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I finally decided that this particular save is going to be my primary game going into Y2. It's in the dubious honor that It is the first game that I managed to get a ten in all pillars. In fact, the only directly magical skills that I don't have at 10 is The palettes subskill (which only deals with enchantment, although I'll get it to 10 in Y2) and the Sync skillset, which quite frankly I don't care enough about. (No offense, Metis!)

 

I don't know If I will be able to play a game of Y1 without getting the proscribed arts up now, and I don't think I can do any better than this save without spending hours planning how to best use every timeslot of every day, or skipping class, which I am uncomfortable with.

 

Since This is my main save now, I ran it through my gradebook, and found that, at least in this particular game, Pru... I mean, Miss Cossins left herself with two big fat failures right on the border of passing. Oh, and Joana also failed 3 classes. That one is surely a lost cause. Ana Flavia consistently does very well on all the exams I've seen her do, which is impressive considering her magical, erm, limitations? Actually, I am interested in how much of the exams are theoretical or practical.

 

 

Also had a few anomalies. In arithmetic.. that Avgust, just came out of right field with a high final exam score. I also only barely managed to get first rank in History. This despite my, erm, magical augmentations, :)

 

Also had a whopping 4 failures in Enchant class. If only they had put forth a teensy weensy bit more effort. A score of 42 or 43 on the finals would have likely been enough to squeeze by. I can tell I know these kids so well I can think up the reason why they failed, although Enchant does seem to be one of the harder classes as well.

 

All in all,

 

Legate, do you think that when reporting exams in the future, that the students will be reported in alphabetical order? I think it would be a little easier to transcribe the data onto things like the gradebook.

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In fact, the only directly magical skills that I don't have at 10 is The palettes subskill (which only deals with enchantment, although I'll get it to 10 in Y2) and the Sync skillset, which quite frankly I don't care enough about. (No offense, Metis!).

None taken, but does that mean you're not going to experiment with Sync and Mastery? And here I was, hoping for horrible things to happen a modern scholar that suffered greatly from opening Pandora's Box to forgo any and all ethical concerns and forward the knowledge of the magical schools for SCIENCE!, pretty much. I mean people in the past didn't know better, right? What's the worst that could happen :rolleyes:.

 

...That aside, though, wasn't your "10 in everything" save also the one where you didn't manage to complete all the adventures you wanted? Honestly, if it's possible to squeeze just a few more turns out of your schedule to do those adventures, at least the ones of your close friends, I think it'd be worth it. They'll have effects in Y2 just as much as they have effects in Y1 (perhaps even more so), after all.

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An omni has to know when to fold them. I may create a Mastery based char to do mix all these exotic evil skills, but not with my main. I'm going to have my hands full with a general level cap of 20 and that's not even counting all the new Y2 skills. I'm probably not even going to increase enspell in Y2, depending on how things go, It was only possible to be an omni In Y1 because we haven't gotten into the meat of magic use yet. I need to be smart with the skills I put effort into learning because I want to be comparable to a specialist in the pillars and that isn't likely to happen if I start going after *every* skill and sync just doesn't have the reward-risk ratio that I like, especially as I am fooling around with genuine Mastery and Gates. I don't want to use some quasi-legal magic only to cause people to dig deeper into my real hobbies....

 

Actually, the only adventures I didn't manage to do in this save were student adventures. I regret not getting Strolin's adventure done as she's in my clique but it's not the first save I didn't complete hers and those final steps are doozies for my build anyway. I would have liked to do a few more (like ana flavia's) but my character just sees the other students as distractions to the goal of being an omni. If they can't handle life during the academy, then what will they do after? Besides, having Ana be still cursed will be great for my Negation practice, heheh.

 

I finished the main story (on Orsi's side, of course, ;)) all Aranaz adventures but the cold room (which I didn't much care for) and a huge amount of the major auxiliary adventures. (class adventures, pamela's, cold forge, chimney sweeps 1&2, hanno and the silent lady, the adventure in the forest of broken pines. stormy dreams, Oan's post tutorial adventure, and so on and on) The only important adventure I think i didn't do was Diavesque but that also was a conscious decision on my part to not be involved with bookish dragons. There might be a few more that look interesting but I don't normally build up the skills to unlock them because I focus so heavily on getting the pillars done. (explore is a good example of that)

 

I know it's not *perfect*, but I hit the point with this save (my last real effort to make a genuine save to go on to Y2) where I literally can't get anymore free timeslots without savescumming like a prick and planing out every single day and rerolling everything until it's just perfect, and that would be the antithesis of fun for me. As this save is, I did some savescumming but mostly toward the end because I realized that this was one of my best games and wanted to make sure I got as many loose ends tied up as possible. I'm actually very proud of this save. Although previous saves had a handful of student adventures done, this build is overall better. Better balanced attributes too, my previous save had intelligence and insight at like 15-17, but everything else at like 5.

 

When I play Y1, I play all the way through, only breaking for sleep. It keeps me focused although it takes a lot, to get through it. As a downside, as I've gotten to the point of going for perfection, it takes a good 2-3 days to plan my course of attack and that's just time I don't have when this save has really everything I wanted (and more, with Gates AND Mastery at 10, I was floored when I pulled that off)

 

Another thing that caught me by surprise is the new "Temptation of Gates" emotion, which I had never seen before, and didn't notice until I rested on the last day I only rested maybe twice in game, so running with the constant stress made me not see it until it was too late to raise espionage to 4. That's bound to be a dangerous emotion in Y2 so I definitely don't want it.

 

So, Yes, in the end, there is room for improvement, but only if I'm willing to spend a few days on it, and even then the random number gen might screw me since I'm not into the daily save/load function, nor am I interested in skipping class despite the obvious benefits. This is about as good as it gets for me.

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I don't want to use some quasi-legal magic only to cause people to dig deeper into my real hobbies.....

Fair point, especially considering where you're likely to find a tutor for Sync and what that tutor things of you learning Mastery at the same time. At best you could switch Mastery for Sync to drop that definitely-illegal pillar for a technically-legal one, for what that's even worth in and on itself, but while also learning the definitely-illegal Gates as well...kind of a moot point, really.

 

I regret not getting Strolin's adventure done as she's in my clique but it's not the first save I didn't complete hers and those final steps are doozies for my build anyway. I would have liked to do a few more (like ana flavia's) but my character just sees the other students as distractions to the goal of being an omni. If they can't handle life during the academy, then what will they do after? Besides, having Ana be still cursed will be great for my Negation practice, heheh.

Hopefully the team takes my advice about Stolin's adventure and actually makes it completable early, during stage...4, I think it was? Might not get an attribute point out of it that way, but it'd count as a completed adventure all the same. Besides which, as Aranaz as your character undoubtedly is, I imagine that the fewer Durand students get on your case for pranks pulled against them, the better. As for Ana, I see that as losing an opportunity to bank favor with the Sphinx by handing her the source of Ana's curse. Besides which, I has evil, nefarious plans for that source (Avila only if it even goes through, though, so no worries there).

 

I finished the main story (on Orsi's side, of course, ;)) all Aranaz adventures but the cold room (which I didn't much care for) and a huge amount of the major auxiliary adventures. (class adventures, pamela's, cold forge, chimney sweeps 1&2, hanno and the silent lady, the adventure in the forest of broken pines. stormy dreams, Oan's post tutorial adventure, and so on and on) The only important adventure I think i didn't do was Diavesque but that also was a conscious decision on my part to not be involved with bookish dragons. There might be a few more that look interesting but I don't normally build up the skills to unlock them because I focus so heavily on getting the pillars done. (explore is a good example of that)

I'm frankly surprised that I can place every adventure you listed there. I have to wonder if DLC 17 will add a new one that's your flavor, especially because I was thinking about adding an adventure that's pretty much Language Skills - Gates Edition, but I doubt that it would work. For one I think that Schohanwicht would clamp down on such an adventure existing if they found out, and for another such a thing technically exists already - it's just that unlike the Book of Deep Shadows, Diavesque can talk...

 

I know it's not *perfect*, but I hit the point with this save (my last real effort to make a genuine save to go on to Y2) where I literally can't get anymore free timeslots without savescumming like a prick and planing out every single day and rerolling everything until it's just perfect, and that would be the antithesis of fun for me. As this save is, I did some savescumming but mostly toward the end because I realized that this was one of my best games and wanted to make sure I got as many loose ends tied up as possible. I'm actually very proud of this save. Although previous saves had a handful of student adventures done, this build is overall better. Better balanced attributes too, my previous save had intelligence and insight at like 15-17, but everything else at like 5.

There's a reason why I actively avoid getting Insight increases if I can help it, and why A Walk Along the Lake gives you a choice.

 

When I play Y1, I play all the way through, only breaking for sleep. It keeps me focused although it takes a lot, to get through it. As a downside, as I've gotten to the point of going for perfection, it takes a good 2-3 days to plan my course of attack and that's just time I don't have when this save has really everything I wanted (and more, with Gates AND Mastery at 10, I was floored when I pulled that off)

 

Another thing that caught me by surprise is the new "Temptation of Gates" emotion, which I had never seen before, and didn't notice until I rested on the last day I only rested maybe twice in game, so running with the constant stress made me not see it until it was too late to raise espionage to 4. That's bound to be a dangerous emotion in Y2 so I definitely don't want it.

 

So, Yes, in the end, there is room for improvement, but only if I'm willing to spend a few days on it, and even then the random number gen might screw me since I'm not into the daily save/load function, nor am I interested in skipping class despite the obvious benefits. This is about as good as it gets for me.

Why the marathon? If you're afraid of loosing track just keep notes in notepad, trying to keep focus for that long has to lead to fatigue eventually...

 

Just to clarify, although I'm sure you noticed already, that emotion was added in DLC 16. It doesn't exist in the DLC 15 mod base. Also, doesn't running around with stress prevent other, beneficial emotions from activating? Than again, without save/load cheese it's probably impossible to keep them without consistent resting. Those random events...

 

Personally I think you should give it at least one more attempt when DLC 17 shows up, assuming that it adds something new that you can use. A few adventures that you either can't access or aren't at all interested in...not really important, obviously.

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Fair point, especially considering where you're likely to find a tutor for Sync and what that tutor things of you learning Mastery at the same time. At best you could switch Mastery for Sync to drop that definitely-illegal pillar for a technically-legal one, for what that's even worth in and on itself, but while also learning the definitely-illegal Gates as well...kind of a moot point, really.

 

Yeah, basically that. I do have saves where I learned only the legal pillars, and also a few where it's only casual contact, so I'm quite ready for whatever Y2 throws my way.,

 

 

 

Hopefully the team takes my advice about Stolin's adventure and actually makes it completable early, during stage...4, I think it was? Might not get an attribute point out of it that way, but it'd count as a completed adventure all the same. Besides which, as Aranaz as your character undoubtedly is, I imagine that the fewer Durand students get on your case for pranks pulled against them, the better. As for Ana, I see that as losing an opportunity to bank favor with the Sphinx by handing her the source of Ana's curse. Besides which, I has evil, nefarious plans for that source (Avila only if it even goes through, though, so no worries there).

 

Either way I'm not losing sleep over it. I'm not a big fan of creating lovey-dovey relationships, and as a person who has interest in the darker arts, it's probably a good idea not to get too close to people. I personally think just having strolin in my clique as a 'political' move, seeing as how her family is basically old Aranaz. It's kinda sad I see it that way, but I imagine my character would have some feelings for her and definitely would never use Mastery or anything on her like some prick. As far as Ana Flavia goes, I like her clique bonus but she's not in my college and as it would take a lot more effort keeping a big clique. Really I'm just too busy saving the day and learning magic to deal with everybody's problems, though I will try to solve her problems if I can. I'm kinda like orsi in a way. I got to hide from some of those folks always looking to me to solve every problem. My schedule can only allow so many additions! :)

 

 

 

I'm frankly surprised that I can place every adventure you listed there. I have to wonder if DLC 17 will add a new one that's your flavor, especially because I was thinking about adding an adventure that's pretty much Language Skills - Gates Edition, but I doubt that it would work. For one I think that Schohanwicht would clamp down on such an adventure existing if they found out, and for another such a thing technically exists already - it's just that unlike the Book of Deep Shadows, Diavesque can talk...

 

My cardinal rule going forward with Gates and Mastery is to not attach myself to any person or group of people that know more than me. ESPECIALLY if they offer to teach what they know. I do *NOT* want to be beholden to anyone like that. Diavesque especially. The book of deep shadows may have some baggage of evil wizards wanting it, but that's actually still better than than them hunting me specifically to get me to do some nefarious thing. Even Schohanwicht surely has a price that I don't want to pay. I like the Book of Gates Mastery as I see it as Y1's equivalent but it's pointless to get due to how you unlock it. There will be more ways in the coming years. I expect having any skill with Mastery and Gates in Y1 is a head start compared to how the team likely expects the average player to acquire the knowledge.

 

 


Why the marathon? If you're afraid of loosing track just keep notes in notepad, trying to keep focus for that long has to lead to fatigue eventually...

 

Just to clarify, although I'm sure you noticed already, that emotion was added in DLC 16. It doesn't exist in the DLC 15 mod base. Also, doesn't running around with stress prevent other, beneficial emotions from activating? Than again, without save/load cheese it's probably impossible to keep them without consistent resting. Those random events...

 

Personally I think you should give it at least one more attempt when DLC 17 shows up, assuming that it adds something new that you can use. A few adventures that you either can't access or aren't at all interested in...not really important, obviously.

 

I just prefer it that way. I do lose focus over time, and hate taking notes, and if I don't go hard charge I'm likely to forget where I was in my plan and just start over. I've always been a hardcore gamer, so this particular game is no exception to me. (in fact, it's held my interest a lot longer than other games in which I usually burn out on after one strong play session lasting about a week. It's all the backstory that I enjoy tremendously in academagia. Only Dragonball Xenoverse recently has held my interest past the story but as it seems almost everybody good in the community has moved on by now I don't have the motivation to play as I did the first few months)

 

I do know that that emotion was put in in DLC 16, but I've only managed 2 full playthroughs of Y1 since 16 came out.This save was the second of the two and the first to go full on in Gates and Mastery so I wasn't expecting it. I don't focus on emotions, all I care about with stress iand vitality s making sure I have enough leeway to not worry about getting a sickday due to screwing up a random event. I actually save pretty reliably because I have the Vista save issue which terrifies me to the point that I make sure I don't lose a day's worth of 'work' due to it. And I have reloaded when that issue pops up but with random events I don't really aim for certain specific things because I won't reload if it doesn't go perfect. As a result, I have a narrower field by letting the random number gen affect me, but the random number gen ultimately affects me less, if that makes sense. (Because I only go for the insane groundskeeper running action for the running skill increases, and only twice on a weekend where I'm already at critical stress already and rest, I don't care if I get the fitness increase but it's a good game when it happens anyway.)

 

I agree that I will make one more run (at least) when DLC 17 comes out but I'm already at the point where I know the stories so well that I don't read past the first page of the text in the random events and stories... and just go straight to the exit, where 9 times out of 10 there's at least a blue exit waiting. It becomes a chore going through the motions and I've intentionally backed away from playing the game for long periods of time, so I'm ready for that last marathon, whenever it arrives. I'm hoping that at least DLC17 comes out this year, but I suspect it depends on how long it takes for the Steam issue to work itself out.

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Yeah, basically that. I do have saves where I learned only the legal pillars, and also a few where it's only casual contact, so I'm quite ready for whatever Y2 throws my way.,

Is there a Famous Last Words skill? Because I think you just got an extra rank in that :).

 

Either way I'm not losing sleep over it. I'm not a big fan of creating lovey-dovey relationships, and as a person who has interest in the darker arts, it's probably a good idea not to get too close to people. I personally think just having strolin in my clique as a 'political' move, seeing as how her family is basically old Aranaz. It's kinda sad I see it that way, but I imagine my character would have some feelings for her and definitely would never use Mastery or anything on her like some prick. As far as Ana Flavia goes, I like her clique bonus but she's not in my college and as it would take a lot more effort keeping a big clique. Really I'm just too busy saving the day and learning magic to deal with everybody's problems, though I will try to solve her problems if I can. I'm kinda like orsi in a way. I got to hide from some of those folks always looking to me to solve every problem. My schedule can only allow so many additions! :)

Definitely a good idea for your character to avoid getting entangled with people, but that's all the more reason to set Strolin and [random Durand student] up - distractions are good, and if Strolin's father doesn't approve you can choose to intervene for or against her as is necessary. As for Ana Flavia, it's less about being her friend and more about the fact that through her adventure you can bank favor with the Sphinx. She might become less important as a skill trainer in later years (I say might), but she's still the Emperor's Sphinx. Very useful contact to have, I think, if you can manage.

 

My cardinal rule going forward with Gates and Mastery is to not attach myself to any person or group of people that know more than me. ESPECIALLY if they offer to teach what they know. I do *NOT* want to be beholden to anyone like that. Diavesque especially. The book of deep shadows may have some baggage of evil wizards wanting it, but that's actually still better than than them hunting me specifically to get me to do some nefarious thing. Even Schohanwicht surely has a price that I don't want to pay. I like the Book of Gates Mastery as I see it as Y1's equivalent but it's pointless to get due to how you unlock it. There will be more ways in the coming years. I expect having any skill with Mastery and Gates in Y1 is a head start compared to how the team likely expects the average player to acquire the knowledge.

Even the Sphinx? I imagine that your character has quite a few reservations about potentially becoming the pawn of some agent they cannot hope to control, even with Mastery, but there's still the fact that somewhere along the line you're going to run out of leads and sources of knowledge short of living ones that want you either as a slave or dead. Sooner or later you're going to need a teacher, and knowledge-wise you'd be better off with one from the start if you're going to have one regardless. Schohanwicht definitely will demand "something" in return and Diavesque is...freaking Diavesque, no explanation needed there, but I think the Sphinx could be a trustworthy (enough) teacher who's politically neutral.

 

I just prefer it that way. I do lose focus over time, and hate taking notes, and if I don't go hard charge I'm likely to forget where I was in my plan and just start over. I've always been a hardcore gamer, so this particular game is no exception to me. (in fact, it's held my interest a lot longer than other games in which I usually burn out on after one strong play session lasting about a week. It's all the backstory that I enjoy tremendously in academagia. Only Dragonball Xenoverse recently has held my interest past the story but as it seems almost everybody good in the community has moved on by now I don't have the motivation to play as I did the first few months)

Yikes. I can pull off marathons when first playing a great game, but beyond that I tend to lose focus pretty dang fast no matter what. Now I'd like to see you play Daggerfall, because that's a game that isn't going to drive someone completely insane if they marathon it or anything. Especially with the triple random dungeon quest that the witches give out. No sir, not hazardous for a person's health at all.

 

I do know that that emotion was put in in DLC 16, but I've only managed 2 full playthroughs of Y1 since 16 came out.This save was the second of the two and the first to go full on in Gates and Mastery so I wasn't expecting it. I don't focus on emotions, all I care about with stress iand vitality s making sure I have enough leeway to not worry about getting a sickday due to screwing up a random event. I actually save pretty reliably because I have the Vista save issue which terrifies me to the point that I make sure I don't lose a day's worth of 'work' due to it. And I have reloaded when that issue pops up but with random events I don't really aim for certain specific things because I won't reload if it doesn't go perfect. As a result, I have a narrower field by letting the random number gen affect me, but the random number gen ultimately affects me less, if that makes sense. (Because I only go for the insane groundskeeper running action for the running skill increases, and only twice on a weekend where I'm already at critical stress already and rest, I don't care if I get the fitness increase but it's a good game when it happens anyway.)

Emotions are actually one of the first things I set up, because some hand out attribute points and early on I just cannot do the adventures necessary to get any more without them. The one exception to that is, of course, the Dance of Fools, but I'd like to start adventuring earlier than that. I say like because...I never managed. Also, I vaguely recall that Y2 isn't going to get official Vista support...but that might be me misremembering on my part.

 

I agree that I will make one more run (at least) when DLC 17 comes out but I'm already at the point where I know the stories so well that I don't read past the first page of the text in the random events and stories... and just go straight to the exit, where 9 times out of 10 there's at least a blue exit waiting. It becomes a chore going through the motions and I've intentionally backed away from playing the game for long periods of time, so I'm ready for that last marathon, whenever it arrives. I'm hoping that at least DLC17 comes out this year, but I suspect it depends on how long it takes for the Steam issue to work itself out.

Definitely should play different characters in different colleges eventually, although if you're going to marathon those as well you're just going to burn yourself out big time. As for Steam, it all depends on whether the Team decides to revamp the UI or not. If they do I imagine that'll add around a 6-12 month time delay to the Steam release, because revamping existing code really isn't that much easier than coding from the ground up in my experience. Which is admittedly very limited, but considering the uneducated baboons that big name people employ these days that doesn't seem to matter overly much.

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Is there a Famous Last Words skill? Because I think you just got an extra rank in that

 

Well, as prepared as I can be without having Y2 in my hands, anyway.

 

 

 

efinitely a good idea for your character to avoid getting entangled with people, but that's all the more reason to set Strolin and [random Durand student] up - distractions are good, and if Strolin's father doesn't approve you can choose to intervene for or against her as is necessary. As for Ana Flavia, it's less about being her friend and more about the fact that through her adventure you can bank favor with the Sphinx. She might become less important as a skill trainer in later years (I say might), but she's still the Emperor's Sphinx. Very useful contact to have, I think, if you can manage.

 

I am neutral with the sphinx. Anything she does is merely out of amusement due to her lonely position, seeing that the imperial palace is mostly a (well kept) ruin and as such I am not as enthused with her as you and Schwarzbart are. For anything other than the illegal pillars, I think she's alright but instead of screwing you over for the evilz, she might do so for the lulz, which is worse, imo. If I really can't manage the forbidden stuff in the future without teachers, then I probably will not be a Gates or Mastery wizard for the ages, but given that I am an omni-disciplinarian, I am kind of doubting I'll have to worry about learning the absolute highest ranks of those pillars anyway.

 

 

 

Yikes. I can pull off marathons when first playing a great game, but beyond that I tend to lose focus pretty dang fast no matter what. Now I'd like to see you play Daggerfall, because that's a game that isn't going to drive someone completely insane if they marathon it or anything. Especially with the triple random dungeon quest that the witches give out. No sir, not hazardous for a person's health at all.

 

Well, my days of that level of gaming are mostly past me, as new (good) games are becoming rare. I think that after this generation of consoles comes to an end, I may have enough justification to buy a used PS4 and a handful of the interesting titles for it, but most of my fun is in games I already own, and I just don't play old games as hard as I do games I've never played before. Even In Y1, my first few playthroughs were all-nighters going from start to finish in maybe 12 hours. Not anymore, lol. That part of my life is mostly over because the climate of gaming as a whole has shifted, and my golden age of gaming, The PS2 era has passed. I literally had like $600 budgeted every month for games. When I got all the PS2 stuff I expanded until I had all the best games from the NES era on to the end of the PS3. I just don't see value enough in most modern new games to bother with them.

 

 

 

Emotions are actually one of the first things I set up, because some hand out attribute points and early on I just cannot do the adventures necessary to get any more without them. The one exception to that is, of course, the Dance of Fools, but I'd like to start adventuring earlier than that. I say like because...I never managed. Also, I vaguely recall that Y2 isn't going to get official Vista support...but that might be me misremembering on my part.

 

The first few months I am too bust maxing out my studies, and getting my skills up, that I don't do almost any adventures, By the time i go for an adventure I know I've got the skills to finish it. (usually) It's a bit inconvenient because starting attributes are so low, but as I only concern myself with maxing the magical skills I manage. You're right about Y2 and Vista, but so long as I can get support for any other generic issue outside of the vista save bug, I will be content. Vista with SP2 is a solid OS and I don't feel like abandoning it. Although win7 isn't bad, perse, I will permanently upgrade someday.

 

Definitely should play different characters in different colleges eventually, although if you're going to marathon those as well you're just going to burn yourself out big time. As for Steam, it all depends on whether the Team decides to revamp the UI or not. If they do I imagine that'll add around a 6-12 month time delay to the Steam release, because revamping existing code really isn't that much easier than coding from the ground up in my experience. Which is admittedly very limited, but considering the uneducated baboons that big name people employ these days that doesn't seem to matter overly much.

 

Personally while I can understand wanting to make Y1's ui more user friendly, I think that it's not necessary. Depending on the level of change, it may vary from "they changed it now it sucks" to "weren't we getting this already anyway?" I think it's a move motivated in anticipation of brand new players wanting to play Y1 after getting their hands on Y2 and complaining that it sucks, which is like declaring that the original Super Mario Bros is a shit game because it doesn't have Mario....In SPACE! (plus extreme graphx whores)

 

Anyway, I'm waiting for Y2 to make any truly different characters if only so I can see how the other Y1 stories continue and learn more about the setting before they finally bring out the modtools.

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Well, as prepared as I can be without having Y2 in my hands, anyway.

Fair enough. Even so, don't count your chickens until they hatch. Y1 kinda fluffed up the whole "Gates/Mastery is super illegal and a big deal" aspect, but Y2? The Team learned, I'm sure...

 

I am neutral with the sphinx. Anything she does is merely out of amusement due to her lonely position, seeing that the imperial palace is mostly a (well kept) ruin and as such I am not as enthused with her as you and Schwarzbart are. For anything other than the illegal pillars, I think she's alright but instead of screwing you over for the evilz, she might do so for the lulz, which is worse, imo. If I really can't manage the forbidden stuff in the future without teachers, then I probably will not be a Gates or Mastery wizard for the ages, but given that I am an omni-disciplinarian, I am kind of doubting I'll have to worry about learning the absolute highest ranks of those pillars anyway.

I personally don't think the Sphinx is broken like that, although maybe she is. I really should replay the Just Another Day In Mineta adventure but it's just...painful. At least what I got from Ana's adventure is that she's perfectly reasonable and sane, just lonely. If so it might do her good if she's given influence over a potentially important student. Or it will push her over the edge and she'll doom the entirety of Mineta and beyond just 'cuz. I don't know, but if I had to choose between the Sphinx and someone else...probably the Sphinx.

 

Well, my days of that level of gaming are mostly past me, as new (good) games are becoming rare. I think that after this generation of consoles comes to an end, I may have enough justification to buy a used PS4 and a handful of the interesting titles for it, but most of my fun is in games I already own, and I just don't play old games as hard as I do games I've never played before. Even In Y1, my first few playthroughs were all-nighters going from start to finish in maybe 12 hours. Not anymore, lol. That part of my life is mostly over because the climate of gaming as a whole has shifted, and my golden age of gaming, The PS2 era has passed. I literally had like $600 budgeted every month for games. When I got all the PS2 stuff I expanded until I had all the best games from the NES era on to the end of the PS3. I just don't see value enough in most modern new games to bother with them.

Oh, same here. I saw hints of everyone leave everything I cared for behind come the Wii/PS3/360 (decent control schemes, off-line single player, complete and working enough games right out the box, something other than generic shooters...), and things just got worse as time went on. I'm pretty sure I gave up before MS revealed the original incarnation of the XBone, but if I didn't I certainly gave up after. It's the reason why despite having played Oblivion a ton back in the day I never got Skyrim, yet I've been poking fun with Daggerfall - the modern stuff just isn't worth it. It definitely doesn't help that the modern stuff gets things like the paid mods debacle to remind me that, no, it really isn't worth it. Same for Fallout 4, because Fallout 3 was a pile of irredeemable garbage on multiple fronts. In case anyone hasn't burned any cash on either game yet, don't. It is a waste, it is not worth it.

 

Personally while I can understand wanting to make Y1's ui more user friendly, I think that it's not necessary. Depending on the level of change, it may vary from "they changed it now it sucks" to "weren't we getting this already anyway?" I think it's a move motivated in anticipation of brand new players wanting to play Y1 after getting their hands on Y2 and complaining that it sucks, which is like declaring that the original Super Mario Bros is a shit game because it doesn't have Mario....In SPACE! (plus extreme graphx whores)

 

Anyway, I'm waiting for Y2 to make any truly different characters if only so I can see how the other Y1 stories continue and learn more about the setting before they finally bring out the modtools.

My interpretation is that it's to catch more players into Y1, and then Y2, since Y1 Steam will be released before Y2. I don't know if the investment will pay off, but I do know that with Steam's user-base as it is there's at least a chance that it will.

 

Fair enough. I'll also definitely be taking a very thorough look through the Y2 mod tools when I get the chance, and possibly go back and change plans as is necessary.

 

Damn you guys are cold.

How so?

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We're probably 'cold' because we are advanced players of the game and mostly talk about statistics and strategies straightforward with little regard to the characters in the game.

 

I actually liked fallout 3, until It started freezing on me... And it did not age well. New Vegas was far better but it was definitely not finished when it released. I was impressed with obliviion, but I never really got 'into' it, and to this day I haven't gotten more than a couple hours past the opening. As a result I've kind of shunned the elder scrolls games as a whole. When it comes to open world fantasy games what I really want to see more of is Gothic. The first two games in that series are beautiful. Sadly the 3rd I never did get too far in because of how different it was to the first 2. But those games are old now, and the era will soon pass out of gaming's memory. As Penny Arcade once said, Super Mario Kart is old enough to Drink (alcohol). And nobody sees much value in old things save those who remember them. Movies are the same way for me. I don't think there's been a single hollywood film out there made in the past 4 years that I have really been interested to see. (And the well of old movies I haven't seen yet is mostly gone)

 

Personally, I blame the lack of good games and movies on the gradual acquisition of most good development studios by the large mammoth corporations that only give a damn about the bottom line, and this is done by raising the bar so high that nobody but themselves can compete with them. It takes a lot of outside the box thinking and some luck to make it today, when in the past all you needed was a couple of guys that knew how to code and lots of soda.

 

 

My point regarding the Sphinx is that I do not trust unknown variables in situations that need absolute certainty. The Sphinx most likely is harmless, but it is not a certain variable and so I don't trust it with knowledge that can kill you. :)

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I am neutral with the sphinx. Anything she does is merely out of amusement due to her lonely position, seeing that the imperial palace is mostly a (well kept) ruin and as such I am not as enthused with her as you and Schwarzbart are. For anything other than the illegal pillars, I think she's alright but instead of screwing you over for the evilz, she might do so for the lulz, which is worse, imo. If I really can't manage the forbidden stuff in the future without teachers, then I probably will not be a Gates or Mastery wizard for the ages, but given that I am an omni-disciplinarian, I am kind of doubting I'll have to worry about learning the absolute highest ranks of those pillars anyway.

When the Sphinx still was a 4 SS increase I used it a lot but after the change to 3 SS I consider it as less then nearly all other ability that give 3 SS what means I still use it but usualy only after I used the librarys to the limit. Also I don't think the Sphinx adventure is interesting enough to do it just for the extra Malice SS given the difficulty of the rolls.

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Oh I care for the characters, it's just that in order for me to accomplish anything with said characters I have to first delete unwanted aspects, and the best way to do that is to make all the pawns dance on the chessboard :).

 

I...played Fallout 3 quite a bit, can't say I liked it though because it was just...garbage. The freezing/crashes were one thing, the atrocious stealth mechanic (as far as I remember it) was another, the story in general but especially the way that the DLC added to it was also a mess, but the half-FPS half-RPG mechanics that resulted in bullets fired from a 9mm handgun shooting out at an angle outside of the gun itself because the game calculated that with my Small Guns skill I couldn't hit the person I was sneaking behind from point-blank range? It took mods just to make it so that whether bullets would fire from inside or outside the gun didn't depend on your character's skill levels. Never played New Vegas, but I haven't heard good things and after Fallout 3 I'm not sure if it can be. Oblivion of course had it's own problems, but there was (apparently) enough good to make me forget the bad - and there's a lot of bad, rest assured. As for movies, I can't even remember if I actually ever went to see one after the first Pokémon film well over a decade ago. Heck, closing in on two decades, I think. Same for TV shows - it just isn't worth it (especially because my internet has adblock).

 

Ah hah ha, oh no. It is definitely not done by raising the bar. Most certainly not by raising the bar. It's banking in on the brand recognition, bleeding that dry when people catch on that the winds have changed and moving on to the next. And that is definitely not a recent tradition. Don't suppose you've ever played Ultima 7: The Black Gate and later U7 Part 2: Serpent Isle? Those were released in...1991 to 1993, somewhere thereabout. Don't remember exactly.

 

Yeah, that's a fair point. I also don't know if the Sphinx is entirely trustworthy, but if you get to the point where you have to get a teacher I think she'd be the least likely to screw you over in some fashion. And, also, the most available. Orsi may have more knowledge about Gates than he lets on (what, with that robe of his...), but is he going to teach you? Nope. No time, can't risk it, all that stuff. The Sphinx has no such problems, or at least less so.

 

When the Sphinx still was a 4 SS increase I used it a lot but after the change to 3 SS I consider it as less then nearly all other ability that give 3 SS what means I still use it but usualy only after I used the librarys to the limit.

I sadly don't know of too many other good locations of that sort, so I still use the Sphinx, but than I'm also going to mod that fourth SS increase back in come DLC 17. Not sure how I'll rebalance Extensively Consult, probably not because that adventure is a massive pain in the rear, but vanilla Sphinx should be consistently better than Longshade and some random location where the most the PC can do is look around and observe - a private tutor should be better than the PC alone.

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The bar most certainly was raised. I merely neglected to mention which bar.

 

That bar that you're not able to cross because you don't have enough money to be part of the club is the one I was referring to. It has nothing to do with quality.

 

I've never played an Ultima game. If I remember correctly that's the series where the infamous "Lord British" comes from? That about sums up my knowledge on them. In 1997 I'd never owned or played on a PC yet.I was and mostly still am a console gamer. It was closer to around '99 at the earliest when I got into PC gaming, Hence my screenname for the internet is dedicated to this game, the first I ever played online.

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FreeSpace_2

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The bar most certainly was raised. I merely neglected to mention which bar.

 

That bar that you're not able to cross because you don't have enough money to be part of the club is the one I was referring to. It has nothing to do with quality.

 

I've never played an Ultima game. If I remember correctly that's the series where the infamous "Lord British" comes from? That about sums up my knowledge on them. In 1997 I'd never owned or played on a PC yet.I was and mostly still am a console gamer. It was closer to around '99 at the earliest when I got into PC gaming, Hence my screenname for the internet is dedicated to this game, the first I ever played online.

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FreeSpace_2

Ah, of course, that bar, how could I forget? Point taken :).

 

Yes, that's where Lord British comes from. The two parts were abandonware at some point I believe, but...apparently they are no longer. Huh. Well, scratch that idea. Trust me when I say that in this day and age you're not missing anything that can't be missed, especially because that series died a most horrible death.

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We're probably 'cold' because we are advanced players of the game and mostly talk about statistics and strategies straightforward with little regard to the characters in the game.

 

 

It's not that I think strategising and statistics are cold, so much. I'm a pretty incorrigible powergamer too, and I have been playing Academagia on and off for years, I'm not as spring chickeny as my post-count may indicate.

 

The thing that made me think of you guys as cold (and bear in mind I don't mean that as an insult at all! It's a perfectly valid perspective on the game) is not your lack of regard for characters. Your strategizing, as I'm sure you realise, extends beyond mechanical considerations into speculation about what kinds of "in world" behaviours, alliances and relationships will pay off the best in future years. It'd be silly to comment on a player using fictional people in a video game to further game goals, that's natural and expected. My observation specifically relates to the way that your characters seem to view the people they interact with as tools to further their particular goals.

 

I was calling you "cold" because your characters seem like kind of callous people. I mean, it's possible to play an optimistic and caring character who sincerely believes in the Power of Friendship and still gets 10s in all the pillars. Again, not a criticism.

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Actually, I really do like Emilia S. My character likely is far less cold than I am simply by virtue of seeing' and 'interacting' with them and being really young. My character certainly doesn't know her father is old Aranaz stuff. only I do because I like her characterization and pestered the legate

 

Dont forget that my college is Aranaz which only encourages scheming! ;)

 

Also, I do play an optimistic, As I am going to be the one who goes down in history as the savior of the academagia and the one responsible for the unbanning of illegal magic but since we've gone over the in games story all we can, all that's left is speculating and planning until Y2.

 

(and complaining)

 

And Legate, surnames are fine. I'll make it work.

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An optimist would say that, at least on my end, that's because I don't really separate OOC and IC, and as a result the detached planning is something my character experiences directly and follows up on without him/her having a say in it regardless of his/her feelings - this is what your strings want you to do, you cannot do anything but do it. A pessimist (who insists on being called a realist) would say that it's because I actually define my character's demeanour, nature and (eventual) long term goal, and when working out how they're going to accomplish it they're naturally going to run into problems that they are going to have to deal with, so the cold and calculating approach is simply the best one to take from the outset (that I "got the inspiration for" the demeanour/nature thing from VtM probably doesn't help, either).

 

Speaking of which, my planned Aranaz kid. His (E)LTG is "End the merchant/nobility divide by exposing corruption from both sides". And Strolin's family is probably a target on both counts. So what does he do? Befriend Strolin and help set her up as her father's true successor so she can be backstabbed later? Woo Strolin and sabotage her (already wonky) relationship with her father from the word go until she's fully broken into joining my family and talk her into helping me burn that bridge (and side of the bridge...) permanently? Go with the "set her up for backstabbing" method through Declaring Vendetta rather than befriending? Ignore her relationship-wise and quietly gather information for later use while setting up a completely unrelated (and unattached) network to kick her family down a notch?

 

The fact of the matter is that, with Stolin's family being what it is, just being her friend isn't an option. Sparks are going to start flying at some point, and I don't want to be the one who's left stranded by a burning bridge because I didn't plan ahead. So I plan, and my character follows. The only question left is figuring out how my character reaches the conclusions and decisions that I did, and generally that's accomplished easily enough. Case in point? "So you're a good-natured, if slightly jaded child who's got a crush on Strolin, eh? Well let me tell you how that's going to work out..." Of course properly sabotaging Strolin would require derailing her adventure by setting her up with that random Durand student, which admittedly may not actually last if the resulting pressure from Aranaz and Durand both to end their relationship ends up breaking her and separating the two (at which point my character is free to make an "appropriate" move), but I'm currently not sure whether it will or not. So I'm not sure on the action I should take...

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Lets just put it blunt to build up a good relationship with a teacher just to be used as favor is a game mechanic that is extremst cold from a rollplaying view.

Just look at it you do everything to view favorable by a teacher and the teacher then spend some time to give you some tips , the second after he did so he see you nearly as the worst student of the whole class .... irks if this is not cold then what else.

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Lets just put it blunt to build up a good relationship with a teacher just to be used as favor is a game mechanic that is extremst cold from a rollplaying view.

Just look at it you do everything to view favorable by a teacher and the teacher then spend some time to give you some tips , the second after he did so he see you nearly as the worst student of the whole class .... irks if this is not cold then what else.

Maybe there should be two separet values, relationship Points, and "favor Points", they like you then that's good, you would need a positive relationship to request a favor, or at the very least a neutral one. And then you need Favor Points for helping them/being of assistance, perhaps by handling weed in the garden, helping with demonstrations in class, helping them to instruct a difficult student or helping them with a personal problem/rivalry.

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Curious that in Pamela's Adventure, It seems as though the spell that Lambert found to save Pam was in the Restricted section of the library. This despite being a Gates spell.. :)

It might have been filed away in the wrong Place or it might have been sittign there since Before the ban. Before the ban the Restricted parts would have been the privy of older more advanced students and professors.

 

The Library is ancient so there migh be a few missplaced things here and there that got overlooked, especialy the less mainstream spells that might have been created by students of past eras and which didn't get properly filed into the library system.

 

Seeing as the Restricted section sees fewer visitors it probably has a higher chance of havign those things than the more mainstream open library.

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Lambert also simply could have lied. While the Restricted Section might still be restricted, as the name would certainly suggest, it's not as large an infraction to trespass in it as it is the Forbidden Archives. It's a moot point considering he's talking about a Gates spell, but anything he can do to make it sound less illegal. Remember, the PC doesn't necessary have Gates 10 when hearing about that, s/he might not know better and actually believe him.

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In any case, ironically, Despite my starting a new save, and savescumming the $#@% out of it, I think it's going to wind up inferior to my last few saves. It's kind of funny, because I max out my magic skills around a month after midterms and generally shift my event exit focus on lesser skills, yet when it comes to adventures, I just can't get them done fast enough.

 

I'm in the month before kailiri and only just unlocked the last forbidden skill. I didn't manage to unlock acrobatics and now I'm missing the fitness ability it gives at skill 3. It's probably because I passed any acrobatic exit, mostly because of savescumming, They aren't exactly common, either. Now I'm stuck with fitness 4 and it's severely limiting my rolls in the end stages of certain adventures. And going to raise Gates and Mastery with only 4 fitness is a death wish.

 

And my insight is ballooning sharply past the other attributes. If I let it, it will probably hit 20 by year's end.

 

I'm really beginning to think that the save that made me start this thread is the best I can do. (without skipping class anyway.)

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