KickStarter Lords of Xulima

[Redlands]

I've just started my first playthrough of LoX, and I went in sorta half-blind, without the usual extensive preparation.
I've cleared the entire Velegarn area (Save for the Ogre) and got my party to lvl 5 (Gaulen and thief to 6, thanks to exp bonus and traps).
So far it's been a fairly tough to progress for me (playing on Veteran), and I'm wondering if I've missed out on something, or messed up during party creation.
I wonder if I should simply re-make the party and make use of some overlooked features, or whether it would be more entertaining for me to switch to easier duffuculty.

I'm currently playing this, ahead of you a bit (at ~ level 13-14), on the middle difficulty level (can't remember the name of the levels though). I had the same thing happen to me; so I restarted and eventually realized I'd missed a clue. What you need to do is get around the ogre and head north. That will give you what you need to do to advance without much in the way of fighting, with the bonus of getting some relatively cheap XP and money (you'll "wanna FIGHT in the aRENa"), especially if you have the blessings from the priestess (my main tank just ate through a lot of the first battles; just be aware that you won't have healing items while in the arena but you can heal in-between fights anyway).

Can anyone answer these questions:
1. I haven't quite understood how trainers work - do they give 1 skill point for the money paid to each char, or just one skill point to a random char? How important are they in the early-mid game to get an edge over mobs?
2. How important are blessings I could get from a priestess? I haven't tried them yet.
3. I've been pouring a relatively large amount of earned gold towards purchasing better gear for my party from the trader. It seemed that since loot (at least in Velegarn) is pretty poor in terms of gear, I'd rather spend my money on some armor and jewelry to give a survivability boost to my chars. Should have I rather spent my money elsewhere? Do gear traders become more important towards endgame?
4. How important are potions, scrolls etc? So far I feel that it's more economically sound to only use them in combat to avoid dying or versus tougher opponents (scrolls specifically), but between combats resting for 8 hours is much cheaper. Is that true?
5. Should I hoard herbs, or is it better to use them right away as soon as I get enough?
6. Are there any ways to remove sickness/curses/mortal woundsapart from expensive potions of priests? Those are really annoying.
7. I don't feel like my party composition is sound. I've got:
Front: Gaulen (tank+noncombat utility) --- paladin (tank+some healing) --- thief (bow+shurikens+thief skills)
Back: cleric (healing only) --- bard (buffs+bow) --- mage (so far focuses on spark only, good for taking out strong mobs)
I feel like paladin's healing is really sub-par, and I'd rather would have a better front row fighter. Was I better off by taking another melee char, or maybe moving cleric to front row as heal-tank and taking another dps-centric char in back row?
Thief was meant as back row sniper, but she's really good in front row with (relatively) high evasion. Would she make a better front row figher with melee weapons focus? Would that hurt her ability to develop thief skills in the long run?
Will mage get better (aoe?) skills soon enough? I feel that her utility is fairly limited atm, and I don't feel like spending sp's on other single-target spells when spark does its job so well.
Should I move my cleric to front row and give him some melee+armor focus? Would it hurt his ability to heal much?
Should I develop my bard's bow skills, or should I rather focus on his bardic abilities?

I'm not an expert on this game, but from what I can tell.

1. I don't know if it's all characters or just one, but if it's just one I guess it'd be the one that's currently selected (other people might be able to explain properly). I've never used them and I've managed okay. I've avoided them as the money is possibly better spent on blessings.
   
2. At the early game, blessings are very expensive, but they can be very useful. They last 24 hours, I believe, which means they last a fair amount of time, even if you need to rest to heal and regain mana occasionally.
   
3. Not sure about endgame, but unless something had really good stats from the first trader (usually stat bonuses or extra XP, or clearly much better weaponry) I've usually not bothered and managed. But just be aware that the nearest town is (I believe) two areas away, and when I went there it was after clearing 3 other areas.
   
4. I've used potions and scrolls in the same way you have; I think that's more or less what they should be used for, though there are some rather tough non-boss fights.
   
5. I've not used herbs yet, so I can't give advice. I think they might work better in the late game for some (skill points) while attributes might be better to use straight away, or as needed (to equip a much better weapon/armour, say).
   
6. I haven't found anything yet. I've usually just ignored the penalties unless I was going up against very tough enemies, or later on when things became more affordable.
   
7. I'm mostly the same, except I went with a barbarian instead of a bard, and had my thief in the back row.
   I basically ignored shurikens (selling them), but they could be very useful (they're occasionally very useful against me ); the only problem I can see that might happen is from you spending points on two different weapons for one character, or by having him trained in two ranged weapons (when something melee might be more useful for fighting in the front row, I think melee weapons do more damage, but I've not calculated the DPS).
   The paladin's healing at the start isn't great, but they'll start to learn the same spells as the cleric after a few more levels, and that can be useful if you get into a tight spot or if you need to stop multiple bleeds per round or something. There are also some hit-all attacks and having a heal-all (even if it's just a little bit) can be a lifesaver.
   Mages do get AoE spells (a very nice fire one which also does damage per turn is especially useful against some enemy groups), but they don't really come about for a while. The stone bolt one is important, in some situations it can do as much damage as a maxed-out spark at much less cost. The lightning one (don't remember the name) can also be useful for delaying enemies and getting your other guys to get more hits/heals in. The ice one has been pretty useless, but then I didn't train it much; you get an AoE version of that too, which might be useful.
   Moving the cleric to the front row will mean increasing strength, at the cost of mana and/or speed. On the other hand, clerics get a skill where they can take a turn and gain both HP and MP, which might negate the need somewhat for a larger mana pool.
   Haven't used the bard, so I don't want to give advice on that.
   But before you restart if that's what you want to do, try getting past the ogre like I mentioned before. The game (for me, anyway) got a lot easier after exploring the area north of Velegarn a little.

 

[V_K]

Damage of shurikes scales with skill, they become extremely powerful mid- to late game, if you train your thief in their use.

 

[Anthedon]

Is the DLC worth the increased price? I'm looking at the GoG sale at the moment.

 

[GlutenBurger]

2. How important are blessings I could get from a priestess? I haven't tried them yet.
3. I've been pouring a relatively large amount of earned gold towards purchasing better gear for my party from the trader. It seemed that since loot (at least in Velegarn) is pretty poor in terms of gear, I'd rather spend my money on some armor and jewelry to give a survivability boost to my chars. Should have I rather spent my money elsewhere? Do gear traders become more important towards endgame?
6. Are there any ways to remove sickness/curses/mortal woundsapart from expensive potions of priests? Those are really annoying.
7. I don't feel like my party composition is sound. I've got:
Thief was meant as back row sniper, but she's really good in front row with (relatively) high evasion. Would she make a better front row figher with melee weapons focus? Would that hurt her ability to develop thief skills in the long run?
Should I develop my bard's bow skills, or should I rather focus on his bardic abilities?

2. I only used them a couple of times myself.
3. You rarely get good loot, so you're going to have to spend a fair bit on equipment. I stuck primarily to purchasing King level stat boost items whenever I saw them, and bringing my frontline fighters' weaponry up to the top available quality every three or five levels. Armour I upgraded only infrequently. I don't think buying resistance boost items is worthwhile for some time, but stockpile a good selection of whatever you find. Especially electricity protection. Partly for hound encounters, partly to cope with a nuisance later in the game.
6. I ended up just ignoring them until my cleric could cure them. You spend a fortune to cure them only to be inflicted by them soon after. Especially the damn hound curses. I think this aspect was poorly thought through. Clerics should at least be able to cure Minor afflictions at an earlier level.
7. Bows stink. Your rogue would be better off upgrading swords every three or four levels and upgrading shurikens every level. I don't know about the bard. Mine wasn't very effective for most of the game. I focused on the couple of songs that seemed to be make a difference in battles (Nothing between Courage and Sleep was, as I recall), and put some points into mercantilism. The songs just become obsolete too quickly.

You have the same problem of obsolescence with mage spells, but at least the mage can cast more spells before running out of mana. Ignore the touch spells and the physical spells, except maybe a point of stone arrow if you want to chip futilely at the back row on occasion.

I basically ignored shurikens (selling them), but they could be very useful (they're occasionally very useful against me ); the only problem I can see that might happen is from you spending points on two different weapons for one character, or by having him trained in two ranged weapons (when something melee might be more useful for fighting in the front row, I think melee weapons do more damage, but I've not calculated the DPS).

Ignoring shurikens was insane. They only cost one skill point to upgrade and are easily the best thing about rogues. Most tough battles are made so much more manageable by striking the troublesome enemies with one or two shurikens early on. Improve the shuriken skill at every opportunity, and buy every shuriken you see in stores.

Is the DLC worth the increased price? I'm looking at the GoG sale at the moment.

Is that just the amulet? I think I bought that by accident. I didn't use it as it feels like a cheat-- it gives you regular bonus skill points and tells you what to do when you ask it. I did, however, leave it equipped, as being warned about imminent hound attacks reduced some frustration. They're tough enough by themselves without being able to prepare in advance.

There are moments in the story when the amulet affects Gaulen's behaviour, so I don't know what happens there if he doesn't have it.

 

[Redlands]

I basically ignored shurikens (selling them), but they could be very useful (they're occasionally very useful against me ); the only problem I can see that might happen is from you spending points on two different weapons for one character, or by having him trained in two ranged weapons (when something melee might be more useful for fighting in the front row, I think melee weapons do more damage, but I've not calculated the DPS).

Ignoring shurikens was insane. They only cost one skill point to upgrade and are easily the best thing about rogues. Most tough battles are made so much more manageable by striking the troublesome enemies with one or two shurikens early on. Improve the shuriken skill at every opportunity, and buy every shuriken you see in stores.

That's good to know; I'll keep it in mind if/when (most likely when) I play on the hardest difficulty, because when I started I was worried they might run out. So far, I *think* I can manage to get away with it, since he makes a rather good emergency second mage (with scrolls) and he's principally around to handle a lot of the non-combat stuff.

Just as a couple of side-questions:

1. Is there any way to inspect Gaulen's stats/skills before you start a new game (without starting one and then checking, I mean)? I might have missed something; but if not, that was a little annoying that will hopefully be rectified in a sequel.
2. Are the green-topped mushrooms bugged? They seem to flat-out refuse to attack my guys at all (not that I'm complaining of the free XP of course, but whenever I encounter them it feels a little anticlimactic (especially fighting it one-on-one in the arena).

 

[Minttunator]

So far it's been a fairly tough to progress for me (playing on Veteran), and I'm wondering if I've missed out on something, or messed up during party creation.

This game is very challenging in the beginning - it will get easier once you get some more levels under your belt.

Answers (or well, at least my opinions) to your questions:
1. 1 skill point to each character and I'd say it helps loads.
2. The blessings are IMMENSELY helpful in the early game (before level 10). Just load up on blessings before you go to clear an area and you'll have a much easier time.
3. Personally I spent most of my surplus money on training. Gear-wise I mostly focused on getting decent weapons for everyone.
4. Didn't use a lot of potions/scrolls in my game - except mana potions in the endgame.
5. If you're trying to get the most benefit you should actually not pick herbs at all until you get a higher level Herbs skill (you get more herbs if your skill is higher). How long you're willing to wait is up to you - is it better to get 2 herbs now or 5 herbs later?
6. Your cleric will get spells to remove that shit later but some of those spells are fairly high level - in general, it's not worth it to pay to remove curses etc in the early game (because you'll get cursed again shortly anyway).
7. Your line-up is fine - I had a fighter instead of a paladin in my playthrough but a paladin should be okay. His healing does suck and I'd recommend focusing on Aura of Protection instead.
The thief is a good front-row character and you'll want to have some points in a melee weapon, but, more importantly, you'll want to have a lot of points in shurikens. Shurikens kick ass.
Mages get very good AOE spells but they are also very mana-heavy so don't be afraid to drink those mana potions! A frontrow cleric is doable but I had mine in the back.
A bard should focus on his songs, but you'll probably be able to max bows as well since you'll be skipping most of the songs before level 30 (except Courage and Stunning). There's a buffing song that you'll get later that combines all the early buff songs.

 

[GlutenBurger]

Just as a couple of side-questions:

I don't think you can check Gaulen's stats. I think it's less annoying than not knowing what some spells actually do until you've wasted points on them and tried them out. Especially for the Summoner.

I've heard of other people having the same issue with the green mushrooms, but I didn't encounter that bug myself.

A bard should focus on his songs, but you'll probably be able to max bows as well since you'll be skipping most of the songs before level 30 (except Courage and Stunning).

Did you really get mileage out of the stunning song? Did you have to max it out first? I put two or three tiers into it, but ended up abandoning it because everybody resisted it more often than not and it felt like a waste of mana.

 

[T. Reich]

Thanks all for the advice.

Based on the new knowledge, I've started fresh with the same party composition, tweaked my skill choices on the first few level-ups, went heavy on the blessings and kept investing into trainer at least once per level-up.
The result is MUCH easier and more enjoyable game experience all around, I've cleared most of Velegarn in half the time, and ended up with noticeaby more money than before, plus I almost never had to resort to using potions.

Basically, blessings ARE the king of early LoX. I really expected them to be a useful occasional bonus but they turned out to be near-mandatory for good results.

 

[Minttunator]

Did you really get mileage out of the stunning song? Did you have to max it out first? I put two or three tiers into it, but ended up abandoning it because everybody resisted it more often than not and it felt like a waste of mana.

I felt that the stunning song helped me early on - but yeah, it is resisted by a lot of mobs so I suppose it's skippable overall.

 

[T. Reich]

So far, so good. With the newfound power of blessings I managed to plow through Nabros and Nengorth's (first prince) castle unpunished, including those pesky 10-soldier groups. However, after killing the prince, it seems that all of the few remaining roaming soldier groups dispersed, robbing me of experience and loot from them and from clearing areas. That inclueds both the castle and surrounding areas, and as far as I gatherm it also includes the southern part of Sorrentia.

Did I lose out on much exp and loot this way, relative to endgame? Is it critical to continued success? Will it repeat again, with other princes and with purification of temples (I'm currently about done with temple of Febret)?

 

[Minttunator]

However, after killing the prince, it seems that all of the few remaining roaming soldier groups dispersed, robbing me of experience and loot from them and from clearing areas. That inclueds both the castle and surrounding areas, and as far as I gatherm it also includes the southern part of Sorrentia.

Did I lose out on much exp and loot this way, relative to endgame? Is it critical to continued success? Will it repeat again, with other princes and with purification of temples (I'm currently about done with temple of Febret)?

The forces of the princes in their castles do disperse after you kill the princes - I'm not sure about the temples but it probably applies there as well.

So yeah, if you want to maximise your exp/loot you should clear those areas, in theory - whether or not it's actually worth it is up to you. It does help to get ahead in the early game, which is the toughest part of LoX (so I'd suggest clearing the first few) - but grinding those encounters quickly gets tedious as hell and having an extra level or two in the endgame won't matter much (you'll be very powerful anyway).

 

[T. Reich]

However, after killing the prince, it seems that all of the few remaining roaming soldier groups dispersed, robbing me of experience and loot from them and from clearing areas. That inclueds both the castle and surrounding areas, and as far as I gatherm it also includes the southern part of Sorrentia.

Did I lose out on much exp and loot this way, relative to endgame? Is it critical to continued success? Will it repeat again, with other princes and with purification of temples (I'm currently about done with temple of Febret)?

The forces of the princes in their castles do disperse after you kill the princes - I'm not sure about the temples but it probably applies there as well.

So yeah, if you want to maximise your exp/loot you should clear those areas, in theory - whether or not it's actually worth it is up to you. It does help to get ahead in the early game, which is the toughest part of LoX (so I'd suggest clearing the first few) - but grinding those encounters quickly gets tedious as hell and having an extra level or two in the endgame won't matter much (you'll be very powerful anyway).

Trial and error approach at the temple of Febret (killing the herald + purifying the well) has shown that unlike the princes' forces, the temples' roaming groups stay after the purification, so you can still kill them for the bonus, which is nice. The only change after purification was that the cursed guardian of the garden dissapeared. Apparently, he is worth 2800 exp and a good deal of herbs and is defeatable somewhere around lvl25+.

 

[Soph]

I think the devs mostly intended for you to stay off the roads and not assault the castle directly, avoiding the big groups of soldiers. But hey, if you can beat them anyway, why not do so.

 

[Cyberarmy]

You can beat them with Stun song and/or Blizzard. Killing all of them gives a lot of gold and nearly 3 levels of XP at 10 ish level range. It is a bit grindy but helps a lot for following combats.

 

[V_K]

Unlike most people here, I'd suggest a stealthy approach to the castles. You'll get tired of combat about 2/3 into the game anyway, so no point in making it happen sooner.

 

[Soph]

The second castle has a clear stealthy path as well, it's more fun that way if you want to keep the powercreep away.

 

[T. Reich]

Oh, I didn't particularly seek out those big encounters, but once I figured out that the blessed-out party can take a couple of 10-soldier groups before resting (so, 4-6 10-man groups per blessing duration), I simply plowed through them as they appeared.

Being a completist of sorts, I gave the mushroom grove a visit around lvl13, and it posed little challenge as well. Took me around 20-30 mins to clear it, and it was more than worth the time spent in terms of exp and money.

 

[Outmind]

I've started to play the game yesterday and am liking it so far. The difficulty is kinda refreshing - getting annihilated by a raven isn't something you experience every day in the genre. It looks like the game could shape up to be interesting later on. Currently I'm rolling with a more or less standard fare party - paladin, thief, cleric, bard and mage. I was thinking of rolling a summoner but in the end decided against it. Hope i didn't choose wrongly and that there might be one for hire later on.

There are two things that bother me though:

The first is the rng. It seems that too much hinges upon the luck of the dice. I struggled a bit with the skeleton in the rat cave until in one attempt he hit my thief who managed to block three consecutive attacks (i reload every time a character dies, unless it is a sure win 1-2 turns away).

Second, i don't mind a difficult fight, but i do take issue with an unfair one - the ogre shamans seem to have an infinite amount of mana with which to stun my characters / heal their allies. Since they are in the 2nd row only my bow wielding bard can get to them. I might make the thief equip one as well o see if that helps. My poor casters can do 2-3 spells on max mp at lvl 2, while that green midget has an endless supply.

 

[Snorkack]

Have fun! The early game is easily the best part of LoX. Your party composition seems fine. Making your thief a bow wielder is indeed a good idea - your party lacks a bit in terms of wounding attacks, also a thief can apply bleed way more efficiently with shuriken.
I agree with the rng issue. Cheesing and savescumming difficult encounters is too rewarding and easy.
I don't agree with the unfair encounters, tho. If you happen to get in a fight that seems way too difficult, you can always be certain that either a) there is a way to circumvent that fight or b) you are not supposed to beat this enemy right now at all.

 

[T. Reich]

I've been playing with the same party composition, and it's perfectly fine, since it basically covers all possible ways to deal with enemies, as well as the full spectrum of available spells and utility abilities. From what class/party discussions I've seen on the net, this composition can be considered a "balanced" one. The summoner parties tend to be considered a more advanced approach to the game, it seems.

I've been playing LoX for a week now, and I'm roughly midwaythrough the game (lvl27-28). What I've been told has turned out to be true - the game becomes somewhat easier as you level, with your combat options only becoming more plentiful and varied, in a good way.

The combat RNG thing is very true. The outcome of battles can at times be decided the moment the combat screen is loaded - depending on how the game decides to sort the action order. Winning or losing the figth due to one or two misses (your or enemies') is also true. Though, I will have to say, it's usually only noticeable in battles where the enemy is at least slightly stronger than you.

The casters may seem to have infinite supply of PP sometimes, but their PP pool is actually limited, but is fairly large (much larger than your chars'). I did some endurance tests to see if they run out of juice eventuall - they do, it just takes some time.

If you were impressed by crows, wait until you encounter the bees.

 

[GlutenBurger]

Since they are in the 2nd row only my bow wielding bard can get to them. I might make the thief equip one as well o see if that helps.

Your thief is capable of attacking the back row without a bow. Just one hit suffices. You won't want to focus on the back row often enough to justify wasting his other combat skill on bows.

Shamans aren't really a problem as long as they're only healing. Especially when they get stuck on healing themselves.

I think you should forget about reloading so often. Experience is limited, but there's still plenty to go around, and any character who falls too far behind the rest of the party can make up with experience boosting items and in solo battles at the arena. I'm pretty sure characters do get experience for any opponents killed prior to their own death, too.

 

[imweasel]

The Physical Editions are ready!

Greetings!
Finally the Physical Editions of Lords of Xulima are ready to be shipped. The basic ones that don't include the printed books (the Bestiary and the Game Guide) are being shipped right now. Perhaps some of the backers already received them. The ones with the books will be shipped at the end of the next week as they need more work and time to assemble everything.

Preparing and producing the physical editions has been really hard. We think we have suffered all the problems possible. We thought at the beginning that it would be an easy task compared to creating the game, but it turned into a big challenge. We expected to have them in January at very latest, but then suffered five months of delay. We have had to redo everything more than once and switch from one company to another to get the best quality possible. But finally they are finished and ready to be shipped. And most importantly, the entire Numantian Party has gained five skill points in "Physical Editions Production” !!

The Full Collector's Edition contains:

• The Big Flap Box
• The DVD Box
• The printed poster: world map of Xulima
• The printed manual
• The printed book "Secrets of Xulima"
• The hard cover book "Bestiary and Mythology of Xulima".

Take a look at the pictures, we hope you like it:

We know some of you have waited to have the physical edition to start playing the game. Thank you very much for your patience. Playing Lords of Xulima with the world map in one hand and the bestiary in the other one will be an awesome experience, similar to the old days... I can remember the day that I opened the box of Might and Magic II and using the poster map. Please share your impressions with us!

All the best for all the backers that trusted us and got the physical rewards. We really hope you enjoy them!

See you soon!

https://www.kickstarter.com/project...n-epic-story-of-gods-and-humans/posts/1245677

 

[Lord Azlan]

This game is perfect after a long hard day in the hot desert and really need something

 

[mindx2]

The Physical Editions are ready!

Greetings!
Finally the Physical Editions of Lords of Xulima are ready to be shipped. The basic ones that don't include the printed books (the Bestiary and the Game Guide) are being shipped right now. Perhaps some of the backers already received them. The ones with the books will be shipped at the end of the next week as they need more work and time to assemble everything.

Preparing and producing the physical editions has been really hard. We think we have suffered all the problems possible. We thought at the beginning that it would be an easy task compared to creating the game, but it turned into a big challenge. We expected to have them in January at very latest, but then suffered five months of delay. We have had to redo everything more than once and switch from one company to another to get the best quality possible. But finally they are finished and ready to be shipped. And most importantly, the entire Numantian Party has gained five skill points in "Physical Editions Production” !!

The Full Collector's Edition contains:

• The Big Flap Box
• The DVD Box
• The printed poster: world map of Xulima
• The printed manual
• The printed book "Secrets of Xulima"
• The hard cover book "Bestiary and Mythology of Xulima".

Take a look at the pictures, we hope you like it:

We know some of you have waited to have the physical edition to start playing the game. Thank you very much for your patience. Playing Lords of Xulima with the world map in one hand and the bestiary in the other one will be an awesome experience, similar to the old days... I can remember the day that I opened the box of Might and Magic II and using the poster map. Please share your impressions with us!

All the best for all the backers that trusted us and got the physical rewards. We really hope you enjoy them!

See you soon!

https://www.kickstarter.com/project...n-epic-story-of-gods-and-humans/posts/1245677

The hardcover bestiary looks great!! Can't wait to receive mine and then I might actually play the game as it is supposed to be played... with my map and bestiary sitting on my desk next to me.

 

[Siveon]

Aw yiss. I can practically smell the plastic.