod heal, and then strike.

 

This will be interesting.

[Mod.]

Which difficulty setting are you using?

 

Did you remember to kill the ornks at the beginning for their xp?

[Randomizer]

I've done a solo agent when I first started and got through almost everything. You have to stay in combat mode most of the time in certain places just to keep spawning at a reasonable level and be able to attack before the rogue creations suddenly swarm you.

 

There should be a topic somewhere that has Delicious Vlish's comments on how he did it. Mostly it involves moving up slowly to pick off foes one at a time.

[Dantius]

The trick I used was batons for the difficult enemies and only use combat magic for the weak enemies. You can get a frigging SUBMISSION BATON inside of the first dozen zones if you sneak into the Junkyard early and aviod the vlish. Buy some ammunition from Penta and one other place it's hidden (forgot where, maybe Darian's Grove?), you have effectively 18 oneshots for the first half of the game. Bosses are toast, and you can easily manage to reach Kazg and grab more ammo. After cruising the first section, you should have enough EXP to manage the Wastes and reach Gottesch. Once you loot his treasure, you're set for the game. Easy.

[aapo]

I'm playing solo Agent without creations. I also spent most of my points on Battle Magic, Mechanics, Leadership and Endurance. Leftovers to Spellcraft. Having a breeze. This is only normal difficulty though...

[MrRoivas]

I am definitely missing the fyora's extra fire power. The fireball just isn't strong enough right now to one shot things yet, and that fyora helped finish things off in a round, as well as providing another target. We shall see.

[*Logan*]

I'm doing the same thing, a solo agent in Genforge 1.

 

I am doing this simply because I am exp greedy and I want it all for myself.

 

I also don't like losing my essence at this early level that I am at and not being able to heal and such as much.

 

So far, I am doing alright. Lots of skill points going into leadership, mechanics, missle weapons, endurance, and dexterity.

 

Good idea about killing the cows. Does that not affect people's opinion of me though?

[Dikiyoba]

You can kill the ornks in the first zone without anyone caring. Just don't kill the livestock in towns, or the whole town will go hostile.

 

By the way, you won't end up with a bunch of extra experience by going solo. The amount of experience you get from things is dependent on your level, so you'll end up getting more experience at the beginning but less experience later on.

 

Dikiyoba.

[*Logan*]

Originally Posted By: Dikiyoba

You can kill the ornks in the first zone without anyone caring. Just don't kill the livestock in towns, or the whole town will go hostile.

Oh ok, makes sense. So as long as I'm out in the wild I can get away with it.

Originally Posted By: Dikiyoba

By the way, you won't end up with a bunch of extra experience by going solo. The amount of experience you get from things is dependent on your level, so you'll end up getting more experience at the beginning but less experience later on..

Ah yes, I recall the game saying something about that. I believe it mentioned something about getting no exp at all for killing weak enemies once I am a high level. We need a MOD made where I can get at least 1 exp...that would make more sense to me.

[Randomizer]

Originally Posted By: *Logan*

Good idea about killing the cows. Does that not affect people's opinion of me though?

The ornk lord might have something to say, but you'll probably kill him too.

[Shaper Shaper]

Going through the game alone does give you more experience than otherwise.

-------------------------------------

Mmmm...tacos!

[A less presumptuous name.]

Originally Posted By: Andras1444

Going through the game alone does give you more experience than otherwise.

It has been well established that the experience lost by playing with creations is more than offset by the additional killing power.

[Mod.]

Still might be a good idea to go solo at first, then make creations when you need them, so you can get the additional xp before you will need to use that killing power.

[Slawbug]

While it's true that the power of the creations is bigger than the power of the extra XP, you also have to realize that due to the sharp precipes used in the experience scaling formula, even the maximum penalty for having 7 creations will have very, very little impact on your final level.

[Unplayable Playable Character]

My most recent play through of G1 was a non-canister solo agent, and by non-canister I mean plot-wise which is <4 I believe. I haven't completely beaten the game yet, but I've gotten past Kazg and did the Sholai refugee quest, cleared the mines and the Arena, cleared a path to Kantre's realm via The Hill (that was rather troublesome), got into Drayk's Vale but got beaten pretty badly by the drayks.

 

My Agent, Naija (because I had just beaten Aquaria when I started the playthrough, and because I always like to make my Agents blue) is level 15, pretty rich with about 4500 coins and some nice item caches. She's got a Shaped Blade and a Reaper Baton, as well as a Submission Baton and all kinds of crystals. My three canisters were: 1) the initial fireball canister (regret taking this one, but that was before I decided to play non-canister) 2) Searing Orbs 3) Dominate, also have an extra point in fireball from the school mind. As for skill points, she currently has 6 in Dex, 5 in End, 3 in Str and Int, 7 in Missle, 6 in Melee, 10 in Quick Action and 7 in Anatomy, 3 and 6 in Battle and Mental Magic respectively, 9 in Leadership and 11 in Mech.

 

My strategy was to scavenge all I could, and I wasn't much of a min-maxer so I just ended up exploring areas and making decisions as I came across them without using prior knowledge apart from what I remembered in my previous playthrough (as opposed to planning out exactly what I was going to do). The exception to this was getting the Searing Orbs and Dominate canisters, which I believe is pretty self explanatory.

 

The combat was fairly entertaining, it mostly revolved around ninja-ing everywhere I could. And by that I mean I would run towards the nearest cover where the enemies are out of my sight range, tap "F" twice to regain all of my AP and continue running. I could potentially get across an entire map before the enemies have a chance to even move. And crystals were even more fun because they don't end your turn automatically when you use them. Javelins were pretty useful early-mid-game, especially against bosses, so I usually kept them in my cache until the I got more powerful weapons in sufficient abundance. I also actually used potions that time around instead of stockpiling, seeing as I didn't have any healing or buff spells.

 

My advice to anyone attempting this play-through would be to scavenge as much as possible, make sure to farm the Tombs as soon as you are sufficiently strong and to stay away from poison/annoying areas that like to deal damage automatically.

 

Edit: Just looked at the date of the last post relating to the playthrough. Ah well, I just spent 30 minutes typing this, might as well keep it up

 

 

[Shaper Shaper]

As a solo agent in my game, going through the game was MUCH easier than going through it as a Shaper (I kept getting killed as a Shaper). I spent most of my points on Battle and Mind Magic very early in the game so that by level 15 or so, I had a 30 in Battle Magic (though I probably needed more Endurance and Intelligence, but it's okay). I got to Trakjov and the Shaper and killed both of them easily.

To be honest, being a Shaper gets easier by the end, but I kept getting angry because I kept dying at the beginning.