FrostElfGuard
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Posts posted by FrostElfGuard
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When teleporting in the game you get a flash screen with one of the characters on it.
At the bottom is sentence or two describing game mechanics.
I will try to screen cap the one that talks about experience statues and mentor potions.
In Ice and Blood, I believe it states that statues do not work in combination with mentor potions.
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With Ice and Blood, we will rarely see white or green and yellow is a gradient now that transforms in shades from yellow - orange - red - purple. And purple usually means danger!
My bronze experience (since I'm slow to move out of areas, and tend to do lots of quests) is yellows which taper into greens and whites... really indicating it's time to drop the current quests and head to more dangerous waters.
Which is why going from yellow enemies to purple (big jump) is so startling and dangerous for me on the Undead Quest Chain. The geographic area min limit of 18 for the desert hits very hard--particularly when it is a group that spawns there with 2 champions (at least).
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My purples were....hmmm... (IIRC)
goblins level 28, with char level 22 (in Octogolamus cave)
lich level 18, with char level 12 (in Thylisium Naval Dungeon that leads to Desert)
...and yes, they were purple threat circles below the opponents...
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I've experienced having a level 1 character run up to Niob difficulty. Then, as a level 1 I raised her to level 2 so she could get bargaining with Niob access. I got very confused since we had several people in the server. I never knew which was a runner which was an advancer. I did know my toon was present somehow for difficulty unlocking.
So, to give a fresh set of words to the experience, I'm going to try (heavy on the try) to explain the experience in different terms.
Here goes nothing!
this is one of many of the trial and errors we experienced starting outAh! very close, Dragon Brother
step 1 Create a server with the camp runner.
step 2 Join the server with the template
step 3 have Camp Runner leave and restart a new server
step 4 advance to camp 1 step with template char
step 5 join the camp runner's new camp server
step 6 advance the camp 1 step with both characters on server
step 7 that should save camp status for both the starter and the template.
I often find that the low level char camp status will get bugged. this speed camp works well to advance difficulties but sometimes is tough to get the templates status to lock in. so that the template can start a server at the advanced location. We had to run with our templates on server to whole way to the machine to insure that there camp status would stick.
target=toon that needs to unlock difficulties
opener=toon that is near the beginning of a difficulty level
closer=toon that has almost finished a difficulty
so... we have 6 characters needed to unlock difficulty level to niob:
an opener silver, a closer silver,
an opener gold, a close gold,
an opener platinum and a closer platinum
step 1 Create a server with the target.
step 2 Join the server with the opener
step 3 have target leave and rejoin the server
step 4 join the server with the opener, and opener advances campaign 1 step
step 4.5 target uses F8 (teleport to Start Isle) to lock in the change
step 4.6 closer opens a new server
step 5 target joins the new server
step 6 closer finishes the campaign (should be 1 step for maximum efficiency) with both characters on server, which closes the server automatically.
step 7 that should save camp status for both the starter and the template.
step 8 repeat for the next highest level of difficulty.
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Is this wording right? Are my extra steps/clarifications right? Please copy and fix any errors.
...and THANK YOU! for helping me into Niob!
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Question(s):
I'm confused. Very confused. The opener and closer characters, do they 'lose their freshness'? That is, once you use a char to close a level of difficulty, say, a silver closer, is it now a gold opener character now? That is, a silver closer can only close silver once. Then silver is closed.
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Great Wall (between Human and Orc Region): Between Han Chinese and the Mongolians.
Farms in Thylisium: German Grape Farms
Mountains in Thylisium: Germany
Greek Pillar Circle near start of Undead Legion Quest (near Clearview): Greece
Are there more places in Ancaria modeled on real world places?
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The wall between elf and human regions. on Light camp you go through the cave to the east of the portal.
Doh!
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What I have experianced is that when I have xp per kill socketed and try to use a hero statue no additional xp is gained. This being in Ice and Blood.
Which is making me (still silver at highest) avoid +XP socketables/items like the plague.
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My experience with +x life leech (runes) is that it stacks with % life leech on weapons. One number, boosted by the runes.
This might well be a different example.
The only thing I can offer is if you keep track of how often you hit, and for how much damage you hit on display, and compare the total life of the last opponent... well. It's just down to math. Hope that helps (though I suspect combat frenzy will set in making it difficult to keep track of damage & number of hits. ) Maybe record a video that you replay, and can pause at your leisure?
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Re: Jaws
I was afraid swimming in the ocean, or even large lakes after this one. For years. So. Way up there in scary-ness.
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... Oh and the same sort of thing happens in the cave tunnel at the great wall.
Is the great wall the Thylisium cave at the Naval Port? If not, which regions does it straddle? (If it straddles regions.)
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Four times now I have experienced nasty shocks.
Purple nasty shocks.
Purple nasty shocks in groups.
The first time was when pursuing the Undead Legion Quest Chain. Underground in Thylisium, you have to defeat 3 Lichs. I had defeated them all, and had seen there was one last room before the exit. This was my first time through the game, so I didn't know that I had come to the edge of an area. This cave is a link between Thylisium (low level area) and the Desert (mid-range level area). The enemies had been my level, then they jumped to 50% above my char level, and there was a mixed group. A Lich Mage, a Centurion, and some support undead.
Twice more I've run into the group in the same spot that jumped levels like that.
The other time, was in the Quest for the Octogolamus... in the cave where your orc mage drains the lake the Octo has been living in... I suspect that is also the edge of region.
So: If your enemies spawn in your region, you get enemy levels you expect, if they spawn in the adjacent region... You get... The Purple Express!
Any thoughts?
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Here I am Necro-ing threads again.
Sorry for your loss. Niob deaths often have very important points to teach us about the full-spectrum of the game. That is, some unknown factor in the game--which at lower levels is unnoticiable, or so low a % chance to activate (and to little effect when it does) is magnified in Niobium.
Just wondering:
In S1 the enemies sometimes spawned with weapons "in hand". (Some didn't seem to have hands or visible weapons). Only by using the little-used skill of Disarm (opposed by opponent's Weapon Lore) would you be able to see what the enemy was carrying (There was no provision I can recall for the enemy to pick up dropped weapons and armour).
Could that Guardian spawn with a 'weapon in hand' that magnifies CAs? Which would then magnify it's reflect damage aura?
Since the hypothetical 'weapon in hand' is random, often it wouldn't have any effect... However, most Niob players are boss hunters, and after thousands of bosses, you'd expect to run into the worst combination sometime, wouldn't you?
Does anyone know a Sacred 2 way to disarm opponents so we can see if the Guardians are packing?
'Cause if they're packing, then hitting up the Bosses could be a reverse lottery (where you win 99.9999999% of the time, and lose when you spawn them with equipment that makes them defeat you). -
Interesting. This sounds like the unplanned "28 Day Later" Vampiress in Sacred1.
The timeout on Instill Belief doesn't come because the target died. But, since the target can resurrect (once for normal skellies and Centurions), it comes back with partial party membership, but without an expiry countdown clock.
Very cool.
Thanks for sharing this.
Makes me wonder though... would your own Cleansing Brilliance buff damage your own skellies? Or would they be immune since they would be in that special state of not-damageable by you (the caster).
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These barbarians are using Shadow Veil... the Shadow Warrior combat art.
At high levels of this CA, you are invisible to the opponents (which is us). Area of Effect is the way to go.
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These Rules to Live By are great!
I was wondering about Knuckles' post here:
Just thought of oneThou shalt wait a couple of seconds before moving after thou hast teleported or entered/exited a cave to allow most noble enemies to materialize
It doesn't seem to be covered in the Rules. I know I recently started using the one way portals on the Island of Many Roads, and when you first teleport into a virgin area, the server has a lot of work to do.
It has to get the land generated, the mobs selected and placed, your mount placed (always seems last), etc. Using the one way teleports causes the server to do a lot of work at once. If you start moving
before it has ... oh. This then is a Mad Dash. Doh!
Nevermind. Keeping the post as a bump. We all need a bump from time to time.
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Well. The process used by Ascaron for Armallion (I think that was the original name) which turned into Sacred1 left out the very important debug phase.
I suspect they left that phase out because they were worried the game would be leaked before the main sales push.
They were very aware of pirates, and very worried about leakers.
Ascaron used the German public to, what I would call, alpha test. Both Sacred1 and 2 were so not-ready-for-prime-time when released.
They hoped the business plan of patch with content (for free) would allow them make sales, and end-up with a good product.
And it is good. With Sacred 2 too much time was spent making a huge world, and management's decisions to keep changing platforms kept wasting dev money and time.
Over and over again. Leaving not enough time to debug and polish. Just like S1. Big eyes. Vanishing budgets.
Scope creep is what made both Sacreds the buggy mess on release day. And that is a failure of project management. Not the devs. Their bosses.
With the new Sacred, there will probably be a new management team. I hope so.
As far as getting my hopes up... well. It could be amazing! (Think D3). It probably will blow my socks off. I say this, 'cause I loved Final Fantasy VII when it came out.
Years later, I tried to go back. And discovered, you can't really go back... too much maturing in the graphics market makes the game look boxy and cheap.
At the time, it was amazing! Now. Not so much. Computers keep getting cheaper and better designed and downright more capable. So. Yeah S3 will rock!
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Hey guys,
Some info on overlooked skills:
1. Damage Lore.
2. Spell Resistance.
3. Combat Reflex
Damage Lore: works for melee/ranged only IIRC. Since I'm into casters, not very useful for me.... but I agree it is intensely useful for melee/ranged.
Spell Resistance: Stopping a hard hit and turning it into a hit... priceless. Goodbye damage multipliers from melee/ranged opponents in the game. I always thought it was a niob shining skill. As I'm still struggling in silver, I didn't think too much of it.
Combat Reflex: prevents normal melee hits. This one I thought would be useful early (silver), and useless late (niob). The attack ratings I expected to be just too high in the upper reaches of the game. Not to mention that that high up in the game you should expect combat art only attacks. That is, the regens for the opponents are so low that they should be using as many combat arts against the players as the players are using on them... (or at least, using combat arts a lot more often).
Re: using overlapping skills to create immortality: defense in depth. What isn't stopped by evasion can be shielded or spell resisted (if applicable) or combat reflex (if applicable) or mitigated (toughness?) or huge hp cushioned (constitution) or... the r00ster special: not coming in because the opponent is already dead.
Dead opponents don't do much more than dying animation. 
Re: overlooked skills: the game designers designed this game from the top down... that is: they looked at what they expected level 200 characters to be built skill-wise and designed challenges to match... unlike S1 where they started at the lower levels and didn't think about what things would be like at the higher levels... thus the melee BM that can hit, but doesn't have real damage multipliers (like the melee classes: hard hit, multi-hit and attack)... and the Vampiress with her scalable 8x damage advantage that makes her a real monster--all with just 1 attack rune read (and the rest simply socketed in equipment). Those two examples are the extremes: super weak at the high levels (melee BM, he's untouched by damage, but can't deal out enough of his own), and super strong (just insane damage built with life leech to mitigate the pitiful surivor's damage from attacks that hit all nearby enemies).
The design process can't cover all the bases that real world testing will uncover (and share via the internet)--so the game needs to be rebalanced to leave it challenging... any areas not strongly tested in the real world environment run the risk of being unbalanced after the 'nerf' period. Like Disarm skill (who ever took that?) in Sacred 1. With Disarm you could discover that the dark elves royalty were wearing set items---which a BM with high whirlwind (which in effect grants and boosts disarm skill) could strip his enemies. Hardly anybody ever took that skill, and hardly any BMs took the spell... neither were sexy. It didn't do damage... but it sure could make a difference to a squishy character if the melee attacker lost it's huge 'sword' (Demons in Valley of Tears).
The primary purpose of the game elements is as designed... it's the unexpected combinations (like Disarm and Whirlwind in S1) that are gems when uncovered in a 'stable' gaming platform. Also known as unbalancing large player-oriented advantages---things that I, at least, would really like to discover!
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I think you're very talented. Looking forward to seeing more work!
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Menschen besitzen Hunde, Katzen besitzen Menschen. People have dogs, but cats have people.
Haha, yea some truth to that
I agree that most cats in general are in charge of their relationships... but there are some breeds that have the personality of dogs. My Athena was one of these. I wanted a cat that acted like a dog. Who would meet you at the door, and follow you from room to room (to some extent). She was perfect.
I feel sorry for the trapped but unable to let himself be rescued cat. Very interesting that he could get himself into such a situation. Also... very sad.
Thirst/hunger... loneliness... not a good way to be.
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ugh
why can't we all just play something dumb and easy
like diablo
gogo
Hrmm.... well... IF you'd do that with a melee toon, it would even be harder to reach 99 (cap). Up to patch 1.13 The Chaos Sanctuary and The worldstone Chambers were certain death for any melee toon. Quite an unfriendly curse from OK (Oblivion Knights). They would cast Iron Maiden, originally a Necromancer curse, causing you to relect your high end Hell damage upon yourself. First hit you landed killed your toon. With patch 1.13, you can actually play melee now.
Bit off topic eh
Greetz
Also, in D2 expansion they added what I call the ribbon curse. The ribbon curse hit the spell casters with damage based on the spellcaster's attack spells (damage or mana spent... I never figured it out)... if you kept casting when cursed... well... your character died. Very quickly too.
So. Deadly-edly for melee and spell casters both... if you didn't notice the specific curses used. Sacred does the same thing with combat arts getting magnified in niobium... which is why high level characters in hard core generally stick to safe opponents only.
on topic:
The xp still can be min-maxed... just much more of a challenge to make xp the higher you go. I would've thought that QUESTS would become more important in Niob than grinding... But there goes the voice of in-experience for you!
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I've never heard of oil spill clearing ships like your Bottsand ships.
All I remember of oils spills was the focus on black-coated birds that died from being covered in thick black oil.
Sorry.
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I'm not sure what the problem is. Could you post a screen capture (picture) to help us understand what is wrong?
If you post a picture, perhaps one of the experts here could help?
Oh--and... welcome to the forum!
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@chattius: How did your daughter get the signed picture? Did she get to meet him?
@main thread:
Wow! Sorry to hear about your hand Dobri! I hope things go well for you.
Way to go to be so physically active!
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Sacred1 was designed with an experience slow down.
At the extreme (200 to 206 IIRC) levels, it incorporated World Discovered % as a further experience gathering slow down.
The devs did this because levelling is considered part of the game... and reaching the topmost level was intended to be quite an achievement.
That a decrease in experience gained is built-in to Sacred 2 does not surprise me at all.
Makes getting to the top sweeter doesn't it?
Itssss Me
in DarkMatters: Introductions.
Posted
Welcome. Hope you enjoy Sacred2 as much as I do!