A few in game questions

[Dreamweaver]

Dragons outright immune to mastery?

 

But I read: "King Kazio the Lesser was the King of the Bryzech tribes, and was famed for dominating the Dragon who ruled Brysia."

[Legate of Mineta]

Dreamweaver;

 

Yes, that's exactly why he was famed, too. Very few others have been able to do it...

[Dreamweaver]

Well it seems to me it's just very, very difficult then.

 

Unless it really is impossible and the dragon just faked it for some reason. I guess that's the trouble with old legends, it's hard to know things with absolute certainty.

 

It reminds me, libraries! Is the Academagia one of the best libraries of history on Choris or are there better libraries out there, perhaps akin to the famous Alexandrian one from real history?

 

Were ancient events meticulously recorded as they took place or by freelance historians a few centuries after they took place? Is the bureaucracy, the church or freelancers the main source of historical documents?

[Legate of Mineta]

Dreamweaver;

 

It is difficult to tell about the old legends...

 

Academagia has the finest library in the isles, and none has been superior since the founding of the Empire. Prior to that, there were libraries in the cities, but most of that knowledge was seized during the campaigns of the Emperors and brought to the Academagia.

 

Ancient events were recorded as they took place, as well as centuries after, but all the historians were freelance. In regards to ancient times, freelances are the main source of historical documents. There are documents recorded by bureaucracies and the temples of the old gods, but these are not usually consulted as a source of record as they are very specific to the location.

[freespace2dotcom]

can magic carry 'emotion'? I mean, are any spells affected by the state of ones mind? even in subtle ways?

 

Also, I remember it being mentioned that magic had certain colors based on certain circumstances but that got dummied out due to difficulty to express that in the game. Is this completely removed or simply not mentioned?

[Legate of Mineta]

Free;

 

It is still there, but not present mechanically. Spells do not innately carry emotional information, but they certainly could, if designed in that way.

[Schwarzbart]

Yes emotion can affect the spells you cast, this was answered some times back. But in what year this will implemented is past me.

Edit: The Legate was faster.

[Metis]

Questions about the variance classes have. As an example I'll use Geometry that teaches Famous Battles on Pramidi 18 with variance 3.

 

Question 1: This means that Geometry classes held on Pramidi 15 up to and including Pramidi 21 can teach that skill step, right?

Question 2: If the variance rolls +2 and the skill step falls on the 20th of Pramidi, which is a Saturday and thus has no classes, is this skill step not taught and thus lost permanently?

Question 3: If not, what happens? Does the game hold on to the skill step until the next set of classes (which would be Monday on Pramidi 22 and outside the range of the variance), does it roll the variance again until it rolls a day that has classes, what?

[Schwarzbart]

1) No its only class days that count so a +2 on a SS that is usually thought on a Friday will be Tuesday

2) see 1

3) see 1

[Metis]

If only class days count I'm going to assume the game skips holidays as well, since, you know, no classes on holidays. I'm trying to figure out why classes are so worthless in the game, so that's one theory busted

[Schwarzbart]

Metis if you want go deep into this best look how many class days there are and then check out how many skill points you get spread of them in total.

I Suspect you probably get to less then 2 SS per day on average.

Edit also important is as soon the skill is maxed you don't gain anything from a other increase and with at last 12 points assigned per class you waste 2 increases if your attribute is high enough early.

[Metis]

Likewise. Question, but if a class gets me, say, +1 SS to Famous Battles and I have that skill at 0/2 SS for the next SL, will the end-of-day summary rapport I got +1 SS or will it only rapport it if I go up a skill level?

[Schwarzbart]

You don't get reports when the Skill level don't increases that's why I check out class skill that need more then 1 step to increase when I think about skipping class.

[Metis]

That explains part of why I, at least, don't give classes much respect. Because I did not know that. Why, exactly, do classes not rapport on individual skill steps when literally everything else in the game, at least that I've found, does?

[Legate of Mineta]

Metis;

 

Engine limitation, sadly.

 

Not in Y2, though.

[Metis]

That's not the most random engine limitation I remember hearing about, no offence to the coding team. That is, however, mystery #1 solved. Now hopefully my rusty math skills can finish the rest. Heck I'll just ask:

 

One game year consists of 900 actions - 500 free actions, 12 exams, and 388 classes, correct?

 

EDIT: I'll just assume I'm right. For science! Anyway.

 

Here's some Academagia class science (or, more accurately put, an exercise in "how consistently can I tap the down arrow while counting" and "how well do I remember basic arithmetic"):

 

Arithmetic - 75
Astrology - 74
Athletics - 77
Botany - 77
Calligraphy - 76
Dialectic - 58
Enchant - 59
Geometry - 56
Glamour - 75
Grammar - 80
History - 79
Incantation - 75
Music - 61
Negation - 77
Revision - 75
Rhetoric - 62
Zoology - 58

 

Specifically, here's a list of how many skill steps a given class will teach over the course of the entire year, given that the PC never skips/misses a class where a skill step is taught and that I counted correctly. The first thing you might notice is that Professor Monetario isn't very good at his job. The second thing you might notice is that he's not the only one.

 

This means that, in terms of skill steps, the worst set of classes is a student in Avila enrolled in Astronomy/Dialectic/Enchant/Geometry/Music/Zoology for a total of 366 skill steps taught over a single year. The highest, by contrast, is an Aranaz student with Athletics/Botany/Calligraphy/Grammar/History/Negation for a total of 466 skill steps. This means that you get about 0.9 to 1.2 skill steps per "attend classes" action. Per individual class you get a third of that, since one action consists of attending three classes.

 

Even with the best teachers in the Academagia an individual class will still teach you nothing more than half the time. Unless I did math wrong and school taught me nothing more than half the time (spoiler: it did).

Edited March 17, 2014 by Metis

[freespace2dotcom]

Well I suspect that in some classes case sometimes they need another day to go over a particularly difficult concept. for example, in poor Monetario's case, I kind of think that if he were to teach something like geometric triangulation, he might need more that one day to go over it. especially in an era before calculators. I think that happens with all classes.

[Schwarzbart]

Thanks Metis , with my own look into this I think for Dialectic the First Principles should at last get 3 more because for a train multiplication of 1.7 only giving 13 is to less and with Dialectic on the lower end anyway it wouldn't hurt at all to improve there.

Edit: Same go for Enchant with Palettes as only 13 are thought for a SS with a train multiplication of 1.8 so again 3-4 more for this SS wouldn't hurt!

Edit2: Where some class skill increases changed in CP 3 or DLC 16?

[Metis]

Yeah, a lack of calculators would hurt, but than again, magic. Surely there's an "input numbers and do stuff" spell? Also, Trigonometry only has a training modifier of 1. It's not a difficult skill to learn, as least as far as the game is concerned.

 

As for class upgrades, I'd throw on top that Zoology should teach Amphibians, Fish, and Worms. That's a good +30-36 steps right there, and really all classes should teach more steps than they do now. And for those wondering - my obsession with Worms is that it looks incredibly silly to have 10 Zoology, 0 Amphibians, 10 Birds, 0 Fish, 10 Insects, 10 Mammals, 0 Worms.

[Schwarzbart]

Fish is absolute understandable if it is not thought at all as water where fish can live is uncommon - rare in this setting!

Lake Ardica is one of the few places where we might find the things called fish.

[Metis]

Actual fish may be rare, that doesn't mean people can't learn what they are from records and illustrations. How many people that know what lions are have met one personally? Also, question: If two skill step variances of a single class roll the right numbers so that they fall on the same day, will the class teach both steps on that one day? I assume so, but I thought I'd check to make sure.

[Schwarzbart]

Metis yes this happened in my last RPG playtrough and I got both increases in one day.

So you say that the fish should be studied from the material that still exist when the flying islands where separated from the ground?

[Metis]

If that stuff is available, and if not from another source. The Zoology professor clearly isn't too busy, and whatever allows a PC to learn Fish from, say, the Mantle of Stars is clearly in possession of the Academagia. It shouldn't take Gates to conjure a fish, Mineta being a floating island or not.

 

That said, I just checked the skill description for Fish and it contains this little gem: "Those who study the Skill of Fish are true believers in Zoology, for only those who truly wish to understand each and every type of animal would bother to study that which seems to have little-to-no value for men.". Clearly Zoology needs to teach it - it has a reputation of uselessness to uphold.

[Schwarzbart]

As you might realise there topics kept to be learned in later years , i.e. it is already announced that brew will become core class of Vernin in year 2.

[Legate of Mineta]

Schwarzbart;

 

I don't think any Class Skills will change in DLC 16, not sure, though.