Gameman112358

Adding more content + fixing some bugs. I will say though that I've been enjoying myself. I've loaded up an earlier save in my Guardian play through, just so I can get two more soldiers with me. My party is now full. My Guardian + Incantatrix NPC + War Trall + Cryodrayk + 4 soldiers. One heck of a powerhouse group right here, I can tell you guys that much.  

Ahh, alhoon, that ally you were referring to in the final battle against Ghaldring? I think I found that ally. I won't spoil anything, but I was very, very happy to see them be on my side. Ghaldring, you are so frigging dead, you overgrown lizard... *evil cackle*

UPDATE: And done! Ghaldring is now dead! My Guardian has won the day, his blade covered with the blood of the Drakons he has slaughtered. Astoria's goal for peace between the Shapers and rebels has been achieved! *Does a little victory dance*. Anyway, yeah, I've finished the game. Normal difficulty, sworn to Astoria faction, playing as a Guardian, using all of the major parts of the mod. I can definitely say that, aside from a few errors here and there, this mod is very enjoyable to play. It definitely makes classes like the Guardian (and probably Warrior) much more powerful and much more fun to play as. It's fun to be able to dish out tons of damage with your blade and baton, all the while face tanking everything the enemy can throw at you, and leading a group of soldiers to fight alongside you. A nice change of pace from either blasting everything with magic until they're dead (Agent, Infiltrator, Sorceress), or just spamming creations until you win (Shaper, Lifecrafter). You've done some great work alhoon, and I can definitely say I've enjoyed myself!  

P.S. I'll be doing the challenge zone when I've got the chance. Mostly to see how well the soldiers handle there. Expect an update later.  

Quest line for the fort? You mean the secret lab? Yeah, I did the quest. I got my commander's blade (not baton), though I turned down the canister with the strength and extra speed. Don't ask me why.  *I thought something bad would happen... then I realized nothing did. Salt ensued. Also, can I just say right now that my Guardian can pretty much face tank EVERYTHING that the enemy throws at him? Fire? No problem. Ice? Pssh, easy. Physical? LOL. Magic? Nope! It's amazing! 

Oh, I didn't know you could go full soldiers. I'll make a note of that. Might go full soldiers on an earlier save of my Guardian run (I made a lot of saves, so I can go back).

Well, yeah, I meant after they got a bunch of levels they become close to trails. If you're talking about when you first get the soldiers? Yeah, they're a half War Trall. My soldiers have been with me for a while, and they got 6 more levels, so that's why they feel so strong. Should've clarified that.

Noted about Kayar's Spire. I've already beaten it though, and it was pretty easy to do; my soldiers, incantatrix, War Trall and Cryodrayk were blasting through everything.

Also, true regarding the incantatrix NPC. Kinda easy to get the two words mixed up. 

Also, I'm currently doing the assault on Gazaki-Uss. The incantatrix was hesitant about doing the assault, but I was able to convince her. My Guardian and his group are tearing through the Gazaki-Uss defenders like they're tissue paper. My Guardian's baton has pierced many enemies, and his sword is coated in the blood of the enemy creations and that of the Drakons. Ghaldring will soon meet his demise! Wish me and my Guardian luck everyone!  

Alright, I'm done with the Kayar's Spire part. I will admit, being able to storm Kayar's Spire with some additional troops is definitely helpful. Though I do feel maybe you should get some more troops with you. Right now you only get two extra soldiers to help you. Maybe four would be better? Dunno, up to you alhoon. But I definitely enjoyed storming Taygen's stronghold and putting an end to his mad project. My Guardian is preparing for the meeting between the Shaper Councilors. His loyalties lie with Astoria and her promise of peace between the Shapers and the Rebellion. Wish me luck!

P.S. The two soldier party members you can get from your base have turned out to be very handy. When fully upgraded (takes a lot of effort to do btw, you have been warned.), they're very strong, and unlike creations, the upgrades on them require zero essence, meaning they can gain more power. Maybe not as much as a Trall, but they're pretty close IMO. And the Sorceress party member is proving very useful with her AoE Purifying Rain and Acid melee. Coupled with my super tanky Guardian leading the charge, I've been enjoying myself with the Guardian, something I haven't really felt before when I play this class (or the Warrior class, for that matter). Good job alhoon!  

Yup, I know about that. Had a very pleasant surprise when I found out how much stronger my Shaping ability was when at the base. I then looked at the text and was like "Ohhhhhhhh... that's why... AWESOME!". Only works at the base, but hey, being able to shape superpowered creations as a Guardian/Warrior is never a bad thing in my books. 

Putting any bugs aside, I will say that I am greatly enjoying the mod. Adds quite a few new cool quests for you to do, and it gives out a lot of cool and extremely powerful weapons and shields for you to use. My Guardian character has been able to power through much of the game because of these weapons.

In addition, the whole "setting up a base and getting troops to come with you" part of the mod is extremely cool. The major NPCs in your base help you manage operations, you've got some cool random events happening there at the base, you can train your troops up yourself to get them stronger... the list goes on. It feels good to use my super high combat stats and leadership stat for something aside from more damage on weapons. Also cool that you can give your troops equipment and weapons to use, which helps to make troops that join you stronger. This is all common equipment and weapons; basically stuff that you'd find lying around or items you were using at the start of the game. One tip though; your training does get less effective the more combat ready your forces are, and giving your troops more equipment does increase how combat ready they are. It's advised to train your troops as much as possible before giving them the armor and weapons. At least that's what I did.

Currently deep in the Dera Reaches right now, looking for ways to use my forces to undermine the mad Sage Taygen's forces. Wish me luck guys!  

For reference, it was giving me the error when I only had 5 characters. That includes the Guardian, 2 Soldiers, NPC mage, and Cryodrayk I made. Just to let you know. 

Oh boy, this is bad... I found another bug, and this time, it's a really big one. For some reason, when I try to get my party into the new zone that you guys made, I get an error message stating: "Error! Couldn't place party when entering zone.", then the game shuts off on me. Basically means the new zone is completely inaccessible right now! Might wanna get that checked out.

But aside from that, I am enjoying the mod! I find it hilarious (and kinda heartwarming and cute at the same time) that the joinable NPC that you can have has a bit of a thing for your player character (Warrior/Guardian). She's awesome, btw. AoE fire rain for range, poison (or acid?) attack for melee. Runs out of spell energy real fast though.

Okay, I'm starting the on the whole command post thing that the mod touts. Major Shield Recipes are available for purchase, and I've already cleared out Bonepeak. Now I have to go to Rockfall now. I have another character joining me to help with the quest. Alhoon, when you mentioned that the joinable NPC was an incantatrix, I had a sneaking suspicion on who it is. And it looks like my suspicions have been confirmed. For those that don't know (SPOILERS, DO NOT OPEN UNLESS YOU WANT TO BE SPOILED. YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED):

Oh, this is gonna be good... *evil laugh*

EDIT: Quick question, does poisoning the water in the Rockfall Quest do anything? I'm looking at the code right now and I don't see any noticeable flags going off on it. I suspect it does nothing at the moment...

Also, is there actually any way to sneak around the base? Or is it just a simple kill everyone scenario? I can't seem to sneak around because when I try to, I get instantly spotted anyway. 

EDIT 2: Rockfall seems to be somewhat bugged as well. Just ran into a warrior NPC in the fort during the quest that didn't turn hostile. It's the one that stands near the Anvil. Might wanna check that. Creations there also seem a little wonky as well; it took them a while for them to 'lock on' to my party and attack me. 

EDIT 3: Rockfall Quest complete. I've returned to Greta and she has given me the Bonepeak Ruins for a base. I've been told what I can do with the base. My Guardian and I are excited to see what this entails. Guardian Dakro is heading out now.  (Didn't change the name. Sounded fine as is).

EDIT 4: At the base, talked to the lieutenants there. Certainly an interesting addition to the game. They've told me that the soldiers are under equipped, under trained, under supplied, basically business as usual in the Rebellion. No worries though; I've actually stockpiled a large amount of weapons, armor, and other equipment (e.g. Shaping Equipment and other stuff) to help with the base. I knew all that Chitin Armor and Chainmail Vests would come in handy!  

EDIT 5: After much effort, I've gotten my troops fully upgraded. And I've gotten that wannabe Lifecrafter lieutenant to a Geneforge to make him a full Lifecrafter! (Who btw is now running at super speed now after his excursion to the Geneforge. XD) He's actually got a cool feature that I was completely unaware of when I finished up his little excursion. I'll leave that as a surprise.  

Anyway, I'm about to see the power of fully upgraded troops. Things are going good. 

A LOT of spelling mistakes indeed. But nothing too serious; I can figure out what the text is saying pretty easily. I'm more worried about any bugs that make a whole zone completely broken. Those break gameplay completely. Typos are way way WAY less of a problem than major gameplay breaking bugs.

Understood regarding the Mera Aegis. Can't wait to get the real powerful shields. In the meantime, aside from the Bonepeak.txt bug on my end, everything else in-game seems fine. It's pretty much a standard Guardian run, only muchstronger and with powerful weapons to boot.  

Yes, the Mera Aegis. That's the shield I made. So you're telling me it's a minor artifact? Oh boy, I'm curious what the major artifact shields look like now... I can't wait.  

Also, regarding the bug finding: it's no problem. Powering through the game does allow me to catch any major bugs I find. There are a lot of spelling issues in the mod, but those are minor. I'm checking for massive, zone breaking bugs in my Guardian playthrough. 

Alright, I'm playing the mod on Normal, just so I don't frustrate myself. So far, I'm in the Mera-Tev part of the game (I powergame hard when I need to, and I've played the game a couple of times already, so I know a lot of the nooks and crannies for the most part. Easier to speed through). 

Very pleased that Astoria gives you a Perfected Thorn Baton almost right after you meet her. That makes much of the game easier to deal with, since you no longer have to worry about ammo. Not mentioning that the Perfected Thorn Baton does much more damage than regular batons.  

Liking the fact that Perfected Batons are talked about by certain NPCs; such a powerful weapon deserves some discussion over what it is and what it can do.  

EDIT: Alright! I got one of the artifact shields. Gotta say, it's pretty impressive. More armor than a Shaped Shield, bonus to Spellcraft and Parry, Energy and Poison Resistance bonuses... that's pretty good. Here's a hint... if you're a kleptomaniac, the major material you need for this shield is not hard to find.  

EDIT 2: Oh, and btw, I may or may not be using my omnipotent scripting god powers to power up my character. I wanna see how fun this mod is without having to feel like I'm pulling my teeth out. Just a warning.

EDIT 3: Forgot to mention, my Guardian got the Energized Sword some time ago... and he is very, very happy.  Though tbh, I feel as though maybe you should've added another 1 or 2 sets of Demon's Bile and Mandrake's Tincture, the ingredients for the new artifacts, since it does seem there's a bit of a shortage of that. Just IMO.

Found my first bug already, at the start. One of the options, the "get better at generic skills" option isn't there due to a talk node error. Figured I'd let you know now. I've fixed it already on my game; I've changed the talk node to a different number.

EDIT: Found another bug. This time it's at the Bonepeak Ruins. There's an error apparently in the Bonepeak txt. file. It says: "z59bonepeak.txt Error: Unmatched left bracket in line 411." Could you see if you're getting the same issue? I've attempted to fix it on my thing, but I don't know where the issue is. Could be a bug somewhere else in the file.

EDIT 2: Oh god... the Bonepeak text error bug is far more severe than I imagined. My Guardian has walked directly into the bandit camp. He is finding everyone is frozen, not moving, not attacking. I need to figure out the issue...

EDIT 3: AHA! I found the fix! It was so simply that I feel stupid for not realizing it sooner. See this part of the script?

The fix is to add another one of the "}" symbols at the end of it. So instead of 2 of those "}" symbols at the end, there's 3 instead. Better put it in, btw. The whole zone doesn't function if you don't put it in. Will continue to edit this post the more bugs I find.  

EDIT 4: Okay, found another bug. For some odd reason, the Drakon and his group of creations in the Western Wasteland aren't working properly. I end up having him be on my party, for some reason, and he's on the other side of the map. His creations are still there, but the dialogue doesn't fire, and the creations just stand there.

I was wrong to say I didn't help at all, rather, I felt I could've done more. Perhaps more suggestions and ideas, for example But at the same time, RL issues have taken precedent, so I can't really say I did nothing, thinking about it... 

Also, mod is OUT! I'm gonna take a look at it when I have the chance! Thank you alhoon for your hard work!  

Oh wow, yeah, servile soldiers look pretty strong when upgraded. They've got less stats, armor, and damage than a War Trall, but they've got the health of a War Trall, and they've got poison on their ranged and melee attacks to compensate (poison's a decent status effect to use on enemies). I'm kinda curious what the human soldier will look like... you said they have better armor and damage, but less resistances. Sounds like human soldiers are DPT (Damage Per Turn) dealers + physical tanks, while servile soldiers are HP sponges + magic tanks + DoT. I'm a little scared to see the human soldier's stats... XD

Quite frankly, I now want to use the other classes with the Warrior mod just to see how broken they can be. 

So the majority of the soldiers are expendable meat shields, one of the NPCs talks a lot, gives you hints on the quests you have to do, and one NPC is quest related and has a little bit to say. But aside from some talking, nothing too crazy for the soldier NPCs. Good to know. Having NPC companions that give you hints and tips on what to do exactly is very helpful though, aside from being an extra essence free fighter in the party. I'll probably dabble with more "unique" characters myself when the mod comes out; I can actually can think of a few ways to make certain NPCs more unique, but at the same time, you've already done a lot of the work, and I wouldn't want to put more strain on you.  

Creation attack groups! Great, so I can shape a ton of creations to help me without sucking up tons of my limited essence and party slots! Yay!  

Regarding me reading the script: I'm one of those people that loves to read the scripts if there's something I'm not sure of or if there's something I want to edit. I'd ruin a lot of surprises, yes, but at the same time, I love to edit the script if given a chance. Playing the game blind first then looking at the script is something I'm taking into consideration, but either way, I'll figure things out pretty fast.

Regarding the locking out of factions: Well, there's the thing. If you betray the rebels, you lose the base, the talkative NPC, locked out of Ghaldring's faction (Don't care, don't like him anyway), basically losing out on the more interesting parts of the mod. That said, it is your mod, not mine, so the decision is up to you, though it just feels you lose out on a lot of the cool stuff if you betray the rebellion.  But that's just me; you've already put a lot of effort into this mod, and it would be selfish of me to ask you for more, especially since I didn't help with the mod at all.  

Aww, I can't kill the Drayk after all. Oh well, at least I can smooth talk him into not charging me a bunch of money. Good enough for me. At this stage, I probably have enough in the Leadership stat that it won't be a problem (unless you've made the requirement really high). Not being a hindrance is already enough to get on my good side, all things considered.

Question, do these soldiers all have the same graphic sprites? Meaning, in the case of the servile soldier, do they all look the same (servile holding a sword)? Or do some of them use a different graphic? Kinda curious because there's a lot of different graphic sprites in the game that can be used for soldiers. Human soldier NPCs for example seem to use a variety; the Warrior's graphic with either a baton or sword, a soldier graphic with the square helmet and sword, and a pink colored infiltrator's graphic holding a baton. Servile NPCs look much more similar, with the differences being the colors and what they hold (Baton, Sword, nothing in hand). I imagine it'd take a lot of effort to do though...

Also, are any of the soldiers magic users? Mage soldiers seem to be relatively common among both the rebel and Shaper armies, so I'm kinda curious. They'd probably be something like a glass cannon in terms of role if they're included (powerful magic attacks and possibly potent DoT effects, but can't take a hit).

TheKian: Serviles IMO are already strong enough as it is. They don't really need more stuff on top of everything else they've got. From a lore standpoint, maybe Serviles don't have the leadership ability to lead humans? Humans are unable to follow a Servile leader? There's no servile leaders in the rebellion that lead humans, at least to my knowledge. Dunno, it's actually a good question to ask, and I'm trying to think of possible justifications for it aside from the fact that gameplay wise Serviles are a very strong class as it is.

No problem. I'm more than happy to share my assets for your mod.  Also, new zone! New quests! New characters! Cutting down on grinding! Yay!

Removing the bugged resistances from the Shaper classes makes sense, though it's going to make them feel no different than their rebel counterparts. Kinda wish there were more ways to differentiate classes, but eh. I'll probably just modify the classes myself when the mod comes out.

Consequences for canister abuse... doesn't bother me too much, since I don't really use canisters a ton, but at the same time, I suspect the reason why the original game doesn't have more issues with canister abuse is because you've already reShaped yourself twice, along with the implied tons of canisters you partook in your past life, so the game thinks you've already gone insane. Dunno, I'm just speculating here. But like before, I can just remove the interactions myself if they're problematic.

I'm guessing that you can play the other classes in this mod, it's just you wouldn't receive the benefits a Guardian or Warrior would. Probably wouldn't differ in terms of gameplay that badly though.

So you're going to be under the command of General Greta, a leader of the rebellion. It also seems your soldiers and supplies are also from the rebellion as well, if I'm reading this correctly. Hmm. You did say it's possible to betray the rebellion, right? Wouldn't these soldiers be... less than inclined to go with you if you do betray the rebels? They are soldiers of the rebellion, after all. Or am I missing something here?

Also, regarding the soldiers, are there going to be any unique soldiers? Something closer to Avadon's recruitable characters (or even GF3's NPC companions), where they've got their own thoughts, ideas, upgrades, capabilities, etc? Or are all of the soldiers going to be expendable, essence free meat shields for the Warrior/Guardian captain? Just curious.

Soldiers being essentially very weak War Tralls is still pretty good... we're comparing them to what is essentially if not the strongest, then one of the strongest creations in the game. So the soldiers (I'm speculating here) are something like this then?

Servile Soldiers:

+ Resistant to many types of damage (Acid, Ice, Fire, Poison, etc.)

+ Has access to Venom Batons and Poison-infused blades.

- Doesn't hold up against physical attacks too well (Batons, blades, fists, rocks, etc.)

Human Soldiers

+ More resistant to physical attacks

+ More HP

- Less Resistance to nasty effects like Acid and Poison.

Kinda curious what upgrades the human soldiers get. Stronger blades? Even more armor? 

The original Shadow Road was made in secret as well I think, and quite frankly, it wasn't kept secret very well... XD 

Regarding the Drayk: Good to know I can still talk my way through some sticky situations. Going to guess this Drayk has some importance, right? Because if he doesn't, well... *looks at Drayk's hoard, looks at my overpowered player character, gets an evil smile*

So becoming a rebel captain and creating a Shadow Road Mk II in the Dera Reaches does have consequences, if your spoiler is anything to go by. Good to know. Going to guess that won't stop me from joining certain factions, right? (Astoria for example probably won't mind all that much, considering what she's been doing in-universe, Ghaldring obviously won't mind at all). 

More rewards the more you sympathize with the rebels. Makes sense, since you're a rebel captain. That does mean you're effectively locked out of most Shaper factions, but hey, I dislike Taygen a lot (Purity Agent bullsh*t, locking creations in camps, blah blah blah blah), and I utterly hate Rawal (Control tools, taking illegal canister creation tomes, MAKING A ******* GENEFORGE). Not being able to be in Alwan's faction is regrettable, but hey, I like Astoria's faction, and Ghaldring's faction is great for when you just want to utterly destroy Taygen and Rawal (I've joined Ghaldring's faction once or twice, just to kill the two aforementioned Shapers. They're the worst of the bunch, soo... LET THE RAGE FLOW!!!)

Regarding the guns comment: True, haha. Ranged weapons>Melee weapons, every time. But at the same time, reality shouldn't really dictate gameplay itself, IMO. Then again, I could just buff melee weapons myself when the mod comes out. It wouldn't be particularly hard.

Soldiers: So treat them as if they're weaker War Tralls until they start getting some of their more potent upgrades. Understood. Should I expect these soldiers to have the health and resistances of a weaker War Trall as well? No answer to the durability question, or at least I didn't see one. I don't want my soldiers to die en masse to everything the late game throws at me... XD

A more aggressive Shadow Road. Much more secretive though compared to the Shadow Road; that got discovered real fast. XD

Greedy Drayk asking for money to get to an area despite me being able to get there myself? LOL, no. XD

Going to guess that this secret servile trafficking route is going to have something where you have to defend it every now and then, since it sounds like you've got forces and optional creations there to defend it. Probably by Taygen's forces, or something like that. 

Ahhh... so this route is used to help the rebels attack the Dera Reaches. You're essentially helping the rebellion in secret doing this. I can see now why this needs to be kept secret and how disastrous it'd be for you if the Shapers find out about this. But at the same time, I do not like Taygen, and it seems no one in-universe or out of it does either, so... where do I sign up?! XD

I've got more questions for you alhoon about your Warrior mod, but I'll save those for when you make your thread about the Warrior mod.  

Welcome to the forums! And welcome the world of Geneforge modding, as well!  

I mean, on one hand, you're essentially creating a Shadow Road Mk II, except instead of ferrying serviles from the Shaper coastal provinces through the Mera-Tev, you're ferrying serviles out of the Dera Reaches. I doubt the Shapers would be particularly pleased about that. But on the other hand, none of the Shapers like Sage Taygen, and you're ferrying serviles out of his lands, where he, like you said, locks them up in what is essentially in-universe concentration camps. So... eh? Maybe it doesn't matter? I dunno, alhoon is the one making the quest line, not me, so he'd be the one deciding what would happen.

So the soldiers are capable of both long range fighting (Batons, Javelins, etc) and CQC (Swords and other melee attacks). Good to know that distance won't hamper their damage dealing capability.

Making melee better than ranged weaponry makes sense; melee in this game is pretty unspectacular, especially given the amount of damage that ranged weapons are capable of. The soldiers having stronger melee is so there's a reason to use their melee instead of staying back and shooting the enemy to death, right? Or is it so they've got an "oh sh*t" option if they get charged at by a bunch of creations?

Also, thinking about it, how durable are these soldiers going to be? There's a lot of nasty things that the game can throw at you, especially at the stage the player will be in at that point in time (Around late game, I think, meaning Rotghroths, Cryodrayks, War Tralls, Drakons, Kyshakks, Gazers... the list goes on). They're going to have to be far more resilient than your average NPC soldier, which weren't particularly durable, despite some of them having relatively large health pools. Do these soldiers gain lots of health when their combat worthiness increases? Do they get more resistances to things like acid, poison, energy, stunning and mind effects like Fear and Charm? Do these soldiers get a combination of the two?

A large servile related quest line? A servile lieutenant? Oh boy, I can't wait. I'm fairly certain though that this quest is going to tank your reputation with the Shapers real fast, especially considering that you're essentially ferrying serviles out of Taygen's lands, not terribly different from the Shadow Road smuggling serviles out of Shaper lands to the west (but then again, considering where your sympathies lie alhoon, I'm not terribly surprised...).

Then again, I wouldn't mind doing more quests to screw Taygen over. I don't like Taygen one bit; even though I'm not much of a rebel sympathizer like you are alhoon, Taygen is simply too out of his mind, even for hardcore Shaper fans (there are some out there, just saying ).

Question, can you modify existing zones with this? Just curious. Also, need some more detailed instructions on what to do exactly with it. Color codes isn't enough, and I'm actually confused on where to start exactly. 

But in any case, good job Kian. A tool to make new maps is going to be nice for more adventurous modders.

1 hour ago, TheKian said:

The regeneration spell is an aura, which in my experience is applied to every party member regardless of distance, but only to party members (it will not affect nearby friendlies). Essence blade is an essence spell, which will overwrite any present essence spell (like G5's version of augmentation). For that matter, regeneration aura will also overwrite any other aura spells you already have active, like elemental aura.

 

Unless there is some way to alter how the spell itself works (I have never looked very closely at the blessing/mental/healing magic realm of spells in the scripts), I doubt you will be able to fix it to fit your purposes.

 

For reference, according to Matt P. (writer of... like, the only Geneforge walkthroughs), G5 speed has about the same effect as war blessing. From what I can tell, it seems that speed only gives you 25%-33% or so more attacks. And, of course, you no longer get any bonus to your combat movement (considering that speed was an important aspect of stealth in previous games, this is another issue with the new one). Also, in regards to Aura of Flames, what exactly is the difference between it and Purifying Rain? 

Meh. I personally like what I've done with it. Battle Roar to me was supposed to be this super strong buff that would make you and those fighting alongside you super strong. Instead, we got a very late game useless spell that's not worth the spell energy and essence to use. Most people I imagine would use Essence Blade over the other essence spells, since Essence Blade makes you do much more damage. Not mentioning that the changes make Battle Roar an AoE Essence Blade++; casting Essence Blade on every individual creation and friendly I want to buff is annoying, not mentioning draining on the essence.

Regeneration Aura isn't really the most impressive aura in the world; it's sorta just there to help. Slowly getting HP back isn't that useless IMO, but it could be better, I will admit. No way to boost the amount of regeneration you can get each turn though, at least not to my knowledge. But hey, in its current form, it's not that terrible.

My modified version of Battle Roar has a few strange quirks, but nothing that is crazy broken. I'm quite happy with what I've done with it. Do I wish I had the tools to modify Geneforge even more (like making the Vampiric Touch stat more useful for example)? Yes, I do. But is it completely impossible to improve some parts of the game? Nope, not even close. There are ways to improve the game, even with the limited tools we have in place.

Aura of Flames does fire damage on all enemies that are near you. Requires that you be close to the enemy for the attack to work, however. Purifying Rain is an AoE fire damage attack that can be done at a safe distance away from the enemy. It hits all enemies near the enemy that you target. 

Oh, I'm not saying it's weak. I'm actually not terribly surprised that it's been changed, all things considered. An AoE spell that essentially gives +4 AP to the PC and every friendly unit nearby, including NPCs? I can already see the balance problems that would occur. The fact that it's AoE already makes it much easier to use, even though it's been nerfed to only give a chance of attacking twice. I don't have to go around individually buffing each friendly near my character, and because I can get multiple friendlies with one use of the Speed spell, it saves me a lot of spell energy and essence. Though I am curious about the probability of getting a second attack; is it a 50% chance? Or is it less than that?

One thing I will tell everyone; there are actually quite a few spells from previous games in GF5 that aren't used. For example, Aura of Flames is still in the GF5 files, but it's an NPC exclusive spell now (Likely to make way for Purifying Rain). Mass Energize, a GF3-4 AoE Blessing spell that puts Speed, War Blessing, and Regeneration (I think?) is also in GF5, but is unused. These spells can be reintroduced, if you move some values around.

For example, I actually replaced the effects for Battle Roar with the effects of Mass Energize, mainly because Battle Roar's effects turned out to be really crappy, especially considering its cost and when you get it. Also did some other stuff with it, like making it also give Essence Blade to every friendly in the AoE. (Is it really broken? Kinda is. But I can't add additional effects to the Battle Roar spell itself, so I had to improvise). Only strange thing about it is that the Regeneration status effect is applied to creations under your control regardless if they're in the AoE of the spell itself. Also, NPCs don't get Regeneration, but they get the other effects. 

I mean, I'm just throwing ideas out there. Extra HP is sorta just me thinking of a small way to help player characters. Yeah, melee is pretty dead compared to ranged weaponry (though considering my artifact weapons and armor is going to be in the upcoming Warrior mod alhoon is making, I'm hoping that changes. ).

2 hours ago, Lilith said:

Having said that, a Shock Trooper is still flat-out worse than a Lifecrafter in 90% of situations and I'm not sure how to fix that without fundamentally rebalancing physical combat. But it's at least not so much worse as to make it non-viable for playing through the game, even on Torment; I personally found a no-magic Shock Trooper easier to use overall than a magic-using solo Servile.

I think this is the issue I have with Shock Troopers. Same with Guardians and Warriors; they're not unusable, but they're boring at best, underpowered and gimped compared to every other class at worst. I want to play these classes without feeling like I'm playing a crappy version of another class. Kinda why I chose to give these classes bonuses to combat related stats in my modified game game scripts; they don't really have anything special. Shapers get... well, Shaping powers, Magic users get tons of crazy awesome spells to use, and fighter classes get... pretty much nothing. Not okay with me. XD