Confirm a few things

[Wazat]

Hey, I just started this game without having played the first ones (which may be a mistake, since a lot of this game baffles me). I picked the red dragon and named him Grigori Rasputin, and he's among my most threatening units. I'm having a lot of fun so far and I love the system. I do have a few questions:

1) It seems that units are limited per merchant, permanently. Unless one says "hoard", once you buy all of that unit from that shop, then that unit is gone from that merchant. Forever. That seems dangerous... hence the emphasis on no-loss battles in this forum, I suppose (aside from the medals benefit). Do I have this right?
Currently my strategy involves lots of throw-away summoned units, and lots of high-defense units. I reset if I lose someone in an easy battle, because I can't take the losses AND I really want to get more leadership from the medal.

2) Once enemies are dead, they're gone. There's no random encounters or respawning opponents in this game. This means there's a limited amount of experience to go around, and if you get your butt handed to you in one battle and barely eek by, or don't level up your dragon enough, you've basically set yourself back. Or are there locations in the game where you can fight enemies repeatedly to try to level up a bit? Could I load my army with worthless units and repeatedly lose, to level up my dragon a bit at a time (hereby known as the lame twit tactic)?
The reason I ask is, the difficulty step-up from one island to another is brutal. It almost seems like I'm supposed to be leveling up somewhere first... Everything on the next island is either super-strong, deadly, or invincible. On occasion there's something weak I can take on, if I kite past innumerable deadly enemies first.

3) Can wanderer's scrolls be learned/used repeatedly, or are they one-use only?

4) I'm playing a warrior, and among the first skills I learned was Order Magic, so I could learn and repeatedly cast healing magic without hoarding expensive scrolls. I'm also using mana accelerator to convert rage into mana, a clever strategy I read somewhere on these forums. What emphasis should I place on the other spell schools, if any?

5) How many spells and scrolls can I have as a warrior? I read somewhere that the scroll count is somewhat limited, but I don't know if the spell count is. If so, is there a way to unlearn a spell, or should I be very careful to not learn spells I don't want long-term?

6) I'm planning on getting the bottom-right warrior skill that causes my rage to have a minimum amount. My logic is that I want to be able to enter every battle with at least a little rage to put my dragon to use. Then I'll boost my rage max a bit to fine-tune the minimum until I can cast the really important abilities, like wall, mystic egg or the tail punch umm... thingy. However, I may be misinterpreting the description. Does this skill do what I think it does, or am I in for a nasty surprise?

7) My mana went negative in one battle. Does the game allow me to cast a spell I cannot afford? Or was this a serendipitous bug?

That's all for now. Thank you!

[Sir Whiskers]

1. Correct, kind of. Unless a unit shows a quantity of "horde", you can run out. That said, as you complete quests, some shops will add new units and increase the amount of the existing ones. Finding the stones will boost units at Debir, in Castle Regnum and the Royal University. Also, I believe if you complete one or both of the quests given to you by Ariana, the troops in her castle will increase (Scarlet Wind).

You should be careful of losses, but I don't recommend obsessing over them. So long as you don't lose troops you absolutely need, cannot replace, or would take too long to replace, losing a few really isn't a big deal. Losing troops does not impact your final score, and there are plenty of fights, so you'll still get the medal to level 3.

2. No spawning of new enemies. As for leveling up your dragon, when your opposition is weak, put some troops into reserve before the fight. Dragon experience is reduced if your army's total leadership is higher than the enemy's. This is recalculated constantly throughout a battle, so you will likely get the most xp early on, while the enemy army is still at full strength.

3. Wanderer scrolls are used once, but many last for multiple fights. Check the upper right hand side of your screen - you'll see an icon showing how many remaining fights each is good for (each generates its own unique icon). Wanderer "spells" cannot be added to your spellbook.

4. All spell schools have useful spells, so as warrior I try to get at least level 1 in all three. That said, as warrior I find Order and Distortion more useful than chaos (though Fear is a great spell). If you can get either Order or Distortion to level 3, you'll have some good mass-effect spells, and a high-level Resurrection spell can be useful, as is Time Back. Direct damage spells won't be as useful to you, given that a warrior tends to have low mana and intellect.

5. Spells known is unlimited, but only if you have enough crystals. If you can get the Mind skill Neatness, that will help, as you can then break down items into crystals (and runes, if you take the skill to level 3). On normal difficulty, money is generally not a problem, so by mid-game you can afford to buy up every item and break any you don't need. Always keep some crystals in reserve, as you can upgrade a spell in mid-combat. One combat I needed level 3 Time Back and had the crystals to upgrade it so I could save a couple dragons I unexpectedly lost.

6. Good idea, though you'll be in the mid-game or later before you can really spare enough runes for this. Once you have the skill to level 3, it can be very useful, but there are other skills you'll want first. BTW, I don't recommend getting more than level 1 in Training, as you'll find your dragon going up levels pretty consistently. I do recommend getting at least level 1 in Tactics at some point, as the flexibility can be very useful in some battles.

7. Negative mana? Never seen that before - I have no idea what would have caused that.

A few other comments:

As for dragon abilities, I like Fiery Phantoms because the damage is astral, so it affects all creatures. Like you, I've found Mana Accelerator to be very useful in essentially trading rage for mana. Try to get Treasure Searcher up to max soon, so you can collect extra chests. And always upgrade Ball of Lightning when you can - it's an ability that becomes more useful as the game progresses, not less, because it kills a percentage of the enemy stack. It's a lot of fun to cast a couple of those at the beginning of combat against stacks that number in the thousands.

I generally save a new game right before going into the training area. That allows me to restart the game if I get myself into a bind, or just want to try again with a different strategy. Don't be afraid to experiment, as each player has their own style and preferences.

Enjoy!

[Wazat]

Thank you for the help!

A couple more questions if that's okay:

1) Is there any rhyme or reason to which dragon skills are offered during a level up? Sometimes it gives me crap, other times exactly what I wanted to level up. I imagine I need to wait to level up skills that are already high level, but it seems to me like a bonus to mana accelerator, treasure hunter or the tail whip would serve me better than more defense to my wall, which would still go down in 1 hit against tough enemies. :/ And I have no idea when it will give me the opportunity to learn a new ability instead of upgrade an old one. I passed on ball lightning because it's apparently not as useful early on, but I intend to get it later on.

2) I think either scarlet wind or rusty anchor has a training dummy on one of its beaches. It has a very strong or impossible enemy guarding it, so I'm not all that enthusiastic about reaching it just yet. I'm just wondering what that is (unless it's a huge story spoiler). At first I assumed it was an opportunity to fight multiple times to level up, but that sounds unlikely.

3) I see, so use the dragon earlier rather than later for better xp. Do abilities like wall, mana accel, and treasure hunter give xp, or just attack abilities?

4) Is the scroll limit based on how many scrolls I have total, or is it like an inventory where like items stack in the same slot? So if I have 3 Fear scrolls and 2 Healing scrolls, does that count as 5 or 2 against my total scroll use?

The reason I ask about stacked scrolls is because I need to make room in my spell book to get a Call of Nature scroll and learn it. It would be very useful to be able to chuck some throw-away summoned units out in the first turn of battle to keep my army alive with a decoy. That's been a huge part of my strategy to get the occasional no loss battle -- meat shields FTW.

5) By training area, you mean at the beginning of the game where you get a free sword/shield? Wow, that was a while back, but given the nature of the game I can see starting over if I get in too much of a bind.

6) (edited to add this) I see enemy armies with multiple of the same unit all the time. Multiple griffin stacks, multiple swordsman stacks... how do I do that? Even if I put the units in my reserve, I'm not allowed to buy more. :/

7) (another edit) I've died twice but been allowed to continue (while other, more serious battles were a game over). Are there any bad effects to this, like causing me to miss out on something later in the game? I mean, other than losing my whole army. As I mentioned before, it seems like I get experience from doing it. So if I wanted to just throw away army after army (using hoard stacks) and level up my dragon & hero, is that an effective strategy (even though it's the wimpiest imaginable)?

[bucazaurus]

I will try to answer your questions.
1 - Dragon's skills need your pet to be at a certain level in order to gain them or to upgrade them .
2 - I attached a pictures . Look at the right side image . Is that the training dummy or you saw something else? Because that object it's a power up object.
It disappear after you interact with him and usually it gives +1 defence .
3 - In the left side image you can see where it shows how much exp you get for using dragon pet's skills .
4 - 3 fear scrolls and 2 healing scrolls counts as 5 scrolls .
5- ....
6- Saying you have one stack of bowman worth 10 000 leadership . You can split that stack into multiple stacks , but you can't have two stacks of bowman
worth 10 000 leadership each. That's one of computer's ability , along with having 10 stacks against 5 of yours.
7- You can die as many time as you like , but the battles you need to make to advance with the main quest are Game Over if you loose them.

[Wazat]

Thank you for your reply!

1) So is it random which 3 upgrades are offered on a dragon level-up? Is there some way to scroll to see others or is that all that's offered?
2) I think that's it. Thanks.
3) Thank you. I didn't notice that in the descriptions.
4) This is sort of good news, since that opens my options on which scrolls I can toss. Discarding 1 scroll from a stack of 3 is the same as 1 from a stack of 1, so I can pick any scroll that isn't useful to me.
7) Cool. Seems like if I lose my army, that's the best way to make up for it (increase character and dragon xp).

[Sir Whiskers]

Originally Posted by Wazat

1) So is it random which 3 upgrades are offered on a dragon level-up? Is there some way to scroll to see others or is that all that's offered?

As near as I can tell, it's random each time you level up. I doubt there's a way to see ahead of time what will be offered, as each time you select a new ability or upgrade, you change what can appear at the next level up.

[Wazat]

bucazaurus, what version of the game do you have? I don't see experience listed in mine.

Sir Whiskers: Yea, I just leveled up and had to choose between learning ball lightning or adding a substantial upgrade to mystic egg. I upgraded mystic egg, since decoys are currently my strategy. Hopefully that wasn't a mistake. :/

I wish it had given me these choices on previous levels.

[bucazaurus]

Originally Posted by Wazat

bucazaurus, what version of the game do you have? I don't see experience listed in mine.

Unzip the attachment in Armored Princess folder \data\mods
If you don't have a folder named mods , then create one first.
The mod was created by Spamm. I just reupload him .The links for download doesn't work anymore. Original thread here
http://forum.1cpublishing.eu/showthread.php?t=11156
Have fun.

[Wazat]

Thank you!

[Wazat]

Sorry for the double post and resurrecting a dead/dying thread, but that mod does not work for me. Nor does the interface mod in the thread you linked to (the mirror sites still have the working download, btw).

I put both mod files in [kbap dir]/data/mods/, but noticed no difference in my popup screens etc either in battle or out.

I have the steam version of the game. Is there anything different there? Is putting these files in the directory sufficient or do I also have to activate them somewhere in-game? Am I supposed to keep them inside the ZIP files?

Thanks again.