The Insane Beta Battles @ Crossing

[Fiebras]

The Wizard actually has some very useful damage aplifying spells and enemy-only debuff but youd have to level him up or create a Wizard yourself to get access to them.

Im thinking this has to do with the idea that the Wizard is supoded to be cycling through Grimores though I dont know if he obly gets to cast any lx level spells per day or if its Grimore specific.

Im hoping casts are Grimore specific though as that makes the Wizard inmensely more useful.

But people dont seem to be comenting too much about the wurm slayers so thats why we arent talking about the double Grimore Wizard yet (also because learning spells seems to be broken last time I checked in the previous patch).

Hopefully enough people advance through the beta to give feedback on it.

[Mayama]

All that I can say for certain is that BG1 gave us maps from the very beginning that are almost larger than the entire beta maps taken together, scale-wise. And the encounter density was like three NPCs, one cutscene, five animals, in the big foresty map east of Candlekeep. I know, some people don't like that "emptiness" and scarcity, but I really do, still.

It would be interesting to know how much ram those maps need, multilayered high resolution pictures can swallow a massive amount of ram.

[Gfted1]

The Wizard actually has some very useful damage aplifying spells and enemy-only debuff but youd have to level him up or create a Wizard yourself to get access to them.

Im thinking this has to do with the idea that the Wizard is supoded to be cycling through Grimores though I dont know if he obly gets to cast any lx level spells per day or if its Grimore specific.

Im hoping casts are Grimore specific though as that makes the Wizard inmensely more useful.

But people dont seem to be comenting too much about the wurm slayers so thats why we arent talking about the double Grimore Wizard yet (also because learning spells seems to be broken last time I checked in the previous patch).

Hopefully enough people advance through the beta to give feedback on it.

 

I believe its been stated that used spell levels carry over even if you switch grimoires. Meaning, if you blew all your level three spells and switched to another grimoire, its 3rd level spells would be on the same cooldowns. I think. Havent actually tried in myself though.

[GreyFox]

The adventuring day is way too short...it doesn't even matter if you play well or play poorly you aren't squeezing out too much more on a perfect battle with all crits and ****z.

 

So far i'd say the idea that rest spamming was solved is false.

[Ink Blot]

I believe its been stated that used spell levels carry over even if you switch grimoires. Meaning, if you blew all your level three spells and switched to another grimoire, its 3rd level spells would be on the same cooldowns. I think. Havent actually tried in myself though.

 

If memory serves, this is the case. I doubled up on the Grimoire with the BB Wizard in the previous build, but couldn't do so in this one yet, as the game I was playing where we waxed the NPC wizard I was unable to loot the corpse. But I believe in the previous build the grimoires were on the same cooldown and you didn't get to cast more spells per day. You just had a wider selection.

[Cantousent]

Finally got back to the game and I'm preparing to go to the Forest of Borean Beetles.  Anyhow, I had some loot to pawn, so I went to the sale-bot.  just a quick question, is the *missing string* a special bow enhancement item?  <.<  :Cant's tongue in cheek grin icon:

[Razsius]

I don't know why but "Sensuki vs. The Beatles" sounds like the name of a band.

 

But yea, maps have entirely too many encounters in them.  I mean you've got what 1/4 of a screen in the crossing before you hit a beatle pack? Way too much density for my liking.

[Cantousent]

Just got the chance to address the beetle problem.  The poison is, indeed, brutal, but no deaths from it.  I used a ton of heals and the rogue went down, but I took out one group and then picked off a loner to get a nice spot o' earth to call my own long enough to sleep and get the spells back.  I don't think it's too bad, but it does look like a lot of sleeping, as others have noticed.  I'm going to clear out all beetles just for the hell of it, but I do like to have areas by and large cleaned of enemies just in case I need to scour it for one reason or another later.

[Fiebras]

Tell me when you get to the spiders.

Tell me about the spiders.

Particulary

the freezing pillar

 

[Namutree]

I don't know why but "Sensuki vs. The Beatles" sounds like the name of a band.

 

But yea, maps have entirely too many encounters in them.  I mean you've got what 1/4 of a screen in the crossing before you hit a beatle pack? Way too much density for my liking.

This is so true. Hard to explore when every other step is a potentially deadly battle. The enemies need to be more infrequent and have less hp so while exploring most of the game time is exploring instead of combat.

[Sensuki]

It's a combination of really small maps, larger character and creature sizes, fast movement speed and the Health damage ratio being wrong.

 

Combination of the above totally ruins the wilderness exploration feel

 

Oddly enough it makes it feel more like an Icewind Dale 2 map. Icewind Dale 2 did a lot of things way worse than the BGs/IWD so it's not a good example to follow in many cases.

Edited September 6, 2014 by Sensuki

[aeonsim]

Sensuki vs The Beatles Episode 5 - Paladin

 

 Hey Sensuki have you considered using the save game editor to kit your party out in a manner that would be more realistic for level 5 characters? For example check each companions weapon affinities and then for the melee characters provide them with a ranged, crushing, slashing and piercing weapon set from those affinities based on what JS has said making sure they have a weapon they have weapon focus on is equivalent to a IE's +2 to hit. +10 Accuracy in PoE should give a pretty nice boost to the hit rate and the amount of damage you do by giving you more hit's and criticals. Secondly having a weapon of each damage type seems like something that would be logical to acquire early on to deal with different enemy types...

 

I'd be very interested in seeing what the difference is in combat for a properly equiped party vs the BB-party with it's default spec.

 

I'll certainly be having a go with it once the OX version of the beta turns up...

Edited September 7, 2014 by aeonsim

[Sensuki]

I don't think the Savegame editor has inventory editing yet, just stats.

[mutonizer]

I don't think the Savegame editor has inventory editing yet, just stats.

 

And camping supplies, oh geebus, camping supplies!

[aeonsim]

I don't think the Savegame editor has inventory editing yet, just stats.

 

You can't change the amount of money you've got either yet? 20-30K cp would allow a proper fit out at the merchant for the complete party.

 

Will have to wait till the editor can handle those changes I guess.

[Sarex]

You can't change the amount of money you've got either yet? 20-30K cp would allow a proper fit out at the merchant for the complete party.

 

Will have to wait till the editor can handle those changes I guess.

 

I changed money without issues.

[aeonsim]

 

You can't change the amount of money you've got either yet? 20-30K cp would allow a proper fit out at the merchant for the complete party.

 

Will have to wait till the editor can handle those changes I guess.

 

I changed money without issues.

 

 

Ah if that works then it should be fairly easy to create a party with 30K and make a visit to the Merchant and properly equip the party with decent quality standard weapons (rather than the named ones) and then see how the difficulty changes when every one has a couple of weapon sets with differing damage types. I suspect a party using a good set of crush damage weapons of the correct type for their Weapon focus should be able to flatten the beetles a fair bit quicker and take less damage doing so.

 

Some one should have a go using the same party with the default loadout and with a customised one and see what the difference is, I'll have a go my self as soon as the OSX build is out.

Edited September 7, 2014 by aeonsim

[Cantousent]

Okay, I got to the big final battle in the cultist dungeon.  I knew I was borrowing trouble, but I didn't rest before I went into a room that clearly was going to be filled with belligerents.  So, no mage spells at all.  The dialogue choices I made resulted in all of the folks in the room when I entered died.  First thing is, and I know someone in this thread or another mentioned this, but the *missing string* archers are brutal.  Whatever bleed effect they put on the characters is twelve kinds of ugly.  So, I lose my PC knocked down right away.  My rogue gets it next, even though I'm trying to disengage, she had the bleed effect of doom and goes down like a two bit whore in a twelve dollar whore house.  My priest who has actually managed to get off a few healing spells decides to visit Uncle Dirtnap.  At about the same time, or maybe even just slightly sooner, my fighter succumbs to the victory button bleed effect.  Now, not everything was because of the bleed effect.  The boss is a caster and his spell *hurt.*  Anyhow, by the time the priest and fighter go down, the boss and the cultists are gone, so it's just melee and ranged guys left.  My BB mage and the Paladin I *hired* take out everyone.  Here's what's weird, the Paladin didn't even take any stamina damage at all.  I should, by all rights, have lost that fight in the condition my merry band enjoyed when I entered the room, but they all leveled when my quest technically finished before the battle.  So I leveled everyone.  It didn't get my spells back, but it might have messed up something so my Paladin laughed off effects.  I might go back and redo the battle and see if I can replicate it, but my Pally *has* gone down before.  Hmmmm

[Karkarov]

Okay, I got to the big final battle in the cultist dungeon.  I knew I was borrowing trouble, but I didn't rest before I went into a room that clearly was going to be filled with belligerents.  So, no mage spells at all.  The dialogue choices I made resulted in all of the folks in the room when I entered died.  First thing is, and I know someone in this thread or another mentioned this, but the *missing string* archers are brutal.  Whatever bleed effect they put on the characters is twelve kinds of ugly.  So, I lose my PC knocked down right away.  My rogue gets it next, even though I'm trying to disengage, she had the bleed effect of doom and goes down like a two bit whore in a twelve dollar whore house.  My priest who has actually managed to get off a few healing spells decides to visit Uncle Dirtnap.  At about the same time, or maybe even just slightly sooner, my fighter succumbs to the victory button bleed effect.  Now, not everything was because of the bleed effect.  The boss is a caster and his spell *hurt.*  Anyhow, by the time the priest and fighter go down, the boss and the cultists are gone, so it's just melee and ranged guys left.  My BB mage and the Paladin I *hired* take out everyone.  Here's what's weird, the Paladin didn't even take any stamina damage at all.  I should, by all rights, have lost that fight in the condition my merry band enjoyed when I entered the room, but they all leveled when my quest technically finished before the battle.  So I leveled everyone.  It didn't get my spells back, but it might have messed up something so my Paladin laughed off effects.  I might go back and redo the battle and see if I can replicate it, but my Pally *has* gone down before.  Hmmmm

There is actually only one guy who does the Deep Wounds bleed.  It is the dude behind and to the right of the boss.  Other than him and the boss none of them are any special threat.  So probably what happened is your mage and paly managed to take out the boss and that one guy then just mop up the rest of them since the others are actually not that strong.

[Cantousent]

Thanks for the tip, Karkarov.

 

I finished everything on the map with the cultist dungeon.  I thought the spiders were actually quite easy.  On normal, I only had two people drop during the battle with the spider queen and finished off all of the spiders without incident.  I actually was so surprised at how much easier they were than the cultist that I went to the main menu and checked to make sure I hadn't accidently played on easy.  On the other hand, I did the cultists first and had two full level advances with my party between the two spots, so maybe it's a matter of the first one being harder just 'cause.  I killed off all the beetles and wolves.  My first battle with the beetles was tough, but then I got the hang of how combat works.  If I played on hardcore or whatever it is that kills folks who get knocked out, then I clearly would have had to be a lot more careful.  ...But, although I find it fun, combat is clearly just messed up.  They have a lot of tweaking to do.

[Sensuki]

Do DoTs even challenge your defenses? or are they just automatically applied on rolls

[mutonizer]

Do DoTs even challenge your defenses? or are they just automatically applied on rolls

 

From what I could see, any creature with a poison effect landing any graze hit or above, will automatically trigger "additional effects", which makes a ACC vs FORT check, and from there, calculates hit quality (graze, etc), applying a varying DOT depending on that hit quality.

[Karkarov]

 

Do DoTs even challenge your defenses? or are they just automatically applied on rolls

 

From what I could see, any creature with a poison effect landing any graze hit or above, will automatically trigger "additional effects", which makes a ACC vs FORT check, and from there, calculates hit quality (graze, etc), applying a varying DOT depending on that hit quality.

Actually I am not even sure the graze etc matters.  Once you get hit through whatever means "additional effect" happens and you get the challenge of Acc vs Fort (or whatever relevant resistance) and if you fail that check then boom you get the full "effect". 

[Sensuki]

I don't think that's how it should work, as the attack resolution system was supposed to be completely mirrored. If DoTs are breaking the rule and only have an absolute, I think they should be altered to follow the graze, hit and crit rules.

[The Loyal Nub]

There's a Cultist archer I encountered in the Dyrford Ruins last night that is ridiculously overpowered. Wiped my party 7 times last night in seconds even after I had rested them so that they were at full strength!

 

I've knocked him down. Hit him with fireballs, more knockdown, lightning every thing I could see I tried and pause and check and "barely injured." I think I found Amazing Indesctructoid Man! 

 

I think I will wait for more patching. Combat, stamina recovery are completely wonk in this right now. This was also on "easy."

Edited September 8, 2014 by The Loyal Nub