Androdion

So I've got a bit carried away with trying out the game with the CM-Patch installed and I've gone all the way to Platinum with the EP variant of the HE build that I described above (general skills over Mystic Stormite Lore and Ancient Magic). The thing is I intentionally made it out to be challenging as I grinded through Silver to get ahead of the curve but then rushed through Gold without barely any side quests completed, just main quest all the way without many deviations. So I ended up starting Platinum at Lv.59 and the enemies are way above the level spawned by the SB. I was getting stormed by mobs 7 levels above me in Gold and now that number went up to 11 in Sloeford at Platinum, which is nice since it now gives me a decent challenge for starters. Two questions though, will mobs be Lv.71 up until the cap level for Platinum difficulty meets the spawn level for my SB? I ask this because I climbed up one level to 60 and the mobs were still Lv.71. As for the second question, should I repeat Gold's procedure and rush all the way to Niob or do I risk getting way below the curve in terms of resistances and gear (and level)? I was thinking about trying to reach Niob when nearing the mastery level, and then work my way up with the best gear possible (better attributes per gear than on Platinum), but do I risk getting severely underpowered? Ok, so those were three questions. Sue me.

I have two questions for Lujate: 1 - Those [D.a.r.k] character, are they closed net and as such can't be saved while playing in single player mode (the campaign progress that is)? 2 - The method you describe at the Guardians chamber, is it possible in single player mode? Sorry for being confused but I was under the impression that in single player you can't do these kind of things and you have to actually complete the campaign over and over at each level until you get to Niob. Do correct me if I'm wrong.

You got me there.

How the hell did you climb up there? Shadow Step?!

That should work in theory, but alas it doesn't. At least when I play my game doesn't act that way. Sometimes it's even worst, as I'll hit quick save and when the game crashes my progress is reset to the last activated monolith. It's weird I know but I have to bear with it.

It's just another exe from the game's engine. I browsed a lot through the Steam boards in search for stability fixes since my retail FA 2.40 didn't crash as often as the Gold edition I acquired on Steam. Some fixes help others don't, but running the game's exe files in compatibility mode when in a 64-bit system does improve things a bit. The CM-patch though is your best alternative for increased stability, though even with it I'm still experiencing random crashes in the usual places (the Jungle for instance tends to crash a lot when I mow down too many Garema). Point is, the game will eventually CTD here and there. There's no turning around that fact. Just activate monoliths as often as you can. Sometimes I roam a bit too much without doing it and then bam...

For some added stability be sure to turn off Physx, it breaks the game. Also if you're running a 64-bit system have s2gs.exe and sacred2.exe run in Windows XP SP3 compatibility mode. And do install CM-Patch v.1.50 too, I've noticed the stability of the game increasing dramatically when it comes to random CTD. I still have the occasional "sacred2 client stopped working" crash but they are few and far between nowadays. If you happen to have an old GPU I'd recommend turning AA off too, it's really intensive on some older GPUs. Hope that helps.

Just wanted to leave some notes on the CM-patch 1.50. Still haven't tried out the Challenge Mod, sorry Ben. You were right when you said this is borderline indispensable since the game experience became much more similar to what I remembered. I used to play Fallen Angel on patch 2.40 and it was the best iteration the game had in my experience (as well as being consensual among other players I knew). That feeling wasn't present with the vanilla I&B 2.65, it felt different, too polished but not as smooth. The CM-patch brings the feel back to 2.40, the game is snappier and barely lags, its stability has widely increased and it even seems to me like some of the quests present in 2.40 were retrieved (I remember the quest with the farmer from Sloeford that sold the wife and kids to the Kolods in 2.40 but not in 2.65). It even bugs out in a similar way to what happened to me in 2.40, with the weapon/CA slots/health indicator being black after too much use of the game engine (and alt-tabbing too much). Seriously, this is awesome and everyone playing the game should use it. There, I've said it!

Will do! Though I'm out for the weekend so I can only try it out next week. I'll let you know my thoughts on it.

Thanks a lot for the warmth Rommel. Well, I actually bought Sacred 2 twice. Back in 2009 I bought Fallen Angel on DVD and played hundreds of hours, mindlessly grinding through the game. Except I barely knew how the mechanics of it actually worked. I had these ideas but I couldn't materialize them and it always came out short of what it could be. Eventually I steered away from video games for a few years, but over the course of the last year or so I've became an adept of it once again. Hence my second purchase, found the game for under 4€ on a Steam sale with I&B which I was never able to get in physical format. "Oh why the hell not", and the funny thing is that I'm already over 100 hours of gameplay in a month and a half. I guess that says a lot, ha ha.

Thanks for the patience, and for keep having recommendations up your sleeve. Don't worry about the Hunting Fever bug, I just won't click on it in the world map next time. I think I'll mess around with some mods on my current build to see how different things are, and when I get a hang of it I'll start fresh. And since I don't have my own personal stable I'll probably focus more on a single character for now and maybe in the future I'll try a shopper build. I'll stick with only EP for the time being to see how well it works.

OK so curiosity took the best of me and I installed the CM-Patch 1.50 and also tested the Survival Mod in the Sloeford area in Niobium with my HE. The CM-Patch brings noticeable differences, the game actively looks different in terms of lighting and it feels snappier. The quest indicators seem to still not update automatically, and I had this weird bug where the Hunting Fever quest indicator appeared on the map and when I clicked on it it started the quest. And I was in Sloeford. But I digress. The patch seems to make the game different for the better in terms of smooth gameplay, and to be honest all I've read about it is good news so I think I'll keep it. Now for the mod, well those were a lot of Kobolds coming in my direction! Two things I noticed though. One, mobs don't seem to be any harder to kill with the current toon I'm playing, although the increase in XP is very noticeable. And two, and it might just be my perception of it, but doesn't the loot seem a bit excessive (in quantity I mean)? I get the point of balancing extra hardness with extra gear, but slaying around 50-100 Kobolds almost got my inventory filled up! That seems rather excessive I'd wager, and I believe it that would eventually make the game actually easier to beat?! OK so if those were spitting spiders in the Swamp I wouldn't be saying this, but the excessive loot seems a bit overkill. Don't take it personally mate, just my two cents on it. I'd love the idea of starting fresh with the Survival Mod pumping my XP higher and faster than the game does, but with so much loot won't it become unbalanced again really fast? Speaking of starting fresh, I was actually thinking about it. Starting fresh with the same build with the CM-Patch, only with a few skill modifications. I was thinking about doing it by dropping Mystique Stormite Lore and retain solely Focus for the CA's modifications, since I virtually only use Raging Nimbus and Crystal Skin, as well as dropping Ancient Magic because it would be a waste to have it just for Raging Nimbus. I was thinking about picking these two and splash them on general skills. Either have Bargaining+EP or Riding+EP (I know Riding is passable but EP is a secondary skill and I pretty much roam around in my special mount all the time). I'd have to plan ahead the placement of every skill very carefully, but given that I pretty much only use Magic Coup/Expulse Magic/Raging Nimbus this seems like an interesting twist to have a more diverse, and the same time more focused, build. What do you make of it? And how much of a difference do you think having the mod turned on would do? I guess the extra loot would render EP highly unnecessary (or possibly even more overkill). What's your opinion on all of this?

Wow, that is a huge changelog! I'm typing on my phone so forgive me for the shortness of my answer. I've checked the log and it does seems to be more good than bad, although I'll miss the exploding zombies... I'm curious though as to if I should wait to try it with a new character, since I'm already at Niob and probably won't gain much from it anyway. Does the Survival mod (or any others for that matter) require the CM Patch or just the vanilla I&B?

Damage types are more or like divided in half, with physical/fire/poison causing DOT by the way of open wounds/burn/poison, and magic/ice causing enemies' attributes to become reduced by the way of weaken/freeze. So basically when you have a weapon that deals physical damage it has an inherent chance to cause physical DOT, and when it has other damage types those too present themselves in the equation (though I'm still not sure at this point if open wounds really works like that on every weapon). The thing is, the lesser the percentage of the partial damage type the lesser the chance to cause the corresponding secondary effect. You can see the percentages by hovering the mouse over the damage indicator of the weapon. Then you have to account for the enemies resistances. So basically if you want to maximize damage you'll need to have as much of the damage type the enemy is less resistant to in your weapon. That way you can cause a lot of direct damage (hitting with weapon) as well as DOT from the effects it will spawn. Hope that helped.

Hi Ben Thanks for the reply. Yeah, I thought she was going to be a wimp like last time so I really went all out for endurance in her. Guess that paid out, ha ha. I know higher level regions will be a bit harder but my problem is that I barely take damage, and when I do I'm more than covered. I got a Velaria Garments drop from Gahanka in Niob, slapped an Artamark's Star, "+skills" and a "+%armour" amulets and suddenly I'm over 19k in armour level. It was a jump of almost 7k so I predict that the game won't get harder on these first regions. Regarding what you said, I haven't even tried the CM patch. I'm really playing the "vanilla" 2.65 version that Steam has. I don't know how mods would influence the game's files and stability though, but by all means do get technical with your explanation.

Hi Long time registered user (and lurker) here, though I've been away from video games for some years now. I have returned to play Sacred 2 over the past couple of months and I'm currently enjoying it a lot. I'm playing Sacred 2 Gold on Steam without any kind of modifications. Currently I'm playing a build I tried previously a few years back but didn't go all that well because it became a jack-of-all-trades, that one being a Magic Coup High Elf. This time around though I invested some extra time and thought into it and it's showing results. I'm using Expert Touch since my main focus is Arcane (Magic Coup and Expulse Magic) and I have Raging Nimbus modified for crowd control. Buffs are Grand Envigoration modified for physical endurance and Mystique Stormite, as well as Cristal Skin modified for (again) physical endurance. Skills chosen are Armour Lore, Shield Lore, Spell Resistance, Constitution, Arcane Lore and Focus, Mystic Stormite Lore and Focus, Concentration and Ancient Magic. I have my used CAs and Buffs up to levels above the penalty regen and I maintain a healthy balance due to "regen per hit" with Magic Coup. I also have a yellow shield with "%block close combat" and a couple of silver slots and an Arcane focused special mount. I guess that's it, ha. So the thing is, I was kind of expecting the game to be harder than it is by this point in time. I'm currently at Lv.96 in Niobium and the mobs aren't proving to be much more of a challenge than they were in Platinum, which was already a breeze apart from that one final Guardian (yeah, that one made my HP drop heavy but I was able to get around to beat him anyway). The hardest difficulty level up until now was actually Gold, while on Platinum I practically rushed through the main quest because I couldn't see my health bar drop more than a 1-2k at a time, which with Constitution Mastery doesn't mean much either. Oh, this is getting long and boringly descriptive... So, does the game become any harder now in Niobium or have I hit that point where the skill set you choose overcomes the difficulty threshold? Because it's cool to be powerful but in fact I'd like a bit of a challenge. The white griffin boss for instance couldn't even make a scratch on me, and while Gahanka caused nearly 6k of damage with his stone throw attack I couldn't even bother to activate Expulse Magic to prevent it since those would regen in 2-3 seconds. So, am I out of luck and just browsing for loot or does a challenge awaits me further down some other areas?