Register a SA Forums Account here!
JOINING THE SA FORUMS WILL REMOVE THIS BIG AD, THE ANNOYING UNDERLINED ADS, AND STUPID INTERSTITIAL ADS!!!

You can: log in, read the tech support FAQ, or request your lost password. This dumb message (and those ads) will appear on every screen until you register! Get rid of this crap by registering your own SA Forums Account and joining roughly 150,000 Goons, for the one-time price of $9.95! We charge money because it costs us money per month for bills, and since we don't believe in showing ads to our users, we try to make the money back through forum registrations.
 
  • Post
  • Reply
RagnarokAngel
Oct 5, 2006

Black Magic Extraordinaire
My only personal recommendation with skills is don't pick 2 heal weapons. But you can swap at will so if you want to defy that, go for it.

Adbot
ADBOT LOVES YOU

THF13
Sep 26, 2007

Keep an adversary in the dark about what you're capable of, and he has to assume the worst.
The Illuminati lets you earn the title "Goon", but as others have said the choice doesn't matter too much.

You can use passive skills from weapon trees you aren't using. Lick your wounds requires 1 point in fists but is going to be useful for any new player so pick that up right away.

Your basic attack pattern is going to be using a builder 5 times, then using a consumer for each of your two weapons. You should also make sure you have some kind of AoE available because many of the early enemies are packs 3-5 extremely weak opponents. As you unlock more abilities you want to prioritize a build that can sustain itself with healing effects. You can setup leach heal builds, or have healing effects that trigger on certain conditions (land a critical hit, are hit by an enemy, etc). There's lots of options so keep an eye out for those types of abilities.

pedro0930
Oct 15, 2012

Rorac posted:

A friend just bought me Sins of a Solar Empire: Rebellion. I know it's a 4x game and I've played a few of them now and then, but I'm pretty bad at them in general and know nothing of this one in particular. Any recommendations or crash-course knowledge I should know to not be a rampant pile of failure?

Sins is more of a RTS with 4X elements. Normal AI is pretty passive and easy to beat. Unless you are playing an extremely small map you should start with the colonizers capital ship (think heroes in warcraft 3). It's the third one. Colonize everything and build life support on colony to the point where you don't lose credit due to planetary support cost. Starbase is moderately costly but an upgraded oone is invincible when supported. Use it as your fallback point. Repair ship is extreme powerful, a must against human and very good against AI. You can bribe pirates to attack someone else. If you are trying to expand as quickly as you can you should bribe them for the first raid so you won't waste time and resources on fighting them.

Morpheus
Apr 18, 2008

My favourite little monsters
I just bought Guild Wars 2, and checked out the wiki - are there any recommendations for stuff like crafting professions? It says I can switch them out 'for a fee', how big is that fee? Should I worry about it, or will it just be a small part of my gold at a given time? And is there anything else I should know?

For reference: http://www.beforeiplay.com/index.php?title=Guild_Wars_2

GulMadred
Oct 20, 2005

I don't understand how you can be so mistaken.

Morpheus posted:

I just bought Guild Wars 2, and checked out the wiki - are there any recommendations for stuff like crafting professions? It says I can switch them out 'for a fee', how big is that fee? Should I worry about it, or will it just be a small part of my gold at a given time?
Think of it as a "respec" cost: something that you do occasionally to enhance your gameplay experience. You can safely experiment with a few different professions as you're growing up. You'll retain skill levels in the abandoned ones, so you can switch back to them later on (e.g. when you've maxed the first set of skills and want to max them all for Achievements).

It's possible to "juggle" three or more professions (e.g. return to town, craft a bunch of Leatherworking stuff, switch to Artificing, brew some potions, switch to Blacksmithing, make a new sword, run a few quests, return to town again, etc) but you should not do so. I made that mistake early on, and quickly burned all of my money on respec fees.
  • Join a guild. Guilds receive income from player participation (e.g. logging in, doing quests, exploring) so there isn't too much elitism or exclusivity, and they'll probably be happy to have you as an active member even if you never participate in their scheduled events.
  • You can join multiple guilds simultaneously, but that's sort of "advanced feature" and you might get kicked if you don't understand the Representation mechanic. Just stick to one guild at first.
  • Always have a food buff. Don't buy food except when preparing for a dungeon raid. Your guild bank will be full of surplus food which was made by various players as they leveled their Cooking profession; grab a stack of <whatever> and chow them down as you're exploring.
  • Legendary weapons aren't worth the trouble. It looks neat, but then it mysteriously disappears from your inventory and the Support team just says "the logs show nothing" and jesus christ that was months ago why am I still bitter about it
  • If you see a big crowd of players standing around, take a look around. If they have a lot of different guild tags, then there probably a "world event" beginning shortly. Ask about it, and someone will probably take pity on your noob self and explain. You may be able to get some exp/loot just for hanging around with them and participating in a confusing scrum for a few minutes.

Deakul
Apr 2, 2012

PAM PA RAM

PAM PAM PARAAAAM!

So, I just bought GTA4 and downgraded it to 1.0.4.0 and got icenhancer and xliveless, are there any mods I should absolutely get before playing or is it worth playing through vanilla for my first time?

Forseeable Fuchsia
Dec 28, 2011
With the recent sale on Steam, I've realised I never finished KOTOR I remember there being a big modding scene way back when, were there any good mods for the first one I should pick up?

And how nicely does it play with widescreen? Since I remember that being an issue too.

regulargonzalez
Aug 18, 2006
UNGH LET ME LICK THOSE BOOTS DADDY HULU ;-* ;-* ;-* YES YES GIVE ME ALL THE CORPORATE CUMMIES :shepspends: :shepspends: :shepspends: ADBLOCK USERS DESERVE THE DEATH PENALTY, DON'T THEY DADDY?
WHEN THE RICH GET RICHER I GET HORNIER :a2m::a2m::a2m::a2m:

Mock and Droll posted:

With the recent sale on Steam, I've realised I never finished KOTOR I remember there being a big modding scene way back when, were there any good mods for the first one I should pick up?

And how nicely does it play with widescreen? Since I remember that being an issue too.

So, the last time I played it was about 4 years ago. Looking over my posts about it, here is what I wrote that is relevant:

- it was super crashy for me (Steam version)
- partly because of the already inherent crashiness, and partly because it required a hex editor and I was lazy, I didn't use the widescreen mod. Maybe there's a better version that doesn't require hex editing now.

Other thoughts:

Even at the time it was released, the graphics were mediocre and they've since aged badly. So it goes.

Approval / disapproval means nothing -- if you go darkside, some characters will moan constantly about how you're the rear end in a top hat of the galaxy but there are no repercussions.

Level layout is really bad and inefficient, especially on the first world and the ocean world. Tons of backtracking through super linear layouts.

That said, it's a fun game. HK-47 is a must-have as a companion, and Jolee has good dialogue if you go darkside.

GuyDudeBroMan
Jun 3, 2013

by Ralp

Mock and Droll posted:

With the recent sale on Steam, I've realised I never finished KOTOR I remember there being a big modding scene way back when, were there any good mods for the first one I should pick up?

And how nicely does it play with widescreen? Since I remember that being an issue too.

Play darkside only. It's amazing. Lightside is for pussies. No, for real, darkside is loving hilarious. It's WAAAAAy more fun.




Did you also get KOTRO2? That game was way too easy and unfinished. It's not worth playing without several mods.

blackguy32
Oct 1, 2005

Say, do you know how to do the walk?
Anything for Dino Crisis 2?

Foul Fowl
Sep 12, 2008

Uuuuh! Seek ye me?

GuyDudeBroMan posted:

Did you also get KOTRO2? That game was way too easy and unfinished. It's not worth playing without several mods.

It also offers by far the most interesting story out of any Star Wars game to date; the Jedi idealism is fundamentally incongruous with the world around it.

As long as you go in expecting an unfinished game you'll probably enjoy it.

RatHat
Dec 31, 2007

A tiny behatted rat👒🐀!
Some stuff for Child of Light.

- A party member permanently leaves you about 2/3rds of the way through the game so don't waste any dust on them. The member is Norah.
(Do spoiler tags even work on the wiki?)

- Here are all the Oculi combinations
3 Rough gems of the same kind = 1 Tumbled gem
3 Tumbled gems of the same kind = 1 Faceted gem
3 Faceted gems of the samd kind = 1 Brilliant Gem
Sapphire + Ruby = Amethyst
Ruby + Emerald = Citrine
Sapphire + Emerald = Tourmaline
Sapphire + Ruby + Emerald = Diamond
Amethyst + Citrine + Tourmaline = Onyx
Onyx + Diamond = Spinel
Brilliant Onyx + Brilliant Diamond + Brilliant Spinel = Princess Stone

- All the elements have about the same level of usefulness, but one thing to note is Lightning and Light elements won't get reduced damage against anything.

- Unless you do a ton of grinding you won't have enough skill points to max everything in your skill trees. I had just enough to max 2 of the trees at the end of my playthrough where I fought everything I encountered. The end of the skill trees unlock about 2/3rds of the way through the game.

- There are no shops anywhere so be a bit careful about how many health potions you use.

Goofballs
Jun 2, 2011



owl_pellet posted:

Can someone knowledgeable about Divinity II confirm and/or add to what is in the wiki?

http://beforeiplay.com/index.php?title=Divinity_2:_The_Dragon_Knight_Saga

I wonder if some of the stuff in there, particularly the entry about strength vs. intelligence for normal damage and magic damage, was written before the expansion or some major patch and is no longer valid. Based on my testing with the stat points it doesn't work like the wiki says.

Also, is there some way to track all the keys, items, etc. I learn about through mindreading people in the game or am I stuck writing that down or trying to remember it all?

I found the advice in that kind of dubious when I was playing through the game. The strongest combat style by some distance is the dual wielding one because the effects on weapons stack. By the start of the expansion I had pretty much broken the game that way.

The jump up attack is really good for the early game because you aren't getting punched when you do it and the bonus on it is really quite good. Doing it while dual wielding will one shot most things eventually. Life leech was amazingly good too and once you have lots of spare points deathblow is good. By the end I was critting 75% of the time. Couldn't really do without evade as well. I mostly used the rush attack to close distance. If I remember right there is a healing spell too and that was probably the spell I used most because the magic attacks didn't seem that fun.

I'm not sure about the keys and stuff you learn through mindreading because I haven't played the game in a while but they might be in the quest log. And I think they don't spawn until you do a mindread.

Foxhound
Sep 5, 2007

RatHat posted:

Some stuff for Child of Light.

- A party member permanently leaves you about 2/3rds of the way through the game so don't waste any dust on them. The member is Norah.
(Do spoiler tags even work on the wiki?)

- Here are all the Oculi combinations
3 Rough gems of the same kind = 1 Tumbled gem
3 Tumbled gems of the same kind = 1 Faceted gem
3 Faceted gems of the samd kind = 1 Brilliant Gem
Sapphire + Ruby = Amethyst
Ruby + Emerald = Citrine
Sapphire + Emerald = Tourmaline
Sapphire + Ruby + Emerald = Diamond
Amethyst + Citrine + Tourmaline = Onyx
Onyx + Diamond = Spinel
Brilliant Onyx + Brilliant Diamond + Brilliant Spinel = Princess Stone

- All the elements have about the same level of usefulness, but one thing to note is Lightning and Light elements won't get reduced damage against anything.

- Unless you do a ton of grinding you won't have enough skill points to max everything in your skill trees. I had just enough to max 2 of the trees at the end of my playthrough where I fought everything I encountered. The end of the skill trees unlock about 2/3rds of the way through the game.

- There are no shops anywhere so be a bit careful about how many health potions you use.

I know this isn't the correct thread for it but I wanna stay out of the game's own thread for fear of spoilers:
How long did it take you to finish and did you get any of the "story" dlc? If so what did you think of them? I've been thinking of getting it but at the price it seems like a 3-hour afternoon deal.

Forseeable Fuchsia
Dec 28, 2011

GuyDudeBroMan posted:

Play darkside only. It's amazing. Lightside is for pussies. No, for real, darkside is loving hilarious. It's WAAAAAy more fun.

Did you also get KOTRO2? That game was way too easy and unfinished. It's not worth playing without several mods.

Nah I didn't. I've played that so many times already. Great game though. Never played the restored content mod for it though. Would it be worth picking up just for that mod, if otherwise I wouldn't get it again?

Barudak
May 7, 2007

blackguy32 posted:

Anything for Dino Crisis 2?

ABC - Always Be Comboing

The quick 180 is a godsend. Master it, murder with it.

When you have the money buy the upgrade cards. They're expensive but the gold one doubles all money you earn so it'll pay for itself very, very quickly.

You are required to buy the chain-mine so budget for that/buy it as soon as you can. Its priced appropriately cheaply and its not an altogether terrible weapon.

Beating the game lets you buy characters for the weird fighting game included in the title. This mode is... strange but definitely worth trying it out.

If you beat the game and collect all 11 Dino Files you can get infinite ammo for your weapons on subsequent playthroughs.

Elendil004
Mar 22, 2003

The prognosis
is not good.


Any tips for going through Lego Star Wars and trying to get all the stuff unlocked?

blackguy32
Oct 1, 2005

Say, do you know how to do the walk?

Barudak posted:

ABC - Always Be Comboing

The quick 180 is a godsend. Master it, murder with it.

When you have the money buy the upgrade cards. They're expensive but the gold one doubles all money you earn so it'll pay for itself very, very quickly.

You are required to buy the chain-mine so budget for that/buy it as soon as you can. Its priced appropriately cheaply and its not an altogether terrible weapon.

Beating the game lets you buy characters for the weird fighting game included in the title. This mode is... strange but definitely worth trying it out.

If you beat the game and collect all 11 Dino Files you can get infinite ammo for your weapons on subsequent playthroughs.

Any weapons that I should absolutely buy and weapons I should pass on?

Barudak
May 7, 2007

blackguy32 posted:

Any weapons that I should absolutely buy and weapons I should pass on?

The armor is, honestly, more essential because it prevents you from getting the "bleed" status effect. You don't remotely need any of the fancier weaponry to get through the game like the rocket launchers or anti-tank weapon. Honestly the shotgun and submachine guns can carry you very far in the game.

There is no reason to purchase the aqua grenades as there is only one underwater section and you can, if you're willing to do so, just spam the free infinite ammo weapon you get and murder absolutely everything with just about 0 risk.

There are several sequences where you'll be pitted in a battle against allosauruses. They're weak on the sides and you can kill them for chunks of points but you can also just bypass I think every single one of them.

Every boss battle I can remember off the top of my head is either a puzzle boss or gives you an infinite ammo temporary weapon to deal with it.

RatHat
Dec 31, 2007

A tiny behatted rat👒🐀!

Foxhound posted:

I know this isn't the correct thread for it but I wanna stay out of the game's own thread for fear of spoilers:
How long did it take you to finish and did you get any of the "story" dlc? If so what did you think of them? I've been thinking of getting it but at the price it seems like a 3-hour afternoon deal.

About 10 hours. The only story DLC is the extra character, which is alright I guess. He's not a particularly interesting character and I barely used him in combat.

Kruller
Feb 20, 2004

It's time to restore dignity to the Farnsworth name!

Elendil004 posted:

Any tips for going through Lego Star Wars and trying to get all the stuff unlocked?

Power through the story. Once that's done you'll unlock Free Play for all the levels, which lets you use other characters than just the story based ones, which will get you all the mini-kit parts. If you're running short on studs to buy characters, look up the codes for the stud multiplier blocks, if you don't want to find them in regular gameplay.

The cheat blocks are almost required to find some of the bullshit hidden stuff, so don't feel bad about using them.

Literally every Lego game uses the same basis, so these tips apply to all of them.

Bobby Deluxe
May 9, 2004

Elendil004 posted:

Any tips for going through Lego Star Wars and trying to get all the stuff unlocked?
The cloud city hat achievement / trophy is bugged, in a good way. You have to exit the cloud city level wearing a storm trooper helmet, which means not getting hit even once for the second half of the level. Or just complete the level once, go back into free play, get the helmet and go back to the cantina. The achievement should pop.

Keep a walkthrough open on your laptop / phone / tablet for the red bricks, minikits and challenge kits, and always kill JarJar.

RagnarokAngel
Oct 5, 2006

Black Magic Extraordinaire

Mock and Droll posted:

Nah I didn't. I've played that so many times already. Great game though. Never played the restored content mod for it though. Would it be worth picking up just for that mod, if otherwise I wouldn't get it again?

Eh, if its on sale sure. The restored content feels a bit janky and uneven because (to be fair to the devs) they were working with incomplete notes. It also has some baffling design decisions like a super grindy dungeon with a boring rear end layout and way too many mobs, solo as HK-47.

Some of the last dungeon stuff is pretty interesting at least.

Zulily Zoetrope
Jun 1, 2011

Muldoon

Morpheus posted:

I just bought Guild Wars 2, and checked out the wiki - are there any recommendations for stuff like crafting professions? It says I can switch them out 'for a fee', how big is that fee? Should I worry about it, or will it just be a small part of my gold at a given time? And is there anything else I should know?

For reference: http://www.beforeiplay.com/index.php?title=Guild_Wars_2

The fee is based on your skill in the profession you're switching to, so learning a new profession is free. There's little reason to level more than two professions on a single character, since anything you craft can be traded freely to other characters on your account, and you have enough character slots to master all professions. Once you're rich and established, crafting is the fastest way to level up a character, but when starting out, just stick to two per character.

Otherwise, the absolutely most important thing is to join a guild. There's a couple active Goon guilds that're always hiring; check the megathread for details. Make sure you're representing the guild once you join. Last time I made a character, you had to toggle it for each character individually. Representing gives you the guild bonuses and access to guild chat. Guild chat is probably the handiest resource in the game; don't be afraid to ask questions or for a hand.

Morpheus
Apr 18, 2008

My favourite little monsters

Kajeesus posted:

The fee is based on your skill in the profession you're switching to, so learning a new profession is free. There's little reason to level more than two professions on a single character, since anything you craft can be traded freely to other characters on your account, and you have enough character slots to master all professions. Once you're rich and established, crafting is the fastest way to level up a character, but when starting out, just stick to two per character.

Otherwise, the absolutely most important thing is to join a guild. There's a couple active Goon guilds that're always hiring; check the megathread for details. Make sure you're representing the guild once you join. Last time I made a character, you had to toggle it for each character individually. Representing gives you the guild bonuses and access to guild chat. Guild chat is probably the handiest resource in the game; don't be afraid to ask questions or for a hand.

So guilds...does it work that you can be part of multiple guilds, but only ever gaining points for one of them at a time?

Also, the difference between account and soul bound (this is my first MMO, really) - I assume that means an item can be traded between characters in the same account, and not at all (respectively)? And I'm also noticing that you can't break down bound items.

I'm doing some artificing, and noticing that there are recipes that combine the magic luck items - combine two 10s into a 20, that sort of thing. Am I wrong in thinking that the purpose of this is only to get artificing xp and also to create big luck bonuses to sell on the market?

Kruller
Feb 20, 2004

It's time to restore dignity to the Farnsworth name!

Morpheus posted:

So guilds...does it work that you can be part of multiple guilds, but only ever gaining points for one of them at a time?

Also, the difference between account and soul bound (this is my first MMO, really) - I assume that means an item can be traded between characters in the same account, and not at all (respectively)? And I'm also noticing that you can't break down bound items.

I'm doing some artificing, and noticing that there are recipes that combine the magic luck items - combine two 10s into a 20, that sort of thing. Am I wrong in thinking that the purpose of this is only to get artificing xp and also to create big luck bonuses to sell on the market?

Magic luck, as I recall, is basically worthless. It's multiplicative based off your base chance. If your base chance is 1%, and you gain a 200% bonus, you now have a 3% chance.

SolidSnakesBandana
Jul 1, 2007

Infinite ammo
OK? That's how math works. Having 3% vs 1% indeed makes it much more likely that you will get whatever drop. Significantly so.

Vadun
Mar 9, 2011

I'm hungrier than a green snake in a sugar cane field.

Legend of Mana

I've read the beforeiplay.com page, but theres still one or two more things I'd like to know.

Does the ending change based on what path you take?
Should I care about pets/golems/synthesis?
Can I just sell everything that monsters drop?

Kruller
Feb 20, 2004

It's time to restore dignity to the Farnsworth name!

SolidSnakesBandana posted:

OK? That's how math works. Having 3% vs 1% indeed makes it much more likely that you will get whatever drop. Significantly so.

Right, but the total chance you can get up to, fully loaded, isn't terribly high, and detracts significantly from the stats that actually let you kill the thing that drops it. Significantly enough that it's faster to just kill more things than it is to increase your magic find.

al-azad
May 28, 2009



Vadun posted:

Legend of Mana

I've read the beforeiplay.com page, but theres still one or two more things I'd like to know.

Does the ending change based on what path you take?
Should I care about pets/golems/synthesis?
Can I just sell everything that monsters drop?

No, no, yes.

Legend of Mana is the kind of game where the more you put into it the more you get out of it. You can play it pretty straightforward and get some enjoyment out of it but it's more fun when you explore all the subsystems. If that's not your cup of tea then you'll probably be dissatisfied with the game because it doesn't offer a linear narrative, it's about the 4 or 5 subplots that are happening in the background and how they're connected to each other.

I recommend playing the game blind at the start. Since you're unlikely to see more than half the content or so on that first playthrough you'll unlock New Game+ which lets you increase the difficulty. At this point, all those fun subsystems like crafting weapons/magic/golems becomes useful and necessary. Legend of Mana is my favorite game in the series because it's so dense and the game makes it pretty clear you're not going to see everything unless you slavishly follow a guide.

TerryLennox
Oct 12, 2009

There is nothing tougher than a tough Mexican, just as there is nothing gentler than a gentle Mexican, nothing more honest than an honest Mexican, and above all nothing sadder than a sad Mexican. -R. Chandler.

al-azad posted:

No, no, yes.

Legend of Mana is the kind of game where the more you put into it the more you get out of it. You can play it pretty straightforward and get some enjoyment out of it but it's more fun when you explore all the subsystems. If that's not your cup of tea then you'll probably be dissatisfied with the game because it doesn't offer a linear narrative, it's about the 4 or 5 subplots that are happening in the background and how they're connected to each other.

I recommend playing the game blind at the start. Since you're unlikely to see more than half the content or so on that first playthrough you'll unlock New Game+ which lets you increase the difficulty. At this point, all those fun subsystems like crafting weapons/magic/golems becomes useful and necessary. Legend of Mana is my favorite game in the series because it's so dense and the game makes it pretty clear you're not going to see everything unless you slavishly follow a guide.

I'll elaborate a little. All runs in Legend of Mana have the same ending. This is a game where you "build" the world as you play, so depending on where you place the parts of the world, you may miss some content and characters. Sidequests and NPC quests get resolved during the playthrough, provided you make the right choices. Many mana fans dislike the non-save-the-world plot. Many mana fans also eat uncooked boar anuses and probably like Cheetahman. Don't be that guy.

As Al-Azad said, you get what you put in. This game is offline only so your pets, NPCs and golems are your only company as you explore the game.

You can sell equipment, however you should know that you don't get a lot of loot in this game. You MAKE your own loot. Want to make a sword that could cut God like a sashimi? Craft it. Want an armor that can shrug off most damage? Craft it. You can buy some mediocre gear in the shops but you should actually craft your own. Its half the fun in the game.

Once you master all of this, you will cry because you will see how Squaresoft could improve this game by giving it slightly better graphics, full multiplayer, no pets/golem restrictions but they instead choose to make Final Fantasy n+1 SCOWL HARDER. Basically this game is a proto MMORPG without the MMO.

liquid courage
Aug 12, 2011

Playing Tenchu: The Stealth Assassins on PS1 for the first time. Getting the hang of things, but I can't seem to figure out a few things. Is there some sort of glitch, or am I only able to select items once only per boot up of the game? I died playing the first mission, and as soon as I get back into the item screen, I can't select the gear I chose the last time. Is there any way to block using the sword, or is the combat more timing-based? I get the impression that the game wants you to ghost missions as much as possible, but I'm kinda bad at that right now.

The Dark Id
Aug 13, 2005

Why
you
know
I
LOVE
THIS SHIT !!!!
[citation needed]

liquid courage posted:

Playing Tenchu: The Stealth Assassins on PS1 for the first time. Getting the hang of things, but I can't seem to figure out a few things. Is there some sort of glitch, or am I only able to select items once only per boot up of the game? I died playing the first mission, and as soon as I get back into the item screen, I can't select the gear I chose the last time. Is there any way to block using the sword, or is the combat more timing-based? I get the impression that the game wants you to ghost missions as much as possible, but I'm kinda bad at that right now.

- Your gear is expendable. Make it through a mission without using it in-mission/don't select it? It carries to the next mission. You used that poo poo and died? That poo poo is gone cuz you hosed up, son.
- As I recall hold away from the enemy you are facing is the block. Basically just block enemies attacks and then immediately follow up with several strikes. The combat is poo poo, but it is fairly simple. Enemies seldom have unblockable moves.
- The game is named Stealth Assassins. Which means you should be sneaking up on fools and stealth killing them as you progress through the level. Get close to an unaware enemy and attack and you'll one-shot them with a badass stealth kill animation. Do that as much as possible. Get the gently caress out of dodge if you gently caress up. The grappling hook and high ground are your friends.

MussoliniB
Aug 22, 2009
I have been playing FTL: Faster than Light since its release date, and at this very second I am 88 play, 0 victories, and it's getting awfully frustrating. I've only ever played on easy! The wiki has a few tips, but hasn't been updated since someone first mentioned it, back near release date. Since we've got an updated version, does anyone have any advice on the new and improved FTL? Or any advice whatsoever?

Random Hajile
Aug 25, 2003

MussoliniB posted:

I have been playing FTL: Faster than Light since its release date, and at this very second I am 88 play, 0 victories, and it's getting awfully frustrating. I've only ever played on easy! The wiki has a few tips, but hasn't been updated since someone first mentioned it, back near release date. Since we've got an updated version, does anyone have any advice on the new and improved FTL? Or any advice whatsoever?
What exactly is dropping you? That'd be a handy thing to know to offer more personalized tips. I haven't really played the expansion yet, but I had more than a few wins in Vanilla, and here's what I remember.

- Getting Shields to 2 provides an amazing boost to survivability for the first several sectors, and should be one of your first priorities for most, if not all ships. Less damage taken means less scrap wasted on repairs and more to spend on things that actively help you. Also, it means you're less likely to be dead.

- Getting doors to at least 2 makes suffocating enemy boarding parties a viable option, if not the preferred option if you're not going for a teleporting crew-killer strategy for your own offense. Why divert your crew away from their jobs to ward off invaders when the empty void of space can do your dirty work for you? Just remember that boarding drones can't be suffocated, so consider targeting the enemy drone control if one's being a pain in your rear end.

- Missiles are great for punching through enemy shields to create openings for your other weapons, but you're not going to get enough of them to use them haphazardly. Learn to recognize when an enemy isn't going to be a significant threat and don't waste limited resources on those fights. A lot of early fights will fall into this category if you get two shields early on - they often won't be able to hit your shields fast enough to ever break through.

- On the flip side, when you see a missile launcher on an enemy ship, keep it disabled as much as possible. Enemies don't care about conserving ammo and will gladly take advantage of their ability to ignore your shields and make your life more difficult and/or short.

- Wiping out an enemy crew tends to give better rewards than blowing them apart or accepting surrenders, but it takes a bit of preparation. You'll need to be able to board ships and win fights, set fleshy targets on fire (not an option for rockman targets), hit the crew with anti-bio weapons, or destroy their O2 generator and keep it broken long enough to suffocate them. Plus, there are ships where a crew kill isn't an option. AI-controlled ships and the final boss fall into this category, so crew murder can't be your only strategy.

- When you do get to the final boss fight, you'll need some means to avoid damage when it gets pissed off. If you have 3 or 4 shields, a powerful engine and competent pilot can help give you a good enough dodge rating to survive long enough to cripple its offense (assuming the RNG doesn't poo poo on you). But if you can get a stealth system, you can activate it just before a nasty volley hits and avoid it outright. Other than that, make it a top priority to destroy the nastier weapons systems.

Random Hajile fucked around with this message at 05:37 on May 6, 2014

GrandpaPants
Feb 13, 2006


Free to roam the heavens in man's noble quest to investigate the weirdness of the universe!

MussoliniB posted:

I have been playing FTL: Faster than Light since its release date, and at this very second I am 88 play, 0 victories, and it's getting awfully frustrating. I've only ever played on easy! The wiki has a few tips, but hasn't been updated since someone first mentioned it, back near release date. Since we've got an updated version, does anyone have any advice on the new and improved FTL? Or any advice whatsoever?

The easiest way to win the game for me has been to hope for a Vulcan and then use said Vulcan. It is slow to get up to speed, but once it does it shits out damage in a truly amazing way.

More last boss tips:

-Teleporters help with the first form (and pretty much all the forms afterwards). Teleport two dudes, preferably Mantis or Rock, to the missile weapon area. Kill the guy, kill the missiles. Congrats, you're much better off now. If you have time, you can repeat this to the Ion Cannon weapon and disable that one.

-A Defense Drone II helps against the second form. Have at least 3 shields, 4 if you can spare the scrap. Teleport dudes to the now empty missile weapon. A security droid will likewise help, since they will breach with an assault droid. Cloaking can help with the super weapon.

-Pretty much the same as the second form. A mind control subsystem, even at level 1, can be used to revert your mind controlled crew member. Cloak against the super weapon, teleport to kill the missiles, etc.

The best weapons to prioritize are Vulcan > Flak > Ion Blast II > Laser Burst II. Everything else to me is pretty eh. Missiles are pretty okay too, especially if you can unleash everything on the last boss.

moller
Jan 10, 2007

Swan stole my music and framed me!

MussoliniB posted:

I have been playing FTL: Faster than Light since its release date, and at this very second I am 88 play, 0 victories, and it's getting awfully frustrating. I've only ever played on easy! The wiki has a few tips, but hasn't been updated since someone first mentioned it, back near release date. Since we've got an updated version, does anyone have any advice on the new and improved FTL? Or any advice whatsoever?

Telling us which ship you're using and what's killing you will help.

- Enemy missiles are a big problem in AE so I've gotten more used to keeping parity between engines and shields than in pre-AE. Shields used to make you effectively invincible but that seems less so with the new content.

- Doors 2 is still great for invaders as mentioned above, but in AE you can have a spare crewmember man the doors system which acts like another level of doors - this includes a new higher level you can't buy. A thing to keep in mind if you have more warm bodies than scrap.

- Pretty much every ship variant is going to need a weaponry upgrade somewhere in the first three sectors. Even if you have something great (BL2? Glaive?) out of the gate it's going to become a peashooter when you run across enemies with 2 or more pips in shields. At the same time, you can't throw all of your resources into getting a weapon online or the chances are good that you will die before firing it.

- Spend as much time as you possibly can in every sector. Jump backwards and sideways all day as long as the fleet is a few jumps behind. Learn to eyeball how far each jump takes the fleet. Pay off ships or booby-trap caches to delay them. As long as your fuel is holding out, you should be avoiding forward progress as much as you can. More sectors means more scrap.

- Buy the scrap arm if you see it early. Most of the augments are very powerful though.

- Target weapons first always if you can! If you're able to shoot through their shields and do damage, take away their ability to do damage. Weapons and drones are the only thing that can cause hull damage to you outside of random events and weird edge cases (raging fires, boarding drones) so don't let the enemy fire. A long stalemate you jump away from or win by attrition is always preferable to a pyrrhic victory where you take it slightly less than you dish it out. Don't get hit.

- Boarding parties are a great tactic, even if AE lessened the rewards. Take down the enemy weapons and then beat them to death with your fists. Sometimes you even get a free gun, crewmate, or drone out of the deal.

- The entire game is, in a way, about getting the tools you need to beat the flagship. If you're dying to the flagship the advice you would need is slightly different than if you're consistently getting taken out in sector five by ships with three dots of shields or a bunch of drones.

FTL is a game with roughly 10,000 simultaneous games of paper-rock-scissors going at once though. Read the tooltips and/or the multi-thousand post thread in games. I'm like 103/8 though, so maybe you shouldn't take my advice.

moller fucked around with this message at 08:40 on May 6, 2014

texting my ex
Nov 15, 2008

I am no one
I cannot squat
It's in my blood
ok my backlog has grown really much lately, so I need a little help with a few games. All on PC but I prefer to play on a couch via gamepad

I've played Witcher 1 and 2 for about 15-20 hours each but lost interest both times because something was loving me over in combat (I don't remember exactly what part). I really want to finish them before Witcher 3 comes out, what's the recommended "combat" spec for making the games easy?

I really liked Dragon Age, should I bother with the 2nd game at all? Or is it that bad?

moller
Jan 10, 2007

Swan stole my music and framed me!

Skilleddk posted:

Witcher [...] 2 "combat" spec

Quen. Rolling. But really, any build is able to tackle the combat, you just need to make the best use of the various interlocking syst-

Skilleddk posted:

I really liked Dragon Age

Oh, uh, nevermind then.

Adbot
ADBOT LOVES YOU

Robzor McFabulous
Jan 31, 2011

Skilleddk posted:

I really liked Dragon Age, should I bother with the 2nd game at all? Or is it that bad?

I thoroughly enjoyed the first one too, and despite the (obvious) flaws I had fun with DA2 also. The endlessly copy-pasted dungeons definitely make you stop and say "Wow guys, really?" but the story and characters were good enough to see me to the end. I liked the combat and the inventory improvements too.

  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • 5
  • Post
  • Reply