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Slarti

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Posts posted by Slarti

  1. I wonder if it's an emulation hiccup.  Saying this because there's no record of anyone on the internet reporting this before (and given how heavily E3 and BoE were discussed on these forums 20+ years ago, I can't believe no one ever tried to poison arrows), while there are some reports of being experiencing really weird things using OTVDM with BoE.

     

    Notably, there is a report of Capture Soul always using slot 1.  Which slot Capture Soul picks is random -- well attested -- which suggests something really goofy is going on with the RNG call, when played under OTVDM.  The same post says there are other "sometimes" glitches -- it doesn't elaborate on them, but that could also be consistent with an RNG issue.  Emulation can affect RNGs due to initialization values, etc.  Usually we're used to seeing old systems suddenly have better RNG when emulated (think about the old exploits for NES games where you'd restart, perform a specific series of actions, and then guarantee a particular encounter or whatever), but I guess this could be working the other way around.  And it's definitely possible that something about the poison chance RNG is different for ranged attacks vs melee (maybe just in terms of order of things in the code rather than an intended gameplay difference).  (The report was for BoE, but something similar could presumably happen here -- they share an awful lot of code.)

     

    There are also reports in that thread of text inconsistently missing values... which could point to something weird going on with memory read/write.  Definitely a possibility with emulation, if the game is handling it in an unusual way.  (Looks like OTVDM has had issues in the past with heap sizing that are attested, could be something like that.)

     

    And here's another thread that suggests truly bizarre RNG with OTVDM, this time E3 itself.  I don't think E3 even had a door strength setting that could produce such low chances for success at bashing a regular door with 18 Strength.

     

    If you have a way (and the time) to try out a different emulation method (like just DOSBox) with a transferred save, it might be worth seeing if you experience the same behavior.

  2. Weird.

     

    I assume you get the same behavior when using other bows and arrows, when attacking other monsters, when the PC has more skill in archery or poison, etc.?  Just trying to think of any possible unknown edge case that could explain this...

     

    I assume from your other posts this is just in Exile III, right?

  3. Poisoned arrows were definitely a thing since the very first game.  The in-game tips even talk about them.  (And "poisoned weapon" is just tracked by a simple status effect -- it applies to the PC, not the specific weapon.)

     

    I dunno -- can you be more specific about exactly what you're observing?  You're following exactly the same sequence both times, but melee attacks are applying poison but ranged attacks never are?

     

    What do you have equipped?

  4. Some great insights in here.

     

    6 hours ago, Murreh said:

    Class-Based Resistance
    I have yet to test this myself and I certainly will once I get playing, but taken from another post and seemingly confirmed more than once... the Shaper faction classes inherit resistances from their base monster type (at least in G5), which by itself is insanely powerful given how high the bonuses are.  It's probably an unintended consequence of reusing resources from older games, but if this is true, these resistances do NOT show up on the equipment/character screens.  I'm not certain if the imported bonuses stack past the "90% cap", I'll have to test this later on in the endgame.  Early on it gives these three classes an enormous bonus.  Actually capping resistances isn't necessary to become "functionally as tough as is necessary".

    I can help out with a few of these questions:

    1. This is only in G5; as you surmise, it's the result of the 3 loyalist classes being directly edited for NPC use in G4, and then having the NPC style resists accidentally preserved in G5.

    2. They do not break the 90% cap.

    Comment: It's a fairly enormous bonus for the entire game, unless you are going well past 86% resistance without those bonuses (which is pretty hard to do without sacrificing other bonuses for it).  (86% is around the point where a 30% bonus will get you to the 90% cap.)  Though I suppose you're also right that if you simply don't need more survivability because you are truly fluent in glass cannon, then it's not necessary.  Of course, there's no downside to taking those classes; the only real consideration is if you want to go Sorceress instead (and from a strict minmaxing perspective it doesn't beat out the resist bonuses, despite Sorceress being the imaginary class we salivated over through all the previous games).

  5. Ugh, I forgot about Leadership.  I was testing on friendly drayks.

     

    Here's the thing -- I never once saw Terror resisted, but Daze was close to 50/50.  I think I ran about 30 trials of each.  That's really weird in combination with your results.  But I guess weird happens.

     

    Testing on friendlies is necessary, I think, since those are the only creations where we can be truly sure there are no hardcoded modifications made to them.

  6. Yeah, it's just a question of value for skill points.  It sounds like we agree both that it's not literally worthless and that it's not a great value.

     

    I do seem to recall another recent debate :) where you said you rely on creations to land acid (so the buff duration won't help there) and that acid dealt 80% of your damage in the toughest fights of the game (so the airshock damage increase won't do much there).

  7. If you're a shaper, I would argue that it is actually pretty bad.  You get +5% additive to spell damage (easily outpaced by even a third of a stat point to a creation skill); +5% additive to healing spells (potentially useful, if your heal spells are actually falling short, but that's pretty unlikely); and +5% additive to buff/debuff duration (very meh).

  8. Alternate take: you're better off ignoring creation "control" levels entirely.  Having more and stronger creations means you're more likely to kill things before they damage your creations in the first place -- or inflict their own status effects on them.

     

    This is especially true on higher difficulties, where your creations will sometimes get one-shot anyway, and where (as Randomizer noted) accuracy is extra relevant.

     

    Shaping skill and essence mastery are definitely the two good picks, and you'll eventually increase both, so improve what you want.  I'd probably go shaping skill at this point, as you're going fire shaping and you have more than enough essence to have a good number of fyoras with the key skills (haste + fire breath + ability spam) already.

  9. 14 hours ago, Craig234 said:

    I noticed the shaper skills say they apply increases to creatures you already have, but increasing the skill didn't change the creature level or hp. But when I made new creatures, it did increase them.

     

    It does increase their level (and thus HP), it just takes a few seconds to take effect.

  10. 17 hours ago, alhoon said:

    love the idea that the drayk could cunningly pretend to not be rogue. How ... cunning.  But wouldn't the Shaper know that the mental chains have broken?

    No, at least not necessarily.  The Mutagen codex is clear on this:

    "Only the most skilled Shapers can keep them under control. They can be entirely rogue and still pretend to be obedient."

  11. It's 8 leadership for the Awakened and Obeyers, and 10 leadership for the Takers.  This is surprisingly affordable skill points wise and you do get other useful benefits out of it.  The Takers are arguably the most important one to use leadership on since the alternatives involve permanently closing off either the Obeyers or the Sholai rebels.

     

    If you want to powergame it I'd suggest the following:

     

    1) Answer just a few questions pro-servile, kill Control Four, and join the Awakened.  (Consider raiding the tombs before getting the free combat training, if you have any zeroes in those skills.)  You can join very early in the game, and the experience for a lot of the associated quests, like Control Four, has a very low level for scaling, so you may as well take advantage of that.

     

    2) Answer a bunch of questions anti-servile, get Leadership to 8, and join the Obeyers.  (Probably do Demel's quest in the Thorny Woods at this point so you can finish Mickall Blade's quests; you can't do it as a Taker.  Also, if possible, make your way to Drayk's Vale and purchase Leadership training from Halm, since you can't do that once you have the Trajkov amulet.  If you put that off, you could use Gavrila, who temporarily steals the amulet, as a chance to get it later.)

     

    3) Use Learned Darian to go back to pro-servile opinion, get Leadership to 10, and join the Takers.

     

    The main incentive for doing the Awakened first is that you save a set of Mind Nutrients.  There are enough sets of it to feed every servant mind that can only be awoken with nutrients, but having an extra set of hand can be very convenient depending on what order you do the zones in.  You can technically feed Control Four and then (without talking to Rydell) kill it for an extra set of experience, but I'd rather save time and hold onto the nutrients; ymmv.  And if you want to simplify answering opinion questions (or just want that Create Fyora +1 ASAP), you could certainly join the Obeyers first.  (This would also allow you to put off Leadership till you want the Takers, as you can go back and kill Control Four even after joining the Obeyers.)

  12. Because being rogue is not the same thing as going rogue.  A "rogue" alpha that has been rogue for years because it's been in an environment with no shapers and lots of independent creations, is not the same thing as a controlled and essentially fettered alpha suddenly, without warning, in the middle of a chaotic combat, having its mental chains snap and becoming free, without guidance and probably with quite a bit of disorientation.  Alphas weren't engineered to think, they were engineered with combat reflexes; it's not hard to imagine why it might lash out in such a situation.

     

    A drayk is a different question; the lore is extremely clear that drayks are "dangerously smart and independent" -- and particularly "cunning," a word that is used to describe them in multiple places just in G1.  Mutagen says shapers need a difficult to acquire license in order to make drayks; in original Geneforge they had been barred entirely, apparently without exception, for over a century.  A drayk that has gone rogue might deliberately target its creator in order to avoid being controlled again; but more than that, the game notes the possibility that it might already have been rogue, simply hiding it and waiting for the right moment to strike.

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