[No Spoilers!] Newbie Help Requested!

[Endarire]

Greetings, all!

I beat Avernum 1's remake on Torment, meaning I have some experience with Spiderweb's games.  I'm new to the Geneforge series:  I read a Geneforge review in PC Gamer many years ago but only bought Geneforge 1 as part of the Kickstarter.

I started as a Shaper so I can be a Pokemon master, because in this universe, Shapers are gods!  And I've normally liked playing mages in general.

I'm level 2 and barely explored the island.  I've not spent any points because I wasn't sure what stuff was most important, nor how often I should expect to get points.

What newbie advice do you have for me and fellow newbs?

Thankee!

[TriRodent]

Up in the Strategy Central area (top of the subforum page where you posted this question) there are a few threads.  Some/many are filled with spoilers.  But there are some general hints/tips threads (such as this one) that are filled with good ideas (& perhaps very mild spoilers - such as 'when you get to 'x', you may want to look at 'y'...').  I didn't look at it but there's a hint thread on doing a torment solo run, there are probably some good ideas for how you want to go about things in there.  Reading them now, so early in the game, will probably help out a bit & any spoilers you do run across, you'll probably forget about them by the time you reach that point in the game.

 

If things get really hard for you, back the difficulty level down one notch.  Torment is/can be great fun ... after you've played your way through once.  You'll still be demolished on a regular basis, but you will at least know that "If I'm in 'x' zone then I need to quickly get to 'y' and do 'z' (flip a switch/kill a mini-boss. etc) to help mitigate the level of suck that you're going through.  Geneforge, like Avernum, is heavily story driven so you'll be doing lots of reading along the way.  You may be able to absorb the information better if you aren't constantly being snaked upon by the local version of a grue.  Torment really is for someone who knows what they're doing & where to min/max things or doing 'x' perfectly.  I don't want to discourage you from attempting your game that way, but I 'really' wouldn't advise someone on their first exposure to the Geneforge universe to handicap themselves by setting the difficulty level there to start with.  If you 'can' make it through on Torment, bravo (really).

 

You get points every time you level up.  Especially on Torment, you'll want to put most towards your specialty (shaping in your case), but leadership & mechanics can/will make life easier at various points.

 

Hope that helped a bit.  Have fun (which after all 'is' the main point of investing time into the game) & good luck.

[alhoon]

Welcome to some awesome game series. 
NOTE: If you want to avoid spoilers, be very careful what threads you read. There are many awesome twists and surprises in the games and also some not-clear moral questions that you would probably want to deal with without being influenced by our views. 

Edited June 15, 2021 by alhoon

[Endarire]

Greetings, all!

I'm still playing on Veteran difficulty and I've found this game to be unpleasantly random.  Sometimes, enemies would go first and decimate my party, or I'd attack and miss or hit but not stun foes or deal too little damage to kill it.

Regardless, I'm now finally a Shaper4 (not Shaper3 as I originally mentioned) - alleluia! - and seek advice on how best to proceed.  I still have all my skill points and living tools.  I've only spent 200G total to open a door to the Bless spell which I've barely used since it cost essence ('green mana' - the mana type that actually counted) and I've been patiently making progress in the game.

In games like this, I've felt encouraged to invest in utility abilities - the Unlock spell, speaking/Leadership, etc.  I also know that I'm expecting to kill stuff - largely with minions - since this is a combat-heavy video game where stealth has been unreliable.  (I've experienced plenty of negative and positive randomness so far and I wish the game were far less random in ways that benefited me!)

Thus, considering this and perhaps more, what do you most advise I do with my skill points?  What about cash purchases?  Nothing I've found so far has especially appealed to me.  I have a spammable Firebolt spell and minions.

Thankee!

Edited June 18, 2021 by Endarire

[Randomizer]

Get Leadership to 4 early in the game lets you get some easy experience talking to NPCs in the early game. Next is Mechanics to 5 to unlock doors without using too many living tools and some more experience.

 

Otherwise pick a Shaping skill and Essence Mastery to get more minions and make then more powerful than you opponents.

[Endarire]

I boosted Mechanics and Leadership to 6, requiring all of my 30 skill points.  I struggled far less and was able to enjoy a faster-paced game.

For shaping skills, I've liked dinos for being fast with innate haste and spammable breath weapons.  What are the main negatives and positives of each makable creature type?

Thankee!

Edited June 18, 2021 by Endarire

[Randomizer]

Fire Shaping is the cheapest and easiest Shaping class since you get those canisters earliest in the game. Negative is the damage for fyoras is lower and they are most likely to turn against you if they take damage. I usually upgrade to cryoas and you can use them throughout the game although they lack innate haste, you can still get the spell later to haste them and they have a frost aura that will do damage even if they don't act.

 

Magic shaping isn't unlil you do the Ruined Schoo to get an artila. Slightly more expensive they do acid attacks and spam those as a area attack. Slightly more frail than other shaping types they may die more often, but you can still get through the game with them. Acid damage in later rounds is based on the target's health, so high health targets will take more damage in later rounds without needing to keep attacking.

 

Battle shaping is almost all melee attacks and works the worst even with more health and damage per blow. Few area attacks.

[Endarire]

Thankee!

I tried the 3 main types and have preferred my Dragonsaurs due to their fast speed, spammable breath weapons, doubly upgradable HP, and innate Haste.  Thads (which are effectively ninjas) were handy for more HP and the occasional stun.  I didn't like Artilas for their frailty.  On Veteran, boosting summon HP has been especially useful just to ensure my minions live through turn 2 or 3 for them.

[alhoon]

Keep in mind that if your creations are much stronger than you, they may go rogue at the worse possible moment and kill you. 
Also, I keep a Cryora and a Fyora. 

 

My suggestion also is: Do not diversify your shaping tree too early! It is better to have Fire Shaping at 5 than to have Fire Shaping at 3 and battle shaping at 3. 

Only later, when you have Fire Shaping like 8 and it costs a lot to raise it while the control gets tougher, get a point in magic shaping or battle shaping because each point in any shaping skill increases your overall control 

[Endarire]

Thankee!

Aside from extra control and access to more unit types, what do the shaping skills grant?

[Randomizer]

Shaping skills increase the level of that creation class including existing ones. At higher levels you get better control over them so they are less likely to go rogue.

[alhoon]

11 hours ago, Randomizer said:

Shaping skills increase the level of that creation class including existing ones. At higher levels you get better control over them so they are less likely to go rogue.

On that though... each level increases control by one while it increases creation's level = need  for control by two. Which means unless you raise Shaping slowly to keep in pace with your character level, you will sooner or later have issues with control. And THEN you will need to throw in a point in a different Shaping skill. 

Edited June 19, 2021 by alhoon

[Randomizer]

Italsing a level increases the creation's health so damage as percentage  of current health drops at the same timeR