[New Uniques and Legendaries - Brainstorming]

Here is a little update for all Star Wars fans out there. The double-bladed lightsabers aka saberstaves can now drop in all colors and have all dominant damage types.

 

I haven't made new blueprints for them, so refer to the old description if you forgot what kind of stats this weapon type can have. In the next version of the Item Mod these two-handers would drop the following way:

Random Rare Saberstaves (yellow tier 12) - can drop in all four colors.

Maul's Swordstaff - of course remains red only.

Jedi Mind Trick - can now drop in either red or blue.

Light Source - can be found in red, green and purple variants.

[New Sacred 3 Game play review in Spanish!]

This video just confirms everything that was said in other previews, only in a bit more positive advertising-like mood (not surprising, considering that the staff member is interviewed).

I can only correct a bit of what SX said:

At 14.05 you are shown not the boss list, but the list of all Weapon Spirits that would be available in game to select as a passive buff for your team (WaffenGeister literally translates as Weapon Spirit or Weapon Ghost). Does not look like a long one...

 

And the drops from monsters are gold, HP and Mana orbs.

 

To tell you the truth, I'm only more disappointed in the game after this video. Now they don't even try to pretend that it's an "Action-RPG with emphasis on Action" like they said before, they openly call it an arcade action. And what they have of those "interchangeable hit types" doesn't look RPG-like to me - just a little RPG element to spice up a game of another genre. I've seen bigger skill trees in games which nobody tried to call RPGs, especially around year 2002-2004 when adding "RPG elements" was a popular idea.

 

That's not to mention how they only discuss console-like coop, entered by pressing controller buttons. I'm not sure that they test it on console and not on PC, so maybe having a controller for the second player is a must, unless you play on the Internet. And let's hope that at least the first player can play comfortably using mouse and keyboard.

 

That brings to mind another preview article about Sacred 3 (in German, found here: http://www.computerbild.de/artikel/cbs-News-PC-Sacred-3-Vorschau-7680552.html). It looks like coop-play in S3 is more like "Coop Mode" in Sacred 2 - the first player is main one who advances through campaign, and the second one drops in and out to assist but not to progress together. And looks like their "Victory is Ours. Glory is Mine" motto in practice refers to the fact that the first player is a high level hero, and the second one is a (oftenly low level) sidekick, who works as distraction for enemies, keeps them locked and occupied, while the big guy takes them down. Not to mention that the maximum party size is 4 players, and it's not clear whether or not they can be of the same class (all previews and screenshots only feature mixed-class parties).

[New Uniques and Legendaries - Brainstorming]

Speaking of other misc changes and fixes - we can just as well mention a fix for Human Archer armor.

Appearance of the NPC guards before and after:

 

And I just caught and fixed another one of them - the Dark Archers of Unholy Crusade (they use a different model than the guards, but it has the same glitch):

[New Uniques and Legendaries - Brainstorming]

Thanks for the table of contents update, Flix.

 

This hat hovers a bit above TG's head and is slightly off-center (unless 3DMax is playing tricks on me), so how well it looks without editing depends on camera angle. Side View:

Though only a simple edit is required to make it fit well, so why not make it.

[New Uniques and Legendaries - Brainstorming]

Thank you, Yoshio, I'm glad you like them.

 

As for release...

It's not a sin

To say with a grin

It'll be released when it's done!

Seriously, though, you can expect a new version of the mod to be released in the same fashion as the previous ones and available via Downloads section in about two weeks (give or take a few days depending on how the testing goes).

[Melee or Ranged Dryad? Help please.]

Dual Wielding and Weaponless Dryads are more gear-dependent than the Ranged ones, so if you lost all the money and items you had stored, playing ranged would be easier. Though if you feel like risking and experimenting, you can try going melee and trying to get good gear with Bargaining - that would help at least for rings and amulets.

 

On PC, melee Dryads are popular, but as Lifeleech works differently on consoles, they would deal significantly less damage there. Your build suggestion sounds solid for a ranged fighter, so I'd say go for it, and take Voodoo Focus or Nature Lore as the last skill. Voodoo Focus would allow for more fun with headhunting, while Nature Lore improves defensive properties of Ancient Bark and Goldenglade Touch (so it's a good choice even if you don't use Nature spells for damage).

 

If you decide to go melee, than it's a good idea to start taking defensive skills earlier and include Constitution into the build.

[New Uniques and Legendaries - Brainstorming]

The time flies fast, and an entire month managed to pass since the last item update to this thread. However, more items are being made, so now is the time to present some of them to you. This update is about new helmets for most of the characters - gotta have more hats!

 

Stormcrow's Hat

There once was a wandering mage whom most people of Ancaria called simply "the Grey Wanderer", though the Elves nicknamed him "Stormcrow". He was seen in many places of the world, and his image became well-recognized and associated with knowledge of runes and magic. His magical powers and wisdom were so famous that the Runemasters in many regions of Ancaria started wearing replicas of his distinctive hat as a symbol of their trade. It is said that the person who finds the actual hat that the wizard wore would be able to acquire a portion of his famous mental powers.

 

 

For some people "Stormcrow" is a nickname of Gandalf the Grey (along with Mithrandir, Greyhame and Olorin). For others it's the name of their favourite card in Magic: the Gathering. But one thing is for sure - it's magical. Credit for finding this wizard's hat in game files and making it available to the player as a new unique goes to Pesmontis.

 

Shaman's Mask
Long time ago this mask belonged to a powerful shaman of a militant Blood Dryad tribe. Local stories have it that the shaman used her headgear as a totem for her Voodoo magic, storing the energy she stole from her victims inside the mask. Whether or not this is true, no one knows, but one thing is certain - this mask witnessed so many violent rituals that even after its owner's demise it radiates dark magical energy. Put it on to open your mind to the darker side of Dyr Lain's magic, but be careful.

 

 

When I was looking through the Sacred NPC models, I remembered Saraphima's request for Blood Dryad armor. This mask looked easy enough to make, so here it is. The rest of the Shaman's armor does not look all that impressive, but I might look into making Blood Dryad Champion and/or Warrior armors for the player in the future.

 

Valkyrie's Profile
Valkyries. Supernatural warrior women who appear on the battlefields, sometimes to assist the warriors, other times to carry the souls of the fallen to the afterlife. Their image is, in a way, similar to that of Ancarian Seraphims, so maybe the people of the Northland designed their traditional winged helmets under inspiration from their encounters with the winged ones.

 

 

Some time ago, Flix decided to see if Traconian helmets can fit on the playable characters' heads. They did not fit well, seeing as the Traconians are shorter than any of the chars and of smaller girth than most. But Flix's experiments inspired me to make new Viking-themed helmet models, which are based on the ones worn by Traconians. So I have to thank him for the idea behind this helmet and the next one.

 

Helm of the Einherjar
In the Norse mythology, the souls of brave warriors who fell on the battlefield can be carried away by the Valkyries and enter the hall of Valhalla as the Einherjar. There, these once great warriors can rest and feast, and drill their combat moves, so that one day they could fight again in the battle of the Gods. Their myth sounds so close to the story of the Shadow Warrior - a mighty fighter who died in battle but was brought back by magic to fight again - that he looks like a fitting candidate to wear this helmet.

 

 

 

The Nemes Headgear
And let's not forget about the Temple Guardian, who got a chance to wear a royal headdress of Egyptian Pharaohs. Even though there is no Egypt in Ancaria, TG is still Anubis enough to look good in everything that has Ancient-Egyptian flavour. For the change, this helmet is not aspect-related - its stats would be useful for every TG who uses the Energy Shield, even more so if he also wields lightsabers.

 

 

I'm still trying to remedy the fact that the mod hadn't yet brought in as many items for TG as for the others. So it was only logical that when I was making helmets for Dry, seraphim and SW, I decided to make one for the cyborg. The visual design was based on the helmets worn by certain enemies in Titan Quest, which is why avid TQ players might find the look somewhat familiar.

 

And there is one more announcement to make: Soon, there is going to be a new release of the item mod, with all new things that accumulated over time. In the next days, I'm going to reveal more items that would be included into v1.2.

[Preview article about Sacred 3 gameplay features]

You know, guys, after reading the last few messages in this topic, there is only one thing I have on my mind. I don't think that Deep Silver does not know what they are doing with S3, I have a feeling that they are knowing it only too well: they are trying to turn in a profit, get their money and forget about it all. This is the way they developed S3 - it has no vast and expensive features, nothing original and innovative that could have been costly and/or risky. They cut out all the features of the original that required careful attention of many developers to be good and balanced, both in world-design and in gameplay mechanics. Then they keep silent about the possible downsides of the game and promote pre-orders with many bonuses, just to get as much money as they can right now. With what they did out of this game, it does not look like the development was incredibly expensive, so they are probably hoping to rise enough money out of pre-order hype to cover for it, and don't really care what happens afterwards.

 

Yes, there were several cases recently when developers made unwelcome changes to their games, received fan backlash and changed for the better either with patches or probably with the next installments. But take a look at the games that were mentioned: Diablo, Resident Evil, Devil May Cry - all of them are incredibly famous, almost iconic for their subgenres, with previous installments being very well-received both by critics and by public. These series are well-known, well-marketed, and have really huge fan-bases, so one failed installment is not enough to bring them crashing down. There is a point in continuing these series and making them comply the fans' demand.

 

Sadly, this is not the case with Sacred, as much as we like it. Yes, the first two games gathered solid and loyal fan-base, but it's not an incredibly big one. Sacred games never were outstandingly popular (not to the point where even non-gamer would recognize the name) and critical response for them was not very good - the more respected gaming sites and magazines rated the games average or even poor. Sacred is our favorite under-rated game, and we know it. It's like a rough diamond, where you can find interesting mechanics and world to explore, but only if you agree to cope up with bugs and things that do not work so well, and if you care to look for interesting features and discover them. The first two games were not as bad as to warrant a total makeover... besides, it's not even a real makeover when it's a game of a different genre. But I don't think that the series would be able to survive a failed installment and get back to its tracks. I'm not even sure whether or not I wish for S3 to be successful - if this game would get better response than predecessors, Deep Silver would continue in the same vein, if it would fail, I'm afraid they'd just decide the series does not sell and abandon it entirely.

 

I'm sorry for sounding pessimistic, but in the world of gaming publishers, where expense/profit ratio is the king, we are unlikely to see overly-ambitious projects (capable of driving the studio bancrupt) like Sacred 2 often. Yes, there was the last Tomb Raider, which, from what I remember, sold very well, but it still was not enough to cover for incredible expenses. But that's another big name again...

[Sacred worth trying? If so, which class?]

There is one more thing to say about "gotchas" of Sacred 1, which Virian's comment reminded me of:

Sacred 1 has no limitation of CA level allowed at particular character's level. By which I mean that there is not something like Sacred 2's "Maximum CA level without penalty". Each rune you read and each +CA bonus on an item always increase the CA level by one or whatever boost the item offers. And socketed rune in S1 gives full additional level of CA at +1/3 of regen (not +1/2 as in Sacred 2). Which is why I said that +CA items feel more powerful and desirable in S1 than in Sacred 2 - you don't have to consider whether or not the item would push your CA level far above the Maximum threshold and possibly become more trouble than it's worth. You only have the regen times to worry about. Yes, +CA bonus is not the best thing at all times, at higher levels you can find better ways to increase your damage outcome, but it is both more valuable and more rare than in Sacred 2.

 

About combos, it's good that Flix remembered them and wrote a comprehensive explanation of what they are all about. In my opinion, they play a bigger role in Sacred 1 than in Sacred 2, because the feature about level differences provides for different tactical possibilities, and you don't need a skill to make combos the way you want. Though I have to add the third possible way to use combos - a power-up for especially tough battles, like bosses. For example, my Battle Mage had a super-powered defensive combo, which took forever to recharge, but its effect lasted longer than it took me to battle a dragon, and it was not needed afterwards.

 

Also, I agree and disagree with Augmint at the same time - I played both Battle Mage and Vampiress and did not find them weaker than the others. But for the first play-through, starting as one of the Elves, or Daemon, or Gladiator would be easier.

[Sacred worth trying? If so, which class?]

There was an old topic on Sacred International Forum, titled Sacred 1 vs Sacred 2. Its poll showed that 40% prefer Sacred 1, 40% prefer Sacred 2, and 20% like both equally and can't choose. The discussion that followed was along the same lines, as you can see for yourself if you want. If memory serves, a similar poll in the Russian community scored 70/30 in favor of Sacred 1. So there is enough people around here who still love Sacred 1 even though Sacred 2 is around. If you are a person who liked Diablo 1 and haven't thought that D2 is a full improvement of everything, you can just as well try Sacred 1 - it's rather cheap now and frequently on GOG's sale, so it's unlikely you'd waste much by trying it out.

 

In general, there are some things that Sacred 1 does just differently from the second part: the general stylistics is a bit different, the classes are not the same, and the balance is somewhat different as well, providing for different dynamics. And it's a whole different world to explore, too. As for the differences: the world in S1 is a bit darker, a bit better developed lore-wise, but has its share of easter eggs and humor. The loot feels more rewarding, because the set and unique items are somewhat more rare and really powerful. The side-quests feel rewarding too, because they have a really good chance of giving set items and runes for reward, and in Sacred 1 these are something you don't see dropping from mobs around every corner. All in all, I do understand why some people preferred Sacred 1 - personally, I think that Sacred 1 and Sacred 2 are about equal and still play both.

 

As for "potential gotchas", here are a few I can remember:

- Concentration Skill: in Sacred 2 it's kind of a general regen boost for all CAs, but in Sacred 1 in only affects weapon-based ones. The corresponding skill for magic is called Meditation.

- Runes: In Sacred 2 they are common drop and almost every char wallows in them and has way more than he/she needs. In S1 runes are rather rare, so you need to pay more attention to what you read, and what you exchange, and there is bigger value in the items that boost your CAs. Also, about exchange: in Sacred 2 it's also very simple, and depends only on how many gold you want to pay - in Sacred 1 only while exchanging 4 runes you get to choose the outcome, and runes are not frequent.

- Aspect Skills: There are fewer of them in Sacred 1, but surprisingly, it feels liberating rather than limiting, especially for the Battle Mage. With Weapon Lore and Magic Lore taking care of all damage needs, much like lores in Sacred 2, you don't have to stick to CAs from particular aspect because it's the only one you have skills for. Similarly with focus skills - while characters have specific skills that boost regen and execution speed of their CAs, it's possible to successfully keep the regens at bay without them, using Concentration and Meditation alone.

- Parrying Skill: while it sounds like Shield Lore, it does not need a shield to work.

- Horses: were much better in Sacred 1 than in Sacred 2, where they are pretty useless. S1 horses are like a mix of a horse and a special mount - there are character's CAs that can't be performed on horseback and get replaced by horse's special CAs, and there are CAs that work on horseback without any problem. So do not discard the possibility of mounted combat just because S1 does not have special mounts.

- Bows: are actually very effective ranged weapons in Sacred 1. In Sacred 2 they always lose to blowpipes and shurikens because they are slow and don't have good item modifiers, but in S1 they are a good choice.

 

As for the classes:

• Battle Mage: is a caster and indeed HE has quite a few of his CAs. But the difference is that BM has 5 schools of magic, and can combine spells from different schools without spreading too thin. With the same Lore affecting the effectiveness of all spells, you are quite capable of using CAs outside of your primary aspect(s). Most probably you would only pick the specific focus-like skill for only one or two schools, but it does not make using temporary buffs and backup CAs from others a bad idea. BM has way better hybridization potential than HE does, considering that HE's Fire and Ice skills are mutually exclusive more oftenly than not. BM can be effective with swords, but I always played as pure caster and he can be very effective at that.
• Daemon: from my personal perception of her dynamics and skills, she is the best hybrid fighter/mage in the game, more similar to hybrid seraphim in Sacred 2, than Sacred 1 seraphim would be. Her forms that allow to convert the damage type of her weapons provide for a good change from the usual habit of having different weapons for different situations. Plus, she can fly - how often do you get a really flying char in ARPG?
• Dark Elf: is pretty much an assassin class, which Sacred 2 sadly lacks. In comparison to Diablo 2 assassin, I say that he dies less easily, not because he's a tank, but because it's easier to utilize his CAs to keep him alive. Then again I just might have been doing something wrong with the assassin... If you'd ever try playing DE, it's good to remember that Sudden Fury stuns (!), so unlike other Multi-Hit attacks it can be useful even against single opponents.
• Dwarf: occupies a niche similar to that of TG, but some players think him better balanced than the dog-bot.
• Gladiator: yes, your standard weapon-based jack-of-all-trades. Can be effective with any weapon, but does not have anything magical or highly original. A solid class, but not something that feels unique and exclusive for Sacred 1.
• Seraphim: is a seraphim, though in Sacred 1 she feels a bit less powerful than in Sacred 2, at least for me. On the other hand, her abilities are pretty different: she does not have the Tech CAs (even though she has BFG), but has more melee and Celestial abilities.
• Wood Elf: yes, Dryad is fairly similar, but if I have to choose, I'd prefer WE over Dry. I missed Explosive and Penetrating arrows in Sacred 2. Basically, you can think of a Dryad with only Hunter and Nature aspects, but with more CA variety in both.
• Vampiress: she is rather original. I have troubles likening her directly to other classes in ARPGs. Astral Lord Shadow Warrior may be similar to one of the ways to build a Vampiress (minion-based), but he is not as effective in being a general. And the Vampiress does not have to have minions - she can be an effective fighter on her own.

This is only my personal opinion about classes, other people around here can (and probably would) have different opinions. Sacred 1 was the game that defined the first principle that we expect in a Sacred game - there is a great variety of builds and each character can be played differently.

[Hello guys, time for someone from Poland]

Welcome to DarkMatters!

I don't remember many Sacred 1 modders coming here before, but there are several people around who are into Sacred 2 modding. Also, some time ago a person who participated in development of Sacred 1 fan-made patch made a topic about it in the Programming section of the forum, maybe it would be of interest to you.

 

Still trying to find the way to edit global.res when the link form this site is down.

There is a simple but working global.res decoder/encoder for Sacred 1 that can be downloaded from Russian fan-site: http://allsacred.ru/uploads/su.rar

This version was made to work with German, English and Russian files, so I don't guarantee that it would work correctly with Polish special characters. But as it operates in Unicode format, there is a chance it would work.

The program operates only from console, the commands are:

Decoding: Res2Csv -csv <file_in_res_format>

Encoding: Res2Csv -res <file_in_csv_format>

[Drop rate for mutation sets (sacred 2 ice and blood)]

I mean the game's scripts that regulate many of gameplay aspects. All scripts are contained in "scripts" subfolder of the game's main folder. Drop-lists which regulate the way the items drop in game can be found in the file "scripts/server/drop.txt". By editing this file it is possible to define in which situations any particular item would drop. Drop lists themselves have pretty simple structure, but they are just the sequence of numerical entries with very few commentaries, which makes them harder to read. Each drop-list has a commentary about what it contains, so it's more or less clear. But to find a particular item in drop-list or to add an item, you need to know the item's blueprint ID, which is defined in "scripts/server/bluerpint.txt".

 

If you want to find the blueprints for the Mutation set items, search blueprint.txt for "tset". This way you'd be able to learn blueprint IDs for them. But if you try to add these IDs to drop-lists on your own, please remember to backup your savegames before trying. Making mistakes in drop.txt is known to lead to some unpleasant consequences like item loss.

[Drop rate for mutation sets (sacred 2 ice and blood)]

Mutation sets have much lower drop rate than any other set items because, if memory serves, they are originally included into only one drop-list while the other set pieces are included into 4 drop-lists. So the fact that you haven't yet found any pieces of Mutation sets is pretty normal and intended by the CM-Patch developers.

 

However, if you want to increase the drop rate for those sets, there are some mods that can help you out. If you play the English version of the game, it's a good idea to install the Community Items Mod, which adds new content as well as increases the mutation sets drop rate (all items are included in several drop-lists and there is a fairly good chance to get them from bosses). There is also Nighthawk's mod for Mutation set drop rate, but it was made for v130.

[The Lost Combat Arts of Sacred 2]

That post reminds me of the old times before Sacred 2 was released. The first gameplay information we saw for it actually did mention 6 CAs per aspect, with some of additional ones even being featured on screenshots and videos. But then the amount was reduced to 5, as Ascaron was running out of time to implement and balance all their ideas. There are many other things that were planned and partially implemented but never got completed - mount armor and equipment, hireling system akin to Diablo 2, more weapon classes and skills, to name a few. Maybe they hoped to complete and add these features in add-ons, but went bankrupt before it happened.

 

The discussion of these additional 6th CAs started again after I&B was released, because Dragon Mage looked like a class the devs assembled from their previously unfinished ideas. Granted, he has an original idea behind his character, but only the Dragon Magic aspect is directly linked to it, the other two are generally magical, and CAs for them could have been - and in fact were - reused. Many of CAs that appeared on early Sacred 2 screenshots but never made it into Fallen Angel made re-appearance in his arsenal. So all CAs about which you were supposing that they went to DM really did just that. Also, if I recall correctly, his Gust of Wind also was recognized as one of CAs that were planned but not released for one of the original characters, though I don't remember whom it was originally meant for. And I guess that either Dread Fire from HE's arsenal or Permanent Fire from TG's made re-appearance as DM's Eternal Fire - an infectious CA is what the Arrant Pyromancer is lacking, but TG's spell bears strong title similarity. Though Dread Fire could have also been changed into Dragon Strike by adding an animation of flying dragon to it. An Area of Effect attack that can be focused on debuffs - sort of a Pyro counterpart to Ranging Nimbus - fits the name quite well.

 

"Opponents Essence" might have been something like a shapeshifting ability or an ability to use opponents' CAs when the buff is active. I can see why such idea might have been seriously considered (it sounds interesting) and why it was cancelled (very hard to balance properly).

 

The news about you messing with spells and maybe making a spell mod sound exciting. Having an opportunity to play with modified or new (replaced) character classes would bring some fresh air to the game. Also, if used as a non-replacement version, some of the new spells can be used to create new interesting enemies and bosses, like CM devs used Seraphim's CAs for Failitia and SW's deactivated CA for Shelob.

[Preview article about Sacred 3 gameplay features]

Baldur's Gate combat was actually real-time with active pause for issuing orders... The key thing is that you have complete control over whether you need to spend a lot of time paused setting up strategical moves or whether you could just charge in in a blaze of glory. True turn-based combat on the other hand takes that freedom away from you.

Well, it's a matter of opinion, and Flix's opinion, while popular, is not the only one. I have to confess that for me it was always the opposite way around - I preferred turn-based games to active pause, because in the end I played them both in the same way. I spent most of my time paused and thinking up the best strategy, just for the interest of it, not because it was strictly necessary. If the strategy became completely unnecessary and battles could be won by simple charge, I started to lose interest in the game, because just crashing through everything without even bothering to think became boring soon enough. So the games with the active pause felt like emulation of turn-based ones on real-time engine that force you to control the length of turns. I spent most of combat time nervously holding the pause button lest I miss the right moment to press it. With real turn-base there is no wrong moment to pause, and no unnecessary stress. For some people less stress= less excitement, so it's a matter of opinion again, but I'd rather calmly observe the battlefield and enjoy its design than peer into characters' moves to choose a pausing moment.

 

In my opinion, for games that take pride in their strategy and were designed so that the strategy was necessary to use most of the time - just charging into battle without thinking would just get you killed - turn-based combat is a good choice of system. It's just my opinion and I know that I'm a minority here, but I wanted to remind you that minority exists.

 

There is enough action games around there, and some, like Sacred series start to prioritize action over thinking with next installments. The majority of players crave for real-time action and there are and would be games that deliver what they want. Personally, I see nothing "absurd" and "embarrassing" in the fact that some game developers remember about the minority of players who like different genres and still make games for them. Flix just listed a lot of good and quite recent games with "action combat" and "active-pause combat" that are available for people who like these subgenres, but I can't do the same for turn-based games. I'll always vote for variety in every means of entertainment so I'm mightily glad that the industry would have something to offer in subgenres that are currently lacking. Those won't be games for everybody, but you should not talk like they are for nobody at all just because they are not exactly your cup of tea. In fact, when I read the developers' decisions for D:OS and Torment, I wanted to applaud the devs, just because they had guts to stick to the game-design they thought would be best for their games despite knowing that it's unpopular.

 

Back to the topic - funny enough, but I feel that what I just said applies to Sacred 3 in a way. They changed the game mechanics drastically, it fell into "not my cup of tea" category for almost everybody here on Dark Matters, and generally among Sacred series fans. I've seen a lot of negative responses to the new mechanics both during development and now, and I'm yet to see a single fan who would defend it. But is Sacred 3 really that horrible? When I read and re-read the reviews I realized that the game isn't bad in what it does - it does different things from what we expected, but not badly. It won't be a game I play, won't even try the demo because I'm not interested in the subgenre. But I think the game would find its players, unless the unlikely title would make them expect something different and scare them away. After all, well-made dynamic actions were always popular, and lack of length and replay-ability is a norm rather than major shortcoming nowadays. So, surprising as it is, I think that S3 would get rather positive reviews in press, where people would judge it as "another new game", not as "a Sacred game". That's a paradox - the first two games were generally ill-received because of their bugs, but we loved them. The third game would maybe get better reception, but it won't be something we would like.

[Preview article about Sacred 3 gameplay features]

Wow, never expected to read a game review with the word "cas****ed" for a short description.

You just don't read Russian reviews frequently. The authors do not always try to find polite and formal expressions and use informal language and jargon more often than not.

 

I'm sorry for skipping this part, SX. It's just the common and frequently seen case - the most obvious bugs and issues pointed out in preliminary press reviews before the release almost always get fixed by the time of official public demo-version and/or public release. It was so with too many games, up to the point where the reviewers re-wrote their critical articles because the public release was wa-ay more polished than the press version. So I mentioned that the guy rolled his way through the levels, but decided not to elaborate about the damage and crits.

 

On the other hand, after the devs and community managers said a lot of words about polishing this game to be bug-free, seeing such an obvious mechanics issue in the press version leaves a sour taste.

 

Another thing that I forgot to write, which I don't remember mentioned on DarkMatters before - the levelcap for Sacred 3 comes at level 50, not 200 like before. The press version appears to be limited in amount of levels which is possible to get - the enemies are limited in level and it's not possible to grind many levels for the playable characters, so both reviewers complained about not being able to try out all hit and move modifications and evaluate how interesting they are.

[Preview article about Sacred 3 gameplay features]

Gogo, can you please fix the typo in the topic title (or just write a title you think is more fitting). I noticed it only after posting, and I don't have permissions to rename topics.

[Preview article about Sacred 3 gameplay features]

The official Russian Sacred fan-site (located at http://allsacred.ru) published a preview of Sacred 3, which one of their authors wrote after playing the press-release version of the game. This site is affiliated with the Russian publishers for the Sacred game series, so it looks believable that they already laid their hands on the press-release.

 

I haven't yet seen any English article describing the gameplay features, so I'll tell you what the Russian one is about - at least it'll give you some info to discuss before the reviews from the English sources appear. The original Russian article is located here: http://allsacred.ru/modules.php?name=Articles&pa=showarticle&artid=640 There is also another Russian preview for Sacred 3 press-release, located here: http://www.rpgarea.ru/news-1251-prevyu-sacred-3-hacknslash-v-deystvii.html This one has less in-depth info and more personal opinions, but I added some facts from it that are not present in the first article.

 

Both reviewer's opinions confirm our suspicions that Sacred 3 is a game of a pretty different genre than the first two. It is described as a slasher rather that an RPG and the first reviewer went as far as likening the gameplay to "simplified Devil May Cry in the world of Sacred Citadel". The overall opinions are that the game is rather fun and dynamic, so if you have a console with a couple of controllers, a giant TV, several friends and lots of beer, it's not a bad idea to grab it. But if you expect something like Sacred 1 and 2 or at least a half-decent RPG, you'd be disappointed. Also, while the game is fun to play once, you probably won't replay it for the second time due to its rather simple mechanics.

 

Now a bit about details. I'll try to translate more exactly here, because I know that it's what many of you would be interested to read about.

 

Combat Arts:

Every character has 2 (two) unique CAs - "light hit" and "heavy hit" ones. Using these abilities requires special energy that can be refilled by gathering orbs that drop from monster and this energy also regenerates with time. Each of these two CAs has its own charge-bar, but the energy regenerates for both at the same time.

Besides these two special class-specific CAs, each character has the following moves:

• Normal Hit - a regular hit (equivalent to left mouse click in the first two games) which you would use most often while waiting for the energy for the special ones to regenerate. Hits done in quick succession can be executed as a three-hit combo, which gains special features depending on the character class.
• Charged Hit - it isn't used to deal damage, but serves other purposes, like breaking shields, stopping enemies from casting spells, or breaking traps.
• Defensive move - a standard roll move, which surprisingly can be used not only to evade hits, but to deal damage and to just move through the location. The movement speed and offensive capabilities of the move were such that the reviewer ended up rolling instead of walking through the locations.
• Finishing move - can be used on the enemies that fell to the ground and kills them in one hit.

When the character levels up, he/she can unlock different hits for these categories and exchange the ones the character currently uses for these new versions. And that is pretty much all the characters gain at level up. Each type of hits has development line, albeit a very limited one, but the player is quite limited about which hits can be used at the same time.

 

Weapon Spirits:

Besides the types of active hits listed above, characters can have a sort of permanent passive buff by using the Weapon Spirits. You have a chance to release a weapon spirit when you defeat enemies, and once released, those companions stay with you. They can comment about the action, though their phrases are rather repetitive, and of course they influence the combat by strengthening or weakening the characters and/or opponents. For example the Dark Elf spirit (!) enhances your Charged Hit but causes hits to drain your own life. The big downside of the Weapon Spirits is that they were designed with party-play in mind and most give benefits to the party but are not so good for the single character.

 

Equipment and Loot:

Sadly, you can forget about dropping items and full inventory. In fact you won't even have an inventory at all. The loot system is very close to Sacred Citadel - when you kill a boss you have a chance to get a weapon or armor as a reward. And that is all you have of equipment - a weapon slot (fixed kind of weapons for a class) and an armor slot (full armor, no division to chestplate, helmet, amulets and such). Armor drops rarely, can't be customized in looks nor stats, but can slightly improve by "leveling up the item" if you wear it for a long time. Normal, non-boss enemies can drop only gold and orbs of health and energy, but no items. And the bosses are only encountered in the end of each location. And as you have no inventory, the change of equipment is possible only between locations.

 

Battle System:

The game is a dynamic and well-made slasher, fluid and quite pleasant, but quite simple and not hardcore as far as the slashers go. It's a strongest side of the game - you quickly hit, hack, slash, and throw enemies around. You can also lift an enemy if it's not much bigger than the character and throw it to the ground or to another enemy. At times the slashing changes to special mechanics - you need to turn a lever, or to break the gates, or to hold ground and survive the hordes of enemies running to you. There is nothing original in those mini-games, but they make for a good change of pace.

 

Level Design:

We all know that S3 won't have the open world, but it was never explicitly said before that it is a corridor game. Well, it is. You go through a series of separate levels and each one of them is a narrow corridor, not really branching and limited by walls, hedges and the main quest that pushes you forward. Between two "big" levels you need to defeat a level boss, each one of them comes with its own introduction - those are done Borderlands-style: with showing the boss close up and writing its name on screen. Sometimes between big levels there is a small arena-like one, where you encounter increased numbers of monsters who drop more gold for you. As you don't use inventory and don't shop, the gold is used to develop your abilities (instead of XP).

 

Controls:

The press-release can be controlled only by console gamepad, this version simply does not support keyboard. So there is no info about how good or bad keyboard controls are - but you can see how much the devs prioritize the PC controls.

 

That's it, folks. I just translated all the info that I found in two Russian reviews, so the info might not be exact in some places where the reviewers were not clear enough, but maybe it would paint the general picture for you.

[Patches for Sacred 2 Gold?]

I don't think I ever installed 2.65.2, which was just a tiny hotfix having to do with a chatbox or something, and I'm running the game w/ CM Patch just fine.

It's true that the last patch is small, but it still might be better to have the game fully patched. 2.65.2 might not be essential for people who only play singleplayer, but for those who plan on running a multiplayer party in real or virtual LAN, it's better to have it. There are enough people on this forum whose characters fell victim to "death by chatbox" due to the faulty behavior of the said interface element in 2.65.1, so it's better to be safe than sorry.

[Can you Play Sacred 2 on a External Drive or USB?]

Sacred 2 is the game that depends heavily on the operating system registry entries (especially if it's original non-Steam version that has SecuRom). So it can be installed on an External HDD (not on the Removable Flash disk), but you'd have to keep a few things in mind:

 

First, even though the disk is portable, the game can be played only on the computer you installed it on.

 

Second, the game would only work if the disk has the same letter that it had during installation. If the disk got different letter after you plugged in or removed other USB devices, the game won't work until the disk gets its original letter again.

 

Third, and the only thing that can cause problem, is that USB HDDs usually have lower information exchange speed than internal ones. So if you have an old USB 2.0 disk, and use it to play Sacred, in some moments of the game you can experience freezes because the disk does not allow to load things quickly enough. Whether or not it would really be a problem depends on particular USB drive, so you can try and see how it would go for you. Also, with the laptop, it's better not to try playing from external disk while running on battery, because in battery-power mode some laptops decrease the speed of USB drives to save the energy.

 

Another note is that Sacred 2 keeps its savegames in "My Documents" or "User/Saved Games" folders regardless of where the game itself is installed. So you'd have to be sure there is at least some free space on the disk where the operating system is installed, regardless of whether this disk is internal or external.

[Patches for Sacred 2 Gold?]

The installation process described on the wiki page is for the original Fallen Angel, but it's similar for I&B and Gold. Only now, when Sacred 2 is not a new game anymore, it's better to ignore the recommendation for downloading newer video drivers - these new versions are attuned to the most recent games and sometimes make performance of the older ones only worse.

 

As for the patches - original I&B is version 2.64. The last official version is 2.65.2, and there are two patches that need to be installed to update the game to this version. They can be downloaded from the "Downloads" section here on DarkMatters. As for the Sacred 2 Gold, its version may vary. When I installed downloadable version of UK Sacred 2 Gold, its loading screen told me that the version is 2.64, so I installed the patches. But maybe the hard copy comes in a patched state already - it's best to check the game's loading screen for that info.

 

Also, it's recommended (even by Deep Silver managers) to install the Community Patch after the official ones because it fixes a number of issues that were left in the game after Ascaron went bankrupt. This patch can also be downloaded from DarkMatters. Note that it can be installed only over 2.65.2.

[Balance.txt and gold drops?]

The game considers gold drops (blueprints 697-701) just the same as all other items. Gold pouches also have tiers and their drop is also regulated by ZRareExpectation values in balance.txt. The bigger the tier of gold pouch is, the more gold it contains. So yes, if you set the balance to drop uniques more frequently, you'd be getting more gold as well. By the values of what you're getting, it looks like you increased the probability of high-tier drops to the point where almost all gold pouches you get are of higher tiers. Even in Niob junk and normal gold bags never contain that much gold.

[So I Made an 'Unbended' Preview Video]

That's a good video - it's pretty comprehensive and covers almost everything that we know about Unbended without adding things we are not certain about. Maybe it would help the developers to attract attention and get their project on a solid ground. Right now the Unbended project is too early in development to be something certain, so it's not surprising that people don't feel comfortable to donate for the cause that might not come to pass. On the other hand, without donations it certainly won't get anywhere. Getting attention of the public is the key, and it's good to see that Sacred fans are helping out with this.

 

I've got to agree the "defined roles are important, can you imagine a male succubus?" tidbit made me cringe too Gilberticus. I actually think the incubus is generally more interesting.

Yes, this one looks silly out of context. Though I believe that the context was the talk about character customization. Nowadays many players demand that new RPGs allowed to choose gender and race of the playable characters, sometimes getting slightly over the board. For some character concepts such customization can actually harm proper characterization, some classes need gender and/or race restrictions to fit into the lore of the game world - and here the succubus comes as a rather good example. If the character class is called "Succubus" and has abilities to charm male opponents, than it follows that a member of this class should be female. It doesn't make sense to allow the player to create a male succubus just for the sake of gender equality. A male seducer demon would require different class name (Incubus) and different abilities (to charm females). Even if they can be fitted into the same class, the gameplay for male and female being of such class can't be exactly the same.

I remember that there was such talk when Sacred 2 was released, with some people complaining about lack of choice and others retorting that fixed genders are OK, and how there can't be a male Seraphim because it's an unnatural race of female beings. Maybe that's the reason why the devs brought up this topic while talking about their new RPG (only they couldn't use Seraphims as an example and had to mention another all-female class).

[Sacred 2 Demo worked on my Laptop ; Not sure about the full game.]

The one big issue with Sacred 2 demo is that it does not allow you to go far outside Sloeford and get surrounded by big mobs. Judging by the system specs and the fact that you were able to run the demo only on low settings, I suspect that the full game would launch, but would most probably start lagging as soon as you get a lot of monsters around you. Areas like Blade Fields and Wastelands where there is always major fighting between NPCs have great chance of lagging regardless of how many enemies are after you. There also is a risk of turning the game into slide show by using infectious Combat Arts like Viperish Disease and Eternal Fire, because those infections going back and forth usually require serious calculation (it was the cause of multiplayer lags in the past and continues to cause slowdown of some PCs at present).

 

For the comfortable playing it would be better to choose a laptop with nVidia or AMD graphics, because many games have issues with Intel's integrated chipsets. Sacred's official specs say that it won't run on Intel chipsets, but the ones used in modern laptops were made after the game was released - so there is no telling about how it would behave. Also, 2GB RAM is fine when you're running Sacred 2 on WinXP, for Win7 and Win8 it might be better to install more.

[No clue where to start (build)]

I probably won't recommend following the 'Dwarf in my left Arm' guide to I&B players. This guide is quite good, but it was written for Fallen Angel and some of its aspects were changed in I&B. I had a Devout Guardian/Lost Fusion TG like this back in Fallen Angel times (similar CA usage, but fully fighting char, without utility skills), and was surprised to see how much weaker this character became in add-on. The trouble is that such build relies heavily on socketables - in I&B the 'All Skills' and 'All CAs' bonuses were halved, also deathblow and critical hit item modifiers stopped working with spells. In I&B it became harder to build up Lost Fusion CAs to the point when they do considerable damage using the 'eat one rune and socket the rest' principle alone, because they need a lot of +CA modifiers socketed to be powerful. Using deathblow and crits to increase damage outcome also stopped being an option, so you need to look for other ways to support Lost Fusion CAs. Not to mention that surviving I&B regions with only Armor and Warding Energy for defensive skills won't be easy.

 

If I start building a Lost Fusion TG now, I'd choose the same combination that Flix suggested: Lost Fusion+Source Warden, for the sake of using Amplifying Discharge (with two Ice Bullets mods)+Icy Evanescence and Furious Emblazer+Fiery Ember combinations. Also, if you use the Community Patch and go for a Lost Fusion TG, you might want to consider adding Ancient Magic skill to the build. The guides never mention this option as it only became available in the later versions of CM, but it's as useful for TG as for the other casting chars.