KickStarter Knights of the Chalice 2 Thread - Augury of Chaos

[NJClaw]

I can't believe people already got this. Come on, man.

 

[Serus]

Entirely possible it's still there and I've just managed to skip it on the last two playthroughs.

Either way, I imagine it's a lot easier now the party is a few levels higher.

It's still there even on easy if you open the gate noisily, nothing to do with difficulty. Difficulty levels do NOT change the encounters in any way (other than the negative levels for enemies option).

But difficulty options aren't even the most important part. I remember that it was still difficult when he introduced the difficulty options, but hadn't introduced Finchbury yet. I played with full HP on levelup, 2 feats per level, attribute raise on each level, etc and it was still hard as fuck because you'd always be outnumbered and outgunned by high level enemy mobs.

The biggest decrease in difficulty comes through finishing all the content in Finchbury which can easily get you to level 4, close to level 5 even, before you enter what used to be the game's starting area.
That's a difference of three to four levels compared to the original version, which makes a MUCH bigger difference than any of the difficulty options because it increases the amount of spell slots you get, and more importantly the level of spells you can cast.

Where in the old version, the best you could cast against a certain encounter was grease, now you have access to web and fireball and stinking cloud in the very same encounter. That makes a HUGE difference, more so than anything else.

You talk about the difficulty of the early game mostly, right? Because at higher levels it is no longer 4 more levels. The higher you go this exp becomes relatively less important, since the "price" of levels in exp rises significantly. Still 1-2 levels still probably makes a significant difference. But the advantage is getting less and less as you advance. Right?

 

[Brickfrog]

You can dismiss companions and take new ones? Or it is final?

I think you can dismiss them, i'm not sure but if you have more than 8, the others go into the "reserve" aka they don't fight and you can switch from the formation screen.

Yep they go into formation screen and can be switched between. Only thing is reservists don't get XP so they'll become obsolete pretty quick.

Will using companions leave me gimped in 30 hours or am I safe to bring them along?

No you want two companions (I use the druid from Finchbury and a certain warlock you get later on). They always scale to at least the parties level when they join (some are higher than the party when they join).

My point was more you likely won't be switching them out frequently as they'll grow obsolete quickly from not gaining XP.

Gotcha, I just wasn't sure if my party would wind up under leveled due to xp reduction or something.

 

[Tacgnol]

You talk about the difficulty of the early game mostly, right? Because at higher levels it is no longer 4 more levels. The higher you go this exp becomes relatively less important, since the "price" of levels in exp rises significantly. Still 1-2 levels still probably makes a significant difference. But the advantage is getting less and less as you advance. Right?

Yes, the proper XP curve reasserts itself later. The XP required for first four levels is peanuts compared to what you start getting from high sewer fights, so it balances out.

Point me and Jarl were both making is that Pierre has unintentionally made the lower sewers a lot easier than they were intended to be by giving a little too much XP in Finchbury (Finchbury used to take you to level 2-3, now it takes you to 4+, in the very first release there was no Finchbury at all).

This is incidentally not something related to difficulty settings, as even on Archmage you'll still end up a little overlevelled for the lower sewers.

 

[TheDeveloperDude]

As for party:

1. Fighter/Samurai/Gladiator/Death Knight
2. Fighter/Samurai/Gladiator/Death Knight
3. Druid
4. Cleric
5. Wizard
6. Psionist

Above will be able to do everything.

But is the 6 red wizards party better?

 

[TigerKnee]

Does the Samurai Sword Style ability set your weapon to +X while retaining its properties? It sounds like it could be a really good ability for low-magic item campaigns as long as you can get your hands on items with good mods that you just upgrade through just leveling up your Samurai.

 

[Dorateen]

The steam thread saying "Too Many Battles" reminds me of the time Mozart was told by the Emperor his composition had too many notes. Mozart's reply, which is applicable to Knights of the Chalice 2:

Just as many as necessary.

 

[Tacgnol]

The steam thread saying "Too Many Battles" reminds me of the time Mozart was told by the Emperor his composition had too many notes. Mozart's reply, which is applicable to Knights of the Chalice 2:

Just as many as necessary.

Dunno what they were expecting from a combat focused RPG.

 

[Koolz]

I am more interested in what can be created from this game then the game it's self. Might be really good opportunity to create a really good RPG!

As for Mozart that is a good saying for any composer of the time? But you realize that Movie is one big fat Lie right?

And in Vienna there were already 100 top composers whose music has simply vanished. See Encyclopedia of Composers in Germany at around that time.

 

[JarlFrank]

Entirely possible it's still there and I've just managed to skip it on the last two playthroughs.

Either way, I imagine it's a lot easier now the party is a few levels higher.

It's still there even on easy if you open the gate noisily, nothing to do with difficulty. Difficulty levels do NOT change the encounters in any way (other than the negative levels for enemies option).

But difficulty options aren't even the most important part. I remember that it was still difficult when he introduced the difficulty options, but hadn't introduced Finchbury yet. I played with full HP on levelup, 2 feats per level, attribute raise on each level, etc and it was still hard as fuck because you'd always be outnumbered and outgunned by high level enemy mobs.

The biggest decrease in difficulty comes through finishing all the content in Finchbury which can easily get you to level 4, close to level 5 even, before you enter what used to be the game's starting area.
That's a difference of three to four levels compared to the original version, which makes a MUCH bigger difference than any of the difficulty options because it increases the amount of spell slots you get, and more importantly the level of spells you can cast.

Where in the old version, the best you could cast against a certain encounter was grease, now you have access to web and fireball and stinking cloud in the very same encounter. That makes a HUGE difference, more so than anything else.

You talk about the difficulty of the early game mostly, right? Because at higher levels it is no longer 4 more levels. The higher you go this exp becomes relatively less important, since the "price" of levels in exp rises significantly. Still 1-2 levels still probably makes a significant difference. But the advantage is getting less and less as you advance. Right?

Depends. The high sewers are the easiest place in the game IMO, at least the regular encounters there, not the bosses like the spider queen and that FUCK YOU dungeon that locks you inside and rapes you at every step.
Since you gain more XP from encounters at lower levels, I went through all of those without leveling up in-between. I had THREE whopping levelups to go through after that, for each character. If you economize your levelups well, you can really stack up that XP.

 

[Jvegi]

When you change the difficulty option to provide a new feat every two levels the setting changes to 2 feats every level. You can choose every option except the sensible one.
EDIT: The info-box that appears when you hover over the setting says "every two levels". But the main settings page says "2 feats every level", the same for the box appearing after clicking the option.

That's why I was confused. Is it just me?

 

[Parabalus]

The tutorial module dungeon of this game is more entertaining that most TB CRPG. Heck most CRPG.

Altho I can understand the complain about initiatives. Seems like at certain encounters it's 100% decided by initiatives. There is this stupid part in Tutorial Dungeon where you are walking up stairs and some asshole get spawned, get surprise round, and then spam grease + stunning aoe spells. Anyone that can't save on both... just tumble down the stairs taking 1d6 damage per height unit and you will probably fall 7 times or so.

What's the no-scum solution here?

Failing a save instakills the party member.

 

[Agesilaus]

When does the game start to get difficult? I'm on the default difficulty and so far I've only had 1 battle where I had to pay attention. In terms of my progress, I just beat up the slimes that burst into your cell after you lose all your items and get teleported.

The one battle where I had to pay attention was one of the elemental waves down in the cave. I got hit by a spell and half my party fell off the ledge. I guess the bees were supposed to be challenging too, but I have spells to deal with animals.

Pierre never really re-balanced the Sewers around the fact you get a lot more levels (you used to start the sewers at level 1 before he added the village). I'd say the Moon Crypt and the next level of the sewers are where the challenge ramps up.

Is the moon crypt the place with the mimicks, gargoyle, and golem? Glad I had acid arrow for that one.

I found a bug though. I picked up four clues, and then found a small locked box. Game doesn't seem to recognize that my Rogue has a thieves kit, because there's no option to unlock it. Maybe they just want me to go stomp on the goblins first or something, and I'll maybe get given a key.

Edit: also, I'm not getting 2 feats per level, it's not part of the default difficulty.

 

[Tacgnol]

Is the moon crypt the place with the mimicks, gargoyle, and golem? Glad I had acid arrow for that one.

It's the area after that. You find some clues hidden in the room where you killed the mimics and unlock the door to the left.

Just be aware you get locked in and have to do several fights afterwards against various species of undead.

 

[Iluvcheezcake]

As for party:

1. Fighter/Samurai/Gladiator/Death Knight
2. Fighter/Samurai/Gladiator/Death Knight
3. Druid
4. Cleric
5. Wizard
6. Psionist

Above will be able to do everything.

But is the 6 red wizards party better?

Let me put it like this
6 red wizards
Stygian humans with stats 6/18/17/20/8/8 (either all female or male/female without gender restrictions on stats)
Raven familiar
On lvl 1 take whatever spell you want but sleep, grease and skeleton is a must.
Feats are imp initiative and 2 feats that bump summons
Only spell you need so far in Finchbury is summon skeleton and grease for the bigger foes.
Once you plan to ding to lvl 2, prior to that change summoning feats to improved magic missile and greater magic missile (they add 6th and 7th magic missile on higher levels). Also change spells accordingly.

Healing is provided by either wrecking shit or ccing first due to high initiative (18 dex, raven and imp ini give +10 at start), or with pots n staves.

Even on ye olde buttfuck 1.02 version of pierres insanity the castle was cakewalk

 

[Serus]

The new patch is not yet on gog. I knew it would happen, gog will be late on patches.

Question, are the recruitable charachers reliable. As in, will they stay with your party up to and including last battle of the module?

 

[Darth Canoli]

Ok, I restarted my Ironman run

Dwarf Druid F
Drake Fighter M
Kobold Blue Wiz M
Elf Psion F
Centaur DK F
Halfing Red Wiz F

Settings: Not very Hard (Very Hard but 1 feat per level), Original attributes, rolls and racial caps, max in the main attribute.

With the extra village xp and content, you'll get to the crypt probably 1 level ahead but with 2 good companions, making it easier and I'll skip the death snare and the spider queen, then, going with allies whenever necessary, I think it's possible.
Ini builds, of course.

 

[Serus]

Ok, I restarted

Dwarf Druid F
Drake Fighter M
Kobold Blue Wiz M
Elf Psion F
Centaur DK F
Halfing Red Wiz F

Settings: Not very Hard (Very Hard but 1 feat per level), Original attributes, rolls and racial caps, max in the main attribute.

With the extra village xp and content, you'll get to the crypt probably 1 level ahead but with 2 good companions, making it easier and I'll skip the death snare and the spider queen, then, going with allies whenever necessary, I think it's possible.
Ini builds, of course.

You man-hater. 4 strong women. 2 men, one is from a race that only has males (how is that possible?). Another is a small, smelly and ugly incel kobold.

 

[Yosharian]

Can we really not set a higher resolution than the windowed one that the game defaults to?

 

[Yosharian]

Man come on. Isn't there some way to upscale this shit? Doesn't NVIDIA have a built-in driver upscaler now?

 

[Darth Canoli]

Can we really not set a higher resolution than the windowed one that the game defaults to?

You can play full screen but otherwise, no.
The option window is the worst offender, in my opinion.

Ok, I restarted

Dwarf Druid F
Drake Fighter M
Kobold Blue Wiz M
Elf Psion F
Centaur DK F
Halfing Red Wiz F

Settings: Not very Hard (Very Hard but 1 feat per level), Original attributes, rolls and racial caps, max in the main attribute.

With the extra village xp and content, you'll get to the crypt probably 1 level ahead but with 2 good companions, making it easier and I'll skip the death snare and the spider queen, then, going with allies whenever necessary, I think it's possible.
Ini builds, of course.

You man-hater. 4 strong women. 2 men, one is from a race that only has males (how is that possible?). Another is a small, smelly and ugly incel kobold.

Well, I'd have picked a Male DK but the female Centaur has more starting charisma.
On the other hand, the companions are all males so far.
Water elemental Storm Warrior and Barbarian.
I also picked the Monk and the druid, they might be useful.

The Water elemental gladiator doesn't fucking join!
I rushed the spider cave and didn't rest because he disappears if you rest too much and it was all for nothing, almost died against the spiders (if you don't kill them, they die anyway so I had to get the xp) and suffered against the undead with no spells left just to recruit that elemental fucker!
So, with the water druid, you can heal him (the water elemental gladiator) and then he makes like a tree and leaves...

Maybe he comes back later...

 

[Serus]

Man come on. Isn't there some way to upscale this shit? Doesn't NVIDIA have a built-in driver upscaler now?

There are application to upscale it software-wise, i found two, maybe there are more. Didn't work for me, one is Win 10, another didn't work. Maybe you'll have more luck. What i did is "downgrade" the resolution on my side automatically when the game starts. Works well for me.

 

[Yosharian]

Man come on. Isn't there some way to upscale this shit? Doesn't NVIDIA have a built-in driver upscaler now?

There are application to upscale it software-wise, i found two, maybe there are more. Didn't work for me, one is Win 10, another didn't work. Maybe you'll have more luck. What i did is "downgrade" the resolution on my side automatically when the game starts. Works well for me.

Wat

Why would you downgrade it? please explain

When I go fullscreen it just goes all fuzzy and shit

 

[Serus]

Man come on. Isn't there some way to upscale this shit? Doesn't NVIDIA have a built-in driver upscaler now?

There are application to upscale it software-wise, i found two, maybe there are more. Didn't work for me, one is Win 10, another didn't work. Maybe you'll have more luck. What i did is "downgrade" the resolution on my side automatically when the game starts. Works well for me.

Wat

Why would you downgrade it? please explain

When I go fullscreen it just goes all fuzzy and shit

Ah, sorry. "Fuzzy and shit" seems the game doesn't like your graphic card or drivers... But why would upscaling help with that then?
I didn't have that problem. It displays fine for me, is just too small with my native resolution.

Edit: Maybe try those applications i mentioned, Lossless Scaling is one. Is Win 10, ~4$ but there is a demo. It supposedly can upscale almost anything.

 

[anvi]

Searching the sewers for somewhere to rest... :C Tried many different fights.