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Hypocrisy posted:Convince a single deluded man you're the messiah? Child's play. Let me tell you about a game where you convince several deluded people you are their god and then kill the lamest space satan. Sounds familiar...
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Jan 28, 2020 00:17
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Part VII: Making friends through blatant cheating After humiliating Cassius in front of his boss, we, naturally, request a meeting.     He isn't keen on talking to us, but he relents if you have positive reputation with House Daratan.   : I want to know more about the war with the Qantari and the summoned "allies." "accounts of the battle of Estios all claiming the same thing: Ull-Xerath rose from the deep and attacked the legions of General Kesion, slaughtering over a thousand soldiers before the magi forced him to retreat." Christ, I regret this already.   : Is there anything you can teach me? Even the game hates Cassius. Let's get out of here and see Mercato.   The idea here is to get leverage on Mercato so he'll spill the beans about Carrinas' plans. : I need a favor.  I'm surprised Cado gives a poo poo.  If we want Cado's help, there are two ways to do it: threaten him (at which point you have to fight the entire guild unless you can talk him down), or give him something. : What do you want? He makes a good argument. : I accept your offer. What do I have to do? Think about this for a second: the Forty Thieves guildmaster -- a guild infamous for deceit -- suddenly wants to be our friend. All we need to do is give him our signature. If you believe Cado is on the up and up, you haven't been paying attention. : It's a death sentence. I'm not signing it.  You're about to lose and we salute you! -- Let's Play A Game of Chance  drat your skills, Mercato! We don't have much DEX, but perhaps we can win by cheating.  Nope. Thankfully, we have the magnetism of Jesus Christ, Mick Jagger and Winston Churchill combined, so he isn't upset about it.     It takes a bunch of skill checks, but we get Mercato to our side.  Carrinas is smarter than I thought. : So, what happened between you and Carrinas?  : If it's a shithole, why do you care?  : Sounds like the locals had learned a valuable lesson.  : So, what's out there? Come on! You can't leave it on a cliffhanger!      Aw, we made a friend. Back to Linos.   : Final test for what? : Elsewhere? To the    For once, Neleos is reluctant to take the job.   It makes sense; killing the local commander will bring reprisals.  To the palace!   You know what, Dellar? You're okay.   He's reluctant to do anything, unsurprisingly. A bit of sweet-talking might do the trick.    Crap. It's pretty difficult to convince Antidas without evidence, so don't feel bad.   : How do I get inside? : I can forge the proof. Decision time! There are, currently, two ways to get proof of Carrinas' plans: Ask Mercato for help or Go it alone. What should we do, goons? rudecyrus fucked around with this message at 03:29 on Oct 16, 2020 |
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Jan 28, 2020 03:55
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Since Gaius Goonius is The Chosen One, he can forge some documents
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Jan 28, 2020 04:15
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Ask Mercato. People skills are our big thing. Also loving christ, having fooled around with the other origins, I am shaking my fist at the Merchant PC who was apparently loving around in the background of one of them SO HARD.
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Jan 28, 2020 04:42
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We're in the tutorial city and poo poo can already get this Byzantine 
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Jan 28, 2020 07:00
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Ask Mercado
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Jan 28, 2020 07:08
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Night10194 posted:The combat doesn't really have the depth to be more than number checks except the numbers are (potentially) stacked against you, but the non-combat gameplay is pretty fun so far.
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Jan 28, 2020 07:46
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There's a dungeon crawling spinoff? The issue with the combat system is that a lot of the options don't work great for the player (though I imagine they work better if you dump everything into 'kill man' instead of just a lot of points) because they apply hefty to-hit penalties and cost extra AP, and you're usually alone and outnumbered. So it's kind of a race against time to do damage to the enemy, while they have the luxury to outnumber you and use aimed attacks to tank your Dodge and Attack Rating at times. It mostly comes down to 'use buffs' and 'stab man'. Plus I think the game actually suffers some for having tons of weapon skills, especially as it feels like some are just plain better than others. And removing stuff like healing to be 'hardcore' just makes combat a race against time (and the time is HP). The combat is 'hard' in that you often have low odds to succeed (and probably could have not gotten into that fight, to be fair). Not in having to make lots of decisions or play carefully. It does make it weirdly satisfying when you win, though. Especially when you have more 'mandatory' fights during some guild plotline. It's part of why pulling out Body Count feels satisfying. When you make 3 armed men back down by your rep alone, you're actually relieved you didn't have to fight them.
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Jan 28, 2020 14:28
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Looks like we're asking for help. I'll have the next update done as soon as I can.
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Jan 29, 2020 04:33
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Part VIII: Well, that was easy When we last left Gaius Goonius (merchant edition), he was attempting to find (or forge) proof of Carrinas' plan to overthrow Lord Antidas. You voted to ask Mercato for help, so let's do that.   We need a suit of armor if we're going to infiltrate the barracks. Hopefully, this Quintus won't be difficult.  Oh good, another hovel. I was hoping for a palatial estate constructed out of gold, but then again I'm stupid.  Maybe Quintus could sell rat-on-a-stick as a kind of regional cuisine. I smell an untapped market!  Our perception is too low to find the armor. I like to think our character looked at the two or three objects Quintus owns and then gave up.  Time to exercise our silver tongue. : Master Quintus? I'm a censor and I'd like to ask you a few questions. It's about the new order issued by Commander Marcus Carrinas.   Quick attitude change.   We just scammed a nearly homeless veteran out of his only prized possession. All in a good day's work. To the barracks!  We don the armor and pray like crazy Mercato is there.  Thanks, Mercato.   : Where are the orders?   We do well until our Level 1 impersonate skill fails us. Oh well. There's still good ol' fashioned bribery.  pffft yeah right     Our high reputation with the Commercium ensures the guard gets paid. The bad news? Linos will totally dock our paycheck for this.  Easy. There's a third way to get what we need: if we gave Cado our signature, he'll hand us a writ that gets us past the guard -- he'll even raise the impersonate skill at no extra charge!  : Here is the proof, my Lord.  Jesus, how loaded is the Commercium?   Linos, if you can give away 50,000 imperials like that, then it's time to discuss my pay.      : What do you think of Antidas?   : Gods?  : You mentioned Meru... So, he wasn't always a believer?  Interesting. It seems Meru became a true believer after going deep into Castle Ganezzar.    Another revelation: House Crassus played an important role in summoning the High Lords. It makes sense Meru would be especially religious.   Whoa. A lot happened off-screen. If you were wondering how the Imperial Guards were wiped out, things should be getting clearer. We have two options: convince the remaining Guards to join Antidas, or convince Antidas to kill them. We'll try the less bloody route.  Looks like Mercato got promoted.     Mercato, buddy, don't ruin our friendship like this!   : Listen to me, Mercato. You got lucky. Carrinas ended up dead and you ended up on top, but now you want to quit the game. You're thinking like a farmer who finds a plough, being eager to break his back working the fields. Think like a merchant. Ask yourself "what can I get for this plough" and leave the fields to simpler men.   Chalk up another success.  : I have convinced the remaining Guards to join your House. Our reward is a drat good dagger. Useless for this character, but whatever.     That's the end of this chapter! We performed so well we're going to Maadoran to speak with the head honcho of the Commercium. By the way, this is where throwing your lot in with Cado comes back to bite you on the rear end. If you give him your signature, he uses it (and steals your ring) to divert the gold shipment meant for Antidas to a warehouse, where it's promptly stolen. What did you expect? You idiot. You fool. If you can't convince Linos you had nothing to do with it? Dead. Decision time! For our next playthrough, will we be a thief, an assassin, or a mercenary? rudecyrus fucked around with this message at 00:52 on Feb 11, 2020 |
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Jan 30, 2020 05:16
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Assassin. Being the Merch's patsy is a good followup to being the Merch. It's amazing how completely different that story is from the cunning merchant's perspective than from the point of view of the Assassin, even though the same things happen. Teron is definitely my favorite part of the game so far; the way you get different pieces of the story from each background and how they interconnect and how some are happening in the background of some of the others is really fun and cool.
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Jan 30, 2020 05:36
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Assassin does sound interesting. Loving this thus far!
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Jan 30, 2020 05:58
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Thief. We've already robbed people blind both literally and metaphorically, might as well make it official.
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Jan 30, 2020 06:30
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I vote Mercenary. Sure, the combat looks clumsy and unpleasant but perhaps that is just because we have not had sufficient exposure to it.
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Jan 30, 2020 06:41
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Mercenary
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Jan 30, 2020 08:08
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Assassin becuase ninja and I want to see how crazy the stealth system here can go
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Jan 30, 2020 09:01
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Assassin, I want to see more of Neleos.
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Jan 30, 2020 11:24
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I'm also not sure I agree with the first post that Impersonation is bad. It seems to come up an awful lot. There are just often other ways around it, and I suppose you have to cut somewhere, especially if you're trying to play both combat and non-combat in one PC.
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Jan 30, 2020 14:51
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While I´m interested in seeing the plot from the Mercenary perspective I´ll have toss my hat in with the Assassin crowd for now.
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Jan 30, 2020 23:10
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Voting Assassin because the previous LP didn't touch it on either playthrough.
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Jan 31, 2020 00:02
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I'm interested in Mercenary as we've seen a fair bit of combat and it'd be interesting to see what a specialised character could do with it
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Jan 31, 2020 01:16
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Looks like assassin is the winner. Update will come sometime soon.
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Jan 31, 2020 04:15
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ah poo poo id have said merc its really truly amazing how much you can get done with crafting, bombs and poison in this game. maybe one of my favourite things about it is that you dont need to be born a badass to kill piles of people edit: grifter grifter Verviticus fucked around with this message at 04:19 on Jan 31, 2020 |
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Jan 31, 2020 04:16
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The Critical Strike skill will never, ever let you down, though.
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Jan 31, 2020 04:23
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i was inspired to play a game where i got the literal max bodycount. still in teron im doing ok  the only person i let live/body counted is the guard that tries to rob you with the other guy because all that happens is you fight him and then like 7 fuckers and if you somehow survive that i think you just get kicked out edit: trying now to decide if i want a bunch of theft-related skill points or a blue steel hammer... Verviticus fucked around with this message at 06:21 on Jan 31, 2020 |
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Jan 31, 2020 06:04
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Thanks to this LP for convincing me to pick this out of my backlog and give it a try. I really enjoyed playing through it and I'm looking forward to reading the rest of the thread.
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Feb 2, 2020 01:20
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Part IX: Murder, Inc. Playing as an assassin is one of the harder backgrounds in the game. You're expected to split your SP between civil and combat skills, and if you choose poorly? Good luck. One thing I'll say is impersonate isn't a bad choice for assassins, unlike most of the other backgrounds.  Here we are at the guild's HQ, which you're familiar with. I decided to name the PC Gaius Stabbius -- it seemed appropriate.  Ah, Neleos. It's always good to see a smiling face. : Only fifty? : He's just arrived and someone wants him dead already? Enough farting around -- we've got a mark to kill.   RIP We don't have any levels in persuasion, so there's only one thing to do: stab the guard in the neck.  It doesn't kill him, but it removes a good chunk of health.   Using nets to entangle the guard makes the fight much easier.   It's not too difficult to put this guy down, but we have to use aimed strikes to pierce his armor. Get used to this.  Finally, he takes a dirt nap.  We loot the bodies and take everything from the nearby chest  Time to scram.  I believe the perception check is for the sphere. The PC ends up with the map no matter what.    : Do you have time for a few questions? : I'm surprised we operate so openly.  : How did it become a proper business?   Before we see Feng, let's talk to the other guild members.  This is Coltan.   Coltan raises our alchemy a bit, which is indispensable for assassins.  In the next room are Agatai (the guy in front of us) and Dias.  Agatai is a big conversationalist. : Can you teach me how to fight like you?  It's his way of saying "No, I won't teach you." : Tell me about the Ordu.  You didn't answer my question, rear end in a top hat.   Dias is more helpful. Good thing he lived to tell the tale, because dying at the hands of a teenager would be embarrassing as gently caress.  Last stop is Fulvio.  : So far. Any tricks of the trade you can share with me? With that out of the way, we go see Feng.   When negotiating over the payment for offing Cassius, we can use our assassin background to squeeze out a few more imperials.  We persuade Cassius to leave, but this time our PER lets us know he's lying. There's only one response to this.  Ah, that was satisfying.   Something else to note: An alchemy of at least 2 allows us to know the ring is fake. Time to get another job from Neleos.  : Always.   : Are you sure that they are spies? : Payment?  Here's the house.   Huh. I didn't expect this.  : What happened to him?Please ignore the dagger in my hand and answer my questions.  If nothing else, maybe we can get the spies' descriptions from her. : Does anyone else live here? : I'm looking for two people. They are probably not from around here. I have a message for them. Waaaaait a minute...  drat spy acting like an old man covered in feces!    The fight isn't too hard, especially when you use poison.    The lady gets off a few lucky shots and I end up with 7 HP. We win, just the same.  gently caress. : What kind of help? And what assurance do I have that you would keep your word to an assassin? Puh-leeze. : No deal. Hand me the reports and I'll let you walk away. Our persuasion isn't high enough to pass this check, so let's go with the other choice. : What choice do you have? poo poo. Remember Dias' story?  Death count: 6   The second round is much better thanks to higher HP and some nets.   Mission accomplished.  I nearly died for these loving reports. I hope it will be reflected in my pay.  I don't know what Agatai teaches us. Presumably, "don't get hit." At this point, I get Dellar's quests and go to Rhaskos to convince him to poison some wine. If we use body count...  ...we fail, because it's not high enough. I guess killing only 4 people doesn't impress these days.  He wants 100 imperials, but gently caress that.  If we leave and come back, a new option pops up. : The guards are looking for you! They'll be here any minute! So long, Rhaskos.  Let's do this.   Hopefully, this will work.     Don't mind the strange aftertaste -- the vintners are trying a new, um... formula. If we return to the outpost...  Looks like someone is suffering from a case of... sour grapes.  One down, but there are three more to grapple with, all in heavy armor. The fight is over so quickly, I didn't capture any of it.  Death count: 7    On the second go around, I manage to kill two of the guards, but the dipshit with the crossbow one-shots me. Death count: 8  Third time's the charm. This time, I crafted a dagger and used sharpening stones to up the damage.    Incredibly, I came out of this more or less unscathed.  One of the bodies has the mine key. I like the item description.  Oh, good.  There's five more people in the mine. Three are lightly armored, but it's still a bear of a fight.  The narrow tunnel is great if you're a range-focused fighter. It's not so great when you're reduced to using a loving crossbow that takes 5 AP to reload. It becomes downright frustrating when the enemies get close and stomp another mudhole in your rear end. Death count: 9 Next time: Impressing others through wanton murder rudecyrus fucked around with this message at 00:54 on Feb 11, 2020 |
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Feb 2, 2020 07:23
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I actually found knives one of my favorite weapon types in the game thanks to my Loremaster who wandered into being a Boatman being my first real campaign. The Boatmen campaign is pretty hard until you get going, but once knives and crits are high enough you just tear through people with endless armor-ignoring crits. E: In general I found lower AP cost weapon crit fishing superior to higher damage weapons in almost all cases once you got going. Night10194 fucked around with this message at 16:59 on Feb 2, 2020 |
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Feb 2, 2020 16:55
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I can't help but feel like your assassin isn't really that great at killing people.
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Feb 2, 2020 20:01
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Using light armor in the early game is a death sentence. Also, Dodge is less useful early on, though it eventually surpasses Block. I kind of feel like Block is better specifically because it's better early on, in the time when you need all the help you can get, instead of the 'I can kill a five man patrol of actual soldiers before they can blink' late game for a combat PC. The Assassin has a really rough early game and is probably the hardest PC type in Teron. The Praetor is tough too since they're similarly a hybrid PC, but they get more help from their status. The Mercenary/Imperial Guard route has some really rough fights but you get a bunch of mitigating factors and you can really go all in on combat, and a PC who goes all in on combat will become a total badass really quick. E: Also, even with the poison halving their HP, this fight is loving hard in the early game. Crossbow rear end in a top hat can often aim for your head, and wearing heavy helmets lowers your to-hit at a time when you can't afford it while light helmets get punched by a bolt easily. Similarly, armor is your Crit Defense as well as your basic DR. A light armor character with good Dodge might be harder to hit, but when they get hit not only will their HP take a beating but they're more likely to get critted, especially as we don't have the extra crit defense from a shield. Also, light armors are more likely to take armor damage from every hit. That's what the 'weapon hardness' trait is measuring, how much chance there is relative to armor that you destroy a point or two of DR on an attack. The actual assassin outfit is going to get you killed in the early game and should be replaced with some better crafted armor as soon as possible, especially as Masterwork armor will lower the penalties to Dodge/defense and eliminate the Sneak penalties on armor. The light armor also means even the lovely tools-as-weapons the mine workers are wielding can hurt the PC. I was in Praetorian armor during this fight in my playthrough and they just bounced off every strike and I only had to worry about the soldiers. Night10194 fucked around with this message at 20:21 on Feb 2, 2020 |
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Feb 2, 2020 20:07
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Night10194 posted:I actually found knives one of my favorite weapon types in the game thanks to my Loremaster who wandered into being a Boatman being my first real campaign. The Boatmen campaign is pretty hard until you get going, but once knives and crits are high enough you just tear through people with endless armor-ignoring crits. i wonder if this is worth more skill points than assassin
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Feb 4, 2020 03:05
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also i finally got around to reading the entire lp from the start and hmmm interesting stats you’ve got for your loremaster 🤔
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Feb 5, 2020 12:10
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Part X: A series of unfortunate events Last time, I kept dying to some bastards in a mine. This time, I'm wearing heavy armor.   The idea is to pick off the weaker, unarmored workers, but my THC is at 1% until they're about three tiles away, at which point I need to either back up or pull out a melee weapon. Oh, and I died shortly after the second screenshot. Death count: 10  On the next go, I get lucky with a critical strike.  I didn't capture it right, but two of the workers were lined-up, single file. The first one dodged the bolt and the second one caught it square in the chest.   Already doing better -- two enemies are down.  Three down.   Four down...  pleasedon'tdiepleasedon'tdiepleasedon'tdie  YEEEEEEEAAAAAAAAAGH!   We can't do anything with the machinery, but who gives a poo poo? We won!   75 imperials for killing eight people? gently caress you. Antidas, map, yadda yadda. We negotiate with the bandits and come back.  : What do you want me to do then? : I don't think so. There are too many of them. Our high perception will let us give a detailed explanation of the camp. : (perception) haha i'm not typing all of that 50 imperials. A little less than an octuple homicide. We should get another job from Neleos.  When the game gives you a break and outright tells you to prepare, do it. I put on some lighter armor for more AP.  : I am ready. Tell me what this job is about. "the stairs, so use the window; two crossbows and ten steel armor piercing bolts, and some merchant robes to avoid attracting attention. Any questions?" : What happens afterwards? Won't the Imperial Guards come after us? I see no flaw in this. : What do you know about the merchant who rented the room? Guess everything's all set. Let's do this.  If you're feeling insane, you can kill Dias and join the Guards. We're not doing that.  Follow that Dias!   Awesome. Time to get back to the guild and celebrate.   What! You mean the gentlemen's agreement to not attack the guild that depended on humans being perfectly rational creatures... backfired?  There's four guards in heavy armor, but having two companions is a big help.  I use a black power bomb to inflict a whopping 13 points of damage.  Then it's a flask of liquid fire to break up the clump of soldiers.    The three of us whittle them down until there's only this turtled-up dingus.  He's not dangerous, but his tower shield means he'll block a good number of attacks and prolong the fight. Eventually, he bites the dust.    That's a bad idea. You're crazy. Okay FINE : I'm in.  Coltan gives us some poison for keeping him alive. I'll use it almost immediately because we're low.  The fight begins at range. Cue me missing all of my shots.  Close combat is where I shine.  Dead.   Deadx2   Hopefully, Neleos and the others are okay.  Yeah, I think they've been here.   RIP Agatai. I didn't know a thing about you.  RIP Dias. You had so many years of murder ahead of you.  Neleos!  Eat bomb! Interesting fact: the explosion is cross-shaped, so I can hit the guards without harming Neleos.    Down to one. The Centurion is another pain in the rear end thanks to his shield.  Neleos! NOOOooooo!     Neleos... It's possible to save Neleos, but it's difficult. You need to deal substantial and consistent damage to both guards, and the enemy AI is programmed to focus on him. I believe he shows up later if you're successful.  Time to leave.    That's it for Teron! That's it? Yep, that's it. I'll admit, I was disappointed the first time I played an assassin. After the opening vignette, there's only one guild-related quest before you're railroaded to the end of the chapter, and everything after Carrinas' death where you pull a Terminator and decimate an entire barracks felt... off. Where's the subterfuge? I wanted more intrigue and less evisceration. Fortunately, things pick up in the next chapter. Since mercenary was the second most popular choice, I'll be playing that next. Next time: Solving problems, one death at a time rudecyrus fucked around with this message at 03:51 on Oct 16, 2020 |
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Feb 6, 2020 06:52
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The Assassin missions disappointed me until I played the Merch and realized how much I was the patsy getting screwed over by that stupid rear end in a top hat. It doesn't do a good job of setting itself up, but the whole point is this was a bad job from the start and everything's on fire. The Merch's career is hilariously easy compared to the people the Merch uses. The Merc eventually becomes a complete shitkicker, though. If you play a serious combat character in this game, you will ruin well over a hundred lives and by the end, five or six dudes just becomes routine.
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Feb 6, 2020 07:01
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Huh. That sucked exactly as much as I imagined it would. That Gaelius blurb was pretty funny though. Congrats on getting thoroughly owned.
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Feb 6, 2020 08:20
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did you bang out all the little things in teron that give you extra SP or are you doing assassin even hardermode a second question for anyone who has beat this game and knows a lot about it (huge rear end spoilers if you havent) a friend of mine has now done a full combat IG run where he got demoted, a merchant run where he saw a good chunk but not all of the lore and is doing an assassin run right now. his stats arent able to do godhood (i dont even know if an assassin can do godhood). he told me he wants to do one more 'see everything' run and i wanted to give him some pointers instead of a guide because he likes doing these things manually i was gonna say do ig/loremaster/praetor, go 7-8-6-8-8-4, if benny leaves hellgate reload and look for other stuff, and don't let al-akia get blown up. are there any tips or backgrounds i should tell him about? can thief/sin do it without betraying the guild to galius? i basically want him to have godhood available to him so even if he doesnt get it i can just say "hey do these things at the end of the game" Verviticus fucked around with this message at 13:15 on Feb 6, 2020 |
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Feb 6, 2020 13:10
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I think it might be best to refrain from major spoiler discussion, even in tags.
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Feb 6, 2020 14:07
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quote:Oh, and if you're one of the few who played this game, then refrain from spoilers, please.
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Feb 6, 2020 17:42
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Good to see this game LPd. This setting is really fascinating, and I wish AoD got some sequels or spin-offs (hopefully not burdened by the really poor combat mechanics of the original)
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Feb 7, 2020 02:23
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| # ? May 5, 2024 19:19 |
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I'm actually genuinely impressed with the setting and a fair amount of the plot stuff after having finished multiple perspectives. Teron is the best part of the game, but the rest is pretty good. It's never really 'just' full grimdark.
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Feb 7, 2020 03:06
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