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Kingsvein - new tactical RPG from Rad Codex set in subterranean world

TwoEdge

Scholar
Joined
Jan 27, 2017
Messages
243
How high do enemies' physical attack go, really? Altahn (the guy blocking the bridge to the north), probably the first hard enemy encounter in the game has 2 on Slayer. That's an easy 12 damage on him with only brave+vengeful+chomp (with two ore gauntlets) with suplex rank 2 (easily achievable by then), if I manage to position correctly and throw a Sanctify in the mix the damage skyrockets. Now, I don't know how much physical attack enemies will have by the late game, but maybe you are overestimating stat inflation. We'll only know once we start seeing foes closer to the end.
 

Yosharian

Arcane
Joined
May 28, 2018
Messages
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Location
Grand Chien
So like, what's the deal with the specialization thing. I put the mage spec into my 2nd slot then couldn't take it out (was just fucking around). Is XP split between them?
XP just goes to your main class, the second class just lets you use whatever spells/abilities you have unlocked for that class. (You do also get some slight xp from whatever other classes are being mained by your companions)
Is HP/mana restored fully upon exiting combat?
Restored over time out of combat, pretty quickly but not instantly.
Ah I see. So the racial ability that restores 50% mana when you run empty is just for in-combat use then. Still seems good though? Thinking about a gish-type character for my mc
Dragoon/Mystic with spellstrike is legit. I'd still go for Wisp Slayer, though. They are efficient killers and extra actions are nothing to scoff at. You can use them to restore mana as needed with absorb.
Too late!

What does the icon on shields do that is like a little explosive icon
 

Modron

Arcane
Joined
May 5, 2012
Messages
10,096
What does the icon on shields do that is like a little explosive icon
How much base damage a strike with that shield does.

Ninja: Don't have the game installed at the moment to see if str applies but the little flexing arm icon in the top right of the item tooltip will tell you what str bonus applies if any (100% str on spears/flairs/swords, 150% str on hammers/clubs, et cetera).
 

HoboForEternity

sunset tequila
Patron
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Messages
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Location
Disco Elysium
Steve gets a Kidney but I don't even get a tag.
apparently this has reached twice the peak of Horizon's gate. and honestly the 24 hours peak for HG isnt that bad either.



11123.png
 

Yosharian

Arcane
Joined
May 28, 2018
Messages
9,564
Location
Grand Chien
What does the icon on shields do that is like a little explosive icon
How much base damage a strike with that shield does.

Ninja: Don't have the game installed at the moment to see if str applies but the little flexing arm icon in the top right of the item tooltip will tell you what str bonus applies if any (100% str on spears/flairs/swords, 150% str on hammers/clubs, et cetera).
Oh wow ok. Didn't realise it scaled like that
 

Yosharian

Arcane
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May 28, 2018
Messages
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Grand Chien
Nah I wasted it, I decided what my final builds are gonna be and a good deal of the xp was wasted

It's whatever I'll be ok I guess, game isn't that hard

Is there a maximum number of points you can invest in stuff like Focus (upgrade skills)
 

Modron

Arcane
Joined
May 5, 2012
Messages
10,096
Is there a maximum number of points you can invest in stuff like Focus (upgrade skills)
No, the only stats with maxes are skills like Meditation, Regeneration, that Death Defying, Class unlock skill for your mount, and probably stuff like Stealth Sense and that archery damage bonus based on distance skill. Regular skills like magic/weapon/hp/mp boost just keep going as far I know. It's possible those have actual limits I remember jump having a hard limit at 6 in previous games but you're not going to find out unless you do a metric ton of grinding.
 

Pocgels

Scholar
Joined
Nov 15, 2016
Messages
166
How high do enemies' physical attack go, really? Altahn (the guy blocking the bridge to the north), probably the first hard enemy encounter in the game has 2 on Slayer. That's an easy 12 damage on him with only brave+vengeful+chomp (with two ore gauntlets) with suplex rank 2 (easily achievable by then), if I manage to position correctly and throw a Sanctify in the mix the damage skyrockets. Now, I don't know how much physical attack enemies will have by the late game, but maybe you are overestimating stat inflation. We'll only know once we start seeing foes closer to the end.
anmyra.jpg



I haven't fought Altahn yet, but this is on titan. To be fair, I've only seen one of these guys, but the physical attack does go pretty high.

EDIT: I just went and fought altahn and he barely put up a fight - I may have been going out of the intended order of exploration.
 
Last edited:

TwoEdge

Scholar
Joined
Jan 27, 2017
Messages
243
Yeah, I'm starting to see enemies with 10 and above, but there are always some in the 1-2 range thrown in the mix. So I guess it's not a dominant strategy, but it remains viable (and powerful) throughout the game.
 

Grampy_Bone

Arcane
Joined
Jan 25, 2016
Messages
3,694
Location
Wandering the world randomly in search of maps
Apparently I've played this for 11 hours, I've cleared the town, the mine, the lower keep, and part of the Tower. I'm seeing people say they beat it in 15 hours? I don't feel like I'm near the end. Still need to kill 2 more wisps to thin the herd.

Either I'm super slow or those people flew through on easy mode.
 

Modron

Arcane
Joined
May 5, 2012
Messages
10,096
Either I'm super slow or those people flew through on easy mode.
Why not both?

You've still got a ways to go: tower, area west of the keep entrance is large,
you're not done with the mines
, end game areas, et cetera. Not to mention any grinding of map encounters you might want to do.
 

Pocgels

Scholar
Joined
Nov 15, 2016
Messages
166
Yeah, I'm starting to see enemies with 10 and above, but there are always some in the 1-2 range thrown in the mix. So I guess it's not a dominant strategy, but it remains viable (and powerful) throughout the game.
Those with weapons or player classes seem to have less, while monsters without equipment to boost their damage have more. So I'll try using suplex for something other than getting two of my own guys to end their turn on a heal tile.
Apparently I've played this for 11 hours, I've cleared the town, the mine, the lower keep, and part of the Tower. I'm seeing people say they beat it in 15 hours? I don't feel like I'm near the end. Still need to kill 2 more wisps to thin the herd.

Either I'm super slow or those people flew through on easy mode.
I've got about the same amount of time, killed 1 more wisp but cleared fewer areas. Too many game overs, man.
 

HoboForEternity

sunset tequila
Patron
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Mar 27, 2016
Messages
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Disco Elysium
Steve gets a Kidney but I don't even get a tag.
i am in the mid-game now and just learned delayed attacks (especially that target 1 tile) are mostly useless. you will never land hits because the effect turn is right after the enemies' and in harder difficulty and AI setting, they will ALWAYS move out of the danger zone. setting up spikes/hazards takes too much effort and they can jump over a single tile anyway. so it's either only useful in cramped spaces, or the fire blast thing can be used to set the floor on fire to make more hazard, or to direct enemies' movement.

turn out there are already a big thread on steam discussion about the same thing. 1 tile delayed attacks are practically useless. the AoE are situationally useful, but rarely can deal damage.

but in the other side, tile effects are the most useful thing in this game, like the spell that can turn blood into oil while dealing electricity damages, then set the oil on fire are very useful. so the combo is using AOE in the non bloody tile so enemies cannot move outside the blood pool, then zap them, and set them on fire.

using blind/or speed debuff isnt always reliable.

for now i am a bit conflicted about this changes.

+ is there is a chess-like quality to the combat flow where you need to predict, then funnel enemies into tiles you want them to step on.
+ tile effect + pushing/pulling abilities are the main focus so it's extra layer of thoughts put into positioning

at the same time
- landing big AOE attack , especially on class like gatekeeper is always super satisfying in this series and it just reduced that effect.
-again, 1 tile delay attack are always useless.
 

Yosharian

Arcane
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Location
Grand Chien
The point of delayed attacks is to deny tiles to the enemy IMO, I equipped my guy with a spear and used Bide to make a couple of enemies just literally do nothing but move back and forth for at least 2-3 turns while their allies got murdered
 

Grampy_Bone

Arcane
Joined
Jan 25, 2016
Messages
3,694
Location
Wandering the world randomly in search of maps
Finished it at 22 hours. Killed the optional bosses. Couple story questions:

Is it possible to not kill the Prince? Seemed like it might be. I managed to get Zavarde back on the team, if you kill him does Byron become a main member? Is there a different ending for killing the main boss vs using Byron? Is it possible to kill Byron? I suppose it's good the game at least made me think it might have choices.


Final party:

-Wisp Slayer Dragoon/Vanguard
Dual Volskarn swords with 4 fire triggers, stone savant, and plenty of magic boosts to do 25+ damage with dual slash. The only problem with this class setup is it takes way too long to bring online, and Dragoon is supposed to pair with a mage instead (spellstrike is wasted). But I always found Smite handy along with the Vanguard's heal. Not convinced it's worth it overall but it was fun.

-Titan/Knight (Zavarde)
Push/Shield bash with Flail. Actually did the most damage using Shatter from an ability crest, but I used other class powers sporadically. Bide and Meteor slam I never found a use for, I never figured out how to activate the 'good' damage of stone toss. Wave crash was kinda fun though.

-Chisel/Marshal (Remir)
Spear guy with venom and sunder to setup Zavarde to shatter. Marshal was for utility and Strike! which was handy against a few bosses.

-Melder/Mancer
Melder is for heals and the large AoEs, but never got much from Mancer. I could have made him a Crysolith or a second Ashen instead. Even Gatekeeper might have been better. I actually had him set up with Geo Adept and spike skills so Fanger seemed good but most of those powers are short range. Spike builds might need some love, it never did much damage. One weakness was no ability to target enemies who are not over ground tiles. I did like the big Melder push power, lots of use out of that.

-Ashen/Gatekeeper
I really liked the way Ashen worked, setting up fire with inferno then using flame lash to hit more enemies. Even Gate Pyre worked decent overall. I wish this class was in Horizon's Gate

-Overall I'd say Shatter and Sunder are too strong. Pretty much zero enemies can survive it. With one character hitting with venom + fragile, Shatter then does 90+40+40+40=210% damage, then multiplied by 50% to 315%. And if somehow they survive you can keep stacking status effects. Stronger than Bide; though Bide+Fragile deals 450%, good luck hitting with it. You'd generally need two other characters to set up a Bide and eat damage from the enemy, who have tools for pushing your own guys away.

So yeah, I'd rework the delay system for the next game. One thought I had was to replace delays with a charge action; you eat a turn to build power, then on the next turn you can target the attack. Make it harder to just walk away.

-I liked the new classes, I enjoyed there were no 'dump' classes. However I felt I got all I needed out of the builds available in one run. I didn't use the ice mage or marksman, but I don't feel the need to start a new game just to try different parties like I did with Horizon's Gate. I'd only play again to try out RUIN mode, and I'm not in a hurry.

-Likewise, while I felt the main game was of sufficient length, there's little optional content. Some more side quests or optional dungeon areas beyond the map battles would have been nice. The tower and final dungeon especially felt a bit empty and lacking in opponents. There were so many empty tower rooms where it felt like the dev just forgot to put a fight in there. I did a decent number of world map fights and didn't max a single class. I can imagine someone skipping those optional fights would feel they didn't even scratch the surface of the class system.

-Very nice pay off to the story and worldbuilding for the final boss. Very clever and well done I'd say.

Overall it's a really fun game, but the class system is like crack to me so I'm biased. The flattened stat curve of the combat was okay; I was worried the focus on push-pull powers would the turn the game into ledge-pushing simulator and that was not the case. However it was sort of true that homogenizing the classes and damage values just made the few standout damage abilities like dual slash and shatter that much more useful. The thing about a game like Horizon's Gate is that individual damage points are not as valuable so you have more room to experiment, since losing one point of strength or magic power isn't such a big deal. In KV each point of damage is so hard won and so crucial, you would never use a weaker weapon over a stronger one because you like the special effect on it, or pick a bad build because it fits a theme. Not using Shatter is just leaving too much damage on the table. (Perhaps a nerf to Fragile is in order, 25% damage boost vs 50%, and reduce the extra damage from shatter statuses and allies from 40% to 20-30%).
 

Yosharian

Arcane
Joined
May 28, 2018
Messages
9,564
Location
Grand Chien
Finished my initial builds, I might tweak some of these a bit.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3148111248

Not sure about Zavarde's second class - am sure I want Vanguard as primary, but wondering about Chisel for secondary, or Marshal.

ALso not sure about Remir's second class, Fanger seems useful to spam spikes all over the place but not convinced. doesn't seem like there's too many good secondary classes for an archer
 

Grampy_Bone

Arcane
Joined
Jan 25, 2016
Messages
3,694
Location
Wandering the world randomly in search of maps
Any thoughts on Bows vs Crossbows?
Good question. Crossbows obviously deal more base damage plus they can mount scopes, you can also ride the wyvern to make up for low movement of Artillery. Using a bandolier you can carry extras and rarely have to reload. There is a special crossbow that reloads with a melee attack, and another that deals +2 damage to blind enemies. Targeting can be a problem though, depending on how many melee guys you have.

With a Vast bow range is less of an issue, and there's an electric bow for blood zapping shenanigans. You can always grind heavily to make up for the damage loss (though that also would make crossbows even better). I thought the best use of bows would be a 'firing squad' team, since you don't need to reload you could give everyone the Marshal's 'Fire!' skill and attack up to 20 times per turn.

I didn't use Marksman in my run because the ranged classes have overall been nerfed since Horizon's Gate, which had handguns and shotguns, ranged push attacks, and big AoEs. Probably for the best considering how dominating they were in that game. For a sub class I think Fanger is meant to help you keep enemies at bay, otherwise take Melder and make them your backup healer? I agree that nothing really fits.

Not sure about Zavarde's second class - am sure I want Vanguard as primary, but wondering about Chisel for secondary, or Marshal.
Chisel is great, Shatter is busted.
 

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