what to look for in a savegame? (using kbscanner)

[Dohi64]

hey all,

I'm new to the forum, been lurking for a while though, collecting tips for my first playthrough of kb:legend (yeah, I'm way behind, I've been meaning to start the series for a long time) but registered to be able to download kbscanner mainly.

I wanna play a mage and even though I don't like to cheat and like spoilers even less, the random and unforgiving nature of the game made me try kbscanner on my save file, though initially I didn't want to. I'm about 2 hours into the game and looks like I'll have to start over, as there are only 3 mage artifacts in my game and 2 are in the gray wasteland (as far as I know it's towards the end, though I'm aware that you can explore pretty much everything to a certain extent after the first boss).

started another game, there are 7 artifacts there (didn't check what they do), though 2 are duplicates, but 4 are on the starting continent, so that already looks better.

so, my question is, what else should I be looking for in the save? I'm not trying for anything fancy, like an impossible/no loss craziness, I'd just like to play the game from start to finish without too much frustration (ok, that's wishful thinking), backtracking, etc.

I guess, apart from mage artifacts, some key units and scrolls would be good to check, but even though I've been taking notes from forum posts, I'm still not sure what units and spells I'll use. (as I've just started, I'm enjoying my fireball and the fact that my default stacks don't have to do anything if it ever comes to combat while colleting loot, but it obviously won't last long and I'll have to assemble a starting army soon.)

(as a sidenote, does anyone have any idea why the camera mod won't work? I have the 1.7 nobilis version and putting the .kfs file or even a simple edited camera.txt into the data\mods directory does nothing. - edit: I've just tried replacing the camera.txt in the original .kfs file but it still did nothing. all I want is to be able to zoom out a little bit more on the adventure map but it's not a big problem if I can't, I just don't know why the mod won't work.)

[BB Shockwave]

Hi!

Well, if you are a Mage, you will want the Pain Skull and the Ancient Amulet for SURE. Make sure you have them somewhere and you can find them early in the game.
Spells are the other key - generally, I'm a completist so I make sure all the spells can be found in the game. Generally speaking, damage spells are useful early on, but later you will require more subtle ways to win battles. Sheep, Target, Hypnotize work great, Trap can be a lifesaver, and even if you don't play no-loss, get Resurrection and Sacrifice. In Legend, summon spells are not strong, they are OK early on but get oneshotted easily late game, so don't bother with them. I found LIghtning very useful because of its stun ability, too. Armaggedon though - not worth it, causes too much loss to you, too.
You'll need to conserve mana in battles, so Magic Spring is very useful. Couple it with Target and slow to ensure that enemy only attacks that unit.
Phantom and Magic Shackles have their uses, too.


You should decide what units you want to use, too - I played through with a mage focusing on Chaos and Distortion with an Undead army, which makes certain spells useless (most Order spells don't work on them) and others very useful.

Oh and - crystals don't grow on trees. Max out your Mage-specific skill Alchemy that lets you upgrade and learn spells cheaper, and even so, think before you waste 30 crystals on say, the Phoenix upgrade.

[Dohi64]

thanks for the reply, though in the meantime I finished the game.

since I did everything (except for the arena of truth fights 'for real' - I did them just to see what they are but then reloaded and didn't do them again in my real playthrough), I had more than enough crystals by the end, and I only got level 1 alchemy. I didn't even want to do that but I had so many magic runes, I said why not, but it was towards the end anyway.I don't really see the appeal, those magic runes could be spent elsewhere and if you know what spells you want to use, you don't need that many crystals anyway (especially if you pick up everything, and why wouldn't you?).

I also had just enough mind runes to unlock inquisition before the final fights, literally got the final mind rune before the bridge leading to the orc base, so I could replenish my inquisitors (there were only 20 in my game at the magic academy and a few hundred in haas' labyrinth but I didn't want to go back there).

there was a pain skull in the game but it was in the castle in the land of the dead, so it was pointless by then, I didn't even bother using it. I only got geyser about midway through and it proved to be great, even though fire rain did more damage. I was looking forward to lightning and ice snake but only go them in demonis I think and they didn't prove to be that useful.