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Let's Play Etrian Odyssey is a series of (so far) 3 dungeon crawling RPG games, somewhat like the Wizardry series. Like some of the older dungeon crawling games, players have to draw and keep track of their own map as they play - though unlike many of the more old school titles, the game uses the touchscreen for that, rather than hoping you have a pen and paper at hand. I'm quite fond of the series, even if it does pull some dick moves now and then. Another comparison to the old school RPGs is how little characterization the characters have... that is to say, none, really. You can choose a class and an appearance, and that's all the character they have. With that in mind, I'm in two minds about how to do this LP, and I'd like to put it to the thread to vote on just how I do this, but I'll talk a bit more about that at the end of the post. For now, let's play! My own comments will be written in Italics. In this post, at least, anything which isn't italicised is something the game says - or me cocking up, one of the two. Class Discussions Medic Alchemist Troubadour Dark Hunters Protectors Landsknechts Survivalists Ronin Hexer Update List Update 1! (It is this post, this is not a link  )Update 2! Update 3 Update 4 Bonus Update 1 - On Survivalists Update 5 Mini Update - Early shop items Update 6 Update 7 Update 8 Update 9 Update 10 Update 11 Update 12 Bonus Update 2 - Fenrir Round 2 Update 13 Update 14 Update 15 Update 16 Update 17 Update 18 Bestiary Update 1 Update 19 Update 20 Bonus Update 3 - Bonus Boss Shenanigans Update 21 Bonus: Grinding Update 22 Update 23 Update 24 Mini-Update: Keyser's solo adventure Update 25 Bonus(?) Update - Rare drops and such. Update 26 Update 27 Update 28 Update 29 Update 30 Update 31 Also, if this isn't enough Etrian Odyssey-related reading for you, TheShim is doing an LP of Etrian Odyssey 3 over here! Sadly, I believe this died. RIP, EO3 LP.  Innocents were stranded; sinners drowned in the depths; the damned vanished there. The great power was lost to Man, and Mother Earth turned her back to the new world. Only the cursed king on his throne in the abyss remembers that golden age.   Here's what we get when we start a new game - some text on the top screen, and a blank bottom screen. The bottom screen will stay blank for a little while, so I'll just be cutting it out for now. The Radha, governers of Etria, issued a proclamation throughout the continent... Any able-bodied adventurer was invited to investigate the labyrinth and explore its depths. But no matter how many came to investigate the dungeon, none gained the renown they sought. As more adventurers tried and failed to conquer it, it came to be known by a new name... The Yggdrasil Labyrinth. You are the latest adventurer to journey to Etria in response to the Radha's proclamation. You have but one goal: explore the forest to win fame and fortune. Etria is at hand...   So, welcome to town. We'll be coming back here a lot to heal, save, buy stuff, get missions and quests, and other exciting things. Right now, though, our only course of action is to head into the one place we can go: the explorer's guild.    "Then welcome, friend. Not many guilds lately are admitting new adventurers. Those shortsighted losers care too much about trifles to do any real investigation. If you've got the guts, you should make a guild entirely for newcomers. There are loads of guys just sitting on their thumbs who'd join any guild that'd take them. How 'bout it? Gonna make a guild?"Not really much choice here. "Great, then let's get started. Write what you want to call your guild in this ledger.Someday, the world will know this name, so think carefully before choosing it."  Interactivity time! I'll let goons decide on the name for our guild - I'd prefer not to be guild DONGS or anything like that, but honestly, feel free to suggest whatever you think would be funny/interesting. "SALP, huh? Not a bad name."Yes, it is. "Now that you've got a guild, you'll need adventurers to fill it. Of course, you can go into the labyrinth yourself. If you've got the stones, then register your own name as a member. More adventurers means more options open to you, and less of a chance of dying down there. Think about it for a while, and make sure you register a variety of classes into your guild."  Welp, let's get a-registering! Register recruits new members, Organize lets you do things like reset skill points and boot people out, Formation lets you choose who you take with you, and arrange them however you like, talk lets you get a little advice, and leave lets you leave, surprisingly enough.    After name entry, we get a list of classes, and after the list of classes, we get to choose one of four looks. Each class has different portraits... and now's a good time to talk about the vote on how to handle this thread that I mentioned a bit back. There are 3 ways I can think of doing it: A) A straight LP, no real inter-party dialogue, just me showing off as much of the game as I can, and providing some commentary, with me picking which classes and such I use. B) Similar to A, but with goons picking my classes and whatnot. I'm reasonably competent at this game, but the EO series isn't really known for being particularly fair, and it's been a little while, so please don't make me take anything ridiculous like 5 healers if you choose this. C) I'm quite a fan of Thuryl's Might and Magic let's plays, and sort of like the idea of trying something a little similar - goons make up characters based on the various classes/portraits and give them a personality, and I try to write for them all. This would probably be a lot less dry than A or B, but runs the risk of it turning out that I can't write for toffee. If I try this and everyone hates it, I'll probably just mostly drop the dialogue and play things straight. In any case, I'm interested in seeing what you guys think! In case we go with B or C, I'm going to write up the various classes, so everyone can think about what they might want to make. Anyway, before I give a class write-up, I'm going to demonstrate a little gameplay. For the sake of brevity, I'm going to skip over the various bits and pieces of things you do in town - I'll cover them when starting out properly, but for now, I'm just giving a little demo of how the game plays.  After some stuff in town which I will show off in the first 'proper' update when we've decided how to do this, we come to the real meat of the game - the labyrinth. Note that on the bottom screen, we now have a map - that's there to stay, and as I mentioned earlier, is filled out by the player. You can draw pretty much whatever you like with it, if you're a bit of a masochist, but it's best to keep maps as accurate as possible to stop you from getting lost. At the bottom right of the top screen, we have a little orb telling us how close we are to runing into any encounters. When it's blue, we shouldn't be meeting any for a while...  Green, we're getting closer to running into trouble  Red, an encounter is imminent  And enemies on the screen means that we've run into one, surprisingly enough. Encounters in this game mostly work like random battle systems in most RPGs, every step you take you have a chance of coming closer to running into one, and you can't actually see what you're going to run into until you've already run into it. There are some exceptions to this, but we can cross that bridge when we come to it. Encounters in this game work fairly simply - you pick what you want everyone in your party to do. Most of the options are fairly self explanatory - Boost, however, is a useful little tool that is sort of like this game's version of limit breaks/trance from the final fantasy series. A character builds up boost when they're hit, when they attack (I think) and when you use certain items on them, using the Boost command requires them to have their boost gauge full, but temporarily buffs all of their stats. It also doesn't actually use up their turn, so you can still attack/cast a spell/whatever after boosting.  Long story short, we murder the animals. Look at the health of our front-line fighters, though - it took most of our party attacking one of the rats to bring it down, and they deal fairly significant damage because of how thoroughly awful a starting character in this game is. Regular healing at the inn is a MUST in the early game.  For the amount of threat an enemy poses, the exp they reward is fairly abysmal, too, especially early on like this. Exp is actually divided by how many people you have in your party, so levelling is much faster with only one party member. Of course, at this point in the game, going with only one party member is basically suicide.  When beating enemies for the first time, you discover them and can report on your findings back in town to have a handy reference on a monster's stats, drops, etc. Similarly for items, the first time you find one, you can report on it, though the information you gather from doing that is a bit less useful. Anyway, that's the gist of things - explore the labyrinth, slaughter monsters, wonder why tree rats take off ~10% of an armoured dude's health and get loot, all while drawing a map. There's a bit more to it, but this post is already fairly text-heavy, and I'd like to have something to talk about in future updates. For now, though, an explanation on classes and skills: About Skills Before I start talking about individual classes, I will give a brief note on skills - Some of this turned out to be a lie, I was thinking of future games. Skill points are gained each time you level up, and every character starts with 3. You CAN reset skills on a character, but only when they're level 30+ (which will take a while) and it costs ten levels (which is unpleasant to deal with.) As well as the above mentioned stat-up skills, every class has a few unique skills, and one of 3 'harvesting' skill. Some unique skills need you to have X points in other skills, and each point you put into a skill improves it. Different skills have different max levels, but the highest is generally 10. As an aside, you don't get nearly enough skill points to raise all skills to 10, so you have to think about what you're choosing! Landsknecht "Masters of sword and axe, Landscknechts can bear a wide range of weapons and armor in close combat. Balanced warriors for the front line." A fair description of Landsknechts here, really - the standard warrior class, a wide range of equipment and mostly offensive abilities. They have a few self-supporting abilities, like raising attack at the cost of defense, or healing a certain status effect. Swords are generally more versatile than axes, with more abilities and even a set of elemental attacks, while axes are generally stronger, and some of their abilities come with status effects. Their harvesting skill is Mine. Portraits  Survivalist "Fleet-footed and wise in the ways of the forest, their bow skills make them desirable allies. Fast-acting fighters useful in either line." Survivalists are a fairly versatile class, able to deal good damage with the use of their skills, later in the game at least, and they have some useful support abilities, such as the ability to make the party get more pre-emptive attacks, make enemies get less of those attacks, and harvest from any of the 3 types of item spots. One common early-game trick is to make a bunch of these and have them repeatedly farm the early item spots to make a bunch of cash, which I may wind up doing myself. Or not, if the thread prefers. They are a bit lacking in defense, despite claims that they work well on either line, however, and at first, their damage can be pretty poor due to not having a great selection of bows. Portraits  Protectors "Holy defenders of the weak. A protector's sword and shield are invaluable tools when in the dungeon. Best used as front-line warriors." A fairly important class, Protectors are basically paladins, with healing skills, various defensive skills, and the ability to draw hits towards themselves - and, more importantly, survive those hits. They're not exactly fantastic attackers, but then, that's not really what they're for. Their harvesting skill is also Mine. Portraits  Dark Hunters "Pinpoint lashes of their whip can weaken opponents. Use their skills wisely to turn the tide of battles. Their skills are best used in the front." I'm not going to lie, I've never really used these much. They attack mainly with whips, but also have some sword abilities. Whips specialise in causing Binds (A type of status effect where one part of the body is bound, restricting it. IIRC, head binding = no magic, arm binding = no physical skills/reduced damage, leg binding = no running, some skills can't be used) and have a gimmicky attack that does damage to a fully-bound enemy. Their sword skills work off more traditional status effects such as sleep, paralysis, etc. Whips get poison, though. Also, their harvesting skill is Take. Portraits  Medic "Unskilled in battle, their healing arts allow experienced warriors to survive difficult battles. Use their healing gifts from the back." I'm sure most of you can guess what medics do, even without reading the above description - they are, of course, the greatest of your frontline fighteno not really. They have some minor passive healing, a whole shitload of active healing skills, status effect recovery/prevention, TP regeneration, and of course, a stunning attack. Not joking this time, I'm not sure why they have that, but it can actually be pretty great. They can also increase item drop rates, which is handy. Lastly, their harvest skill is chop. Portraits  Alchemists "Those who study the control of nature. The power of fire, ice and lightning is at their command. Elementalists who prefer the back." The mages of Etrian Odyssey, alchemists fight with fire, ice, thunder and poison - they guzzle TP like nobody's business, but have a passive TP recovery skill which can help out a lot. Poison is pretty good in this game, to begin with, and elemental damage is hard to say no to. Unfortunately, you don't really get enough skill points to get a lot of their abilities up to a great standard, so you have to pick between specialising, and being useless in some fights, or generalising and just being kind of 'eh'. Similarly to medics, they can make enemies drop more items, and also have Chop as a harvesting ability. Portraits  Troubadour "Lively dancers and singers who inspire the party. Their support is always welcome in combat. Supporters able to work on either line." Troubadours are pretty much what you'd expect - fairly awful attackers (despite being able to equip a surprising range of weapons) but with buffs coming out of them in every direction. They can warp the party back a floor, heal the party's TP, increase elemental resistances, make an ally's attack a certain element, increase HP, decrease the number of battles you fight... they can do quite a bit, really. Portraits  That's it for classes we have access to now - Ronin and Hexer are off-limits 'til later in the game. (And, from what I remmeber, they're also not all that good.) For those interested in making characters, should we do things that way, there are 5 people to a party, with 3 slots in the front and back row, so either 3 frontliners and 2 backliners, or the reverse, would be ideal. Anyway, with all that said, it's voting time for a whole bunch of things! As a reminder, I need you guys to... Pick a guild name, preferably not Dongs or anything similar and Pick what kind of LP you'd prefer to read: A: A straight LP where I make the characters I want to use, and give my own commentary on the various goings on. B: Similar to A, but with a goon-picked party (Though no ridiculous challenge runs, this is an Atlus game and I'm not THAT great) C: A more narrative LP like Thuryl's Might & Magic LPs, where goons come up with characters and personalities, and I try to write dialogue for them to keep things interesting. Also, one last thing - would you guys prefer I show the map at all times, or only when it's particularly relevant? Sorry to ask so many questions, I just want to make this LP as enjoyable as I can. Edit, brief note on option A: Were I to decide my own party, I'd probably go with a Landsknecht and Protector in the front, and a back line consisting of an Alchemist, Medic and Troubadour. (Later in the game, I might wind up swapping the alchemist out for a survivalist, not sure) You can ignore the voting, now! We're doing... mostly option C. See this post, and my post below it, for details. Also, bear in mind, there's an 8 character limit on names, both for people and for the guild! 100percentjesusfree fucked around with this message at 03:08 on Feb 14, 2014 |
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Jun 21, 2012 18:32
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The characters so far! That... would've probably been a good thing to write, yeah. I figured people would realise from including names in the updates, but I'll probably just specify here and in the second post. Slaan's character Jill is our team medic, hater of zombies, and resident evil reference (or so I assumed), so she's in luck that, as far as I know, there are no zombies in this game.  Libluini's character Dietrich is our time-travelling drunken Landsknecht who, for some reason, had lower attack power (very slightly) than the protector for a while. I'm not sure what was going on there, but it seems to have remedied itself.  Lotish's character Hector is our gung-ho protector, who founded a guild, then proceeded to nearly get himself killed by being a bit too gung-ho.  Death Dealer's character Alvis is the lightning-obsessed party alchemist, who will also be picking up some poison skills because it's simply fantastic early in the game. If this was a reference to something, it went over my head. (as did any references beyond Jill, honestly. ) TheShim's character, Serasmus has been with us for quite a while, but for some reason, I forgot to put him in this post for ages. ...Oops. In any case, he's a snarky, cynical alchemist, preferring an adaptive approach to the use of magic over focusing on one particular area! Handy!  Lazy Programming's character Keyser is the party troubadour, who specialises in making my life miserable due to having to try to think of how to make his speech either poetic, quoting something, or using some form of literary technique.  Dr Pepper's greedy little survivalist, who essentially slipped her way into the guild just to help herself make a quick buck. It's working out pretty well for her so far!  Roctavian's undead-hating, whip-wielding Dark Hunter, Richter.  SSNeoman's character Musashi - an old sword-wielding ronin, full of all kinds of stories of his incredible prowess, some of which may even be true.  BlazeEmblem's character Fran is a Hexer so full of sugar that she doesn't realise she's in command of the dark arts. Instead, she mostly seems obsessed with trying to hug things into submission, which can be surprisingly effective!  Fanart! HelloWinter has been working on some beautiful images -   and while they're apparently 'only' WIP thumbnails, they still look fantastic. 100percentjesusfree fucked around with this message at 06:44 on Nov 23, 2013 |
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Jun 21, 2012 18:32
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theshim posted:Oh god drat, we've got a masochist on our hands! I was half tempted to do EO3, as it's my favourite of the series for various reasons, but starting with the third game seemed like an odd thing to do, and if this goes well, I can always continue on to doing the rest of the games. Besides, I DO like all of them! Also, pretty much, yeah, in response to the medic/protector thing. As I understand it, troubadours are pretty good, too, but even if I wind up with a fairly terrible party I can hopefully make up for it by just endlessly grinding off screen. From what I remember of the classes, Medics are basically the best thing ever, with their wide range of healing skills and an apparently very damaging melee skill, protectors are also really important, troubadours have got a bunch of really useful buffs, Landsknechts are a great way of filling a front line slot, and alchemists/survivalists are both pretty useful, Alchemists especially early in the game, as poison lets you murder your way through the first few floors, and survivalists get much better later when you have access to good bows, and dark hunters are just a bit situational and crap. I haven't actually used ronins/hexers much at all, but I remember being underwhelmed when I did give them a whirl. 100percentjesusfree fucked around with this message at 20:02 on Jun 21, 2012 |
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Jun 21, 2012 19:57
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should work.
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Dragonatrix posted:map autofill thing Yeah, it does. You can turn it off if, for some reason, you hate the game doing your job for you. And yeah, the 5 survivalists thing is always a good idea, so I'll probably be doing that. I'd almost forgotten how much of a huge pain it is to get money at the start of this game.
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Jun 21, 2012 20:14
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I should probably add which party I'd use if I went with option A (I'll put this in the OP, too) Were I to decide my own party, I'd probably go with a Landsknecht and Protector in the front, and a back line consisting of an Alchemist, Medic and Troubadour. (Later in the game, I might wind up swapping the alchemist out for a survivalist, not sure) Also, Panic, it's not really being a bad person if you're voting on one of the options I provided. I was kind of leaning towards C myself, but was just worried I'd turn out terrible at it and wondered what other people would prefer to see.
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Jun 21, 2012 20:35
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After a quick look, votes seem split between option C and telling me it's a horrible idea to let goons pick my party, so how about a compromise? Those interested can come up with a character they'd like to see, and I'll try to include as many as I can, but most of the game will be done by a group consisting of Landsknecht, Protector, Alchemist (to start with at least, and preferably a Poison specialist), Troubadour and Medic (as well as 5 survivalists who accomplish very little beyond money farming) One character of each of those types will definitely be included, so those who'd really like to see a character of theirs in the LP should aim to come up with one of those, and I will try to include as many suggestions of other things as I can. (I'll definitely show off every class at least once, but making one of the above drastically increases the chance your character will be in the main party.) Does that make sense/sound like it'd be interesting? If so, I'll post a suggested format for suggesting a character. Sorry if I'm kind of dragging things out by asking a lot of questions, I'm new at this, and want to make sure everyone has a good time. As a bit of an aside, the alchemists poison skills have some of my favourite flavour text for just what they do.  E. We currently have enough characters for a party - making a character now is less of a guaranteed shoe-in. I'll still try to include people though! 100percentjesusfree fucked around with this message at 23:45 on Jun 21, 2012 |
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Jun 21, 2012 21:16
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theshim posted:Can I lay claim to the Alchemist then? I guess I'm not too great at explaining things... basically, if I do things that way, I'd like to see people post a few things for the character they'd like to see included: A name, Class, a bit about their personality/backstory if they have one (so I can actually write dialogue for them), which profile they'd like to use, and if they care, what kind of thing they'd like to specialise in. So, for example, something like... Name: Goonguy Class: Landsknecht Personality/Backstory: A bit slow on the uptake, but an overall nice guy who just wants to get along with everyone. Has a terrible history with tree rats. Speciality: Swords Portrait: 1 That's... just an example, and a bit of a crappy one, I'm not going to lie, but it should give a bit of an idea of what I mean, I hope. Not every class really works with different specialities, like protectors are pretty much always going to be all about the defense. e. totally forgot to add portrait to the example text, 'til someone smarter than I am added it in their character suggestion. 100percentjesusfree fucked around with this message at 22:02 on Jun 21, 2012 |
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Jun 21, 2012 21:32
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theshim posted:Alright, that's more or less what I thought. Alrighty! I can't guarantee anyone will stay in the party all the way through the game or anything, but if a character's particularly popular with the thread, I'll try to use them more. Also, one other thing in general - if anyone in the thread thinks my writing is terrible, unfunny or contributing nothing to the thread, don't be afraid to tell me to just drop it and do a more straight LP, as I will do so. Criticism and suggestions in general are welcome, honestly, about anything and everything - though if the suggestion is pointing out something I missed, it'd be nice if it was spoiler tagged.
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Jun 21, 2012 21:43
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Slaan posted:Name: Jill Haha, as far as I can remember, I don't think undead actually show up in this game. (Which will probably be proved wrong, it's been a while. )Still, that works, thanks! 100percentjesusfree fucked around with this message at 22:41 on Jun 21, 2012 |
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Jun 21, 2012 21:52
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Libluini posted:OK, let's try this: The portraits are all at the end of the first post along with my class writeups. Thanks though! (Also, prefer deliberate time travel or a lost-in-time type thing?) 100percentjesusfree fucked around with this message at 22:40 on Jun 21, 2012 |
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Jun 21, 2012 22:21
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Works for me! I... may or may not try to simulate a German accent with text, though I make no promises. Also, voting for a guild name is still open! 100percentjesusfree fucked around with this message at 22:59 on Jun 21, 2012 |
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Jun 21, 2012 22:52
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Thanks for all the suggestions, everyone! Just need a troubadour now, and the thread to agree on a guild name they like, I can get started on an update. (And don't worry, theShim, please do still make an alchemist you'd like to see, I plan on including as many characters as I can one way or another!) Also, I edited the first post to reflect this, but bear in mind that there's an 8 character limit for names and guilds.
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Jun 21, 2012 23:14
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Lazy Programming posted:Name: Keyser WHY WOULD YOU DO THIS This actually reminds me of the time when I wrote a character for an online game of Brikwars who spoke in nothing but limericks. On a more serious note, as much as I like this idea, I'm not sure how well I could pull that off, realistically. I'm terrible with poetry aside from ridiculously stupid limericks, not so hot on literature, and don't know if I could pull of iambic pentameter. Hmm. 100percentjesusfree fucked around with this message at 23:33 on Jun 21, 2012 |
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Jun 21, 2012 23:27
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Alright, I'll give it a shot. I make no promises on how well this is going to work out - he might wind up being a bit quieter than the others so I don't drive myself insane looking relevant things up every time he opens his mouth. Anyway, everyone alright with Runaway as the guild name? If so, I'm going to take a stab at this and see how it goes.
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Jun 21, 2012 23:42
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goldjas posted:Medics are actually straight up overpowered in this game. They have a skill (that was removed from the 2nd and 3rd games for obvious balance reasons) that at max level gives you entire team I believe something like 50 or 60% resistance to...everything (I think it was called Immunize?). The protector has a similiar skill, called Protect or something, that at max level gives around 20-30% resistance to everything. Stacking these 2 buffs on your team the only things that can hurt you are the final boss and the optional bosses. In the third game you can do Ninja zodiacs who let your party (or half of it at least, depending on whether you clone or not) use skills for free every turn for 1tp a turn Still not quite as overpowered as take no damage ever, I suppose, but still pretty hilarious.
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Jun 21, 2012 23:56
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Ah, right. I always tried to build to get it ASAP because it's hilariously useful, but as you say it does require you to be a fair bit into the game. Anyway, anyone want to make a last minute vote for another guild name and throw everything into chaos, or should I get started?
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Jun 22, 2012 00:13
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Nick Buntline posted:The idea is that Immunize works on elemental damage (and actually it blocks like 90% at max level), while Protect works on physical damage, hence why you'd combine the two. Eh, I like protectors for things like En Garde + Provoke. Or Provoke + Parry. Overall, they're not the best class in all situations, but can really save you in some. e. I don't really mind a bit of talking about skills, they're not super-spoilery... I think? If anyone really minds, again, feel free to tell me I'm wrong and need to demand everyone stop talking about them, and do so myself, until they come up. Double e. If the constant extra U's being shoved into words didn't give it away, I'm British - as a result, characters might wind up using some English colloquialisms, though I'll try not to do that too much. Especially for Dietrich, I'm pretty sure a German Brit would explode in a torrent of self loathing. 100percentjesusfree fucked around with this message at 00:56 on Jun 22, 2012 |
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Jun 22, 2012 00:50
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Death Dealer posted:On this tack: How are you going to handle Ronin and Hexers since they don't start out unlocked in this one? Just having a vote to see if the audience wants one/both of the classes in the party when the time comes, or is it going to be a "This is what you could have had?" bonus update? A good question, and I'm not 100% sure, honestly. I'll probably ask for people to make a ronin/hexer when they become available, so I can try them out and demonstrate what they do. I do also plan on demonstrating the classes that the main party isn't using in general, really - maybe make a side party with a dark hunter, survivalist, ronin, hexer and medic I've... actually not used ronins much, or hexers at all, from what I remember, so seeing them in action will be pretty new to me, too... which does bring something to mind. Anyone who has experience with this game and wants to give advice in general for builds/things I could do better? Please, please do, I'm not exactly a master of Etrian Odyssey, so any and all advice is appreciated. E. I've gone with guild Runaway in the end, and am now getting screenshots and such for the update. Not sure how long it'll take - it's 1:20 AM here, and while I'd LIKE to get it done tonight, I make no promises. Surprise double edit. Cabman's suggestion raises an interesting point - what should I do if multiple people want to use the same profile picture? It'll get rather confusing if I have multiple talking heads who all have the same... well, head. 100percentjesusfree fucked around with this message at 01:58 on Jun 22, 2012 |
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Jun 22, 2012 01:06
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Update 2 - Red Tape Italicized text is still mine. Non-italicized NPC text is from the game, italicized is added/altered by me, and I'm leaving the party dialogue un-italicized, but you can safely guess it's all made up. In the default game, you play a party of mutes. Also, the protector in this is Hector - I'm still not sure what I'm going to do regarding Cabman's suggestion which uses the same portrait, hmm.  "Feels like you can't do anything in this drat town without being in a guild... the hell's up with that, anyway? Put out the call for adventurers, then when one turns up, you tell 'em they can't do they adventure they came for 'less they're working with a bunch of other people... ugh.Guess there's just one thing for it if I want to actually get anything done here." For the sake of not making people read the same thing twice, I'm just going to summarize the guild master's speech.  "Hmm... haven't seen you around before. You here to take on the labyrinth? Not many guilds are taking on newbies... you might want to make one yourself, let some new people in. You'll be sure to get a bunch of recruits, then." "I don't really have much choice, if I'm going to do anything other than waste my time here, do I? Now, let's see... ah! I'll name the guild after what all our foes will be doing before long..." "drat right. Now to head off to the Labyrinth." "It's up to you how many people you want to take down to the Labyrinth... But take my advice: It'll get dangerous if you have fewer than five."This man knows what he's talking about. "Do what you want, though. I'm not gonna force you." "Bah. I'll be fine."   "Well, if you want to get into the Labyrinth, you'll need the Radha's permission first. No permission, no entry, no exceptions."     "I assume, newcomers, that you are en route to investigate the forest. However, we don't recognise just anyone who manages to throw together a guild." "If you wish to become licensed adventurers, first complete the mission we give you." "...Not sure why I need to show I'm a decent cartogropher before I'm allowed to explore, but whatever. At least I can get in the drat place now." "Your mission is to create a map of the 1st floor of the Labyrinth as an initiation. Those who cannot accomplish this elementary task are better off staying out of the forest. Explore the 1st floor and map everything you see there. This method will be useful later. Here is a small map to start you off; fill in the rest of the details as best you can."  Just showing that we finally have a map, now. Filling this in is going to be something we'll be doing all the way through the game.  "Finally."  "Time to show this place who's boss."I know this is short, but Also, how do the mugshots look? Also yeah sorry about changing my mind about updating again tonight, it's getting late here and I'd rather not post something crap just because I'm tired
100percentjesusfree fucked around with this message at 04:02 on Jun 22, 2012 |
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Jun 22, 2012 03:23
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theshim posted:Hector's mugshot looks...squashed? Maybe grab it from the stats screen? It does a bit, yeah. That is where I grabbed it from, then after resizing so it's not enormous, it looks... well, like that. I'll keep fiddling and see if I can get one that doesn't look like rear end.
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Jun 22, 2012 03:32
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After a brief internet search, found a pretty good image that I cropped into a mugshot, that look any better? And thanks, Death Dealer!
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Jun 22, 2012 03:40
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Update 3 - Meet & Greet "Hmph... the vermin down here are pretty bold. Doesn't matter - maybe it's not the most glorious fight, but I have to start somewhere."  It's been mentioned in the thread a few times, but yeah. This game really does not like you - apparently, an armed and armoured grown man is no match for two rats and some bugs.  "O...One down..."   Yeah, I think anyone who's played the game could see this outcome coming.  And there it is - the screen I'm probably going to be spending waaay too much time staring at. Especially if I keep doing stupid poo poo for the sake of trying to make an interesting narrative.  "Huh? Where-"  "We also offer medicines to take with you. An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure! If you're wounded in the forest, then come back here, and we'll do everything we can for you." "How did I-" "Your guild-mates brought you here - they said they'd be waiting for you back at the guild hall."  "Uh... thanks, then." "Wondered if you'd be coming back. Running off on your own like that is a sure way to get yourself killed, and I'm not in this business to send newbies off to die.I rounded up a couple of people I knew were looking for work, and got 'em to sign up to your guild - you're welcome, by the way. Here they come now." "Oh, you made it! I did what I could, but you were a real mess... good to see that the guy they've got here could put you back in one piece after all that! It was pretty brave, charging off into the labyrinth by yourself - not really the smartest idea, but still pretty brave!" "Ah, but is that not what makes him suitable to be our leader? After all,courage is reckoned the greatest of all virtues; because, unless a man has that virtue, he has no security for preserving any other." "...Uh, what?" "Ignore Keyser, he's always like that. I'm Jill, and you're Hector, right? Founder of the Runaway guild? It'd be pretty embarrassing if we rescued the wrong guy..." "Yeah. Thanks for that, by the way." "No worries! 'Sides, you're the only guild master taking on new people, so if you died and the guild disbanded, we'd be out of luck. You still wanna go back into the Labyrinth after all that?" "Of course. Let's go!" "Wait, we probably ought to pick up the other guys who signed up, first, right? Dietrich, at least! He's probably still at the pub... I'm not sure where Alvis has gone, he should be around here somew-" "'Sup, I heard my name! Are we leaving, now? Can't wait to get started - I'll finally get some live subjects to try my stuff out on! Well, live for a little while, anyway." "Nearly! We're going to the pub to pick up Dietrich first, come on!" "...What have I gotten myself into? It's a good thing we're going to the pub, I could use a drink. Or twelve."I'll probably be cutting down on party chatter a little after this update, it's just... well, introducing everyone and such. Sorry if it's kind of wordy. Of course, if the text is adding nothing, do say. I'm happy to just do this as a less narrative LP, too.   "You new in town? If you're going down in the Labyrinth, you should visit the Radha first." "I did. " "Every adventurer's got to go through Radha Hall before they're officially recognized. Sorry, hon, but my hands are tied. I can't give you any work until then." "Once you're legit, come and see me again, all right? I'll be looking forwards to it." "Hey, Dietrich! Done drinking?" "Just about. S'that our glorious leader? Don't recognise you all tha well, last time I saw you, you were more like a man-sized mass of bite marks. The hell did that to you?" "I'd... really rather not talk about it." "A'ight, whatever. Let's get some gear and get this show on the road, we're not being paid to sit around." In retrospect, buying some gear would've probably been a good idea.   "Are you t'guild I hear 'bout wit' only new folk? Explorers like you are my best customers! I look forward t'doing business witcha!" "Hm... not all that much choice, yet. Alright, whatever, I'll take a sword, these... gauntlets and a shield." "'Nother sword and set of gloves here." "I could go for a sandwich!" "Sorry. No can do." "Aww... alright, I'll just grab some boots." "I have the power of science and lightning at my fingertips! Nothing you have can compare to that!" "...That's... that's great." "....... Now flames, the blazing fire, must devour the lord of warriors who often endured the iron tipped arrow shower, when the dark cloud loosed by bow strings broke above the shield wall, quivering; when the eager shaft, with its feather garb, discharged its duty to the barb." "I think he's saying he wants a bow." "I can already tell this is going to be just fantastic." "As fantastic as charging in by yourself?" "...Shut it."     This is the state we're all in - I also picked up a couple of healing herbs at the Apothecary. In any case, we're finally about ready to actually do something - it doesn't actually take this long in game to get a party together, and I'll probably cover larger swathes of gameplay with each update from now on, this was mostly just showing off the town and introducing the characters. It's also an update that probably won't be missed all that much if we decide not to go with the more narrative route after all, similarly to the first, so I'll ask once more (then stop asking after every post, or try to at least) - how's this looking? Is the dialogue interesting enough to keep, or should I scrap it? Scrapping it would probably lead to faster updates, especially with me not having to look up literary references, but at the same time, I want to keep things interesting, and if people are enjoying it this way, I'm happy to keep going! Also! How do those who made characters feel about the way I'm handling them? 100percentjesusfree fucked around with this message at 11:15 on Jun 23, 2012 |
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Jun 23, 2012 01:54
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cabman567 posted:Well, now that I think about it, just get rid of my guy. You don't really need more than 1 protector anyway. So which people have you picked up and what classes are they? That... would've probably been a good thing to write, yeah. I figured people would realise from including names in the updates, but I'll probably just specify here and in the second post. Slaan's character Jill is our team medic, hater of zombies, and resident evil reference (or so I assumed), so she's in luck that, as far as I know, there are no zombies in this game. Libluini's character Dietrich is our time-travelling drunken Landsknecht who, for some reason, currently has lower attack power (very slightly) than the protector. I'm not sure what's going on there. Lotish's character Hector is our gung-ho protector, who founded a guild, then proceeded to nearly get himself killed by being a bit too gung-ho. Death Dealer's character Alvis is the lightning-obsessed party alchemist, who will also be picking up some poison skills because it's simply fantastic early in the game. If this was a reference to something, it went over my head. (as did any references beyond Jill, honestly. )Lazy Programming's character Keyser is the party troubadour, who specialises in making my life miserable due to having to try to think of how to make his speech either poetic, quoting something, or using some form of literary technique. e. haha, holy crap you're not kidding about the resemblance.
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Jun 23, 2012 02:12
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HelloWinter posted:That is truly badass, I like this game already.  That they do! It's not the most useful skill, but it can come in handy if you need to conserve TP. And thank you - hearing that people are enjoying this makes me smile.
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Jun 23, 2012 03:11
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Abitha Denton posted:Is this LP going to rave about the music a lot? I don't see any links or anything, but I know the third game's soundtrack is absolutely fantastic and I know there are official arrangement albums and stuff. I wasn't planning on raving about it, but if people would like, I could include links to songs when they're relevant?
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Jun 23, 2012 04:00
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Death Dealer posted:The grand irony about Alvis is that he wasn't a direct reference to anything when I wrote him up, though I am aware of the FE4 one. Still, I find it amusing that he still ended up resembling something anyway. Not 100% sure, honestly. It might be the case that I just don't get them 'til later, when I have a second alchemist leveled to the point that I can use them - or I could just build Dietrich to be able to use use elemental attacks. Or the troubadour to use one of his 'make a party member's attacks X element' buffs... there are a few ways I can handle it, really. e. And thanks again, everyone! It makes my day to know people are enjoying what I'm doing, so I'll stick with it! (And also probably stop asking if I'm doing everything wrong after every update, that's probably a bad habit. )Also, I noticed I'd kind of made Hector's mugshot slightly bigger than everyone else - while there's probably a joke about him having a big head in there somewhere, would people prefer if I just leave it, inflate the other mugshots to match his, or deflate his to match theirs? 100percentjesusfree fucked around with this message at 11:07 on Jun 23, 2012 |
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Jun 23, 2012 11:00
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Artix74 posted:Considering what Hector thought of himself and his fighting ability in FE7, I'd say it's justified. Speaking of though, I've got someone for a B-team of sorts, if you still want to take characters. Certainly! I think you can have up to 16 characters overall, and there are currently 6. I'll be doing the survivalist 'exploit' so that the early game isn't utterly terrible (Which I will show off in a little bit), which would bring the total down to 11, though I could always just delete the survivalists once their job is done, if this winds up popular enough that I run out of character slots. Who knows, I'm kind of playing this by ear... anyway, this is a long winded way of saying 'sure, please, go ahead!'
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Jun 23, 2012 11:57
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Update 4 - Into the Labyrinth! (finally) "Let's do this." Music - Stratum I: Emerald Grove I like this track a fair bit, which is probably a good thing - a lot of the difficulty in this game comes from how hard it is to really get started, so this section will probably take quite some time to complete, a fair bit of which will likely be off-screen grinding.  As you have some skill at adventuring, some 3 Skill Points should be available to you. To spend them on skills useful in the Labyrinth, open the Main Menu with the Y Button. Select Custom to allocate skill points, but think carefully before doing so. You may already be aware of this, in which case, this advice is happily unnecessary. If so, then hesitate no longer to begin your adventure in this lush, green forest! Fortunately, I at least remembered THAT much. Everyone's got some basic skills - Hector has 1 rank in Provoke, an active skill which makes enemies more likely to target him for a while, and 1 rank of both Def. Up and Shields, which give passive defense boosts. Dietrich has 3 ranks in Swords, which increases attack whenever he has a sword, Alvis 1 rank in Volt Up, which increases the power of Lightning skills, and is generally a prerequisite for the skills, 1 rank of Volt Formula, the basic low-damage, one target thunder spell, and a point in Toxins, which is to poison what Volt Up is to lightning. Jill has 2 ranks in Healer, which is again rather like volt up, but for healing skills, and a rank of Cure, the basic healing spell. Last, Keyser has two ranks in Songs, which is mostly a prerequisite for learning new songs, and a rank of Bravery, a buff song which raises the party's attack power a bit. Anyway, we press on until...  "You must be the new guys... The Radha told me you'd be along. Welcome to the forest."A few questions for the soldier spring to mind, but you wonder if you shouldn't let him be.  "What're you just hanging out 'round here for? Not got anything better to do?" "My orders are to make sure no one -- you, for example -- gets in the forest without permission." "If you want in, start the way everyone does. Make a map of the floor we're on. As I'm sure they told you back at the Radha, everyone goes through this initiation."With that, the soldier points to the map of the forest you hold in your hands. In this game, you must draw your own map on the lower screen using the stylus. Take care to recreate each square exactly as it is in the dungeon on your map.     "Alright. Can you tell us anything about the Labyrinth? Seeing as the Radha are apparently determined to keep us from exploring the drat thing."The soldier looks around him once before answering. "We call this the Ygdrasil Labyrinth. It's a pretty strange place... The ecology here is completely different than the one in the world above, where we live. It goes down so deep that no one has ever seen the lowest Stratum. If you plan on exploring down there, then make sure your guard is up at all times." "Wouldn't surprise me if the only reason no-one's seen it is because you have to do a mountain of paperwork to get there..." "Not a fan of bureaucracy, are you?" "Is anyone? Come on, let's get on with this, so we can actually start on what we came here to do." Just round the corner from that guard, we encounter this - Check prompts can lead to a wide variety of things, but they're generally worth looking at. They're not necessarily all good things, but you can usually back out and come back later.  Initially thinking it a creature, you lower your guard upon realising it's a boot. "...Did you just flinch from looking at a boot?" "In my defense, it's a very lively boot." "I'm sure."Could it have belonged to an adventurer? You weigh the options of picking up the dirty boot or leaving it where it lies.  "Look, see! It could easily have been an animal!" "...When it's waved around in front of your face, ANYTHING furry could be an animal! Not it's just lying around on the ground." "Oh, hey. I think there's something in here..." The game has a slightly different description of the events that lead to you finding the whitestone in the boot, but a lot of the descriptions in this game aren't that interesting - it can basically be summed up as 'you gingerely pick up the boot, it's heavy because some stuff's inside of it, have some whitestone.' I figured that it's not really a great loss to not include every little thing like that from the game, but if you guys would prefer that, I'm happy to include it.    And this is the problem with a lot of the 'Check' things. Some of them just give you free stuff, but a lot of them are "You get something THEN SOMETHING TERRIBLE HAPPENS OH NO!", or, in some cases, "You get nothing and something terrible happens". This is an Atlus game, after all. "This boot's owner got murdered by MOLES? Pfft." "...Don't understimate ANYTHING down here. Still, Charge!" "Ugh..." "Um... I don't think I can heal that."Yup. Going straight for this boot isn't a great idea - moles are one of the tougher enemies on the first floor, and fighting 3 of them at once like this is almost certain to at least kill one of team. Let's just pretend this never happened, and pick the second option instead. (Again, in future, if you'd prefer I just eat the consequences of bad decisions, I'll do that. ) One thing that's worth showing, however, is this: A dead character gets no experience from a fight, but the surviving party members get the exp that they miss out on. This can make keeping everyone's levels the same an absolute nightmare, if you really care about that kind of thing. Also, yeah, this one fight gives enough experience to give half of a level to a party of four first level guys. Anyway, this never happened, so:  A close look reveals torn clothes and reddish stains on the ground. The signs point to dangerous beasts lurking nearby. Eyeing the boot, you wonder whether picking it up is owrth whatever danger is in store. Atlus are actually kind of nice with this one, at least giving you a warning that yeah, picking the boot up is probably going to have something murderous attack you. You decide to ignore the boot and leave this place. Fortunately, we can still come back for that when the party's capable of beating up moles.  Music - Battle Theme  "Don't tell me you're turning yellow on us already. S'just a couple of rats." "Cowardice can cripple combatants, certainly. Charge, curmudgeonly cretin!"  "Fine, fine. I think I got about half of that, let's just get on with this." "Capital."In a moment of stupidity, I completely forgot to get many screenshots of this battle. I will make up for this! Suffice to say, with 5 party members, a couple of rats isn't nearly as much of a threat as they are when you have one. The rewards are fairly underwhelming, though.  "I've got this. Charge!" "Ughhh..." "Charge away, big guy. Less hits for the rest of us." "Shut up. Ughh... Alvis? You've been quiet, are you doing anyth-" "BEHOLD! SCIENCE!"  This is why alchemists are useful, particularly to begin with. For reference, our front line fighters hit for ~10-12 at this point. This picture also shows the trouble with alchemists, though. At this point, Alvis gets a total of 4 shots then he's done, TP medicine is expensive, and building towards natural TP regenerating skills takes bloody ages. "The hell was that?"  "SCIENCE!" "...Okay, never mind, what was THAT?" "SC-" "Actually, I just realised I don't care enough to continue this conversation."   More new discoveries! Would people like to see the little descriptions that the game gives enemies/items? Or just one/neither? "Y'know, I never thought I'd say this, but killing vermin can take a lot out of you."This is after all of about two fights. I've said it before, and I'll say it again - in the early game, going to the inn all the time will save your life, and venturing too far, even in the first floor, with no healing is basically suicide. I just had Hector and Dietrich rub some cheap healing herbs into their faces, for now, and pressed on.  This can happen, sometimes, and it's exactly as great as you'd expect. A free round of attacks can generally let you down an enemy or two, which drastically reduces health lost. Of course, the reverse can also happen, and it's generally exactly when you need it not to. Figured I'd show off a little bit of damage comparison here, seeing as I got a free round - the character whose name box is a weird colour is the one attacking. Or, in Alvis' case, chucking lightning at things.       A couple of fights later, and the party finally all gain a much-needed level.  As well as improving their various stats, health and TP, levelling up gives characters an extra skill point to spend. It doesn't heal characters, though, unfortunately. Can't have too much mercy in an Atlus game, eh? For those interested, Dietrich learned Cleaver, a basic one-hit sword attack that uses TP to deal a little extra damage. Hector gained a small defense buff, Alvis learned how to transmute an enemy's blood to poison, Keyser improved with songs (Which does nothing, but he needs his songs skill high to use better songs ) and Jill learned a skill that I think is pretty vital in the early game - Patch Up. It gives everyone living a little health back at the end of battles, and can make longer expeditions much more viable. "The hell is this? I can't budge it." "Ah! There's probably some kind of puzzle nearby, where we'll all have to push statues into a certain order to release the gem an-" "...What. No, that would be stupid. Let's just move on."Locked doors like this are all over the place. For now, we can't really do anything with them.  In unrelated news, gently caress these things. "What, mice, flies, moles and now crabs? We're supposed to be adventurers, not bloody pest control."The party DID encounter a single mole a bit ago, I just completely forgot to screenshot it. "Ugh, whatever. I'll make this quick!" "Yeah, keep that up and you'll have it dead by next week or so."These things are absurdly resistant to slashing/piercing damage. Jill hits it for twice as much as Hector, and a little more than Dietrich. "This looks like a job for SCIENCE!"   "Shocking, eh?" "I'm just about out of TP, now, though. Can we go rest? Adventuring's no fun without electrocution." "Maybe you should just be more careful with how you use that?" "Oh, hey, I have enough left for another charge! Wanna volunteer as a test subject?" "...I'll hush."Yeah, magic really is the way to go with these things. They have terrible defence against it, so it tends to just instakill them.  Yesssssssss "Hm... I think I can see some familiar ground through there. Push through!" If you see a 'Check' on the map, when there's a single space between the wall you're looking at, and another wall, chances are that checking it will give you a message like this - one of my favourite things in the game to see. Why?  This is why.  In most cases, passing through like that opens up a permanent two-way shortcut. You can only get through one way to start with, but doing so widens the gap or something. I think there are a few exceptions where it still can't be passed through from the other side, even after you've been through, though. The one you see there is going to be very useful, thanks to the little tile you see noted with sparkles on the map. That represents a harvesting point - it's what those harvesting skills I spoke about in the first update are for. I'll talk more about those soon, promise! "...I think I've got half the drat forest caught in my armour, now. Great job." "Ah, but we've got a shortcut back between here and town, now! That's good, at least!" "For once, I can't really argue." It hangs just within reach, seemingly daring you to pluck it and take a bite. You consider for a moment whether or not to eat the fruit..." "I consider nothing! Mystery fruit is clearly the best kind of fruit.""The fruit's sweet juices slid down Hector's throat. Hector recovered 10HP!" Yup, there's a little one-time slight HP recovery fruit over here in the forest, for some reason. It only recovers whoever's 'top' in the party order, but seeing as Hector's usually tanking hits anyway, that's fine by me. "Great, we found some fruit. Now let's head back, before I decide to test just how conductive that armour of yours is." "I am somewhat exhausted; I wonder how a battery feels when it pours electricity into a non-conductor?" "Oooh, I could try to find out!" "Ugh, fine. I could use a break from putting up with you lot anyway." "Awwwww. Fine." "I could do with a drink myself... let's go. Can sell off some of the junk we found on those monsters, too. Keep hold of those hides, though. Saw a posting in the pub for someone looking for 'em, and we'll probably get more'n we would just selling 'em." And thus ends the party's first excursion into the Labyrinth. I'm... not sure why I keep writing Alvis as being obsessed with SCIENCE, but in my head, electricity and science go hand-in-hand, I hope you don't mind too much, Death Dealer.Anyway, here's how the map and party finances are looking - we made a bit of a profit, and have gotten a fair chunk of the map exposed, along with that important little secret passage. It's also worth noting tha the inn gets steadily more expensive as your characters get stronger - with a party of 5 level 1 characters, it costs 8.      e. as usual, please do tell me if there's anything I can do better. double e. put the wrong bloody screenshot at one point (nothing too important, just put a 'discovered clawbug' pic when I meant to put something else.
100percentjesusfree fucked around with this message at 02:34 on Jun 25, 2012 |
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Jun 23, 2012 19:25
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Artix74 posted:Oh cool. Anyway, since Hector is on our useful people team, we should have another Fire Emblem party member - Roy the Landsknecht (Portrait 3). He uses swords, and everyone says he's really good and strong, but he's actually really mediocre, and while he tries his best, he's just a letdown to everyone. For maximum in-character-ness, either purposefully dole out his Skill Points poorly, or always keep a couple on hand, but never invest them. Sure, I was thinking that the survivalist team might not really be 'voiced', as they'd probably be a sub-update at best, as every update with them would be roughly the same, but who knows? I'll certainly try and include him, at least! Might also have him dump most of his points in getting the fire sword ability that Landsknechts have. (If that's actually a thing he does? I've not really played Fire Emblem, but I played him in Smash Bros )E. also Richter sounds like a fun idea, I'll certainly give him a shot! I haven't actually used Dark Hunters much, so it'll be a learning experience for me. 100percentjesusfree fucked around with this message at 00:40 on Jun 24, 2012 |
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Jun 24, 2012 00:33
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Death Dealer posted:The SCIENCE thing was basically what I had in mind anyway regarding Alvis, I was just leaving it open ended in case you saw it a different way. Oh, and after the 2 rat/woodfly fight you ended up calling Alvis Keyser when explaining how expensive magic is in the beginning. Thanks for pointing that out, fixed! And yeah, good advice. Thanks! I'm also glad you don't mind how I wound up writing Alvis - when writing characters, I'm constantly worried that the people who made them will post in the thread with something like " That's nothing like what I had in mind!" and then I'll feel terrible I should probably mention that new character proposed now might take a while to see light - I'd like to keep some slots free for ronins/hexers when they open up, for one thing, and grinding at the start of this game is painfully slow. I'll probably be more inclined towards making newer characters when I can just have a party babysit a level one character in an overlevelled area for a bit offscreen. Sorry! I will still try and include everyone's suggestions (I'll also likely make Richter sooner, rather than later, so I can experiment with party balance a bit. We'll see!)
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Jun 24, 2012 05:34
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Well, that was interesting. I wound up dreaming I'd decided to do a Let's Play of Battleon for some utterly absurd reason. Sorry about the lack of update today, been rather tired all day. I should, hopefully, have one tomorrow, even if it's mostly just talking about survivalists! Also, I really have no idea what a good kinda schedule for this LP would be. Shooting for an update every day is probably pushing it a bit, but it's fun to work on and I have way too much free time right now. I've also found myself making far too many typos (I tend to type my updates into notepad++ which doesn't seem to have a spellchecking function so I just completely miss the ones I make), I couldn't find a game script so I've been transcribing, but I'm apparently a bit clumsy when it comes to doing that - if you spot any, point them out and I'll fix them. 100percentjesusfree fucked around with this message at 09:53 on Jun 25, 2012 |
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Jun 25, 2012 02:39
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Bonus-ish Update - Survivalist 'exploit' Likely to be a fairly quick update today, I'm mostly just explaining something that's been talked about in the thread a few times, and that I've mentioned myself - the survivalist 'exploit'. It's certainly nothing gamebreaking, it just makes the early game a great deal less tedious, though the method itself is not exactly fun, so it all balances out.  First, sign up 5 survivalists, spend all their starting skill points on Chop. Note that you only have 16 character slots in this game, so unless you delete them, your'e basically using up a third of your character slots for largely useless (outside of this, anyway) characters. Also, be sure to give them exciting and memorable names!  It's generally a good idea to then head to the inn and save. This IS an Atlus game, and even with your destination just being a short distance away from the town, it's possible to run into an encounter, and if you're unlucky, have at least one member die horribly and need reviving, which costs money to fix.  Using the shortcut we opened earlier, we can head through here, drastically shortening our journey...  To here, the spot marked with those sparkles on the map. They represent a harvesting point - when you're standing on one, you'll see the type of skill you need to use it up in the top right hand corner of the screen, Chop, in this case. You get to use a harvesting point a number of times per day equal to 2x the total level that every member in the party has of the relevant skill. In this case, 2 * (3 * 5) = 30. The skill description for this lies, by the way - it claims you only get one use per day, which threw me, but I checked and you definitely get 2, with survivalists at least. Now, the exciting part! Press A. Over and over and over.  Sometimes you find nothing, other times you'll find one of... I think each drop point has 3 different items it can give? I know this one does, and I THINK that's constant across the game.  Eventually, you'll see this message, which is your cue to take all the stuff you picked up back to town, and pawn the lot of it.  Our funds before, just as a reminder...  And our funds after.  That done, head to the inn and rest. This resets the daily limit, allowing you to go do it all over again! After that you pretty much just  repeat  until  Satisfied. Or bored. Anyway, seeing as this update is fairly short as it is, I'll explain another mechanic, as it's fairly relevant now - how to get new stuff in the shop. The shop starts with a VERY basic assortment of items. A few (crappy) weapons, some equally crappy armour, a Ward Chime (lowers encounter rate) and a decent, though expensive accessory. Most of the stuff isn't worth mentioning much - the weapons mostly give a bit more attack than the start gear, and the armour a bit more defense, though there are a set of boots that boost agility, and the accessory gives a bit of defense and a bit of HP. That was a huge run-on sentence, I'm sorry. Anyway, what I'm getting at is that, to start with, the shop sucks. To make it better, you have to bring back parts of the various monsters you slaughter, or things you find at gathering points. Each weapon/item/whatever requires a certain amount of a certain type of loot to have been sold to the shop, and the game gives no real indication of what might require what. Your choices are to either look up a list somewhere, or just keep selling things and being pleasantly surprised when you unlock poo poo.  From selling her red fruit we got from chopping, we unlock the Red Charm, another accessory, which gives +1 defense and +5 TP. It might not sound like much, but that's an extra Really, though, this stuff kind of exemplifies one of the main sticking points of this game - the start of the game is really not very good. It's way harder than it needs to be, characters who get murdered by bugs and tree rats don't exactly feel all that heroic, and you have to do a lot of faffing about if you want equipment that isn't crap. It's easy to get a sour taste in your mouth from how the game starts out, and it can put a lot of people off. This update is still really short, so to round it out - have a few profiles of the monsters we've run into so far! To view enemy profiles, go to the Radha Hall, use report discoveries, then take a look at the Monstrous Codex option.     Eesh. Clawbugs really aren't fun - their stats are better than our characters'! Fortunately, on this floor at least, we only really seem to fight them by themselves. Also, as you can see here, Atlus were kind enough to list the items that drop from an enemy on their page, and also show you if you haven't found one of their drops by putting a ??? in the list if that's the case. This can be pretty handy if you need some specific item, and forget where to get it! Anyway, sorry about the short, and rather dry update. The adventures of the Runaway guild resume next time!
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Jun 25, 2012 20:51
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Not to mention EO3 has that passive ability which lets characters who aren't in combat gain exp, so you can level your farmer drones while your main team doofs around... 3 is by far the best in the series, in my opinion, and I'm kinda hoping that, if this LP is a success, I'll go on to do it. Probably EO2, too, but that would basically be a blind run, as I've barely even played it. Then again, a blind run of an Atlus game would probably be hilarious. (For everyone who isn't doing it) e. Terribly sorry for getting you to pick this up, HelloWinter. Still, glad you're having fun so far!
100percentjesusfree fucked around with this message at 02:50 on Jun 26, 2012 |
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Jun 25, 2012 23:16
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Update 5 - We're Explorers Now! "Ugh, I barely slept. I swear, if I have to spend one more day listening to someone, I'm going to throttle that bloody bard." "That's not very nice!" "I don't care. We're going to the guild hall before he wakes up to see who else has joined." I should quickly add, Keyser certainly isn't gone for good - I'm just experimenting with party composition a little. That, and right now, his skill set is underwhelming - I'll probably be bringing him back when I can level him up quickly and start getting to the good stuff.  "Hm... this guy looks promising. Richter..." "Yes? Is it finally time to venture forth into the labyrinth, and smite the foul undead back into the holes from whence they crawled?" "...Maybe I spoke too soon. Whatever. Sorry to burst your bubble, but I don't think there are that many undead down there. Mostly just vermin, so far, honeslty." "Preposterous! What kind of labyrinth lacks the living dead?" "Well I, for one, am glad it does!" "Psh! With me around, there shall be nothing to fear from the vampiric hordes! My whip will keep them all at bay!" "This day's already off to a great start. Whatever. People! We're leaving."After a brief bit of shopping, blowing most of the funds those survivalists worked so hard on getting, we head back into the labyrinth. I didn't buy all that much exciting - a whip for Richter, some bits of armour for him and Dietrich, and a load of those TP-up accessories. Also a staff each for Alvin and Jill - they give Tec + 1. Tec is the magic stat, so it goes without saying this is useful on the mage and healer.  I'll explain the geomagnetic pole thing when it's relevant, which, at this pace, will probably be in quite a while.  The party soon gain a level, all aside from our newbie. He'll be trailing behind for a little bit... such is the disadvantage of swapping members around. "Hm... gotta admit, killing the vermin down here's a pretty good workout." "Yup. Feeling stronger already." "At least YOU'RE normal. Just don't start telling me you're from another time, or something ridiculous." "Well, actually..." " don't. Just... don't even joke about it." "Hello, what do we have here?"  "A rucksack, apparently. Think this is a deadly animal, too?" " Just let it go already, alright? Let's see what's inside...""You peer inside the Rucksack, and find a number of coins inside. Obtained 100en." "Huh, free money. Not much compared to how bloated our guild's funds were this morning, but I'll take what I can get." "That's a good point - where DID all that money come from? It's not like you can just make money from thin air, or lead." "Aren't... aren't you an alchemist?" "Yes. And?" "...Nevermind." "The nameless flowers sway in the wind, and you catch the scent of their fragrange... You contemplate whether to rest and enjoy their sweet smell, or leave immediately." "Ooh, let's rest! This place seems peaceful!" "We're on an adventure, not a bloody picnic." "For shame! How can you deny this maiden's request?" "Adventure is like science! You cannot rush it, or it'll blow up in your face!" "Eh. Can't hurt." "Fine. Let's just sit and play in the flowers in the middle of a monster infested Labyrinth. This can only go well."This. This little thing here. This is one of the first real dick moves that the game pulls. If you haven't rested recently, you'll reach this spot low on health and TP, and think "Oh, yay! Atlus put in a free heal spot, how kind of them!" That is, if you haven't played an Atlus game before. If you HAVE, you should know that Atlus hate you and everything you stand for. This spot, despite what you may think, doesn't heal you at all.  "However, you aren't the only creature in the forest lured by the sweet floral scent. Before you can react, a pack of woodflies swarm around you. Woodflies...? Nay, these are the extremely poisonous breed known as venomflies! Knowing that escape is futile, you brandish your weapons and prepare for battle!" "For the record, I told you so. Also, I hate you all." So, venomflies! These things aren't meant to appear until the next floor, and Atlus puts them into an event you'll probably only try to use if you're already low on health. This fight, as a result, can be pretty unpleasant! "These things look tough... even the technique I picked up isn't taking them out!"For the record, this is Dietrich's Cleaver ability. 4TP (at level 1) to deal a little more than his regular attack, feh. Alchemists get much more bang for their buck... but are useless when TP runs out, so  Also, they hit pretty bloody hard. Richter was at full health, and is wearing as much armour as I can put him in this early in the game. Honestly, I was ridiculously lucky with this fight, in the first round they kept missing. "Argh! Undead or not, I fear I shall be in my grave soon enough if I take another hit like that!" "Urgh... I don't feel so good."It's a drat good thing we finished the battle this turn via tech spam - that little green symbol on Alvis means that he's been poisoned, and in this game, poison can do absurd damage at lower levels. He would've probably died very, very fast - somehow, though, we got through this fight without anyone falling! Status effects don't persist after a battle, either, which is nice. The results are worth it, if you manage not to get anyone killed. We just got Richter roughly a full level of experience. Just remember, do not do this if you're low on health/TP/anything.  "Mmph! Nghmm!" "Huh. I wonder if I can tame a couple of these things..."Take a look at Dietrich - you might remember from the previous update that these bugs have a skill called Whirr. It causes Head Bind - all binds are represented by the same graphic, and 'silence' a different set of skills. (And in the case of legs, render you unable to flee.) The head is mostly magical skills, so uh, silencing the fighter is pretty dumb. Like other status effects, bindings do not persist between battles.  Richter soon gains another level from slaughtering bugs, and is on par with the rest of the team! Not for long, if those exp bars are anything to go by, but still.      "Hm... the water here looks, and feels, rather fresh. I could certainly go for a drink..."   "That was... delicious, if uneventful. Let's move on."The water here does nothing, for now. You might want to note its location down, however.  "Aha! There's a hidden path here! Hector, Dietrich, charge through like before! Science demands to know what lies beyond!" "This... seems a lot tighter than the last gap." "I think I've still got branches stuck in my armour. No."We can't actually pass through here, yet. Fortunately. What lies beyond is less than pleasant. Anyway, after all that...  We finally have a complete map of the area we need filled in! Once he notices your presence, he hails you cheerfully. "Got your map all in order, have you? In that case, you've got my permission to proceed." The soldier stands to one side and waves you through, as if passing the torch to you. "FINALLY."You ought to report your success to the Radha, but the thought of going deeper is also tempting." "Let's press on! I've been curious what lies around that turn ahead in the ma-" Another door we can't open yet. Ho-hum. "Let's... let's just go back. Report our success to the Radha. That'll make you feel better, right?"  "We acknowledge and recognise your status as true explorers from this point on." "drat right you do." "You belong to the Runaway Guild, correct? Let me give you the standard reward."Take this to Shilleka's Goods. She'll sell you items necessary for your adventures." Yesss. This lets us get one of the handiest items in the game. "Stock up there and work hard to explore the Labyrinth for us from here on out."Obtained Radha Note, obtained 500 en. "But first, to the pub!" "I know you like to drink, but we're not done ye-" "Not for that, y'idiot. Now we're approved, we can get quests." "I'm starting to hear about you from the off-duty soldiers. Everyone's pretty excited." "Maybe you could introduce me to some?" "Sooo not my job." "So, am I right in thinking it's time to talk business? Here at the Golden Deer, I hear all sorts of problems that only adventurers can solve. Gathering materials, wiping out monsters... You name it, I hear someone sobbing about it. And when I do, I pass the requests on to kids like you. You're welcome to take them on." Just as she said, we can now get quests here - there are generally new ones for every floor, and some that you get from doing previous quests. A couple are open right now!   Right now, these are what we have available. "Let's take them all on! They're not exactly the greatest of quests, but it'll help spread our names!" "Aye, agreed. There's money in it, at least. When you accept a quest, she gives some advice on it - generally nothing too groundbreaking. She mentions that the Holy Water is in a forest spring, supposedly over on the east side of the first floor, and she suggests we get soft hides from monsters, I think. (I forgot to screencap it. ) "A spring over in the east? Sounds familiar, but there was nothing all that special about it..." "Stuff in the Labyrinth changes around a lot - I heard some stuff gets different at night. Doesn't sound all that scientific, but then, if we're looking for Holy Water, science probably won't help all that much." "...Something reasonable from you? Now I've heard everything." "Besides! Perhaps we've been approaching this wrong - the foul undead of the Labyrinth will no doubt rise up at night! This shall be our chance!" "I... REALLY hope not..." We head to the inn and use Nap. This sets the time (shown on the clock in the top left) to 6pm, just the start of night time, while Sleep sets us at 5am, the start of Day. I'm... actually not 100% sure if you need to visit the spring at night for it to be considered Holy Water. I do know that, should the party visit it at night, they recover 10TP, which can be used over and over indefinitely, when not on this quest, however. "Don't forget to stop by Shileka's!"     So we do, we talk to her, and she starts selling these beautiful things. You'll never really need more than one at a time, and they let you instantly warp back to town. This is so, so useful.  "Yesss... with it this dark and dreary, the undead will come cralwing out of the ground to meet my whip!"They don't We head back to the spring.  "Hm... this is the only spring to the east, isn't it? I hope we're not ripping some poor old guy off." "Eh. Easy money is easy money. He wants to believe this forest spews holy water, more power to him." "Bah, not a single undead! We must keep exploring!" "That we must. We don't have enough hides, yet."  Yesss. Up in the top right of where we can currently access are a trio of treasure chests, all just lying around waiting to be raided. We get a Scramasax (A sword we can buy at the shop), A Medica II (fairly powerful healing item) and 200en. A bit underwhelming, but you take what you can get in this game. "Not a bad haul... I think we have enough hides, now, too. Let's head back." Obtained 200 en!  Obtained Medica II! 2 Quests down, 2 more to go, now. Both are for Shilleka... and both are a pain right now. One requires Pyroxene, which I believe is found via mining, which we can't do yet, and the other requires us to go talk to her. (That's not the annoying part. ) "Plenty of work to do around here. Still, it's starting to feel like we're near enough done with the first floor. Finally." "Aye. The deeper we go, the better our pay should be." "Lemme see... t'artisans made me a list. Write t'is down somewhere, okay? What t'ey need is, five pieces o' Honestly, this quest isn't too bad. It basically boils down to selling her 5 Hardwood (already done) and 5 Hard Shells (a pain). The Hard Shells are dropped by clawbugs, which appear infrequently on this floor, and not at all on the next floor, so you kinda have to either grind a lot, or wait 'til floor 3-4 to get the reward.  Here's how our map of the first floor's looking. Not too bad!      And here's how our party's doing. The shop has a few new items in stock from our adventures, too - a Bone Staff, which gives +5 atk but no Tec bonus (terrible), A dagger, which is a sword that gives about 1 more attack than the scramasax for 100 more en (terrible) and the shortsword, another sword which gives nearly double the attack of the Scramasax for just over twice the price. (good!) We also unlocked Theriaca A, a medicine which heals bindings. Also, you can probably see a theme here - two swords and a club, but no bows/whips/other obscure weapons yet. Sword users do get a bit of an advantage on the early floors.Also, what kinda post length looks good? This sort of length? Or shorter, like the previous update? e. Fixed accidentally making half the drat post italics by mistake 100percentjesusfree fucked around with this message at 04:24 on Jun 27, 2012 |
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Jun 27, 2012 04:21
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Dragonatrix posted:I quite like that length; not too long as to be a chore to read through, but not too short as to seem... quickly thrown together and lacking in substance. Oh, thanks! As I mentioned, it's been a little while since I last played this, not counting this LP, so I tend to forget things. That definitely ought to come in handy.
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Jun 27, 2012 04:47
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Shabadu posted:I like that the game taught me it's rules brutally and swiftly. Namely, this game will punch you in the face if you let it. Play as conservatively as possible when entering unknown territory. This will only get more reinforced when we get introduced to some new... mechanics. By new mechanics, I assume you're referring to F.O.E.s? Also, probably no major update tonight - I realised that doing that hides quest early shot me in the foot a bit. A fair few early-game recipes require a bunch of Soft Hides, and while they DO drop on lower floors, I'd rather not charge off to the next floor without, say, the next step-up in armour, which requires 10 of the bloody things, so I'm just doing a whole bunch of grinding. If I get everything I want, I'll give a mini-update on what we unlocked, how the party's looking and how reviving works, after a cock-up with the farmbot team. e. Also, would people, especially those playing along at home, like it if I post the 'recipes' for stuff we unlock when we unlock it? 100percentjesusfree fucked around with this message at 20:53 on Jun 27, 2012 |
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Jun 27, 2012 20:50
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Mini-Update - Death in the Labyrinth. Also, shopping! Very short update today - just showing off a few little things I've not gone into too much.  I've been doing a little grinding off screen, both to farm items (particularly Soft Hide, for reasons I'll go into shortly), and to gain some levels. The step up in difficulty between levels is usually rather harsh, especially early in the game. Anyway, I was getting the survivalists a couple of levels so they'd be able to mine when we reached a spot, and... this happened. Those who've played Etrian Odyssey will probably find this quite a familiar site - a party member beaten to death by a bunch of animals.  Getting it fixed is fairly simple, take them to the apothecary, choose to have them revived...  Then wince at the price. 30 en might not seem like much, but if you aren't using the survivalist trick to farm money, it can be quite a bit at this point. Most enemy drops sell for around 8-11 en on this floor, and the price increases as your characters level up, though only at certain intervals, apparently.. I'm confused. When your medic learns to revive people, this becomes a non-issue, but early in the game, it's a pain. We also unlocked some more stuff, so let's finally have a proper look at what we have in the store, rather than just a brief, crappy description from me! As I mentioned before, most items in the game need you to sell a certain number of things to the shop to unlock - in most cases, once it's unlocked, it stays unlocked, but certain items (generally things requiring boss/special drops) require you to make sure she'd have the unlocked requirements in stock to buy it.  An axe, which I'll probably never buy! Axe-using ladnsknechts are good for single-target damage, but ronins are usually better for that, and sword-using landsknechts have much greater versatility, so they tend to be the way to go. This requires 5 Beast Bones, which drop from moles.  The jerkin is the main reason I was annoyed at myself for getting rid of all those soft hides. Def +3 is a fair bit at this point, as most other things only give +1 - it can't be worn by alchemists, medics or Hexers, as the greyed-out letters show, but it's still very handy for our frontliners. Soft Hides are dropped by Tree Rats, Moles, and two other enemies we haven't run into, yet, and this needs 7 of them.  A small step-up from our previous swords, but not really worth the money. Unlocked by selling off 3 Small Fangs, which drop from tree rats, and an enemy we've not encountered yet.  MUCH more like it. One of the best weapons you can have leaving the first floor - it requires 1 Hardwood, found at the Chop point on the floor, and 1 Hard Shell, dropped by clawbugs.  A small step-up from the Light Whip (one of the starting items) which has only +7 attack, the Fang Whip is kinda expensive for the smallish boost it gives. However, Richter needs all the help he can get doing damage. It's made from 5 Soft Hides and 5 Small Fangs.  This... eh. It offers more attack than the other club-type weapons available at present, but the Staff gives +1 tec, which I'd argue is more important, especially at this stage. It's made from a single Beast Bone, so it's not exactly hard to unlock, though.  This isn't too bad, if you're fighting a lot of enemies that do Slashing damage. It's been mentioned a couple of times in the thread, but all melee attacks in this game have some form of 'Element' - Slashing, Piercing or Bludgeoning. The trouble with accessories like this is that you often don't know if you're going to be running into a fight with a load of creatures that deal Slashing damage, and even if I DO know one is coming, I tend to forget these exist. Fortunately, it only requires a single Soft Hide to make.  Very useful early on, this TP-increasing charm only requires a single red fruit to unlock. Red Fruits are found at chop points.  Surprise shift to the apothecary! Most of the healing items you unlock actually turn up for sale here, rather than at Shileka's - most of the items you can see there are ones he starts with, aside from Theriaca A, which requires 5 bug wings, which drop from woodflies and venomflies Speaking of those, they have something that shows up infrequently in this game, and I don't think is ever really explained too well in-game - namely, conditional drops, which are exactly what they sound like. Items which only drop when you meet a certain condition, which are often things like 'Kill the enemy with X type of attack'. In this case, woodflies and venomflies drop bug eyes when killed with (non-poison) magic, which sell for 20en apiece, but aren't really used in anything. Still, 20en isn't bad for an item on the first floor. Final thing, the party grabbed and sold off that Whitestone from the boot you saw in an earlier update - we didn't unlock anything for it, but it sold for a neat 100en. Really really final thing, this stuff won't usually be given its own update, I was just getting all the stuff we already have out of the way, and posting a sort-of update. I did do a little more than is implied in this post, but no-one wants to read about the party's magical adventure of running around in circles slaughtering wildlife.Haha, I lied about the previous edit being the last. Been experimenting a little, decided to have a stab at making .gifs of attack techniques and such - how does this look?  100percentjesusfree fucked around with this message at 02:06 on Jun 30, 2012 |
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Jun 27, 2012 21:48
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Genocyber posted:Question: is this is as ridiculously helpful as it is in the second game? I'm honestly not sure! I've not played Etrian Odyssey 2 all that much. Anyway, I'm using VirtualDub, which can indeed crop things -  (I... think it came out bigger cropped. Huh.) Also, Korisch... yeah, I completely forgot about that. Do you mean how it's part of a quest later, and you can get a medica as well as the standard reward if you hadn't cleared it out yet? I'm not all that upset about it if that's all I'm missing out on. But yeah, for those following along at home, don't go clear out that spot as soon as you can - for one thing, it's a hard battle for no real reward, and also for other reasons that you'll see soon enough. Even if I'd remembered that, I would've probably done things this way, honestly - first time I played this game, I think running into the swarm of venomflies was my first party wipe. Everyone getting poisoned and wailed on when I was already at low health was not a great experience.
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Jun 28, 2012 05:53
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Artix74 posted:That it did, which definitely shouldn't be happening. To be honest, I've never used VirtualDub to make gifs, but my guess is that it's not optimizing it very well. Try using another program and optimize it, maybe? I am actually using an external program I found for optimising it, yeah. This one, to be precise. It may have been to do with the number of frames I dropped - the version I posted there was dropping every second frame, this one drops 2/3 frames I think, and is a fair bit smaller. 
100percentjesusfree fucked around with this message at 06:24 on Jun 28, 2012 |
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Jun 28, 2012 06:21
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Artix74 posted:I opened up one of them in GIF Movie Gear to play around with it, and it looks like you're not doing any transparency when you optimize. I optimized it on my end and literally dropped the file size in half by doing so. Timing looks a little fast, but I didn't really care about that since I was just playing around with file size, it's easily fixable. Wow, that's awesome! Thanks! I'll definitely have to check that out. E. Huh, that's... weird. I don't really know a great deal about image editing, this was the first time I've really made a gif for anything. Any advice is appreciated! (For those not interested in this, sorry if I'm bogging the thread down a bit with it )
100percentjesusfree fucked around with this message at 06:59 on Jun 28, 2012 |
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Jun 28, 2012 06:41
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