/v/ - Video Games

Half of VTMB.

Geneforge comes to mind.

Though I made some poor choices in 3 or 4 (the one with the islands) and the final boss basically went first every combat and melted me one hit. On the other hand, against regular shit I just started combat until I won initiative and then 2HKO most things and danced out of LOS range and repeated.

But no you can win with dialogue for the most part

>>13628505

so whats the deal with OP's game? and how is it non-combat playthrough?

I've found about it a good while ago and been eyeing to try it for a long while, seems like good shit

>>13628599

the thing with AoD is that it has very good (turn-based) combat but the diplomatic options are very well done and you can avoid combat altogether with dialogue. There are many "civil skills" that can help in those situations, a far cry from having a single mega-powerful speech skill, skill checks are everywhere and there are many ways to solve every situation. Not to mention the amount of factions and how you can interweave with them. It's very well done although the end game it's quite disappointing, abandoning the political stuff and centering itself into lore-faggotrism IMO

>>13628663

forgot too about the complete lack of random combat, which is an important factor and one of the reasons why playing a Diplomat in Fallout sucks (unless you care to spent precious points in outdoorsmanship)

>>13628505

Adventure games.

>>13629146

specialize as much as possible. hybrid builds are the hardest to pull off although they're possible (but not recommended for a first-time player). Either a full combat build or non-combat build is ideal if you're starting. Having some lore is recommended to discover more locations. Streetwise and persuasion are often complementary (etiquette is kind of useless imo). Crafting lets you have the best weapons/armors in the game. Alchemy is pretty useful too if you're going to engage in combat. Stick to one weapon skill and one of either dodge or shield. Critical Strike is pretty important for battle as well. Assassin is the hardest background to play, as you'll need to be proficient in multiple skills. Merchant/Loremaster are the go to backgrounds for non-combat playthroughs. Drifter/Grifter are kind of free-style builds, let's you join most factions as well. For combat oriented characters, mercenary or drifter are good. Praetor is a background that could go either way (combat or diplomat). I found Thieving builds kind of boring. You'll probably fuck up your first character so don't be afraid of restarting after you learn how the game works, it's pretty short

>>13629146

thanks the hive mind

>>13629544

good tips

>>13629234

>>13629996

Dialogue isn't the only thing you can do outside of combat, faggots.

>>13629996

>visual novels

insert your weebo bully meme here.gif

>>13629146

To reinforce what this anon said-

>>13629544

-as you progress further along the plot, having only a few ranks in a certain skill will become meaningless, as the difficulty of bypassing checks in any one skill grows over time, forcing you to keep putting ranks into it if you want it to have any use.

Also, have no pretenses about the setting - it isn't "fantasy-lite late antiquity", it's "post-apoc technology-is-magic with a thin coat of late antiquity paint".

>>13629996

>>13629234

>what is C&C

>>13628599

There are a ton of noncombat routes in Age of Decadence, but it turns into a choose your own adventure game with extensive skill checks if you play it like that. It is a very content-rich route though. There is a lot of noncombat content when you go down that route.

AoD doesn't have difficulty settings, but your playstyle does affect how easy or hard the game can be:

Easy: Pure noncombat.

Medium: Pure combat

Hard: Hybrid

Super hard: Super-hybrid. Like, go play a silvertongued terminator loremaster thief.

I'm just gonna warn you right now that any attempts at playing a hybrid are likely to fail badly. It can be done, but you have to git gud at the game, for real. You basically end up memorizing a lot of skill checks and how to do it. Hybriding is mostly how we keep playing the game after we've cleared it a few times and want to try doing new shit.

PS: For combat builds, you should get at least 2 ranks of alchemy to make your own healing salves (the doc is a ripoff) and you should probably get a crafting skill, although it's not strictly necessary depending on the gear you get.

What are some garbage games you can just run away from all enemies and still be able to beat the final boss? I only remember that gay tech demo jrpg from Square that even punished the gayweebs that actually grinded.

>>13636658

You can run away from everything but a few forced fights in the Divinity games; DOS2 might be possible only with the forced fights fought, even with its huge and awful level scaling. If you use glitches you can probably get it down to about single digits of fights total.

>>13629544

>Crafting lets you have the best weapons/armors in the game.

Eh, the power armor doesn't rely on crafting but lore. And there are a lot of unique weapons with perks that cannot be crafted to similar extremes. But at the same time crafting usually does let you have very good weaponry and armors. It's also your only real source of lightened armors, which have their AP limit raised, letting you use 11 AP armors as a 12 AP character without hindering your mobility.

>Critical Strike is pretty important for battle as well.

Critical strike is probably the most overrated combat skill, unless you are playing as an assassin where it gives you instant kills in text adventure mode. The trouble is that crit is a luxury when your priorities are killing shit (your weapon skill) and not getting hit (block or dodge - block is much better, esp. with crafted shields). Crit does neither. It used to give you a baseline avoidance against enemy crits, but it hasn't done that for years. It's also worth noting that last I checked, you cannot both crit and get a weapon mastery effect on the same strike. Crit is certainly potent and there are some extreme builds that go crit heavy and no defense, but those builds are generally super aggressive. If you want to focus on crit, you usually want to invest in it a lot (and get crafting on the side for more +crit, esp. if going dagger crit) because later on enemies will get better and better armor making your crit score a joke if you haven't been focusing it.

Most backgrounds don't really matter other than changing up the quest for how you enter the game and on occasion deciding the faction you start with. Merchant, Thief, Assassin, and Praetor all start off in a faction. Loremaster, Grifter, Mercenary, and Drifter do not start with a faction and thus basically have an opening quest after which they have to join a faction (and usually perform some faction-joining quest). Praetor is the one faction whose questline you cannot easily join.

>>13628505

That game felt like someone made a VN and pasted it into a 3D engine with a combat mechanic.

Want to run away from combat? You can't because reasons.

Want to call guards for help? They won't help because reasons.

Want to close a door from the outside? Apparently, you can but only if you interact with it on a certain angle.

Basically, if it isn't an option in a VN sequence, you most likely can't do it.

>>13637393

Well, more like a CYOA text adventure, but you hit the nail on the head. The phrase "emergent gameplay" gets a bad rap for how it's used to refer to all kinds of horribly pointless shit, but it's true that there is value in letting players make their own decisions and create their own circumstances and solutions to problems. AoD doesn't really have that. It has a shitton of branching, interconnected storylines and ways you can change the road you are going down, but at no point do you get the feeling that you are seriously exercising personal initiative here.

>>13637607

yeah thats the thing that irked me, it felt like you had a lot of paths, and the paths were blocked by skill/combat checks you had to satisfy.

>>13636658

>that gay tech demo jrpg from Square that even punished the gayweebs that actually grinded

Final Fantasy 8?

No Truce With The Furies looks like it will be good whenever it comes out

>>13637239

>block is much better

that's simply not true. Dodge is superior to block in every regard

>>13638694

Block gets a +25% bonus just for being block, and larger shields give you extra block vs ranged attacks, and with crafting the total DR on blocks can be so high you might as well have fully dodged the attack. Also the vsCrit stat from your shield stacks on top of your regular armor.

Dodge only has two things going for it: When you dodge you ignore all damage. And you get counterattack chances. For 2H weapons you need to go dodge anyway, but with 1H weapons block is the superior defense by far.

>>13637239

>>13639508

Dodge+2H axe (for that sweet Double Tap) + Light Armour was my choice for combat-oriented gameplay, I wrecked most enemies easily.

>>13628663

Endgame lets you ignore the lore parts and advance your faction´s agenda. Although becoming Balzhaar´s second-in-command is my favourite ending.

>>13639536

>Endgame lets you ignore the lore parts and advance your faction´s agenda. Although becoming Balzhaar´s second-in-command is my favourite ending.

What. You didn't ascend and become a god?

>>13639695

I did, but I prefer the other ending more.

>>13638258

Combat usually serves as some kind of soft skill check but there isn't some kind mechanic for that for speech.

>>13638317

Level scaling ruins everything.