Game is frustrating

[LenaMarie]

Im a new player here, but First let me say, I enjoy alot of things about this game; the art, all the writing, all the skills and things but I just dont feel like im making any progress. I've been diligently studying and training but nothing but bad things keep happening to me. All the choices I get end up being in Red or Purple highlight, the numbers keep going up but I dont really consider that progression.

 

Is there ever a point when your capable of succeeding? It seems like this game is horribly stacked in disfavor of the player, and everything that can go wrong, does go wrong. Now Im not saying I want everything handed to me, being a first year student, sure you probably would have some setbacks, but surely at least 3 out of 10 times you should be able to succeed. Even Harry Potter didnt have such a bad first year, and alot of bad stuff happened to him still but also some good things.

 

Im sure somewhere along the line Im probably doing something wrong, which makes me think perhaps a in-game tutorial adventure somewhere would be helpful, because as it is im really not having fun, again Im not saying I want to be a Ace Student on day 1, but I do think it should be possible rarely to have some success and the feel like your doing better in the game.

[Gundolf2056]

When I played my first mage I felt the same way. But success will come with time. You can't really expect to be successful right from the beginning, as far as I understand. Your skills are just to low. But choosing the right options during char creation and start training right from the beginning is a factor that will ensure you have the first smaller successes soon. With a well trained char you should be able to master a lot of the random events sucessfully around the midterms. At least that is true for me right now. The big problem is, that it is kind of random which skills you need. But with experience you will get an idea.

[Musca]

Im a new player here, but First let me say, I enjoy alot of things about this game; the art, all the writing, all the skills and things but I just dont feel like im making any progress. I've been diligently studying and training but nothing but bad things keep happening to me. All the choices I get end up being in Red or Purple highlight, the numbers keep going up but I dont really consider that progression.

 

Is there ever a point when your capable of succeeding? It seems like this game is horribly stacked in disfavor of the player, and everything that can go wrong, does go wrong. Now Im not saying I want everything handed to me, being a first year student, sure you probably would have some setbacks, but surely at least 3 out of 10 times you should be able to succeed. Even Harry Potter didnt have such a bad first year, and alot of bad stuff happened to him still but also some good things.

 

Im sure somewhere along the line Im probably doing something wrong, which makes me think perhaps a in-game tutorial adventure somewhere would be helpful, because as it is im really not having fun, again Im not saying I want to be a Ace Student on day 1, but I do think it should be possible rarely to have some success and the feel like your doing better in the game.

 

The first few weeks you'll defiantly run into more bad then good, and occasionally even after that you'll run into situations where you simply don't have a favored skill that will help with the problem and just have to hope for a good outcome. That being said, if you pick a few skill sets you'll eventually start seeing an increase in the number of things you can handle. Also keep in mind that your not ever going to be cable of doing everything.

 

The game I just finished: I did a heavily skill and attribute focused character, especially the magic skills with a few others thrown in. I aced tests, and within a three or four months of game time was nailing the vast majority of the events that where thrown my way. The trade off was that I ignored other aspects of the game. While all the events and such got me a good relationship with a few students, I never formed a group. I chose black sheep at character creation and ignored writing to my family completely. I didn't bother working on the bond with my familiar, although I was nice to her and did enjoy the events and adventures involving her. I pretty much ignored doing adventures besides the mentor quests until the last few months, and even then some of them where very difficult for me (after all, magic can't solve everything). I never went shopping, or or specifically explored, though I still unlocked allot of areas through training and events. I would up getting suspended 4 times for getting caught so many times trespassing to match wits with the Sphinx, and I lost count of my number of detentions but I didn't really care. By the time I got to the end of the year I could probably have beat out most of my teachers in every school except incantation, including an illegal one, a few intellectual skills, and had allot of other random skills and various levels (thank you Sphinx for teaching my everything from advanced magic to how to tie my shoes in a square knot).

 

The point is, you've gotta decide what's fun in the game for you and focus on that, though if you want a min/maxey build/play-style I could tell you how I built and played this character. Next time I play through though I may actually try to get some friends.

[Nyaa]

I've been diligently studying and training but nothing but bad things keep happening to me. All the choices I get end up being in Red or Purple highlight, the numbers keep going up but I dont really consider that progression.

It suppose to be hard at the beginning, but remember that failures also helps you growth, as they also give a ss boost to your failed skill. Sometime the give up option give positive benefit too.

 

Is there ever a point when your capable of succeeding?

Oh yes, us power players are good to go in a month or two with greens in 6/10 events. You probably is studying at gain 1 ss per action instead of 2-3 ss per action and most importantly, make sure your attribute is good enough to learn the skill because the lower your corresponding attribute, the more training points it need to level up a skill.

 

Im sure somewhere along the line Im probably doing something wrong, which makes me think perhaps a in-game tutorial adventure somewhere would be helpful

Remember your mentor? Do his adventure.

[Elshar]

Oh yes, us power players are good to go in a month or two with greens in 6/10 events. You probably is studying at gain 1 ss per action instead of 2-3 ss per action and most importantly, make sure your attribute is good enough to learn the skill because the lower your corresponding attribute, the more training points it need to level up a skill.

 

One thing I've been confused about is the difference between gaining +1 skill, and +5 skill step. Does +5 ss mean that "Magical Appraisal" will go from 1->6 or from 1.0->1.5? Sort of confused with the different wordings. Also, how can I tell if an action gives a temporary or permanent bonus?

[GunslingerV]

One thing I've been confused about is the difference between gaining +1 skill, and +5 skill step. Does +5 ss mean that "Magical Appraisal" will go from 1->6 or from 1.0->1.5? Sort of confused with the different wordings. Also, how can I tell if an action gives a temporary or permanent bonus?

 

As you level up a skill, it takes longer to train to get to the next level. If you click on a skill, you will often see something like "0 of 1" for lower levels, and "0 of 4-6" for higher levels. Those are skill steps, you need 4 skill steps to advance to the next level if the skill is currently 0 of 4. +1 skill is +1 actual level.

[Nyaa]

Expand skill: You gain a permanent increase to that skill level.

 

SS (Skill Step): Skills need a certain amount of SS to increase to the next level, determined by the dominant attribute and a skill difficulty.

 

Increase skill: You gain a temporary increase to that skill, make good use of it before it's gone again.

[Legate of Mineta]

On a complete aside, I sincerely wish we had just called it 'Experience'.

[Nyaa]

Yes, is pretty confusing and go against the terms I learned from other games.

 

Edit: Please change it year 2, I won't mind.

[LenaMarie]

Yes, it is pretty confusing, but i noticed, my attributes (Str, Int, etc) arent going up and there is no train option for those. How do you raise those? Perhaps my skills are taking a long time now to raise because those attributes are so low. I remember my Mentor said to max out str quickly, but I just cant figure out how to make those go up.

[nightguard]

Yes, it is pretty confusing, but i noticed, my attributes (Str, Int, etc) arent going up and there is no train option for those. How do you raise those? Perhaps my skills are taking a long time now to raise because those attributes are so low. I remember my Mentor said to max out str quickly, but I just cant figure out how to make those go up.

 

There actually is no way to directly 'train' your attributes. There are some things that you can do to raise them indirectly, but nothing that raises them directly.

 

For example, if you've discovered the groundskeeper's room, you can start running courses around the Academagia, which has a small chance of increasing your stamina. Some skills will give you a permanent +1 to an attribute when you master (that is, reach the tenth level) of the skill. A few items will increase attributes when worn, as well.

 

Most skills should require only one or two skill steps to increase while at low levels, regardless of your attribute scores. If you want to see which attribute affects the advancement rate of a given skill, click on the skill in your skills menu, and it will show you the related attribute. The higher that attribute, the fewer skill steps (xp) you will need to gain a level of the skill.

 

Hope this info helps you out!

[Musca]

Ya there are allot of ways to increase attributes. Check the wiki, it'll help with that allot.

 

Way I usually go with:

 

Certain classes increase attributes when you reach level 10 in study.

Certain skills give you an ability which permanently boosts an attribute (for example, level 3 danger sense gives goosbumps, which permanently increases insight by 1).

Researching certain things gives boosts at level 10 (ALLOT of these give int, and a few give other stats).

[Nyaa]

You can raise attribute by

completing latter adventure (usually), gaining certain skill rank, and reach rank 10 on study level of certain skill.

 

 

Also, you mentor just suggest you take SOME strength "for the next time we meet". Specifically the

Brute Strength skill

 

[nightguard]

Actually, in the adventure episode in question, I believe her advice is that you should 'focus on your strengths', in other words, train up a bit on things you're naturally good at. It's been a while since I read the text of that adventure in detail, though, so I could be mistaken.

[Nyaa]

Actually, the next adventure does use that skill I mentioned or you will have to solve it with

memorization or persuasion

[Elshar]

Expand skill: You gain a permanent increase to that skill level.

 

SS (Skill Step): Skills need a certain amount of SS to increase to the next level, determined by the dominant attribute and a skill difficulty.

 

Increase skill: You gain a temporary increase to that skill, make good use of it before it's gone again.

 

Thanks. Suddenly alot of stuff makes sense.

 

On a complete aside, I sincerely wish we had just called it 'Experience'.

 

I kinda like it the way it is, honestly. Adds something to it that I don't think the word experience would.

[Legate of Mineta]

Elshar;

 

Heh, thanks!

[Nyaa]

I kinda like it the way it is, honestly. Adds something to it that I don't think the word experience would.

Eh...that's true. The word experience is overused and can't convey it correctly in term of skill steps.

 

Although Increase is still sound to me like permanent while expand sounded like temporary. Kinda like expand and contrast of a balloon, which is not a permanent thing, but is not really a big issue, so I regress my digress.

[Akark]

At the risk of committing some (slight) forum necromancy here...

 

It suppose to be hard at the beginning, but remember that failures also helps you growth, as they also give a ss boost to your failed skill. Sometime the give up option give positive benefit too.

 

This hasn't been my experience. I've made 3 play-throughs of the game so far, each with a different patch, and this has never been the case. I can never specifically recall getting even one SS increase when failing a roll in a random event (And I called myself paying attention to my skills, in attempts to learn what did what). In fact, in the play-through I'm currently doing I've noticed permanent decreases (sometimes) in skills for failing a roll. (I seem to remember at one time at least learning that a skill exists when failing an event roll, but this no longer happens. However, this just could be wishful thinking on my part.)

 

I suppose this is leading to a specific question(s). How exactly does this work (failing a roll in a random event), and how is it suppose to work?

[Legate of Mineta]

Akark;

 

It depends on the Event, actually. Some give decreases, but the majority give increases. All of them will teach you the Skill if you do not have it.

[Akark]

So the events are supposed to give an increase if you fail the roll (at least in some of them)? I'll have to keep a closer eye out for this then.

 

Thanks.