Ack wrote:Revenant is rough. I've beaten Diablo, its expansion, Diablo II, and numerous Diablo clones over the years such as Torchlight, Record of Lodoss War, Dungeon Siege, Titan Quest, Nox, and so on. Of all of them, Revenant is by far the worst, both in terms of its system and its stability.
No Inquisitor on that list. Man up, Ack.
I got Inquisitor like right when it came out on GOG a few years back, but stopped very early on because saving didn't work properly (at least I couldn't load saves). I've been meaning to give it another go someday though :O
I identify everyone via avatar, so if you change your avatar, I genuinely might completely forget who you are. -- Me
Well, this problematic title continues, with even more bugs than before, but at least I'm making progress. I'm now level 15, which is halfway up the leveling tree (max is 30). As you level up your character, new equipment becomes available in shops, so I've made sure to continuously save up for the best possible gear whenever a new set of armor or weapons appear. There are also quite a few weapons and sets of armor hidden throughout the world in chests, and while what I'm wearing is usually better, there is a nice touch: selling something to the weapon or armor shopkeepers adds it permanently to their inventory, so if for some reason I wanted to buy something back, say for skill reasons or magical protections, I could easily do so.
Unfortunately, there is a problem with the leveling system: as you go up in levels, each enemy type gives you less experience. I'm not opposed to this system, but the game designers decided combat skills should be subject to the same rules, based on your level. So if an enemy gives you 50 experience, they also give you 50 points to whatever weapon skill you are using based on your equipped weapon. This doesn't matter if your skill is level 2 or level 20, you'll only receive the amount based on experience. As a result, I've ended up with some weapon skills that are ridiculously behind the curve and simply aren't worth the trouble of trying to fix. Yes, I could take on low-level trash, but when I'd have to kill 300 enemies to get my axe skill from level 0 to level 1...not worth it. Fists are the worst too, because the game requires you to use them at one point, but you do a lot less damage with them. Good luck beefing those up without magic.
I do want to praise the magic system, as it's something I generally like. Over the course of the game you'll find magic runes. These runes can be combined up to 4 at a time, and depending on their arrangement, they can cast and unlock a wide variety of spells. Some of them are buffs, some are pure utility, and some are nasty offensive tricks. Whenever you learn a new spell this way, it permanently unlocks, and you have the ability to save up to 4 spells of your choosing for fast casting at any time. Your invoke skill is also not subject to the same rules as combat, so cast away; it's worth it, even if you use some of the most basic spells. Scrolls are also found throughout the game which give you the specific arrangements, but if you mix and match, you can learn spells long before you find the scroll with the recipe. The only issues I have with the magic system are that your spell list is poorly arranged and you are severely limited by your MP amount and its absurdly slow regeneration. You can counter this by spending money on potions, but that can eat into your gear savings. Alternatively there are some items that massively increase your mana pool or lower the cost of spells, but some tweaking in this department would have been nice.
Combat is complicated, and it relies on a set of three different types of attacks, as well as a separate block ability, along with combos that can be learned at certain levels and some kind of throw system I have yet to see. Some enemies in the game excel at throws, meaning your blocking is useless, but I haven't yet figured out if there is a way for you to throw your opponent. It can take some time to get used to combat, but once you do, there are some nice options available depending on the situation. It's not always great (seriously, those throws can really hurt!), but it's like if Diablo had instead tried to add in something from Die by the Sword. I appreciate it, even if it does have its frustrations.
As far as the plot is concerned, all actions are limited to an island, and I've just made it through the caves in the center to find the ruins on the far side, where an evil cult lives that I've been sent to take down. So far the game has been rather straightforward, with little in the way of sidequests and only a little emphasis on exploration, so I'm making progress.
I haven't been keeping y'all apprised of my progress in Saga 2, so here's a dump of data.
When creating my initial party, I decided to go for a human, a mutant/esper, a monster, and a robot, just so I could experience all the flavors of mechanical obscurity the game has to throw at me. I chose names not really caring what I was doing, reasoning that I could probably rename them in-game somewhere later. Nope! So now I have a couple characters with generic fantasy style names, a monster called Oozee because he started as a slime (and is now a werewolf with a completely inappropriate name), and a robot called MrPopo, because I decided I would later go back and rename everyone to match forum users. Which I now can't do.
I just wrapped up world 5 and am headed into world 6. It's weird because I picked up a bunch of equipment a couple worlds ago that was really expensive at the time but has continued to be better than anything else sold in the stores in worlds 4 and 5. Right now my human is a goddamn tank with double the hit points of anyone else. I'm also specializing her on martial arts, which means her early attacks are worthless, her middle attacks are decent, and I have to keep a couple slots dedicated to the final martial arts strike in case I run into a big baddie I need to hit hard. She also has a backup in special blades, though I've been neglecting it of late. My mutant/esper got Flare early and I've been keep to keep it. I make sure to keep her Spirit stat high so that when I'm completely surrounded by way too many enemies I have a nuke-from-orbit in reserve. Right now her keeper abilities are Flare, Cure, and Fire, and the last slot currently has fire as well. I always cast from my last slot if I can, so that when it goes away and is replaced I won't find myself all out of my more reliable spells. The monster is currently a Werewolf and is pretty decent, but he's finally starting to lag behind the enemies, so it's time for another round of evolutions, I think, to see if I can find something a little stronger. Monsters are the hardest members of the party to manage. My Robot is the reliable damage dealer of the party. His equipment load gives him great stats across the board and he can pretty reliably dish good damage to any single opponent. In fact, all his weapons do good damage, and I pretty much have my pick of them to swing around. He also has the best defense.
I've also rescued all but one of the Muses. The remake of Saga 2 I'm playing for the DS introduces these various Muse characters you can find and aid or rescue throughout the game. They all represent different approaches to combat and grant you Muse Points (MP) after each battle depending on what you do. The reside in a Muse garden and accept gifts. You can use those Muse Points to buy Threads of Fate from a goddess in another weird pocket world. Threads of Fate are these attack boosters you can use in the heat of battle. They are sort of limit breaks. Each Thread of Fate is paired with a kind of relationship: friendship, ally, hatred, sadness, etc... When you use one you automatically use the next one if your queue. You can't pick in-battle. They are only available when one character acts immediately before another, and only on occasion. You activate it during one character's turn and the next character gets the boost, but it also affects their relationship. And the combination of relationships between your various characters occasionally lets you activate these random inter-party interactions that sometimes lead you to little one-off treasures (nothing too powerful). Right now everyone is friends but one person is an ally to most folks instead of a friend. I remember I have them so rarely, and I mostly end up using them on bosses or by accident, so my relationships are pretty stable until boss time.
Had some CRAZY escapades in X-com tonight. Most notably, the terror mission in New York.
It was 10 of us out there and our trusty tank, but the odds were stacked against us. We opened up with two cyberdisks staring us down, but both in gas stations. Hoping for an easy kill, Sega2 (Segata 2) was sent out to blast one, but the cyberdisk tanked both explosions of the gas tanks next to it like it was NOTHING! Not wanting to mess around, the rest of the crew made way for The Flake, who dispatched it easily with his trusty rocket launcher. Things quickly went tits up, though, as the second cyberdisk quickly tore through first Sega2, then The Flake, and even Gunstar Red (the third Gunstar Green) while he went to try and pick up Flake's rocket launcher. Things were looking pretty grim, but the prospect of capturing a Sectoid Commander was too great to just abandon the mission right then and there.
A small convenience store next to the landing area was deemed safe, so the rest of the team piled into it to get protection. Most of those still alive only had small launchers with stun grenades, so we were woefully ill equipped to fight so many cyberdisks. It was at that moment that Lauren Twoya (Laurenhiya 2) spied the cyberdisk who had killed so many of her comrades outside the window. With deadly accuracy, one burst of rifle fire dispatched it effortlessly. Ex3minator (Exhuminator 3), Ack, and Lauren Twoya went South, while Jmustang 0.5 (his stats were too low to give him the honor of a sequel to the original) scouted out the giant smoke clouds left by the two dead cyberdisks in the North. Though he woudl ultimately be cut down by one, it was not before he took a sectoid and another cyberdisk down with reaction shots alone!
South was where the real action was happening, though. The rocket launcher was all out of shots, so only Ex3minator and Lauren Twoya's laser rifles were able to fight against the cyberdisk down there. Just as effortlessly as the first, Lauren struck this one down in just two shot of one autofire set! Going further down, those still in the gas station began being assaulted by psionic attacks, meaning the desired sectoid leader target was still alive and close by! Lauren took up cover in an abandoned garage while the Ack and Ma3un moved up with their small launchers, and that's when she saw it: a sectoid with a big gun, the leader they'd been seeking? Dodging a hail of cyberdisk plasma fire, Ack and Lauren rushed into position to get sight of him and fire a single stun shot: a direct hit! However, Ack had taken a deadly wound from a cyberdisk plasma bolt. Lauren rushed over to give him first aid while Ma3un (Marurun 3) went to check the status of the KO'd sectoid.
Commander Partridge couldn't've been happier upon the verification over voice comms: This was indeed the Sectoid leader of the mission! If he was brought back to the ship, the mystery of psionoics could at last be revealed! Understanding the importance of this target, Ma3un took it upon himself to do what must be done. Harnessing his inner Banjo, Ma3un took off his backpack and stuffed his Sectoid passenger inside. The weight was horrendous, but it was a worthy weight to bare. He went slowly to the door when suddenly a sight caught his eye from the Southern window that made his heart stop: a Sectoid with a pistol! Hearing her comrade's plight over the radio, Lauren wheeled around the corner of the warehouse he was in and popped the Sectoid down with one shot!
Sadly, while celebrating their small victory, an unseen Sectoid's lucky shot ended Ack's glorious career far too early. Their numbers were now down to three: Ex3minator, Ma3un, and Lauren Twoya were the only ones left. Lauren had continued her advance down South, taking down another alien and yet another cyberdisk in the process, taking her cyberdisk kill count up to three! Ex3minator covered Ma3un's advance back to the drop ship in the eventuality that a Sectoid had tried to flank them from behind in the meanwhile, but all was safe. While scouting a flanking position to Lauren's location, however, Ex3minator was taken down by an alien's shot to the back.
Their numbers now down to only two, Lauren rounded a corner to try and find Ex3minator's assailant, thought to be a cyberdisk, when it turned out to be not one but two sectoids toting heavy plasma launchers! She struck one down in the face with a laser shot before hopping back into cover behind the safety of a wall. It was at this time that Ma3un had just returned his Sectoid passenger safely back into the drop ship, and resumed scouting the North. Just then, he bumped into a figure hiding in the smoke of a dead cyberdisk. It was Sthreek (Stark 3), thought to be dead, who had been here the whole time! (I had literally forgotten he was there and I always forget to use the "next soldier" button Xp). Advancing forward slowly, the team managed to smoke out the last alien and Sthreek lasered his face off. Their tank and 7 comrades dead, the recovery of the Sectoid leader made this mission a great success regardless. They returned home, their hearts heavy with the loss of their fellow X-com soldiers, but their heads held high with the knowledge that they'd brought this war one big step closer to being won once and for all.
I identify everyone via avatar, so if you change your avatar, I genuinely might completely forget who you are. -- Me
Ack wrote:Hey, if I gotta go out, at least I did it bringing down the boss.
Worry not! Twock (Ack Two) has already gotten a kill In addition, the American base, "Base-Ack" (a term Michi coined) will be finished construction by the end of this 4th month. I can't quite remember if it was Popo, Fast, or Marurun's idea, but that will be a base of forum member's names portmanteau'd with "Ack"
I identify everyone via avatar, so if you change your avatar, I genuinely might completely forget who you are. -- Me
Ack wrote:Hey, if I gotta go out, at least I did it bringing down the boss.
Worry not! Twock (Ack Two) has already gotten a kill In addition, the American base, "Base-Ack" (a term Michi coined) will be finished construction by the end of this 4th month. I can't quite remember if it was Popo, Fast, or Marurun's idea, but that will be a base of forum member's names portmanteau'd with "Ack"
I think it was me. The exchange was something like one of the other guys asking "Where's Ack?" in reference to your roster, and I said "You have to find the Ack in all of us."
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MrPopo wrote:I think it was me. The exchange was something like one of the other guys asking "Where's Ack?" in reference to your roster, and I said "You have to find the Ack in all of us."
Oh yeahhh! That sounds right X3
Nothing too notable happened today. Finally ran into Snakemen though! Their only casualty was our tank (which they ONE SHOT), but the two of them certainly gave me a startle. Exhuminator, Michi, and AlienJesus are also all on their 5th versions XD
We can also finally use Heavy Plasma guns! Time to WRECK SOME FOOLS!!! Onto researching psi-labs
I identify everyone via avatar, so if you change your avatar, I genuinely might completely forget who you are. -- Me
Things are looking rough for X-com. The Ack-merican base didn't get up in time, so the Americans signed a secret deal with the aliens and have pulled out of X-com. HOWEVER, Ack-merica's hyperwave decoders (super-radar stuff) went online just days later, so we've found the Sectoid base in Puerto Rico! Judging from scans on Euro-Racketboy's base, it would appear the Snakemen have a base somewhere in Australasia, so that will likely be the one assaulted in an effort to capture a commander. I REALLY hate mind control XD
Just did a Snakeman terror mission though, so that means Chryssalids! QwQ It was an absolute slaughter...
OF SNAKEMEN!!!
That mission was a success for several reasons: 1. It was during the day, so easy line of sight on Snakemen and Chryssalids alike. 2. Judging from what I heard, the lion's share of civilians died to Snakemen plasma fire, not to Chryssalids, so there were far less zombies than there could have been. 3. I landed in a fairly open area, and there were 3 Snakemen and 3 Chryssalids in sight from the get go, but only one got an actual reaction-shot off (RIP Twock (Ack 2) QwQ), but that was the only X-com casualty of the mission! We were able to clear these guys ALL out with some very well aimed plasma rounds, and from there it was just slowly fanning out and sniping what came into view. The Snakemen soldiers started panicking after the 2nd round or so. That's how badly they were losing. 4. Fucking nuts accuracy on these guys. Threeglyph (Key 3), Lauren Twoya, and especially Fasterbilly were all killing machines! Fast especially, as he got like 3 or 4 kills from across the map with like 80%+ accuracy.
Largely luck on our part that the mission went so well, to be honest, but a win is a win! I even got my very own Chryssalid to take home because The Other Flake (Flake 2) KO'd him with his stun grenade X3
I identify everyone via avatar, so if you change your avatar, I genuinely might completely forget who you are. -- Me
