Might & Magic X Teased by Ubisoft, To Be Revealed at PAX East

[Keyrock]

The game lets you continue after finishing the main plot.

Cool.  Hopefully at least one of the dungeons is designed with characters that finished the main quest in mind, otherwise, there's no point in my current party going into those dungeons and massacring everyone inside with one arm tied behind their backs.

[Tigranes]

Really really enjoying this. Level 16 and just beat Montbard on Warrior difficulty with a party of a Sword/Hvy Armour Crusader, Dagger dual Bladedancer, Earth/Fire/Air Shaman & Dark/Primordial/Water Freemage. Bladedancer is indeed the primary damage dealer and with plenty of Evade to stay alive; Crusader is very good at staying alive, but perhaps not so good at keeping others alive. Sleep is definitely overpowered due to permanent duration. Got surrounded by 6 dudes? Put 5 to sleep!

[IndiraLightfoot]

Indeed. My blade dancer now, approaching level 28, and a few grand masteries later, is like a combine harvester from Hell!

[Keyrock]

I'll say this, I can't remember the last time I played a game even remotely this long straight through.  Usually anything over 40 hours and I have to take at least a 2 week break before I keep going, yet here I am almost 90 hours in and still eager to keep jump back in and finish up the last few quests (I'm missing an obelisk somewhere) before heading to the end game dungeon.

[Keyrock]

So I went through the Cursed Dungeon place and whooped up on all the undead there, eventually running into Casper, The Friendly ghost on level 2.  Now I have the stone disc, but can't seem to do anything with it.  Am I missing something or is this something you can only complete as part of a promotion quest for a class I don't have?

 

In other news, I found the last obelisk, got the treasure, then activated all the dragon shrines (having tons of supplies makes that easy) and got the heavy armor relic.  I'm pretty much ready to head into the end game dungeon, methinks.

Edited February 12, 2014 by Keyrock

[ShadySands]

I think it's the paladin promotion quest... Or so I've heard

[Humanoid]

Yes, it is. It's a bit weird how the quests are built like that. On the one hand I hate it in many RPGs where you can't get certain quest items until you actually have the quest. But this approach in this is messy when combined with the class-exclusive quests, especially since the game outright tells you what these quests are about and highlights the quest items when you're in the relevant zone. I was baffled by the game telling me I should use the Hidden Scrolls and Mayneri's Pendant in the Crag when I couldn't find anyone to accept them, both of those turned out to be promotion quests.

 

I'd say the older games' approach of letting you complete the quests anyway, making you an "honorary" Archmage or Archdruid or whatever, was a reasonable compromise that should be brought back.

[Keyrock]

Okay, cool.  At least now I know I didn't miss something.  I'll see about finishing the game tomorrow.  Too tired to do it tonight.

[IndiraLightfoot]

So I went through the Cursed Dungeon place and whooped up on all the undead there, eventually running into Casper, The Friendly ghost on level 2.  Now I have the stone disc, but can't seem to do anything with it.  Am I missing something or is this something you can only complete as part of a promotion quest for a class I don't have?

 

In other news, I found the last obelisk, got the treasure, then activated all the dragon shrines (having tons of supplies makes that easy) and got the heavy armor relic.  I'm pretty much ready to head into the end game dungeon, methinks.

Exactly the same thing happened to me! I even went in there, found all four bloody pages, and then nothing. So, I got that disc together and returned, but nothing. It's the paladin promo quest indeed.

 

And I'm like 56 hours into the game, and it just keeps going. For a CRPG that is not an ARPG like D3, this is the longest in quite a while. It's true, Keyrock! I feel young again!! My veins are filling up with true CRPG neatness!

[Keyrock]

I'm into Ker-Thal now.  I gotta be pretty close to the end.  I'll finish up tomorrow.

 

Edit:  How many levels of Ker-Thal are there?

Edited February 13, 2014 by Keyrock

[Darkpriest]

3+2 i think. Can't recall now

[IndiraLightfoot]

I just got Malassa's Blessing (Dark Magic). Am I right in assuming it permanently replaces my need for casting Whispering Shadows incessantly?

[Humanoid]

Yep, and also mostly replaces the utility of the dog (though it has a secondary perk of -25% difficulty on actually opening the secret door). God that spell/mechanic was one of the worst design decisions in the game.

[IndiraLightfoot]

Thanks for your super-quick reply, and good riddance, WS!

[Keyrock]

@Humanoid - What's so terrible about the secret passage mechanic?  Might for cracked wall, perception for gears, magic for ward.  It's a pretty straightforward mechanic.  I don't think I ever failed a secret passage check after lev 10, and I never had the dog in my party.

 

@Darkpriest - Do you mean 3 levels of The Vigil and 2 levels of Ker-Thal?

[Humanoid]

Nah, opening secret passages is fine. Detecting them is a problematic mechanic, they set up a spell that's both annoying to use due to short duration and is extraordinarily limited to just one class in the entire game, or they make you use a hireling to compensate, except that the first hireling forcibly leaves midway through act one, and the replacement is in act two, guarded by enemies balanced for a later part of that act. Then midway through the game they decide to drop all that and give everyone detection for free. I can't begin to comprehend the rationale behind the system in general.

 

I suppose there is a valid complaint about the stat checks in that not everyone will have the given stat, particularly perception since it's a terrible stat to take, but also might for all-magic parties. The various spells that boost your stats help to some degree, but the harder checks still require investment of valuable actual points that

d be best employed elsewhere. But yeah, it's a smaller annoyance than the detection mechanic in the first place.

[Keyrock]

Secrets are optional and not supposed to be found by everyone.  If they were easily found by everyone then they wouldn't be secrets.  If you miss some because your party isn't set up to find them, oh well.

 

Not to mention that you can still find and open secrets without "detecting" them.

Edited February 14, 2014 by Keyrock

[Humanoid]

Sure, but when "party isn't set up to find them" means "any party without a Freemage" then we're getting into ridiculous territory. Five classes get access to Light Magic, only one gets access to Dark. Yeah.

 

 

Not to mention that halfway through the game they do an about-turn and decide everyone gets access to them anyway. Which is better in the long run because around that point they also decide it's a good idea to hide at least Grandmaster trainer behind a secret door.

[Gorgon]

There's a dog companion that does the detect thing in act two, you could just buy scrolls until you get him. You could do without the identify spell as well given that you reach critical mass of money relatively early on and you can buy stuff in stores that's usually better than what you find. Once you have all the money you need though, there is no need to even collect the secrets. They rarely have anything you won't just sell anyway. 

[Keyrock]

[Tigranes]

It feels like I'm heading into the last bit of the game. My 22/23 party has explored almost all of the map and even found the entrance to the final dungeon. Eager to start with a second party once I'm done, really good game.

[Gorgon]

On my latest and last game I had just the one caster. Primal mage which i game all the mana and ability boosts available and spent ability points solely on the magic score to the point where she had 170 by the time I got to the final level, at which point I got bored with it and gave up.

 

Anyway with one pimped caster you can use spells from any school with just a single point invested, you will beat resistances anyway. Much more effective to have a superman damage dealer and healer in one than spreading out the goodies. 

[Humanoid]

It feels like I'm heading into the last bit of the game. My 22/23 party has explored almost all of the map and even found the entrance to the final dungeon. Eager to start with a second party once I'm done, really good game.

If you have to find the entrance to it, then it's not the final dungeon.

[Keyrock]

On my latest and last game I had just the one caster. Primal mage which i game all the mana and ability boosts available and spent ability points solely on the magic score to the point where she had 170 by the time I got to the final level, at which point I got bored with it and gave up.

 

Anyway with one pimped caster you can use spells from any school with just a single point invested, you will beat resistances anyway. Much more effective to have a superman damage dealer and healer in one than spreading out the goodies. 

That's an interesting approach.  My party was very balanced, both with fighter/caster ratio and stat and skill distribution.  Worked well enough.  I definitely will make a more unbalanced/unorthodox party next time.  I'm thinking of doing a zero magic party.

[Gorgon]

Lair of assassin guy with the mask. I assume that's the final level on account of the shoehorning and not being able to fast travel.