Gingerbread Man on 29/3/2005 at 20:12
It's not like I don't TRY, goddamnit. But even after applying liberal amounts of pretty much EVERYTHING I'm offered in spam, 2300 miles is a bit much to ask.
>:(
Gingerbread Man on 29/3/2005 at 22:47
I have figured out the deal with Ylsides... The idea seems to be "Hit them first, hit them HARD, and run backwards a lot"
They tend to speedburst into range, so you can keep them far enough away until THEY close the gap, at which point you can get a shot in to slow them down (usually). Lather, rinse, repeat. And keep a stack of MEGA VITAE handy... though potions are better, as they don't temporarily disable your sword arm.
In any event, I've now got a nice suit of Ylside armour. Kinda weird how no one seems to care about an Ylside stomping around in the Castle and leaving great piles of Ylside swords in Am Shaegar's room, but hey.
"Iserbius doesn't give a shit about the King."
Kinda blew immersion right there, guys. There was absolutely no need. I'm all for swearies in games, but it has to be a realistic and consistent thing otherwise it just smacks of Trying To Be Cool. Plus it's totally out of keeping with the created world. Swears work in UT, Max Payne, etc etc. Swears just sound silly in sword-and-sorcery games unless it's an established facet from the start.
Anyway.
I guess I should go find Akbaa and put this sword up his arsehole.
Any idea why Batty Frown woman in the rebel base turned into Scary Demonface after I (presumably) sexed her up? Or is this part of the sudden and intriguing Order of the Sacred Dagger / Lunshire's Assassination Attempt plotline that'll get explained later on?
Now that this part of things has reared its head, I think it would have been great if it had shown up earlier and been a longer-running suspicion about behind-the-scenes and paranoia and who do you trust. Between the Order of the Sacred Dagger and the Sisterhood of Edurneum there would have been an awful lot of potential for faction-building here.
Gingerbread Man on 1/4/2005 at 19:44
Two Ylsides, battle axes. At once. You have got to be shitting me.
After getting murdered about a dozen times, with full use of invisibility, slow-time scrolls, etc (I was pleased to find that firing lightning out of my stomach doesn't undo invisibility, so a nice opening move is to electroshock the baldheads while they can't see me), I went around trying to get a bit more XP.
With a suit of Ylside armour, the Shield of the Elder (I gave Krahoz and Zohark back to the rebel scum -- I hope I don't need them later, but if I do I can just murder them and pick their pockets), and a meteor sabre even the lichs guarding Poxsellis' tomb weren't much of a problem. But these sodding Ylsides... I'm still not sure whether its my own utter uselessness that's killing me, or if they're simply a bit overbalanced. But since you very rarely (if ever) have to fight two at once, I think it's more of the former.
But I think I've killed pretty much everything outside of the Ylside bunker. Hell, I even went and killed all the rats in the now-abandoned Edurneum outpost.
I have to think up some kind of clever tactic to get past these two battleaxe baldheads, otherwise I'm simply doomed. I can't imagine things are much easier inside the bunker.
driver on 1/4/2005 at 19:45
Quote Posted by Gingerbread Man
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In any event, I've now got a nice suit of Ylside armour. Kinda weird how no one seems to care about an Ylside stomping around in the Castle and leaving great piles of Ylside swords in Am Shaegar's room, but hey.
This is why I prefer to go the magic route (contrary to most other RPGs where you can find me in the front row with a pair of nice sharp death sticks). You get this armour later no matter what and not only does it have no requirements, it boosts your Str and Def to silly levels. Plus you can take down Ylsides with 1 or 2 fireballs at higher levels :devil:
Eshaktaar on 2/4/2005 at 09:39
If you are able to cast fireballs, then do it. They work wonders on Ylsides. You don't need to be a very good mage either, as spells don't improve with higher levels to my knowledge.
Gingerbread Man on 2/4/2005 at 09:48
Yeah, I read a few posts in here that said a couple of fireballs would take an Ylside down fast.
Two problems with that, however...
a) My spellcasting skillz suck proverbial bottom, to the point where unless I have three queued up I can forget it. And I do like to have a healing spell on deck while fighting Ylsides
b) Even when I can hit them with fireballs, two doesn't seem to do a damned thing. You can imagine the hilarity right after I read those posts... Crept out of the tunnel to Arx with a couple of fireballs on deck, cloaked and ran up to one of the baldheads. Tossed two FLAMING SPHERES OF DEATH at him and said AHAHAHA WHERE'S YOUR TOUGHNESS NOW??? just as I realised my invisible was about to wear off any nanosecond and Mr Clean didn't seem to be lying on the ground in a smouldering, twitching heap.
Actually, as I recall it took the further application of a Slow Time scroll and several whallops with the two-handed meteor sword to put him down.
I r teh sucky magician.
:D
twisty on 2/4/2005 at 10:57
Try incinerate + dash.
Munin the Raven on 2/4/2005 at 18:37
Quote Posted by Eshaktaar
If you are able to cast fireballs, then do it. They work wonders on Ylsides. You don't need to be a very good mage either, as spells don't improve with higher levels to my knowledge.
Spells don't improve with character level, but with casting ability. It's a confusing system. Ex: if your casting ability is 100% or better, your fireballs will be level 10 and do maximum damage, even if your character is only level 4. Note that having a casting ability above 100% doesn't improve spells further; it's a waste of skill points.
Gingerbread Man, one cheap tactic that works well in a corridor is to create a field to block an Ylside charging you, then drop an incinerate spell in the same space. You can also try dropping them from a distance with arrows if you have a good dexterity and archery skill (it's incredibly easy if you have Inut's bow). And don't forget the poison, even though Ylsides are resistant to it. When sniping enemies in this game, remember to wait after each successful backstab. If you backstab an opponent two times in a row without waiting in between, they will magically determine exactly where you are and charge.
I've found that dash doesn't work too well with Ylsides because they use a "double dash" version of the spell and can still score nasty hits if you're hasted.
Gingerbread Man on 11/4/2005 at 21:11
Well, things seem to have kind of petered out. I'm still not having much luck avoiding Ylside Ass-Handing, and at level 9 there isn't really much else I can do. I have kick-ass armour and weaponry, two bags full of scrolls and potions, there's almost nothing left to kill outside of the Ylside Bunker (I even went back and killed all the rats in the now-abandoned SnakeWoman Lair)... and I am drastically low on HD space -- space that I need for actual work.
So, long story short, I have had to shelve Arx for the forseeable future. Kept my saves, though... I'll revisit it at a later date (with any luck I'll be upping my drive capacity pretty soon)
Even though I leave it unfinished, I think my opinion of the game overall is quite favourable. And remember I hate RPGs.
There was a lot of stuff I didn't have an opportunity to fully explore, things like making potions and enchanting items. I never really saw the point of Food, but I liked it as far as a fun little bit of realism goes. Never did try my hand at fishing.
The control system, while a bit awkward for me at first, ended up being extremely smooth and handy (other than rune-casting in the middle of a fight), and the auto-arrange inventory was very useful.
Maybe the keyring could have held more, or maybe I should have been able to buy two of them. Having keys labelled after discovering what they open (or if you were told what they are for, as with the Crypt Key) would have been nice, too... of course, once they're on the keyring it doesn't really matter.
The voice acting was... erm... well, everyone other than Am Shaegar was pretty damned cool. I don't know what the deal was there, but for a main character and the apparent saviour of the universe, he seemed a combination of bored and distracted most of the time. And his accent kept wandering.
But, but, but.
On the whole, very fun. When I get around to reinstalling and finishing it, I'll let you know how it went. :D
Tony on 3/8/2005 at 23:37
This account is even better than Am Shaegar's Diary.
