alhoon

To be fair, I finished GF2 without encountering a single Eyebeast. I have never seen one in game. Not once. I know they exist from Shaping. That useless trivia shared... I hope Rots don't get leap attacks. They are supposed to be slow.

A creation that can heal is an interesting idea. However, just an observation: "it seems like such a waste for them to spend so much of their AP healing, while their weaker buddies do the fighting" That's because you play an agent/guardian. My Shaper is the weaker of my team. I cannot compare in power to any of my creations.

And as importantly for a Shaper: it increases control! I have found out, I kid you not, that it helps to put a point in a "secondary" shaping skill here or there to buy up control. For each level the creations get, their control becomes harder by 2. For each point in every shaping skill you have, your control increases by one. So, if you have fire shaping 9 and battle shaping 1 and magic shaping 1, then you are in trouble from your own creations. Considering we get 10 skill points, investing 2-3 skill points every couple of levels to increase control certainly helps. I go "Fire Shaping main" but I keep a Vlish for casting blessing stuff. I have found enough vlish canisters to make the Vlish not-suck-too-badly compared to my other creations. Thus, I have invested a couple of points in magic Shaping and I have found a cannister that improved magic Shaping somewhere (or Sarcophagus, I don't remember).

Well, you could do that already with a mod. It is very easy to do but time consuming. Also, since the limits of how long a file can be before the game crashes, you couldn't include a discussion about everything.

I would agree with Shaper vs Loyalist creation lines and I am completely fine with the 3 schools of Shaping and I consider it enough variation. I would agree that loyalists are more limited but that is because they choose to be more limited. Still as they have many more years in this, indeed they should have access to "better" variants. They player should be able to get everything, but be able to get say 4 out of 15 creation categories from Shapers only and 2 out of 15 creation categories from Rebels only. Also, I frankly think that we need more than a simple variant per creation category. I.e. I want more variants than Cryora / Fyora. The new game's customization possibilities are a good step towards that, but I think some of these options should be "locked" until you learn them. I.e. you could get the overload thing for Fyoras from Shapers and the haste from Rebels or something. For the 3rd variant, it could be something as simple as "Fyora-variant with basic level 6 and a different set of abilities (like the roamer's berserk or pyroroamer's blow up)." But all these aside, if some of the abilities you can use are locked till someone teaches you, and each sect teaches you different abilities, I would be glad. It doesn't have to be just "Rebels" and "Shapers", mind you. It could be things like "In areas 1 to 15, the Shapers \ rebels rely on their creations doing much of the buffing, so that's the area where you get the blessing abilities for the magic creations (as well as items that give intelligence to creations). However, in areas 16-30, the Shapers/Rebels rely more on battle creations coming close and personal to the enemy so that's where you would go to get things like hardiness, leap, etc. (as well as items that give endurance and strength to creations)"

So, to be clear, the formula is "Lock level / mech -1 = LT " ? If that is the case, then mechanics 6 would open even level 50 doors with 8 living tools while mechanics 8 will open level 50 doors with 6 LT. Level 19+ locks, the first that require for me 3+ LT are commonplace or rare? Mines go strictly by mechanics?

I am pretty sure that the formula has changed to something more organic like " (Lock level - mechanics)/2 = living tools needed, rounded up". I.e. if you are 1-2 short, you need 1LT. If you're 3-4 short, you need 2 living tools. I have seen locks requiring 6 living tools. If the Lock/mech -1 = LTools rounded up and you need 6 living tools at mechanics 3, it means that the lock level is 21! There's no way you would ever get 21 mechanics, so it means you would need like 2 living tools even if you had 10 mechanics!

Did you get the XP and rewards? If yes, then it is a minor issue.

Yeap. You need to report many of the quests for them to be done.

I will answer that in more detail after I add the Rotdhizon. It is not very complicated but it is not simple either and it is a long process. For the time, all I know is how to replace one creation with another. Say, you can replace the Cryodrayk with a Drakon or the Ur-Ghaalk with a Wingbolt. First, you need the various sprites and they need to be aligned like the GF1-M files. I.e. you will need some modification from the sprites of GF2-5 as they need to have the proper number of boxes where the sprite looks the right way etc. Then you need to make a new entry in GFfloorster.txt to add the graphics. Then you need to make a new entry in the GFitemschars.txt to add the stats. Then, you need to replace the icon for the Creation in G141.png and the right pic from G440 to G459 (depends on which creation you replaced). Finally, you may need to modify the textskills.txt so that you see "Create Drakon" instead of "Create Ornk" if you replaced that creation for example and the text that explains the ability. You may also want to change the textcodex.txt so that you will get the right codex for your creation.

The swarms of clawbugs in the wastes is the reason I haven't got deep in the wastes yet.

I am interested about that: More swarms. Are there more swarms in Veteran than in Normal difficulty? In Normal difficulty, I had little trouble isolating foes and more often than not, I could kill them before they attacked my creations from a distance. If the enemies had a bit bigger "aggression" (the range where they notice you) there would be more swarms. Or if the enemies "random walk" had them more often closer to their buddies. Especially in the wastes with the clawbugs, I would use tactics to isolate the iron clawbugs because each hit from these guys hurt a lot. I was also thinking of doing a "veteran difficulty" run in a few months or something with a guardian instead of a shaper. Thinking about it and considering most of the time I spam AoE attacks with my creations willy nilly... I think I would change to ranged creations with a good ranged attack (probably magic) with 1 'replaceable' poor cham (battle) that would be dying every 2 battles or something, that would be in the front to block enemy access to my creations and get the attacks. That way, I would have to rely less on AoE. Also, I have heard that the "aura" attacks of the roamer and Cryora don't hit friendlies. Do Crystals and spells from the character affect friendlies as well? I.e. if I hit enemies with daze and crystals, would I affect my creations as well?

Thank you. I have already trained both leadership and mechanics so I wouldn't get any from training but it is good to know. Living tools help only on locks, right? Not traps or spirals? I mean, I have not found any mine or spiral or trap that told me "you need 2 living tools". I either could do it, or not.

I found a canister that gave me battle Shaping. If I get another canister of clawbugs, I will buy up Battle Shaping 3 (which for me it would be cheap) and throw in a clawbug with 4 level upgrades so it can hit.

What is a good level for Mechanics and leadership for this game? 9-10 and the rest from items like the other games? Lower? I am not asking about deactivating that one legendary difficulty mine or not passing the leadership check that is there only for the very pacifists. What is a "would get me through most of it except of a few cases" level, that's what I am asking.

I couldn't use seperate creatures in the Avernum remake I played either.

Battle Alphas: I can make battle alphas but I have very low battle shaping so I didn't bother. Recently, I started encountering battle alphas as enemies (the refugee cave). Well, they seem to me significantly easier than clawbugs. 2 levels of difference is nothing and not putting poison on acid on my creations means I can wait to heal them later. I find myself doing the opposite strategy than I did for clawbugs: Get a couple of Alphas together since they're 1 by one, to finish them off quickly, instead of trying to isolate them. 3 Alphas, I can do. 3 Clawbugs, I would run.

Doesn't work for me Randomizer. If I use the number or click on a creation and then try to move, it moves the whole party regardless of which creation I have selected. It is a very annoying feature.

I am interested in that too, but so far the only thing I have found was to get in combat mode.

I see what you mean... now, that the Obeyer spy in the Takers threw out some quite important information that changes everything... I was completely blindsided by that info to be honest. I think I now know who they are guarding against. If the obeyer spy is right that is.

Woods: Sniff the rude Servile waiting for a message and not letting me through a door told me about some... people "trapped" East of Kazg, 'Sholai and others', servants of the Shapers. Since when Some Sholai serve the Shapers? Then, I found a place called "Peaceful Vale". I stepped in full of suspicion as I expected it to be anything but peaceful. I was kinda mistaken. Only Kinda because while it was mostly peaceful, I learned from a nice wise servile there that my first drayk buddy is here! Indeed Syros the 21st lvl Drayk (lol, why not throw an Unbound here instead?) didn't disappoint. For starters, I saw to my surprise that he should be 20 ft long (the sprite is barely 7 ft long and I have increased the scale for all drayks). Then I saw a hilarious dialogue choice about telling a Drayk to terminate himself because he shouldn't exist. I am sure that would have gone splendid. The guy was dropping names though. Danette the Geneforge creator. Why am I not surprised the Shaper that made the Geneforge was making Drayks? And that the wise Shapers of 100 years ago were creating non-sterile Creations on purpose so they wouldn't have to shape new ones? Man, that must have worked lovely. Well, the guardians should have some rogues to fight in order to use their geneforged abilities, didn't they? In all the games, even the Serviles that are born are free-willed. They just obey the Shapers because they are told they should. And who the heck is that Goettsh that stole "the gloves"? This reminds me of GF2 where a drayk (Eass I think) needed some gloves to use the geneforge. I found a journal that said that the tribes in Sucia have died out before the Shapers showed up. Interesting... then in a nearby zone I found the first intruders. Two randoms showed up. I am checking their levels and they were 11/12. Those are the grunt troops mind you. The ones on patrol duty. Then, I look at the non-normals on the bridge. LOOOL. A level 20 "augmented" sholai and a level 15 mage (Sofya) along with a bunch of lvl 12 turrets. Okaaay, clearly not intended for my level. Nope. But... I found another roamer canister and I went up a level battling other Sholai. So, I said, "to the hell with it", I made 3 pyroroamers and sent them ahead to go boom while I ran away. Then Sent another wave of bombs-with legs. It took me a few tries to do it, mind you. But after talking with people here, I considered that I may need to talk to these people so I left them alone. Spurned by suggestions from this forum, I went to the dreaded wastes. They were not too hard, but they were not a breeze either. And there, I found a bunch of Sholai! Again. (You know they're Sholai because they have insane hp). Are these people everywhere? They start to seriously annoy me. There were parts of the wastes that I had trouble with. Mainly, the parts where I couldn't isolate enemies and hit them one or two at a time. There was a pylon there (supposedly Faulty) that gave me some trouble but I managed. I decided to head back to the places I should be at, trying to reach the Takers. On a place further from the river I got a message that I am a warped cannister junky. Next, I met Amena the servile guard boss outside of Kazg. Man, that's a rude fellow. Regardless, I was told that the Takers boss wanted them to accompany a Shaper but didn't give them a description. Duhhh... there are no other Shapers here Servile! The Sholai are not Shapers whatever you people think about it. 5 minutes later, talking to an Obeyer spy: There are two Shapers in Sucia. There are two Shapers in Sucia. WHAT THE [Censored] ?!!?!?!?!?!?!?!? DEATH TO THE SHAPERS!!!! (the other one) I don't want to make a decision while my blood is boiling but I may well join the Takers if it means ending that other Shaper! How?! HOW did I miss another $%#$%^#@ Shaper on Succia?! Why the Awakened didn't tell me? Why the Obeyers were speaking in riddles?! Yes, thinking back there may have been a couple of hints but that should have been said to me directly, in many cases. Like that nice Taker-Obeyer spy said, plain and simple. Barred island... we saw what that means.

To my defense, I was asking whether I was wrong in my initial suppositions. This is what I close my post with: "Or did I miss something somewhere in the discussions". I didn't infer that I find this a major flaw or that I can't sleep or continue because of what I thought as a minor inconsistency. I just thought that since the game came out recently there may be a few bugs out there and I thought to mention it in case it was indeed a minor bug. I don't think that what I did was bad enough to be worth of a page-long denunciation. However: I honestly appreciate you guys going out of your way to avoid giving me spoilers. It was worth it. @Ess-Eschas Thanks buddy! That clears it up. What you say makes sense. Indeed, if Trakjov HAD used the geneforge he would have zero reason to personally stay in a crappy island instead of leaving his cronies there to guard it while he goes to conquer the world or something. PS. I think it wasn't Trakjov that killed my Drayk-boat because even from what I have seen his people doing, they would indeed have done a much better job. 🙂 The Sholai on the ship must have been quite low in the ranking.

The following contains Spoilers on Sage Clois and parts of the early/mid game. Note: I have not met the Shapers and I have cleared perhaps 25 zones or so. The easy-ish ones. Please avoid further spoilers. So... I have found the name of Trajkov from a few sources and I have heard about the Geneforge from Syros the Drayk. Discussing with Sage Clois my character says that Trajkov lives in the Northeast. I was under the same assumption since that's where the "new" rogues come from. And then, my character, not Sage Clois, drops a bombshell: "Trakjov holds the Geneforge however he can't use it." 🤨 I was thinking something along these lines because the drayk mentioned something ... but I had no confirmation and me the player was not aware, that Trakjov already holds the Geneforge. For starters, that lvl 20 guy on the bridge makes more sense now. But... how? As player I thought the most plausible scenario was that Trakjov is looking for the Geneforge in the mysterious ruins everyone avoids to the Northeast. Serviles have told me that the invaders had trouble cutting through the vlish and clawbugs there. So, I assumed that Trakjov is leading expeditions and sets up all those camps and blankets the place with mines to stop the Awakened and especially the Obeyers from meddling (or the Takers too since the Takers promised me great power and if Trakjov is putting 1 mine every three steps he probably is not the sharing power, so I am not sure that Trakjov is in good relations with the Takers). So... is that a bug? Should I have found something else before that dialogue option became available? Or did I miss something somewhere in the discussions and I the player should have already known that Trakjov just looks for a way to use the geneforge?

Eh? In the wastes or the Eastern Areas? Cause I killed a bunker of bandit serviles! Am I locked out of any big quest or lore-heavy discussion? If I don't kill any character with a name that doesn't initiate dialogue, am I OK? EDIT: Below the Crystal Burrow that I cleared easily is a place where half a dozen of 13 lvl Clawbugs show up and wipe the floor with whatever you have. Clearly, that's another place I should not be in... Generally as an 9th lvl Shaper with 4 14th lvl creations, any place that gives me trouble is a place that I am probably not supposed to be in. That's the rule of a thumb I am going with.

I doubt there's anything else in the whole island that can threaten them. If you mean Syros the lvl 20 Drayk... it's just a lvl 20 drayk. Syros is more powerful IMO than the Aug Sholai (larger area = more of my creations) but the Barzite boss behind the Sholai and a host of turrets would make short work of him. (That said, Syros is the only drayk I've met so far. No Cryodrayks, no other drayks). Still, after a few loads-and-saves with my Shaper and my waves of Pyroroamers (normal difficulty, a lot of essence pots and a ton of spores) I cleared the bridge. The loot was underwhelming considering I spent the whole leveling up to strategically take out these guys and cut through about a quarter of my stash of spores and items. So, I reloaded. I have read that higher level enemies are "precious" if you want to level up when you're higher level. And now that I learn they can be non-hostile... pffft. I am here for the talks and the story not to test my mettle and build against all odds. (And if I wanted to do that, I wouldn't have invested in leadership/mechanics nor I would play in normal). PS. I don't what is the Front Gate but I guess that's a spoiler.