My Progress Report, Part 2 (long, *SPOILERS*)

[seclists]

I'm starting a new thread because the last one was getting a bit long. It might load too slowly (for modem-users).

Brief recap of my party:
1. Lizardman Lord (L19)
2. Draconian Samurai (L19)
3. Mook Ranger (L19)
4. Mook Gadgeteer (L20)
5. Elf Bishop (L18, replaced a Rawulf Priest; originally studied Priest + Psionic books, now Alchemy as well)
6. Elf Mage (L20, complements the spell selection)

I currently have no NPCs in my party. I had to drop Saxx since he did not want to enter the Mine Tunnels (not surprisingly, since his arch-enemies dwell somewhere in there). I had already dropped Vi a little before. The reason for this was that I set out to develop the Lord's Mace skill (so he could get swings with the off-hand Diamond Eyes). I gave him a Stun Mace + Diamond Eyes. The problem was that Vi was "getting in the way", i.e. finishing the enemies off from a distance with her polearm before the Lord could get many swings at them. So I dropped Vi, and continued without any NPCs. At this stage, I seemed to encounter nothing but large hordes of Juggernauts & Rankweeds on the Arnika-Trynton road, and these were perfect for building up the Lord's Mace skill. Juggernauts are not terribly dangerous but have lots of hitpoints and a good AC, so they made perfect practice targets. The Lord got 1-2 points of Mace skill in every combat, and once his Mace skill was ~40, I gave him a sword for his primary weapon. The Bloodlust + Diamond Eyes combo worked quite well now.

I then started doing the Umpani AND T'Rang quests. Since someone in the previous thread (Nightowl2?) suspected that Z'Ant's suspicions might arise with time, I tried to complete the quests as quickly as possible. I portalled between the Umpani base, T'Rang fortress and Arnika, no resting (except to regain Air magic points for the Return to Portal spell). Oh, by the way, 3 characters in my party can use portals now: the Ranger, the Bishop, and the Mage. This spell is probably my favorite spell in the game! Once I realized that it will become even more useful & powerful when you have more casters in your party, I became determined to get for all casters in my party. The Lord and the Samurai are now heavily practicing air magic; eventually all party members except the Gadgeteer should have it. The mere idea of 5 custom-settable portals = MEGA flexibility, get anywhere you want in the blink of an eye! Magnificient! That will greatly reduce the one big problem with the game, the tedium of endless wandering around and bumping into pointless unavoidable random fights. And to maximize the benefit, I will probably leave one portal in the teleporter chamber of the T'Rang Fortress. One portal could be used for the "current" location (being explored), i.e., to portal between it and a safe ("town") location to get restocked like in Diablo(2).

Of course, there was at least one major delay. It took me *ages* to find Sergeant Rubble. "Um, you can't really mean he's somewhere in this maze!" But in the end, of course he WAS. The rocket launcher training was a near-disaster in other respects, too: even my Gadgeteer missed a few shots and couldn't take out the targets with the rockets that Sergeant Rubble gave us (I hadn't discovered the store room with the extra rockets yet). I "cheated" a little, and one of casters (the bishop or the mage, I forget) finished them off with a distance spell that was not out-of-range (Concussion? Crush? Nuclear Blast? Again, I forget) when I had exhausted all rockets. Apparently this made no difference, as I successfully completed the quest and the characters with the modern weapon skill got a slight boost in it.

So I was not quite as quick as I'd hoped I'd be, but Z'Ant hadn't figured out the deception yet. I did the Mook HQ quests simultaneously, and then got the next quests from both sides. Every once in a while, I talked to Z'Ant to see if he still liked me. I had just been instructed (by the Umpani) to go looking for Sergeant Glumph, and the next time I talked to Z'Ant, he called my characters "sspiess". Ouch. I had just saved before that conversation, so I reloaded and tried the Chaos Moliri trick (suggested by Scatter - many thanks!), and it worked. Apparently this is how I will have to complete the quest now once I have found the black box. Hopefully there will be no side effects, as I really want to try the "Alliance" quest (or whatever it is called) later.

Yeah, I bribe He'Li when I was in Arnika for the Mook stuff, but I did *not* kill Kunar nor turn him in: that was probably my mistake. But I tried to play as much "by the rules" as possible: my characters couldn't have really *known* by this stage to suspect Kunar. However, once I am done with both the Umpani and the T'Rang, there will be a swift and terrible retribution on that @$$hole Kunar... (if only I can take him out without angering the Umpani).

Next stop, Sea Caves, looking for Bayjin. I entered the Sea Caves from Gigas (I just wanted to make this clear since there also seems to be one other area called "Sea Caves", a series of seaSHORE caves while this one is a series of underwater caves). I must say this has been one of the more exciting stages so far, with the various sea creatures such as psi sharks (an apparent misnomer, "psi lantern fish" would be much more descriptive). And oh yeah, I have encountered by far the most impressive creature so far - the sea dragon, Nessie! It was so HUGE, that I spent a couple of minutes (real time) just *staring* at it from a distance, almost long enough for my Chameleon spell to run out. Then I tried to *carefully* sneak past her (him? it?) a couple of times and failed. My heart missed a beat when that grisly line spear-like jaws turned to face me and the "tough combat" music started playing. Then I saw how many hit points the creature had and nearly fainted. Reload. Even with the Chameleon spell I had to venture too close, she *would* notice me and I could not avoid it. (Of course, the entrance to Bayjin was actually in a place that did not require me to sneak past Nessie, but I didn't know it back then.) Ok, I thought, show me what you've got.

She had got PLENTY, I can now tell. The battle went roughly as follows.
Round 1: Bishop & Mage cast Soul Shield & Element Shield, "just in case". Ranger summons a medium-power Elemental. Gadgeteer uses the Lava Lamp and fails (Hypnotic Lure is a fire spell, duhh). Lord guardian-angels Samurai, Samurai attacks with a bow (for 1 damage, IIRC). Nessie breathes. "I hurt!" (in the words of my "burly" Samurai, who did he learn his lines from anyway, the Incredible Hulk? "Good, I crush better now!" Similarly, my "aggressive" Ranger's lines remotely remind me of another Marvel character, i.e., Wolverine)
Round 2: Bishop and Mage both summon level 7 elementals. I nowadays don't often use elementals since they tend to get in the way (literally), making combat last ages in narrow places. But in this particular fight, the more the merrier: hopefully Nessie would spend at least a few turns attacking them instead of me (and she *did*, fortunately). Gadgeteer uses the Regenerating Stone. Lord, Samurai, Ranger start hacking at the sea monster.
Round 3: Mage casts Armourmelt on Nessie. Gadgeteer uses Invigorator Belt on Lord, Bishop casts Superman on Samurai. Lord, Samurai, Ranger do their thing on Nessie.
Rounds 4+: Repetition of previous rounds. Bishop also casts Stamina or Rest All as necessary, Gadgeteer shoots with the Omnigun when gadgets not urgently needed. I *think* that the Gadgeteer actually succeeded in blinding Nessie with the Omnigun at some stage but I cannot remember for sure (it was a *looonngg* fight).
Round gazillion: Nessie DIES! My party is alive, without any casualties but definitely not in a very good shape. Nessie was an impressive opponent, and I almost felt sorry for having to kill her. (*She* started it!) However, to be frank, I had much more troubles with the bunch of Cosmic Rays that I had encountered a little earlier, so yes, Nessie was a slight disappointment. She was *definitely* not even half as bad as the Cathedral mob, the Sorceress Queen and her retinue, even though I must admit that my party was lower-level and not as well-equipped back then.

I continue to explore this area (Bayjin Shallows). Great loot abound! First I found "Excaliber" (sic), a very nice 2-H sword in a chest; then some stupid Buccaneer ghosts dropped some even more impressive items. 1 Mystery Ray (thanks, but my Gadgeteer will stick with the Omnigun), 2 VapoRizers (instant death effect!), 1 *Light* *Sword* (it even looks like something from Star Wars). My Gadgeteer likes the VapoRizer. Admittedly it almost never works on any moderate/tough creature, but when it *does* work, the effect is awesome. Yet, I have a feeling that the Light Sword is even more powerful. I gave it to the Lord and he does really *sick* amounts of damage with it, and then you'll have to factor in the insta-kill%. I shudder when I think what will happen if I turn him into a fighter and let him BERSERK with the Light Sword. But I cannot turn him into a fighter quite yet, I want him to learn at least the Portal spell first, preferably Resurrection too, and possibly Sane mind as well (although this might take too long, his Mental spells score is pathetic - but currently only the Bishop can cast Resurrection and Sane Mind, which is IMO not good; what if someone offs the bishop?). The Samurai got the Bloodlust & Enchanted Wakizashi. Fang? Believe it or not, I gave it to the Gadgeteer. The front-line tanks seem more effective with the their current weapons (Light Sword + Diamond Eyes, Bloodlust + Enchanted Wakizashi), and the Ranger wields a Giant Sword with an extended range. I have a Giant Sword for the Gadgeteer as well, but he cannot wield it (because of his profession), so he got Fang (mainly to be used for self defence, since he is a flanker - normally he *never* melees but uses the Omnigun / gadgets all the time instead). The mage has a Staff of Doom (extended range), only the Bishop lacks a suitable extended range melee weapon. I hope something will come up sooner or later.

Next stop: Bayjin. I'm having loads of fun with this game and it only seems to get better!
No real questions this time, but suggestions are welcome as usual. Like, what to do with the Mage, who has now access to the highest-level spells (and already knows all level 7 spells)? Will she be more powerful if I let her stay as is, or would the wider spell selection of a bishop justify a class change? At the moment I'm inclined to let her remain a mage since I have all the spells I need, and the Wizardry bonus + faster leveling seem to give her an edge. The only downside is that there will soon be no more spells for her to learn. Any character-development & equipment hints for the other characters would also be very welcome.

[ 01-12-2004, 05:14 AM: Message edited by: seclists ]

[dplax]

Well you did get some quite good weapons from the buccies...

[Nightowl2]

Yeah, that was my suggestion about time and Z'Ant learning the truth about your double-dealing. Here's a tip: once you know the coordinates he wants, in subsequent games, you don't have to do the black box/spaceport thing any more. After you get the quest, exit conversation, talk to him again and give him the coordinates. Then he'll give you the final job (which, of course, you won't do because you want the alliance). Now you can go to the Umpani and expose Kunar.

I always do the quests as quickly as possible. Once you know them, it's actually easy, especially when you can teleport around. Note that you can put off going to Bayjin until after the final quest from Z'Ant.

Also: you don't have to do any shooting at the target range; this is optional. I just walk to the back until Rubble disappears, then go to him for that silly "covert ops" stuff.

Almost forgot your question about the mage. I'd keep the mage as a mage. Just because you have 7th level spells doesn't mean your mage can cast them with any great degree of power. A level 1 nuke is not as good as a 7th level firebomb. If you really want those spells to be useful, you're gonna have to work at it.

Nightowl2

P.S. Your group has been very fortunate in the weapons they've found; you have one powerhouse team there and should be able to breeze through the rest of the game.

[ 01-12-2004, 10:38 AM: Message edited by: Nightowl2 ]

[yoodaa]

You might want to get one level of Bishop then revert back to mage. You can then learn more spells to increase your spell points. Think of it as spending more xp during your next level for extra spell points. You don't lose "mage levels" in terms of spell effectivness, since your Bishop level still counts.