I wasn't aware that the magic stat countered resistances, since I haven't seen the calculations reverse engineered yet. I wonder if it does, or it just makes the base damage so high that partial resists are still worthwhile damage. I have to say I was disappointed with my GM Fire Rune Priest's damage with Fire Blast, I saw many, many full resists in the end game.

 

I have seen the melee hit chance formula, and though I don't recall it off the top of my head, it was such that hit chance increased linearly for a given enemy up to the value of that enemy's evade value. Once your attack value exceeds the evade value, diminishing returns hits so hard that it makes raising the stat any further a very poor investment. The magic number, by the way, is 85% (a number that can be changed in config.txt), which is your hit chance when your attack value exactly matches the target's evade rating.

 

Some general things to come out of that were that:

- The enemy with the highest evade value in the game has a mere 155 evade, and that's the humble goblin.

- Any increase of attack value above that yields an increase in hit chance so trivial that it's essentially a waste of points. Even then you'd be optimising to fight a trivial enemy anyway, so the actual ideal value is even less than that.

- You get 50 points base attack rating. GMing a weapon is another 50. Add in item bonuses, spell effects and the two-handed/dual-wielding skills and you're already very near, if not over that soft cap.

- This has important implications for the value of perception, which would drop to near-zero in such a situation. Might is king, followed by Destiny.

- Due to the lower base attack value for the off-hand, and the fact that the dual-wield skill only raises attack value of the off-hand, it means there is some reasonable scope to add a modest amount of points into perception for these characters, making them the ideal perception door openers. You probably won't need to allocate a single point of perception to two-hander type characters ever.

Edited February 14, 201411 yr by Humanoid

Finished the game.  That last level of Ker-Thal is a pretty grueling grind.

It counts as a win if you can kill the boss in one round ....but you don't get the ending cutscene.

Hmm, I'm not going to do another playthrough right away, so I have time to mull it over, but right now I'm leaning toward either a Quad Barbarian Zero Magic party or an all archer party (since that's supposedly the most useless thing to pursue in the game).

Assuming you're going archer-archers and steadfastly refusing to put points in their melee weapon skills, probably 4xScouts, since Rangers, once promoted to Warden, get point blank shot which allows them to do normal damage in melee range. Scouts don't get anything of the sort and will be forever doomed to do half damage.

Enemies have varied resistances, so diversifying makes sense. If you have at least expert in everything there will always be an answer. I think magic score does affect resistance, because my bladedancer was rarely able to poison spray anyone with a score of 5.

 

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.

 

 

I thought it was the Tomb of something horrors at the top of the mountain? Guess not.

 

 

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.

 

 

I thought it was the Tomb of something horrors at the top of the mountain? Guess not.

 

There's more to do after the Tomb.

Unverified post, so I can't say for sure, but it seems magic resistance is both the chance to resist (as in evade) and a flat damage reduction (as in armour). Against something with 0 resist, 170 magic and 1 point in a spell school gives a (170x2 + 1x5) +345% modifier (i.e. 445% damage), compared to say, a GM in that particular school with 50 points in magic giving (50x2 + 25x10) +350. The numbers are not nearly equivalent (GM is eight levels worth of skill points whereas the 120 magic difference is worth 30 levels) but show it's not unreasonable to get viable spell damage with either approach.

 

The GM gets 35% spell piercing, but I suspect most enemies have higher resistances than that, so full resists will still be a problem, creating a situation where you either gamble on that chance (and suffer some flat damage reduction on top) or pick an alternate, weaker school.

 

The other problem is that a quick look at most late-game enemies, and they often have resistance to almost all schools (frequently with a single exception), so it's actually going to be pretty common to find that even if you GM three schools, your target will be resistant to all of them.

 

I'm not sure there's actually much a conclusion to be drawn from these mechanics. GM is as usual incredibly powerful, gaining a +175% modifier over simple masters, but master over expert gains a pretty modest +40%, the equivalent of five levels of magic (versus three levels worth of skill points), but with the single school limitation. Indeed master over novice is only +70%. Remembering that these values are additive, not multiplicative, I'm tempted to say the conclusion is GM what you can GM, but if you can't, spreading those skill points out is probably better than mastering. GM is extraordinarily efficient in terms of investment/return, mastery is the opposite and should only be done if you really need the exclusive spells it grants.

 

 

P.S. The numbers for the calculation are 2% spell damage per point magic; 5% per point in relevant school; a further 5% per point retrospectively for GM in the relevant school.

Still no release (but scheduled for this month), but finally a proper change log for the patch:

 

 

 

o New Content:
• 3 new dungeons:
• Exclusive Dream Dungeon
• Community Dungeon
• Limbo Dungeon

o Changes
• 16:10 resolutions are now available with UI accordingly updated.
• Hint for texture details option is added in game (it still only configurable in the main menu)
• Asian language fonts are now only loaded if needed (memory improvement)
• Reduced the amount of path-finding calculations per monster each turn (caused performance issues on certain places in the world map)

o Balancing changes
• Added Dark Nova to Faceless (Core and Elite)
• Split monster ability "Battle Spirit" into three different variations: for Militia Captain, Black Guard Captain and Naga Warlord
• Increased 2-Handed Weapon Damage and Crit Chance
• Increased Ranged Weapon Damage and Crit Chance
• Increased 2-Handed Magical Focus Damage
• Reduced Magical Focus Crit Damage Increase
• Reduced Magical Focus Damage Increase (Grand Master Bonus)

o Bug fixes
• Issues reported by the community
• Quest UI bug when you click the "Show finished quest" option, the page number text "Page x/x" will glitch.
• The 'Dual Wield' skill does not provide a number on Attack Value increase on the off-hand weapon.
• Alesia - Healer doesn't refill Mana, only Health.
• Radiant Weapon spell incorrect behavior, enemies still block attacks.
• Paladin Promotion quest - You can obtain another copy of the 2nd Stone Disc fragment if you discuss again with the Blackfang Smuggler.
• In “The Slums” area in Karthal City, a barrel containing a spider teleports in a different location of the map.
• Bow and Crossbow Grandmaster Trainers have an incorrect conversation string when asking for training after completing their quests. They consider that you’re already a Bow or Crossbow Grandmaster.
• Acid Splash spell incorrect behavior (decreases the armor rating by 50% and removes 50% of melee block attempts).
• Mispell of "Consumed" with Elixir of Potency = conusmed (loc issue)
• Typo in the description for the different masteries of the Medium Armor skill.
• The letter related to the siege of the castle in the Aegyn Peninsula does not disappear after finishing act 1.
• Bug in the Bestiary entry bug, Minotaur's skill Crush description says '404 MONSTER_ABILITY_CRUSH_INFO'
• Romuald Hireling (Negotiator)- Incorrect behavior when buying a mana potion, price is “86” but “100” is removed from purse.
• After completing Naga Tea quest, it is possible to receive duplicate copies of the various teas from the original people.
• The "Doctor" Hireling ability can be used in battles without costing a turn. This makes status changes too easy to dispell.
• 'Hour of Power' buff tooltip you can obtain by praying at shrines says you get a bonus of 10, which only provides 4.
• Dodge Expert incorrect training cost at Seahaven.

o General bug fixes
• The defender cannot finish the promotion quest if the player kills the Davros and free the Dwarves before getting the promotion quest.
• Lore books in Lore page cannot be fully displayed if unchecking "Show all books".
• The SFX of Manco's spell - Chain Lightning is incomplete, in Cave_3.
• Lev cannot send the party from “Elemental Forge 4” back to “The Castle Portmeyron”.
• The tooltip of Cyclops' magic power contains debug info.
• The party can get tokens “Tea” again, even the quest is already completed.
• The hireling Alesia can only restore HP and inconsistent with the description in the tooltip.
• The token “Hidden Scrolls” should not display as usable token in map “Karthal_Sewers”.
• The objective stating "Find Kirk" of quest "Lost Lambs" shows improperly under a certain circumstance.
• One word in the Lore Book "A Tour of the Free Cities" is incorrect.
• The token "Flute" won't disappear after playing right notes with it in front of the crystal in Sudgerd.
• The last dialog with Blind Shaman always shown as "You are not chosen" even if player has already completed the quest "Warmonger Promotion".
• The Heame still talks about same sentence, even after finished the quest "Haart has its reason".
• The page footer will be corrupted after checking the "Show finished quests" in quest book.
• The Magic Power data of Moonsilk Spider in Bestiary is not complete.
• The SFX of spell “Fire Blast” displayed improperly when turning camera.
• The ongoing quest Jassad’s Bestiary needs one more tip to notice players that Bosses and Elites are not counted.
• The second step of “Darkness in the lighthouse” cannot be updated.
• Player can bring Falagar to city Karthal without blocking.
• The collision of the shadow dragons is improper in Tomb_of_Thusend_Terrors_4.
• The action “Harpoon” still affects enemies, even it is blocked or missed.
• The quest: Partners in crime (3/4) updated incorrectly when the party goes to the Skull_Rock and get the Blackfang’s Chest first.
• The battle music keeps playing instead of reverting to normal with high probability.
• Entire dungeon will be reset if the party teleported by casting the spell Spirit Beacon then revisit the dungeon.
• The players get the two slides for completing ‘Haart has its reasons’ with telling the truth mostly to Heame.
• The close button doesn’t work when answering Lord Kilburn’s questions.
• There is no prompt in option, when the party doesn't have enough money to identify items in store.
• Monster (Elite) Naga Warlord still can trigger the ability Sweeping Attack when it casts spell Battle Spirit.
• The UI of the door to the Vigil_3 in Vigil_2 (1,14) should be a downstair icon.
• The text of the potion: Elixir of Potency is improper.
• The actual effect when Facehugger triggered the ability Mana Leech or cast spell Chain Lightning is improper.
• The token will always display on the right-bottom corner even nobody in the party can use it.
• The side quest: Pirate Truce cannot be finished if the player enters The Crag before getting this quest, and reenters it.
• The paladin promotion quest token can be sold again after this quest has been done.
• The damage from monster dealt by the ability "Overwhelming Assault" will delay for a second.
• The effect of any entrance will vanish after saving and loading game when standing in front of it.
• Normal save will change into Auto-save after inputting certain name.
• The fight music won't stop after killing enemies in maps Cave_2, Pao_Kai_Nest_1 and Karthal_UnderSiege.
• Potion or scroll doesn’t be discounted after buying it with hireling “Romuald”.
• The Boss who has a dialog will perform an extra action when the dialog was triggered.
• The corpse of Pao Kai is floating in the air.
• The description of “Terror” is “Lasts 0 turns”.
• Identify items from the hireling Karim still charges fees.
• The aggro flag turns red after the first action of the monsters.
• The locked chest cannot be looted for the second time.
• The stackable items cannot be sold when there's only one in the Inventory .
• The SFX of spell “Fire Shield” can be triggered by retaliation from enemies.
• Cost in game is always the same.
• The SFX of Manco's spell - Regeneration presents only on the weapon, in Cave_3.
• The message of Rest within Owl Cave still showes after promotion is finished.
• The monster who has ability Pain reflection cannot reflect the melee damage caused by Magic Focus.
• The sound-fx of solving the secret will replay after the party back to Den_of_Thief_1 from DoT_2.

o Dev Tools update
• Code update so that with the new version created mods are compatible with the game again

o New assets added
• City assets updated with buildings from Seahaven, Karthal and The Crag.
• Faceless dungeon set
• Karthal Palace dungeon set

o Usability improvements implemented
• Default configurations for a faster placement of monster, doors, secrets and other interactive objects
• Automatic updates is no longer overriding all previous settings
• Terrain type definitions added
• Zone specific lighting
• General visibility improvements

 

 

It's about time. I had my first CTD yesterday. I was going from the mountain range to the peninsula via that teleporter near the castle, and then I got light purple diamonds lying in an arched patch. going roughly from the east to the west, over the bridge into that Shadow Dragon den. As I approached it (I thought it was some game feature, silly me), it all just blinked and crashed.

 

Interestingly, my bug using a permanent +5 mana potion in the heat of battle resulting in a permanent Mana 1 is not included on that list. I should have reported it.

Maybe they should have released the game later this month, but I guess that would have conflicted with the release of Stick of Truth.

Still enjoying it, and actually, it's a pretty long game though obviously not compared to something like M&M 5/6. I have a dwindling questlist and suspect it's only the main plot that has much substance left for this playthrough, with my level 26 party. 

 

Liquid Membrane, Sleep, then Blademaster using Provoke attacks + items that steal mana every hit and deal additional damage every hit and deal damage to attackers when hit = ooooh.

I finally "finished" the game, having played over 70 hours!! Yay!!

The ending after the ending was a very nice touch. I thoroughly enjoyed most of it!

However, a larger inventory, and something to with like half a million gold would be nice!

 

I have a few minor things to do in the game left, though. So, I will keep on playing, but probably after they have patched the game with three new dungeons.

Patch now available. It's a pretty hefty download apparently.

Patch now available. It's a pretty hefty download apparently.

That's sooner than I expected.

Thanks! DLing now

Here's the huge patchlog. Finally, my ranger can use her bow to her heart's content, it seems! And three new dungeons, one of which is especially for us that bought the Digital Deluxe version. Others will have to wait a bit.
 

• Three new dungeons (including the Community Dungeon you created: we have 2 special guests on our Credits now!). We will give you more information about them within the next days but to give you a small insight: two of them will be available for everybody & the last one is exclusively for deluxe buyers!
• Improved performance & clearer texture quality setting (you can expect some improvement on open world but we will continue to work on this point along next patches too)
• Reduction of save corruption risks (we are still working on it, however we recommend you to delete existing ones and disable Uplay Saves Sync if you experienced this issue)
• 16/10 resolution is now officially supported by the game
• Fixed modding kit for the final version of the game
• Spirit Beacon bug is now fixed; invisible enemy won’t haunt you anymore! (You can no longer use it in dungeon or with close enemies)
• Numerous additional bug fixes & balancing (many of them reported by the community)
• Etc.

 

We are aware we still have improvements to achieve and we deeply apologize to all of you. We are doing our best to understand, reproduce and find solutions. Please have a look on where we are standing today regarding the following topics:
 

• Performance improvement & heat issues: Of course we will continue improving the game performance and still have some challenges ahead in this point. However, with this new patch, you should be able to better tweak the game and have a real positive impact on your game performance. For instance, we strongly recommend you to reduce the shadow distance & shadow qualities that are the main too “greedy” options. Don’t forget to reducing the globalgame quality, we know the game can be “heavy”.
• For those who can’t access Act 2, we are still trying to identify all possible cases. However, thanks to some important fixes, this should be fixed for most of you. Still, we will need your feedback to confirm this and explorealternative solutions.
• If you still have difficulties connecting to Uplay or recovering your Uplay rewards, we will need your rendezvouslog & saves to check this. http://forums.ubi.com/showthread.php/833976-Saves-corruption-issue 
• Concerning bugged quests, we should have fixed most of them, however we continue our tests and improvements. We recommend you to load your existing saves after the update, create a new save, and then load it in order to apply all patch modifications. If this doesn’t solve the issue, please share your saves with us on the forum.

Again, we understand your frustration and we really want to fix all those issues as soon as possible and the best way we can imagine. Our team will continue support and we will let you know as soon as a further patch is planned.

Thanks again for your support,
your MMX dev team

4.6. 1.4 version release note.

o    New Content:    
•    3 new dungeons:
•    Exclusive Dream Dungeon
•    Community Dungeon
•    Limbo Dungeon

o    Changes
•    16:10 resolutions are now available with UI accordingly updated.
•    Hint for texture details option is added in game (it still only configurable in the  main menu)
•    Asian language fonts are now only loaded if needed (memory improvement)
•    Reduced the amount of path-finding calculations per monster each turn (caused performance issues on certain places in the world map)

o    Balancing changes
•    Added Dark Nova to Faceless (Core and Elite)
•    Split monster ability "Battle Spirit" into three different variations: for Militia Captain, Black Guard Captain and Naga Warlord
•    Increased 2-Handed Weapon Damage and Crit Chance
•    Increased Ranged Weapon Damage and Crit Chance
•    Increased 2-Handed Magical Focus Damage
•    Reduced Magical Focus Crit Damage Increase
•    Reduced Magical Focus Damage Increase (Grand Master Bonus)

o    Bug fixes
•    Issues reported by the community
•    Quest UI bug when you click the "Show finished quest" option, the page number text "Page x/x" will glitch.
•    The 'Dual Wield' skill does not provide a number on Attack Value increase on the off-hand weapon.
•    Alesia - Healer doesn't refill Mana, only Health.
•    Radiant Weapon spell incorrect behavior, enemies still block attacks.
•    Paladin Promotion quest - You can obtain another copy of the 2nd Stone Disc fragment if you discuss again with the Blackfang Smuggler.
•    In “The Slums” area in Karthal City, a barrel containing a spider teleports in a different location of the map.
•    Bow and Crossbow Grandmaster Trainers have an incorrect conversation string when asking for training after completing their quests. They consider that you’re already a Bow or Crossbow Grandmaster.
•    Acid Splash spell incorrect behavior (decreases the armor rating by 50% and removes 50% of melee block attempts).
•    Mispell of "Consumed" with Elixir of Potency = conusmed (loc issue)
•    Typo in the description for the different masteries of the Medium Armor skill.
•    The letter related to the siege of the castle in the Aegyn Peninsula does not disappear after finishing act 1.
•    Bug in the Bestiary entry bug, Minotaur's skill Crush description says '404 MONSTER_ABILITY_CRUSH_INFO'
•    Romuald Hireling (Negotiator)- Incorrect behavior when buying a mana potion, price is “86” but “100” is removed from purse.
•    After completing Naga Tea quest, it is possible to receive duplicate copies of the various teas from the original people.
•    The "Doctor" Hireling ability can be used in battles without costing a turn. This makes status changes too easy to dispell.
•    'Hour of Power' buff tooltip you can obtain by praying at shrines says you get a bonus of 10, which only provides 4.
•    Dodge Expert incorrect training cost at Seahaven.

o    General bug fixes
•    The defender cannot finish the promotion quest if the player kills the Davros and free the Dwarves before getting the promotion quest.
•    Lore books in Lore page cannot be fully displayed if unchecking "Show all books".
•    The SFX of Manco's spell - Chain Lightning is incomplete, in Cave_3.
•    Lev cannot send the party from “Elemental Forge 4” back to “The Castle Portmeyron”.
•    The tooltip of Cyclops' magic power contains debug info.
•    The party can get tokens “Tea” again, even the quest is already completed.
•    The hireling Alesia can only restore HP and inconsistent with the description in the tooltip.
•    The token “Hidden Scrolls” should not display as usable token in map “Karthal_Sewers”.
•    The objective stating "Find Kirk" of quest "Lost Lambs" shows improperly under a certain circumstance.
•    One word in the Lore Book "A Tour of the Free Cities" is incorrect.
•    The token "Flute" won't disappear after playing right notes with it in front of the crystal in Sudgerd.
•    The last dialog with Blind Shaman always shown as "You are not chosen" even if player has already completed the quest "Warmonger Promotion".
•    The Heame still talks about same sentence, even after finished the quest "Haart has its reason".
•    The page footer will be corrupted after checking the "Show finished quests" in quest book.
•    The Magic Power data of Moonsilk Spider in Bestiary is not complete.
•    The SFX of spell “Fire Blast” displayed improperly when turning camera.
•    The ongoing quest Jassad’s Bestiary needs one more tip to notice players that Bosses and Elites are not counted.
•    The second step of “Darkness in the lighthouse” cannot be updated.
•    Player can bring Falagar to city Karthal without blocking.
•    The collision of the shadow dragons is improper in Tomb_of_Thusend_Terrors_4.
•    The action “Harpoon” still affects enemies, even it is blocked or missed.
•    The quest: Partners in crime (3/4) updated incorrectly when the party goes to the Skull_Rock and get the Blackfang’s Chest first.
•    The battle music keeps playing instead of reverting to normal with high probability.
•    Entire dungeon will be reset if the party teleported by casting the spell Spirit Beacon then revisit the dungeon.
•    The players get the two slides for completing ‘Haart has its reasons’ with telling the truth mostly to Heame.
•    The close button doesn’t work when answering Lord Kilburn’s questions.
•    There is no prompt in option, when the party doesn't have enough money to identify items in store.
•    Monster (Elite) Naga Warlord still can trigger the ability Sweeping Attack when it casts spell Battle Spirit.
•    The UI of the door to the Vigil_3 in Vigil_2 (1,14) should be a downstair icon.
•    The text of the potion: Elixir of Potency is improper.
•    The actual effect when Facehugger triggered the ability Mana Leech or cast spell Chain Lightning is improper.
•    The token will always display on the right-bottom corner even nobody in the party can use it.
•    The side quest: Pirate Truce cannot be finished if the player enters The Crag before getting this quest, and reenters it.
•    The paladin promotion quest token can be sold again after this quest has been done.
•    The damage from monster dealt by the ability "Overwhelming Assault" will delay for a second.
•    The effect of any entrance will vanish after saving and loading game when standing in front of it.
•    Normal save will change into Auto-save after inputting certain name.
•    The fight music won't stop after killing enemies in maps Cave_2, Pao_Kai_Nest_1 and Karthal_UnderSiege.
•    Potion or scroll doesn’t be discounted after buying it with hireling “Romuald”.
•    The Boss who has a dialog will perform an extra action when the dialog was triggered.
•    The corpse of Pao Kai is floating in the air.
•    The description of “Terror” is “Lasts 0 turns”.
•    Identify items from the hireling Karim still charges fees.
•    The aggro flag turns red after the first action of the monsters.
•    The locked chest cannot be looted for the second time.
•    The stackable items cannot be sold when there's only one in the Inventory .
•    The SFX of spell “Fire Shield” can be triggered by retaliation from enemies.
•    Cost in game is always the same.
•    The SFX of Manco's spell - Regeneration presents only on the weapon, in Cave_3.
•    The message of Rest within Owl Cave still showes after promotion is finished.
•    The monster who has ability Pain reflection cannot reflect the melee damage caused by Magic Focus.
•    The sound-fx of solving the secret will replay after the party back to Den_of_Thief_1 from DoT_2.

o    Dev Tools update
•    Code update so that with the new version created mods are compatible with the game again

o    New assets added
•    City assets updated with buildings from Seahaven, Karthal and The Crag.
•    Faceless dungeon set
•    Karthal Palace dungeon set

o    Usability improvements implemented
•    Default configurations for a faster placement of monster, doors, secrets and other interactive objects
•    Automatic updates is no longer overriding all previous settings
•    Terrain type definitions added
•    Zone specific lighting
•    General visibility improvements

It's Ubisoft weekend on Steam right now. M&M X is 25 % off.

Ranged attack is significantly more useful with the patch - that is, it was moderatey useful in the very early levels then negligible before patch, now it is a viable character plan. In general it all feels easier with the patch, but maybe that's just my party getting in stride. Second warrior party now with:

 

2h Mace Barbarian relying on Provoke and crit stun

Bow GM Ranger with Earth (Regeneration) backup

Mace / Xbow Scout with Light backup as 'support man'

Fire / Primordial Runepriest

DLC to be released 27th March - free for Deluxe Edition owners - The Falcon and The Unicorn. The release will coincide with the introduction of MacOS support.

 

 

 

The Falcon & The Unicorn introduces an exclusive quest line, two new dungeons, an all new set of enemies from the Haven faction, and other content.

With very little fanfare, it's now been released. DLC additions and patch notes

I'll be giving the new content a spin soon.  I still keep going back and forth on what kind of gimmick to go with for my party.  All might?  All archer?  Zero magic quad-barbarian (that party would have some serious problems with stats effects)?

The game feels easier this time around.  I don't know if it's changes they've made in patches since my last playthrough, or if it's an all-might party suiting the early part of the game better, or if it's simply the experience of having played the game all the way through before and knowing the tricks of the trade? 

Cleared out the lightower.  No choice but to so the den of thieves now, which means I'll lose Rosalie and free secret passage locations.  Oh well.  I killed Mamushi first try, he came close to wiping me out right at the very beginning, knocking both my barbarians unconscious, but I managed to hang in there and keep my bladedancer conscious long enough for the regenerate spells to heal my barbarians back to consciousness.  After that, Mamushi never came close to taking me down and I made fairly quick work of him.  So, only the den of thieves and Castle Portmeyon left in act 1.