Slariton

@Lorn Friendly mod request: please stop posting random questions in completely unrelated topics. I've moved a bunch of them here. It's OK to post these questions - in this topic - in a new topic made for that question - in an existing topic where your question is closely related This makes it easier for other people to find information here. Thanks!

Go back to where you began and take the path back to civilization. G2 has exceptionally few fetch quests, especially compared to other games of this style. I've suggested this before, but when you encounter a lock that requires a large number of living tools to open, don't open it. This almost always means there is a key or a quest that will unlock it without using any living tools. If you insist on spending living tools that way, that's the one thing that will surely cause you to run out.

No, because you already start with one "purchased" level.

As previously noted, the game doesn't use the term "loyalist" in that way, and in OG2 "loyalist" was used to describe Zakary's faction, so it's probably best to use terms that won't cause confusion, like "non-aligned"

You are wrong. The levels of training that you begin the game with, which includes Create Fyora and Firebolt (and I think Minor Heal) count as purchased levels, not canister levels.

It doesn't say you're forced to join the factions either, and a variety of NPCs suggest that you don't need to. How much hand-holding does the player really need?

There is no quest line for the non-aligned ending, only requirements to get it to trigger. Kill Barzahl, kill the Taker leaders (you can ignore Syros), don't be part of any faction.

Tyallea is the fastest, if you join Zakary. Then Tuldaric if you join the Awakened (more zones, but half of those are 100% friendly) Then Kima. One of many cases where nlambert's index has a lot of useful information.

Yes. As explained many times already, yes. Previously, rots cost 18 (or 23 with Overload) and attacked 1.5x more often than a regular hasted unit. (Possibly missing an attack in round 1 is worth considering, but it's not quite a "probably" situation if you invest in Stealth.) Now they cost 23 (or 28 with Overload), since you have to pay for the haste augment, and they attack 1.37x more often than a regular hasted unit. (They can land acid, but it's just regular acid unless you pay another extra 5 essence.) Compare to battle alphas. Battle alphas are cheaper; they come with both daze and cleave, and they have stun and leap abilities which are both pretty useful. Compare to drakons. Drakons cost 24 essence, nearly the same as a just-haste rot, deal much more damage by default even after accounting for the haste (142 vs 102), attack at range, and apply a better DoT. A rot with Overload can deal a bit more damage (178 vs 142) but in exchange for that, it (1) costs more, (2) loses HP each round, and (3) is stuck with melee range. For any scenario with >1 enemy, the drayk comparison is even more damning. It's not that rots are worthless now, it's that they used to do one thing (single target DPS) more efficiently than any other creation. Now they don't. And because they were the only battle creation that had that distinction, them getting worse makes battle shaping as a whole less enticing.

"The battle creation stats went down" 1) This suggests all battle creations had stats go down (they didn't) 2) Stats is plural here, which suggests more than one number went down (it didn't) 3) Creatures have stats. So do items. So do abilities. If v1.0.3 nerfs the Firebolt spell's damage, we wouldn't say the PC's stats went down, even though the PC can cast Firebolt.

To clarify: Battle creation stats did not go down. At all. The Rotghroth basic attack no longer costs 6 AP. That's the only nerf to battle creations. It's just a big nerf, due to the rot being by far the most attractive battle creation. FWIW this is not good advice for most of the original Geneforges. (And that topic is from 7 years ago, so it's not talking about the remakes.) Heck, it's not even something you can really do in the second half of the series, given how they are structured. In G2 there are better creations to dash to, and in G1 essence cost + xp mechanics prevent drayks from being all that dominant until later in the game.

Simply replace the modified Scripts folder, with your backup copy. (If you changed the PC's walking speed by reading the sign, you will also need to revert to a previous save.)

Yeah, he changed it for the Mental and Blessing Magic tooltips, but not the tooltips for the spells, unfortunately.

Jeff asked me to send him a simpler set of modified tooltips. He used a couple of them. I am happy that at least mental magic and blessing magic now say "duration" rather than "effect." This will get updated after Overrun, and it will probably just use Overrun style tooltips rather than the base game's style. Since Jeff seems to be vaguely threatening a v103, I also might wait to see whether or not that materializes rather than needing to update it twice.

"newer games in older game engine" is really what we need more of

The double speed "issues" are quite rare and it seems possible that v1.02 has actually fixed them -- I haven't tested but that seems to be exactly the sort of thing referred to in the terrain placement item in the patch notes. Note that this mod has NOT been updated for v1.02. If that happens, it will happen after I get around to updating Overrun. So for now, don't use it.

Items and training purchased from merchants. Definitely worth pursuing early if you intend to buy 2 levels of training in everything for some painful reason.

If that last comment is a reference to my analysis thread, but you're posting it here for some reason: Battle Alphas are absolutely not tier 1, and that was not stated anywhere. Rotghroths are simply much worse. Battle Alphas did not get better. My assessment has them at tier 3, which is better than anything else in battle shaping. EDIT: re Magical Creation augments, I think this is just a reference to the stat augments. Glaahks used to have a Str+ augment for example, but their melee attack doesn't use Strength (because it does energy damage), so that was changed to Magic+.

It's not potential, it's already happened. Battle Alphas are probably the best battle creation now, overall, yeah. They have some ability to try and use statuses to control things, they have a leap, which makes wasted early turns less likely, and they are adequately sturdy. Less sturdy than rots, but also cheaper than rots. If you really wanted to go battle shaping, you might still run 1 or 2 rots for the DoT and to have slightly sturdier frontliners. But I'd lean most on alphas. (But I also wouldn't go battle shaping in the first place, not anymore.)

PRELIMINARY UPDATE TO ANALYSIS FOR v1.02 (updates in bold) Overview Infestation has maybe the best balance among Shaping Types from any Geneforge game, old or new. Some creations are still a lot better than others, but each shaping type is quite strong when used correctly, and each excels in different situations. Battle Shaping can pump out an obscene amount of ST damage when in melee range, making it especially good against tough high-HP enemies where there is one primary threat that doesn't move around. Closing to melee swiftly is crucial. It also has the sturdiest creations, so pairs well with healing. Fire Creations, Best to Worst Tier 1: Drayks (26/14 essence for LV 16, Survival 201, DPS 78(135) w/ AoE spam) Tier 2: Fyoras . (12/6 essence for LV 14, Survival 101, DPS 39(67) w/ AoE spam) - Best offensive passives lets them spam AoE cone attacks with average output boosted 37% via haste chance (it's +50% but stacks additively with the Haste status) Tier Nope: Cryodrayks (33/18 essence for LV 17, Survival 208, DPS 91 w/ Daze) Battle Creations, Best to Worst Tier 4: Rotghroths (28/18 essence for LV 19, Survival 351, DPS 102(178) w/ Acid + DoT Boost) - Downgraded from Tier 1 to Tier 4 - Usable as an alternate Battle Alpha, trading the stun, daze, and cleave -- and leap! -- of the alpha for acid and a little extra damage - If you skip the parenthical Overload damage, essence cost is 23 - 6 AP attack means unparalleled ST damage for their essence cost if they can stay in close melee range - Tankiest creation outside of Rotdhizons, and tankiest by a mile for their essence cost if you don't invest in their DPS Tier 4: Thahds . . . . . . (12/6 essence for LV 14, Survival 141, DPS 42 w/ Stun/Daze) Tier Nope: Rotdhizons . (33/26 essence for LV 19, Survival 459, DPS 120 w/ Acid + DoT Boost) Magic Creations, Best to Worst Tier 4: Artilas (11/7 essence for LV 15, Survival 117, DPS 37 or 58 w/ Poison) Tier 5: Searing Artila (24/12 essence for LV 16, Survival 104, DPS 42 w/ AoE spam + Acid)

Moderately. The changes to haste and rots make balance worse, so I'm waiting to see if they stick around before I update anything.

Setting a status effect at range is not the same thing as meaningful "ranged damage." And endgame enemies are also more likely to have high resistances that make status effects not so handy.

v1.02 of the base game is now out. v1.02 of Overrun may take longer than expected -- I am waiting to see whether or not Spiderweb sticks with the extremely confusing changes to rotghroths and to the innate haste passive. In particular, if the passive change is here to stay, I'll be mildly nerfing every creation with access to that passive to compensate.

One more reason I'm glad I don't use Firefox anymore, I suppose. I dunno what to say.

There's an analogy here to a broader topic: the difference between manually-generated content and procedurally-generated content. For more than 4 decades now, both types of computer RPGs have thrived. One has never driven the other out of existence. That's because have different strengths and weaknesses. People like alhoon will say that procedurally-generated content is "infinite content," but really it's not. This is because, as you play it repeatedly, the actual game space of the game, aka the actual gameplay experience, shifts slightly from what it is in a static, deliberately crafted game. Consider a traditional RPG that has 6 different weapons, with strengths of 4, 8, 12, 16, 20, and 24. Each weapon also has 1 or 2 special abilities. And they are found or sold in different places at intervals throughout the game. Players will quickly figure out which ones are most useful, which ones are good values for different portions of the game, for different classes or characters, etc. And then those strategies will be the same every playthrough. Now consider a procedurally-generated RPG that has random weapon drops. Their strengths vary from 2 to 28, they have random combinations of special abilities, and the places they are found and sold in will vary. Players will quickly figure out which possible generated weapons are most likely to be useful, where the most efficient places to look for them are, which classes might care more or less about finding the best one, etc. And then those strategies will be the same every playthrough. The strategic game space moves from being about the static values to ranges of possibles values. In a way this is more complex, but it doesn't actually add any strategic depth. It's not richer than a deliberately crafted game, and it's certainly not infinitely rich. It is differently, likely refreshing, and worth playing for a lot of reasons. But the array of possible results doesn't actually end up being richer than a sequence of deliberately crafted ones. And the array is the same every time, the boundaries of possibility are the same every time, even though the exact weapons you see won't be.