Rolander on 10/5/2004 at 18:14

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I got Arx Fatalis PC a few months back, patched it, and have been playing erractically since.

I got my fighter-mage char tot the point when he need to find the two ring artifacts to destroy the meteor fragment in the temple (He was lucky to survive the demon there 1st time round using only a shortsword).

I got the one from the Sisters, then figure I backtrack to the temple and hack up one Golem that I left alive there ...

Turned out the Ylsides have moved in already and I died pretty fast to them one-on-one (Even the Lich which I was way outclassed did let me get in several); they landed 3 blows to my 1 and hacked me into cube-sized chunks. And I didn't understand how they seem to auto speed up.

Then I took the back/exit way in and killed the priest easily. One of the Yisides was patrolling just outside the bone bridgeway to the meteor fragment and I ended up fighting with it on the bone bridgeway.

First thing I noticed that the negate magic effect here cancelled out their speedup ability, so an unspeeded Ylside is a lot easier to handle; nontheless I won't have survived if there was an AI exploit on the bridgeway...

It turned out that if I retreat along the bone bridgeway, the Ylside would chase me only to fall throught the bridge! Don't ask me why. Then if I retreat all the way back to the wall, the Ylside would give up the chase and walk up the stairs on his way to leaving.

I exploited this and when the Ylsides retreats, I will charge up my attack, run forward along the bone bridge and attack him. Even though the Ylside will turn around before I reach him, it still allowed me to get in an unopposed first strike. Then I retreat back along the bone bridge, let the Ylside fall through, and repeat again and again.

I know this was a shameless exploitation, but I put it up to ask if anyone knows of this.

At any rate, I wouldn't have stood a chance one-on-one (those guys musta have some superarmour; I'm still cladded mostly in leather (poured most of my $$$ in runes), and using the goblin quatermaster's sabre which I enchanted to make it unbreakable)

Rolander on 11/5/2004 at 05:31

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Umm, I did try spells, but they don't seem to do much damage ...

Haven't ventured into the Crypt yet. Went exploring in the 'Save Shany' area where there are several elevated platforms, then used jumps and Levitate to get to the back way to the Sisters' stronghold. Touched their chests and ended up fighting with the lot of them. The surprising thing is that NONE of them used spells for the duration, and I hacked them up quite easily?!?! I thought they would blast me to oblivion faster than the lich ... I have a seperate savegame with that and am still pondering whether to reload a previous save and avoid the killing or continue to see what effect it has on the variable ending with the King; the Sister at Arx is still alive and not hostile (maybe she never heard that I butchered the rest of her Order).

... umm I didn't pour points into spellcasting ability even though my Int is reasonable(Str/Int/Dex 12, Con 10). I don't think two fireballs from my char is strong enough ... I think I tried something like that and it didn't work.

Rolander on 13/5/2004 at 20:47

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I finally finished the game!

Thanks Eshaktaar, you were right that 2 fireballs take an Ylside out. So, most of the time I end up dual-fireballing or fireball into Harm/Melee. I guess for a straight fighter, you must be superstrong to wack them up in a straight melee fight.

Just for fun, I ended up wandering into the Ratmen and Dwarfs before I destroyed the meteor. Ratmen were easy one-on-one, trouble if more than one, but a fighter has little problem in straight up fighting and my Con's up to their poison attacks ... they got nice daggers though; almost wished I had my Dex up to use them. Maybe I should play a Thief-Mage char next time.

I hated the Crypt, it's creepy and I don't like it especially when I'm still mid-lvl. Later on when I get the King's Helm, I was more confident as I was strong enough to wack up zombies and mummys easily using the meteor sabre and wearing Ylside Armour.

Liches were hard; I ended up stacking two Harm spells and rushing them. Had to reload a coupla times against the two Liches in Crypt Lvl 5. But Ylsides were harder, in the fight against the two Ylsides just before Akbaa, I got chopped to bits again and again and I can't seem to get off my fireballs fast enough to kill one of them first. I ended up stacking FIVE Harm spells!

After all this, Akbaa was more managable. I died a coupla times to his attract Harm combo at first, so I learn to stay at mid range charging up my swing and waiting for him to cast a spell first. The idea was that even Akbaa will take time to cast spells, so if he cast a poion attack or lightning projection, I can rush in safely for a wack without worrying about the attract Harm combo. I killed him with around 20 charged up hits with the sabre at the end; I think I drank about 5 life potions at least, but definitely no more than 10. I stockpiled 30 life potions before I finally ventured into the Ylside bunker; oh the stingyness of me never seem to go away! When I played Thief, I hung on to my Water Arrows and Holy Water unless absolutely; when I played System Shock 2, I avoided buying any unessential thing til towards the end. I still remember a System Shock 1 game on Quad-2 difficulty when I ended up with 100 medipatches and no reconstructions when I get to Level 9 (with no backtracking to lvl 1 to harvest medipatches, if you think I did that) ...

Chade on 4/6/2004 at 13:53

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Hrmm ... from what I remember, my most common "strategy" against the Ysildes was simply to use magic barrier and disintergrate ...

Can't remember how much you really should be concentrating on the magic aspects of your character to make the mana drain worthwhile, however.