KickStarter Serpent in the Staglands Thread

[IncendiaryDevice]

I wouldn't worry about any of them to be honest.

Just assume the game has a shit ending, which it does, and do whatever you like in the game, you'll like it more.

SitS is the best and closest example of a modern revival RPG to really capture the essence of a late 90s cRPG. If you're a big fan of that era of RPGs, and, yes, that includes the fashion for RTwP games, and are more interested in atmosphere, exploration, some genuinely challenging combat (at least for most of the game), a completely new system to master, occasional puzzling, interesting characters and adversaries, and a whole host of other positives then the pros far outweigh the negs of this game.

Really, if you're only interest in the game is the C&C then just stop and go play Age of Decadence, you've picked up the wrong nostalgia trip. You know, not that many games come out where you just get that Je ne sais quoi in practically every moment you play of it and, while the game does have some shit about it, it's peripheral to the sum of the parts.

 

[agris]

Also with spells you can't ever cast more than 1 at a time, so the utility of having more than one main spell is limited. The heat weapon spell is okay, and the light-ray spell. I used Eclipse for most of the game.

Uh, what? Spells are hotkey-able and you can cast multiple spells that don't require channeling, for example, radiant stave plus the Fiend spell. Did you bother to RTFM? Any spell that is channeled requires the caster to not take another action while it is cast. But not all spells, not even the majority iirc, are channeled.

 

[Grampy_Bone]

Also with spells you can't ever cast more than 1 at a time, so the utility of having more than one main spell is limited. The heat weapon spell is okay, and the light-ray spell. I used Eclipse for most of the game.

Uh, what? Spells are hotkey-able and you can cast multiple spells that don't require channeling, for example, radiant stave plus the Fiend spell. Did you bother to RTFM? Any spell that is channeled requires the caster to not take another action while it is cast. But not all spells, not even the majority iirc, are channeled.

You recall incorrectly:

Level 1: 10 spells, 7 channeled. Radiant stave has a short duration so it needs to be frequently recast, and feline polymorph is non-combat
Level 2: 13 spells, 8 channeled. Many are highly specialized (wolf polymorph) and require specific builds, or are pretty useless in general (projectile shield)
Level 3: 7 spells, 4 channeled. Again short duration make the "channeled" aspect pretty academic. You can morph into a zana long enough to cast two rounds of searing light, or just channel searing light.

19/30 channeled, including almost every offensive spell. All this in a game where each spell has 15 ranks, high ranks are more useful, and the player gets 2 points per level; my original statement still holds: Pick two spells and max them. QED.

 

[Grampy_Bone]

Yes, I'm also curious about that point. Grampy_Bone, care to share a spoiler on what's the in-game reasoning for that (and maybe for other points you listed, if you feel like it)?

The game counts additional created party members the same as soul-binding people, which seems to involve permanently enslaving them to your will or something. (The game never really explains what soul-binding is, but it seemed vaguely sinister so I avoided it).

So yeah choosing to play the game with custom companions locks you into the bad ending by default. It's beyond retarded.

I can explain the whole dumb ending for anyone that's interested when I have more time. But I'm pretty sure others have trashed it earlier in the thread.

 

[agris]

Also with spells you can't ever cast more than 1 at a time, so the utility of having more than one main spell is limited. The heat weapon spell is okay, and the light-ray spell. I used Eclipse for most of the game.

Uh, what? Spells are hotkey-able and you can cast multiple spells that don't require channeling, for example, radiant stave plus the Fiend spell. Did you bother to RTFM? Any spell that is channeled requires the caster to not take another action while it is cast. But not all spells, not even the majority iirc, are channeled.

You recall incorrectly:

Level 1: 10 spells, 7 channeled. Radiant stave has a short duration so it needs to be frequently recast, and feline polymorph is non-combat
Level 2: 13 spells, 8 channeled. Many are highly specialized (wolf polymorph) and require specific builds, or are pretty useless in general (projectile shield)
Level 3: 7 spells, 4 channeled. Again short duration make the "channeled" aspect pretty academic. You can morph into a zana long enough to cast two rounds of searing light, or just channel searing light.

19/30 channeled, including almost every offensive spell. All this in a game where each spell has 15 ranks, high ranks are more useful, and the player gets 2 points per level; my original statement still holds: Pick two spells and max them. QED.

Regardless, 63% of spells being channeled is not “can’t cast more than one spell at a time”. Also, radiant stave has a useful duration, I used it for most fights. I don’t doubt that you found the game unsatisfying, but your characterization of parts of it are inaccurate.

 

[croitav]

This game's combat system and everything regarding it is so bad, it makes PoE's combat look good. I'd probably suffer an aneurysm if I had to play it to the end.

 

[aweigh]

Interesting to know that the graphical assets don't really make much difference in loading times for Unity games, since this game apparently also has exceedingly long load times.

 

[Darth Canoli]

I played this for 15 minutes or so, looks like a weak ultima with terrible "retro-look-alike" graphics, didn't even get to fight, i was bored after exploring / looting the starting area.

 

[Kabas]

I was kinda liking it at the beginning, but started losing interest after reaching the big port town. The game felt, i dunno, interesting in some little parts and shallow in the others.
I definitely wouldn't have beaten it, if the game had been any longer and the majority of fights hadn't been easy at this point.

The ending wasn't worth it.

Spoiler

I am forced to agree with the main villain's arguments like "why did you kill all the random bandits you met, they robed 'cause they wanted to eat" because i hadn't done things the perfect way.

 

[Ranarama]

Ah, I remember why I stopped playing this game. It ate lots of progress when my latest save reloaded with spawning new enemies on my party with an unwinnable combat.

 

[thesheeep]

I also played SitS, but didn't finish it.
Mostly because of the combat (which honestly never felt satisfying to me) and because the game doesn't really give you many hints as where to go next, or where to find your objectives and I just don't have the patience for that any more. I mean, I certainly don't need quest compasses, but Morrowind, for example, features quite nice descriptions of your targets and you could always look those up. In SitS, there was no such thing, so if you forgot what someone told you two days ago, you'd be pretty much stuck.
Usually I just use walkthroughs then, but I played the game when it was "fresh", so there weren't really any.

All that considered, I did play the game for quite a long time. So that really speaks well of the world building & story.

 

[SausageInYourFace]

Speaking of SitS, is this game still worked on? I have had it untouched in my library forever. But wasn't there supposed to be an expansion coming or something?

 

[ArchAngel]

Speaking of SitS, is this game still worked on? I have had it untouched in my library forever. But wasn't there supposed to be an expansion coming or something?

Expansion will be stand alone and it will use Copper Dreams engine. So it is coming.. one day.

 

[Falksi]

Really hope they build on this game's good points. It's atmosphere & vibe are absolutely wonderful, and there's some great ideas in there, but the practical elements of combat & exploration are just too dull to continue with.

 

[Gunnar]

I decided to replay this game and there's a few shortcuts you can use to jump ahead if you find the beginning boring:

Fuldea Mare Crossing is an area that is accessible as soon as you get to the world map. There are some giant spiders in a clearing to the northwest. It might take a few tries but you can aggro the spiders and run them over to the arbiters guarding the bridge. The arbiters will kill the spiders and you will get the XP, which is enough to advance you to level 3 instantly. You can also just use an expendable companion to reliably aggro the spiders if you haven't used all 5 slots for created characters.

Put 3 points into the Linguist skill. Then open up the incantation scroll (found in the starting shrine) and type in vrosk rife arbiter. You will be able to steal all the arbiters powerful gear: helmet, armor, magic arrows, shield, sword. You can use this to obtain a Whip of the Bloodless, a powerful weapon from the hunter in the starting shrine as well.

Across the bridge is the Rumin Moon Lord Shrine. The Spirit enemies there give 733XP each. Pull one of them from a group and if you're able to kill it, you can use them to advance several more levels.

When you get to level 5 linguist skill, travel to Ista Cale Camp area. The bloodless hunters there are wielding Whips of the Bloodless. You can use vrosk morn <target name> to disarm them and get multiple whips. When you leave the area and come back, they will all be wielding whips again.


On builds:

If you make an intelligence mage you can put all skill points into the 3rd tier spell 'Planar Jump' which is so powerful it's all you'll need to easily win any combat without taking a scratch. Pump intelligence and casting speed as high as possible and get a linking wand to boost the damage further. I used a bow (fastest ranged attack) + arcane attack (which stacks intelligence bonus damage) for the points I had left over, but Planar Jump is so powerful it doesn't matter where you put the rest of the points.

My other 4 slots I experimented with fighter builds. Nothing terribly interesting there. Building a fighter in this game consists of deciding which 3 skills you want to use, then pumping STR/DEX exclusively until you reach the amount that unlocks the tier you need for those skills. After that you can put some points into PER without slowing down skill progression. Decide which skill will be primary and which will be secondaries. In the beginning the tanky guys are more useful because everybody has low hit points and they can handle the damage a little better and in the end the guys who dished damage were more useful because the enemies were nastier and you need to kill them quickly. Attack speed seems to be better than raw damage because of procs. The best 3rd tier fighter skill I used was Burst of Life because it gives the fighter life leech. You take so much melee damage in this game that it makes this skill valuable to have.

There are a very few magical weapons in this game that proc when a particular skill is equipped, and those skills are Assassin, Slayer, Seismic Swing and Split arrow.

 

[Gunnar]

I managed to get the good ending. You can't make any avatars and instead have to use the companions the game provides. This is fine, the companions get more stats and skills than generated party members, but the groups aren't as perfectly synergized as one that was optimized to work together from the beginning. It's sort of fun to mix and match the companions and you can let them get killed without too much worry as there are a lot of companions in the game. You have to avoid killing people wherever possible (run from random encounters if need be). You can use Batform to easily bypass enemies and run away in places like the lumber yards and shipping docks. Just stay out of the native conflict with the settlers in Emerald Metalis altogether, no good comes of it either way you handle it. All in all not difficult and it doesn't take long if you know where to go. Now I've got my goody two shoes Moonlord ready to go for the expansion!

 

[Skdursh]

Interesting to know that the graphical assets don't really make much difference in loading times for Unity games, since this game apparently also has exceedingly long load times.

Maybe if you're trying to run the game on a literal potato sitting in a wet shoebox.

 

[Gunnar]

Interesting to know that the graphical assets don't really make much difference in loading times for Unity games, since this game apparently also has exceedingly long load times.

Maybe if you're trying to run the game on a literal potato sitting in a wet shoebox.

I remember the loading times being unbearable when I tried to play this closer to when it first came out. It seems this has been addressed, as the load times weren't that bad this time around. I just checked and its about 7 seconds to load for me.

 

[ERYFKRAD]

Infinitron you insufferable autist.

 

[Deleted Member 16721]

So about SitS, I guess I'll play it after Arcanum, which I'm playing after Kingmaker. SitS' lore really appeals to me, I like the idea of being an avatar of the Moon God and exploring an open-world with strange lore. I don't mind the combat either, but this has been on my radar for quite some time and I'd like to eventually get to it. I enjoyed the beta for several hours but barely scratched the surface.

 

[Deleted Member 16721]

Anyone playing it? Cool little game. It has a feel of Baldur's Gate and is pretty old-school and complex but not earth-shatteringly so. I jumped in blind and I'm enjoying it and progressing well so far.

Surprised to see it only has 117 reviews on Steam. That's remarkable considering I figured lots of people would have played this by now. Very low number of reviews in comparison to other CRPGs.

 

[JDR13]

Isn't there a rule against pasting the exact same thread you just made at RPGWatch a few minutes before?

 

[HarveyBirdman]

And also on Steam.


But anyway, will you let us know if the trash mobs are as bad as the negative reviews say? The story looks really interesting, but I'm not jazzed up about kiting trash mobs for hours on end.

 

[conan_edw]

so you have the last comment on the original thread and yet you just make a new one?
https://rpgcodex.net/forums/index.p...the-staglands-original-campaign-thread.90686/

 

[Whiny-Butthurt-Liberal]

I can't think of a less exciting title for a video game.