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Quick Overview of Basic Mechanics (FAQ)


Metis
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...Holy heck that's actually correct. The action's description not so helpfully claims "you can Expand some facet of your Bond by 1 point" which I'm pretty sure any sane person would think means +1 Skill Step, not +1 Level straight up.

One problem, though, is that it's random, so barring massive savescumming you could easily end up wasting a turn due to the Familiar's skill cap.

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Its by player choice not random! Have you ever used it?

Edit: DLC 15 Mod Base is already [Expand]Expand Subject/Skill Level/Parent Skill/Selection of Parent Skill/Bond (Bond Skill)/Choice of Skill (I think also to remember that in early version it was random but for many DLC now its choice of skill)

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Nope, I'm looking in the mod tools, which I'm pretty sure specified "random" in it's description.

...Apparently not, it actually is a choice. Gods this action description is useless. "Expand some facet of your Bond by 1 point", yes, that's something you should automatically translate as "+1 SL to one Bond subskill of your choice". Also it rolls Insight/Familiar Kinship v.6 but requires Familiar Kinship rank 8 to get, if I'm reading the wiki right? This thing is just a complete train wreck.

Okay, so that's actually extremely useful, but still. Unfortunately I can't really add it to the first post properly because I hit the text limit on it, so...yeah :unsure:. Legate, if an admin or something could ninja a second post in this topic for me to mess around with that'd be appreciated.

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12 minutes ago, Legate of Mineta said:

M;

I'm hearing that I can't reorder. :(

So, if you write up what you want there, I can edit my post and put it in. Will that work?

Schwarzbart makes a good point RE: Calculate the Familiar Equation, but I nevertheless would like to clear some space. I'll go test some formatting and stuff and prepare some of the bigger blocks to "move over", so to speak, though that might take me until tomorrow 'cuz it's getting late here and 'stuff, but either way you'll hear from me.

EDIT: Incidentally, could the single line breaks be re-enabled? This auto-double enter thing is getting annoying, especially because it makes spoiler blocks look especially ugly.

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And spoiler tags are also completely broken and a needlessly difficult pain in the ass to fix. All hail the new and improved forum style <_<.

EDIT: Figured out I had to manually drag every nested spoiler block out of the one subject's spoiler block they got incorrectly shoved into, along with copy/pasting the title of every block. If anyone can explain to me how that's supposed to be more mobile friendly than the forum correctly recognizing all of my spoiler tags or me just adding a missing one in case something like this happens, by the way, I'm rapidly approaching the point where I'd like to try some of whatever you're smoking.

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  • 2 weeks later...

So I noticed that vdalson has started an actual, honest-to-goodness guide on Steam, which I can only imagine people are going to appreciate given the only (current) somewhat up-to-date alternative of my bulletin point list of every mechanic in the game forever. That said I noticed a few errors/oddities, and in absence of a Steam account (and, indeed, any desire to create one) I figured I'd just post my observations here so that someone, bare minimum, could see them:

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If you have chosen a Familiar option, you will be given the chance to name it. Unfortunately, if you chose the exotic Familiar option, you won’t yet know what species you got, so you’ll be naming it blind.

While that is true (and something that the Team should probably address, in addition to the uncapitalised "familiar" in that prompt come to think of it) the default name of a Familiar is always the same based on their species, so unless his default name got changed I can tell you with absolutely certainty that your Hawk's default name suggestion was Condotierre.

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Whenever you successfully befriend another character, they get added to your Clique. Note that they must not already be in a Clique in order to join yours.

This is actually the result of a bug, because the game starts you in a one person Clique. Back in the day you didn't, and if you Befriended someone already in a Clique (and succeeded) you'd join that Clique.

I...want to say that's going to be fixed at some point? I'm not sure.

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For example, my timeslot for the morning is dedicated to the Train action, which has a chance of Expanding a subskill of my choice by 1.

There's a few other points as well where you mention actions/abilities having a "chance" to do something. But as far as I know Train will always succeed, assuming you train a subskill that can be trained. If basic, no-roll actions end up failing for you for no discernible reason (even a Bad Luck Magnet shouldn't ever fail at Train, since CoF doesn't apply when there's no roll involved) you should rapport that as a bug.

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The random Research subskill that was expanded turned out to be the Library Knowledge subskill. This is fortunate, as this adds the Efficient Research ability to my options. This has the chance to Increase my choice of subskill for 2 weeks (which shows up as 42 under the duration heading, for 42 timeslots).

Efficient Research lasts for only one week, as it's description says. It's true that it lasts for 42 turns and that divided by 3 would be 14, but every day is actually composed of 6 turns - the last three time slots of each day (even weekends) are invisible and inexpressible, basically something that ended up on the cutting room floor. If you want another example to test this ingame, check out Cleanse and Remake - it lasts for a stated 24 turns, but the effects only last for 4 days rather than 8.

Story/flavour wise, BTW, IIRC those three timeslots are excused as your character "doing homework in their (Common) room once it's past their curfew". Which is why you never have to devote timeslots to doing homework, even of certain REs would suggest otherwise.

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She also learns the Elumian (Language) subskill, as Elumian is the common language spoken by everyone at the Academagia. If your are mostly interested in whatever important thing your character learned, they appear at the bottom of the section.

The common language spoken in Mineta is Renaglian I.E. New or Modern Elumian, which there exists no related skill for as it's assumed your character is fluent in it. Old Elumian, or just Elumian, is the old language of the Empire of Man that's not commonly spoken anymore, but still present in old texts and such.

If that made little sense, Renaglian is the setting's equivalent of Italian, whereas Elumian is the setting's Latin.

...There was also something else, where is is...oh here it is.

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In order to determine whether or not you succeed in an action, a roll is made versus a specfic number, and you succeed if the result if higher than this number. I will go more into Roll mechanics when we come across our first event decision.

...Did not even notice that typo before.

Eh, anyway, when rolling against a set threshold (I.E. something like 90% of the game's rolls) you succeed if your roll matches or exceeds the threshold. So my given example of a Charm 3/Social Skills 3 v.6 roll being an even 50% chance is completely wrong - a roll of 0, 1 or 2 results in a failure, whereas 3, 4, 5 or 6 would result in success, meaning there's a 3/7 chance to fail and a 4/7 chance to succeed. That is...unfortunate. I'll correct that immediately.

EDIT: After checking ingame and actually referencing the old version of the game's actual manual (yes, one exists. No, neither it or the "updated" version is any good) for some form of confirmation I've finally determined that I don't know how getting a clean 50% chance on any roll is mathematically possible, since ((any number×2)+1) will result in an uneven number, so there's never an equal amount of numbers you can roll that will result in success/failure. The only was I can see this making sense is if, when you exactly meet a roll's threshold, the game flips a coin to determine whether you actually succeed or not. That way there can be an even number of options that results in success or failure.

Several years of playing this game later and now I figure this out. Ye gods, this is...maddening.

EDIT 2: And now, of all times, I finally remember that any given Attribute 0/Skill X v. X roll will always succeed barring shenanigans, so my statement of a roll only needing to meet a given set threshold is correct. The rest...*confused shrug*...but at least I've remembered that much.

Edited by Metis
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On ‎25‎.‎04‎.‎2017 at 5:20 PM, Cyx said:

Ah, well that's a shame. Thank you for the recommendations. How does the Gallery stack up against the Great Hall, in your experience? Also, have you considered publishing this as a steam guide?

If it is easy to befriend a student i.e. because your skill is high the Gallery with the skill bonus help more, but if it is difficult the flat 10% CoS help more as you get at last the 10% chance (What also only help if you accept many reload).

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Metis, your reply is a godsend! I'm long overdue on continuing the guide, so I'll definitely update it with your suggestions as well as expand on it a bit more. Like I mentioned, I am fallible, and will need the help of more experienced readers like you to catch these little details. The lore of Academagia is also not my strongest suit, so I will probably make more mistakes in that regard. It doesn't help that for long text entries like this, I am more likely to make little typos as I go along.

 

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Glad to be of help :).

EDIT: Speaking of which:

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That being said, the default name that is given is is based on their species. So if you're willing to check the wiki for each exotic species, you'll have better insight into the identification of your Familiar.

Another option would be to check the mod tools, since you can check that name's entry and it'll have the Familiar's species listed, but I can imagine that's really not something a newcomer would be using.

I've also added a list of exotic Familiars and their default name/gender to the OP, under Character Creation (Reference Lists). No, you can't change a Familiar's gender, it's just that the Wiki listed it right next to their name and I figured, eh, why not.

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More precisely, the level of your subskill is equal to the level of your third highest subskill under that parent skill.

One "subskill" too many there.

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For now, I highly suggest choosing the first option. This unlocks the Tutorial adventure, which is a very nice way of learning a couple of the basic mechanics of the game, while experiencing a typical Adventure format. In any case, Vivianne will gladly be seeking the advice of her mentor.

Entirely true, of course, but there's a bit more too it: Oan's adventure isn't just a tutorial for the player, but also for the player character. Her adventure provides disproportionate amounts of rewards for passing (and sometimes even failing!) some of the easiest adventure rolls you'll ever encounter. And the PC always needs a boost early game, even if the player doesn't need to be told what a Pheme is.

Even for advanced players Oan's adventure is fantastic, because it offers the chance to unlock otherwise difficult skills at little to no difficulty. If you play your cards during that adventure right (and probably aren't shy of save scumming at least a little bit) you could get three attribute points from it halfway through the tutorial section, let stand the actual adventure section that itself is a continuous adventure promising twice the rewards at half the usual difficulty.

Or in five words or less: Oan's adventure is always great ;).

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Academic reprimands occur if your grades are awful in a class, while Conduct reprimands occur if you have an illegal item that is confiscated, if you are caught trespassing or skipping class, or even if another student falsely squeals on you.

If you receive a conduct reprimand, no matter the reason, your student is searched for contraband and any that you have on you or in your backpack are confiscated. I'm not sure if the same happens if you get an Academic reprimand.

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Certain items and spells can also modify your Roll value. Note that these modifications are not reflected in the colors of the options, so your actual chances of success/failure may vary somewhat.

"May not", it actually depends on how an item/spell gives a boost. If they directly buff a (sub)skill level as most, though not all, spells/items do, that's accounted for. Otherwise, it is not.

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You yourslef may or may not come across one here.

I highly recommend informing people about the F12 function at some point. It's quite important to know, should they desire to report typos. I'd also recommend mentioning how to get the most out of your inevitable RE failures, since that can take the sting out of your student floundering about like a poor man's comedy act. In your case, unless a background unlocked them already, you had the choice of Informing yourself about the Lie, Glamour Methods or Hide subskills. Not a super amazing selection, but still, free subskill.

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Unfortunately, it seems our second class timeslot yielded nothing of value. But them's the breaks.

It's possible that one of those afternoon classes taught you a skill step in a subskill that was more than one skill step away from a skill level. The end of day rapport only mentions skill level increases, not necessarily the skill step increases that the classes give out. And unless I'm remembering wrong, both Enchant and Arithmetic are classes that have one or two subskills that tend to need more than one skill step per skill level as a matter of course.

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On 5/28/2017 at 4:50 AM, Metis said:

I highly recommend informing people about the F12 function at some point. It's quite important to know, should they desire to report typos. I'd also recommend mentioning how to get the most out of your inevitable RE failures, since that can take the sting out of your student floundering about like a poor man's comedy act. In your case, unless a background unlocked them already, you had the choice of Informing yourself about the Lie, Glamour Methods or Hide subskills. Not a super amazing selection, but still, free subskill.

 

I like how you mention reporting typos as you report my typos ;) I'll mention the F12 function next time I play, so I can capture a screenshot of it.
But yeah, I've mostly avoided mention of the modtools because I had the intention of approaching this guide from a very casual, newcomer player's perspective. While some people are very much into knowing the deeper mechanics and hidden numbers, some might prefer to just take things as they come. I've always felt the type of players who'd want modtools information would look it up in outside sources anyways, so they wouldn't need my guide for that. But you make a very good point about being informed of unknown subskills even on failed outcomes. I'll make a note to mention this when I next edit the guide. 

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It's the inevitable, universal activity whenever large blocks of text are involved :).

Perfectly fair, it's why I decided to add that list of exotic Familiar names to the OP. Much better than sifting through the Wiki, or the modtools, as I personally experienced...

5 hours ago, vdalson said:

But you make a very good point about being informed of unknown subskills even on failed outcomes.

Only on failed outcomes, to be specific. If a roll succeeds you only get what you get for passing the roll, even if it was a dry roll (meaning a roll you had 0 applicable skill ranks in, but could pass solely on your attribute score). Although random events will generally boost the skill you rolled on a success, so you end up getting the skill anyway. That's not guaranteed, though.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Not sure if it's going to be noticed, but reading through Fat Pikachu's guide on Steam I noticed a few things I'd like to point out:

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Going to classes is optional, but every time you skip your overall chance of getting a detention (do nothing the next day) goes up for every subsequent missed class. This number never goes down the entire year - eventually you will get detention every time.

Detentions don't necessarily last that long. More importantly, the chance of getting caught for skipping class will slowly go down to it's base value (which may or may not be 0%, so I can't specify that) if you attend both of your classes on a given day. I'm not sure how fast the chance degrades, and whether skipping classes before it resets to base value undoes the progress or not, but I do know that if you skip half of Cheimare's classes without getting caught (which will almost certainly require liberal use of save scumming near the end) and don't skip a single class starting in Hionosi you can repeat the same "skip half the month's classes" thing again in Kaliri.

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Your score on tests is [parent skill level * study level]. Midterms are out of 50, finals are out of 100.

(Parent skill level × study level) to (parent skill level × 10), plus Extra Credit, minus a hefty penalty if you're sick/injured on the day of the exam.

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The only “fail state” in the game is if you fail the midterms or finals. Nothing else will result in a game over, so if you want to experiment first raise your class skills and study level to max, and you’ll be free to do anything without worry.

Not quite. The only way to Game Over in Y1 is to be summoned before the Praetexta Court and either fail to defend yourself or be summoned before it a second time, and the only way to get summoned is if you stack enough reprimands (academic or conduct) within a short enough time span. You can stack enough reprimands long before the game even gets to mid terms, although getting enough reprimands within a short enough time span would take either concentrated effort or a degree of bad luck that would make Ana Flavia Bessa seem blessed.

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CC attributes can't go above 4.

If you're referring to the Talents screen, those cap at 3. In general you can start the game with 7 Finesse, if you're willing to spend the point. You shouldn't, unless you're doing some kind of challenge/roleplay character, but it's possible.

Finesse is also missing the Omen: Three Suns background. It's one of the new ones.

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Increasing universal Chance of Success is so powerful you ALWAYS want to pick Shattered Mirrors and The Comet. Never pick Negated or Bad Luck Magnet for the same reason.

Is it really? Both of them together are just a 2% chance of any given roll succeeding, which, to me, doesn't sound like much. At least not "ALWAYS pick these" much.

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Graverobbers is bad because having over 2 stress is extremely common, if you really want that INT just buy a raw point.

Graverobber's Shame doesn't come into play until you're at 3+ Stress, and if you're savescumming to the point where having 1 Fitness at CC sounds like a viable idea you might as well savescum until you never start/end a day with 3+ stress. Alternatively, having 5+ Confidence makes you immune to the emotion, and Confidence is one of those Rhetoric skills you have to try to not get. As in, you'd have to start the game with reading Gera's letter because skipping that actually gives you a step of Confidence (reading the letter is worth +1 Curiosity SS, for the record).

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For your first game pick the rock familiar, effective familiar training requires you to know the game fairly well and you'll not want to waste a point on a familiar you'll never bother with (if you just don't pick you get assigned a bad familiar when you begin, so might as well get an extra point)

Just a word of warning, but getting the rock is supposed to give you +1 Stress Minimum, which I'd argue isn't worth a background point...if that actually worked. So long as it's broken, go nuts.

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Sleight of hand - Composure (reduces detention chances)

Skills don't factor into your chance to get detention, as far as I know. Having a high relationship with a professor might cause him/her to not assign you detention along with a reprimand, though.

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Efficient training methods:

Botany | Study the fields | botany class OR botany - agriculture 2

Every character starts with the Study the Fields ability, since every character is auto-informed of the relevant location. Why, yes, it does make Botany class supremely...redundant.

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Informing skills:

Zoology | Study the fields (unlocks insects)

How does Study the Fields unlock Insects? I personally always use the Insects investigation option during Oan's tutorial adventure.

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Skills that give attribute bonuses:

Danger sense 4 | insight

Goose Bumps only takes Danger Sense 3.

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Cliques are random. Sometimes nobody else makes a clique for a week. Sometimes five spring up on the second day. Fortunately since cliquing is random reloading is effective at preventing people from joining cliques before you nab them.

I feel I should note that there is an invisible "turn order" in play with regards to in what order every student decides his/her actions for a given day, and only the actions of students that take their turn after yours are effectively random as far as their chosen actions are concerned. If a student decides their actions before yours, than whatever actions they choose are set unless you reload to the day before. That's not to say that you can't manipulate NPC students (not) Befriending others, since even if you can't manipulate away their attempt you can usually manipulate RNG so that their attempt fails, but Befriend also has so many arcane modifiers in place that I feel like you shouldn't assume that you can always get specific students even when cheesing the Great Hall's CoS%.

Incidentally, yes, your stats do affect your initiative roll to some degree, but there's also a 1d1000 involved, so for all intends and purposes, it's random. It's also irrelevant in 99% of all situations, but still, felt like I should mention it.

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There are a lot of abilites that reduce your stress or heal you, but the "Rest" action is better than all of them because it heals you fully and removes all your stress no matter what.

Didn't notice that typo before. Again.

Oh, eh, I mean, usually that's indeed true, but between CheerFire Spread and Sparkling Fields it's actually possible to stack quite a few nice bonuses that basically lasts forever if you manage to avoid having to use Rest.

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If you get Zoe first week and use her ability right away every time it comes up, you are able to get everything to 10 study level by the finals without ever studying at the venelicium, saving you 30 actions. However, you will only be able to have 4 study level in everything for the midterms, so you have to get those skills close to max to pass.

"Venalicium". In addition you should be fine for mid-terms if you have straight 4s in study level and 5+ in skill level, at least in terms of avoiding academic reprimands. In addition, if you're willing to save scum, you can just save on the day of the exam and reload if you don't like your score.

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A lot of old advice centers on using "Match wits with the emperor Sphinx" for all training. This is no longer useful as this ability has been nerfed so you fail quite often regardless of your wit + insight score (about 1 time out of 3, I've found), and the number of skills it trains has been reduced to 3 (from 4). Presumably this was because the devs didn't like players never using any of the myriad other training methods.

I've used it before with effectively 12 Wits (10 skill ranks through Judge the Instructor's Taste, Test Taking 10 and Bon Vivant), and in my experience it doesn't fail that often. It definitely has a hidden failure chance build in, since you can fail even with 13+ effective Wits, but it's not that bad.

Usually.

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About detention I remember the Legate mention that you can get the chance for detention from skipping class down by not skipping for ~2 week but it will never reach your starting value. Because this was some time back I'm not sure if this still is correct. Also in my experience other form of detention are not affected by how high your chance to get detention from skip class is. 

Edit: It was also mentioned by the Legate that reprimand from skipping class is not affected by any skill or ability while most other reprimand are affected by your CoD.

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Huh. I can only assume that the minimum chance it drops to after a bout of class skipping isn't too much higher than the game start minimum, since I don't remember ever having problems with my second bout of class skipping in Kaliri. Of course I only really class skip during Cheimare and Kaliri and I think those two months have a generally reduced chance of getting caught class skipping, or they didn't increment the chance as much, or something? I remember hearing something about those two months being more forgiving, in some way.

I know trespassing reprimands are affected by CoD, for obvious reasons, but what other reprimands are affected by it, and how? I can't imagine how a CoD reduction would change the outcome of a bad event, Cosetta Re squealing on you or getting caught breaking your Encumbrance/Concealment scores.

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Hey metis, thanks for the feedback. I did end up checking the forum to see if anyone had any since I figured they were more likely to do it here. I fixed the typos and inaccurate info (I seriously have no idea why I put down that insects was unlocked by botany, I assume I wrote that thinking of some adventure skill check? Who knows).

On 6/12/2017 at 0:13 PM, Metis said:


Detentions don't necessarily last that long. More importantly, the chance of getting caught for skipping class will slowly go down to it's base value (which may or may not be 0%, so I can't specify that) if you attend both of your classes on a given day. I'm not sure how fast the chance degrades, and whether skipping classes before it resets to base value undoes the progress or not, but I do know that if you skip half of Cheimare's classes without getting caught (which will almost certainly require liberal use of save scumming near the end) and don't skip a single class starting in Hionosi you can repeat the same "skip half the month's classes" thing again in Kaliri.

Out of curiosity did some poking with cheat engine and here's what I can tell about how detention works: there's a number that determines how likely you are to get a reprimand when skipping class. It starts at 0 and goes up 1 every time you skip. Once you get a reprimand and go to detention it goes back to 0. It might also go down if you attend a bunch of classes but I didn't verify that. My hypothesis is that the number is what % chance (out of 100) you are to get reprimanded for skipping in that timeslot. So if you skip 2 classes you have a 2% chance to get caught the next timeslot, and if you succeed it goes up to 3%, etc etc. This is conjecture but if I was programming it that seems like a reasonable way to do it. There might be other factors (like how many reprimands for skipping you've gotten in the last 2 weeks) but it seems like a reasonable baseline. The bit I had about composure was some old tidbit from the forum which is almost certainly no longer true.

 

On 6/12/2017 at 0:13 PM, Metis said:

Not quite. The only way to Game Over in Y1 is to be summoned before the Praetexta Court and either fail to defend yourself or be summoned before it a second time, and the only way to get summoned is if you stack enough reprimands (academic or conduct) within a short enough time span. You can stack enough reprimands long before the game even gets to mid terms, although getting enough reprimands within a short enough time span would take either concentrated effort or a degree of bad luck that would make Ana Flavia Bessa seem blessed.

Any idea how many reprimands it takes roughly? It's never happened to me so I have no idea myself.

 

On 6/12/2017 at 0:13 PM, Metis said:

Is it really? Both of them together are just a 2% chance of any given roll succeeding, which, to me, doesn't sound like much. At least not "ALWAYS pick these" much.

2 percent doesn't sound like a lot but it applies to every roll in the game. Plus, there are relatively few ways to permanently raise your universal CoS compared to raising your attributes. If you don't savescum that will save you on a least half dozen checks you'd otherwise fail per game, and if you do savescum that helps when you do something with a low probability.

 

On 6/12/2017 at 0:13 PM, Metis said:

Graverobber's Shame doesn't come into play until you're at 3+ Stress, and if you're savescumming to the point where having 1 Fitness at CC sounds like a viable idea you might as well savescum until you never start/end a day with 3+ stress. Alternatively, having 5+ Confidence makes you immune to the emotion, and Confidence is one of those Rhetoric skills you have to try to not get. As in, you'd have to start the game with reading Gera's letter because skipping that actually gives you a step of Confidence (reading the letter is worth +1 Curiosity SS, for the record).

Well, the thing about stress is that it's very common to gain a point from various activities, adventures, or random events (sometimes even if you succeed) so savescumming enough to avoid picking up more than 3 points would be pretty annoying. Confidence making you immune I hadn't known, but spending 4 turns training it up to get rid of the downsides still seems like it's not really worth taking it as a perk over a straight point.

Also I'm pretty on the far end of the "savescummer vs roleplayer" curve, so I doubt most people would find starting with 1 fitness viable, I just wanted to note that it was possible if you play the game like me.

 

On 6/12/2017 at 0:13 PM, Metis said:

Just a word of warning, but getting the rock is supposed to give you +1 Stress Minimum, which I'd argue isn't worth a background point...if that actually worked. So long as it's broken, go nuts.

The perilous friendship of Mr Pebbles

 

On 6/12/2017 at 0:13 PM, Metis said:

I feel I should note that there is an invisible "turn order" in play with regards to in what order every student decides his/her actions for a given day, and only the actions of students that take their turn after yours are effectively random as far as their chosen actions are concerned. If a student decides their actions before yours, than whatever actions they choose are set unless you reload to the day before. That's not to say that you can't manipulate NPC students (not) Befriending others, since even if you can't manipulate away their attempt you can usually manipulate RNG so that their attempt fails, but Befriend also has so many arcane modifiers in place that I feel like you shouldn't assume that you can always get specific students even when cheesing the Great Hall's CoS%.

Incidentally, yes, your stats do affect your initiative roll to some degree, but there's also a 1d1000 involved, so for all intends and purposes, it's random. It's also irrelevant in 99% of all situations, but still, felt like I should mention it.

By reloading being effective I was referring to the fact that if you reload you can prevent them from successfully befriending/being befriended into a clique, since befriend tends to fail fairly often. It's also always possible to Befriend students with the Great Hall's bonus even if their current relationship level is at 0 and you already have half a dozen clique members, though I wouldn't recommend trying this even if you do savescum (testing this was extremely tedious).

 

On 6/12/2017 at 0:13 PM, Metis said:

Didn't notice that typo before. Again.

Oh, eh, I mean, usually that's indeed true, but between CheerFire Spread and Sparkling Fields it's actually possible to stack quite a few nice bonuses that basically lasts forever if you manage to avoid having to use Rest.

Yeah, but when your stress is in the high teens it's still faster to Rest and reapply your buffs. Once fitness gets to 5 and over you turn into a tank that can go months between Rests.

 

On 6/12/2017 at 0:13 PM, Metis said:

I've used it before with effectively 12 Wits (10 skill ranks through Judge the Instructor's Taste, Test Taking 10 and Bon Vivant), and in my experience it doesn't fail that often. It definitely has a hidden failure chance build in, since you can fail even with 13+ effective Wits, but it's not that bad.

Usually.

That was the ratio I came to after failing repeatedly with a check of 27-ish (10 wit, +5 familiar bonus, 12 insight). It might be better if you don't do it multiple times on one day? I know that I seem to never succeed at more than one "Exclusively Consult" per day.

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Out of curiosity did some poking with cheat engine and here's what I can tell about how detention works: there's a number that determines how likely you are to get a reprimand when skipping class. It starts at 0 and goes up 1 every time you skip. Once you get a reprimand and go to detention it goes back to 0. It might also go down if you attend a bunch of classes but I didn't verify that. My hypothesis is that the number is what % chance (out of 100) you are to get reprimanded for skipping in that timeslot. So if you skip 2 classes you have a 2% chance to get caught the next timeslot, and if you succeed it goes up to 3%, etc etc. This is conjecture but if I was programming it that seems like a reasonable way to do it. There might be other factors (like how many reprimands for skipping you've gotten in the last 2 weeks) but it seems like a reasonable baseline. The bit I had about composure was some old tidbit from the forum which is almost certainly no longer true.

Impressed that you've managed to do the RAM search thing in a PC game :). As for your findings I've heard before that attending a detention for skipping class resets the class skipping counter, but I've never been able to verify it. As for the percentages, it seems reasonable.

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Any idea how many reprimands it takes roughly? It's never happened to me so I have no idea myself.

According to Oan, which is the only source I myself have to cite in this instance, you get three reprimands within a month before another reprimand gives you a hall session, and you get two hall sessions within a month before another reprimand has you summoned before the Praetexta Court. So a minimum of six reprimands within a thirty day timespan, assuming you don't skip detention or get hit by a known glitch where assigned detention completely bugs the hell out.

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2 percent doesn't sound like a lot but it applies to every roll in the game. Plus, there are relatively few ways to permanently raise your universal CoS compared to raising your attributes. If you don't savescum that will save you on a least half dozen checks you'd otherwise fail per game, and if you do savescum that helps when you do something with a low probability.

True, but the thing is that most of those rolls (should) end up being a blue or better check, and it's impossible to tell whether CoS triggered unless it does so on a purple check. Now I've had CoS nope a purple check before, during a continuous adventure no less so that was just glorious, but I'm not sure if that elevates Comet and Shattered Mirrors to the level of "always get this no matter what". I mean they're attribute backgrounds so they're on the special list of backgrounds actually worth looking at, so they usually get picked anyway, but that aside...

Incidentally, Honor of Mallen Field 6 gives you the Aranaz and Durand Ability, which is a blanket +2% CoS in return for -1 Pure Luck SL maximum. Maybe not your cup of tea, but if you're looking for CoS stacks, there's one.

3 hours ago, Vesper said:

Well, the thing about stress is that it's very common to gain a point from various activities, adventures, or random events (sometimes even if you succeed) so savescumming enough to avoid picking up more than 3 points would be pretty annoying. Confidence making you immune I hadn't known, but spending 4 turns training it up to get rid of the downsides still seems like it's not really worth taking it as a perk over a straight point.

Also I'm pretty on the far end of the "savescummer vs roleplayer" curve, so I doubt most people would find starting with 1 fitness viable, I just wanted to note that it was possible if you play the game like me.

I always savescum my stress away, and I'd say it's less annoying overall than starting the game with 1 Fitness. Of course part of that is that I make it a rule not to have cross-college cliques, so I don't get the Silke easy street. Like you said, possible, but not recommended.

3 hours ago, Vesper said:

The perilous friendship of Mr Pebbles

"Friendship", yes.

3 hours ago, Vesper said:

By reloading being effective I was referring to the fact that if you reload you can prevent them from successfully befriending/being befriended into a clique, since befriend tends to fail fairly often. It's also always possible to Befriend students with the Great Hall's bonus even if their current relationship level is at 0 and you already have half a dozen clique members, though I wouldn't recommend trying this even if you do savescum (testing this was extremely tedious).

Yeah, relying on CoS procs is a tedious hell that I wouldn't recommend in any event. I used to actually do the 1 Fitness start with no Silke easy street as a matter of course, since I could "save a point by just getting a quick Run a Light Training Course early game", but man, that 5% chance. Brutal.

3 hours ago, Vesper said:

Yeah, but when your stress is in the high teens it's still faster to Rest and reapply your buffs. Once fitness gets to 5 and over you turn into a tank that can go months between Rests.

If you're playing somewhat normally, probably, but personally since I always manipulate every stress gain away (including Philippe and Joana getting cute, which is always an annoying surprise) I don't think for me it'd be faster to take the four turns to rest and reapply buffs. Maybe if I needed to rest to clear away Revolved, but that's a very unique circumstance (and I tend to get Ana Flavia Bessa anyway).

3 hours ago, Vesper said:

That was the ratio I came to after failing repeatedly with a check of 27-ish (10 wit, +5 familiar bonus, 12 insight). It might be better if you don't do it multiple times on one day? I know that I seem to never succeed at more than one "Exclusively Consult" per day.

Match Wits can only be done once per day, as I recall. I couldn't tell you why, there's no cooldown on the ability (at least one that actually lasts that long), but than again there's also an invisible CoF, so who knows? As for Extensively Consult I'm sure the same invisible once per day rule applies, and from what I've been told it's invisible CoF also triggers more frequently. I can't confirm that as I've never used it and, frankly, it's not worth going through the effort to unlock it. +1 random Malice SS extra in return for an unavoidable +1 Stress, having to roll Dialectic instead of Wits and everything that comes with that adventure? Not even remotely worth it. Especially because every Malice skill I care about I can get elsewhere - Dispassion from Judge the Instructor's Tastes, Puzzles from the Academagia's Block Puzzle, and Patience is just one of those subskills that ends up getting a boost at some point or 'nother, which is good enough for me. Gambling isn't my cup of tea.

All that said I've got a few more merchants you might be interested in. First, I'd recommend Garibaldi's House of the Seven Colors as a useful merchant. A number of wands, the Dobbleganger Band and Escape Wand for -CoD%, the Astrologer's Eye for +Chance of Random Event (which is a very powerful modifier if you savescum REs, as I do, otherwise it's probably more of a detriment than anything ;)), and an amulet of Negation and Persuasion. Of lesser, though still mentionable note is Bamboozler (Book of Puns, +1 Wit), Haejar Enthifal Cortath, Pages 5-7 (Ranaldo "The Underbelly's" Diary, +2 Calamities and +1 Insight), Johan's Avian Storefront Service (a number of pets, which have their own inventory slot), Johan's Avian Delivery Service (various items for the Feather slot, although if you end up doing Carnage on the Fields you'll get one that's probably better) and Guild Glit (various items for the Jewel slot).

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