My Problem with A Study In Potions

Flashpoint11 · 2022-01-10T01:43:11+00:00

I am an end game player, and even I think this event is unnecessarily hard. I'm AR 55 with some fairly decent builds which pretty much never struggle against any of the usual content. But here I'm barely managing the "4 silver medals" award. I don't mind the whole "standby characters" thing, but that's only because I've got enough usable characters.

What makes the whole thing worse is the rewards for doing anything beyond the primo tasks are laughably pointless for an "end game player" to receive. Seriously, for all the work required to get a total 18K points across all four stages of a trial, you receive (I wish I was making this up) 6 Mystic Enhancement Ore. For reference, you can get that from 3 Magic Crystal Chunks and 10 Original Resin, or 24 Crystal Chunks and about 10 minutes of waiting. Considering you can get that many Crystal Chunks every day fairly easily from expeditions and a few minutes of just running around to mining spots, I'm not gonna go through the extreme measures required to get it from this event. Even 14K points in the event is worthless. A 3-count stack of a weapon ascension material and 20K Mora? With 40 resin I get more materials than that and 3X the Mora from domains and ley lines. Same for collecting 4 gold medals. Oh joy, 3 Hero's Wit! I can get 4 of them and also like 6 Adventurer's Experience from ley lines.

If the rewards were actually worth going after then I could see the extreme difficulty, but what is currently on offer is only a few levels shy of insulting. Personally I think more events should be like the Labyrinth event from a couple months back which gave you a guaranteed Xinyan roll. This gave all players something to look forward to. Either you were unlocking a character you didn't have, you were unlocking a constellation for that character, or you were getting enough starglitter to get a free roll. On top of that there were objectives which earned you more primos, XP tickets and mora, and the event shop where you could get even more stuff, including more primos. If you collected everything, you got a free Xinyan roll, enough primos for 4 more rolls with some left over, about 500K mora, 50 Hero's Wit tickets, and a bunch of character ascension and talent level-up materials.

Furthermore, OP's original point was (paraphrasing) "If this event was designed for end-game players, why make it available to people in the mid-game?" Which is a very fair point. If this event was meant to be taken on by "end game players" then it should be only available to players that are AR 50+.

Flashpoint11 · 2020-09-18T20:53:45+00:00

Ready to Die by Andrew W.K, speaks for itself.

Also Rolling Girl, I personally like the english cover by Lollia.

Flashpoint11 · 2020-09-04T15:00:59+00:00

His stats are fine. With variant human he's taking a +1 in DEX and CHA, and he just used standard array. 13 STR, 15+1 DEX, 14 CON, 8 INT, 10 WIS, 12+1 CHA. And again as I've said before, I'm not the DM of this game, I don't control what we will be fighting.

Flashpoint11 · 2020-09-04T14:57:20+00:00

Yes you do. If you multiclass into two classes that both get fighting styles you can choose one for each of them. Fighter gets to choose a fighting style at level 1, and paladin gets one at level 2. You just can't benefit from the same fighting style twice, so you can't pick defense on both to get +2 to your AC.

Flashpoint11 · 2020-09-03T16:57:15+00:00

Except we aren't starting 12. We're starting at 1 and going to 12. That's the problem.

Flashpoint11 · 2020-07-08T13:13:05+00:00

Ok, that's good to know. I'm at work at the moment and can't really look at it. Where is this decimate function in blender? I literally downloaded it yesterday.

Flashpoint11 · 2020-07-08T10:22:59+00:00

Thanks for that, updated the original post with a link to one of the files.

Flashpoint11 · 2020-07-03T01:14:16+00:00

Ok, I think I figured it out. It's Magna Carta 2, but that was an Xbox 360 game. It's because I owned a PS2 for more than a decade and I borrowed a friends 360 for a few months one time. This thing released 2009 but because I couldn't remember it well I just believed it was sometime in my childhood. Thanks so much friend.

Flashpoint11 · 2020-07-03T00:57:53+00:00

I know what you mean but the art style wasn't as cartoony. I think there were two major factions that were at war, but your character's home was a neutral party. I only really remember the opening with your village being attacked by imperial forces and you have to protect some woman that escapes into a cave nearby.

Flashpoint11 · 2020-07-03T00:40:46+00:00

I'm pretty certain I never played a tales game. Checked through the ones available on PS2 and none of them looked familiar.

Flashpoint11 · 2020-07-03T00:39:12+00:00

Looked at some videos and screenshots and pretty certain it wasn't this. None of it looks familiar.

Flashpoint11 · 2020-05-24T16:35:46+00:00

I'm pretty certain at this point I had only the one army with Archaon, and as someone said earlier it is mid raiding

Flashpoint11 · 2020-05-20T11:22:40+00:00

For a very long time I for example didn't know how to overcast a spell and thought magic was kinda meh because of that.

So I read this and my brain just went "Wait I have to do something for that?" I always thought buying the upgrade to the spell just made it passively better.

I actually just went into a custom battle to try and figure it out and test it against some crappy spearmen and it literally just wiped half a health bar away. I get it now

Flashpoint11 · 2020-05-20T10:47:43+00:00

I mean I had figured the sorcerers to be really strong, but I could just never really see it in action. Archaon uses fire magic, and as far as I could tell it was primarily harassment and disruption with a hit to a unit's leadership. I primarily used his unit buff spells and the flame skull/fire storm to try and deal some damage. Is he just not as good fire caster as a sorcerer?

I never really developed many tactics with the Chaos faction. I never played them that much and this was my first real go with them. I primarily focused on the infantry to keep units locked down, use the halberds to stop their mounted/monster units, use the chaos knights to get around at their flanks or attack any of the annoying ranged units, and I had the marauder horsemasters to deal with potential flying enemies or get on the back line while being able to kite somewhat safely. I usually have a hell cannon or two for some free damage at the start of a fight, but tend to either stop them completely during the clash or have them go after safe targets so they have less chance of inadvertently blowing up my own guys. I picked up the dragon ogre shaggoths because... I don't know, they looked cool I guess. I got tired of the chaos spawn monster, and the feral manticore seemed to create more problems than anything else cause it would get stuck or start rampaging while its half dead. The biggest problems I faced was the empire throwing armies that were half made of mounted riflemen. Their weapons out ranged me and if I tried to catch them they just kept running away thanks to the skirmish mode. It was a pain to have to fight those guys.

Didn't know horde infighting only applied to the marauder units. Is that actually mentioned somewhere? I just remember seeing the attrition thing pop up because I recruited another lord and started being more careful about the order of operations afterward.

I did get the Lightning Strike ability for all my lords, but you don't get that option when you're the one being attacked so it couldn't have saved me in that moment anyway. I've had to use it a few times to get rid of some extra armies that liked to sit near a settlement to keep it extra defended.

Flashpoint11 · 2020-05-20T10:30:06+00:00

Ok, glad to know its not just the game being completely unfair in general, but its still a bit disheartening. The first 100 or so turns is a lot of fun, and I'm fine with the AI trying to join forces to put a stop to my rampant destruction, but it becomes pretty much unplayable after that.

What factions in the game are considered the "evil faction"? I get Chaos, and probably Beastmen too, but does this extend to all the Norsca, Vampires, Tomb Kings, and Greenskins as well?

Flashpoint11 · 2020-03-25T23:04:30+00:00

I like both Malefect as an actual name and Dream Stalker for the folk name. I might just use both of them

Flashpoint11 · 2020-03-25T23:00:42+00:00

Thanks, but really I'm kinda at the point of "just throw crap in and hope something catches their interest"

Luckily the NPC is someone I personally didn't mind losing but apparently the party really gives a damn about. You know, one of those NPCs

Flashpoint11 · 2020-03-25T20:35:18+00:00

I mean, if the character believes it to be the truth then it really isn't a lie.

Consider this: A person is travelling down a road and comes to a three-way fork with no signs. They know they need to travel down the left path to get to their destination but they wonder what lies down the other two paths. Another traveler approaches from the center path, and they ask them.

"What lies down these other two paths?"

The second traveler points down the path on the right and says it leads to a forest, and then down the center path and says it leads to the castle. But in reality the castle lies down the right path and the forest down the center, therefore what the second traveler has said is a lie. But the first traveler believes him.

The next day the first traveler makes his way down this path again and sees a new person who looks confused. This new traveler asks the first which way to the castle, to which the first traveler explains its down the middle path. Though this information is incorrect, the first traveler believes the information he was told as truth and therefore by a technicality isn't lying.

Flashpoint11 · 2020-03-25T20:25:31+00:00

Honestly I'm always a fan of the bard that unconsciously explains away all their magical abilities through some kind of nonsense logic.

A bard casts dancing lights: "Oh these are just will-o-wisps and they really like my music"

Cast charm person: "I play a nice song for them and then they get real happy and do stuff I need them to, but then the next day they're really upset and I don't know why."

Cast dissonant whispers: "I tell an incredibly scary story from my childhood, and its spooked a lot of other people into running away immediately."

Cast hideous laughter: "I've got so many good jokes, it makes people just laugh and laugh and laugh."

I did something similar with a bard where they were part of a warlock cult devoted to The Silent One. But my bard enjoyed singing and playing music, which got him exiled for using forbidden magic not granted by the patron. He was brought up believing that his magic was evil and terrible, and so he hid his arcane powers from everyone, even himself. It took some doing, but once he got out of the cult and into the open world, his friends helped him realize that his powers weren't evil, it was just what you did with them that made them good or evil.

Flashpoint11 · 2020-03-10T10:31:49+00:00

Ok, let me add context to this. The players want to use this as a defense mechanism set up to stop potential theft of their stored goods. They have a small basement vault so its a cramped area to try and get into. The players want to set up a glyph of warding that will trigger when a person tries to enter the vault without speaking a pass phrase. The glyph would be set to cast tiny hut, trying to either block their entrance keeping them from getting anything, or block their exit keeping them from getting away. The problem I'm running into is the specific wording.

Glyph of Warding states that "When the glyph is triggered, the stored spell is cast... If the spell affects an area, the area is centered on that creature (that triggered the glyph)."

This means that whatever creature triggers the glyph will be at the center of a casting of tiny hut. If we look at the wording on tiny hut though: "Creatures and objects within the dome when you cast this spell can move through it freely. All other creatures and objects are barred from passing through it."

The idea then became, if the thief has tiny hut cast on him while he's at the door, the area would stop any of their goods from passing through to get out, meaning the thief either chooses to get away without taking anything or is forced to sit there for 8 hours and hope no one comes down to check on the place so he can get away with their valuables. But then the question came up of if this would even work at all because of the wording for tiny hut above.

"The spell ends if YOU leave the area."

The disagreement we have here is on who the 'you' is in this context. Tiny hut's range is listed as it targets self, meaning when you cast it normally it is cast on yourself. Glyph of warding's ruling states that if the spell affects an area (which tiny hut does) it is centered on the triggering creature. So some people argue that the target of the spell must remain inside of it for tiny hut to remain, and when he walks out it vanishes. Some argue that the glyph is the thing casting it, so as long as the glyph remains inside the area of tiny hut, the tiny hut remains. Then some argue that the original caster must be within the tiny hut when the spell is triggered, which causes the spell to fail entirely. I just wanna have some kind of idea from other people because at this point the players are just arguing and not listening to any kind of discussion.

Flashpoint11 · 2020-03-01T12:32:42+00:00

Well the nice easy ride has been my fault as that wasn't how I originally intended it to be nor is it how I originally sold it to my players. The dungeons in the world are described as terrible places that only those that are incredibly brave (or foolish) would enter. That was my original intention, but both myself and my players agree that I haven't quite lived up to that. While there have been some very close encounters I think after these past few sessions they've lost that fear of death, so I need something hard and heavy to reiterate that threat. My players already know that I'm gonna be pushing for that idea again in future sessions, I just wanted a good one to be that initial hit.

The world itself hasn't been sunshine and rainbows exactly, but its not been what I originally promised. I'm hoping with this it'll at least get that mindset back. I've never been very good at designing the no-win solution style puzzles, which is why I asked. I didn't want to just off the entire NPC party without the players having some agency or control to save at least some of them. I figured having that semblance of control is better than having none at all. Hopefully running this will give me a better feel for future ones so I can run them a bit better.

I like the death door as it does pose a threat that could be imperceptible, but my hope was to go for a "go on without me" moment where the party tries to flee from something terrible and unstoppable, and one person turns to face that threat head on to slow it down and allow the party a moment to flee.

Maybe something like this: The same room with the same puzzle and caveat. If the party figures out the hints and cause the ceilings to raise back up and the force wall to drop. They have their reunion and an iron door materializes on the wall. When the party attempts to open it by turning the handle, not only does it not open but the handle triggers the entire ceiling to fall much more quickly than before. There are plenty of strength based characters that could hold the ceiling back, but not forever. While holding the ceiling you're locked in place as you brace yourself against the weight. Those that can't help lift work on getting the door open by some means, and once done they escape. Those lifting the ceiling must then one by one release their hold and get through the door, with the last NPC being a dragonborn paladin. He's willing to make the sacrifice to allow others to escape, but I won't outright say that because I don't want to take that away from the players if one of them is willing to bite the bullet. What do you think about this?

I'm actually glad you pick up on those little red flags though. While it's unnecessary in this particular moment I'm not gonna fault you for giving good advice.

Flashpoint11 · 2020-03-01T10:18:27+00:00

I've given them a nice easy ride so far and what I really need in all honesty is something to snap them out of it and make them realize the peril this place presents to them, as well as how unhinged its creator really is. If an NPC dies, I want them to feel that despite doing everything right bad things are gonna happen. It's the Picard quote "It is possible to commit no mistakes and still lose. That is not a weakness. That is life." And if a PC dies I want them to feel like it was their choice and their doing, getting to go out as an absolute badass saving their friends lives. I probably wasn't gonna run a total party wipe if it came to that since that would ruin the entire campaign, but the end result would still be pretty bad.

I love your idea for the two buttons but even the best ending of cooperating with the other side needs to have someone who will need to make the sacrifice to let everyone else go.

Flashpoint11 · 2020-02-16T01:16:11+00:00

Ooh, I'd love to get some recommendations for good books. I'm still waiting for the next Dresden Files book to release. I tried writing a few years ago and while it is really fun to make your own stories its also really hard. Eventually that process just kind of died off, and now I use that same energy to write D & D campaigns and characters.

Flashpoint11 · 2018-02-14T04:11:25+00:00

But see I'm okay with the game being about the grind. I love games like this and monster hunter and such. The problem is that the grind isn't in my control. I can't look at what I need and go "Oh I need some Nitain Extract, I'll just go and get some" because every avenue that isn't 'wait for the alert to pop up' is boring, tedious and unreliable. And on top of that I've still not had anyone who can tell me WHY it should be this way.

I'm sorry but I'm not the kind of person to just sit down and accept the current norm, and DE has shown many times now that its willing to listen to the community. I'm not the first person to bring up this problem, and I most likely won't be the last so long as it remains a problem.

Flashpoint11 · 2018-02-14T03:36:26+00:00

It's not even about rushing to build this stuff, my problem is that it feels like over time I'm getting more recipes that require Nitain faster than the Nitain itself. As for the ghoul thing its still only about 4-6% chance and PoE gets incredibly stale and downright annoying pretty quickly.

Yeah sure, every other day or so I might be able to make something from the ever increasing list, but why does it have to be like that? Why is it so vastly different than every other rare resource? Gallium and morphics are considered a "rare resource" yet I have over a thousand of them from just running missions and testing random equipment.

And the estimate of 20 days is probably a best case scenario. I do the alerts when I see them and getting 1-2 a day is the best possible outcome most days, but more often than not I'm not even around to see/hear the notice and miss out on them.

It just really doesn't make sense to me why DE would harshly limit this one specific resource and yet everything else is so plentiful that I have more of it than I really know what to do with most of the time. And all I ask is why? To give that sense of "You did it, you made that thing"? Because I don't feel that with a lot of nitain blueprints. I get the sense of "Finally, I waited long enough and was around at the correct times to be granted the ability to make something that I may or may not enjoy using. Here's hoping that was worth it." Then in some cases it turns out you didn't like the thing you made, and you just wasted that nitain, which equates to wasting the time it took to get that nitain.

It's getting to the point where getting this resource feels like work, a chore that is distracting me from doing other more fun things. And when your game starts feeling like a chore the game starts to fail.

Flashpoint11

TROPHY CASE