Aoslare

Damage dice were also different in OG.  OG1 and OG2 had much larger melee damage dice.  From OG3 on they were brought down from mostly d8 to d4 and d5.

 

26 minutes ago, Displayed Name said:

"My melee guardian rolled over Torment."

Yes, focusing melee on PC is viable. Torment is lenient enough as is. It is just worse than other options.

 

This, this, this.  Except replace "melee guardian" with all the other things people say this about.

It doesn't get mentioned in five games and would create gaping plot holes if it were a thing.  You could just as well say "hey maybe shapers can fly."  The games never say they can't!

Shaping a creation into existence from scratch is not the same thing as shaping an existing creation to augment or alter or heal it.

 

Also... humans aren't creations.

 

There is zero in the games to suggest they could do this, and it would be a gaping plot hole if they could.  Every other shaper rule gets broken over the course of the series.  This is just not a thing.

 

4 hours ago, earanhart said:

Push has a really good stun rate on it.

No, it doesn't.  Push has exactly the same stun rate as Airshock or any other attack.

 

Abilities do not have different rates of landing status effects.  If the attack hits, and the status isn't resisted (which is just a resistance % check), it lands.  (This is why Delirium applies Daze twice -- this effectively gives you 2 chances to land it, because this is the only way the engine actually has to make an ability more likely to land a status.)  (Well, I guess there are also abilities which have a chance of not even attempting to land the status, as happens with e.g. the Cockatrice AoE statuses, but I don't think this applies to any of the PC's stunning abilities.)

 

And late game bosses... heck, even most early game bosses basically all have very high Stun resist.  They also take multiple turns per round so applying 1 turn of Stun is only a fraction as effective as it sounds like.

Yup, those have switched to Fire Shaping ( = All Shaping ), you got it.

It's not 1:1.  As the in-game text says, and as stated above in this thread, it's -1 Health (not Endurance) for the first canister, -2 for the second, etc., capping at -6 for canisters 6 and beyond.

 

Endurance:

Increases Health by (5 + Level/2) per pt

Before class multiplier: 1.5 (Guardian) or 1.3 (Agent) or 1.0 (Shaper)

 

This means that at endgame, let's say level 20, one point of Endurance is worth 2.5 canisters for a Shaper, 3 for an Agent, or nearly 4 for a Guardian.  (And that's after the first 5 canisters, which are even cheaper.)

Update on Randomizer's bug report: apparently, the Mac version of Infestation uses smaller string variables than the PC version, for some reason.  This is unfortunate.  What this means:

 

- PC users - there is no issue for you.

- Mac users - for now, just don't pick up the book in the Magus Complex library that is called "Wild Adventure" in the base game.  It's not a quest item, all it does it get sold for 17 coins, so you can just ignore it.  I've checked and this issue should not affect anything else in the game.  I will adjust the text in v1.02 when that comes out.

3 hours ago, Hyperion703 said:

Both Daze and Wrack lasted one or two turns before it wore off regardless of my MM skill level.

 

Mental Magic only raises their durations by 8% (on average), which you're not going to notice when the base duration is a small number like 2 or 3.  Raising your skill level in that specific spell raises their durations by 25% (on average).

 

However, you complained right after this that fights only lasted a couple turns, so one or two turns of the effect should be plenty?

 

3 hours ago, Hyperion703 said:

It felt unnecessary; spending one turn’s actions so I could roll the debuff dice each turn did not seem particularly worthwhile if the fight only lasted a couple turns.

 

Some fights definitely last longer on higher difficulty, so this may be where not every spell is going to be relevant to every play experience.

 

3 hours ago, Hyperion703 said:

No cure for burning love? Really? Essence Shield was crucial here, as I never found another way to avoid the life loss. Maybe the Healing skills suite could include a solution when someone tries to turn you into a walking campfire.

 

Why does there have to be a solution that involves curing it?  If every debuff is just something you remove by using ability X, that reduces the variety in the game.  It reduces the variety of strategies you might use in response to different enemies and what they throw at you.  Having debuffs that can't be cured and where you instead have to mitigate the effects is a great thing, IMO.

  

3 hours ago, Hyperion703 said:

The missed opportunity to include a robust system for item crafting is truly perplexing. All these unusable Fine Mined Crystals and gemstones. All these unused Enchanted Anvils. It’s so clear and obvious that I’m half wondering if this element of the game was originally intended, but left out for time or budgetary reasons.

 

No.  The gemstones are a major cash source, and the fine mined crystals do in fact have multiple crafting applications.  (They aren't exciting ones, but they exist.)

 

This is one of those RPG elements that some people really love and a lot of other people don't care about.  There's a long list of elements like that.  Not every game is going to have all of them, and the fewer people involved in a game's creation, the fewer are going to be there, because they take some time to create.

 

3 hours ago, Hyperion703 said:

Haste does not stack with Quick Action. Sadness. Even though some enemies get three actions per turn, your flexes will rarely be as hard. I *think* I recall haste stacking with Spell Mastery, like once or twice. Not sure.

 

This is incorrect.  But, there is a nuance that the tooltips don't explain, which is relevant here.

 

Haste and Quick Action (and other skills with that effect) do stack.  They increase the chance that you get the reduced AP consumption effect.

 

However, the "Hasted!" or "Quick Action!" effect that reduces your AP consumption can only trigger once per turn, no matter how many possible sources of it you have, or how many actions you take.

 

Also, the "Quick Action" skill itself doesn't trigger off spells.  Spellcraft does that.  (This bit is in the tooltips.)

 

The Gloves of Spell Mastery effect is unique (it's actually hardcoded) and seems to have no effect on Haste/QA whatsoever.  It can also apparently trigger multiple times per turn.

 

3 hours ago, Hyperion703 said:

Otherwise, Quicklash is six essence worth of pointless if you have high enough Haste or QA. I’m sure this can be explained.

 

Quicklash is overpriced in essence IMO, but it is not "pointless" just because you have some Haste/QA.  Quicklash guarantees you get a second cast.  Haste/Spellcraft cannot be raised high enough to actually guarantee that.  So if it's crucial, the spell can really make a difference.

 

 

3 hours ago, Hyperion703 said:

Lastly, it’s kind of rough that there are so many duplicated “unique” magic items

 

Actually, I feel like there are fewer duplications than we often see in games (especially compared to games with random magic item drops).  Per nlambert's index, I count 88 magic items that are completely unique, and 46 that are duplicated.  (This excludes listed items which are obviously generic, like Shaped Boots, but it does include items whose status as magical is ambiguous, like Swamp Boots.)

@Randomizer

 

I downloaded your save, plugged it in, and loaded it up.  I don't get crashes hitting get item, hovering over the book, or picking up the book.  Or doing anything else.

 

Whatever is going on is specific to your installation, somehow.  My only other thought is to reinstall G2 entirely -- if you had file corruption on the mod previously, maybe you have file corruption in some other component of G2 unrelated to the mod?

That's not really parallel to the wandering-journeyman thing.  That would be like the apprentice going and finding a different master to apprentice under for the second part of their apprenticeship.

3 hours ago, Randomizer said:

I'm using Overrun v101 on the v101 game version. I had some problems installing it since the first time I downloaded it, the files got corrupted.

 

Then I'm guessing your files got corrupted again.  It should take 30 seconds to redownload and reinstall, can you try that?

Weird.  That doesn't happen for me at all.  And the only difference from the base game item is text changes.

 

Are you by any chance using an updated version of the beta testing app?  I'm wondering if that has any difference from the release version.

@Randomizer

I can't duplicate this, and double-checking the relevant files, I can't find anything wrong.  Is there any message in the console before it crashes?  If not, can you send me the save where this happens?

 

Also, is this a fresh game begun with the mod installed, or is this an old save loaded with the mod?

 

EDIT: Also, if you're actually seeing "Wild Adventures" with that text then let me know -- if so, something has gone wrong with your files, because that's not possible with the mod installed.

Sorkin isn't in Pentil, he's in Pentil East.

For Jaffee, I think you might need to learn the Sholai language exists first.

See below for Masha's location.

 

From the Mutagen index linked in Strategy Central:

 

Sholai language lessons:
From Learned Jaffee in Pentil. Obeyers only.
From Sorkin in Pentil East. Awakened only.
A tome above the Stairs in Kazg. Included if you learn it from Toivo. 2,54.
From Toivo in Kazg. Counts double, but contains the information in the tower. Takers only.
From Masha in the Refugee Cave, or a case to the west. Complete "Recover Sea Chest Key" first. Counts double.
A tome in the northwest building of the Patrolled Dell. Get one from another source first. 15,5.
From Znaf in the Winding Road for 500/1000 coins. Leadership 1, and cheaper with 3.
From Gavrila in Crossroads. Not available if you have the Trajkov Amulet.
In a tome south of the center of the Research Quarters. 21,22 and 32,35.

On Veteran and Torment only.

 

The reduction is also fairly tiny.  The goal there was just to create somekind of trade-off so that there's actually a reason to think "is this canister worth using?" rather than blindly using all of them.

3 hours ago, Lorn said:

You do not have a pre-determined route to follow, but if you don't follow what's intended by the dev, you are simply
a) wasting your time
b) going to explore low level places only for a completionist thing, because being higher level you don’t get any xp, only lore related things and you still waste time killing the creatures (well you are indeed faster given that you are higher level).

 

If you consider combat to be a waste of time rather than something that is at least slightly fun in and of itself, I think you will find a large part of the RPG genre -- and especially the classic RPG genre -- to be annoying.

 

This is kind of just how the genre works.  It's like playing a platformer and saying that you need to receive a quantifiable reward of some sort every time you jump.

I don't know why you're so focused on forcing a modern-education-system structure onto shaper training, but that's really not going to help anyone figure out what zone this is.  (And if we're gonna nitpick, "artillae" is not the plural, no matter how much you want to force Latin into things.)

Been forever but I want to say they're the reward for some kind of testing area normally used by the school to train students?

I agree about Essence Lash.  (And Chain Lightning I don't think holds up as well as the others, mainly because you'd usually rather just Essence Lash.)

 

Guardian's Roar is situational, and it's worse than what you can do with Mental Magic or Magic Creations.  But if you're running a Fire or (especially) Battle shaping guardian who avoids magic, it's your crowd control option.  I might call it underwhelming compared to other abilities in the game, but I'm not sure I would in this context, as it fills a completely different niche from the other weapon shaping skills.  The important thing isn't that it makes them run away, it's that it stops them from attacking you while they're terrified.

Whoops.  Pasted the wrong link.

 

Discussion actually here: https://spiderwebforums.ipbhost.com/topic/28862-factions/#comment-325110

Edit: Irrelevant discussion here, see below for correct link: https://spiderwebforums.ipbhost.com/topic/30084-powergaming-the-sects/#comment-327615

2 hours ago, Broken Mind said:

When I completed my unaligned playthrough I recall the ending mentioning that the Shaper Council had already heard most of what I was telling them.

 

Not quite.  What the ending actually says is:

 

"As you speak, the Council manages to slowly grow concerned. They are also strangely unsurprised. It's as if they have recently been told a tale much like this one."

 

In theory this could mean somebody else already reported what was going on in Drypeak, and the Council just ignored it.  It seems more likely a call-out to the previous game's ending, since your story of Drypeak is incredibly reminiscent on the report they heard from the G1 PC -- right down to the Awakened, the Takers, canisters, and a Geneforge.

I guess I should make some of this codex info accessible without having to install the mod.  So, here you go!  (There's further specifics in other codex entries.)

 

1 hour ago, alhoon said:

Then why nobody informed the Council? 

 

Because it's an RPG.  It has RPG Plot Hole #1.

 

Almost every RPG has this problem: what's so unique about the PC(s) that they can do this thing, but nobody else can?  (Related question that afflicts most CRPGs: how the heck does their power level rise so meteorically?)

 

Geneforge 1 did a better job of avoiding these plot holes than any game I can think of: the player is one of literally two people in this isolated location with years of relevant, specialized knowledge.  Leadership-type manipulation helps explain this even more.  (And for power level, you have both the player's specialized training in learning things quickly -- at the exact point in training where it's primed, but unused -- and on top of that, the canisters.)

 

G2 and G3 both tried to copy and paste this solution.  In G2 it's weaker both because the isolation is less absolute and because there are other Shapers around (who don't have the psychological and geopolitical explanations for being stuck that applied to Goettsch).  The whole "you're an outside factor" speech that a few people like Darian throw at you is a little weird.  There are lots of outside factors in the valley, just as strong as the PC, and it's not clear why the PC tips the balance but nobody else could.  (G3 in some ways had less of an issue with this, simply because the PC's actions don't feel even remotely as significant.  But at that point it was a copy-paste of a copy-paste.)  (And G1's power level explanation doesn't really hold up in either game.)

Reminder for anyone else reading: this only happens on Torment.

 

Getting to level 3 is definitely a little bit of a puzzle.  Then you start making some pretty good incremental progress.