Epic failure's challenge!

[CdrPlatypus]

Apr 20, 2016 20:51:22 GMT -5 fallen said:

phaze - with my most recent my Nightmare group in E2, I decided to buy without worrying about it. It was more important to have the armor and the right weapon in every fight instead of gambling on the next time a good drop would come my way. In the larger scale of things, that gold is small compared to what you'll earn if you survive longer.

^THIS Biggest thing in NMI is to first survive.

[phaze]

Again, generally yes. Take a gun to a gun fight, etc. However, the point of this run, at least for some players is about score maximizing. Matrim and I already have played all the content in NMI...and lived to tell the tale. This run through is a large to push the boundaries with parties we each have optimized.

From multiple play throughs, purchasing equipment is in the nice category, especially now with improved loot drops. In this game, to survive NMI, the top reasons all involve battle strategy (placement, appropriate curses to reduce danger) and party development with skills and talents that complement. I believe that choosing equipment works best when it synergizes with your party strategy. For the most part, especially in the early part of the game, the equipment purchased nearly all falls into categories of increasing damage, armor, and core stats (accuracy and parry). To an extent, these stats are largely secondary. Never have I lost a battle and thought to myself, if only I had done an average of 5 more damage per attack, or reduced damage by having 5 more armor from the best armor in the shop. It is always due to poor strategy or mistakes like forgetting to buff before battle.

For example, with my party, using Choking Ash, Flanking Unity, and Pinning Shot, Accuracy and damage are already greatly enhanced. Misses are not an issue and weapons do nearly full damage all the time due to an armor of 0 on many enemies. Given that, purchasing the next item in the shop for a modest increase on some stats is not necessarily the optimal choice. If you already can kill (or defend) well based on all of the above context, then one can likely forgo at least some equipment upgrades.

The story changes when magical equipment opens up. For me, I'll reach Granthorn in the next week or so. The armor with +120 HP and +1 parry is an amazing armor for that point in the game. That is a much harder choice. Overall though, if an equipment choice just offers increased armor or damage, it is worth considering how much value it provides relative to the gold cost.

[matrim]

For chapter 1 I definitely just buy weapon upgrades. One, they are cheap in the grand scheme of things. Two, they can sometimes double my damage, significantly reducing my time to kill and in act 2 I can often chain 5 battles in one buff run. That saves me so much on potions and camping that I think I end up ahead. Equipment I consider essential with my group: broad daggers, bar mace, scything blades. Those 3 things are musts and make my damage explode through chapter 1 and most of chapter 2, I do not bother with any other purchases. The last things I purchase (with the exception of Wyatt, not a factor in this game) is the chapter 3 stuff from the CoD forward camps.

[phaze]

Definitely agree. I discriminated against purchases except when their is a large value. The first mace in Oskahold compared to the starting mace for example. Or making strategic purchases like the savage shield at Riven Field for parrying purposes on Kyera to hold the bridge battle. Yes, the drops can give you a better shield on the way to the bridge, but sometimes one needs reliability. Increased damage is important, especially in large jumps. Some weapons are really great for accomplishing while other purchases are often minor improvements.

For this run through, I may purchase a leather or two from Granthorn, likely upgrade my bow in Brunehorn if drops are not great, and then race to CoD to get the weapons advanced weapons for Kincaid, Selen, and Kyera. Other than that, purchases will be minimal. I will also forego Wyatt to avoid dropping a fortune.

I will really miss Wyatt and also the opportunity for the Iceheart Bow and also Oaken armor as that is a beefy light armor that easily bolsters ability to take hits. Hopefully, the necklace and ability to deliver massive holy damage with Selen will make me pleased during the CoD.

[matrim]

Vincent slid his blade through a chink in the Krete's armour, just below the shoulder blade. These lizards were agile however and the slippery thing pulled away just as the metal pierced his flesh. It was too late for it though. The electrical enchantment that Vincent had placed upon all of the party's weapons was especially effective near the spinal column. Vincent had been aiming there quite deliberately. The creature did not know it was dead yet. Vincent turned and walked towards his companions and heard a gurgling sound behind him. The Krete dropped, the electrical impulses to its diaphragm being disrupted, it suffocated in complete silence after the first sharp sound. This was the first ambush, likely of many, that they had encountered along the Torrent Watershed and these Krete proved to be formidable foes. Their archers, with their huge bows, were especially deadly and great care needed to be taken with them. Selen examined the bow of one of the fallen archers and tested it. She could not draw it back more than a few inches, it was useless to her, requiring much more strength than she could muster. She threw it away in disgust and began to rifle through the other corpses looking for valuables. Every couple of moments she would quickly look around and then be back about her business. Something had her on edge but she was taking great care to hide it. Vincent was pretty certain he was the only one who noticed.
"It pains me to kill these innocent creatures but they don't seem to be willing to negotiate"
Only Fyona would refer to these savage things as innocent. Vincent had great admiration for her. She seemed to be the only one in the group that did not have ulterior motives to be on this quest. She did it because of how deeply compassionate she was for the group and humanity at large. Vincent envied her, Fyona saw an obstacle and charged it, forsaking all safety to herself to overcome it. Doing good was all the reward she needed, to Selen's great annoyance. Vincent chuckled, recalling Selen's face when Fyona had insisted on no reward for destroying the Shaman. If it were just the two of them, Vincent would have revealed his whole story without any fear, it was his other companions that gave him pause.
"By the Dark Four, can we never fight anything that uses good steel!? All these battered blades are driving me insane, I wish I could find some more serviceable ones."
Kincaid had turned to admire the blade that was given to him. He prized it above all else, cleaning and whetting it frequently. Vincent knew that he was picturing it being driven into Geraux's gut. How long till his mad desire drove him away? Vincent had deduced that he was part of Arhaive's army long ago but he seemed to be wrestling with a huge weight. He would leave soon and Vincent had to think of a way to make him stay. He needed Kincaid to help kill Lazzon, not dead on some fool's errand. Selen was a harder read. She seemed skittish, any ill fortune could convince her to leave. Alas, she was needed as well. If Vincent revealed the true nature of the Magus' power then it might splinter the group. He could NOT let that happen. These three represented his best chance of avenging his master. He owed him so much, he had to try anything to honour him, even risking these friends he cared deeply for.
Vincent looked to his own blade, imagining it being driven into Lazzon. He would not give him the mercy of a quick death. Lazzon would pay 10 fold for the pain he had caused his master, the betrayal. Lightning danced across the blade...

The Shaman is rotting on the ground! Act 1 is far more enjoyable with the experience boost and the upgraded equipment. I usually just barely get one person (the person who killed the shaman) to level 13 and the rest at 12. This time however everyone is more than halfway to 14, very exciting. Just going through the watershed now can't wait to see if I get some of those awesome drops phaze got in there. For reference I am at 59M after killing the shaman and completing the quest in the warm cavern after.

[contributor]

Well, shucks, I messed up installing a root app on my phone and had to reinstall the ROM. I had backups but they were old, so my team is now back in the Muddy Caves before starting the shaman quest, instead of almost to the end of the Torrent Watershed. Not sure what I'm going to do now. I don't have the steam at the moment to go back through the levels.

[phaze]

Lamest death ever. Was rocking the under forge at the end of Ep 2. Party was moving to a new location on the map. I arrived at my commuter stop, turned the phone to sleep and went to work. The game auto shut down at some point.

Logged on during my lunch break and while it was loading was checking an email. Looked down a few seconds later and saw screen of death.

As best I can tell, when I put it in sleep mode, I must have just entered battle without knowing it. Upon restarting, I didn't realize I was starting a battle, and with Kincaid first, lost stealth, allowing a host initiate to attack without being cursed.

That is just just an unfortunate occurrence. Had I know I was entering battle, I would have selected Selen quickly. The game not remembering party order is on my strong dislike list, especially since the game is designed around stealth mechanics.

My score at that point was 660 million or so and was well in my way to breaking my old score with the game changes. Bollocks. Don't know if I have the gumption to restart after such a lousy death.

[matrim]

Gah, it's hard enough staying alive with the game mechanics, sucks to die to a loading mechanic. Sorry bud, challenge is still open for a nightmare game too if you want to just continue that game. I myself am just wrapping up episode 1 so IF you decided to restart, you would not be far behind.

[phaze]

Thanks for the encouragement. Will take a couple days off to cool down and start hacking away at ratkin.

The game is much smoother in playing with the equipment and experience changes that play through is faster. Far less camping means lots of saved walking time. I could catch up some with some good playing time.

[phaze]

Replaying through the game after an unfortunate demise.

Just cleared Ep 1, satisfyingly stomping on the Baron. Lazzon did not gift him with enough power it seems. With Selen having a movement bonus of 2, I can always drop him to 1 attack right away, and having a dodge Kincaid is pretty safe for avoiding the attack. I will say that having a max dam Selen or tamilin and area attack with crit is so satisfying. Someday I just need to run a power Vincent with LS.

Again, I really like the loot changes. Drops are smoother in general. Plus, the addition of sp drain makes for less resting. My Kyera is acting like a nice sp sponge with a current drain of 16%. With sacrifice at 1 I can extend the party quite nicely. When an off tank is needed, I swap the gear as needed.

My score is 153 mil, lower than my other party of 159 mil at the same point. The difference is likely just due to variation in experience, loot, and gold levels as I played very similar for efficiency.

[fallen]

phaze - great to hear that all the changes are playing out to the better!

[Zhivago]

phaze suggested I mosey on over here for NMI goodness. Thanks!

So quick synopsis: long 18mo absence, switched phones, 1.3b active NMI group near end of e3 gone forever into the ether. First foray back into NMI was a high efficiency KVKS sacrifice group with no margin for error. Bit the dust in Darkwood early e2 at ~225m. I decided to resurrect the Einherjar and go with my less efficient, but vastly more formidable original group (KKFS). I'm back in Darkwood active at 220m. Looking forward to all the new content. Cheers!

[Zhivago]

780m after visiting the Druid. Fairly certain I've cleared up e2, so it's about time to talk to the Koda.

Gholla and the Krete infestation on the way to the druid got tense. I'd forgotten the story triggers, so I got some gnarly fights with super powerful lvl 32+ mobs. Watching a tanked out Fyona taking a 1000+ damage 2 turns in a row was nerve-wracking.

[phaze]

Nice score. What are Fyona's stats to absorb 1000 HP? Playing with KKKS, the party is more fragile on HP. I am about to wrap up the Underforge (which I still dislike after all this time despite being ahead of the enemy level curve there). Something like 815 M with the boss to deal with in the UF and the Druid quest to go. However, I also did the first level of the CoD for loot drops as well as a partial exploration of Wyatt's quest to score the Heartbeat of Summer, hence my higher score. Talk about not camping during the UF with Heartbeat. It has been nice to test, but I still remain unsure of whether to keep it or grab the loot from Wyatt's stash. The Ice Heart bow and Oaken Leathers are very amazing items in their own right that I am still using on my old party that cleared all current content.

The Krete at the Druid quest will terrify as they seem to be heroic versions of Krete and also will be level 34 or 35. Very deadly as their accuracy may surpass Kincaid's ability to dodge ranged attacks. I do believe this is one of the more difficult battles in the game. In my last play through, I accidentally triggered the trolls to the south and had one terrible battle on my hands.

If you can make it through the beginning of CoD without buying gear, you'll likely be ahead of me as a I dropped like 30k gold there on a sword, hammer, and bow.

Not having played this part of the game in a while, I forgot that Wyatt's quest loot are on par with CoD. I kicked myself after finding a bow and hammer that replaced my CoD weapons.

Having done the north first, then looping south, one can reclear the south area and going to Granthorn will trigger the start of Wyatt's quest despite not having cleared the UF or Druid. I am not sure if that is intended or not and may be a bug.

Likely some max score achievement could optimize clearing areas of the game based on level caps and strategically clearing areas for loot drops to avoid ever buying things in the later game. I don't think I achieved that on this play through, but this run will be a very competitive score assuming no stupid deaths on my part.

Matrim hasn't updated in some time, so I am curious as to where he is at as well.

[matrim]

I am at the start of episode 2, confession, I was trying to wait for enchanting weapons update to come out before going further. Your guys' progress though is causing me to want to play some more now so I think I will just go ahead and do the enchants on another playthrough. The Krete in the swamps will be very deadly indeed. The most dangerous fight for me was the first 2 because there is no where to run out of range of some of the archers and they can often target anyone. Also can't run Kincaid in because of the shallows there. What I did for those fights is put +HP gear on everyone till they hit 900ish, that way they could take 3-5 Krete shots. Something else to note is that if you need to stop playing mid fight I have noticed that the Krete (melee and archer) get an ice damage increase (only the ones that do ice damage, so savage Krete remain the same) of about 50. So try to do entire fights while down there (pretty sure that is a bug and I may have reported it, can't remember).