alhoon

1 hour ago, Randomizer said:

Another question is where did you buy the game? If from Spiderweb site then the problem is with the game or the computer. If from a third party site like Steam, then they add their own layer of software that can sometimes cause problems.

 

Writing to the preference file sounds like a game problem. I've seen that once, but restarting the game fixed it even though lot the save.

Wait what? I have it from steam!!! Will I lose my saves too? It loads fine for me so far, but I don't want to lose my saves regardless

Nope, what you say sounds good enough. Thank you. 

Hi there. I found the time and energy to get back to this great game after a short hiatus. I am progressing steadily, I have reached lvl 12 and I am exploring towards random directions trying to find a Drayk cannister. 
So... without many spoilers, may I ask which direction I should  be looking at for a drayk cannister? I am in some mines North-East with pylons. Sneaky pylons that killed Firetooth, my first ever creation in the game that has been with me since I was level 1. I have no trouble turning back and going somewhere else - after I get revenge on the pylons. My Shaper is level 12, I play moderate difficulty and my creations are level 14-16. Theoretically, I should be able with some save-scumming and item use to get through most areas to grab a cannister. I am not aligned with any faction. 

Really? I have not noticed that... Well, then perhaps they do need the leap. 

To think, Akhari Blaze had so much control that he could keep 100 unbound under control. But other than right when they're made, Unbound are supposed to be uncontrollable. Fire-and-Forget weapons. That means that after you lose control of them, you should not be able to assume it again. 

11 hours ago, ultra112 said:

But I thought Rots were fastest out of all the battle creations due to it's innate quick action and it's capability to close distance rather quickly

The quick action allows them to make more attacks, not move faster. I don't know  what you mean that it closes distance rather quickly. They have the same speed as all creations IIRC. 

The time I ended up in Pentil's gates, out of essence and literally in my last breath, wounded and with my creations hovering on death's door because of all those $%#$%$@# Vlish was memorable. 

As I said, I am in-between Awakened and Takers at the time. 

If it wasn't for those $%^@#$@ Vlish, I would have gone for the Takers probably. But they had to go and put Vlish everywhere and align with the Sholai. 

1 hour ago, Corylea said:

Back when I was really into The Witcher (the first one), we used to have long discussion about whether to support the Order (a group that oppressed non-human people, such as elves and dwarves but who kept the peace) or the Scoia'tael (a group that fought for the freedom of the oppressed non-human people but who often used unsavory methods in their fight for freedom).  When I played the game for the first time, I thought it was completely obvious that the Scoia'tael were the good guys, and I was shocked when I got to the forum and discovered that about half of the other players were supporting the Order.

I didn't finish the Witcher, but went pretty far. Far enough to have the discussion with my knight Friend from the Order about him thinking I betrayed him and his precious Order by aligning with the "$$$$" (as they were calling the non-humans). It was clear to me that there would be people that supporting the Order although I didn't get in any forums about it, but I was with the Freedom fighters all the way... and I personally I remember some of their choices being ... questionable, but not enough for me to consider them NOT the good guys. 

You mentioned you're from a country that abolished slavery 150 years ago. 
I am from a country that had to fight for its freedom several times, overthrowing conquerors and liberating compatriots. Our flag's colors symbolize "Freedom or Death". In the 'enlightment' era of my country, late 18th century, we had songs like "Better live free for one hour, than forty years as a slave". Men were abandoning their villages (under the regime of our conquerors) to live in the mountains and the caves in order to be free. 

Psss. You liked my post as I was still editing it. I hope you still like it. 

21 hours ago, Corylea said:

So, I'm very early in the game, but it's already clear that there are three factions and that I can ally with one of them.  It's also already clear to me that I like the general idea behind the Awakened; equality appeals to me a lot more than either being a slave lord (ugh) or starting a war. 

 

I thought at first that I would side with the Awakened. Now, after being at the Taker areas I am not so sure anymore. I don't see myself harming the Awakened to be honest as I like them a lot. But I am hovering between Awakened and Takers at the time. The Takers have guts of steel. I can tell you that. They know their fight would end in annihilation but they are still seeing worth in the fight itself, wanting to die free than live their lives as slaves. They believe their moment of Freedom, the freedom they want to take would be when the Shapers kill them. They LIVE for the moment they will die as martyrs. 
Fanatics? yes. But there is something admirable in that drive for freedom. Especially after I dealt with the obeyers. 

All in all, I would suggest NOT joining the Awakened until you speak with the other factions and learn their beliefs. Not just the few words you will hear from their boss, but reading their journals, speaking with the rank-and-file quest givers, see how they live. 
You dislike the Obeyers and I understand that. Are you ready to sabotage them? To 'turn the tide' against them so that they will die off a few at a time as things turn from bad to worse to impossible for them? 
I don't think I can do that. I dislike SOME obeyers and I dislike the beliefs of all Obeyers. But I don't hate every and all Obeyers. I don't know what the Awakened will ask of me, but based on what I have seen from all factions, at some point, each and every one of them will want me to make the life of the other factions harder - to the point their societies will collapse and they will die. 
Perhaps the Awakened are different. Perhaps they want to dominate other two factions instead of completely eliminate them down to the last servile. But I don't hold my breath. The "get with us" quest of the Takers was to go and kill the Awakened boss just because. What has Ellirah done that is so bad to the Takers? He simply doesn't want to jump headfirst to a suicidal war with the Shapers. That's his crime. And by beheading the Awakened (and probably having to kill a bunch of them to get out) they are left weakened at a time that Rogues come in. Rogues that I strongly suspect the Takers are putting there, or the friends-of-the-Takers. 
Screw that. I am not going to eliminate any faction. 

Depending on what those quests may be, I may end up not going too far in ANY faction. I disagree with the Obeyers but I will not go and kill them directly, or weaken them to the point they will have trouble surviving. 
I want all the serviles of the island to live as they were before the Invaders showed up. Disagreeing, yes, but coexisting. People with different opinions and beliefs. 

I don't want my side to "win" by eliminating the other sides or forcing them to kneel by breaking their legs. I don't have an easy answer as to what the #### I could do, especially at this point. I would prefer to convince the Obeyers to become like the Awakened and I would prefer to convince the Takers that they should not align with powerhungry invaders and send hordes of monsters to kill other Serviles. 
But I do not want to make the decisions for the Serviles. 

I was and I will keep being a Lifecrafter at heart, not a Shaper. I will avoid making the decisions FOR the Creations when possible. 
And I will keep reloading my game when I lose a creation, even though they don't level up anymore and I can make the exact same creation moments after it was killed. I like my creations. They are not expendable* 

*With the exception of a bunch of Pyroroamers that I Shaper-ly sent to their doom, moments after they were brought to this cruel world. 

7 hours ago, Corylea said:

I've finally fought my way through eight million vlishes and reached Pentil, and I'm finding it a difficult place to be, emotionally.  The librarian has spent her entire life copying useless records because they belonged to my people.  The military leader has killed people because they disobeyed shapers who weren't even there anymore.  And just in case I missed the message that these were living, thinking, feeling people, Jeff has given us a sage who's figured out how to tame fyora and a farmer who's sad because her husband died.

 

I find the entire town emotionally difficult to be in; the whole place makes me embarrassed to be a shaper.

 

 

I had the same thoughts about how horrible the Shapers have been. The words of The Pentil boss in his journal were another punch to the gut. He has killed his followers, manipulated them or had them tortured (you can see all those bloody logs, shackles and whips) for not being loyal enough to the group of people that abandoned them to die 100 years ago. And what is his deepest desire? His guilty thoughts? 
He finds himself at time wishing that a Shaper would tell him he did well. 
THAT is what this person desires and he feels guilty about wanting something from the Shapers. All the leader of the larger group of Serviles, that has blood on his hands, wants is for a Shaper to pet him on the head like a dog and tell him "good boy". 
Rydell's loyalty is admirable but he's loyal to the wrong people. He's a brainwashed creature and a huge waste of potential. The Obeyers make me feel unclean.  They make me feel uneasy in their place. They disgust me.  Not because they are themselves disgusting but because of the disgusting things that have happened to them in order to condition thinking creatures to behave like the beat-up Fyoras the Obeyers have tamed. 

But worry not. There is a solution... 

Down with the Shaper Tyranny! 
Burn Shapers in their ivory towers! You may like or dislike the Canisters and down the line the guys on the Rebellion side are not perfect but they are much better towards the serviles and the thinking creations than the Shapers. You are absolutely correct that being a Shaper is shameful. The Shapers are looking down on the outsider people and lock them out of the knowledge. They are hoarding power pretending they are the only ones wise enough to use it, when the world is littered with the disasters of their making. 
The Shaper Tyranny must end. 

Welcome to the Rebellion. We will remake the world to a better place.

I am hovering between Awakened and takers at this point. I didn't think the Takers could have much except "Unlimited Poweeeer!" to convince me but their absolute dedication to die free, knowing how their fight will end but still wanting to fight for it regardless is earning them points in my favor. Yes, they are fanatics. But they strive for freedom at all costs. According to the Taker beliefs they prefer to die standing up than live on their knees.  

20 hours ago, stilltim said:

I'm sure I'll appreciate whatever enhancements Jeff makes. But, the original GF2 had Rothgrowths, Draykons and Eyebeasts. Looking forward to dreading the sight of all three of them again.

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. 

1 hour ago, Randomizer said:

 

Shaping crafts increases the creations starting level so having more than the minimum needed makes them more powerful so they can hit better and do more damage,

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). 

27 minutes ago, The Almighty Doer of Stuff said:

I love hydras. Exile 2 has a hydra nest which is one of the highlights of the game. I feel bitter than in Avernum 2: Crystal Souls, it's just hellhounds instead. Hydras are better.

 

Picture this: The player finds a place where they can shape a Servant Mind. If you do, the Servant Mind acts as a library of every piece of text, NPC stats, and item stats the player has ever encountered in the game, as well as various gameplay statistics (enemies defeated, mines disarmed, mines detonated, etc.) and some amusing conversation.

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. 

3 hours ago, ClawBug said:

So anyway how to add new creature?

If I want a add a drakon or wingbolt? 

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. 

7 hours ago, Randomizer said:

It takes a little practice, but you do get better with party placement to avoid hitting your own party members. You really do want those AoE attacks because there will be more swarms and with no cool down period you can get more of them in a round. The fyora does less damage per attack than your guardian, but with a few those attacks add up, In the next few zones where you can face swarms you really want them.

 

Having more levels from using all 5 of the top row means more health for your creation, but more importantly a better to hit chance and more damage. The chances of going rogue aren't that great and with more health less likely since the damage taken will be a smaller percentage of total health.

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.