SneaksieDave on 14/10/2004 at 21:39
Hi all. I have a dilemma, and then it occurred to me - ask the TTLG folks, for they might have an opinion on their experiences.
I've gotta hand it to Arkane - they really nailed it when it comes to forcing the player to choose/specialize their character and stats. Nailed it, almost too good. It's impossible (at least at the start) to make a strong Jack of All Trades with Arx. On the other hand, if I specialize too much, I might find myself very limited in what I can do. For example - if I leave out stealth skills, I might not be able to get to certain areas, hidden behind locked doors. But on the other hand, I've heard hiding in shadows is worthless until your skill is 100. Yikes. Now, I'd sure like to make someone with a strong arm who can really bash a skull. But, I've heard that the fights eventually come down to "who can cast the quickest and strongest fireballs." So then a non-magic using warrior would be out of the question.
Not wanting to make a weak JoAT, but at the same time, not wanting to specialize so much that I limit what I can do in game, I admit that I'm having trouble starting Arx at all!
What are your experiences with skills and stats and the game? I'd like to think I'll play it more than once, and could thus do it a different way the second time, but it's rare that I ever play a game more than once, so I'm being realistic here. The only games I can honestly remember playing through more than once, completely from beginning to end, were Ultima Underworld and System Shock 2. With Arx, I'd hate to focus on stealth and brute force, and then miss out of magic use. Or make one hell of a mage, but miss out on a bunch of cool Thiefy experiences. Anyway, there you have it. Opinions?
Spitter on 16/10/2004 at 12:23
It's been a while since I've played the game, but I recall stealth wasn't worth all the fuss. The manual also states that if your magic skills are low, you shouldn't be able to cast the most deadly spells. I had no problems at all whizzing up LVL 8 spells with casting skills of 30-50.
Fighting skills... There aren't enough bows in the game to make it that worthwhile. I'd say just make a fighter/mage type of character, with a strong emphasis on the fighter side. If you want to play cheap, the only spell you'll ever need is the über-effective fireball, which'll annihilate anything that'll come in your way.
My opinions. Feel free to ignore them.
SneaksieDave on 16/10/2004 at 15:11
Quote:
My opinions. Feel free to ignore them.
On the contrary, that's precisely the type of info I was seeking, thanks. Anyone else? Please speak up.
I started messing around with it seriously last night, and it looks like I might go toward almost equal stats (perhaps one extra in strength), and I'll focus on combat skills and magic stuff. Stealth, intuition, technical - that stuff will take second seat for now. Turns out you level up (getting +1 stat point and +15 skill points) right away anyway.
Deiyen on 16/10/2004 at 18:52
I'm playing Arx for the third time now, I only got it like a month ago. I say play it at least twice. In the beginning I wasn't sure where to put my points either, so I just went for an all-around kinda character. Playing it through a couple times now, I think any sort of character does fine.
<b>General comments</b>
Stealth is not useless. Hiding in shadows is actually quite difficult if you put no points into stealth, not to mention your footsteps are loud as hell. (Right now my stealth is 110, and I can barely hear my footsteps even while running.) I'd say if you're going to go stealth, go at least to 50, since you can only pick pockets at 50. Btw, using the stealth mode (shift by default) makes you less audible, so you can sneak up on a creatures. So that's what stealth is for; hide in the shadows, wait 'til they turn their backs, then sneak up and whack 'em over the head (or torso, or whatever).
Magic, like Spitter said, is kinda pointless as you can cast any spell as long as you have the runes (with only a few exceptions). I think putting points into magic just increases the potency of certain spells (and also increases your magic defense). And, as you've heard already, the best spell in the game is Fireball, so once you have the three necessary runes, you don't really need any extra magic skills.
Fighting would be a great way to go too, since some of the fun in the game is deciding which weapon to use. Without a high strength, most of the weapons are unavailable anyway. And, like Spitter mentioned, don't put any points into ranged combat unless you're prepared to stick with only one weapon (maybe two) throughout the game.
<b>My Experiences</b>
The first time through for me was a pretty average character, with a small focus on stealth (since I was Thief trained). I'd say this is a pretty good way to go through the game the first time, although playing through a game for the first time, it's inevitable you'll miss a lot of things anyway.
The second time, I played a warrior character. I must say, Arx has such a strong focus on fighting that warrior is probably the easiest to play. With your strength up, you can wear all the armor, use all the weapons, etc. There really is no need to hide when you can bash skulls at will. Even Fireball is unnecessary (until you come to one specific enemy toward the end).
This time through, I'm playing a thief character. A bit harder than warrior since my health and defense aren't as high and I can't fight as well, but being a Thief player, it's a very satisfying way to play. I just love hiding, picking pockets, getting into places you're not allowed to go, backstabbing, etc.
If I decide to play it again, I'd play a mage character, but I think that's a bit redundant since I'll already know where everything is, how to deal with anything, etc. And the only fighting I'd be doing is with the Fireball anyway.
SneaksieDave on 16/10/2004 at 23:19
Great info, guys! Thanks for taking the time, this will definitely assist me.
Chade on 19/10/2004 at 03:49
I only ever played Arx twice, but I can safely say that magic skill(s) are NOT useless (can't remember if there was more then one I had to put up to get all the effects) ... your spell effects and mana regeneration will be noticably better with higher skills. I ended up finding the incinerate and "magic wall" combination to be the most usefull and fun way to get through most of the game, but you do need lots of mana if your going to be using this, so it's probably not that good for a jack of all trades character.
Okay, so that made this post totally useless for your purposes ... oh well ...
