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Felix_Felicis

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Everything posted by Felix_Felicis

  1. @Randomizer @Spidweb Thanks for the replies - I agree, it does sound like I’m looking for more of the Veteran play through experience! I have enjoyed min-maxing for torment in the past but was surprised that in this build, after getting through the game as a shaper (min-maxing pretty well I think... buying the servile skill upgrades, getting all the servant mind base stat upgrades, as many sarcophagi upgrades as possible except for sealed lab, helix bracelet, zavor’s, admittedly I didn’t get Danette’s Belt if it’s in this game - etc), it was a surprise to still die in 1 or 2 hits after using the Geneforge. The fact that my shaping skills were not enhanced by the Geneforge (is that as intended? The lore says the Geneforge is a combination of all canisters so I was expecting some creation/shaping levels, but the only buff creations get from the Geneforge is the player having a larger pool of essence?) left me feeling underwhelmed using creations as anything other than a couple turns’ worth of meat shielding to deal more damage myself with spells. To be clear, I did get through the vast majority of torment approaching fights very slowly, using buffs, mental magic (especially dominate with high-level ur-glaahks), learning to stay out of charmed enemies’ lines of fire, and ample application of the “acid” status effect. Searing articles are incredible. Charming the claw bugs to clear the Ice Walls spawners is absolutely required, and satisfying when it worked, but took about 30 “tries” before I could get to an attempt where my party of ur-glaahks and drayks reached the spawners without melting to an acid spray in a tight corridor and landed charm effects once I reached the spawners. In many parts of the game... the intense difficulty “works” really, really well. Can be brutally difficult and with great setups, you can win these awesomely challenging fights. I learned by experience that between acid and making the super-powerful enemies fight for you, torment is very winnable even with a glass-canon shaper. Thanks for taking my feedback. I guess I’d say - if the endgame is supposed to be such that you die in a couple blows to just about anything, then it’s working as intended. I think it’s not totally unreasonable for a player to think that after being Geneforged to God-tier stats, even a shaper should live past 2 rounds of hits from a single endgame spell-caster, but it is Torment difficulty. Based on my experience hiding behind a wall of monsters works much better early game (before you run into too many AOE-capable opponents), against melee opponents, and with a lot of save-loading. By late mid-game to endgame, I don’t see a way to win with creations other than getting lucky with acid and running away, or getting lucky with “dominate” rolls from ur-glaahks at the beginning of fights. If your glaahks lose the speed check and take an early hit or you aren’t hitting 60-75% of your early attempts to cast “dominate” in any group fight (and I realize it’s possible to draw enemies away 1 at a time... but that is an annoying way to play the whole game), you need to reload because you will die. I’m not sure if that’s the “amazingly powerful” that you’re describing, or if that’s achievable with smarter skill-point allocation. Things I could’ve done wrong: 1. I put points into fire shaping and magic shaping. I needed overloading fire creations to burst certain enemies (i.e. thahd shades in tombs to clear them early and min-max my stats). I needed magic shaping for artilas and ur-glaahks. My own “dominate” spell hit roughly less than 50% as often as my creations could land the spell successfully. Maybe I needed to invest exclusively into one school? If that’s the case, I think magic shaping would be the only way. My biggest disappointment of the game (besides drayks having the same visual asset after getting such a cool art upgrade) was that drayks, these apparently 20-foot long, near legendary, forbidden creation behemoths of scales and fire... had exactly the same skills as fyoras and as a shaper with leveled fire shaping... still died almost instantly to everything, and that cryodrayks just seemed objectively worse (same stats/level/HP, more expensive, worse skills) than regular drayks. That goes double when the canisters of create drayk are much less accessible in GF1-M than the original GF. I don’t think it would be reasonable to expect to get through torment investing in battle shaping at all (except by hoping for a lot of luck spraying acid with iron claw bugs and it would take so long to get that creation/would cost so much essence compared with searing artilas that it wouldn’t be a good value). 2. Maybe I needed to invest more into “evasion” and “agility” as a shaper? 3. Maybe I should’ve used shielding knife instead of the living knife (that seemed better as it gave +2 STR/END to creations) Again - thanks for hearing my feedback. My suggestion is... keeping listening to the other data points that roll in about playing a shaper on Torment. I was trying to min-max for the entire game and thought I got through the content pretty capably, I just stopped having fun for the last 5-10 hours as I realized that my “endgame” build could beat the game, but I still had to save-scum if I wanted to fight (creations die so fast, even leveled, if they don’t get charm/dominate to land right away), and fighting often gave so little XP it made more sense to start running through areas “skipping” the content that was supposed to be satisfying and fun. I know creations are much more disposable in this new GF series (and I like that... a lot!! Because you get way more variety), but the most efficient way to to clear later areas on Torment is to make a clear path of “green” areas from a servile village to whatever area you need to clear, and to bring packs of artilas and glaahks hoping to kill 1-4 enemies at a time, run back to regen essence, rinse and repeat over and over and over again. If that’s what the experience is meant to be with a min-maxed shaper... don’t change a thing. If there’s a better way please let me know.
  2. For a few years, I’ve preferred to play Geneforge games specifically on Torment because it felt like the most “gritty” way to play. You’re some untrained schmuck and you usually get dumped into some backwater wilderness with fire-spitting velociraptors, genetically altered ape-leopards (and normal apes and leopards are already strong enough to tear someone’s arms off), and eyeless worms that spit acid all over you. Even with canister modification, it “made sense” that my creations would be a bit “funny-lookin,” that with me having no real training or mentorship, my creations would have a disadvantage against the battle-hardened rogues that had survived by the laws of survival-of-the-fittest. It made sense that serviles hardened by years of independence and abandonment would have the strength to kill me if I crossed them too casually. But, with time, battle, months of travel on a theoretical abandoned island, islands, or continent, my creations would grow and so would I, and towards the end of the game if I played smart I could compete and survive. Torment in GF1-M feels different. Different in that I felt vulnerable as one might in a Dark-Souls game in that all the Sholai towards the end of the game one- or two-shot my shaper. It doesn’t help that Shapers get 50% less HP than Guardians and 25% less than Agents per point of endurance. I was going to do a semi-loyalist play through but I got so sick of dying to everything I decided to just use the Geneforge just to see if that could tip the scale and make the game less frustrating. Amazingly, it did not. After gaining 8 in all primary stats, buffing my melee, missile, and magic - also by 8, I still got 2-shot by run-of-the-mill non-augmented sholai. That’s right. We’re talking endgame level (17/18) player character with a symbiotic cloak, charmed plate or shaper robes, zavor’s ring, fully buffed helix bracelet (that’s +12 endurance total over baseline for those keeping track) and I had to save-load to get out of just the research area in the northeast corner of the map (maybe 3-4 tries until air-shock proc’d stun on a wizard because otherwise I’d get stun-locked or hit with acid and die in one round). Then to cross the bridge in the West Gate area without stealth, another 3-4 save-loads because even the vanilla “stealth sholai” could kill me one-on-one after my character had been modified by the Geneforge into near-Godhood. I used stealth & the spore baton to get to the docks to escape the island because I also couldn’t survive against Trajkov’s minions at the docks. Being a shaper, I was looking forward to having some powerful creations after being Geneforged, but the Geneforge also doesn’t give any shaping skill in this game, so my creations are a little stronger for being beefed up by an improved essence pool, but don’t get any extra base levels. Turns out, creating a full pool of fully buffed endgame creations, they still die in 1-2 hits to everything dished out by sholai on Torment. Which means there’s almost no point to making them, because one AOE attack wipes the party. And when you’re save-scumming just to keep creations alive past the second round of a fight - after being modified by the Geneforge, fun has reached an all-time low. In short, my experience of “endgame” Torment mode in GF1-M was that everything killed me in 1-2 hits regardless of my build, and for certain sholai, even regardless of being Geneforged. It was absolutely the case that pre-Geneforge, enemies that were too low in level to give me experience or only gave 1-2 experience could still spray my party with acid and kill 80% of my party in 2 rounds on Torment. It was often the case that my own “team” got me killed. I would charm an enemy, or an ally who was not charmed (say Goettsch attacking Sholai assassins in the great temple) would use an AOE attack that applied acid and took out most of my health, and I would be stuck trying to heal, run away, or cure acid (but not able to do all 3), and if I could only do 2/3, an enemy would inevitably kill me before the next round was over. It would have felt “fair” if enemies had friendly fire, but they are immune to their own friendly fire, they are immune to your friendly fire when charmed, while you and your Player Character get absolutely torched by everything. If you are playing torment as a shaper looking for the tipping point where you emerge from your vulnerability and can consistently survive and compete against enemies with intelligent strategy... my advice is “stop.” The way stats work in this game, even after Geneforge use (which in terms of skill points is roughly the equivalent of getting boosted to level 40+ in a game with level cap 20), using essence shield and buffs, you die almost instantly. There is no tipping point and that fact (that you never reach a point where you approach equality with your enemies) effectively broke the lore and immersion of the story for me, even understanding how difficult torment is supposed to be. I could still win a loyalist play through on torment, I have the leadership to kill Trajkov without a fight, can destroy the Geneforge, get out with stealth, and complete the game. But at this point... I don’t really care to do that. I think I probably killed my enjoyment of the game for a few months finishing it on Torment, and I’ll go through again on Normal or Veteran sometime and enjoy a more regular difficulty curve - one where I actually get to enjoy the feeling that my character has become a somewhat competent shaper by endgame.
  3. I'm starting to think it might reduce the number of living tools needed to open a lock down to 1 for locks that would otherwise be more complicated. I'm noticing some locks that give really good XP (22 or 26 per lock) take the same amount of living tools (1) when I would expect them to need more tools. I don't have the tinker's gloves so I'm going to test a couple locks after adding mechanics points or getting the gloves to see if that theory holds up. Edit: I just raised mechanics 1 at a time for a lock in Holding 2 that required just 1 living tool to open. I had to raise mechanics all the way to 17 to unlock the cabinet. However after dropping Dante's Guile.. the requirement to open the cabinet was still just 1 living tool, so I'm not sure how the requirement is calculated.
  4. I haven't been able to observe any effect. I thought it might help with power spirals (but not locks), but haven't been able to establish this anywhere.
  5. I'm just doing some napkin math in my head and want to confirm this is correct: At level 8, 1 point in Essence Mastery gives an additional 10 essence. For many (if not all) creations, adding an extra 'attribute' bonus, that gives +1 to base level and a point in the specified attribute, costs 5 essence or less (I think for the Ur-glaahk it costs 6 essence). By that logic, by the time you get to level 8 and beyond, once you have the requisite minimum skill in the school of shaping to make what you want (Fire/Battle/Magic shaping 4 to get the higher-tier 3rd creation), you get more 'bang for your buck' in creation levels by increasing Essence Mastery than by increasing shaping skill, at least until Essence Mastery becomes twice as expensive as the shaping skill (and this would scale, because at higher levels each point in Essence Mastery gives more essence, but the cost to buff creation attributes does not increase), you get more stats in creations and more versatility in terms of what you can do with your essence (spells, all categories of creations) by buffing Essence Mastery compared with buffing your shaping skills. Anything wrong with that math? I think it's fine, it just makes buffing your shaping skill (even as a shaper) seems like a bad value. Maybe that's a bummer since it's the most cost effective attribute to increase for the shaper class. If it's not worth pumping the shaping attributes (even for shapers)... then what's the point of the class? Might as well play agent or guardian, use tomes, canisters, and minimal skill point investment to hit 3-4 shaping skill, and then you can be exactly as good at shaping as the shaper class, but with far-improved scaling in your survivability, spells, and physical damage. I guess the counterargument could be that creations are always OP so there's no need to complain about things being less-than-optimized for the class. Regardless I think I just convinced myself to focus almost exclusively on Essence Mastery as I level up... trying to figure out how to build a Shaper for torment and that seems like the logical play.
  6. Seems like an appropriate reason for a celebratory thread. I think this is the first time I've intentionally paid more for a game on release to support the developer as well. I have no intention of using the hint-book, maps, or canister locations for my first play through, but I bought the deluxe edition anyway. Congrats Jeff and good luck with the sales, hope this will be a blockbuster hit for Spiderweb! Downloading now! What's that? In the time it took me to type 2 sentences the game has downloaded? The world has really changed since GF1 was first released, haha!
  7. [This thread is to document what I hope will be an unusual take on Mutagen and an unusual play-through of the game on Torment. In part, based on a play through of the original that I started, but did not complete. Perhaps the journey will come to a more full-bodied conclusion this time. The following is some flavor text for my character. Excitement about the game got some creativity flowing, so I thought I'd share it here. After this initial post, expect the usual fare - screenshots with short captions, and a little more story if I can come up with something that fits the game lore.] Call me Felix. My name means “lucky,” guess some would say I am. Like so much in life, it’s a matter of perspective. I grew up under the watchful eye of Grandmother, frying ornk and simmering stews at The Scholar’s Respite, a humble inn at the outskirts of a small town on the continent. Scholar’s Respite has been caring for and collecting coin from weary travelers for 36 years. Grandmother tells the story this way: An eccentric shaper bequeathed his prize collection of books “to the good people of Caerham, for the founding of a library” upon his death. People called it “egalitarian” – though I didn’t know what “egalitarian” (or “library”) meant for years. Three days later an Agent came to town and removed books deemed unsuitable for the masses—Grandma said anything to do with magic arts or shaping. Most of the town being illiterate, the “library” became a target of vandalism, a suspected meeting place for ne’er-do-wells, and so the Mayor put it up for public auction 1 year later. My grandparents bought the building, turned it into an inn, sold as many books as they could to offset the cost, and kept a few shelves full of ornate tomes in a corner room, more for decoration than use. My grandfather taught me numbers before an illness ended his innkeeping, and I was apprenticed to an apothecary who taught me to read. A good job for a 10-year-old, carrying the promise of higher status… well, it was a good job, until the apothecary’s niece, Clarice, showed up at the door, orphaned, alone, 3 years older than me. She moved in and we shared the work, but within a week she knew her letters, in 2 months she could read as well as me. A fortnight after that it became clear I would not inherit the apothēca. I was angry, this was my future, I was an orphan too, and I didn’t know any women who mixed medicines. But grandmother slapped me the first time I complained about it and told me I would move back in with her, manage an inn, I would know how to cook – how many orphans would kill to be me? She was right, but the demotion from educated healer to innkeeper hurt, and after losing a chance to move up in the world I hungered for more. There were books in the inn. Every night I read from the time the dishes were washed until my lamp ran out. I didn’t learn about magic or shaping, but I grew into a well-educated reader, and spent whatever money I earned from tips on parchment and ink, copying my favorite texts, essays, and stories until I could write. At 15 I took a second job drawing up legal documents and verifying contracts for the Mayor, for merchants, shapers, anyone who could pay. One shaper, Seon, developed a liking for my scrivening, then my cooking. When I turned 17, I asked for the biggest favor of my life – I wanted to sit for the exam to become a shaper. To sit for the exam one needed a letter from a full shaper, who could write exactly one recommendation per year. This letter commanded a high price. Gold, unwritten favors, and family connections were expected at a minimum. But Seon had no want of money and thus no need for bribes, no children of his own (and no need to forge connections with other parents), he tipped well, and he liked my cooking. “Four seasons,” he said shortly, barely glancing up from his stew, as though he’d known I would ask. “I don’t pay for food for one year, and *if* you can write yourself a passable letter, I’ll sign.” I was expecting him to ask for 2 years. This was a good start, “6 months, first class ornk belly and fresh vegetables aren’t cheap.” “First you ask to join the ruling class of the world,” he chuckled, “you want the power to create life. You want wealth, status, education, a future – and I offer it to you” he looked up at me with a twinkle in his eye, “and you want to bargain me down to 6 months of stew?” I knew he was joking, and he knew I knew. The winter exam was in 8 months, and if I passed, I wouldn’t stay in Caerham to cook. “Ruling class of the world my arse! If I pass exams and survive training, I’ll be lucky if they let me work on famine-resistant cabbages. They won’t let the son of an innkeeper do anything important! Besides, if the Council knew how good my braised ornk belly tasted I’d be cooking in the capitol every night from tonight until my hair falls out, drowning in gold enough to buy 10 recommendations! You’re lucky you discovered me! You’re lucky I don’t hold you to 3 mon—” A swift elbow below the ribs left me breathless. Seon looked sideways and grinned. “Keep running your mouth and you’ll run out of words for that letter. Tomorrow at dawn. Have it ready in place of my bill. If you’re still here after the winter exam, I’ll start paying for dinner again.” He smiled and tussled my hair, “You’re a lucky bastard you know? I’ve been offered 3 times as much in the last fortnight for this letter, but I don’t like wasting recommendations. You’re going to pass the exam.” He turned from his supper and looked me dead in the eyes, “But you’re also going to work harder than you ever imagined you could. This life won’t be easy.” He had no idea. But then, neither did I.
  8. This is awesome. Thank you both for working this out. As GF becomes more mod friendly, I wonder if we'll be able to update art assets with our own personal projects. The dream would be to get to a point where the appearance of the player character changes as different items are equipped (or at least, 2-3 sword assets and maybe small changes for cloaks, robes, chain, and plate armor). I don't know how challenging that would be but... if the appearance of the PC can change depending on whether one has a sword, wand, or nothing equipped, then I figure the world is our oyster!
  9. Unfortunately, no dice checking to see if the game can be purchased with VPN activated, and not on GoG. I guess we really are waiting for midnight!
  10. I am not above using a VPN to connect "from New Zealand" to steam if it will let me get the game a few hours early... Either way, by midnight tonight, should be playing :>)
  11. Cheers! Almost replied to this a couple days ago because I felt bad that you had no comments. Here's my gut reaction: 1. Many people on this board have been playing Jeff's games for over 10 years, so your pace (playing on normal rather than Torment, discovering how various game mechanics work for the first time, etc) is a little slow from how most people here play the game. 2. The freshness of your play-through is part of the charm. Seeing you explore barrels in the bandit camp and gladly pocketing pieces of fruit and rope, for example. Spiderweb game veterans know that Jeff populates his world with "junk" items that contribute to a sense of lived-in-ness and atmosphere, but you'll never see someone pick up rope because we know that can't be sold to the merchant for anything and (so far) Jeff hasn't created any game scenarios where you need a rope to exit an area (something where you climb down a cliff or a hole into a cave/dungeon would be really ingenious though). Also, playing on Torment can contribute to dying a lot so you end up in the habit of save-scumming because you're just getting killed so often. So it's cool to see you just push through and commit to decisions (not save-loading on Bandit dialogue, for example, but paying the toll, then getting into the fight and just going for it anyway). Enjoy the rest of the game and I'll probably check out a couple more of your videos to see how it goes.
  12. Well well well. Ok ok 🙄 Thread necromancy may be frowned on. I admit I played a little G1 this weekend to "scratch the itch" before the official release. But really I wanted to comment on this. I enjoyed replaying G1 more than I think I've enjoyed replaying any of the other Geneforge's because of how fresh the writing felt. The Awakened, cautiously surviving and hoping for a better, peaceful life. The Obeyers, with Rydell's gut-wrencher of a personal diary. The story of the "first taker" in the town square of Kazg (don't want to spoil for people who haven't played G1 before). All of the sects seem "insane" when you land on the island and by the time you talk to the characters instead it feels like "how could things be any other way?". I hope as the rest of the series is updated that we see more and more of the ingenuity and freshness that made the story of G1 so great. Compare that to G5 - incredible mechanics and gameplay, but you could just about predict the faction leaders' and citizens views before meeting them and they aren't as memorable. The guy who starts out wanting to control you ... basically wants to carve out his little corner of the world to control and does not change. 1-dimensional. The awakened lady wants... free trade with serviles? And the end of war. 1-dimensional. The shaper guy has a few war stories about losing people close to him and wants to wipe out the baddies. The big baddy drakons are rumored to be power-hungry and insane and when they invite you in to their house they try to murder you a few times as a "test" because they are... power hungry and insane. There are no dimensions to the drakons, they are just varying power levels with the same dose of underlying insanity and pride relative to each individuals' power. Where are the dimensions in G1 you ask? [more spoilers ahead, Alhoon] What of the peaceful, equal-minded awakened? Well, it feels a little different when you discover the violently butchered servile mind in Elrah's basement, and they ask you to "prove your loyalty" by going and killing another. If sentient life is sacred well... it seems the Awakened draw the line on "sentient" where it's most convenient for them. And the most radical Awakened view I ever heard espoused came in G1 - from Learned Darian (I think). What does this sage of the wilderness say? That the mind of humans and serviles is the same, and that serviles are shaped humans, the implication being that in the world of Geneforge exists a race of human beings genetically altered and permanently bent by magic towards a dependent, compliant, obeisant, and a menial existence. I think that's a more edgy "hot take" than G2-G5 manage to put together combined. And how it affects your decisions if you think this is true probably reflects how you role-play the value of human beings vs. very smart robots, etc. For some players, maybe it doesn't change things at all, for some - maybe now they think twice about joining the Awakened or Takers? The obsequious obeyers? They have co-opted some of the authoritarianism of the shapers for themselves, starving Vakkiri and Kazg of resources, sending spies, leveraging servant minds, and killing serviles who question the Shaper's rule. The leader of the sect, Rydell, still thinks he may have a better idea of what a "True Shaper" is than you (depending on your leadership abilities). The "insane" takers? They have survived the worst conditions. Yes they are insane. Yes, they threaten you on sight & their views will inevitably lead to far more war and death than the other sects, how could there be a sympathetic side to a bunch of insane serviles, a good number of whom are magi-cultists? For starters, they have already "taken" their survival. By extension have they not taken freedom? They were left to die by the Shapers. Since they eluded that fate, whatever they want to do with the rest of their lives, and however they choose to guide their descendants is by definition their right to decide. They were cast off, weren't supposed to live, but since they did they now own their own destiny. What a mastapiece! Here's hoping the depth of G1 lives on. Can't wait for mutagen in a couple days!
  13. Well in the "Backer Contribution" thread @Randomizer said that Jeff kept changing something about Guardian abilities because he (Randomizer) was having too easy a time with Guardians, I think on Torment difficulty. So I think they're pretty strong, but some of it also probably comes down to knowing how to build the class. And Jeff is a pretty generous developer in in his games it's usually the case that any class can eventually crush the game if you know how to play it.
  14. The topic sums up the question. In the original Geneforge games, shaper classes would pump Intelligence to get more essence, and a side effect of that was (I think...) increased resistance to mental magic and maybe some other side boosts. In GF1-M, Essence Mastery buffs essence and Intellect buffs spell energy + spell effects. If damage is a "spell effect" then theoretically you could stack Intellect + Spellcraft for some pretty strong buffs. I'm wondering though.. is the net impact of dividing essence mastery and intellect: a) A debuff, in that shapers and agents (who would have originally had to build that one stat + some strength for carrying capacity + endurance) now need to buff 2 stats or be weak in one area? or b) A buff, where shapers will get more essence for their skill point investment (and less spells boosted, which they didn't really need), and agents will get more spell buffing for their skill point investment (and less capacity for shaping, which they didn't really need). If this is a question people care about I can try to run some numbers based on essence gain in G5 and compare essence/stat gain to GF1-M, but I don't know that I'll be able to say much about how the attributes scale over the course of the game since I only have access to the demo so I'm only going to be able to see 3-4 levels worth of stat increases.
  15. That's kind of cool. I think if I used melee creations at all it will be for short-term damage soaking and if they rush in, take damage, and explode on death that seems like an optimal situation all-around. Have you mainly used them as a shaper, agent, guardian, or any class?
  16. It does sound like a pretty strong buff for non-shaper characters, to get bonuses in Battle and Magic shaping if they're at 0, when the shaper starts with them at 1 (but other "expensive" combat skills for the shaper being zero). If the skills shapers start with at 0 don't get buffed for the shapers, would put them at a decent Skill Point disadvantage for their builds. I guess I'll find out with my build - keeping all skills that start at zero at 0 through The Tombs - whether they get buffed or not.
  17. Thank you! I'm used to clicking past the zone then clicking it after having clicked "past" it in a given direction to access the zone from the side I want. It's nice to know I can still modify the direction I enter from just by clicking it repeatedly. I hadn't tried that and thought the feature of being able to enter from whichever angle I pleased had been removed. Sounds good about selling items. I thought I was getting less gold for selling things than I remembered, if it's 1/8 instead of 1/4 that math checks out pretty well. Guess I'll have to get used to using the junk bag and hoarding things in stacks of 8.
  18. That does sound like skills where I'd expect a guardian or agent to start with 0. I think I'll clean up as much of the demo as possible without increasing leadership, mechanics, or spellcraft and see if I can pick those up in the Tombs (which I reckon is the same general area as western Southbridge based on conversation above). While we're talking about not doing things in the demo that hurt your later play-through... any reason to hold onto rubies, gold rings, or other 'valuable' items that it seems at first glance are best sold for gold? I heard crafting was changed and I know there's a cool pair of gauntlets/bracers out there, but I hope I also get to craft a cool ring at some point in the game 😏
  19. I have done that... and thank you 😉 One more thing... Since I'm going to replay a (bit to backtrack before I got Leadership and Spellccraft from the servant mind) there's something else I might change. One thing I liked about the original Geneforge was that it didn't seem to matter if you used a lot of canisters or none. In GF1-M there's already a servile in Vakkiri who can give you a mirror that shows how "affected" you are. If my first play through will be relatively pro-shaper do I need to be pretty cautious about how many canisters I use to achieve a decent ending for that faction?
  20. Thank you - this is exactly what I was curious about. Do you know if these possible buffs raise you from any level (as low as zero) to a predetermined level (say 1, 2, or 3)? Or do they raise your level in that attribute by a certain number of points as long as your level is below a certain threshold? I think it would be possible to get to to the tombs without improving mechanics, to capitalize off any mech buff given in the Tombs. Can you be more specific (is it safe to raise mech to 1 or 2, or will I lose out on bonuses if I do even a small increase)? Follow-up: In Ruined School, the servant mind will upgrade Spellcraft and Leadership by 1 each if your leadership is 4. I take this to mean it might be better to clear The Tombs and Western Southbridge in case a shade/item/entity can increase my spellcraft from starting 0 to 1 or 2. Then I could go back to the servant mind and activate that buff. Since Spellcraft is both expensive with regard to skill points and pretty useful, I might replay the demo to work towards a save where I've cleared everything without activating that bonus from the servant mind. However, if it's a flat increase of 1 point as long as Spellcraft is below a certain threshold (say, 2 or 3), then I don't need to worry about optimizing. I did just mean killing the inutile in Bandit Woods directly north of Vakkiri. It seemed like the best XP was to convince them to leave with leadership (again, 3 or 4), to collect the XP rewards from Vakkiri, then circle back and kill the bandits for XP and gold from selling their items. However the XP and gold from killing the inutile after negotiating a shaky truce are minimal (i.e. no quest XP, only the XP from combat itself), so if there's any reason to leave them alive (for future progression of any quest-line involving the inutile for example) then clearing out their camp would be a mistake.
  21. Just wanted to comment that Torment became a lot easier once I realized creations don’t level and I didn’t need to keep my creations alive. Instead of investing essence in an endurance attribute, pumping fyoras with innate haste and overload allows them to burn through a few enemies, die, and then I travel back to town, rinse, & repeat. It’s still a bit slow but for challenging dungeons you can tailor creation builds to defeat specific rooms and methodically move through them. At least, that was my experience for the demo. Guess I’ll see how much harder torment gets on Wednesday when the game is released.
  22. Questions: 1) How do I spend skill points in the demo in a way that won’t interfere with my play-through when the full game comes out? 2) Are trainers limited to an absolute number of trainings, or do they limit training to a certain attribute number above your character’s baseline? 3) Will fighting/killing the inutile bandit camp in the demo significantly interfere with my ability to play through the "brand new plot line" included as a stretch goal for GF-M? I have a question for those who have finished the game already or at least played through most of the campaign. In the original games (especially on higher difficulty levels) it often seemed helpful, after applying some initial stat points to creation levels, to dump skill points into leadership and mechanics to progress through middle portions of the game, gaining XP without combat, and then as those abilities granted access to gold, trainers, and infiltrator items that increased leadership and mechanics even more, one could simultaneously use skill points gained from new levels to level up shaping and other combat skills, gaining XP from the battles one would have fought without the benefit of leadership and mechanics. If you did any shaping at all, but especially if you played a shaper, I’m wondering if it was also your experience in GF-M that you found it useful to hit certain “thresholds” in leadership and mechanics, and/or if you held off leveling up one or 2 of the shaping schools to focus on leadership and mechanics until they were at certain levels (I seem to remember pushing for mechanics to 6, 9, 10, 11, then up to say 17 with infiltrator gear)? Or did you spread out skill point spend pretty evenly? Part of my reason for asking is I’m playing the heck out of the demo and I think I’m going to take on the inutile camp, bit by bit, just to pass the time until he main game comes out. I could invest in magic shaping to create searing artilas or exploding thahds for the fight, but I don’t want to do so and find out (as soon as the game opens up to the full map) that I needed to have reserved those skill points for mechanics and leadership. Edit: A great example of what I’m talking about would be Elrah’s keep. You can’t access the keep in the GF-M demo. What if Elrah has a trainer that can improve Essence Mastery, but I can only use that trainer to buy 2 levels above the base level? Then if I’ve already spent skill points on essence mastery in the demo... I’ve “lost” that gain I could’ve had by carefully saving gold, and on Torment I’d restart the game/go back to a much earlier save to avoid “losing” those attribute points I could buy with gold (saving precious skill points). In some previous versions of Geneforge, a trainer could only train twice above your base attributes, and if you had already leveled up those attributes you lost the ability to train. Even if only tangentially related to this topic, please feel free to discuss any and all attempts to “power level” in GF-M. One of my favorite things about indie RPGs like these is finding ways to leverage the math/make the game mechanics tilt to your favor to make it through difficulty modes like Torment as if they were normal/hard difficulty (it is actually part of the ‘role-playing’ for me. Playing torment really is ‘realistic’ as I’m this weak know-nothing student, but if through careful application of build points I can “grow” my weak character into someone who can make it through the story then it feels more plausible... as plausible as any CRPG can be anyway!).
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