misc party build/quests

[cutterjohn]

Originally Posted by DarkJeff

My Victor is a machine gunner, with magic as addendum. Actually, I held back on magic until Fireball so he has an AoE. Also Ice Prison, which is the AoE freeze.

You eventually pick up a dwarf (2nd machine gunner!) as well, and both of them are in Overalls.

I'm at 14 now, with the dwarf at 13 and with Telle at level 11 only as she keeps disappearing and reappearing. Just picked up my 6th member, a Cat tribe lady who's level 15 and built for daggers and light armor. (Much like Rada, she only has one weapon and one armor skill. They both have bow skill but eh, didn't train'em.)

So it looks like my having the Outdude be a bow/heavy armor user was a good idea.

Currently:
Victor - Machine Gun, Steamwork Armor, AoE Spells
Rada - Swords, Medium Armor
Outskirter - Bow, Heavy Armor
Torry (Dwarf) - Machine Gun, Steamwork Armor, Grenades
Loy (Cat tribe) - Daggers, Light Armor
Telle - Magic, Robes

Well, I kept Outskirter as a meleer because he showed up with medium armor and a 2H cudgel, so I've been upping hist STR (mostly) and AGI (secondly). Probably should toss in "Build" once in a while as well.

I seriously thought of changing Rada over to an archer, as she had decent AGI but was also packed with STR. Plus two of her skills raise STR & AGI respectively, so I MAY still switch her, but I've neglected PER. Light armor just sounds like more of a candidate to me for long range attacker as med/heavy would imply to me more melee style as the armor should, theoretically give better prot v. melee.

Victor I started pumping his INT, as I read that it was advised elsewhere and that he ends up in the end as mostly a mage, using rifles or other tech gear. So I've been pumping Mechanics, and whatever the Armor one was, well mostly mechanics alch & armor one IIRC I only gave 1 point to ATM since I'm not finidng much tech goods.

I'm relying on drops mostly as the vendors seem to have garbage, but still I'm using some older/lower level equip as I like the bonuses better than the garbage I've been getting on L6 & 7 items. I've also noticed that +Build items seem to work out WAY better than +hp items in terms of total hp, but the max +5p I've seen is like +250 or so and most of the +Build items were at least +2 which worked out to >> +250hp item.

I'm about to give up on smashing crates and the like as it feels at my party's level like it's just junk, usual few 10s of gp, random junk equip, or the most useful of all ATM potions, but I'm trying to use Telle to heal when necessary and save the pots for when she goes walkabout again. i.e. just trying to avoid wasting money on pots as I assume/hope that vendors at some point will have some GOOD items, or in case something else ends up costing cash.

Beyond that if all there are are 5 or 6 local quests/map and they only take you to 3 areas, I guess that this game is long because many people will explore every inch and kill every NPC... feeling kind of empty ATM in meadows now, no more local quests and I'm feeeling a distinct lack of interest in uncovering the whole map even though I feel certain that the party will need the xp... or at least Victor...

[DarkJeff]

I've picked up a host of blues from chests, so I definitely take the time to open them. The "time to open" depends strongly on the character - with a rifle Victor stands there before it goes bang, with a machine gun or flamethrower, they pop open (at range) with a click.

Rada has Medium Armor, not light armor, and she can eventually transform into a wolf. The Outskirter starts with Light Armor and 2 ranks in Cudgel, yes, but he doesn't get the boosts Rada does.

What I've noticed is that Int/Build gives different amounts to different people. The Outskirter gets a lot more HP per build than Rada. Rada though, with her +Str/Agi skills, means I can invest more points in Build. Outskirter I just gave him Agi and Str. Str affects bow damage, but not crossbow.

My Victor has Int and Agi anyways, since machine guns use'em. Talle has priority for +Int gear, though.

Rada (with Rada's Blade returned to her) is definitely melee, all her abilities are melee. The only bow-user possible thus far is Victor and Outskirter, as they have the bow combat trees. I don't know about the 7th or 8th dude, but nobody else has bow/crossbow in their build trees. Mind you, the dwarf is awesome. Two machineguns blasting away is beautiful, especially when you crank up their crit chance. They wear down enemies so fast it's crazy...

[cutterjohn]

IIRC Perception increases crit chances.

Outskirter: hmmm... I thought that he had med armor and Rada light, have to check again.

Stats: Build might not be the only stat that contributes to hp. At least in this game they were kind enough to give us info about what the stat affects when you hover the pointer over it.

Vic: well, I'm going for combo tech(rifles/mg I hope) and mage

Chests: well I haven't seen an actual openable chest yet, just the barrel, crates and I guess boxes. I guess they're kind of worth it for the potions alone for when Telle goes walkabout

Did your extra party member that go away then re-appear later come back with a higher level? I really didn't notice with Telle which is the only one who has done it for me so far...

Outskirter again: Well, maybe I should start pumping more into his AGI now and give him those saved skill points in bow... haven't seen many good bows yet though, but have one decent xbow that I was thinking of using.

You'll probably finish the game LONG before me as I'm still trying to get over my reluctance to do the tedious job of clearing the Meadows map... I wish that they had hidden some more areas of interest in the maps, as it'd make it feel less tedious to clear them for nothing other than xp essentially. (Maybe they did, but I've only cleared Hilandia and the Lake so far, and left most of the Lake mobs alone as I figured at such low level they'd be worht nothing xpwise...)

Telle: yeah, been doing INT and AGI for her and been trying to give her the best +mana regen and +int/per items... haven't really checked the +mana items v. +INT items yet though, although I suspect that it will be similar to my experiences with +BUI v. +hp

My group has around 9k gold now, and hasn't spent a dime yet other than for the ticket to Meadows as I haven't seen anything worth buying, but so far in Meadows I haven't needed to sell off the excess junk loot yet I have enough NPCs w/good enough STR that encumberance isn't a problem yet.

Next time I'll play I'll put together a list of the quests that I've received so far, as I'm really curious as to whether or not I've missed any. I've only found one so far with an NPC that was no where close to a town, i.e. when you started in Hilandia, the lumberjack and his axe. o.w. I've found all the quest NPCs(barring the main quest) standing around outside in towns. (I always play max zoomed out, so it's possible that I overlooked some...)

[DarkJeff]

Outskirters has all the Armor skills, he basically has the same generic combat page Victor does. I believe level also increases HP, but I could be wrong... regardless, Outskirter gets a lot more out of Build than Rada or Telle.

Yeah, all my loot has come from breaking stuff, heh. Still, it's why my Victor doesn't use anything other than the three very fast tech weapons, so I just click and they pop open.

Telle doesn't get any XP when she returns, though I gave her the +XP perk when she hit level 3 to make sure she doesn't fall behind too much. (I quick save right before they're about to hit a perk level, and reload to make sure they get perks I'm satisfied with, heh.)

There's two quests thus far that make me wonder about the "best" result. For example, that fellow who had his house burn down, if you give him 5000gp to leave town he gets killed. If you convince him to join the guard you get a follow up in another town - where he still dies but you get some awesome items out of it.

The second of such quests is finding this guy who's in debt. I choose to pay him, dunno what happens if he flees with his wife, or if I sell him out to his creditors.

[Center]

I think you get some decent items if you help him too, though I cant swear to it.

I found build to be a worthless stat all around, it doesn't give a significant amount of hp next to +hp items. Once Rada transforms she became an insanely good tank, she cant be hit, has huge hp and hits really hard (and fast I think)

I went pure int on victor and telle, for big fights i want to be able to spam my heavy hitters as often as possible. Air shackles looks great for bosses, which can be incredibly tough

Chests are definitely worth it, some of my best weapons have come from them. they seem to give loot for your level though, so at a low level you're going to get meh items.

Id does get repetitive to kill an area for not other reason than exp, but it feels so rewarding when I find a group of rats