Fig455 on 5/11/2005 at 23:09

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Basically "wobbly Bob" as GBM likes to call him is lost. I am in a part of the game where....
[SPOILER]I have the gem dealers papers signed
I met the guy I believe I am supposed to give them to. He tells me that they are on strike, and he says "You no come in"
The trolls say I am no friend of theirs, so no passing them either.
Found my way to some gem mines w/spiders and rats (and one particularyly mean spider that seems WAY too tough right now.[/SPOILER]

What the heck do I do....where do I go?

Fig455 on 6/11/2005 at 19:33

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JUST found that exit. Thanks. It all looks the same. FINALLY found the city of Arx. Thanks, man!!

(oh, I beat that goddamn spider, and took his [SPOILER]emerald[/SPOILER]as well...>:thumb:

piln on 7/11/2005 at 18:57

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What kind of character are you playing/aiming for?

piln on 9/11/2005 at 02:48

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Yeah, I almost always play stealthy types too. I tried a character with a bit of everything first time around - worked out pretty well for a while, but I somehow managed to get to the end having missed out a huge chunk of the game and was a couple of levels weaker than I ought to have been.
[SPOILER]I missed out the whole crypt section, and could not return to it later (it remained locked, I was no longer offered the key, and my thieving skills weren't good enough to break in)[/SPOILER]
So I had fewer points, spread thinner than they really should have been - I found myself unable to finish, so I started again. Two good things I have to say about this game: firstly, I hate the RPG "tradition" of magic-using characters being initially underpowered and a total pain-in-the-arse to play; secondly, I rarely replay games at all. My second Arx character was about 70% mage, 30% fighter, and I had an absolute blast, I have never had so much fun playing a magic user. And when this one had completed the game, I started up another straight away - this time a sneaky archer, much the same as yours no doubt, and was delighted to find that stealthy play was viable for very nearly the entirity of the game (I'd had my doubts that it would work, and often find that RPGs fail to support all the character types they offer, but Arx held up pretty well).
Hint (not a major spoiler): [SPOILER]have you discovered the wonders of poisoned arrows yet?[/SPOILER]
I even fired up a fourth character (a tank), but got a little bored about halfway through. I'd tried my best to break the game with my thief (didn't manage it :p ) and had explored every nook and cranny, so playing it straight & direct lost its appeal after a while. I probably should have played the brute-force guy first. But there aren't many other games I'd play three-and-a-half times back to back. In fact, there aren't any.

I agree with what you say about Morrowind, and one of the things I disliked about it most was that your gameplay felt identical regardless of what kind of character you built (mostly because everything was handled by hidden dice-rolls); what I really love about Arx is that the character you build makes a huge difference to your gameplay experience, and that's why I kept going back. I hope for more of the same in Dark Messiah.

piln on 10/11/2005 at 02:24

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Oh gawd, you shouldn'a got me started...

Right, lets see what I remember about thieving... Lockpicking is governed by Technical skill, right? I think each lock in the game has an arbitrary "difficulty" value, and they all seem to be quite high. However, stay tuned for good news.

I remember pickpocketing is governed by Stealth skill, and the option only becomes available when you reach 50+. Picking pockets takes some practise - you have to nudge your victim really gently and make sure they don't face you, and I think being in shadow helps here too. One cool trick is to bump them so their inventory appears, but don't do anything til they start to walk away from you - then, with practise you can keep pace with them and take items while moving, as long as you don't fall too far behind.

[SPOILER]My biggest self-imposed sleight-of-hand challenge was putting a fish into a Ratman's pocket without him ever knowing I was there. It took bloody ages.[/SPOILER]

Now, that "good news" is a thief/assassin character really only needs three skills - Stealth, Technical and Ranged. You might want to put a few points into melee and/or defense if you're worried about getting cornered, but if you're good at playing with patience and cunning you really won't need them. I held a few points back for Casting instead, so I could make myself invisible when things got hairy ;) and being able to throw fireballs is a good thing for any character. Maybe put a little into Object Knowledge if you need to (more on that later), but you really want to get those three main skills as high as possible (like, each one up to 100 or more if you can, although I seem to remember the toughest lock only requiring a Tech of 90-something). Improving your ranged skill will increase the chance of critical hits; stealth will improve your backstab chance, and these two things are cumulative - if you get both in one shot, heads fucking explode. High points in both these skills + staying hidden = lots of murder :ebil:

And you only need to worry about your Dexterity and Mental stats. Every Dex increase will further add to your ranged skill :D , your critical chance :D :D and your stealth skill (and hence backstab chance) :D :D :D ; Dex should also increase your melee skill as high as you need without spending extra skill points. Unfortunately I don't think it increases defense (don't get hit!) Mental will aid Technical, Object Knowledge and whatever the skill is that lets you see hidden doors, traps, etc. This is useful, but it doesn't need to be that high before you can see everything. I'd say favour Dex over Mental by 2 or 3 to 1, and ignore Strength and Constitution.

Arx really lets you play to your strengths rather than expecting you to round out your character; you can identify what you need (or want) and really focus on it. For example, I didn't touch my thief's Strength or Constitution at all, and I only upped my fighter/mage's Strength a few points so I could weild a longsword. My hit points were garbage, but it didn't matter because the game let me excel at the skills I'd chosen and outclass my enemies, rather than just outlasting them.

There are, unfortunately, one or two poorly-judged difficulty spikes in the game that almost all players find incredibly hard (regardless of character type). Not much you can do but grit your teeth and persevere - although there are some, ahem, "exploits" which can help if you're really struggling. But other than these hiccups (it literally is just one or two times in the whole game) you should be able to play in a way that suits your character all the way to the end.

Regarding poison, i'd better tag this...
[SPOILER]Object Knowledge is what will get you your poisoning ability - there are arbitrary skill levels you must attain to be able to make each type of potion, and I think poison is the easiest (needing 30~40 points, iirc). The ingredient is a green plant, and you'll need bottles and a distillery (-_^)[/SPOILER]

Argh... you probably guessed I love talking about Arx... I just found all the things you can do with your character really fascinating, and the more you learn how the mechanics work, the more rewarding it gets. And I used to bang on at length about my non-traditional views on CRPGs in general at RPGDot, much to the displeasure of the hardcore D&D chaps. OK, Long Post Must End. Last thing: duno about a proper screenshot key, but "Print Screen" should work - if Arx will let you Alt-Tab without crashing itself or Windows, you can paste into MS Paint or Photoshop or whatever. A bit cumbersome, but OK if you're not wanting to take huge numbers of shots.