Page 1 of 2
Mechanics of Book II
Posted: May 12th, 2010, 7:58 pm
by Slarty
I have a question for any beta testers (or current players) who pay attention to the game mechanics. (Hi, Randomizer.) Did you notice any obvious changes from Book I as far as the exact impact of stats, skills, and the like? After playing for a half hour nothing has jumped out at me, but I know Basilisk Wrangler said a number of adjustments were made. I know that I am curious if the stats and skills and items that I found overpowered in Book I will be just as easy for me to exploit.
Alternately, if BW wants to answer this, well, that would be dandy.
As an aside -- Book II is running beautifully on my MacBook... under Windows XP via Boot Camp!

Re: Mechanics of Book II
Posted: May 12th, 2010, 10:09 pm
by CrazyBernie
There's a lot of stats that were adjusted or balanced to help prevent exploitation; however, there will likely still be ways to take advantage of the system for people who take the time to mess around with the various builds and stat combinations. Making sure that every single skill/stat is perfectly balanced would not only be a PITA, but it would likely turn the game into something less enjoyable.
For instance, a good chunk of discussion was spent on mana regeneration to get it to be something that wasn't too slow/fast.
Re: Mechanics of Book II
Posted: May 12th, 2010, 10:17 pm
by Randomizer
I didn't check the abilities like you did Slarty in Bool 1, but they seem to be fairly close. The big change came in skills where the curve was adjusted so you need more levels in a skill to have a major improvement.
Meditation is useful for getting mana point regeneration, but you need about level 10 to get over 1 per turn.
Hide in shadows is helpful on dark and stormy nights to rob places in the 5 to 10 range and at 12 to 15 will get you through all but the brightly lit places. However don't forget to have move silently otherwise the monsters still can hear you.
Combat skills get feats at level 10 and the time between using them drops at higher levels.
Locks and traps give a flat 25 XP multiplied by the difficulty level. You now need more of those skills to unlock and remove traps unless you want to keep reloading. Having enough pick locks and you don't need keys.

Re: Mechanics of Book II
Posted: May 12th, 2010, 10:27 pm
by Ojisan
Is there any cap/ soft cap on stats/skills ? Or will i do fine for example just bumping wisdom sky high for healer?
Re: Mechanics of Book II
Posted: May 12th, 2010, 10:29 pm
by Slarty
What about training? What skills can be trained (by books or by people) and what are the limitations thereon?
Also, are buffs just as overpowered as in Book 1?
Re: Mechanics of Book II
Posted: May 12th, 2010, 11:32 pm
by Dragonlady
Slarty wrote:What about training? What skills can be trained (by books or by people) and what are the limitations thereon?
Also, are buffs just as overpowered as in Book 1?
Before this, the first question, can be answered, it was thought the best way was to let everyone play the game for a few days to a week before giving hints, clues and lists like the one you asked for.

It's way more fun when you figure it out yourself.

Re: Mechanics of Book II
Posted: May 12th, 2010, 11:35 pm
by Slarty
If the walking speed was faster and I wasn't still tempted to reload-optimize chests, maybe. As it is, I'd rather learn as much as I can beforehand and avoid repeating the tedious parts of the game.
Re: Mechanics of Book II
Posted: May 12th, 2010, 11:36 pm
by Randomizer
Almost every skill is trainable by book.
Wisdom is just like intelligence for a mage. You can only learn as many spells as half your wisdom for divine and intelligence for mage spells. There isn't a need for more than 31 to learn the tier 3 spells.
Some skills are adjusted so they don't get too overpowered unless you raise them to between 15 and 20. The curve depends upon the skill.
Buffs are sort of overpowered.
Re: Mechanics of Book II
Posted: May 13th, 2010, 12:34 pm
by Ojisan
Im pretty sure ive seen somewhere, that you can get attacked while camping, but i never was, and i played for 10 hours now.
Re: Mechanics of Book II
Posted: May 13th, 2010, 12:39 pm
by Rune_74
Ojisan wrote:Im pretty sure ive seen somewhere, that you can get attacked while camping, but i never was, and i played for 10 hours now.
depends wheer you camp.
Re: Mechanics of Book II
Posted: May 13th, 2010, 12:54 pm
by Ojisan
Rune_74 wrote:
depends wheer you camp.
So i take it as yes?:)
Well i camped all over the place..in different dungeons in open world locations..
I also find it strange, that you are able to outrun mobs, IF you are running nonstop, but if you go turn by turn then you wont be able to outrun them. Is that some sort of feature?
Re: Mechanics of Book II
Posted: May 13th, 2010, 4:30 pm
by ManusDei
Nope, it's just that you "win" a step every some steps, so one-by-one it takes time for you to see it

Re: Mechanics of Book II
Posted: May 13th, 2010, 4:37 pm
by Slarty
In Book I, you definitely got "free" turns once in a while if you clicked really fast in combat, and I'm pretty sure BW confirmed this as intentional on the forums. So I expect the same thing is true, and perhaps it applies to travel as well.
Re: Mechanics of Book II
Posted: May 13th, 2010, 5:45 pm
by realmzmaster
Yes you can get attacked when you camp. I got attacked camping right outside of town by a dragonel. You will also be awaken by any creature that comes within the camp area.
If your hunger or thrist meter is too low you will be awaken by either hunger or thrist pains.
I like the fact that one of the default rules is that weapons, armor etc degrade. Nothing like having your copper short sword fall apart as you kill a foe.
Re: Mechanics of Book II
Posted: May 14th, 2010, 8:58 am
by Ojisan
Hmm, just made very unpleasant discovery - i cant learn more spells due to some int restriction...having crapload of useless lowlvl speel i never used and now i cant learn one that is usefull. Is there way to get rid of useless spells?
There should have been warning on spell learning restriction :\