Sinking Ship Posted December 5, 2014 Report Share Posted December 5, 2014 Like what is the best / most efficent use of your time slots? I've been reading a bunch of the threads here and people talk about end game characters having really high stats and this and that but I'm halfway through the game and nowhere near the level people talk about around here. I think it might be because I mostly just use my free time for train or study in my room because most of the location buffs don't seem to help those things at all. Are we supposed to be spamming adventures at every chance? Are the gains comperable / better even in the early game? Am I supposed to be using 'actions'? They all seem so random. The mechanics of how to properly play this game feel really obtuse. e: and there's pretty much nothing in the way of walkthroughs online, the closest thing is a few guides that cover very bare bones game mechanics and then just tell you to 'have at it'. I think I might just be inherently terrible at these life-sim games. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Schwarzbart Posted December 5, 2014 Report Share Posted December 5, 2014 There is no clear right or wrong way to play this game. The most powerful chars we have right now are exploiting a game bug introduced again in the current game version combined with the experience from countless playtroughs. Sure some adventure are much better time invest then anything you could do otherwise but others are not even on par with abilities that give you 2 SS training but giving you here hints would take away the fun of exploring the adventures on your own. The only important thing is that you have fun with the game. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Metis Posted December 5, 2014 Report Share Posted December 5, 2014 One important thing to remember is that this game isn't a RPG, so you shouldn't play it like a RPG. Those demi-god characters are indeed just that, stat wise, but take them into Y2 and they'll end up being unable to follow-up on all of the adventures that have continuations in Y1. In that aspect they will fail, whereas regular characters might not. Modern RPGs (at least as far as I interpret them) give you a defined goal and a few tools to start working towards accomplishing it...and (an) increasingly ludicrous (number of) things that will try and prevent you from doing so. You might be given a choice, but either way there's a problem to solve and it's you that'll be doing the heavy lifting in the end. In contrast a life-sim is more about finding a place in the world rather than changing it, and while you certainly might have to change it in order to find a place in it that's more coincidental. You're not the focus point, you're not the battle ground, you're just one student among many trying to build a life. Create a character, think of a few goals for that character, and try to accomplish those goals. Whether you succeed or fail depends on what happens, and whatever else happens, happens. Sorry if that sounds like some sort of arcane ritual, but, well, words. They are not my friend. Certainly doesn't help that life-sim games aren't overly common, especially in these days. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Albert Posted December 6, 2014 Report Share Posted December 6, 2014 I love the fact that all my characters feel equally relevant and sucessful. Some might not be the bright light of the school and mostly keep to their books and make a minimal impact on their surroundings, but I still loved playing them. Then over time I started pushing students even further, this was possible because of all the experence and knowledge I had collected about what was possible to do. On my first play through there was a lot I had no concept of existing or being possible. Eventually after a few playthrough I figured out what would increase stats, which would make leveling of skills faster and how to do things with optimal efficiency ending up with a pretty much maxed out character by the end of year 1, without any exploits of class skipping. But, the good thing is, any character is viable and since your character is the only one that can evolve in such an unnatural way if you truly push it, it wouldn't be a problem or stop you from playing more regular students. My first student ended up in the infirmary a lot! I don't agree with Metis on the part of the "demi-god" characters. They will be formidable starting steps, though I can see how the people around you(in-game) will expect more from your student and it might get time consuming to follow it up) But having picked up the skills to swim, ride, write neatly, social skills and pretty much every available year 1 skill to it's maximum. Should make you a fairly well rounded character capable of handling most every day issues. Some things might requier some further developed expert knowledge however which comes in later years. In some cases it might even be possible to ask a fellow student with the appropriate skills to help you. If you are on friendly terms and you got the social skills to lead them or motivate them. Being able to do almost everything on your own is nice, but it likely won't be necessary. As for learning the basic skills and maxing them, I would expect a good grasp of the basic skills to help you evolve and study more advanced skills later on. Perhaps by adding a training modifier, or maybe a certain amount of basic knowledge should be required for you to be able to grasp the more advanced skills. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Albert Posted December 6, 2014 Report Share Posted December 6, 2014 As long as your student graduates or passes the requirements for each year, then you have won already. Everything else is up to your own drive, interests and ambition. Forming groups of friends with varying skills and background might be a good idea, since they will be able to help you with different things. Other than that, picking up those basic skills early on means you will have more time for adventures and advanced skills in later years, or even your familiar. But there is no right or wrong, it's all about having fun playing, and the game differs in experience depending on your choices. When I eventually started creating those super characters I started missing those catastrophic events of my less competent and skilled characters from my first playthroughs. There are a lot of skills that are hidden by events' adventures or random discovery while studying and using abilities that add random skills and discoveries. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Svinik Posted December 6, 2014 Report Share Posted December 6, 2014 Academagia is, in some ways, a sandbox game. Your student could aim simply to wander through doing whatever took their fancy, they could aim to discover every location, learn every skill, max out ability scores, make lots of friends, and so on. In terms of tactics, I say: 1. For skills, try to use good locations like library's to ensure that your student gets more bang for their buck - the (tidied) library of longshade or the imperial sphinx will teach your student far more than the train action. 2. For friends, I'd get familiar bond up and then entertain other students 3. For ability points I'd adventure I'm a little unsure of the comment regarding adventures in year two - if you do an adventure in Year 1 I don't see why it should harm the student's adventure in year 2, though it sounds like it should flavour it. I'd go slow on the main adventure (there are some tough checks towards the end) but adventure with Oan quickly. I'm firmly in favour of making a clique early, I prefer Zoe due to her utility. Otherwise I'd say start with at least 2 points in every stat, but don't bother going over 4. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Metis Posted December 6, 2014 Report Share Posted December 6, 2014 I'm a little unsure of the comment regarding adventures in year two - if you do an adventure in Year 1 I don't see why it should harm the student's adventure in year 2, though it sounds like it should flavour it. I'm talking about doing stuff like signing up for the Elemental warriors. It's all stuff you can and are expected to do in Y2 and beyond, but with so much on your plate you won't be able to fit it all in and some things will fall through. Which is a bad thing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Albert Posted December 6, 2014 Report Share Posted December 6, 2014 I'm talking about doing stuff like signing up for the Elemental warriors. It's all stuff you can and are expected to do in Y2 and beyond, but with so much on your plate you won't be able to fit it all in and some things will fall through. Which is a bad thing. Sounds like we got one extra time slot each day though. That should help. Also, having covered several of the basics and learned basic skills needed in your everyday life you should have more time for other activities. Also, dropping an adventure that no longer interests you probably wont cost that much or mean much. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Metis Posted December 6, 2014 Report Share Posted December 6, 2014 You do have an extra timeslot, but last I heard that timeslot defaults to doing homework, and skimping on that will lead to...unfortunate...events. Also, I'm not entirely convinced that not finishing adventures won't come back to bite you in the end. Nor am I convinced that finishing adventures in the first place won't come back to bite you. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Albert Posted December 6, 2014 Report Share Posted December 6, 2014 You do have an extra timeslot, but last I heard that timeslot defaults to doing homework, and skimping on that will lead to...unfortunate...events. Also, I'm not entirely convinced that not finishing adventures won't come back to bite you in the end. Nor am I convinced that finishing adventures in the first place won't come back to bite you. If it's reserved to "homework" then I wonder if I'll finally get some payout for those "homework" and "Testtaking" skills that I picked up on several of my characters. EDIT: the Homework one was likely "Study habits". Maybe homework for next week and if you're damn good at focusing and answering tests then maybe you will finish fast and wont have to use all those slots? Maybe you need a certain amount of "homework" points to keep up with things to turn in. More advanced skills for that timeslot could generate points faster. I'm sure they could generate some interesting possibilities, it seems like a challenge on it's own. Or push your familiar into doing some of it for you! You know, the stuff that seems less imporant. Or you could try what Philippe does, just take someone elses homework.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Svinik Posted December 7, 2014 Report Share Posted December 7, 2014 I'd expect that if you didn't do an adventure, then someone else did - so the difference is merely in whether you start as "the friend who helped me last time", or some random dude a student turns to for help. Some adventures (Cirillo's for example) lead to membership of organisations, so I'd expect a follow-up, but the only difference is likely to be how you follow-up. If you didn't do the Yr 1 intro you need a different way in to play the Yr 2 adventure so doing the Yr 1 adventure should reduce the difficulty in Yr 1. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Schwarzbart Posted December 7, 2014 Report Share Posted December 7, 2014 It was already announced that some adventures of year 2 can't be done if you didn't do the year 1 one. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Albert Posted December 7, 2014 Report Share Posted December 7, 2014 It was already announced that some adventures of year 2 can't be done if you didn't do the year 1 one. I'm guessing that will mostly be the non-student adventures. Where there is a followup and the Y1 adventure is vital for the story to make sense. It would seem strange if they didn't provide us with new opportunities to become friends with the other students. Though, I guess there might not be a followup on that particular adventure if your fellow student didn't sucessfully complete their adventure to allow a followup. There might have been a few characters where I didn't get the time to finish a full student adventure and left them hanging. Still, it should have been helpful for them to get at least some help and progression on what they were doing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Svinik Posted December 7, 2014 Report Share Posted December 7, 2014 It was already announced that some adventures of year 2 can't be done if you didn't do the year 1 one. Soo.. we have to do all the Yr 1 adventures then? It would be nice to have a list in due course, although that's probably a wiki thing - I'd rather have an idea of which Yr 2 classes have prerequisites, and whether having the skill at 10 will be enough or I need to take the actual class to qualify. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Albert Posted December 8, 2014 Report Share Posted December 8, 2014 My last character tried to do all the adventures but there is no way I could pickup all the student adventures... It seems to be very time consuming. week after week, month after month of adventures but there were still more of them out there. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Schwarzbart Posted December 8, 2014 Report Share Posted December 8, 2014 Soo.. we have to do all the Yr 1 adventures then? It would be nice to have a list in due course, although that's probably a wiki thing - I'd rather have an idea of which Yr 2 classes have prerequisites, and whether having the skill at 10 will be enough or I need to take the actual class to qualify. It is already known that we can write entry tests when we return to Academagia for year 2 if we didn't have a subject needed for a y2 class as class in year 1. Also it was mentioned that the requirement is lower then 10 (probably because of the weak scores of the NPCs). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Albert Posted December 8, 2014 Report Share Posted December 8, 2014 It is already known that we can write entry tests when we return to Academagia for year 2 if we didn't have a subject needed for a y2 class as class in year 1. Also it was mentioned that the requirement is lower then 10 (probably because of the weak scores of the NPCs). 0 is bad, 5 is good, 10 is incredible... 10+ is crazy student trying too hard! A lot of us are really pushing it tbh (for year 1 students) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Schwarzbart Posted December 8, 2014 Report Share Posted December 8, 2014 0 is bad, 5 is good, 10 is incredible... 10+ is crazy student trying too hard! A lot of us are really pushing it tbh (for year 1 students) That's not entire correct if you have a look at the Wikia Failure is below 40% for most class but we also have the lowest 10% or skill below 5 what is a failure depending on the grading system. And top exam result is 75% and above for most class but also can be top 10% or skill 5 and above. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Albert Posted December 8, 2014 Report Share Posted December 8, 2014 The grading seems very messed up imo, I'm not sure if I want to try and understand it..... Maybe in Year 2 when I might be getting a diploma or something in my hand.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dyrhet Posted December 13, 2014 Report Share Posted December 13, 2014 You do have an extra timeslot, but last I heard that timeslot defaults to doing homework, and skimping on that will lead to...unfortunate...events. Also, I'm not entirely convinced that not finishing adventures won't come back to bite you in the end. Nor am I convinced that finishing adventures in the first place won't come back to bite you. Really? That's somewhat... dispiriting if the secret school also takes up your early evening timeslot. Does this mean that by default people studying at said school only really have free time at the weekends? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Metis Posted December 13, 2014 Report Share Posted December 13, 2014 That's the theory, though what the practice will be is...unknown. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Schwarzbart Posted December 13, 2014 Report Share Posted December 13, 2014 Really? That's somewhat... dispiriting if the secret school also takes up your early evening timeslot. Does this mean that by default people studying at said school only really have free time at the weekends?That's the reason why I stopped to play with this background because it more and more turned out to be a flaw instead of a good thing to spend a background point on. It was fun as long there was no must to learn a magic you never be really using because of the death penalty if someone discover this. But that your aura will even change from training enough to reveal you as gate user years later combined with the under the hand info that our chars will have to pay in some form to visit Schoanwitch at a later point and that we have to sacrifice 5 full time slots per week in year 2 clearly show its not worth it. From the attitude of Euneycia I thought its a good aligned school but given the hidden price we are revealed that we have to pay at a later time I now have serious doubts about this. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dyrhet Posted December 13, 2014 Report Share Posted December 13, 2014 I suppose I generally assume that the Academagia dev team have broadly good intentions in how they design this sort of thing. From the decisions The Legate has mentioned so far, there's been a lot of positive reinforcement over negative. For example: giving you a reward in year 2 for not skipping in year 1 rather than punishing you for skipping. Rewarding marginal and kind of crappy choices in the first game like training your familiar and doing research. Generally affirming that your choices won't come back to bite you TOO badly. So I mean while all those things you say about learning gates are true, I'd be very surprised if there weren't ways to get around them or deal with them in some way. Similarly if the school is evil, seems plausible that there'll be some way to fight them or reform them or something. I dunno, it just seems like Academagia is that kind of game? Its outlook seems to me, on the whole, fairly optimistic. So I mean I guess all this is why I find the decision to make Gates study take SO much time surprising. It really reads as "if you want Gates to be important to your character, you have to give up a lot of what makes up a typical student". And I guess that's a valid design perspective (if that's actually how it is), it just seems kind of disappointing and dull. Because while studying secret illegal magic is Cool, and making sacrifices to do things other people can't is Also Cool, giving up the opportunity to access a huge number of adventures and other actions and stuff that makes up the actual meat of the game is just kind of boring! That's really my concern. Not that studying gates will become a flaw, but that it'll make me enjoy the game less. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
isadorbg Posted December 13, 2014 Report Share Posted December 13, 2014 i don't think the school is really evil but I also believe it's not a "good" school. "Dedicated to the survival and development of Gates magic no matter the cost" is closer to what I expect the school to be. As for the sacrifices well I think that much to disapointment of Free ( ) legal or not it will be harder and harder to focuses on every field of magic at the same time and I expect the same to be true for adventures. So choices will have to be made eventually. Gates and Mastery will probably have more difficult path but also different. As an French proverb says: "Choisir c'est renoncer" or in English "Choosing is renouncing" . Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Albert Posted December 13, 2014 Report Share Posted December 13, 2014 Whatever the case I look forward to year 2. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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