Lytha on 23/11/2004 at 12:26
So, I got me a new computer, with a new video card. And that card came with a whole stack of games. Arx Fatalis being one of them.
After I solved some weird RAM problem (which I attributed at first to Arx, because it crashed after 20 seconds 3D-time), I plan to enjoy that game now.
So, I want to know a couple of things already. ;)
I want to go for a Thief(-Mage), mainly (what else would I want to play, eh...) I don't know though which skills and stats I should upgrade for that purpose. Object recognition seems to be important, stealth obviously, too. But how about that err, mechanical skill? And which stats are a good thing to have (only dexterity and intelligence)?
- There are plenty of locked chests around. I hate locked chests, because I want to steal whatever is inside of them. Do I need that mechanical skill for those chests and doors? What is a good score for the mechanical skill I should aim at, so that I don't just break my tools when trying to pick the lock?
- What are these weird items in the inventory of the NPCs: they look like bags, have a "?" in white printed all over them, and I can't steal them.
- Why am I suddenly getting attacked by that weird ratling, when I enter a new map and just walk around a bit?
- Will I be able to steal the keys from the female shopkeeper's pockets, or will she remain so annoyingly vigilant?
Err... and should I go into the basement under the tavern now (I know the password, but I did not enjoy the (short) encounter with those weird spellcasters in there), or should I idly walk around in circles for a while in the Mines? I am at the point when the player has just learned the password for the basement of the tavern, and that the little girl was kidnapped.
SneaksieDave on 23/11/2004 at 17:16
Let me first say, having only played through 1.1 times so far, and as a Warrior/mage and now Pure Mage (as much as the game allows), I don't have the best answers to your questions. However, this place is slow, so hopefully I can help a bit.
Thief/mage, eh? You've got your work cut out for you, I'd guess. As Warrior/mage, the warrior handled 90% of the combat, and the mage the other 10%, the (really) hard stuff. I'm not sure about a Thief's combat ability, but since my "pure" mage (the game forces even a pure mage to bash skulls for the first few levels, unfortunately, grrr) is holding his own, with almost no strength, dex, or constitution, you should be fine.
However, your mage side will probably be weak at best (I finished with only 46 casting ability (buffed) and was fine - but I wouldn't want it any lower than that), because of the expense of dividing your points among dex, int, casting, technical, stealth(!), ethereal link, etc. Without a warrior's combat hand, I wish ye luck.
Locked chests: I gave up on technical skill at about 35(?) It was serving me no purpose at all except as a sink to waste my points. I opened three chests in the entire game. My points became far too important for combat and magic to waste on technical. So be prepared to dump a lot into it to make it useful.
Stealth: From what I've read (in-game, and word of mouth) stealth only works well above 50, and is only very useful when it's very high. I abandoned the skill, and then my armor brought it down into the teens. Be prepared to blow a lot of points on stealth if you want it. However - if you do, I imagine critical strikes (dex), backstabs (stealth), and a certain nice weapon I won't spoil for you (dex, dex, and more dex!) would make a nice combination in a fight.
The rat assassin: don't worry overmuch about him, he's just trying to do his job. You'll get your chance to hand him his rear soon enough.
Pickpocketing: No idea, my skill was so low.
Basement under the tavern: Go to it when you are ready for a challenge, and to advance the main quest. Or, when you have no other choice. I worried about going to the "wrong" places sometimes in the game, but it pretty much keeps you doing what you should.
As for my second run through, I'm looking forward to exploring magery completely (already have every rune and most spells memorized from my Warrior/mage jaunt - BRILLIANT system, Arcane! Huge kudos here), and I'm also wondering about that final encounter for a mage. Should be... um, interesting (a bit of poor design there, as you'll see with your class, too).
One other thing! - don't conserve equipment. There's no need to. For a few levels, I was walking around with a saber, two daggers, and a longsword in my pack (not including my torture-room hoard), but swinging a bone. Stupid! There's not "that much more game" coming that I needed to save stuff so much. Live and learn.
Good luck, enjoy. In my opinion, Arx is one of the best, and most underrated/unknown games.
Lytha on 23/11/2004 at 18:16
Thank you for the speedy reply, SneaksieDave. :)
Well, the combat so far is mostly melee, too. I found a nifty dagger in the armory of the castle (nicked the armory key from someone pretty early in the game).
So far, I have spent most time with nicking everyone's pockets. The stealth is at 60 or 70 at the moment... the rest of the skills is still quite low. I was going for the object knowledge now, because I wanted to brew me some potions out of that huge amount of plants.
For the locked chests: Well, from the top of my head I know half a dozen already (plus one or two most upsetting locked doors in the Town (upsetting, because I want to roam around in the houses behind them)), and so far, I only broke my tools. With the mechanical skill only at 30 or so, this is not a huge surprise, I guess.
Of the magic, I basically only use the non-combat spells so far. Infravision is my current favourite, because I don't need to use up my torches anymore (so that I can stack them in the barrel in the "crystal caves"-section next to the Town.
I love the little stealthy moments so far... for instance, when I broke into the loot collection room of the goblin town (I nicked the key from the guard), I could apply some stealth behaviour from Thief quite nicely. Patrol pattern of the guard, precise timing to hurry for the gold and back into the shadows before the guard returned... and yet another locked chest which I could not open. Doh.
Probably it is now time to rescue the little girl instead of bashing the weird spellcasters' heads. That quest just seems to be a bit more urgent.
Ohh... and one more question: Is it possible that there are more spells than I find in my spellbook? For instance, I can't find the "mega spacium" one in my spellbook, though the snakewoman librarian teached me how to cast it.
SneaksieDave on 23/11/2004 at 19:15
There sure were a lot of doorways at the end of the game that I wondered about... maybe I'll have to specialize in Thieving on a third run through.
Interesting, the different experiences for playing the game with different classes. I almost didn't recognize your description of the goblin vault area as a warrior. Different class, different experience. Can't wait for Arx2. :) (assuming it's coming!)
About the little girl rescue: Damn, I never got to do that - fell victim to an apparent bug, is my best guess. One time I was messing around and tested my strength in town, and during a mock-massacre, I heard her start crying for her mother. So that made me figure she must have been stashed in town somewhere. There's a spot you possibly haven't been to yet, so I won't spoil, but it's where she's supposed to be. When I got there (unaware she was to be there), I did what I was supposed to, and heard her crying again, and yet - she wasn't there. Later, almost at the end of the game, I STILL hadn't found her, was still looking, and THEN I saw in a spoiler/hint that she was supposed to be there. So, apparently her rescue by me was not meant to be. Poor thing.
I had another time where a certain praying priest was slowly inching forward every time he prayed, so I assume that's the cause of the bug - maybe she fell out of the world.
More spells than in spellbook: muhahah, ohh yes. I have a text file in my Arx folder reminding me of the NINE spells I'd already found not documented in the spellbook. And that's probably not all of them. I'd love to know how many there are, but don't want to risk being spoiled. Heck, one rune is not even mentioned at all! And oh my goodness is it satisfying when you use the runes and a little thinking to discover an undocumented spell.
...or watch a Lich closely. :ebil:
Navyhacker006 on 23/11/2004 at 21:10
I still need to beat it.
Sneaksie, are any of the spells you found useful, at all? I'm sitting here using Fireball again and again because it's the only useful attack spell I know of.
Yes, I found the last rune, but I couldn't make anything useful out of it...
I rescued the girl, after reading the walkthrough. It's a bit of an annoying quest, but that's mostly because it's un-intuitive.
:wq Navyhacker
Lytha on 23/11/2004 at 21:14
The ice/frost-rune is not in the manual, that is right. I saw it on my trip into the treasure room of the goblins, and I had a telekinesis-scroll with me. Telekinesis... that's one of the spells that are not yet in my spellbook. But perhaps I am missing some runes for that spell.
I found out how to cast the ice/frost-missile and the ice/frost-wall. :)
I think you mean the two doors next to the crypt with the part about a hint about Shany's whereabouts. As I am really obsessed with locked doors, I actually found that hint on my own (the voice that usually said "Leave me alone, or I will call the guards" amused me, so I went to frob that door some more after I had heard that Shany had been kidnapped.)
Well, I saved her. But because I am really a bit confused at the moment, I consulted a walkthrough about that. I killed two of the evil guys in robes before they made it into the room, and then the rest of them.
(On an evil sidenote, I wonder what happens if you doubleclick on one of the sacrifice daggers and then on Shany, while she is still tied to that altar...)
And now I am confused once more... I went down some more stairs, ended up in an area full with snakewomen (who attacked me, so I reloaded), then I went down some other stairs and ended up infront of a ratling, and my second assassin's dagger (yay. :D ) But... Dungeon Level #6? Am I really supposed to roam around there already?
On the other hand, so far, the game stopped me from doing things before I was supposed to do them. For instance, when I roamed around in Gary's House, and when he suddenly became aggressive because I looked at his bed (so I killed him), and when I looked around in that house and the basement some more, I was not allowed to pick up a key. ("Not yet", he said.)
But perhaps I should just go back to the tavern and my current task now. Or back to the city of Arx, pickpocketing the people some more. My inventory could use a trip to the barrels in the "crystal cave" again, too. :)
Eshaktaar on 23/11/2004 at 21:27
Although it's not likely you're going to break the game in any way if you do things out of order (some things, like slaughtering the snake women, can change later events quite a bit), I think it's time for you to enter the hidden temple in the tavern. The story will evolve from there.
SneaksieDave on 23/11/2004 at 22:07
Quote Posted by Navyhacker006
Sneaksie, are any of the spells you found useful, at all?
Absolutely. In fact - one is so powerful, that I think it might be bugged. Regarding the actual spells, I'm not sure if I should post hints, or spoilers. I realize both can be overly-tempting. Also, I'm sure "my" spells are not anything others haven't already discovered. I'm sure I've done nothing new.
Okay, here are a couple of hints for the most obvious. I'll spoiler-enclose them, just in case:
[SPOILER]For some spells, just do the opposite effect of spells you already know...[/SPOILER]
And another:
[SPOILER]For some spells, just adapt already known spells to use other base components.[/SPOILER]
Hope my wording there isn't too specific nor too cryptic. Basically, I've found that you can just spell out a desired effect and sometimes it actually works. That's why I like the system so much. :)
Quote Posted by Lytha
I found out how to cast the ice/frost-missile and the ice/frost-wall.
There ya go - then including mega spacium, you already know three spells from my list. Ack, I just remembered! I missed one rune completely (folgora I think it's called?), last play-through. Don't know where it is. So, more possibilities there (only found one spell so far).
Damn. I'm wanting to play as a Thief now, as I'm only going to be stopped cold again by every door and chest as last time, with my Mage. It's not like I'm going to be using spells I haven't used before, as Warrior/mage... but I wanted to see what a REALLY powerful fireball (100+ skill) could do. Gah. Perhaps I'll abort my Mage for now, and Thief/mage will be next.
Lytha on 24/11/2004 at 00:58
Thank you, Eshaktaar - that was the kind of a hint I was looking for. :)
I just found out how to disarm trapped items. :D
(You only need to doubleclick on the tools and then on the trap.)
And now I am at the "eavesdropping" moment (I made a molding form from a key and try now to make a key out of it, though, so far I don't know how.) It's a pity that I can't pick up these two "?"-items from good Gary's inventory. With him being such a rich and influential and industrious man, I am sure I would love these two items. ;)
(Perhaps I should not klick on that rich and beautiful lady so often, but try to pick the pockets of the female shopkeeper instead.)
Deiyen on 24/11/2004 at 02:32
The thief character was pretty satisfying for me too, as a Thief player. But I never got to finish the game with it because it was my third playthrough and things were getting a bit boring. If you wanna play thief, go for it, it's really not too difficult as most of the fighting you'll be doing should be done with the fireball anyway.
About skills:
Stealth of course, important... 50 and above is great to have, but you have that already. I don't think I need to state what extra points in stealth does... If you're going thief, then yes, obviously you'll need stealth.
Object knowledge is semi-useful. The highest you'll probably need is 70. And that's only if you want to make invisibility potions. With a Thief background, you probably won't be using that many invisibility potions anyway. I think as long as you can identify the items you need, your object knowledge is fine.
Technical skill is useful if you <i>really have the urge</i> to pick those chests, but otherwise unnecessary. (There's plenty of items to be found outside of chests anyway. And also, you can find many other sets of lockpicks, most of them with 5 uses.)
About stats:
Dexterity is probably the best way to go for a Thief. After that, intelligence. The other two are pretty unnecessary.
About the AI:
I think you should be able to pick that female shopkeeper's pockets sometime. Or I've found that if you turn invisible, you can pick their pocket even if they're looking at you.
I think the ? items you're talking about are just unpickable items. (Although you can loot the body if you kill the person.)
About general gameplay:
Yea, there are a few hidden spells. I only know six. Most of them found by doing what SneaksieDave suggested. (There's some sort of a super easter egg spell too... but you don't need that one. :cheeky: )
If you haven't been down in the crypts yet... go down there when you get the chance. All the way down. You'll love it. I believe it was Thief-inspired.
If you use the sacrifice tool on Shany you get the same result as if you left her and didn't kill the priests. She dies and... a demon appears...
And Gary attacks you when you go into that back room. Umm... if you kill him... I think the rest of the NPC's on that level attack you too.
For now, if this is your first time through, just go along with the plot. Eventually you'll have to get to the lower levels anyway, so you won't really miss a whole lot by not exploring now.
And just a general comment:
It sounds like you're a packrat like me. :cheeky: I can't put it out of my mind if I've left an item on the floor. I usually stash items in the two chests in my room in the castle though. Although that takes a loooong time as I have to run all over the place make multiple level loads.
