Kinsume

A character calculator for mainstream RPGs like WoW and Guild Wars is basically just a webpage with the character's skills and such listed. It allows people to try different builds without actually making a character to do them with.

No Caribou this game doesn't have one, however you can start a new game and hit Ctrl + D to bring up a menu. Inside that box type in "editor" and it will allow you to edit your character's stats/skills. Essentially assume that your character will finish the game at about level 30, maybe a bit higher. So that gives you 60 skill points to work with and 30 stat points. On top of that your character gains 1 point in a single stat per level. Level 2 = +1 str, level 3 = +1 dex, level 4 = +1 int, level 5 = +1 end and then it repeats back to str.

You have to understand that is how 90% of the casual players will come to this game and try things. They aren't going to want to sit down and number crunch, work out strategies, ect. They just want to get into the action. As he stated in the commentary, indie style games have a certain niche to them and those who are unfamiliar with them already are quite unlikely to get into them due to the standards we have set these days for RPGs. That of course in terms of graphics and such.

When you consider that there needs to be 12 arcane lore, 10 cave lord and 13 tool use picked up; that basically means that they won't be able to invest in much else other than their initial mage/priest skills and utility. I guess that could work, with a strong emphasis on guess.

I see.

This is of course assuming you take no utility skills at all like Tool Use, Cave Lore, First Aid, ect. I see your point though, forgot about the trainer system as I haven't gotten far enough to make real use of it yet. Honestly I'll probably wait for your remake thing and then do a new playthrough with it.

I checked it out, you can't expect someone who isn't too big on a genre to be too intuned with exact details of the game.

Right but their base damage changes based on several things doesn't it? Like Str, Weapon skills, ect.

The issue is you'll never actually get enough points to pump both of them will you? In order to get level 10 LB or DW you'd need level 10 QA, in order to get level 10 QA you need level 10 BM, in order to get level 10 BM you need level 10 SM. That is why the skills up there are pretty much useless isn't it?

I haven't actually tried to level them up there yet, however I know that I can't boost Parry until Hardiness is leveled and I can't boost Hardiness unless SM is leveled, so I assume the correlation continues.

Frankly its one of the things I can't stand about this new skill system. I loved how the old Exile/Avernum games did their skills.

@House Gymnastics can give more AP as well for an archer on top of the stuff you mentioned.

Edit : 8 may have been a bit too high, it was late when I posted Regardless my point is still the same. However if the math has already been done out then nothing to worry about. My only concern is what weapons did you do the math with, high level ones or low level ones?

For which game? I looked up some of them and didn't see any with ratings.

Jeff should make friends with one of the review writers over at IGN.com

If he can get a good rating over there the game will get tons of views and potential buyers.

Edit : I mention this because I noticed a few indie style games that got reviewed on there recently. One of which being Legend of Grimrock, which was fantastic.

1440x900 for me and things look fine.

They are overpowered, you can basically use like 10 of them in a single turn when fully buffed at high level right?

I just want to see 6 party member slots added back in.

If it was possible to make a limit on how many consumable items can be used by a single character in a battle, that would fix them.

What is the secret improvement? I know that defeats the purpose I think it would be better if everything was known upfront concerning the changes.

Are you able to change skills? Perhaps make Quick Action a more worthwhile investment option so people can actually go up to dual wielding in builds?

Are you going to touch that top left skill for the fighter tree? Riposte I think it is, that is quite useless currently. Perhaps change it to make it to give tank benefits rather than damage considering it is upgraded based on the tank skills.

The damage buffs and crit changes (as I'll call them) seem like nice additions with the only issue I forsee is them being pretty high chances. Perhaps 25% would be more suitable. Dual wielding does alot of damage, which is why it can be used on Torment for a dps class. Everything lower then Torment and they completely rip through everything. With 50% crit chance on bows and polearms I think they will actually do even more dps than dual wielding, which is just a bit broken since dual wielding is indeed overpowered.

Considering it this way, with full buffs higher level it is possible to get an archer using 8 turns in a single round, odds are 4 of her shots will crit. That is a bit ridiculous in terms of damage lol.

Off the top of my head that is all I can think of.

If you're playing on torment then you'll want to quest based on your level. Often times you'll find yourself needing to do a little grinding in order to bulk up for the harder quests.

Rofl, I was wondering when the big man himself would pop in here.

The main reason I play indie games is for turn based combat. Not because real-time is difficult or anything, I'm actually quite good at rts games like Starcraft 2. However I like to take a break and play turn based games like these as there is more fine tuned planning in the moves you makes rather than reacting and judgement based decisions.

Yeah I guess it would be hard to make the switch after using a set code all these years. Could prove to be less of a hassle in the long run though if he plans on continuing to pump out the games. Quicker porting means quicker remakes and releases, which means more $$$

What program is used to code/edit this game by the way?

Well the key things that come to mind are polearm, bows and buff duration. Polearms really need some type of piercing/cleaving attack if possible as well as a significant damage boost. Bows need a damage boost for the later game ones. As for buff durations, 3 turns seems a bit too low. 4 turns would be great, 5 would be even better. More than that however I think would be too much. That however is just personal opinion.

In terms of the skills, the weapon skills seem to be just fine as is for the initial ones. The bow tree seems to be pretty good, coupled with a boost in bow's damage I think they'll start to shine. What I think it is that caused the bow nerf so much is that previous games used ammunition that added attack damage of their own didn't they?

Spell efficiency should maybe be put to 3% per level instead of 2%. Parry, hardiness and blademasters are good. Quick action could be a bit more useful, and maybe a little tweek with the numbers for First Aid to make it worth investing in due to the lack of a resting option in this game.

So I was advised to post this issue here for feedback to hopefully fix this. I started the Geneforge series back when the 5th one was released and since then have only tried the fourth one momentarily. With how much I enjoyed the 5th one I decided to give 1-4 a try to see if I liked them. After getting all the demos downloaded and installed I made a new game on each of them to make sure they worked.

On Geneforge 1, 2 and 3 there is significant lag with the mouse. I don't know about talking/interacting with others as I didn't even get past the first battle in the tutorial before closing it out. I read somewhere to try changing the mouse scroll speed from normal to fast, did so and it is a little better but still pretty unplayable.

As for Geneforge 4 and 5 they work perfectly fine. So I'm assuming it has something to do with the fact that I use Windows 7 64-bit.

I tried here simply to see if anyone else using Windows 7 64-bit had similar issues. I will post there as well.