I keep intending to check whether chanting stops when I read a scroll, or if I’m prone. It hasn’t stopped for anything else, though I assume it does when stunned and probably reading a scroll. Prone is more iffy; I guess one could keep chanting while lying on the ground.
I made my chanter do mechanics instead of lore because I simply assumed they wouldn’t be able to chant and use a scroll at the same time and it’s hard enough getting off an invocation before combat is over without delaying the phrases by my own actions.
Bateau
1804
I’m starting to hate the combat and I wish I had some simple scripting available to activate some abilities when the combat starts. Often in the middle of combat I’ll activate the abilities then cycle through characters, making sure they’re actually doing shit, unpause, pause back 2 seconds later to check on the characters and some will be just sitting around doing nothing, despite the orders they were given. I don’t know what’s causing this, but I suspect it’s pathfinding + gimped range on some abilities issue. It doesn’t really help that most areas are rather small and you’re fighting with a group of 6 vs a group of 6+ pretty often.
And there are just way way way too many useless spells and abilities. If time wasn’t an actual resource in fights I’d consider using more of them, but as it is, with the inability to buff up before combat, I’m forced to go with frontloaded abilities or that one standout buff/debuff that’s clearly superior to others.
Chanting stops briefly when you use an Invocation. Otherwise it is always running.
I’d love to have a list of all the spells with their effects in one place so that I could compare them and plan. I’d love to have a list of all the talents / class abilities in one place to compare them and plan. Is there a decent wiki anywhere? The only one I know of has some very old information and its unclear if it has been updated along the way.
I have used almost every spell from Priest and Wizard and find they are all very useful, though some are situational. If you see vampires, drop that Prayer Against Charm/Domination at the start of the fight! Stuff like that. Some of the early spells are so useful I still use them at level 12 (which is convenient as level 1 spells become “per encounter” for Wizards and Priests at level 11). If I had some time, I could maybe list all the spells I like to use, there are a lot of really incredible spells, when used properly they are complete game-changers.
Don’t you get per encounter level 1 spells when you hit level 9 and level 2 spells at level 11?
Just tested it, you do. Maybe wizards are not that bad after all, with the rings of wizardry they would get a LOT of low level spell casts for each encounter.
One thing I’ve noticed is you definitely have to watch the recovery or whatever it is bar; if you give a command, it won’t be executed until the character recovers from the last action, I think? Seems that way.
That’s correct. Switching weapons invokes a large recovery as well, though you appear to be able to do that during a recovery. I haven’t tested it extensively, but if for instance Kana shoots someone with his DOOMRIFLE (bwahaha) I can flip him over to ol’ Justice the Greatsword for some more personal attitude adjustment and he seems to switch right away with no added recovery, though his recovery is already super slow from the DOOMRIFLE (bwahaha).
In other news, it’s a real bummer you can’t rename items.
Also heavy armor and engagement rules will also have a hand in delaying the next action.
That said there are times where I notice characters just standing around during a fight. For instance my PC, a Ranger, doesn’t automatically begin firing arrows during a fight. I imagine it is because I keep him a ways back from the fray and his basic AI may be based on proximity to enemy. Not a huge deal as I like to manually control most of my party’s actions anyway.
-Todd
I don’t believe engagement has a delay component to it, other than provoking disengagement attacks if you try to disengage.
Well I may have worded that wrong. It may not have a delay component, but it can lock someone down, in a sense, which might explain why they aren’t completing the original action that the player assigned to them. They may have been en route and then got locked in an engagement with an enemy.
-Todd
Being hit by a disengagement attack temporarily halts you, which is almost the best reason to avoid them at all costs.
Having a shield also increases your recovery time, even the lighter shields and that don’t reduce accuracy (other than removing the inherent bonus to accuracy from having one weapon and nothing in the other hand).
Is it that early? Wow. It was a huge, huge deal when I noticed it - level 1 spells (and actually level 2 spells) are pretty solid. I’ve been using Chill Fog, Magic Missile, Slicken, and the single target/high interrupt spell (I forget the name) every fight instead of the blast ability now. Level two opens up even more options - an AoE blind spell, an AoE burn DOT, a better defensive spell, and a host of other utility options.
The level six Wizard spells are Crazy OP, by the way. There is a Hex spell that hits a MASSIVE Foe AoE and nails them with three 30+ second long status ailments, from sicken to paralysis. It’s… scary.
Also, I don’t think my Wildstrike Freeze talent has ever actually done anything. Certainly no freeze damage is added to any of my spiritshifted attacks.
I mean, my druid PC feels pretty OP as it is, so whatever, but still.
I made a stupid looking gremlin character with big dumb ears so I could take the Minor Threat racial ability. It had better be working or Obsidian had better get a move on with the patch.
No icon that I noticed. I only knew it was happening because of the messages in the event log.
robc04
1818
I’ve found that for many battles I just let me tank fighter and other fighter move up to engage and the other 4 - wizard, chanter, ranger, and priest sit back and pop enemies with their ranges weapons (Persistence bow, fine arbalest, fine hunting bow and fine pistol). At one point I had all heavy hitting ranged weapons and they would drop enemies like flies, but I mixed it up to have some more faster firing weapons.
On some tougher battles I may need to drop a shield spell, or a AoE spell like a fireball to hit a mob, but in general I’m not using spells as much as I used to.
Yep. I only micromanage on fights with named enemies. It just takes too long, and I don’t find it enjoyable.
robc04
1820
Not sure why it took me so long to realize that I can hold the right mouse button to control the orientation of my party after a move.
Cities: Skylines and Pillars have earned $18.5m in the last three weeks. Apparently, Pillars’ sales were so good that they would have broken most standing Paradox sales records. . . if Cities: Skylines hadn’t done so first. Also minor confirmation of sequel, though I’m unsure of the reliability of “GamingBolt” as a source for such a major announcement.
The last paradox newsletter was basically just a set of happy animated gifs and screen captures of steam sales rankings.
