Aoslare

You never read my Church of the Nine-Headed Cave Cow thread, did you, DeVlish. Pfft

STICKS TO STEAKS

As has been observed a kazillion times, the answer may be very different depending on difficulty settings.

I would be very cautious about adding new ability or creature or item definitions. Modifying already existing ones is pretty safe, but we have no idea how Jeff stores the definitions in memory. It may not be set up to handle more than a certain number of abilities, or abilities that are not numbered a certain way. It's probably safe, but if it does cause an error, it could be an icky one. This goes without saying, but test that on a copy of the game folder and not the original.

 

Also, starting out with 10 AP *and* a baton *is* overpowered, way way way moreso than an acid baton would be. Plated Bugs don't have missile attacks, so their bonus AP isn't so hot. The 10 AP thing should be an upgrade, probably the last upgrade.

 

Also, starting out with 25% resistance to everything doesn't make sense either. That's a reasonable upgrade at some point, but to begin with non-armor resistances ought to be lower. Standard armor gives you half its armor value as resistance to energy, fire, and ice. Poison and acid resists deserve to be low, and mental effects certainly should be low or nonexistant given the quality of Alwan's reasoning

 

resistances:

0 physical

1 energy

2 fire

3 disruption (resistance is handled entirely by creature_type)

4 poison

5 acid

6 ice

7 mental

 

I'm not sure how stun is resisted by creations (if at all).

If you're going to appropriate the facepalm, you really ought to save it for when it's truly deserved.

It's more useful to make sure they are high level by pumping your shaping stats and creating them early. Energy is determined for creations just like it is for PCs, so both Intelligence and Level are multiplied into the mix. A level 20 creation will have a base Intelligence of 10, 12 if you want to control it, so spending the overpriced essence to boost its Int score will only increase its staying power by about 8% -- less than that, really, since it does regenerate Energy each round.

 

Also note that energy used varies widely by the attack and is the same as the spell with the same effect. Fyoras and Drayks should almost never run out, as they copy Firebolt (4 energy). I forget how much the Vlish attack costs, but it's also relatively cheap. Artila, Roamers, Cryoas, Cryodrayks, and Terror Vlish cost 40-50 energy a hit but even with them, at high levels, they can go quite a while. Drakons and Gazers and especially Eyebeasts are the only ones that are likely to have severe energy problems, at 75-200 energy a pop.

 

EDIT: Yes, magic attacks are included. When I say "all attacks" I mean ALL attacks made by creations. There are no exceptions. (Actually, this may apply to every character in the game outside of your PC. Not sure about that.)

Just Strength. For creations Dex ONLY influences dodge rate. Strength covers damage and hit rate for all creation attacks.

Well, you can always pretend he's a missle guardian using gems (very slowly) and give him Essence Orbs or somesuch attack.

 

I fail to see how an acid baton would be in any way unbalanced, btw. The base damage is lower than Searer (1-3 instead of 1-4) and Artila, which are available very early, get to use Searer. A few points in Magic Shaping and they'll be many levels higher than Alwan, too, and stay that way the entire game. Alwan won't run out of energy, so that's nice I guess, but still.

 

If you want further realism, I'd recommend giving Alwan some armor protection. He's nakeder than a servile!

*facepalm*

That's awesome.

If I had not decided to stop namechanging, this post would totally have been made by 99 Vlishballons.

Do you understand what the words "compared with" mean?

Nobody is arguing that Alwan is impossible to use, and that he can never be helpful at all. The point is that he is so wretchedly gimpy compared with Greta, with practically any creation, or with a Guardian or Agent. I don't think that can be contested.

The point is that guardians and battle betas are competing to get dumped on the most by us

Hmm. Maybe "Guardians vs. Battle Betas"

If you keep your creations at high level by creating as soon as the type you want becomes available, they will likely have high enough natural Dex to act before almost all enemies, even on Torment. My Vlish have *never* gotten second strike as of yet.

I think we've found the Geneforge equivalent to "Nephils vs. Sliths." It's called "Guardians vs."

I haven't tested this with Alwan and Greta specifically, but for creations -- and it should be the same for them -- Dex only affects dodge rate. Hit rate for any creation attack is determined by the attack, the creation, and the creation's Str.

 

(Has anyone tested this specifically with them?)

For a missile user, the Tiny Orb of Mist enhancement, which gives +5% to dodge all attacks, might actually be better than a Golden Crystal, and significantly so. For anyone else, your dodge rate will be too low to count anyway, due to not pumping Dex. It also might be better on Normal, where it's easier to dodge.

It's been a while, but I believe my no canister Melee Agent who relied on Strong Daze had a Mental + Spellcraft score of around 30-32 by endgame and had no trouble dazing things.

I don't know how Wild Magic worked in BG2, but I'm guessing that it didn't create permanent effects of potentially drastic power increases. Save and reload isn't very effective in most fights because there are a large number of tiny dice rolls made every turn. If you have a single dice roll that could give you a Fyora or an Eyebeast, something useless or something broken, permanently, for the rest of the game -- save and reload is very effective there.

 

And the key part is the permanent part. Even if the difference is just between a level 5 Vlish and a level 6 Vlish, that's a permanent power difference for the rest of the game. I don't like using save and reload, personally, but I would still find it very hard not to reload if I knew that I had been dealt a lesser option.

Yes, that 5% damage reduction saves my life every day. Instead of taking 40 damage from that Artila, I take 38. Oh Joy.

Simplest formula for success as a shaper:

Upgrade to Artila as soon as possible. Pump your Magic Shaping skill and make as many as you can afford. You should have no problems at all on the first island. Then upgrade to Vlish.

 

If you do that, you can pretty much handle other details however you want, and you should be fine.

I don't think I've seen a single RPG that's handled this sort of thing well -- aside from the bulk of them, that don't let you attack friendly characters in the first place.

 

In theory, it's nice to be able to role play a character with few morals, and kill and loot whatever you like. But given a game engine that is really designed for at least moderately amicable characters, I don't see the point in even having the option.

That would be wonderful. Man -- that would increase the design space of Geneforge about a zillion times. Here's to dreaming.

No, it's not. Being able to attack from a distance is a huge advantage for any attack type. HUGE. MONUMENTAL. That's why melee weapons had better dice than spells and missile weapons in G1 and G2.

 

What was perhaps unfair is that battle magic had two pumpable stats to missile weapons' one. Given the other advantages of battle magic (unlimited supply, lack of encumbrance, lack of hassle) that was a pretty unfair comparison.