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BadAstronaut posted:Anyone want to do me some Arcanum: Of Steamworks and Magick Obscura starter advice? Keep in mind that: - you get more experience in combat if YOU'RE the one hitting the monsters, not your party members. - Dexterity is probably the most important attribute, since it governs most combat skills, as well as the thief abilities as well. If you want to succeed at melee, you need DX more than you need strength (although that helps, too). - Beauty is a little useless, since you can excel as an intelligent ugly person, but not as a beautiful idiot. - Worthless Mutt is the best fighter NPC in the game. If you want him in your party, remember two things: (1) Mutt is so good at fighting that for the first half of the game, having him in your party will make combat very boring (and less lucrative in terms of experience, since Mutt will tear through enemies before you can even reach them). (2) If you want him in your party, you'll have to hoof it to the inn the first time you arrive in Ashbury. If you don't get there in time, the gnome kicking Mutt will kill him. - In Tarant, you can deliver a note for a shady individual (in the Wellington Gentleman's club), solve the theft of a painting (the Garringsburg heist), and fetch a new crystal ball for a psychic. Be sure to complete the quests in this order, and for the crystal ball quest, side with Toussaud not Besson. - Speak to Thom Grak (middle of Tarant) to start one of the more interesting quest lines. - By the time you explore the Black Mountain Clan, you should be at LEAST level 20, your entire party should be wearing metal armor, you’ll need to be able to take some heavy hits, you’ll need to be able to heal yourself a lot, and you’ll need at least apprentice level in repair, OR lots of weapons, OR the ability to teleport out of a dungeon with an Exit scroll to get your equipment fixed by someone else. - When it’s time to go to Thanatos, you can either pay a lot of money for passage or you can get your own ship. Getting the ship is more complicated, but worth it since you can travel to virtually any city for free from that point on. - Items to hang onto: shovel, mithril, Molochean Hand amulet, kathorn crystal, heartstone, and, if you're a tech, saltpeter & charcoal (the two components in bullets). - If you're a tech that's high on the scale (75 or so) healing magic will almost always fail on you. BUT most of the party-joinable NPCs in the game don't fall far enough on the scale in either direction for this to be the case, so you might want to have a healer in your party to look after them, while you take care of your own healing. Here's some additions to your helpful suggestions: Residue posted:Arcanum: Of Steamworks and Magick Obscura VarangianSam posted:I've just started Planescape: Torment and I'm really enjoying it. Is there anything important that I need to know, or is it a sort of learn-as-you-go experience? Find the Bronze Sphere in Pharod's undeground caverns and NEVER LET IT GO. It won't be useful until the very end of the game, when it's worth 2 million in XP. You'll also want to hang onto the Decanter of Endless Water (although that comes into play much sooner). Buy the Modron Cube from Vrischika's shop in the Clerk's Ward and fiddle with it until you figure out how it works. You may want to wait until you're a decently high-level to enter it, though, since the enemies can be very tough. (Unless you're cheesy and you just run past them). And as everyone else has said, for the optimal game experience, you need to play as a mage with high Wisdom, high Intelligence, and high Charisma. And as a general rule of thumb, and this works on both a figurative and literal level, in PST Friends is a more useful spell than Magic Missile. Astfgl fucked around with this message at 20:13 on Dec 17, 2008 |
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Dec 17, 2008 20:09
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Zuffox posted:I've just begun playing Baldur's Gate 2: Shadow of Amn, and the companions are a mixed bunch compared to games such as Neverwinter Nights 2, where you have one of every class. A good tip for BG2 companions is that you don't have to be stuck with the ones the game provides. Start a multiplayer game, and you can create all 6 party characters. You can make less, or create more and just save some characters for later. Then you have two choices: (1) You can play through in a multiplayer game, which has the added bonus of letting you swap characters for other pre-made ones at any time, or (2) you can find your BG2 directory, find the MPSAVE folder, find your savegame, and then copy it over to your SAVE folder. Then, you can play with those custom-made characters in a single-player game. The upside here is that you can swap out a custom-made character for an NPC if you want a mix in your party. A lot of the entertainment value of BG2 is in the NPCs who join your party, but after a couple runs through the game you'll realize that they are both tedious and poorly crafted characters (on average). Taking the time to roll all six party members while maximizing available special classes will make for a much more interesting game.
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Jan 10, 2009 15:21
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McKracken posted:Ah, okay thanks. Ok so avoid any perks that directly boost skills. Any other perks that are totally completely useless? Each limb has its own health gauge (as do yours, if you check your pipboy) and when you deplete the health gauge you "cripple" the limb. You'll be able to see how healthy an enemy's limbs are while you're in VATS, so it's really not hard to cripple limbs with a gun vs. grenades. Stronger enemies will have much stronger limbs (like Super Mutant Masters, Deathclaws, Yao Guai, etc.) so it's best to focus on the head (for damage) or the torso (for accuracy) to bring them down quickly instead of on the other limbs. There are different benefits to taking out each limb, but as you've noticed these will rarely help you kill the enemy quicker: - Arms: If you take out the arm an enemy is using to hold his weapon, he'll drop the weapon. If he still has another good arm, he'll usually pick up the weapon with his other arm and start firing again, but you can run and grab it if you're quick enough. - Legs: Some enemies, most notably deathclaws, will rush you and start dealing massive amounts of damage. If you can take out one or more of their legs from a distance, they'll take much longer while running at you. - Weapons: Most melee weapons and guns carried by enemies can be shot by you and their conditions depleted to the point of unusability. They'll be dropped and picked up again by the enemies, but since their condition is at 0 they'll be unusuable. Much better than crippling arms if your intent is to disarm an enemy. - Tongues, Stingers, Antennae etc.: Some enemies like radscorpions, ants and centaurs will have damage-dealing appendages you can shoot. This will either frenzy the monster (like with ants) or prevent them from using that appendage to hurt you (like with centaurs). - Torso: No real benefit to crippling this, but in most encounters this'll be the easiest to shoot. - Head: Crippling the head usually outright kills the creature, but when it doesn't it makes it harder for the enemy to hit you accurately. Pointless with helmeted creatures unless you have a good weapon, lots of ammo and you can take a few bullets. As far as useless perks go, the experience bonus from Swift Learner isn't that great since XP is pretty plentiful. Child at Heart is used about a half-dozen times in the game in special dialogue options, so there are certainly more useful perks to choose. The Lawbringer/Contract Killer perk is handy for making cash, but not much beyond that. Infiltrator lets you pick broken locks, but if you're breaking locks, you're doing something wrong. Same with the Computer Whiz perk, which lets you hack locked-out terminals--if you're locking yourself out of terminals you're doing something wrong.
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Mar 2, 2009 16:51
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AberrantBassist posted:I just got a copy of "Nox" for the PC. I've been dying to play this game because I'm a huge fan of Diablo and Fate, does anyone have any pointers? Also, can someone tell me how to check the stats on an item I pick up? I've searched everywhere and I've found a couple basic control guides, but nothing mentions it. Nox is a fun game. It's too bad you're getting into this it now, because the multiplayer action a decade ago was shitloads of fun. The singleplayer campaign is pretty self-explanatory, but here are a couple tips: Conjurer: - The best conjurer spells are Burn (for zombies), Charm (if you have the right Beast scroll), Fist of Vengeance, Force of Nature, Greater & Lesser Heal, Meteor, Pixie Swarm, and Stun. Pixie Swarm will probably be your go-to attack spell for most of the game, as the pixies hone in on enemies like the Wizard’s magic missiles. - Unlike the Wizard, you WILL get a lot of use out of your "trap" ability, the boomer. Boomers (or whatever they're called in the game) will run around in search of enemies. When they find one, they detonate and (hopefully) release the three spells you put inside them on their prey. You can use them to take out large groups of enemies by giving them area-effect spells, or difficult bosses by loading them with Fists of Vengeance or Force of Natures. Remember, including Stun, Poison or Slow as the first spell pretty much guarantees that you'll kill the enemy. - There is no "best" combination of beasts to summon. Some, like Mimics and Demons, are almost always useful, while others, like Will'o'Wisps and Ghosts, take some practice. The best rule is to generally summon beasts which complement your fighting style. If your conjurer uses a melee weapon and rushes into combat, summon beasts with ranged attacks. If your conjurer stands back and fights enemies with a bow or crossbow, summon some tanks (like Ogres) to keep the enemies at a distance. Warrior: - The warrior is the hardest class to play well (unlike most of these kinds of games). You have a very limited selection of abilities (5, as opposed to 25 and 45 for conjurers and wizards respectively), and two of them are pretty worthless. With the magic classes, you have way more options to fall back on, whereas warriors can pretty much only attack or retreat. - When fighting wizards and conjurers you'll definitely feel a disadvantage. To overcome this, you'll almost always want to be fighting up close. If your enemy is surrounded by other hostiles, use your harpoon to reel him to you. If your enemy is alone, use your charge to take him out. Avoid getting caught in the middle of a large melee you cannot win--bring the various fighters to you to take them out more easily. Wizard: - The best spells are Burn (for zombies), Death Ray, Dispel Undead, Energy Bolt (for continuous damage), Fireball (for its blast radius), Force Field, Fumble, Mark & Teleport, and Magic Missiles. The other spells are all useful insofar as there is at least one valid use of every spell in the game, but the ones listed above will probably be the ones you rely on most often. - Wizards can only use staffs for weapons, and more often than not you'll want to use a spell instead of using the charges in your staff. Basically, ignore the Sulphurous Staves and focus on finding the Fireball Staves. They'll be rare at first, but then you'll find enough of them that you can use them pretty liberally. - Sadly, your ability to make traps won't be very useful. If you're being chased by enemies (like undead or something), it's handy to lay down some traps with Dispel Undead in them but outside of these special situations you won't have many opportunities to use them. The game is always pushing you forward, whereas these traps require extensive backtracking and sneaking to pay off. Armor: - The Resistance (poison, fire and electricity) gear is useful in certain situations, but is usually outdone by the Speed or Healing gear. I mean, if you're in the Poison Swamps or the Fire Caves then dress accordingly, but otherwise stick with speed/heal. - Resistance gear comes in almost all armor types (i.e., helmet, boots, leggings, etc.), while Speed gear only comes in boots, and Healing gear only comes in cloaks and tunics/cuirasses. Weapons: - The crossbow is probably one of the best weapons in the game. It does an insane amount of damage (even before fire/poison/shock bonuses are added from the weapon itself and the arrows it uses) and both conjurers and warriors can use it. The real drawback is the slow reload, but a conjurer should have some tanks to keep enemies at bay. Warriors may want to opt for a melee weapon for this reason. - The Staff of Oblivion, in its various stages, is possibly the best melee weapon in the game for wizards and conjurers. Warriors will want either the great sword, or a one-handed weapon and a shield for maximum defense.
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Mar 28, 2009 18:34
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GrandpaPants posted:Requesting Left 4 Dead, learned that friendly fire is on, should probably know more than that. Before you play online, it's worth it to mess around in single-player, just to get a feel for the level layout and interface. When you switch to online play, your teammates will be moving at a fair clip, and it's easy to get left behind if you're new to the game. Mostly for online survivor play (since single-player is a breeze): Always stay in close proximity (and preferably visual range) of your teammates. Separating will almost always get you killed or incapacitated. Remember that online, there are people controlling the special zombies, and they know how to plan ambushes and set traps. Watch for teammates behind you that have been incapacitated by a hunter or smoker. More often than not, there will be a second one waiting for you to rescue your teammate. Automatic weapons (uzis, assault rifles) are the best guns for new players. Once your aim improves, you may want to switch to the shotgun/hunting rifle. If you're not wounded or really low on ammo, don't explore. All the various rooms and passageways you come across MAY contain medicine/ammo, but more often than not they'll just contain more enemies. Pipebombs are extremely handy when hordes are on their way (either because you summoned them or someone got hit by a boomer). As soon as you hear the music or the noise of the horde, toss the pipebomb in their general direction. Along those same lines, if a teammate got hit by a boomer, the ensuing zombie rush will ignore all teammates who did not, meaning you can just stand right in front of them shooting wildly. You'll take most of them out without taking a hit. Conversely, if YOU'RE the one who got hit by the boomer, your best option is to find a wall, crouch against it, and switch between melee and your gun to keep the zombies at bay. Fire is one of your best bets for taking out a tank. Once a tank is hit with fire (from a molotov, gas can, propane tank, oxygen cylinder, etc.), they only have 30-40 seconds to live, regardless of how much or little damage they take from you and your teammates in that time. If you can't hit the tank with fire, shoot it until it targets you, then run and let it chase after you. If you aren't too wounded, you'll be faster than the tank and your teammates can pick it off from a distance. When you hear a boomer (they make gurgling noises) immediately attempt to find it and kill it from a distance. If the boomer gets close, use your melee attack to knock it back. Never shoot a boomer in close quarters if you can avoid it. Always keep an eye on your teammates (provided they aren't total deadbeats). More often than not, they'll be working together to take up strategic positions during chokepoints and horde rushes. If all four of you are crammed into a corner somewhere, which will happen often, watch your teammates. If they stay standing upright, crouch down in front of them. If they're crouched, get behind them and stand up. Infected online play: Always pay attention to the colour-status of the survivors. Green survivors are healthy, yellow/orange are hurt, and red are near death. Purple survivors have been hit by a boomer. Coordinate your attacks accordingly. Pressing (and holding?) X will respawn you to a location closer to the survivors if you fall too far behind (or if they surge forward, like in the hospital elevator). If you're playing as a hunter, your jump will be your most effective form of travel, but you need to be crouched to use it. Also, while crouched you emit a low growling noise that survivors can hear, but while upright you're entirely silent. If you get to be the tank, focus on the upright survivors. Once you knock someone down, you do far less damage to them, so move on to one of the still-standing survivors. Smokers work best from heights and from behind corners. You can drag survivors a long way, so the harder it is for their teammates to target you, the better. So try to get on top of buildings or above holes in the floor/ceiling. One of your best tactics is to wait until the survivors hole up somewhere, then drag one of them out, forcing at least one other survivor to rush out to provide cover fire for their teammate. Hunters should watch for survivors that are wounded or lagging behind. The farther the survivor is from their teammates, the better. Boomers can spit on survivors, and this ability takes a long time to recharge so use it carefully. A good idea is to try to get ABOVE the survivors, drop down in the middle of the pack and spit on them. Even if you're waiting for the spit to recharge, you can still coat the survivors with spit if they shoot you in close proximity, so always try to get as close as possible to them. Remember that when survivors have been hit by a boomer, they cannot see and won't be alerted if another survivor is incapacitated. This is the perfect time, as a hunter or smoker, to pick off any survivors that HAVEN'T been hit by the boomer, as their teammates won't even notice for another 10 seconds or so.
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May 1, 2009 16:09
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Serious Michael posted:Requesting: Civilization IV, no expansions yet. Everyone else is covering the Oblivion one really well, so here are a couple Civ 4 pointers. Keep in mind that this is an incredibly diverse game, so a strategy that works for one civ/leader might be poo poo for another. - If you're playing on Noble difficulty or higher, you will be under constant barbarian attacks, enemies will be able to research significantly faster than you, and you'll get beaten to the punch with a lot of world wonders. - Be really careful about overexpanding too early. Maintenance fees in your cities can escalate really quickly, especially if you're racing to place cities around strategic resources like stone, bronze, horses, iron, coal, oil, etc. Ideally, you want your cities to radiate around your capital, but this isn't always possible. If maintenance fees become to excessive you can: (1) build courthouses, (2) build the Forbidden Palace in the city furthest from your capital, (3) research Communism and adopt the State Property civic. - Your strategy should change based on what kind of map you play. Most of them will be pretty obvious in what they demand (archipelago maps require competent navies, while Ice Age maps require lots of planning and ground combat). The really tricky map is the Terra map. All teams start on one continent, and there's a second across the ocean filled with barbarians. The first civ to reach the second continent has a huge advantage, and can make a pretty rapid rise to power by taking over the barbarian cities. - One of the biggest problems you'll deal with is overcrowding in your cities. It's a constant problem with no real solution, other than making sure that the amount of happiness your cities have from resources and structures exceeds the amount of unhappiness incurred by the overcrowding. Make sure to plan ahead, and build things like temples, colosseums, and theatres when you get the chance, and not when half your population is on strike. - Remember that land within cultural borders does not necessarily produce any returns for your cities. Cities only reap rewards from the tiles in a specific radius around the city, and those tiles can only be worked by free citizens (not specialists, and not angry citizens). The workable tiles look kind of like this wonky cross (with your city in the centre tile): code:- And yeah, just get the Warlords/BtS expansions, as they add a lot to the game. If you have more specific questions once you start playing, just ask.
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May 4, 2009 04:58
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nachos posted:-Don't bother founding a religion or building 90% of wonders, just capture the cities that own them. All good points. One thing though: If you're on prince or higher, and you have a leader/civ that starts with mysticism, go for Polytheism and found Hinduism. The income this will generate in the mid- to late-game will be invaluable. As will the espionage/visibility you receive in every city with that religion (depending on which build you're playing). You'll be a little undefended at first because you'll be slower to research archery, but in the long run it's well worth it. It's not essential, but when playing on noble or higher, if you don't start with mysticism you have almost no chance of founding a religion ever, so you may as well take the opportunity when it presents itself. Also, nachos is right and only 10% of the wonders are useful (mostly the ones that increase production or great people). But, if you manage to specialize in great engineers (by assigning citizens as engineers, or building wonders that produce them), you can use them to construct a wonder in a single turn, which allows you to focus on your military while not sacrificing the cultural and health/happiness bonuses the wonders afford.
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May 14, 2009 16:26
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Dioscuri posted:- I'm not really sure how, but you can lose your car. Always leave town from the same direction that you entered, or it'll be lost for good. If memory serves, I'm pretty sure you can only lose the car in New Reno, and even then it's not irretrievable. Ask around town until someone directs you to the chop shop, and there you can pay to get the car back. Or, if you're playing as a female, you can gently caress for it, which is handy.
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May 31, 2009 16:00
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SiKboy posted:I just got given Oblivion on the 360 by a mate of mine who loved Fallout and thought he'd give it a try. He hated it. I'm looking for any kind of generic tips for it really. I know there is something wierd about the levelling that makes it possible for you to make the game impossible by accident, but I dont know much more than that. Infodump! Starting out: The game will tell you that it's safer to travel by roads. This is a lie--you will probably get attacked by more bandits travelling by road than you would by just beelining through the wilderness. BUT, when you're starting the game, it's a good idea to do a circuit of the roads around the Imperial City. You'll run into some good intro quests to get you started with some decent items and rewards. Leveling: As Orvin mentioned, the leveling system is ridiculously counter-intuitive. Ideally, you'll be racking up one or two +4 or +5 bonuses every time you level, but this can be highly unrealistic. It usually involves selecting skills you hate (like Unarmed) as major skills and repeatedly using them in really tedious fashions (like bludgeoning summoned skeletons to death) until you level up. This can take a lot of fun out of the game, so many people recommend playing more naturally, and just picking skills you'll use as your major skills and leveling up whenever it happens. Again, the problem is that monsters scale up with your level, and so while you might not be racking up great modifiers, they will be. This will make them much harder to kill. Skills: - Repair: Personally, I think this is possibly one of the most critical skills in the game. Your armor and weapons will degrade at a stupendous rate, and prior to Journeyman (?) level in this skill, you won't be able to repair any magical items at all. You'll also go through repair hammers ridiculously fast. Make sure you focus on training this up ASAP. - Alchemy: Don't underestimate this. There are ingredients everywhere and they're easy to harvest (unlike in Morrowind). They will be a lifesaver when you're in the middle of a dungeon and you've run out of spells/potions. Keep your alchemy set with you until you get a house to store it in, then start storing ingredients and creating potions more sparingly. Potions are also a great way, in the early game, of generating income. - Theft: Morality doesn't function the same as Fallout. If no one sees you commit a crime, it didn't happen. So steal everything and steal often. Pick a town (or district if you're in the Imperial City) and during the day wander into the houses while they're unlocked to figure out which ones have the most valuables. Wait until midnight, then start robbing those homes blind. You will need to have joined the Thieves Guild in order to sell off all your ill-gotten loot. - Most tasks you need to perform in the game can be done with one of two skills, either physical or magical. Good examples of this are Marksman/Destruction, Lockpicking/Alteration, and Speechcraft/Illusion. Since you technically only need one of each of those skills, figure out which one you prefer and ignore the other. Try not to double up on them, because you want to be advancing your preferred skills as fast as possible, which you won't do if you only use them half the time. Quests: - After completing the first main quest task upon leaving the intro dungeon, you will be directed to the city of Kvatch. You may or may not want to do this right away. Entering Kvatch will trigger a global event that causes hell-portals to open up all over the map. Since the enemies are scaled, they won't be insurmountable, just a growing nuisance. Avoiding Kvatch will forestall this indefinitely. - In the village of Weye (just W of the Imperial City), Aelwin will ask you to get some slaughterfish scales for him. Your compass will point you to the fish (in succession), and they‘re a little difficult but not impossible (the hardest part is learning to fight while swimming). The reward is a water-breathing ring, ridiculously handy at this stage. - In the village of Aleswell (N of the Imperial City), everyone is invisible. Speak to the innkeeper to get the quest, head to the nearby fort, find and speak to the wizard (he may be inside or outside), raise his disposition to 70+ (through bribes), get the scroll and the ring, return to town, equip the ring and cast the scroll. Speak to the innkeeper again for your reward: a permanent room in the inn with a container in which to store things. Much easier than saving up thousands of gold for a house. - Speak to the count of Leyawiin; he’ll ask you to work with an Orcish knight and eventually get rid of some Black Bandits. If you complete all the tasks, you get ownership of the White Stallion Inn, a cheap place to rest and store things until you can afford a house. - Find the Shrine of Azura (NNW of Cheydinhal) with an offering of glow dust. You’ll need to purchase the dust from an alchemist at low levels (since Will-o-Wisps don’t appear til later), but it should be fairly cheap. Azura’s quest will net you a soul gem that doesn’t disappear once you use the soul inside, and that can hold the highest level of souls. - Speak to Jensine in the Imperial City Market District about Thoronir (you may have to ask some of the other shopkeepers about Rumours to unlock the topic). She’ll ask you to investigate him, and the quest is fairly straightforward, with an easy two-person fight at the end. You get a good resistance ring out of it (levelled, of course). - Once you've reached level 10, find the Shrine of Nocturnal. Completing the quest will net you an unbreakable lockpick which pretty much breaks the game as far as money/equipment is concerned. Factions: - If you find yourself getting pulverized in dungeons, head to the Arena in the Imperial City and join up. You'll get combat experience and gold in small, manageable doses, and the Arena counts as a faction. - The Thieves Guild should be joined as soon as possible. Just find a poster about the Gray Fox somewhere in the Imperial City, read it, and then head to the Waterfront aroun 11/11:30 at night. Find the garden with the low stone wall, and between 11:30 and midnight you should trigger the entrance to the Thieves Guild. If the guy won't talk to you, bribe him until his disposition is above 60 and he should let you in. - If you plan on playing a magic user, speed through the recommendation quests in the outlying mage guilds. The sooner you gain access to the spellmaking altar in the arcane university, the better. - To join the Assassin's Guild, you need to murder someone. This can be challenging to do without getting caught. Being able to sneak/backstab is useful, but try to find people no one will miss, like beggars or skooma addicts (you can find a houseful in Bravil). General Gameplay: - At first, disease will be a constant in most dungeons so be prepared. Bring potions or learn the spell. It can really destroy you if you're not ready. - When picking someone’s pocket, they can catch you even if you don’t try to steal anything. So always make sure you’ve left sneak mode before “activating” someone to talk to them—otherwise you might accidentally get caught trying to pickpocket them. - Always keep a silver or magical weapon on you. Some monsters (like ghosts) will be immune to normal weapons, so you’ll need a silver or magically enchanted weapon to hurt them. Keep in mind that if you have a magic weapon with no charge, it will still bypass their damage resistance. Eventually, Daedric weapons will also do the trick, but you won’t run into those until level 18+. - Make sure you have some method of restoring attributes, primarily Strength, Intelligence, Endurance and Speed. All of those will often get drained or damaged by enemies, and they can severely impact your combat skills, depending on what class you are. You can accomplish this via potions or spells, but constantly trudging back to the altar in town will soon become annoying. - If you back away as your enemy swings at you, he’ll miss and stumble. This will provide a better opportunity for you to attack than if you’d stood still and taken the blow, or even blocked it with your shield. - Your attacks will do less damage if your weapons are not at full health. Be sure to repair on the fly as much as possible. A general rule of thumb is to check your gear after every second or third fight (unless you’re killing rats, or sneak-killing enemies in one hit).
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Jul 15, 2009 14:46
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Jolo posted:I'm going to be playing through Planescape: Torment soon. A friend of mine mentioned that I should start with my intellect (or wisdom) up really high to get the best experience. I don't know anything about the story, so please avoid spoilers in your responses. To get the most out of the story, you will want to play as a mage with high INT, WIS and CHA. After that, you can boost DEX and CON. You will also want to take in your party: Morte, Dak'kon, Ignus, Fall-From-Grace, Nordrom and Vhailor. Not that you can't ditch them once they've served their use, they're just the ones with the most story connections to you. Remember that classes aren't static--you can switch between Fighter, Thief and Mage as many times as you want, even in the middle of battle. Just speak to Annah or Dak'kon. To get the most out of the plot, talk to everyone and listen to what they say. Most people will have some backstory for you, or a quest to perform. Early Game (like, before you get to the Lower Ward): - Keep a hammer and prybar on yoy for most of the game. - Keep a piece of junk on you--you'll need it to open an important portal - Make sure you retrieve both your abilities (Raise Dead and Stories-Bones-Tell), by speaking to Deionarra in the Mortuary and Stale Mary in the Dead Nation, respectively. - Morte's teeth can be upgraded. Ingress, who will be northwest of where you emerge from the Mortuary, has the first set you can get. - Keep the Bronze Sphere when you find it, and NEVER GET RID OF IT. It won't come into play until right before the game ends, but it's quite handy. - When you're in the sewers/catacombs, explore all the small rooms and crypts thoroughly. In one of them, you'll find a severed arm. It's hard to explain why this is so important without spoilers, but it really is. Be sure to take the arm to Fell (the tattooist), and when you do be sure to get Dak'kon to translate (even if you're capable of translating yourself). - You may be approached by a man called Mar who wants you to deliver a box for him. Do it without opening the box. - Keep Soego's head. You'll be able to trade it for something valuable. - The bartender at the Smoldering Corpse has something of yours. Middle Game (Lower Ward, Clerk's Ward, Outer Planes): - Nemelle has the keyword to use the Decanter of Endless Water - To open the modron cube: left wing, right wing, right arm. You may have to also activate it through dialogue by speaking to the modrons in the Brothel. - The only thing you NEED from the Curio Gallery is the Stygian Ice. - You NEED the following from Vrischika: tongue, cube, quasit, tears, elixir, and stein. - Lazlo knows how to get inside the Siege Tower. - You can either speak to Giltspur in the Lower Ward or retrieve your journal in the Clerk's Ward to get into the Foundry. - If you get stuck, try speaking to Quell in the Sensate Festhall. - Make sure to use Ravel's hair to make charms before you leave her maze. Late Game (Curst in Carceri, Pillar of Skulls, Return to Sigil): - The Pillar of Skulls will require a price, so only ask about your condition and how to leave. If you must give up one of your friends, give them Morte as he's the only one you can get back. - When you return to Curst (but before you enter the portal to Carceri!) look around town. If you did Mar's quest without opening the box, you'll find a massive demon to kill worth 500XP and who drops some good loot. - Good deeds in Carceri include: saving Jasilya, saving Kester, saving the town official, saving the condemned man, stopping the looters, stopping the slavers, killing the gehreleths, freeing the men under the cart, and convincing Ebb to help the town. - If you have told enough people during the game that your name was Adahn, you may be able to run into him at the Smoldering Corpse. - Be sure to check back in with the Siege Tower. Draile posted:Torment isn't combat-centric. This. You'll hit a point in the game where you can run away from most fights, should you so choose. You'll also hit a point where you have to run away from most fights, so you may as well have trained up your wits because strength is useless. Astfgl fucked around with this message at 14:25 on Jul 24, 2009 |
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Jul 24, 2009 14:22
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Corridor posted:Jesus dude. Spoilers. All those things you mentioned are extra unnecessary stuff where half the fun lies in figuring them out. The guy might as well consult a walkthrough if he's gonna read your post. Not really. There's plenty to the game, and what I mentioned only scratched the surface. I just tried to hit some of the highlights (the Decanter, the Severed Arm, the Foundry, the Siege Tower, the Bronze Sphere) that are easy to miss the first time around, especially when many of them require planning beforehand. A Fancy 400 lbs posted:Started playing Pharaoh, with the expansion, because I thought it would help me with my horrible base/city building in normal strategy games. Nope, I can't even get through the Pre-Dynastic Period. I just got entertainment buildings, and I have one housing unit that won't improve. It's near a water source, a temple and a juggling school, and close, but not too close to a bazaar, a fire station, a police station and an architects station, the town has enough food, and single digit unemployment, but all it says is the area is undesirable. This one housing unit is stopping nearby ones to not improve, causing a chain reaction of not improving. Is there something obvious I'm missing? Wow I though I was the only one who liked this game. Sometimes there are topographical "undesirable" spots on the map, that will just always be undesirable. If that's not the case, I usually just demolish the building and stick a plaza or something there.
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Jul 28, 2009 15:49
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A Fancy 400 lbs posted:Okay, that kinda sucks, but it makes sense I guess, I'll try destroying it. It helps to remind yourself that Pharaoh was not an especially good game, at least from the the perspective of the engine. There was a lot that was beyond your control, and a lot more that was random. As someone who played a lot of SimCity, I found Pharaoh's implementation of a desirability index everywhere to be extremely poorly done.
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Jul 28, 2009 21:10
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Jolo posted:
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Jul 30, 2009 16:32
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Backhand posted:- Enemy spellcasters are one of the biggest possible threats out there. Always carry around ways to dispel protective magic. If you don't have any, rest and memorize new spells. You should ALWAYS have things like Breach or Ruby Ray ready to go. Do yourself a favour and check out the BG2 thread here on the forum for some excellent tips on the mechanics of mage-battles. There's a point in the game where you simply need to learn the right process for defeating enemy spellcasters, and until you do you will lose almost every battle where there's a mage present. Don't let this deter you! Just figure out the right sequence of spells you need to cast. Backhand posted:- Don' be afraid to rest in hostile areas. In fact, you should rest as soon as you even begin to think you might need it. If you wait too long and rest when you're seriously hurting, you may get interrupted by monsters that can now easily finish you. I'm a firm believer in save-scumming or whatever the kids are calling it nowadays. Quick-save before you rest, and quick-load if your rest is interrupted by enemies. Roughly 50% of hostile areas will spawn enemies 100% of the time, and you'll quickly learn that you can't rest there. The other 50% percent of areas should be exploited for those times when enemies don't spawn to regain health without wasting spells. Some more general BG2 pointers: - Learn what Level Drain is, what it does, and who causes it. Level draining can only be CURED by a restoration spell (which divine spellcasters have access to, and which can also be purchased at temples or in scroll format). Level draining can only be PREVENTED by the divine spell “Negative Plane Protection” (which only affects one character and lasts for a short time) or by wielding certain items which confer the same effect. Be sure you have access to at least one and preferably all of these options if you choose to side with the Shadow Thieves in Athkatla. - Get weapons which deal fire or acid damage as soon as you can (this includes ammo with those effects). Trolls will quickly become a constant nuisance, and they can only be dispatched by those effects. Try not to waste spells on killing trolls. - Learn what monsters are immune to what weapons and what types of damage, and plan ahead. Specifically, make sure you're prepared to take on Clay, Iron and Adamantium Golems, Rakshasas, mummies, ghouls, and skeletons. For enemies with high magic resistance, always keep a few Lower Resistance spells memorized. In BG2's late game and in most of ToB, you'll also want to keep a variety of non-magical weapons, as they'll be the only things which can hurt Magic Golems. - Always set your thief's script to the "adventurer" script, as it will have him auto-detect traps whenever he isn't in combat. If your thief is an assassin, set him so that he auto-stealths. - Ranged attacks become increasingly devasting as your charactrs increase in level. Make sure every member of your party has a ranged weapon they can use, and employ these strategically. If you are being rushed by a group of enemies, have your whole party switch to ranged attacks before the mob reaches you to soften them up or take out an enemy or two before they get too close. - Learn to use the autopause function. Mine is set to pause when an enemy is sighted and when a target is destroyed. This will be annoying 5% of the time and enormously useful for the other 95%. It lets you target enemies with a ranged attack when they're barely visible on screen, or before you've even noticed their presence. It's also useful for getting the jump on enemy mages before they can throw up too many protections. Astfgl fucked around with this message at 15:58 on Aug 5, 2009 |
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Aug 5, 2009 15:43
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Jolo posted:Am I going to have to fight like this many more times in the game? This is pretty much ruining the game for me at this point. No, the Curst prison is a real bitch. A good trick, due to PST's game mechanics, is to always leave one character at the exit of any map. I usually go with Annah, since she can stealth herself. That way, when the rest of your party completes their objectives on that map (ie. retrieving the sword) they don't have to trek all the way back to the exit--as long as one person walks through the whole party advances to the next area. It's a little cheesy, but there are a lot of fights in the game that require cheesiness. That being said, I might consider reloading and approaching the prison with a bit more caution. It's one of the easiest places in the game to rush into a seriously difficult fight. Just try to tackle the guards one by one, then once you've retrieved the sword make sure someone's stationed at the exit so you don't have to fight your way back. There will be two more difficult fights left in the game, if memory serves, and the key to both is to just run away. Don't engage the enemy, don't do anything except run to the exit. In the first you're basically surrounded by high-level abishai which will tear through your party like tissue paper if you try to fight them, and in the second you'll be by yourself against a shitload of greater shadows which are pretty much impossible to kill. So just get the hell out ASAP. Other than that, though, it's mostly a lot of talky-talky before the end of the game. Phenotype posted:Lives mean very little, so don't be afraid to explore a bit (and possibly die.) In the rare chance that you do start running low on lives, there are always 3-4 hidden around the planetarium map, and aren't very hard to find. Also, you will learn to hate purple coin levels. Astfgl fucked around with this message at 16:28 on Aug 15, 2009 |
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Aug 15, 2009 16:25
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The Blue Pyramid posted:I got trapped in the Player's Maze and saved there. I never did find my way out Before you leave make sure you grab the journal and hammer from your previous incarnation's camp. Then just pick any archway and walk through it. It'll teleport you to somewhere else in the map, then all you have to do is walk back to that same arch and walk through it again. You should be back in Sigil. I think the journal may hint at this, but I don't remember.
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Aug 20, 2009 16:19
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Should I reinstall and start a new game, or try to find the save? Oh hell, either option will probably get me stuck there again. Is there a way out of the drat place?
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Nerd Watch posted:2. While we're at it, any other major differences between Oblivion and Morrowind I should be aware of in transitioning? If you're really curious, check this out: http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Morrowind:Morrowind_for_Oblivion_Players It's a comprehensive list of all the differences between the two games. Some general tips, though: In Morrowind, your joinable factions will be limited by things like (1) what major skills you have (2) your levels in certain skills and (3) what other factions you're a member of. Unlike in Oblivion, where you could theoretically complete every quest in every faction regardless of what character you play, factions in Morrowind will deny you admittance or advancement for any combination of the above reasons. You advance in rank not based on how many quests you've completed (as many faction questlines are entirely optional) but rather on how advanced your desired skills are. This really means you'll have to play several different character types to get the full experience. Magic is a lot more fun and versatile, so I highly recommend at least experimenting with a mage-character. Just keep in mind that like your attacks, casting can fail (which sucks). If you purchased the game physically, you'll want to keep the map that came with it handy. Morrowind doesn't have Oblivion's fast travel system, and it also doesn't have the compass/questline pointer. In other words, you really have to explore to find what you're looking for. This means following roads, paying attention to signposts, watching for physical landmarks, and consulting your paper map. You may also want to familiarize yourself with your transportation options (Mage Guild teleporter, Silt Striders, Propylon Chambers, Almsivi/Divine Intervention, local boats, and mage spells like Mark and Recall) as many will only have a limited number of destinations. Thievery is a lot more challenging in Morrowind. You don't get any sneak indicators like in Morrowind, and there's no way of distinguishing stolen and non-stolen items in your inventory. Lockpicking is easier, but you have to disarm traps manually with a probe which is a pain in the rear end. Oh, and I wouldn't pick one of the beast races (Argonian, Khajit) for your first character as they can't wear helemts or boots.
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Aug 25, 2009 20:20
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al-azad posted:The 2nd game also begins in a combat heavy dungeon and you're lightly armed meaning non-combat characters will have a hard time. There's a mod at No Mutants Allowed website that removes the dungeon and for good reason: it loving blows. If you've ever played any kind of 2D isometric RPG before, then just run through that loving dungeon and don't stop except to disarm a trap. Ignore the scorpions and ants and stuff--they're just there so that new players can get a feel for what the combat system is like. But if you're familiar with turn-based RPG combat, there's no need to waste your time in the dungeon, and you don't lose anything (except an extremely worthless amount of XP) from just speeding through the place.
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Sep 7, 2009 16:00
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Faerie Fortune posted:If there any particular one that will really gently caress up my chances for the rest of the game? I tend to have a habit of picking those ones if left to my own devices. I'm also playing a female since that seems to actually matter in this game as far as stats go. Never pick a background that gives you gold or an item. They'll both quickly become useless. When selecting a background with serious penalties to an attribute, make sure you know exactly how that penalty will affect you. For instance, your Charisma governs how many followers you can have, and your perception will affect your marksmanship. I've screwed myself over many times by forgetting things like that. Other than that, just figure out how you want to play the game and pick a background that offers bonuses to that style of play.
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Sep 7, 2009 20:32
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enigmahfc posted:I'm thinking of trying out Planetscape: Torment; any pointers before i install that one? al-azad posted:Really good things. More: - Keep one of these items on you: a piece of junk, a hammer, and a prybar. You can throw away the junk after the first time you use it. - Morte's teeth can be upgraded as a weapon. You just need to find people who have teeth they'd be willing to part with. - Don't be afraid to join a faction. You can always leave them and join another once you've finished all their quests. - Except the Barking Dogs. Joining them can piss a lot of people off. - The bartender at the Smoldering Corpse has something that belongs to you. - Mar will give you a box and ask you to deliver it. Do the quest without opening the box. - In the crypts below the Trash Kingdom, you can find a severed arm. Bring it to Fell and ask him about it, but when you speak to him have Dak'kon translate (even if you're capable of doing it yourself). - You'll fight a wererat in the Drowned Nations. Keep the head--you'll need it to barter for something very valuable in a very short time. - Try as many sensory globes at the Sensorium as possible. You get experience from all of them, but some are particularly interesting. - Make sure you unlock all the Circles of Zerthimon. ALL of them. - Don't leave Sigil until you can raise the dead, and speak to them. - Most of your companions (Dak'kon, Morte, Nordrom, Vhailor) can get their stats upgraded through conversation. It pays to talk to them a lot, and to save before you do. - If you keep telling people your name is Adahn, you just might run into him. It'll also make you more chaotic, though.
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Sep 9, 2009 22:37
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triplexpac posted:I've never really played a Resident Evil game too in-depth before, but I am vaguely familiar with the story. Gamefly is sending me Resident Evil 5, is there anything I should know going into it? For each weapon type, there are three versions you can find in-game, and a fourth you can unlock by completely upgrading the earliest version you encounter. The only reason I mention this is because the first time a friend and I played the game, we didn't know how many different weapons there were, and spent a lot of money upgrading the first ones we had thinking we might not see better ones for a while. This isn't necessarily a bad idea, it's just that some of the upgrades we purchased (like capacity or firepower) were obsoleted by other weapons of the same type that we found later. So I'd recommend perusing an FAQ to see (a) what weapons you get, (b) when you get them and (c) what bonuses each weapon has. That way, you can upgrade your early weapons without worrying about wasting your money.
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Sep 11, 2009 21:41
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french lies posted:Picked up Resident Evil 5 today, was hoping some of you could give me some tips for combat, ammo management... anything really. This is my first Resident Evil game so I'm not really familiar with what is expected from the player. The game tends to rush you through areas, but there's often no penalty for exploration once you've cleared out the enemies. This is also a good way of picking up treasure you missed during battle. The game is really about inventory management. For that reason, you might want to invest in a lot of capacity upgrades for your weapons so that ammo takes up less space. Often times, we had a full 3/4 of our inventory devoted to weapons and ammo, sometimes more. Try to save your special ammo (ie. anything except the handgun) especially the magnum for boss fights or special enemies. There are three variations of each weapon in the game that you'll find at various points, plus some bonus weapons you can unlock by fully upgrading the original weapon of each type. But each is not necessarily better than the last. Some weapons are specifically designed to pierce armor, while others get more options while upgrading. Make things a little easier on yourself and check out the weapon profiles online somewhere, or else you could do what my friend and I did and blow all your money on early upgrades before realizing what other weapons were out there. If you're having trouble with a boss fight, you're doing it wrong. The enemies may be tough but the tricks to defeating them are always extremely simple. Like, shoot the giant pulsating orbs simple. Or, fire these giant rockets simple. Or hold down the fire button simple.
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Sep 14, 2009 22:50
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Vidaeus posted:I'm just starting out on Metroid Prime 3: Corruption for Wii. I've heard I should scan everything and I've started out doing it but it seems kinda tedious. Is it really that important? Any other tips? - Go to Bryyo before Elysia. - Look for as many energy tanks as you can possibly find. - During boss fights, use hypermode sparingly until they're near-death. You'll usually need it to finish them off, and since it eats up your energy if you rely on it too much at the start of the fight, you'll have none left for the end. - Make sure you build the giant golem on Bryyo. - Remember to backtrack through old levels once you've gotten weapon upgrades (heat ray, ice missiles, etc.). - If you get stuck in a level and can't figure out what to do next, try looking at things through your command visor (the one that lets you interact with your ship).
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Oct 4, 2009 16:02
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Does anyone have any tips for Star Wars Jedi Knight: Jedi Academy? The levels seem pretty straightforward, but it's hard to tell which force powers will pay off with enough investment, and which will remain useless. I've only put points into Heal and Grip at this point, as the others all seem like a waste.
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Oct 13, 2009 16:19
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Still on Jedi Academy: Does leaning toward the light or dark side have any noticeable effect on the game? Luke has already told me that he's "concerned" because of how dark I'm becoming, but will that affect anything beyond the final cinematic?
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Oct 13, 2009 19:33
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Nocturne Sabre posted:Gonna fire up Arcanum again later. Glanced over the wiki, was wondering what more specific tips I can go for. It's been a pretty long time since I played so it'll feel pretty brand new overall. I'll be playing as a tech gunfighter thief with persuasion. Make sure you grab the passport, the matchbook, the camera, the letter, and the Molochean Hand amulet from the crash site. Be sure to travel to Dernholm and Black Root before heading to Tarant. If you plan on thieving, don't kill Lucan at the Shrouded Hills bridge. Instead, persuade him (you only need one rank, and maybe Apprentice level) and he'll give you an in with the Thief Underground in Tarant and Caladon. As a gunfighter, hoard the following items: saltpeter/charcoal (for bullets), looking glasses, marksman rifles, mithril, charges, and corrosive acid. Everything else can be found pretty easily. If you want Worthless Mutt in your party, then as soon as you arrive in Ashbury for the first time, get to the east side of the inn (SE part of town) and rescue him from the gnome kicking him to death. If you take too long, Mutt will die. You'll need three ranks of pick locks and Expert level in it before it'll be feasible to steal from shopkeepers. With a good starting Dexterity, you should be able to achieve this before reaching Tarant (as there's an Expert trainer in Black Root). The easiest way to steal from shopkeepers is to wait in their store until evening, then wait two more hours. They'll head for the bedroom, where the barrel with all their merch is, and you can just follow them in. Then, be sure to enter prowl mode (you don't need any ranks in it) while picking the lock on their stash, which will usually be a chest or barrel near their bed. This is the only way to rob stores with guards, inside or outside. Some shopkeepers never sleep, which means you can never rob them. As a tech, you'll eventually be barred from trading with mages. You can still steal from them, though. As a thief, don't waste too many points on pickpockets. It's ineffective for largescale theft because you can only pickpocket 100gp from someone at a time, and the level bonuses aren't all that great. I tend to save up my fate points for the like 4 times the game needs me to pick a pocket. In Roseborough, speak to everyone in the inn. One of them will help you find a bridge that's crucial to travel on that side of the continent. Make sure you have (and are possibly wearing) the Molochean Hand amulet before entering T'sen Ang Keep one of these items on you throughout the game: shovel, mithril, kathorn crystal, and heartstone If you have more specific questions about the firearm/thief build, let me know. I'm pretty familiar with it. Edit: As a gunfighter/thief, pump your Dexterity to about 13 or 15 (enough to reach expert level in Pick Locks). Ignore melee, and possibly even dodge. Boost your perception up to a natural 17 so you can advance firearms quickly, as you'll suffer without a decent melee attack. DX is crucial, though, so that you can steal guns, bullets and armor. Your best weapons will probably be the Fine Revolver, then the Repeater Rifle, then the Hand Cannon, which you'll eventually replace with Droch's Warbringer. Those will pretty much slice through any enemy you're likely to encounter. After that, you should be a high enough level to make the crazy ones like the Tesla gun or the Acid Gun. Astfgl fucked around with this message at 03:15 on Oct 17, 2009 |
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Oct 15, 2009 22:49
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Nocturne Sabre posted:Great, thanks for the write-up! What about other companions? I'm not going to be outright evil but I'm no saint either, being a thief and all. Right off the bat, how many companions you travel with will depend on two things: 1. How high your Charisma is. I imagine, since you said you were playing a persuasive thief, that this won't be an issue for you. Besides allowing you to have a larger party, eventually getting the Master level in persuasion will open up ALL the companions for you, even ones who wouldn't join because of differing value sets. 2. How slowly you want to gain levels. I say this because the more companions you have, the less XP you get. (Remember, you gain XP via combat by hitting AND killing enemies, and usually more from the hitting than the killing. Thus, the more hitters there are in a party, the less hits you're likely to get in before the monster dies.) Large parties will be useful at first when you're weak, but once your firearms skill starts to soar, I recommend reducing to two or even one. Your mileage may vary. Anyway, aside from all that, here are some of the better companions available to you, along with where to find them, what to expect, and some spoiled stuff which may also affect your decision: - Virgil: Joins right away but can get annoying. The free healing is useful, but as a techie you'll eventually become immune to it. Virgil will eventually disappear from your party in the Caladon cemetery. You can find him in the basement of the Sobbing Onion (?) and his stats may or may not have changed depending on his alignment at the time. - Sogg Mead Mugg: Inn, Shrouded Hills. Solid melee fighter, and decent packhorse. You need 9 charisma for him to join. I rarely take Sogg. - Jayna Stiles: One of the huts on the outskirts of S Dernholm. Basically the female, tech version of Virgil. She can make healing salve for you, and learns from the Herbology & Therapeutics disciplines. I keep all the healing salve in my inventory otherwise she burns through it too fast auto-healing the party. Pretty much essential for any tech character, with or without Virgil. I usually take Jayna. - Vollinger: King's Head (?) Pub/Inn in Dernholm. Learns from the Gunsmithy & Chemistry schools. Some people like him, I don't. You can't control point allocation for companions, and Vollinger tends not to focus on combat skills, leaving him incredibly vulnerable in almost every encounter. He won't join you if you're too low-level, and he's mildly evil. Also, he's secretly working for the Molochean Hand and will eventually try to kill you. I rarely take Vollinger. - Magnus: 44 Devonshire Way, Tarant. Unless you piss him off immensely, Magnus will join readily enough (just don't ask him about his name, and take his side vs. the Schuylers). He learns schematics from the Smithy & Mechanics disciplines. He's a decent fighter but nothing special. The real reason to keep him is because he's eventually revealed to be the last heir of the lost dwarven Iron Clan, which is especially cool of you have Loghaire in your party. Magnus may leave if you're too evil. I almost always take Magnus. - Gar: H.T. Parnell's, Tarant. You need two ranks of persuasion for Gar to join, and a decent intelligence as well. Gar is a decent melee fighter, and don't forget that he takes human-sized armor, not large-sized. Also, if you want Gar never tell him, even at first, that you're giving him his freedom as he'll disappear and never return. Gar is great with evil characters for this reason--he's bascially your slave and can't leave. I usually take Gar. - Tollo: The Pit, Dernholm. You have to be evil to get Tollo, and you have to shame him into staying with the party. After that, he's a good melee fighter, and a nice change of pace from all the orcs and ogres. If I'm evil, I always grab Tollo. - Thorvald: Isle of Despair. You need 3 ranks of persuasion and you need to be level 22 or higher for Thorvald to join. He's a great fighter (strength of 22) but he'll only travel with you temporarily. Return him to the Wheel Clan quickly or he'll disappear. Obviously, never give him anything you don't want to lose, and unequip him before entering the Wheel Clan tunnels. I usually don't bother with Thorvald. - Loghaire: Wheel Clan. You have to (1) have high enough intelligence (don't have a number, sorry) to ask his son, Randver, about the Shape and the Stone AND Lorek the Abjurer; (2) find Loghaire and use what you learned from Randver to convince him to return to the throne; (3) find out what actually happened to the Black Mountain Clan, at which point you have to come back and tell Loghaire and convince him to join you. It's actually all a pretty awesomely-written storyline, and well worth the time you invest in it. I always go for Loghaire. - Sebastian: The Boil (but he'll only appear after you've visited Caladan). To get Sebastian, you need to talk to Mr. Willoughsby (the Persuasion Master) and ask him about cleaning up The Boil. Sebastian learns Electric & Explosive schematics. He's a good companion, but if you're a tech you may already have put points in one or both of those disciplines, making Sebastian unnecessary. I rarely take Sebastian. Those are the ones I consider worth going for, based on what you're doing. There are a lot more evil companions (Torian Kel, Z'an Alurin, Geoffrey Tarellond-Ashe, etc.) but they're very magic-centric. One last thing to note when I say a character learns schematics, I mean to say he or she will learn the first four schematics in that school and that's it. Even if you've removed the level cap, companions will never learn more than 4 schematics in a discipline.
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Oct 16, 2009 01:30
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Bluetooth human being posted:I agree with everything but this. Sogg is great for when you start out. All you have to do is ask, and he joins. He hits like a truck, and he's one of the only characters that will stay in your party NO MATTER what you do. No matter what. Sure, I just find him to be a particularly boring character. He never does or says anything interesting. Plus, if you're not planning on fighting Lucan to leave Shrouded Hills, there's no real need to take Sogg unless you're playing a very weak character who can't survive the random wilderness encounters between Shrouded Hills and Dernholm/Black Root. Also, Sogg, like Mutt, becomes so good at combat that the game can get boring real quick.
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Oct 16, 2009 17:26
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sexual rickshaw posted:Actually, I disagree with you on this. Even though he may have schematics you already do if you're play a tech character, he comes with some fantastic equipment. A charged axe, flow disruptor shield, and a leather jacket that grants him regeneration. Plus he knows how to really use the axe he comes with. Considering that, he's a pretty goddamn durable character. If I'm playing as a tech, I usually have all those items by the time I run into Sebastian. And someone like Loghaire or Chukka or Magnus can use that axe a lot better than Sebastian can. I'm not disagreeing that he's a good character, it's just that I'm usually pretty well-set by the time he shows up, and I've never really seen many incentives to taking him. If I can make every item he has, and if I have other melee companions that are a higher level than him, it's hard to justify making room for him in the party. However, even after all the time I've spent playing Arcanum, I'm still a little shaky on precisely how much the magic/tech slider affects combat effectiveness. So, if Sebastian gets crazy combat bonuses to the charged axe for being a tech character, bonuses that "neutral" characters like Loghaire and Chukka don't get, then you are probably right. But I can't say I've ever really noticed a difference.
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Oct 17, 2009 17:18
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Phenotype posted:Is there a faster way to get around a town than running and slowly scrolling the map? If you're setting waypoints, then no. If you're not setting waypoints, you should be. You can set up to 7 or 8, both on the local and global map. Also, make sure you have the unofficial patch installed. Phenotype posted:I'm starting Arcanum for the first time and I wanted some tips. Western RPGs always have such a steep learning curve at the beginning. I already scrapped two characters because I didn't understand exactly what I was doing during creation, and I'm not looking forward to playing the first hour over again. For character creation: - Don't pick a background that gives you money or items. They'll be worthless. - Make sure to put a least a point into Melee and Dodge, preferably right away. To make the things easier, I'd go for a Strength of 6-8 to start as well. - You should buy a fine steel dagger during character creation. If you have the money, buy more armor (like a helmet, boots or gauntlets) instead of healing potions/salve. Female characters may want to buy the reaction boosting dress. For the rest of the game: - Regardless of whether you play as a magic or tech, make sure you buy/steal as many Scrolls of Exit as possible. Even techs can cast them, and they're a huge lifesaver in most dungeons. - Save often. Before you talk to anyone new, pretty much. Save whenever you visit a new town for the first time. Save before you start a huge dungeon, etc. Quicksave/quickload will be your friends. - At some point, you'll want a place to store your stuff, especially if you're playing a tech. The best place is the warehouse near the docks in Tarant. There's a gnome outside who'll ask you to kill the rats inside. Help him out and he'll let you store anything in the warehouse forever. - You get experience in two ways: (1) successfully hitting monsters and (2) killing monsters. Experience is divided amongst the party, but the doer of the action gets the lion's share. Also, you can generally get more experience from the hitting than from the actual killing. If you want to level up quickly, play with a small party and do most of the fighting. Larger parties will usually plow through enemies before you get a chance to even touch them, causing you to level up much more slowly. - The game of easiest with a high intelligence, high charisma, high pick locks, high dexterity/perception (depending on whether you play melee/ranged), and high repair. - You will probably want to start hanging on to different sizes of armor, since you never know who you'll meet along the way, and tracking down small or large armor on short notice is really tough. - You will want to hang on to the following items for most of the game: Molochean Hand amulet, passport/matchbook from the crash site, camera from the crash site, kathorn crystal, heartstone, mithril, shovel, Hadrian's artifacts, and saltpeter&charcoal (only if you play with firearms, as they're the components in bullets). - I think the following skills are pretty useless: gamble, haggle, heal, backstab, prowling, pick pockets, bow. - I think the following tech disciplines are pretty useless: herbology, therapeutics, machinery, chemicals, and explosives (unless you're playing a throwing character). - Magic is up to you. Make sure you take pain, some of the temporal college, and whatever else you want. Some people swear by teleportation, but I've never missed it. Spoilery stuff that'll make the game easier, but isn't cheating: - If you plan on being a thief, don't kill Lucan outside of Shrouded Hills. Persuade him instead. - Complete the Garringsburg heist quest before completing Dolores Beston’s/Madame Toussaud’s quest. You’ll get a better reward. And always side with Toussaud. - Be sure to ask Lianna del Par about Cumbria and her father before going to the Isle of Despair. - If you want Worthless Mutt in your party you have to save him from the gnome the first time you travel to Ashbury. If you take too long, Mutt will die. - Before traveling to T'sen Ang, make sure you equip the Molochean Hand amulet, and don't take it off until you leave the city completely. If you have any other questions, I can tell you what'll work and what won't for the different skill sets. Astfgl fucked around with this message at 07:12 on Nov 28, 2009 |
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Nov 28, 2009 07:09
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Phenotype posted:Arcanum stuff Three things first: 1. Are you playing with turn-based or real-time combat? You can switch between the two with spacebar. On the whole, real-time is usually easier just because it's easier for you to run away and heal if things turn ugly. Still, if you're playing as a mage it may sometimes make sense to fight in turn-based mode at first, so you can keep better control of your fatigue/stamina. 2. Honestly, when I start the game I try to avoid combat for the first 15-20 levels. If you hit up Shrouded Hills -> Dernholm -> Black Root -> Tarant -> Ashbury, there should be more than enough quests for you to get there without fighting, even with a party of 2-3 people. It's not until after that that I explore the Schuyler's dungeon and progress the main plot. Just make sure that you're using those levels to pump up your combat skills. 3. If you stick with the game, you'll find the combat difficulty can get kinda steep as you progress from stage to stage. If you decide to play to the next big dungeon, the Black Mountain Clan, here's some tips: you should be at LEAST level 20, your entire party should be wearing metal armor, you’ll need to be able to take some heavy hits, you’ll need to be able to heal yourself a lot, and you’ll need at least apprentice level in repair, OR lots of weapons, OR the ability to teleport out of a dungeon with an Exit scroll to get your equipment fixed by someone else. And the rest of the questions: Phenotype posted:I'm really not sure what I'm doing wrong, though. Should I just pump melee and dodge early on, even though I planned to be more of a mage? Yes. In general, you should always pump whatever combat stat (melee, throwing, firearms, etc. + Dodge) you plan on using for the rest of the game. And like I said in my earlier post, if you're going the melee route you'll want AT LEAST a strength of 8 starting out, and you'll want to up that to at least 12 ASAP. Remember that skills have both a rank (i.e., how many character points you invest to make the red bar increase) which governs skill checks, and a level (either nothing, Apprentice, Expert or Master) which provides unique skill bonuses. So for instance, Melee Apprentices have their speed with a melee weapon increased by 5, and Masters can never critically fail with a melee weapon. Most NPCs that you meet, like guards, shopkeepers, soldiers, bartenders, and even people on the street, can train you as an Apprentice in one or two skills for about 100 gold. Expert training is usually done by someone who would need that skill (so Blacksmiths can usually train Experts in Pick Locks and Repair, Bartenders train Experts in Gamble and Haggle, Diplomats and Whores train Experts in Persuasion, etc.) and they charge more than Apprentice trainers. There's only one Master trainer per skill, and there's almost always a complicated quest involved in receiving the training, and sometimes a large fee. So as soon as you put any points into combat skills, start looking for people to train you. The guards in Shrouded Hills (and any city, really) can train you as an Apprentice in most combat skills, and there are expert trainers in Dernholm or Black Root, I think. Same for thief skills like Pick Locks and Persuasion. Phenotype posted:That still wouldn't explain why my companions do so little damage and keep missing, though. They're level 7-8, and fighting level 3 zombies--shouldn't that be a steamroll, at least in similar numbers? Your companions aren't terribly great fighters. Virgil's good for healing, and that's about it. Magnus is a little better, but not so hot. If your character isn't a super fighter, then the zombies below the Schuylers' are going to cause some problems. Also, if you're looking to gather a large party because you have weak combat skills, you'll need a high Charisma. The character page will tell you how many party members you're allowed to have. If you want to pick up someone who packs a punch, look for: - Sogg Mead Mug, Shrouded Hills Inn - You'll need 9 Charisma to get him, but he's a powerful fighter. - Worthless Mutt, Ashbury - Mutt's being kicked to death by a gnome, so the first time you travel to Ashbury you should run to the east side of the inn to save him. - Gar, HT Parnell's, Tarant - You'll need 2 ranks of Persuasion to get Gar, and a decent (8+) intelligence as well. He can deal some serious damage, and the fact that he's human-sized instead of orc-size just means it'll b easier to find armor for him. Phenotype posted:Is there some way to issue commands to my party that I'm missing? You can click on their portraits and select from the list, or press the corresponding function keys to achieve the same effects. Commands are pretty basic, though, like "Stay Close" or "Wait here" or "Spread Out." No contingencies or anything where you can say "In situation X, do Y and not Z." The party AI for Arcanum is honestly very weak. Your companions won't do much other than attack the enemies with the weapon in their inventory that does the most damage. In the case of mages, this means that sometimes they won't cast any spells at all, and other times they'll cast high-level spells on insignificant foes. In the case of warriors, it means they'll often try to wield weapons that are cursed or too heavy for them, just because they have the highest damage rating. So you have to manage their inventories closely to make sure they're fighting as effectively as they can. Phenotype posted:I'm not sure what to do other than reroll. Re-loading is always a viable option. That's why you should quicksave heavily in dungeons and quickload if you die. Phenotype posted:What's a good thief-mage build, then? Or a good combat magic tree to invest in besides the one that starts with Harm? I struggled a bit, but made it through the first few combat areas just fine. I just don't have much in the way of options right now. Honestly, a thief build works better with a tech focus than a magic. Pick Locks is a better skill than Unlocking Cantrip, because the Cantrip will wake up sleeping marks who will attack you on sight. Techs will also usually have high Perception scores (because of Firearms) which partners well with Prowling/Spot Traps. But if you're devoted to magic: - Black Necromantic is always a good offensive school. Harm and Create Undead are pretty effective when you're still weak. - Conveyance is essential for a lot of people because of Teleport, but I've never found it that worthwhile. Still, if you go this route Disarm can be very useful. - Force is another good offensive school, with a lot of variety. - Phantasm is the most obvious choice, as it has Invisibility. Blur Sight and Phantasmal Fiend are also pretty good. - Summoning is the third good offensive school, but I always find myself investing in one of the other two as back up in case the enemy breaks through my summons. - Temporal works best with a mid- to large-sized party, but the slow effects are great. As for the non-tech skills, you'll want: - Spot Traps - not necessary, but you may as well if you have the points - Pick Locks - again, way better than Unlocking Cantrip, especially for a dedicated thief, and not just someone unlocking doors in dungeons - Repair - get this skill to at least Expert level, as there are enemies in the game that will TEAR through your armor, and this can return it to perfect health without any additional items. - Persuasion - put points in this with a high Charisma. If you're not playing with Charisma, then don't bother, but combined with a high Intelligence (which you'll need as a mage), you can make life a lot easier on yourself. Astfgl fucked around with this message at 02:08 on Dec 2, 2009 |
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Nov 30, 2009 03:46
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Phenotype posted:I think the biggest thing I was missing was that Int seems pretty useless in terms of boosting spellpower. Buying more spells makes all my spells generally stronger, which seems a little counterintuitive, but spell damage is based on magic affinity, not Int and Will. Int governs how many active spells you can have at once, and not much else in terms of magic, I believe. It's handy to have for a lot of dialogue encounters, though. And very useful for tech characters. The reason that buying MORE spells makes all your spells stronger is that the magic/tech slider controls the effectiveness of your skills. The more magic skills you put points in, the farther the slider goes in that direction, and the more powerful your magic skills are. Same with tech stuff, so the more schematics you know the more damage your guns do. What mages really need to focus on is their Fatigue/Constitution/Willpower scores, so that they can cast and maintain a lot of spells. If you're playing as a thief, it's entirely realistic that you won't be able to put many points in Intelligence. Phenotype posted:Did I miss anything too good by pissing off Magnus? I talked amiably to the Schuylers instead of killing them, and he refused to work with me again. Not really. He's one of the more vocal companions in the game and he's got a pretty satisfying questline, but it's not something you'd notice on your first run through, and he's not a great fighter. Remember, though, that you can always make nice with the Schuylers and then kill them afterwards for that experience, too. It won't get Magnus back, but that's no reason not to do it.
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Nov 30, 2009 04:07
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I just bought Dragon Age: Origins on Steam and I'm looking for tips. I've started a human mage and I'm wondering which stats (beyond Magic  ) to put stats in. Also, the Arcane Warrior specialization looks pretty nice, but is there anything I should know about what it takes to get that? Oh and any general tips would be appreciated.
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Dec 16, 2009 17:21
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Backhand posted:The most important tip I can possibly give you is that the force field spell is loving AMAZING. If you've ever played a 2.0 D&D game, it functions just like Otiluke's Resilient Sphere: Pick a target, any target, and an impenetrable force field goes up around them. They can't move or act, but they also can't be harmed in any way. Thanks. I picked up Force Field with my next spell selection and it's working out great. A few other general questions: - If I'm going for the Arcane Warrior specialization, what should my stats look like? Obviously Magic will be high, and it looks like Willpower will be as well. I've also put some points into cunning because I like Coercion. Is there anything else I should focus on, like Dexterity? Or is everything else useless to a mage? - What skills should I be using? I currently have Coercion 1&2 and Herbalism 1(is that a skill or a spell school?) and that's it. Aside from the extra tactics slots, should I bother with any of the other skills? If I'm going to be an Arcane Warrior, should I take those combat proficiencies? - Assuming I play the game fairly thoroughly, how many spells will I eventually have access to? Are there any schools that are simply not worth it? I've currently got Arcane Bolt, Arcane Shield, Winter's Grasp, Heal, Mind Blast, Force Field, Telekinetic Weapons, and Vulnerability Hex. Am I on the right track? Am I wasting points on something? Is there a school I should be focusing on? And if it matters, I'm only at the Tower of Ishal point in the story.
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Dec 17, 2009 18:56
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MY FANTASYS.zip posted:the Jedi Knight series These are a REALLY mixed bag, both in terms of gameplay and quality. The first one, Dark Forces, is a straight-up Doom-style FPS. It's an old old old game from the early 90s, and is immediately recognizable as such. Some of the levels (sewer level, red planet, and a few others) will be ridiculously easy to get lost and turned around in. Others will be a breeze. You'll want to conserve ammo as much as possible, look for all the secret areas as they'll have really valuable power-ups, and be very sparing with your use of the heavier weapons (railgun, concussion rifle). The second, Jedi Knight, is still an FPS with a first-person view, but you can switch to third-person over-the-shoulder when you're wielding your lightsaber. You get Force powers in this one, and based on which ones you use, how many civilians you kill, and certain plot decisions, you'll be forced into either the light or dark side story paths. I don't think you get to concretely choose, instead the decision gets made for you by tallying up points. You can monitor your progress in your character sheet, though. Anyway, this one has almost the exact same weapon set as Dark Forces, plus the lightsaber and Force powers. As usual, Force powers are divided into Light, Neutral and Dark. The real problem is that JK was designed as a multiplayer game with a singleplayer storyline, so a lot of the Force powers are WAY more useful in an MP context than in singleplayer. In fact, most of the lightside abilities (everything except heal) are absolutely worthless in singleplayer. The neutral abilities (jump, speed, pull) are always useful, except Force Seeing. And that means that the darkside abilities are by and large the most useful and the most fun. Throw, Grip and Lightning are all fantastic. Destruction is less so, and Deadly Sight is loving useless. The JK expansion, Mysteries of the Sith, doesn't really add anything new to the JK dynamic. Same weapons, same powers. The selling point of the expansion was the 15 new multiplayer maps it came with. The singleplayer campaign is basically a retread of JK: you start as Kyle, investigating a disturbance in the Force, then switch to Mara Jade to investigate Kyle's disappearance. Pretty routine stuff. I have not played Jedi Outcast, but I hear the first few levels are a bitch since you don't get your lightsaber right away. Jedi Academy is a fun game, and shouldn't take you too long to beat (unlike JK which can take forever). All that really matters in this game is which force powers you choose, as you'll play almost exclusively with a lightsaber (the few times you won't, you'll want the concussion rifle or the imperial repeater). As far as Force abilities go: Heal is essential, Grip is fantastic because you can drop difficult enemies off of ledges, Lightning will take out multiple targets (once it's upgraded) and can quickly dispose of most low-level foes like stormtroopers, and Absorb becomes necessary at later levels to fend off Dark Side energy. The rest are pretty much useless. Also, two sabers is fun and I recommend going that route when you get the chance. Captain Novolin posted:For Jedi Academy: Ya, that's a good point. You can pick all dark side powers and attack any civilians you see (I don't think you can kill them, though) and still stay on the light side path. You'll get a choice in the late game to either kill someone or let them live. Killing them shifts you to the dark side, letting them live lets you stay in the light. Also, if you're finding the game a little difficult, do the optional missions whenever possible, as they'll help you upgrade your base force powers (jump, pull, push, speed). Astfgl fucked around with this message at 18:07 on Dec 26, 2009 |
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Dec 26, 2009 18:04
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MF_James posted:- Never sell soul stones imo. Especially not the grandmaster ones. Use the lower level ones to capture souls and enchant crappy stuff to help get your enchanting up so you don't have to dump tons and tons of money into the trainers. The economy in Morrowind sucks such balls that selling most items (anything worth 1000drakes or more) is, practically speaking, pointless. Most merchants have a cap of only so much money (typically ~1000) and there are only two real merchants in the game (Creeper and the Mudcrab, the latter being a huge bitch to track down on short notice) with enough funds to make them worth selling high-level items to. I mean, when you've got a soulgem worth 80000 and no one will give you more than 10000 for it, there's no point in selling it. Obviously bartering is essential, and trading items can help increase the value a merchant has, but most of the time I found myself hanging on to expensive items and just stashing them in a trophy room in my house. Yes, you will need a trophy room.
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Jan 5, 2010 20:50
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The Blue Pyramid posted:if you do some weird poo poo (think levitation), you can kill him easily. That applies to most fights in the game, except cliffracers. Levitation, increased speed, and jump spells will substantially confuse most enemies and give you a huge advantage, particularly if you combine them with marksman or ranged destruction attacks.
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Jan 6, 2010 01:14
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A shrubbery! posted:Levitating will actually make most humans run away scared, even town guards. It's a good thing that most humans (non-enemy non-guard citizens, that is) can be force-admired by just re-positioning the speechcraft box so you can hammer on the button until their disposition is back to normal.
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Jan 6, 2010 23:43
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SinetheGuy posted:About to pick up Oblivion, again. Unfortunately, I have to pick it up again because my PC doesn't get along with it, meaning up stuck with the un-moddable 360 version. I know all about the rubber-banding problem, and have heard vague mentions of how to get around it, but nothing specific enough. The Wiki is also pretty vague. Any good tips? Geez, if you're stuck with the unmodden version then be sure to brush up on efficient leveling. It's essential. Here's some more tips: Character Creation - Either go here or somewhere else to figure out what races/genders get bonuses to what skills and attributes, and then choose accordingly. The game won't tell you during the creation process, so it helps to know ahead of time that, say, high elves have massive weaknesses to elemental damage. You'll really want to capitalize as much as you can on bonuses by picking those as your major skills. - Aside from certain attribute scores, there's no practical difference between playing a male or female characters. - Birthsigns are a mixed bag, but The Atronach is generally considered to be the best. It gives you a 50% chance to absorb any spell cast at you and convert it into mana for yourself. Which means that half of all enemy spells will fail on you. The downside is that your mana won't regenerate, but since you absorb enemy spells, you'll usually have power whenever you need it. - Your two favoured attributes don't get anything other than the initial +5 bonus, so you might want to pick attributes that are really low to balance out your weak spots at first. Or you could use them to boost already high stats. Either way it will never come into play again. Skills - Armorer: I think this is one of the most critical skills in the game. Your armor and weapons will degrade at a stupendous rate, and prior to Journeyman level in this skill, you won't be able to repair any magical items at all. You'll also go through repair hammers ridiculously fast. Make sure you focus on training this up ASAP. - Alchemy: Don't underestimate this. There are ingredients everywhere and they're easy to harvest (unlike in Morrowind). They will be a lifesaver when you're in the middle of a dungeon and you've run out of spells/potions. Keep your alchemy set with you until you get a house to store it in, then start storing ingredients and creating potions more sparingly. Potions are also a great way, in the early game, of generating income. - Sneak/Security: If no one sees you commit a crime, it didn't happen. So steal everything and steal often. Pick a town (or district if you're in the Imperial City) and during the day wander into the houses while they're unlocked to figure out which ones have the most valuables. Wait until midnight, then start robbing those homes blind. You will need to have joined the Thieves Guild in order to sell off all your ill-gotten loot. - Illusion: Worth it mostly for the charm spell, as the speechcraft minigame is incomprehensible. Since dialogue doesn't take up any real time, you can create a custom charm spell that will max out most NPCs' dispositions but that only lasts for a few seconds. However, if you really pump this skill you'll also get access to the Chameleon spell which can really break the game. Quests - After completing the first main quest task upon leaving the intro dungeon, you will be directed to the city of Kvatch. You may or may not want to do this right away. Entering Kvatch will trigger a global event that causes hell-portals to open up all over the map. Since the enemies are scaled, they won't be insurmountable, just a growing nuisance. Avoiding Kvatch will forestall this indefinitely, but the longer you leave it the harder the enemies will be when you finally start the quest. - The game will tell you that it's safer to travel by roads. This is a lie--you will probably get attacked by more bandits traveling by road than you would by just beelining through the wilderness. BUT, when you're starting the game, it's a good idea to do a circuit of the roads around the Imperial City. You'll run into some good intro quests to get you started with some decent items and rewards. - In the village of Weye (just W of the Imperial City), Aelwin will ask you to get some slaughterfish scales for him. Your compass will point you to the fish (in succession), and they're a little difficult but not impossible. The hardest part is learning to fight while swimming. The reward is a water-breathing ring, which ridiculously handy at this stage. - In the village of Aleswell (N of the Imperial City), everyone is invisible. Speak to the innkeeper to get the quest, which doesn't require more than a two minute walk. Your reward will be a permanent room in the inn with a container in which to store things. Much easier than saving up thousands of gold for a house. - Speak to the count of Leyawiin; he’ll ask you to work with an Orcish knight and eventually get rid of some Black Bandits. If you complete all the tasks, you get ownership of the White Stallion Inn, a cheap place to rest and store things until you can afford a house. - Find the Shrine of Azura (NNW of Cheydinhal) with an offering of glow dust. You’ll need to purchase the dust from an alchemist at low levels (since Will-o-Wisps don’t appear til later), but it should be fairly cheap. Azura’s quest will net you a soul gem that doesn’t disappear once you use the soul inside, and that can hold the highest level of souls. - Speak to Jensine in the Imperial City Market District about Thoronir (you may have to ask some of the other shopkeepers about Rumours to unlock the topic). She’ll ask you to investigate him, and the quest is fairly straightforward, with an easy two-person fight at the end. You get a good resistance ring out of it (levelled, of course). - Once you've reached level 10, find the Shrine of Nocturnal. Completing the quest will net you an unbreakable lockpick which pretty much breaks the game as far as money/equipment is concerned. Factions - Remember than any character can join any faction, regardless of what major skills you've picked and what other factions you've joined. Technically, any class of character can completely all the faction quests, but you really need high stealth and security for the thief and assassin factions. - If you find yourself getting pulverized in dungeons, head to the Arena in the Imperial City and join up. You'll get combat experience and gold in small, manageable doses, and the Arena counts as a faction. - The Thieves Guild should be joined as soon as possible. Just find a poster about the Gray Fox somewhere in the Imperial City, read it, and then head to the Waterfront around 11/11:30 at night. Find the garden with the low stone wall, and between 11:30 and midnight you should trigger the entrance to the Thieves Guild. If the guy won't talk to you, bribe him until his disposition is above 60 and he should let you in. - If you plan on playing a magic user, speed through the recommendation quests in the outlying mage guilds. The sooner you gain access to the spellmaking altar in the arcane university, the better. Even if you have the Wizard's Tower DLC, the altar at the university will probably be cheaper to access than the one in the tower. - To join the Assassin's Guild, you need to murder someone. This can be challenging to do without getting caught. Being able to sneak/backstab is useful, but try to find people no one will miss, like beggars or skooma addicts (you can find a houseful in Bravil). Be warned that most NPCs in Oblivion will summon guards if you don't kill them on the first hit. If you're extremely well-concealed you might be ok, which is why sleeping targets are much easier. - The Mages Guild and the Fighters Guild are easy for low-level characters. The Thieves Guild and the Assassins Guild are not. Also, completing thief/assassin quests will raise your infamy, while the mage/fighter faction quests will raise your fame. If your infamy is more than your fame, you won't be able to receive blessings from temple altars and most people will have a very low disposition toward you. General - The best way to get people to talk to you is through bribes, especially with a low speechcraft/personality/illusion score. If someone has more to say about a topic, the topic will remain gold, and you'll usually need to raise their disposition above 70 or so before they'll tell you everything. - Remember that your skills increase the more you use them, so walking and running everywhere instead of always fast-travelling will produce noticeable results in your acrobatics and athletics skills. Swimming and jumping will increase those skills even faster. - It helps to do all the various quests in a certain town all at once, instead of all the quests for a certain faction (which usually requires you to go all over the map). You miss a lot less that way. - When you're in a new town, ask everyone you see about Rumours. There will usually be 2-3 quests in each town that are only activated by asking certain townspeople about rumours. Bartenders and shopowners are good bets for this. - At first, disease will be a constant in most dungeons so be prepared. Bring potions or learn the spell. It can really destroy you if you're not ready, and it's not feasible to return to town to get restored at the altar. - When picking someone’s pocket, they can catch you even if you don’t try to steal anything. So always make sure you’ve left sneak mode before “activating” someone to talk to them—-otherwise you might accidentally get caught trying to pickpocket them. - Always keep a silver or magical weapon on you. Some monsters (like ghosts) will be immune to normal weapons, so you’ll need a silver or magically enchanted weapon to hurt them. Keep in mind that if you have a magic weapon with no charge, it will still bypass their damage resistance. Eventually, Daedric weapons will also do the trick, but you won’t run into those until level 18+. - Make sure you have some method of restoring attributes on the fly, primarily Strength, Intelligence, Endurance and Speed. All of those will often get drained or damaged by enemies, and they can severely impact your combat skills, depending on what class you are. You can accomplish this via potions or spells, but constantly trudging back to the altar in town will soon become annoying. If you plan on using Restoration for this, invest early as it levels up extremely slowly and Restore Attribute spells are both expensive, difficult to find for purchase, and usually for Journeyman level and above. - If you back away as your enemy swings at you, he’ll miss and stumble. This will provide a better opportunity for you to attack than if you’d stood still and taken the blow, or even blocked it with your shield. You can also block without a shield, although it won't be as effective. - Your attacks will do less damage if your weapons are not at full health. Be sure to repair on the fly as much as possible. A general rule of thumb is to check your gear after every second or third fight (unless you’re killing rats, or sneak-killing enemies in one hit).
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Jan 9, 2010 09:02
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Happy Bear Suit posted:-Personality is pointless. Don't bother with it until everything else is maxed. That's a pretty important point, because Personality is the governing attribute of Illusion, which is one of the most useful skills in the game. Spell effectiveness is solely affected by your skill in that spell school, making governing attributes totally meaningless in terms of magic. In fact, Luck is the only attribute that has any direct impact on spells, and even then it's only on the cost. Intelligence and Willpower affect your total mana pool and rate of mana recovery, respectively, and never your spells. The game also makes none of this apparent or even discernible. As much as I love Oblivion, is has some of the most non-intuitive, unintelligible game concepts I've ever seen.
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Jan 10, 2010 06:01
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