Profile for Slarty
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| Displayed name | Slarty |
| Member number | 261 |
| Title | Raven v. Writing Desk |
| Postcount | 3560 |
| Homepage | http://www.stripcreator.com/comics/slartyvsdesk/ |
| Registered | Wednesday, November 7 2001 08:00 |
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| Author | Recent posts |
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| Hack and slash, slash, slash, slash, slash, slash... in Avernum 4 | |
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Raven v. Writing Desk
Member # 261
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written Monday, December 26 2005 22:34
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I just hacked my way through most of the Eastern Gallery subsubterranean. I kept coming to a new screen and expecting the caverns to end, but no, they extend through practically the entire area! And I am getting really tempted to change my difficulty setting to Normal. I swear, if I see one more Plated Chitrach... While I enjoy being forced to marshall my resources carefully and creatively, as Torment forces me to do, this is getting a little ridiculous. Clearing those chitrachs wasn't difficult, it was just really tedious. Oh look, another twisty passage, oh look, another egg sac, position just far enough to avoid a double attack, twang twang heal cure fireball twang twang a miss! fireball let's move on, oh look, another twisty passage, oh look, another egg sac... over and over. I finally decided to let one of my characters get overloaded because there was no way I was walking through all these !@#$ tunnels again just to pick up treasure. Previous games had just as much combat, but the combat was less draining on the guy at the keyboard. There were still interesting battles that made you think, and do things creatively -- even in Exile where you could run a broken singleton and kill things without bothering to enter combat mode. But having to deal with regular enemies that way, over and over again, is no good. The tendency of the AI to swarm whoever's most easily swarmable, which at first seemed like a golden opportunity to run a tank, is quickly becoming boring and annoying. I think the Plated Chitrach annoys me particularly since it's such an obvious lift of a Geneforge creature, right down to most of its statistics... Honestly, I really like this game. I'm not trying to be, you know, a Grumpy Garzahd. But this is ridiculous, it's just not a positive play experience. -------------------- Slarty vs. Desk • Desk vs. Slarty • Timeline of Ermarian • G4 Strategy Central Posts: 3560 | Registered: Wednesday, November 7 2001 08:00 |
| what does A4 offer us? in Avernum 4 | |
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Raven v. Writing Desk
Member # 261
|
written Monday, December 26 2005 22:15
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Oh, my god. PLEASE tell me the giants don't look like battle alphas. I know the evil sliths are still around. However, Ex 1 + 2 made it clear that all the sliths in Exile were originally part of Sss-Thsss's clan/group/whatever, which was itself exiled from the main Slith kingdom because they were too violent. While there are many Sliths in Avernum, their power really doesn't seem to compare. They have never achieved more than a stalemate with Avernum's forces even though they pretty much fight just 2 forts at a time (Emerald and Dranlon), plus sometimes Cotra. Presumably, if Avernum could ignore all of its many other aggressors and concentrate entirely on the sliths, the sliths wouldn't last very long. -------------------- Slarty vs. Desk • Desk vs. Slarty • Timeline of Ermarian • G4 Strategy Central Posts: 3560 | Registered: Wednesday, November 7 2001 08:00 |
| what does A4 offer us? in Avernum 4 | |
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Raven v. Writing Desk
Member # 261
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written Monday, December 26 2005 19:08
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That would have been cool. Although somewhat odd, since the main slith kingdom is supposed to be peace-loving. ...or did that change from Ex to Av as well? -------------------- Slarty vs. Desk • Desk vs. Slarty • Timeline of Ermarian • G4 Strategy Central Posts: 3560 | Registered: Wednesday, November 7 2001 08:00 |
| what does A4 offer us? in Avernum 4 | |
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Raven v. Writing Desk
Member # 261
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written Monday, December 26 2005 16:07
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The shared graphics are admittedly a little creepy. Drayks and drakes are one thing, but chitrachs are definitely not clawbugs, and replacing 2/3 of the equipment with Geneforge equipment was also a bit much. IMHO. -------------------- Slarty vs. Desk • Desk vs. Slarty • Timeline of Ermarian • G4 Strategy Central Posts: 3560 | Registered: Wednesday, November 7 2001 08:00 |
| Trio in Avernum 4 | |
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Raven v. Writing Desk
Member # 261
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written Monday, December 26 2005 15:44
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1. It still shouldn't take as long to drop a friggin sack as it does to cast a spell. 2. This is a huge hassle from the streamlining and convenience point of view. It's one thing if you're carrying 20 iron bars, but if you have a lot of 1 and 4 pound items it takes forever to put down and pick up. Even using keyboard and mouse at once. -------------------- Slarty vs. Desk • Desk vs. Slarty • Timeline of Ermarian • G4 Strategy Central Posts: 3560 | Registered: Wednesday, November 7 2001 08:00 |
| Trio in Avernum 4 | |
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Raven v. Writing Desk
Member # 261
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written Monday, December 26 2005 15:15
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You know, given all of Jeff's efforts to streamline the game, I'm a little surprised he didn't get rid of encumbrance (from weight, not from equipped armor). Heaviness rarely if ever restricts my equipment choice, but it just makes me have to constantly pick up stuff and put it down when exploring -- very annoying. Whatever happened to the idea of putting all your junk in a pack, and putting the pack down automatically when those chitrachs jump out at you? -------------------- Slarty vs. Desk • Desk vs. Slarty • Timeline of Ermarian • G4 Strategy Central Posts: 3560 | Registered: Wednesday, November 7 2001 08:00 |
| Singleton party in Avernum 4 | |
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Raven v. Writing Desk
Member # 261
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written Monday, December 26 2005 15:06
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If 4 Divine Retributions a round didn't always seem like enough, it seems personally like a rather foolish tactic to rely on as a singleton. I'd rather pump defense. That way, you have longer to put on the hurt. -------------------- Slarty vs. Desk • Desk vs. Slarty • Timeline of Ermarian • G4 Strategy Central Posts: 3560 | Registered: Wednesday, November 7 2001 08:00 |
| Singleton party in Avernum 4 | |
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Raven v. Writing Desk
Member # 261
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written Monday, December 26 2005 10:26
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Quest XP is adjusted by level, but the "base" level is generally somewhat higher than the monsters you fight, so there is much less penalty for being high level. Is Divine Retribution really that necessary? -------------------- Slarty vs. Desk • Desk vs. Slarty • Timeline of Ermarian • G4 Strategy Central Posts: 3560 | Registered: Wednesday, November 7 2001 08:00 |
| Dodge maximizing in Avernum 4 | |
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Raven v. Writing Desk
Member # 261
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written Monday, December 26 2005 09:05
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Honestly, more than anything else it's the balancing of the game engine that makes singletonity more difficult. You can no longer cast bless four times (for 8 mana) and be immune to damage with a nice attack even though you have 1 strength, 1 dexterity, and 0 weapon skills! -------------------- Slarty vs. Desk • Desk vs. Slarty • Timeline of Ermarian • G4 Strategy Central Posts: 3560 | Registered: Wednesday, November 7 2001 08:00 |
| what does A4 offer us? in Avernum 4 | |
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Raven v. Writing Desk
Member # 261
|
written Monday, December 26 2005 09:03
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Yeah. You can think of it a bit like Geneforge minus the zoomed out map. I miss the map, but it honestly works quite well. It reminds me a lot of some of the Ultima games. Ultima V and VI (and maybe some more, I can't remember) had single, seamless maps where on one screen a house takes up the whole view, move south fifteen steps and suddenly the scale has "changed" and there are five mountains onscreen. This may not be a coincidence - I think I remember Jeff citing Ultima as a major influence on Exile. -------------------- Slarty vs. Desk • Desk vs. Slarty • Timeline of Ermarian • G4 Strategy Central Posts: 3560 | Registered: Wednesday, November 7 2001 08:00 |
| Is this game nothing but combat? in Avernum 4 | |
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Raven v. Writing Desk
Member # 261
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written Sunday, December 25 2005 21:37
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To be honest, I thought Prossis, Glantris, and Elohi were among the best characterizations in the series, along with maybe Motrax and Solberg. There are few major characters in Ex/Av that are given the chance to show much of their personality beyond their occupation and one or two exaggerated qualities; the Council received many dialog boxes worth of narrated prose, in addition to plenty of regular dialogue, so they had the chance to really develop. Jeff does a better job than anyone else in the business of incorporating mundania and regular people in the games in interesting ways. Look at the attention given to characters like Elspeth and Nance. But people who are powerful or in charge are almost always blobs devoid of personality, like Micah. -------------------- Slarty vs. Desk • Desk vs. Slarty • Timeline of Ermarian • G4 Strategy Central Posts: 3560 | Registered: Wednesday, November 7 2001 08:00 |
| Dodge maximizing in Avernum 4 | |
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Raven v. Writing Desk
Member # 261
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written Sunday, December 25 2005 21:09
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People have been ending up at what, 32, 33, 34, with parties of four, right? Perhaps 36 is a little optimistic, but the difference between level 34 and level 36 is pretty minimal. Honestly, the EXP cap has NOTHING to do with the feasability of a singleton. There's always been a cap, and it's never been particularly lenient. In Exile, you got less skill points at high levels, too (4 after 20, 3 after 40, and you couldn't exceed level 50). But in Exile you could also buy infinite knowledge brews from Silverlocke, and I gather you could in Avernum as well. -------------------- Slarty vs. Desk • Desk vs. Slarty • Timeline of Ermarian • G4 Strategy Central Posts: 3560 | Registered: Wednesday, November 7 2001 08:00 |
| Is this game nothing but combat? in Avernum 4 | |
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Raven v. Writing Desk
Member # 261
|
written Sunday, December 25 2005 21:02
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(Spoiler warning: Minor not-quite-spoiler in last paragraph.) Thuryl, you made me very happy. Jewel of Arabia: Dreamers is one of my favorite games of all time. I've never liked resurrection, as it absolutely cheapens all the death in the plotline. Personally, I don't see how having essential members of your group die can constitute success, and part of the challenge of the game ought to be to keep everyone alive. Jewel of Arabia requires that for 2 of your 6 characters; I've seen one RPG require that for all of them (Arcana, on SNES). Duality, I feel your nostalgia. The A4 engine is definitely new, though. And it does one thing for which it and Jeff deserve IMMENSE praise: the click-and-frameskip movement system. While I do miss hitting 978987978978 to go north really fast a little bit, this is a really wonderful innovation. (Now, if only the damn thing would turn off during combat! I'm sick of clicking on a square that it looks obvious to get to only to see my PC take a circuitous route, or needlessly step next to an enemy, in either case draining his AP and preventing him from attacking!) The plot -is- extremely slow to get going. From what I've seen so far, I'm cautiously optimistic. I always wished that something more had been done with the Bon-Ihrno Prossis-Bok vs. Rentar-Ihrno Glantris-Bok dichotomy, and it looks like that might happen. After Ex/Av 3, though, my expectations aren't that high. -------------------- Slarty vs. Desk • Desk vs. Slarty • Timeline of Ermarian • G4 Strategy Central Posts: 3560 | Registered: Wednesday, November 7 2001 08:00 |
| Dodge maximizing in Avernum 4 | |
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Raven v. Writing Desk
Member # 261
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written Sunday, December 25 2005 20:42
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Never mind all the past pessimism, this is TOTALLY doable for a singleton. I did some scripting to put a new character (Nephil DT Natural Mage) at level 36 and provide a selection of dodge-enhancing equipment. I pushed Mage Spells to 11 and Tool Use to 8, giving myself a very conservative discount to account for trainers, wisdom crystals, and so on. Then I pumped dodge. After putting on the right equipment and being careful with my skills, I managed to reach: 20 Gymnastics 14 Dexterity 14 Defense 10 Luck Total dodging bonus: +191% This is enough to usually evade level 30 enemies attacking physically, and close to 50/50 against level 40 enemies. I'm pretty sure there are actually more skill points available. I really have no idea how much knowledge brew can be had and if a certain level of Nature Lore can provide a skill point bonanza. You can inflate the available skill points even more by replacing Divinely Touched with Nimble Fingers; or, you can replace it with Fast on Feet for a flat 10% bonus to dodge. DT however gives you a pretty nice bow attack (14 dex, 10 bows, 12 sharpshooter) and fair mage ability. I also wonder if it's possible to skip Tool Use entirely? Unlock Doors works on everything except traps, so it just depends on any traps being in really critical places. So far, I haven't seen any. One problem: As I suspected, most spells get a full 50% bonus to-hit. (Assuming I am reading the script right, and that does not mean Bolt of Fire never misses.) I also haven't figured out if the bonuses accrue at the same rates apply against spells and missiles. I think they do, but if they don't, that could be a big problem. Thoughts anyone? [ Sunday, December 25, 2005 20:46: Message edited by: Slartucker ] -------------------- Slarty vs. Desk • Desk vs. Slarty • Timeline of Ermarian • G4 Strategy Central Posts: 3560 | Registered: Wednesday, November 7 2001 08:00 |
| New info on skills, esp LUCK in Avernum 4 | |
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Raven v. Writing Desk
Member # 261
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written Sunday, December 25 2005 19:11
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Boooooooo. I am actually starting to think it's doable after all. Also, I am concluding that in the long run, DT + Elite Warrior and Deadeye are not the best combinations. At level 32, DT alone gives +9. The other skill gives you an extra +6 or +5, but this becomes effectively +3 given the 10-ceiling. On the other hand, Natural Mage gives the full bonus. For a singleton I think it's a lot better, as it allows you to focus all your SP on tanking. Given enough trainers and a few wisdom crystals, and the right armor selection, I think a singleton *may* be able to boost dodging enough to keep up with enemies. Very few attacks can't be dodged, and those can I suspect be handled on a case by case basis. -------------------- Slarty vs. Desk • Desk vs. Slarty • Timeline of Ermarian • G4 Strategy Central Posts: 3560 | Registered: Wednesday, November 7 2001 08:00 |
| Singleton party in Avernum 4 | |
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Raven v. Writing Desk
Member # 261
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written Sunday, December 25 2005 18:29
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To be fair, Jeff did make singleton play more possible after Exile, and all the endless whining about how a singleton with 20 Mage Lore couldn't get the best spells... now at least if it's too hard, it's too hard for genuine reasons and not artificial limitations. -------------------- Slarty vs. Desk • Desk vs. Slarty • Timeline of Ermarian • G4 Strategy Central Posts: 3560 | Registered: Wednesday, November 7 2001 08:00 |
| New info on skills, esp LUCK in Avernum 4 | |
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Raven v. Writing Desk
Member # 261
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written Sunday, December 25 2005 17:47
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There are 25 F/C/E % for you to account for -- you forgot to discount the points I had foolishly thought Divinely Touched provided. That suggests to me that you get that 25 from your armor, and your other 7 points of armor come from Luck. Armor from Luck does not add to FCE, as each point of Luck instead adds one FCE %. You can test this yourself... just write down your resists, put on or take off a piece of armor, and see what happens. I don't remember any base armor score and I'm pretty sure there isn't one. For the three unaccountable points of armor, I'd recheck your math, make sure you aren't miscounting the Clover Boots or anything like that. Also, re 8-10 strength for a fighter and whatnot, something else that's worth taking into account is bonuses you expect to get from items, in addition to race and traits; these bonuses provide reduced benefits above 10 for many scores just like bought skills do. With the girdles, etc., some of this may be worth thinking ahead on. You know, when I played G1-3, even on Torment, I generally refused to use any of the trainers. It was too annoying to hold off on vital skills just to save a few skill points. Frankly I wonder if that isn't the healthiest attitude :) [ Sunday, December 25, 2005 18:21: Message edited by: Slartucker ] -------------------- Slarty vs. Desk • Desk vs. Slarty • Timeline of Ermarian • G4 Strategy Central Posts: 3560 | Registered: Wednesday, November 7 2001 08:00 |
| New info on skills, esp LUCK in Avernum 4 | |
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Raven v. Writing Desk
Member # 261
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written Sunday, December 25 2005 11:58
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Update: Base chance for an enemy to hit you is 50% + 5% per level of the enemy. By the end of the game, most enemies are about level 30, it looks like; the most powerful are levels 35-40. That means they have base chances to hit of 200% - 250%. (Unless this bonus also follows the half after 10 rule, or has its own ceiling, but that seems unlikely.) 10 points each in Dex, Gymnastics, Defense, and Luck will improve your dodging ability by 150%. So the most powerful enemies will still hit you 99% of the time, and weaker ones will hit you half the time... and that's after an investment of 240 skill points (not counting the 4 points of Strength to get to Gymnastics, although those coincidentally cost the same as the 4 points of Gymnastics a level 30 Nephil wouldn't have to buy), which is about all one character is likely to have at the end of the game. Even a dedicated tank will be hard pressed to spend that much skill on these skills. So maybe Gymnastics isn't quite as killer as we thought. Vlish, how's your tank doing? -------------------- Slarty vs. Desk • Desk vs. Slarty • Timeline of Ermarian • G4 Strategy Central Posts: 3560 | Registered: Wednesday, November 7 2001 08:00 |
| New info on skills, esp LUCK in Avernum 4 | |
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Raven v. Writing Desk
Member # 261
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written Sunday, December 25 2005 10:50
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Okay, that DT thing was the result of REALLY poor observational skills on my part. Here's what's really going on: Half your Armor rating is added to Fire Cold and Elec resists. That makes good armor a lot better, since it also reduces damage from magic! It also makes me suspect that Hardiness, Resistance, and Luck all secretly increase your armor rating, which the hardiness description suggests anyway. Also, the 10 and 20 caps on skill gains apply to some Luck bonuses (Stun, Mental, Poison and Acid) but not to Fire/Elec/Cold. Weird! [ Sunday, December 25, 2005 11:16: Message edited by: Slartucker ] -------------------- Slarty vs. Desk • Desk vs. Slarty • Timeline of Ermarian • G4 Strategy Central Posts: 3560 | Registered: Wednesday, November 7 2001 08:00 |
| Purely in the Interest of Role Playing. in Avernum 4 | |
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Raven v. Writing Desk
Member # 261
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written Sunday, December 25 2005 10:37
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You know, we've seen lots of Slith nurseries... and Aranea nurseries... but never any Nephil nurseries. Maybe they spring forth fully formed like Athena. They are all divinely touched, you know :P -------------------- Slarty vs. Desk • Desk vs. Slarty • Timeline of Ermarian • G4 Strategy Central Posts: 3560 | Registered: Wednesday, November 7 2001 08:00 |
| New info on skills, esp LUCK in Avernum 4 | |
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Raven v. Writing Desk
Member # 261
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written Sunday, December 25 2005 03:40
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Another suspicion, though I haven't checked this one out: To-hit gets an additional bonus equal to 5% per level of your equipped weapon. This is a hidden stat, but it can be guessed based on the "base damage" of the weapon, which is the base damage for that weapon type times the weapon's level. Monsters get a bonus to hit which I am guessing is dependent on monster level. Perhaps also 5%? They may get a level-based dodge bonus, but it must be a lot smaller if they do. Base chance for a monster to hit is 50%, I think? Base chance for a PC to hit is 35%? (Need to check: do these numbers change on different difficulty settings.) -------------------- Slarty vs. Desk • Desk vs. Slarty • Timeline of Ermarian • G4 Strategy Central Posts: 3560 | Registered: Wednesday, November 7 2001 08:00 |
| New info on skills, esp LUCK in Avernum 4 | |
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Raven v. Writing Desk
Member # 261
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written Sunday, December 25 2005 02:53
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I did some testing on hostile effect resistances as well as to-hit and to-dodge. We've been making some bad assumptions! Here's a summary of the effects of skills on these important numbers: ARMOR +1 per Luck TO-HIT +5% per Str / Dex +5% per Melee or Pole / Bows or Throws +5% per Blademaster / Sharpshooter +2% per Luck TO-DODGE +5% per Dex +5% per Gymnastics +3% per Defense +2% per Luck +10% (fixed) if Fast on Feet FIRE, COLD, and ELECTRICITY +2% per Hardiness +4% per Resistance +1% per Luck +1% per 2 points of Armor rating from equipment (NOT from Luck) +10% to fire only (fixed) if Slith STUN +5% per Strength +3% per Luck MENTAL +3% per Intelligence +1% per Luck POISON and ACID +5% per Endurance +3% per Luck One other important consideration: for all of these numbers, after getting to 10 in a given skill, you need to buy 2 points of the skill to get another step of the bonus. I assume that once you get to 20, you have to buy 3 points. This is the system Geneforge 1 used for all skills (it had fixed skill point prices). However, it seems many skills in A4 have their own formulas and ignore the 10 skill ceiling - Int, Magery, Tool Use, and Quick Strike, for example. Also, Parry is not 7.5% per point as somebody reported. It's a base of 5% for all characters + 5% per point of Parry (I believe this does follow the 10 and 20 ceilings). Those are the melee numbers, anyway, I haven't tried to figure out the numbers vs archery or whatnot. Also, Elite Warrior seems to give the additional +1 bonus every 8 levels, not every 6 levels as I originally stated. Not sure how I goofed that, if anyone wants to see if that matches their savefiles, not a bad idea. Implication of all this: Luck is really, really good. Question: Does anyone know if the % sign in all of the resistance stats is at all relevant, or if it's basically decorative? [ Sunday, December 25, 2005 11:30: Message edited by: Slartucker ] -------------------- Slarty vs. Desk • Desk vs. Slarty • Timeline of Ermarian • G4 Strategy Central Posts: 3560 | Registered: Wednesday, November 7 2001 08:00 |
| Singleton party in Avernum 4 | |
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Raven v. Writing Desk
Member # 261
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written Sunday, December 25 2005 00:25
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Kitties are in the Eastern Gallery and have cleared out the eastern half. It's been remarkably easy going. I haven't even found my tank to be necessary at all, although I have been blessing constantly and ambushing enemy archers wherever possible. I've also been pretty generous with healing. Slartucker was given me years ago after a comparison to Slartibartfast; my real name is Tucker. -------------------- Slarty vs. Desk • Desk vs. Slarty • Timeline of Ermarian • G4 Strategy Central Posts: 3560 | Registered: Wednesday, November 7 2001 08:00 |
| Singleton party in Avernum 4 | |
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Raven v. Writing Desk
Member # 261
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written Saturday, December 24 2005 22:33
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Are even the medium-level priest spells really necessary? You can use potions for armor where you need to, and nothing else looks too important, really. That would save a lot of dear, dear skill points. A singleton MUST be played as a tank, really, and every point of Dex, Gymnastics, Defense, Parry, Endurance, Luck, Resistance, etc. really counts. -------------------- Slarty vs. Desk • Desk vs. Slarty • Timeline of Ermarian • G4 Strategy Central Posts: 3560 | Registered: Wednesday, November 7 2001 08:00 |
| Trait/race bonus effects in Avernum 4 | |
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Raven v. Writing Desk
Member # 261
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written Saturday, December 24 2005 21:30
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(goes up levels) (ahead of everyone else) not (goes up) ((levels ahead) of everyone else) He's only 500 or 600 XP up, right now; each level he gets about a 50 XP lead on the others, which makes sense given that he gets 50% of normal experience and the others get 45% of it. -------------------- Slarty vs. Desk • Desk vs. Slarty • Timeline of Ermarian • G4 Strategy Central Posts: 3560 | Registered: Wednesday, November 7 2001 08:00 |