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To be clear on the math, you actually multiply by (1 - resist%) for each separate piece of armor/resistance to determine damage received. So wearing two 40% armors gives you 60% * 60% = 36% damage taken, or 64% armor total. Multiplying the armor percentages directly will never give you the right answer, except for with 50%, because 1-.5 = .5

Yeah... you run into the same problem though. Anyone who's going to be meaningfully helpful could just make their own game. That way they get to make their dream a reality, and they get to make money off of it. And that's one of the main reasons indie game makers are overwhelmingly one-programmer outfits. Anyway, Jeff has written about this in the past. Probably in his blog somewhere; he's definitely also discussed it in AMAs and the like. The bottom line is it's just not how he wants to do things.

Part-timer or not, anyone who is actually doing the coding is going to make a lot more than $10-15 an hour. And when I say "a lot," I really mean a lot.

There's nothing wrong with not optimizing! And literally no one in either thread has ever said there was. The problem is with presenting inaccurate information about the power of different skills, creations, etc., as if it is an authoritative guide. That's misleading. If you don't want to be criticized for inaccurate assessments, then I suggest either 1) respond to people when they write friendly replies that attempt to help with these things, as in the previous thread; or 2) call your work "how I beat Torment with class X" or something, rather than "guide to class X". "Guide" implies that you are guiding people with, you know, effective information. So if people disagree with your advice, they are going to say so. It's not because they are "offended" by the fact that you didn't "hyper-optimize", it's because they don't want people who read your guide to be misled. 3) The other option, of course, is to just be cool with the fact that there will be criticism. IMO, #1 is the most productive choice, but to each his own. And just to be clear: I 100% respect the time you put into writing these guides. I think it's a great project. But that doesn't mean I'm going to ignore their flaws, any more than you should when I write something.

I'm going to be less kind this time, because you didn't engage with any of the (frankly, kind and thoughtful) feedback we gave you about the previous guide. Nobody's going to rip on you for not using Vlish in G4, where they aren't actually that great; but it is really unfortunate that, even in this second guide, you have not corrected your erroneous understanding of the ways creations can gain levels, including via shaping skills. That changes the balance of different build options dramatically, and explains why you may be basically the only player ever to recommend Kyshakks over Wingbolts. Kyshakks are fine, but G4 Wingbolts are serious competition for G3 Vlish when it comes to being a brokenly powerful creation. Sorry. Wish I could be more enthusiastic.

If you want Guardians to be useful, just make melee attacks stronger for everyone. Then they have a better attack and their (fairly modest) advantage in tanking matters more.

Something that obliterates the contents of all unopened containers, on the other hand...

This is a very interesting perspective. I appreciate that you state at the beginning that Guardians aren't an optimal, powergaming class -- although of course they are very playable -- and I love the "suboptimal really just means a better challenge" perspective. There are maybe a few exaggerations in describing Guardian capabilities but I suppose they deserve the love! One thing about the "two island tax" is that you don't have to pay it right away -- and if you plan on using creations in any capacity whatsoever, you will permanently cripple yourself by boosting those skills before shaping skills and Intelligence. I appreciate your honesty about not having tried vlish -- here are the key points of mechanics that you're missing: 1) G3 is by far the most generous, of all Geneforge games, in terms of the rewards your creations receive for sticking around with you. Your creations receive a flat portion of the XP that you do (around 75% with a full party), regardless of what level they're at. All SW games scale XP down quite sharply as the PC rises in level. This means that if you make a creation early in the game with a high starting level -- quite easy to do when you pay attention to your shaping stats, which literally just give +1 level at creation for the first 10 points -- that creation can end up progressing in level both further and faster than it would if it were a PC. 2) All creations have nearly identical stat progression. Some of them do have flat additive bonuses to HP, for example, but those are pretty modest compared to the natural increases that come with levelling up. (The HP formula is something like Level * Endurance -- I forget exactly -- but since creation Endurance also goes up every other level, the growth is essentially exponential.) Since all core creation stats rise with level, raising their level matters more than anything else -- see point 1 for everything that incentivizes. Of course, there are meaningful differences between creations in damage dice, in attack elements (as you note), and sometimes in resistances (though less often than one might think, especially in those early games). 3) What makes a bigger difference than dice and elements, due to point 1, is how soon creations become available, and how much they cost in Essence. It's not that Vlish are head and shoulders better than other creations on a 1-to-1 basis (although they are better than many): it's that they are incredibly cheap for how good they are and how early you can make them. Check out the table here: http://spiderwebforums.ipbhost.com/topic/5111-broken-vlish-a-too-long-analysis/ Anyway, as you can probably guess, I disagree with the bulk of your creation suggestions It sounds like you never pumped your Shaping skills above the bare minimum, which is why you were able to jump around between shaping types so much, but also why you saw much more significant base level differences than are really the case. Also, since you kept making new ones, they didn't have time to power up. Creations can be many times stronger than the ones it sounds like you had following you around; and when that happens, Thahds actually aren't more durable than other options, Searing Artilas are not actually more efficient for DPS, etc.

I have some rough numbers from testing CotA in some topic somewhere. IIRC it was +20/30/40%.

I disagree about Spellcraft vs Parry. Spellcraft only increases damage by "+2%" -- which I place in quotes because it's not a flat x1.02 multiplier, rather all magic damage increases are added together, so the more you get, the more it drops; with Cloak of the Arcane active and the obvious spell damage traits, Spellcraft points will typically be increasing damage output between 1% and 1.4% each. However, Randomizer makes a good point about Resistance, which is definitely more useful than Spellcraft.

Oh... wow. MagmaDragoon? Seriously? It's been... um, what, 12 years? Hope you're doing well! -- Slarty On topic: There were parts of the Avadon 2 romance option that were done well, and certainly other parts that weren't. I don't personally think that first-person pick-your-line-of-dialogue systems are ideally suited to romance. Love is too dynamic, too interactive, too all-encompassing to reach with choose-your-own-adventure dialogue. No! in the fairy-tale when she has breathed ‘I love,’ the prince, all pale, feels his own ugliness pour up in flame— but I, beloved, you see am still the same -- Cyrano de Bergerac, perhaps while playing Avadon 2

That one was definitely posted about the board a few times. It isn't super active but as it does already have a lot of members, it might make sense to just build on that.

Isn't there already an SW discord? Edit: Yeah, this one: https://discord.gg/r3V98S

You could always mod anything. That's not generally relevant when someone asks a game mechanics question. That said, I am pretty much always in favor of unlimited-ammo mods for SW games, where ammo is just busywork.

G4 is probably the hardest -- its semi-linear progression through areas means that you can't always "just wait till you're stronger", and it doesn't have any of the things that made particular classes "easy mode" in the previous 3 games, nor does it have the nutso bonus resistances of G5. G5 is probably harder than the first three as well -- not as much as G4, but it at least does balance out some of the creations that were a little too good in G4 (*cough cough* wingbolts) Alternate answer: G1 and G2 are the hardest because you have to use that @#$ inventory interface

None of the Geneforge games are very hard with any class, if you are good with tactics and pay attention to what works and doesn't in the engine. Yes, that is even true for most parts of the game on Torment if you really know what you're doing. That doesn't mean the classes are all equally strong. And, indeed, they aren't, not even close.

What no one has mentioned, for some reason, is that the relative strength of Guardians is very different in different Geneforge games. G1 - Definitely an effective class, though not "easy mode" like shapers are G2 - Arguably the best class, certainly a strong and straightforward option G3 - Seriously nerfed; weakest option by far G4 - Warriors instead of Guardians; still very weak G5 - Still very weak, although the unintentional inherent resistances of the 3 older classes at least offer some reason to use a Guardian

Yeah, it's not especially hard even without speed boosters, but if someone is having trouble, those are the obvious suggestions to make. Note that they won't do anything at all if you're not in combat mode already, so I think people just assume you use combat mode for it.

I'm pretty sure you can register with it being "Exile" -- just not "Exiles" plural. "Avernum" should work the same way, FWIW. Plenty of Exile fanciers among the mods here! I don't remember if conflict is specified, but the Vahnatai do indicate in X2 that they were familiar with the Slithzerikai from before the Resting.

That was my experience too, originally. Not a hard experience to have I think (especially if you were only playing Exile because it was included, unadvertised, in the Realmz download). I did come around by E2 and bought both games at that point.

"I just built a time machine. Let's go assassinate Hitler!" "Great, after we do that, uhhhh, I have a list of fancruft errands that would make me really tickled with myself... we'll have to infiltrate Usenet though, are you cool with that?"

They did, in fact, exist in the original Exile: EFTP, way back in 1994! Just goes to show that coincidences can and do happen.

This is honestly pretty tame compared to a typical TM surprise-it's-a-rakshasa RP.

Okay, I have to give you credit for that last link. Still, in before somebody invokes RiB.

Ooooh, nice catch!