Video Game discussion

[X-Codes]

I don't get why people max out HP in most RPGs.  Beyond having enough to survive burst damage, most RPGs have really beefy recovery moves that bring you back from the brink to full life with just one action.

[SneeR]

I don't get why people max out HP in most RPGs.  Beyond having enough to survive burst damage, most RPGs have really beefy recovery moves that bring you back from the brink to full life with just one action.

Good luck taking even 2 hits in Demon's Souls without max hp. You can take 3 whole hits if you have Second Chance active (which revives you at half health when you die immediately) with max hp.

[Kuroimaken]

I don't get why people max out HP in most RPGs.  Beyond having enough to survive burst damage, most RPGs have really beefy recovery moves that bring you back from the brink to full life with just one action.

Good luck taking even 2 hits in Demon's Souls without max hp. You can take 3 whole hits if you have Second Chance active (which revives you at half health when you die immediately) with max hp.

Yeah... I played Demon's Souls to completion, 5 times. Then I got the asian version so I could do the max soul glitch and run some tests.

Max HP makes that game a little boring. Dying in a couple of hits forces you to learn how to evade them, makes it take skill to beat the game. Not saying you should skimp out on the Vitality, but max HP is definitely not necessary to beat the game.

Incidentally, if you have Second Chance active and you get hit for something that would cost you more than your HP and a half? You die anyway. Greater Protection is strictly better for tanking.

[SneeR]

Incidentally, if you have Second Chance active and you get hit for something that would cost you more than your HP and a half? You die anyway. Greater Protection is strictly better for tanking.

That is incorrect. You can have exactly 1 hp left, get killed with Second Chance active, and revive with exactly half full hp. Maybe the Japanese version is different, but that fact saved me many a time in boss battles.

[kurashu]

I wish Dark Souls had Second Chance...

I'm trying to NG+ Four Kings and I'm also trying to not break my controllers.

[Kethrian]

I wish Dark Souls had Second Chance...

I'm trying to NG+ Four Kings and I'm also trying to not break my controllers.

Dunno if this'll help, but here's a Let's Play of that fight... (It starts at around 16 minutes in)

[Sinfire Titan]

Snagged myself AC5, and picked up the last bit of DLC for Borderlands.

RE Borderlands: The game is fun to play with a friend or three, but playing it alone is a huge drag. The randomized treasure system is a bit frustrating (it often encourages spreading the wealth, but the generator barely takes your level into account; I'm getting sick of seeing 150 damage sniper rifles when I'm level 55). The DLCs are good, if short.

RE AC5: Getting accustomed to the new control scheme well enough to take on other Cores is going to be a massive pain, and the new layout for the mission select screens (really, any menu in general) is a bit tough for me to sift through. However, a large part of this is that I'm out of shape seeing as I have't played any 4A at all in the past two years. I am absolutely in love with the sounds and voice acting though, and the graphics are fairly nice as far as From Software can account for (normally the in-game graphics are poor, but the cutscenes are always top-notch).

[kurashu]

I wish Dark Souls had Second Chance...

I'm trying to NG+ Four Kings and I'm also trying to not break my controllers.

Dunno if this'll help, but here's a Let's Play of that fight... (It starts at around 16 minutes in)

At the risk of sounding like a n00b, it's just too fucking hard. I kill one by the time two have spawned -- and that's full on attacking with my Enchanted Halberd +5 and a full strength pyro glove with greater combustion. Beatrice doesn't do shit to help either. Havel's Armor + Ring doesn't do much to help since I have to wear the Artosias. I heard Lightning Spear helps -- doesn't. I heard Crystal Ring Shield helps -- I can't make it. ):

Snagged myself AC5, and picked up the last bit of DLC for Borderlands.

RE Borderlands: The game is fun to play with a friend or three, but playing it alone is a huge drag. The randomized treasure system is a bit frustrating (it often encourages spreading the wealth, but the generator barely takes your level into account; I'm getting sick of seeing 150 damage sniper rifles when I'm level 55). The DLCs are good, if short.

Borderlands is a ton of fun playing with friends -- even if it's just you and a buddy sitting on a couch together. Single player I use to grind levels (though, I'm maxed now, so it doesn't matter).

[Kuroimaken]

I wish Dark Souls had Second Chance...

I'm trying to NG+ Four Kings and I'm also trying to not break my controllers.

Dunno if this'll help, but here's a Let's Play of that fight... (It starts at around 16 minutes in)

At the risk of sounding like a n00b, it's just too fucking hard. I kill one by the time two have spawned -- and that's full on attacking with my Enchanted Halberd +5 and a full strength pyro glove with greater combustion. Beatrice doesn't do shit to help either. Havel's Armor + Ring doesn't do much to help since I have to wear the Artosias. I heard Lightning Spear helps -- doesn't. I heard Crystal Ring Shield helps -- I can't make it. ):

Snagged myself AC5, and picked up the last bit of DLC for Borderlands.

RE Borderlands: The game is fun to play with a friend or three, but playing it alone is a huge drag. The randomized treasure system is a bit frustrating (it often encourages spreading the wealth, but the generator barely takes your level into account; I'm getting sick of seeing 150 damage sniper rifles when I'm level 55). The DLCs are good, if short.

Borderlands is a ton of fun playing with friends -- even if it's just you and a buddy sitting on a couch together. Single player I use to grind levels (though, I'm maxed now, so it doesn't matter).

See, there's your problem. Four Kings is the boss with the highest magic resistance in the game. You need to seriously burn that shit up. Use a Chaos Weapon or Quelaag's Furysword if you have it. Four Kings is essentially a damage output speed battle - you want to murder the CRAP out of each of them before the next one spawns. Once a second or third king spawns in, you're toast - they actually coordinate their attacks so you can't get any attacking done in between their own (i.e. when one king has finished his attack animation, the other is mid-swing). If you're careful about dodging, it's possible to not draw aggro from the second/third king while you're killing the first, but it's easier to try and kill each king as fast as possible before they gang up on you.

Beatrice actually makes things WORSE: her main source of assault is magic (which as previously discussed the Kings are resistant to) and her being there means the Kings actually have MORE HP. If you can't find anyone to summon, it's best to go it alone.

[kurashu]

See, there's your problem. Four Kings is the boss with the highest magic resistance in the game. You need to seriously burn that shit up. Use a Chaos Weapon or Quelaag's Furysword if you have it. Four Kings is essentially a damage output speed battle - you want to murder the CRAP out of each of them before the next one spawns. Once a second or third king spawns in, you're toast - they actually coordinate their attacks so you can't get any attacking done in between their own (i.e. when one king has finished his attack animation, the other is mid-swing). If you're careful about dodging, it's possible to not draw aggro from the second/third king while you're killing the first, but it's easier to try and kill each king as fast as possible before they gang up on you.

Beatrice actually makes things WORSE: her main source of assault is magic (which as previously discussed the Kings are resistant to) and her being there means the Kings actually have MORE HP. If you can't find anyone to summon, it's best to go it alone.

Damn. My enchanted halberd actually does the most damage against them. I'll have to farm stuff to upgrade the fury sword. I do have a +9 Fire Claymore. Maybe that'll work...I'll have to explore options. Sometimes I wish I could save scum just so I find what works best of my available options.

[Tshern]

So I have been playing Skyrim for a while now. I know I am a bit late for the party, but I wanted to explore it quite thoroughly before raising any serious complaints, but now I have a few that I think are well-founded.

Firstly, what is it with the perks? It is not unique to Skyrim, but casters seem rather... powerful. My first character was a mage, but basically from the moment I was abje to cast Conjure Flame Atronach, the game was over. Every dungeon could be solved by casting one of those and standing behind a corner. Frost Atronachs were a pain due to their size, but when I got the appropriate spell, I was already able to summon Dremora Lords. At around level 20 I got Twin Souls, because getting conjuration ranks was ridiculously easy. Eventually having a Storm Atronach and a Dremora Lord on the field at the same time (later on that could be combined with Call Dragon, but I took my time with the main quest, so it was only a minor addition at that point) solved everything.

Secondly, Sneak+dagger. Seriously? Getting the Nightingale boots or anything with an active Muffle effect meant that most anything could be killed before they ever saw me. Yet, an open combat was harder than with a mage simply because of exposure. My current character is a sneaker and I use either my Nightingale bow or a Daedric bow for ranged combat and a Glass dagger with a soulbinding effect and a nightingale blade. Combined with Azura's star that makes for a stupendously easy way of leveling. Dungeons are ridiculously easy, open combat is deadly at times.

Thirdly, the overall difficulty. Sure, if you play like a dork, you can get killed. But using the slightest bit of intelligence makes the most epic challenges way too easy. Dragons die too easily, puzzles are easy and grinding is easy. Meeh.

There were things I liked too though. M'aiq the Liar made an appearance, the dialogue was fun as per usual and the number of quests was adequate, although I would have preferred more quest lines similar to those offered by the guilds.

All in all, too easy to be challenging and the positive sides cannot outshine the nuisances.

Edit: More grievances about perks. Destruction's perk that staggers everything is slightly ridiculous. Speechcraft, Lockpicking and Pickpocket (well, the one that gives you more carrying capacity is decent, but requires two shitty ones) had absolutely nothing to offer. Illusion as a school was all but useless, because mages didn't need that and sneakers got the good stuff from items. Alteration was quite useless as well, because while some of the spells were neat, mages have no use for them and are better off focusing on Destruction and Conjuration.

[Kuroimaken]

See, there's your problem. Four Kings is the boss with the highest magic resistance in the game. You need to seriously burn that shit up. Use a Chaos Weapon or Quelaag's Furysword if you have it. Four Kings is essentially a damage output speed battle - you want to murder the CRAP out of each of them before the next one spawns. Once a second or third king spawns in, you're toast - they actually coordinate their attacks so you can't get any attacking done in between their own (i.e. when one king has finished his attack animation, the other is mid-swing). If you're careful about dodging, it's possible to not draw aggro from the second/third king while you're killing the first, but it's easier to try and kill each king as fast as possible before they gang up on you.

Beatrice actually makes things WORSE: her main source of assault is magic (which as previously discussed the Kings are resistant to) and her being there means the Kings actually have MORE HP. If you can't find anyone to summon, it's best to go it alone.

Damn. My enchanted halberd actually does the most damage against them. I'll have to farm stuff to upgrade the fury sword. I do have a +9 Fire Claymore. Maybe that'll work...I'll have to explore options. Sometimes I wish I could save scum just so I find what works best of my available options.

The alternative is to either go the enchant route (hard to keep up in that particular fight, and if you're not a Sunbro you'll have the same problem as using an Enchanted Halberd) or to use a weapon with pure physical damage (which basically makes you a sitting duck, considering how any weapons with decent pure physical damage are slower than Britney Spears' brain cells).

[Sinfire Titan]

AC5: A lot tougher than 4A was, and it doesn't help that you can skip the tutorial mission by hitting a button on accident. The end result is that I have no idea what I'm doing, and thanks to the online-nature of the game I'm constantly being pitted against stronger players if I even think about trying out the multiplayer. Honestly, the layout is so confusing for me at this point that I may restart the game for the sake of learning properly.

I was randomly pitted against an entire team of 4 players while doing some solo play, and their team's overall level was 100+. My entire team is level 17, and I myself don't contribute much to that number. I got one-shotted by what I think was a Kiku, which makes sense when you realize that my AC is constructed of parts that are actually labeled as "Junk".

The story missions are about as difficult as 4A's Hard Mode ones to boot, as it took me 8 tries against mechs that were supposed to be weaker than me (the Sniper Cannons they had really did not help, as there was very little cover near me and I started that level quite a ways away from those snipers).

In other words, it looks like FS took a page out of Dark Souls for the new AC game. Which is frustrating as hell, but I play UFO's Ex stage to kill time so I really have no right to complain.


On the bright side, Ordered missions (which are psuedo-story missions now instead of Vs AI matches) are a cakewalk.

[kurashu]

So I have been playing Skyrim for a while now. I know I am a bit late for the party, but I wanted to explore it quite thoroughly before raising any serious complaints, but now I have a few that I think are well-founded.

Firstly, what is it with the perks? It is not unique to Skyrim, but casters seem rather... powerful. My first character was a mage, but basically from the moment I was abje to cast Conjure Flame Atronach, the game was over. Every dungeon could be solved by casting one of those and standing behind a corner. Frost Atronachs were a pain due to their size, but when I got the appropriate spell, I was already able to summon Dremora Lords. At around level 20 I got Twin Souls, because getting conjuration ranks was ridiculously easy. Eventually having a Storm Atronach and a Dremora Lord on the field at the same time (later on that could be combined with Call Dragon, but I took my time with the main quest, so it was only a minor addition at that point) solved everything.

Secondly, Sneak+dagger. Seriously? Getting the Nightingale boots or anything with an active Muffle effect meant that most anything could be killed before they ever saw me. Yet, an open combat was harder than with a mage simply because of exposure. My current character is a sneaker and I use either my Nightingale bow or a Daedric bow for ranged combat and a Glass dagger with a soulbinding effect and a nightingale blade. Combined with Azura's star that makes for a stupendously easy way of leveling. Dungeons are ridiculously easy, open combat is deadly at times.

Thirdly, the overall difficulty. Sure, if you play like a dork, you can get killed. But using the slightest bit of intelligence makes the most epic challenges way too easy. Dragons die too easily, puzzles are easy and grinding is easy. Meeh.

There were things I liked too though. M'aiq the Liar made an appearance, the dialogue was fun as per usual and the number of quests was adequate, although I would have preferred more quest lines similar to those offered by the guilds.

All in all, too easy to be challenging and the positive sides cannot outshine the nuisances.

Edit: More grievances about perks. Destruction's perk that staggers everything is slightly ridiculous. Speechcraft, Lockpicking and Pickpocket (well, the one that gives you more carrying capacity is decent, but requires two shitty ones) had absolutely nothing to offer. Illusion as a school was all but useless, because mages didn't need that and sneakers got the good stuff from items. Alteration was quite useless as well, because while some of the spells were neat, mages have no use for them and are better off focusing on Destruction and Conjuration.

At the risk of derailing the thread again, I'm glad to see well thought and specific criticisms of Skyrim being leveled against it rather than, "ZOGM it iz has bugs!!1!!1!!!!!11111ionnoeneoneonen" that is so common.

[Bozwevial]

Edit: More grievances about perks. Destruction's perk that staggers everything is slightly ridiculous. Speechcraft, Lockpicking and Pickpocket (well, the one that gives you more carrying capacity is decent, but requires two shitty ones) had absolutely nothing to offer. Illusion as a school was all but useless, because mages didn't need that and sneakers got the good stuff from items. Alteration was quite useless as well, because while some of the spells were neat, mages have no use for them and are better off focusing on Destruction and Conjuration.

Illusion's Silent Casting is dead useful. Alteration I think I only bothered with so I could use Telekinesis for shits and giggles. The stagger perk is nice, but that's about all Destruction has going for it. Even with the relevant damage boosting perks, you're still doing increasingly smaller amounts of damage to your enemies. Being purely-Destruction focused only works if you abuse the hell out of the stagger (in which case it's boring) or you craft items that reduce the magicka costs by a lot (in which case it's slightly less boring).

[Tshern]

Edit: More grievances about perks. Destruction's perk that staggers everything is slightly ridiculous. Speechcraft, Lockpicking and Pickpocket (well, the one that gives you more carrying capacity is decent, but requires two shitty ones) had absolutely nothing to offer. Illusion as a school was all but useless, because mages didn't need that and sneakers got the good stuff from items. Alteration was quite useless as well, because while some of the spells were neat, mages have no use for them and are better off focusing on Destruction and Conjuration.

Illusion's Silent Casting is dead useful. Alteration I think I only bothered with so I could use Telekinesis for shits and giggles. The stagger perk is nice, but that's about all Destruction has going for it. Even with the relevant damage boosting perks, you're still doing increasingly smaller amounts of damage to your enemies. Being purely-Destruction focused only works if you abuse the hell out of the stagger (in which case it's boring) or you craft items that reduce the magicka costs by a lot (in which case it's slightly less boring).

Silent Casting is the last perk, isn't it? I never bothered to improve my Illusion all that much simply because I felt it was unnecessary for a mage. So far I have had no need to really on stealth. Granted, I have not played through the Dark Brotherhood storyline with the mage, only with the sneaky character.

As for the staggering thingee, abusing it was exactly what happened if I ever used Destruction. There was no reason not to charge the spells so that they staggered the opponent. You could get the Archamage's Robes quite early and magicka boosts were not hard to come by. Mind you, I had made no custom items when I started staggering people. I didn't play a Destruction mage either, I was relying more on Conjuration with Destruction as my back-up. Two Storm Atronachs against any dragon was quite nice, because they drained its magicka pool ridiculously fast.


I am not saying Skyrim is a bad game, I do actually enjoy playing it. However, I do think the power level and the disparity between different skills was quite astonishing. Sure, there were some annoying bugs as well, but they never bothered me too much.

[X-Codes]

The key to open combat: Smithing, and maxing out your Damage and Armor ratings with perks.  Boring, but effective.

[Tshern]

The key to open combat: Smithing, and maxing out your Damage and Armor ratings with perks.  Boring, but effective.

My rogue character can do open combat if I deign to allow it to happen. I improved the Nightingale armor to Legendary and my current armor rating is, I think, 610 due to my high Light Armor skill and all the perks except for the last one. However, if I have a follower (I usually don't, because they tend to reveal my location) I will do open combat and it works just fine with a few exceptions, most of which are just my own mistakes. I just see no reason to go toe-to-toe with foes. I can kill Forsworn Briarhearts by pickpocketing their hearts before they see me (it really works), sneak up on Ancient Dragons and kill them with one dual-wielding power attack, kill the Dragon Priests before they get out of their coffins and so forth.

One funny tactics is Call Dragon. Personally I use the dragon as sort of a laser beam pointing out my enemies. I call the dragon and it proceeds to use its breath weapon on people who take very little damage, but I can follow the breath weapon's trail and sneak attack the target. Quite funny actually.

[Monotremeancer]

I can kill Forsworn Briarhearts by pickpocketing their hearts before they see me (it really works)

Gotta try this

[Tshern]

I can kill Forsworn Briarhearts by pickpocketing their hearts before they see me (it really works)

Gotta try this

It's fucking hilarious, I tell you. Sneak next to them, activate Pickpocket and take the heart. Even if they notice you, they die.

Edit: Video proving my point.