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Do you like changes in Avernum or not in Avernum 4
Apprentice
Member # 7064
Profile #7
I couldn't stand the interface of Nethergate Ressurection. A4 was perfect aside from the whole not being able to transverse the whole screen with one MC.

I couldn't stand the A3 interface and set it down before I could enjoy the game. So hopefully it's more A4 than A3.
Posts: 18 | Registered: Monday, April 24 2006 07:00
G5 wishlist. in Geneforge 4: Rebellion
Apprentice
Member # 7064
Profile #117
Make high levels of leaderships and mechanics matter. Not something that only matters for the first chapter and then are forgotten about.

Fewer, more important, more challenging combats. No areas with 100 random enemies.

More story, less grinding.

I quit playing Nethergate after the first few things I did was searching a million chests for items to scum.

[ Wednesday, September 19, 2007 09:40: Message edited by: KnowledgeBrew ]
Posts: 18 | Registered: Monday, April 24 2006 07:00
Avernum 5, May Update in Avernum 4
Apprentice
Member # 7064
Profile #47
quote:

I put in too many filler encounters people will jump on me for hypocrisy (because of what I've been writing on RPG Vault).

And you'll have chitrach filled nightmares. Though I would be willing to go up against some chitrachs if it would mean getting to launch a nuke at all their little egg sacks resulting in the extinction of their race.
Posts: 18 | Registered: Monday, April 24 2006 07:00
Avernum 5 Early, Early Notes in Avernum 4
Apprentice
Member # 7064
Profile #194
Get rid of herb lore and arcane lore. Unless there continues to be advantages for ever higher levels.

They make you want to wait for the walkthrough to know how to optimally play for the game same with trainers.

What was really fun in Avernum 4 was doing all the stages out of order. You could totally skip entire areas.

Less small encounters. More epic battles.

More stealing, stealth. Murder of innocent civilians.

Basically what I would want is lots of towns to steal and talk and do stealth missions.

One epic battle per area. No millions of chitrachs!

I want to be able to buy a house to store all the quest items and recipe ingredients.
Posts: 18 | Registered: Monday, April 24 2006 07:00
Help me plan my character in Geneforge 4: Rebellion
Apprentice
Member # 7064
Profile #29
Okay, I'm in chapter five and I decided to start over with a new character.

I felt like a god with my reaper batons and four drayks but I was still lacking.

Submission thorns were incredibly good as well.

For several reasons:

I overrated spine shield, the thing was worthless during most of the game. I used 3 of the 12 canisters on it and I got no payback.

Agent's Shelter is greater than Stasis Shield. Dexterity, Intelligence, Missile Weapons, and Mental Magic are the most important stats. Stasis Shield raises irrelevant stats.

Ring of Eye's Purity is worthless. It only raises the useless battle magic skill.

Mechanics is useless. Because of the no 1xp minimum anymore, I'd rather use unlock and save living tools.

It's only important to min max experience in chapters four and five. In the earlier chapters you'll just get no experience sooner whereas in those last chapters those are your final opportunities.

The only time where you really have to help the shapers is to return the Heart of Klin.

Leadership is still really important because of the quest options it opens up.

Okay, so I've decided round two:

Ally with rebels because by not spending money on useless spells, I won't need the shaper income. Exceptions will be abound of course.

The goal is to get the following items and spells as soon as possible:

Reaper Baton
Items that boost mental magic
Items that boost dexterity and missile weapons
Items that boost fire shaping and drayks
The guardian claymore, the talisman of might, and the legs of the tyrant.
Mass Madness

Since early experience doesn't really matter I can just run through zones and come back later.

The question is do I put skill points on mechanics and skimp on endurance or do I skimp
on mechanics and run through electrical fields and over lava pits with my high endurance. Perferably I can skimp on both for my skill points in dexterity/missileweapons, intelligence, and mental magic.

So any suggestions?
Posts: 18 | Registered: Monday, April 24 2006 07:00
Help me plan my character in Geneforge 4: Rebellion
Apprentice
Member # 7064
Profile #18
Well, I'm in chapter 4 now. And the monsters are beginning to feel the power of the almighty submission batons. I have two sets of reaper thorns so in chapter 5 I'll beat down.

I saw an option to let the evil chapter 3 shaper go. I couldn't find anything on the boards about it and I didn't want to replay the battle. Did I miss anything?

Trying to get my reputation to 100 right now so I can get the kill infiltrators quest and so I can recruit Khur! I miss Greenwood and the ability to increase stats without essence cost.
My two drayk's are rocking though.

My mistakes:

Using living tools on doors to get xp. As there is no longer a 1 xp minimum in G4 as in G3, it is less advantageous to get all the experience you can. One xp adds up!

As a corollary I spent too many points in mechanics when I would've been better off using unlock and saving living tools.

I really wish I hadn't put points in endurance and put them all in dexterity and intelligence and then later in missile weapons+sufficient levels for blessing+mental magic and leadership.

Offense is almost always strategically superior to defense. With the endurance I had though, I would've been able to skimp on mechanics.

I also regret doing the request that requires giving him one mandrake tincture, rotgoth fang, et al. Most of these ingredients were for an essence charms and creations can always use more mind effect resistance!

What should I spend my tokens on?

What artifacts should I make? I have one golden crystal.
Posts: 18 | Registered: Monday, April 24 2006 07:00
Help me plan my character in Geneforge 4: Rebellion
Apprentice
Member # 7064
Profile #14
Okay, I'm looking through the items list and I don't see how with items I'm supposed to get FS to six to be able to create drayk's.

Also, I'm wondering which items have abilities that are irreplacable. For example, the clover boots are irreplacable because they are the only boots that give +1stealth. As are all the infiltrator items.

But if there were boots late in the game that gave +2 stealth then it would be okay to sell clover boots in the early game.

So I'm wondering, which items have pluses that are tangential to other abilities and cannot be replaced by late game items.

I don't really care about Vampiric Touch although that would be one example of an ability that can't be replaced.

BTW, I'm in chapter 3 w/going back to do chapter two parts occassionally as the gamefaqs walkthrough is now updated to chapter two and I can get some items I missed.

Like I'm wondering if I can sell my volcanic necklace now because I'll just get a necklace with better boosts to fire shaping late in the game.
Posts: 18 | Registered: Monday, April 24 2006 07:00
Help me plan my character in Geneforge 4: Rebellion
Apprentice
Member # 7064
Profile #9
Okay, I'm only going to train Dexterity and Endurance after I get Leadership to 8 and Endurance to 10. Although I've found that some intelligence is good to be able to cast essence shield, augmentation, war blessing, speed, etc. Pods run out after about two rounds.

People may love spells but missile items are superior. You get gems that only use 3 action points and of course reaper batons.

So once I can train missile weapons in chapter three. All my skill points are going into missile weapons, dexterity, endurance, and intelligence.

I'm still uncertain about which spells are the best. Serviles don't get a discount on buying mental magic and blessing magic with skill points. So how much do I actually have to put skill points in? And skill points not in intelligence means less Drayks.
Posts: 18 | Registered: Monday, April 24 2006 07:00
Help me plan my character in Geneforge 4: Rebellion
Apprentice
Member # 7064
Profile #6
AS long as luck does something then there has to be a point where it becomes worthwhile to buy luck.

Before, I analyze the worthiness of luck in my build I want to iterate my canister plan and how it'll affect my stats:

I've looked the manual and the web page and none of the battle spells are worth getting canisters for.

For creations, I believe there are two create drayk.

Then of course, I'll get the mechanics and stat boosting canisters.

I've been looking over the mental magic and blessing magic spells in the manual and the only time the spell power seems to take into effect is mass maddness and steel spines other than of course the largely irrelevant duration.

So, I've concluded that although intelligence is probably the most important stat. I probably won't need it until later in the game for drayk's and mass maddness.

I've read all the board posts and 8 seems to be the uniformly agreed number for leadership.

Mechanics there's more variation so I'm just going to go with 10.

Missile weapons, I can't train until I can buy it.

So after I've gotten to 8 leadership and 10 mechanics, I can buy strength, dexterity, endurance, and luck. I could buy intelligence and blessing+mental magic but in those cases I'd rather buy them right before I actually need it.

So in spending all my skill points on strength, dexterity, and endurance. Luck starts looking really cheap.

And in the beginning of the game defense is better than offense until you start getting spells like daze and haste that make defense less relevant.
Posts: 18 | Registered: Monday, April 24 2006 07:00
Help me plan my character in Geneforge 4: Rebellion
Apprentice
Member # 7064
Profile #0
I have searched high and low throughout the boards and want some finishing touches to make sure that I'm planning my character right.

Here is what I learned and how I'll apply it:

The two best classes are Servile and Lifecrafter

I chose Servile over Lifecrafter because it's better to create Tier 3 creations at the end than run the same creations throughout the entire game.

At the end of the game I'll make an army of Drayk's.

I'm going to buy training in spellcraft and the melee skills

I'm going to get leadership up to 8(naturally) and mechanics up to 10(with skill points).

I'm going to spend my skill points on strength, dexterity, intelligence, endurance, luck, and missile weapons(for the almight reaper batons).

Luck and missile weapons I'll stop training about level 10. Same with Strength and Dexterity.

I'm unsure of when is the last possible moment to betray Burkes.

I'm also unsure of what the limiting factor is to make essence charms. What ingredients should I be saving?

In terms of canisters

I plan to use canisters that increase stats and ones that improve create drayk.

I'm not sure when the canister check points are so I can go back and use the canisters I need.

I've read that there's one check that's as low as 5.

[ Thursday, February 08, 2007 11:23: Message edited by: KnowledgeBrew ]
Posts: 18 | Registered: Monday, April 24 2006 07:00
Changes in G4 in Geneforge 4: Rebellion
Apprentice
Member # 7064
Profile #13
Make leadership good up until the maximum. If I have leadership 30 something good should come of that.
Posts: 18 | Registered: Monday, April 24 2006 07:00
Buying Training in GF2 in Geneforge Series
Apprentice
Member # 7064
Profile #4
Well, I'm a deadweight shaper focusing on fire shaping. Until I'm ready to create a creation I'm not actually putting any points in fire shaping.

The only skills I need are:

Fire Shaping
Intelligence
Leadership
Mechanics
Luck
Posts: 18 | Registered: Monday, April 24 2006 07:00
Buying Training in GF2 in Geneforge Series
Apprentice
Member # 7064
Profile #0
I want to play GF2 as a Shaper putting all my skill points into Fire Shaping until after I buy training in everything. I've never actually played GF2 before. So I want to know what to hold off on doing so I can get the leadership bonus for certain encounters. So what's the fastest path to get training and infiltrator items and not have to lose mine and conversation xp.
Posts: 18 | Registered: Monday, April 24 2006 07:00
Avernum V ideas in Avernum 4
Apprentice
Member # 7064
Profile #13
I want to see more stat manipulation to try to get your stats as high as possible and get those special skills. So more trainers, etc. Find some way of making Arcane Lore good past 15 total per party and parry worth getting above 10.
Posts: 18 | Registered: Monday, April 24 2006 07:00
Maximizing Skill Point Investment in Avernum 4
Apprentice
Member # 7064
Profile #13
It's not just Quick Action that makes Warriors good. It's Lethal Blow. The one he's standing next to is one he care's about killing if it's a pylon. And there's quite a few battles where you can arrange to be right next to your opponent before you enter combat mode.
Posts: 18 | Registered: Monday, April 24 2006 07:00
Maximizing Skill Point Investment in Avernum 4
Apprentice
Member # 7064
Profile #0
The optimal party and training method I believe is as follows. Always only train a skill until after you can buy training.

All Divinely Touched.

1. Nephil Deadye. At the beginning of the game, only put points in dexterity, endurance, and luck. Put all the -Strength and +AP on this character. Train bows and sharpshooter after Training at Camp Samuels.

2. Nephil Elite Warrior. Train Strength, Dexterity, Intelligence, Endurance, and Luck. Put the best melee weapons on this character. A warrior will own anything without parry. That's why intelligence is important for the warrior because if a creature charms or terrorizes a warrior on a successful hit it probably means they don't have parry. Quick Action, Quick Strike, and Lethal Blow are the best skills for the warrior.

3. Nephil Natural Mage. Train Intelligence, Endurance, Luck, and Mage Spells. Strength and Dexterity are ignored to get the full benefit from Putrified Gauntlets and other stat decreasing items. After training from Cecil train magery and spellcraft. After Almaria train in Tool Use.

4. Slith Pure Spirit. Train Strength, Dexterity, Intelligence, Endurance, Luck, and Priest Spells. Dexterity is important because they don't have gymnastics. Give the best pole weapons to this character. After, Cecil train magery and spellcraft. Then after training in Silvar start giving them warrior skills. The best warrior skills are again Quick Action, Quick Strike, and Lethal Blow.

How to hold off on Nature Lore, Arcane Lore, Tool Use, and First Aid.

It's actually good not to have First Aid because it encourages you to go back to town more often to sell all your stuff. First Aid isn't that good until you get all the permanent buffs like Steel Skin, and so on. Between buying it, Mother Phelps, and the Explorer's Ring you'll have all you need.

Tool Use is hard because the best way to earn the money to buy tool use is to open the locked doors and chests that can only be opened with sufficient tool use. So in terms of buying skills buy tool use first after buying Unlock Doors. Write down all the places that you left unlocked traps, doors, and chests and come back to them. After the demo barrier you can potentially skip most of the eastern gallery. Just stop by all the towns to kill all the unnamed civilians and steal all the loot you can.

After that go straight to the secret passageway to Almaria. The fight with the guard can be quite hard at this time. Now after Almaria you have all the Great Cave towns to get easy civilian kills and easy steals. Then you have to go investigate the Vahntai trap. This is a difficult battle but the techniques about getting through it are well documented. If you don't have any nature lore yet, it's even harder. Just tough it out.

For Nature Lore, wait until you can buy training then go back for all the caches you missed. Train up when there's a cache you can't get. There's a benefit to having 25 nature lore so despite some NL boosting items it's hard to waste points here if you only train as needed.

Arcane Lore, you'll have to do more waiting after you buy training. You have to wait to make the magus vest(Save 1 focusing crystal and 4 fine leathers, of course the Mandrake Root), find the Crystalline Aegis and the Silk-Woven Cord. After you have those three items go back to all the spell books, crystals, etc. that you couldn't decipher.

All the combat trainers are easy to wait on. Kyra's Blessing and training from Cotra and Camp Samuels are the best deals so it's good to buy those first.

For the construction items, save the fine leathers for quests and then save four more to make the Magus Vest. The skill points saved from the 2AL are well worth the loss of the knowledge brew. Save all Mandrake Root, and sell the other herbs if the number is much greater than the amount of Mandrake Root. Make the Fine Steel and Focusing Crystals into Blessed Bracers west of the Tower Colony to get the best selling price.

The answering gloves might be a good use of a mandrake root but parry and riposte aren't that good of skills. But the bonus from the item is much more than the loss of a knowledge brew. If you need more of those skills get it.
Posts: 18 | Registered: Monday, April 24 2006 07:00