KickStarter Serpent in the Staglands Thread

Blaine · May 30, 2015

I never had any fear of boring easy combat, so I'm not sure where you're getting that from. I'll reserve judgment of the game's encounter design until later on.

As for equipment, I've emptied all the containers in the temple of valuables, opened any other containers I've happened across, and can't yet afford anything from the temple merchant, which is the only merchant I've encountered.

aratuk · May 30, 2015

MTwolves said:
The inner snob in me thinks that SITS is probably better off with GOG than Steam.

Let me make some gross, misinformed generalizations.
The GOG RPG gamers seem to know more about RPGs than Steam. Like, they actually know what Darklands is.
The Steam RPG gamers are Skyrim fanboys.

I agree that GOG is a better home for this game, and it will find a more receptive audience there, but I'm unsure if that can outweigh the difference in scale with Steam's vast userbase. I hope it can.

Ninjerk · May 30, 2015

Blaine said:
I never had any fear of boring easy combat, so I'm not sure where you're getting that from. I'll reserve judgment of the game's encounter design until later on.

As for equipment, I've emptied all the containers in the temple of valuables, opened any other containers I've happened across, and can't yet afford anything from the temple merchant, which is the only merchant I've encountered.

You're going to be a hobo for awhile, btw.

JarlFrank · May 30, 2015

The combat can be really fucking brutal. I died like 20 times already.

I love this game!

Haba · May 30, 2015

Level 1 spells will not help, most of the time. Goblin King seems very much like an optional encounter, I don't think he is normally intended to be dealt with early in the game. I cheesed that fight with traps. Like all my traps.

hoverdog · May 30, 2015

Blaine said:
I've now run into several different little areas that contain random groups of wolves/foxes/lizards in the first wilderness map, and cannot win in combat against them. I'll set Blood Cocoon on the lead guy before combat begins, cast a Radiant Stave, provoke the enemies, and then direct everyone who's free to focus on one enemy at a time. Enemies chew right through the "tank" in moments despite Blood Cocoon and Radiant Stave, and then the rest of the party goes down, too.

Am I missing something? Am I supposed to spam those Healing Herb things at this point? I've also tried moving in another direction and avoiding areas that seem to contain these groups, thinking I'll level up a bit or find more equipment, but every direction seems to have one such group.

try to pull them one by one - or at least two at a time. this will help a lot.

Ninjerk · May 30, 2015

JarlFrank said:
The combat can be really fucking brutal. I died like 20 times already.

I love this game!

There's also definitely a "wandery" feel to the game. Feels very much like Fallout in that regard. You have your mission ("make it thru the staglands and find a portal back to your immortal realm or w/e"), but there are just somewhat ambiguous leads as to who is responsible for your misfortune and where to find the way home.

Ninjerk · May 30, 2015

BTW, did you guys use avatars or have a smaller party for awhile? I'm assuming XP is split evenly.

ArchAngel · May 30, 2015

Ninjerk said:
JarlFrank said:

The combat can be really fucking brutal. I died like 20 times already.

I love this game!

Click to expand...

There's also definitely a "wandery" feel to the game. Feels very much like Fallout in that regard. You have your mission ("make it thru the staglands and find a portal back to your immortal realm or w/e"), but there are just somewhat ambiguous leads as to who is responsible for your misfortune and where to find the way home.

And that is awesome. One of the reasons why I bought the game

JarlFrank · May 30, 2015

Yeah, I love the atmosphere this game oozes. I still have to get used to making notes by myself, but dammit, other than that it is oldschool in all the right ways.

Modron · May 30, 2015

Blaine said:
I've now run into several different little areas that contain random groups of wolves in the first wilderness map, and cannot win in combat against them.

Blaine confirmed as MCA.

:updatedmytxt:

tuluse · May 30, 2015

Ninjerk said:
BTW, did you guys use avatars or have a smaller party for awhile? I'm assuming XP is split evenly.

XP is not split. Getting 50xp means all characters in party get 50.

I had some meta knowledge (knew you got 2 companions essentially right away) and made 3 avatars.

Somberlain · May 30, 2015

Was going to wait a while for patches and stuff, but fuck it. I'll just start playing, this thread makes me too excited.

Ninjerk · May 30, 2015

What ho, cat?

Agesilaus · May 30, 2015

Anybody far enough along to make a wolf-based fighter yet? Is it a viable option, and what do I need to do to make it work (other than pump skill points into the spell)?

I have been using cat a lot, I hotkey it and find all the enemies. Bat polymorph lets you take your whole party through small gaps, which seems like it would be helpful.

I talked to the rat near the well by the first town, and he told me about the prisoner. How do I get down the town well, or is the goblin king the other tribesman (if so, why can he speak my language)? How come I can't tell the town guard that I spoke to the prisoner? He says he brought someone out of town with good linguistics skills, but my linguistics were good enough to do it myself.

Fry · May 30, 2015

The manual patch fails for me, so... eh. I'll wait until they get their shit together.

Haba · May 30, 2015

Oh man...

Philosophy is the ultimate evil in this game.

Found a quite interesting place that requires philosophy 5 to enter. Also requires a human sacrifice to get deeper...

Knowing that some of the characters you recruit are much better than the ones you get early/create yourself... If I reform my party, can I get the NPC back?

Blaine · May 30, 2015

The solution indeed seems to be to creep forward a tiny bit at a time in order to "pull" enemies slowly, just like in an MMORPG.

There are really only but so many options available at the very beginning of the game, which is why I posted in this thread for suggestions.

Haba · May 30, 2015

Many of the early options only become useful after you pump several points in them. Specialization is really the key. One point in five different level 1 spells isn't going to help you when you meet tougher foes later.

Ninjerk · May 30, 2015

Agesilaus said:
Anybody far enough along to make a wolf-based fighter yet? Is it a viable option, and what do I need to do to make it work (other than pump skill points into the spell)?

I have been using cat a lot, I hotkey it and find all the enemies. Bat polymorph lets you take your whole party through small gaps, which seems like it would be helpful.

I talked to the rat near the well by the first town, and he told me about the prisoner. How do I get down the town well, or is the goblin king the other tribesman (if so, why can he speak my language)? How come I can't tell the town guard that I spoke to the prisoner? He says he brought someone out of town with good linguistics skills, but my linguistics were good enough to do it myself.

Do you have to have linguistics to talk to animals or can you just polymorph and converse with them?

Agesilaus · May 30, 2015

Ninjerk said:
Agesilaus said:

Anybody far enough along to make a wolf-based fighter yet? Is it a viable option, and what do I need to do to make it work (other than pump skill points into the spell)?

I have been using cat a lot, I hotkey it and find all the enemies. Bat polymorph lets you take your whole party through small gaps, which seems like it would be helpful.

I talked to the rat near the well by the first town, and he told me about the prisoner. How do I get down the town well, or is the goblin king the other tribesman (if so, why can he speak my language)? How come I can't tell the town guard that I spoke to the prisoner? He says he brought someone out of town with good linguistics skills, but my linguistics were good enough to do it myself.

Click to expand...

Do you have to have linguistics to talk to animals or can you just polymorph and converse with them?

You need woodwise, and use the character with sufficient woodwise to initiate the conversation. The animals might like you more if you have a snack to share.

JarlFrank · May 30, 2015

I already like this better than Eternity.

The Fish · May 30, 2015

Ninjerk said:
Haba said:

One Harvester? No problem!

One Harvester flees and pulls in three healthy ones? SLIGHT PROBLEM!

Also, uhm... Some things make sense once you travel further, though I'm doubtful whether knowing them would make the encounters any different (dialogue wise). I still vote for killing everyone.

Click to expand...

What level were you when you fought the harvester? I can't puncture it's armor

You need to knock them down to reliably hurt them, so the elixir skill which renders enemies unconscious should work. There's a spell which does this as well. You can also do unblockable poison damage with the high level poison weapon skill.