Amalur: Destiny and Fate(Kingdoms of Amalur:Reckoning now

Lordnine · Post by **Lordnine** » Mon Mar 05, 2012 12:45 pm

GreenGoo wrote:Everything lately has been grey except for maybe the quest specific dungeons which seem to scale to yellow, and bosses which seem to scale to orange. I'm definitely traveling through areas that are too low for me and I'm not getting enough experience. I'm just shy of 18 and it takes hours of play just to creep along, level-wise.

Grey enemies means you’ve spent too much time in an area. I found the quality of quests(more story driven with actual RPG elements) improves quite a bit once you get past the first major chunk of land. That said try not to explore too much if you don’t intend to stay in an area. The game scales to your level when you first enter an area so if you go everywhere you will be stuck with low level enemies for the game.

Buatha · Post by **Buatha** » Mon Mar 05, 2012 1:48 pm

Has there been any discussion on their end to possibly re-balance the areas? It'd be nice if they could add a Completionist difficulty level that would assume you ARE doing every quest in a region before moving on

Lordnine · Post by **Lordnine** » Mon Mar 05, 2012 2:21 pm

Not that I’m aware of but chances are if the developers don’t some fan will. There are supposed to be 400 hours of quests though. While I can appreciate the completionist mindset that borders on madness; especially when an awful lot of the quests consist of killing random enemy A and collecting 12 foozles.

SlapBone · Post by **SlapBone** » Mon Mar 05, 2012 3:33 pm

Lordnine wrote:killing random enemy A and collecting 12 foozles.

Where exactly is that quest? I think I missed it. I friggin hate backtracking.

Lordnine · Post by **Lordnine** » Thu Mar 08, 2012 11:33 pm

Just took part in the defense of a castle from a rather large army. A very fun segment. Makes me wish for more set piece battles. I would hate to be a pure melee character here though and wonder how long it would take to kill the big beastie at the end. As a 90/10 mage/rogue it still took me forever to bring it down.

Lordnine · Post by **Lordnine** » Sat Mar 10, 2012 10:54 pm

Completed the mages guild quest line, which by the way is one of the better guild quests in my opinion. Anyways, inside the Archsage’s quarters I found three sigil stones that summon chickens which are then eaten by Brownies. This is in of itself hilarious but does anyone know if it does anything else?

GreenGoo · Post by **GreenGoo** » Sun Mar 11, 2012 3:58 am

I have no idea, but I do know that chickens killed is one of the stats tracked by the game. It's possible that summoning chickens is there just for those who want to get a "x chickens killed" achievement. If there is one.

Blackhawk · Post by **Blackhawk** » Sun Mar 11, 2012 1:09 pm

So, warming this up and getting ready to give it a go.

How viable is a stealthless rogue? I like the idea of an agile fighter (as opposed to a heavy hitting, up front fighter), but I'm not in the mood for sneaking around all that much.

Qantaga · Post by **Qantaga** » Sun Mar 11, 2012 1:18 pm

Blackhawk wrote:How viable is a stealthless rogue? I like the idea of an agile fighter (as opposed to a heavy hitting, up front fighter), but I'm not in the mood for sneaking around all that much.

It's very viable.

Daggers and Fae Blades are incredibly fun. There is plenty on the rogue tree to make a very nice character without ever once having to use stealth.

Lordnine · Post by **Lordnine** » Sun Mar 11, 2012 4:49 pm

Non stealth rogue is a lot of fun, at least the melee abilities. I don’t really care for the way bows work in the game. My character is a Mage/Rogue.

I recently unlocked the Meteor spell and this thing might as well be called the apocalypse spell. The spell does 800 AoE damage (huge radius) + 110 sustained burning damage. On top of that I have two rings that increase my fire damage by 10% and 15% a pendant that increases fire damage by another 10% PLUS a hat that boosts fire damage an additional 15%. At this point there is very little that doesn’t die instantly. I’ve done everything in my power to max out my fire tree though so I’m perfectly happy with this.

-edit-

Well that's just not fair. Immediately after writing this I ran into an enemy that was huge and completely immune to fire damage. Took 20 healing potion to kill the damn thing.

Lesson learned. Don't put all your points into one skill tree.

GreenGoo · Post by **GreenGoo** » Sun Mar 11, 2012 6:20 pm

Heh. I learned that lesson when using a 100% physical damage hammer against Ettin Shamans. They aren't completely immune, but close enough as to make no difference. I broke out a lightning staff and wiped the floor with them. After about 20 tries with the hammer.

Lordnine · Post by **Lordnine** » Sun Mar 11, 2012 6:48 pm

The speed of the game has really picked up since crossing the ocean. There are a lot less quests here but most seem more meaningful and interesting. I also find the Winter Fae a lot more likeable than their summer brethren. The House of Sorrows in particular is a fun piece of lore for the game.

Lordnine · Post by **Lordnine** » Mon Mar 12, 2012 1:09 am

I’ve now finished all the faction quest lines in the game so I guess all I have left to do is end the war! I’ve also rated the faction quests in case someone is skeptical about completing some of them. They really are the best quest lines in the game other than the main plot so I think it’s worth it to seek them all out.

Listed worst to best

House of Ballads = An interesting ending but repetitive early quest and I really can’t stand the summer Fae.

Travelers = Fun thievery based quests but it goes on too long and the story doesn’t really go anywhere.

House of Valor = This is the free DLC if you bought the game new. I expected it to be just a series of arena fights (which it is) but they did a good job with adding personality to the characters here. I enjoyed the arena announcer and actually started to care about my helpless team; the incompetent rogue, the old warrior and the drunken mage.

Warsworn = I generally don’t like warrior quest lines in games but they did a good job making the storyline here stand out. In the end you end up fighting a foe that seems more imposing than the one from the main storyline of the game. Besides, one of the fate reward cards you can get here is worth it even if you don’t care about the storyline.

Scholia Arcana = I found this faction by accident after I was way overpowered for the areas but the writing and characters were strong enough that I finished it anyways. This is another quest line where the events feel larger than the plot of the main game.

House of Sorrows = This was without a doubt my favorite of the faction quest lines. Despite the name and the fact that they are Winter Fae this is not an evil quest line! The setting, writing and characters here are all heads and shoulders above everything else in the game.

My drunken wizard friend.

kganey · Post by **kganey** » Mon Mar 12, 2012 2:01 am

You guys are definitely putting this on my list for the Steam summer sale. If I can only wait that long . . .

Reemul · Post by **Reemul** » Mon Mar 12, 2012 6:10 am

I just respected as full might tree and hate it. Got bored with Mage so may have to go back to rogue. Something about the speed of the attacks with rogues I really enjoy.

Lordnine · Post by **Lordnine** » Mon Mar 12, 2012 10:19 pm

I finished the game tonight and I’m generally very happy with it. I ended the game at level 49 with all except wands on my Sorcery tree maxed out. The ending is well done and definitely worth seeing. Also, for those that care while there is a definite “ending” to the game after the credits you get the ability to continue to play and even can find out some additional story events that happened after your victory. Also, something I like; regular people actually comment on the things you accomplished and applaud you in the streets. It’s good to be the hero.

Some quick pros and cons:

Pro

Near perfect combat.
Tons of character customization.
Story, when put to use is generally well done and interesting.
Interesting fate mechanic.
Satisfying conclusion.

Cons

You will probably be a god by the end of the game with the ability to walk through a warzone unscathed.
The game is plodding in places. While I don’t think any of the game is bad you could cut out a ¼ of the content and the game would be stronger for it.
Story based quests are good but far too few in number.
Downward slopping camera angle prevents you from seeing how pretty much of the game is.
The main villain flat out sucks.

SlapBone · Post by **SlapBone** » Tue Mar 13, 2012 10:33 am

Qantaga wrote:
Blackhawk wrote:How viable is a stealthless rogue? I like the idea of an agile fighter (as opposed to a heavy hitting, up front fighter), but I'm not in the mood for sneaking around all that much.

It's very viable.

Daggers and Fae Blades are incredibly fun. There is plenty on the rogue tree to make a very nice character without ever once having to use stealth.

I run a stealthless rogue/mage. Faeblades and Chakram are both super fun. I think she is a level 20 Arcanist. I like the line, but I will probably respec at some point to cull things I don't like, such as mage shield which is useful but headache inducing while using magical weapons.

Blackhawk · Post by **Blackhawk** » Mon Mar 19, 2012 1:42 pm

Lockpicking - is there a trick to this? I understand the basic mechanics. Get the slider to the right. If the pick is in the right position, it can move, if it isn't the pick shakes and breaks. What's the trick, though? Unless the lock is 'very easy', it just insta-breaks the picks with 2 skill points. There isn't any time to back off when the pick starts vibrating, I can't see any visual hint as to which way to move the pick, and there is no way to control the speed of the slider to 'finesse' the pick.

Similar systems (let's be honest - this is a copy of Bethesda's system) let you see that the pick is shaking in time to back off and make an adjustment. Amalur just breaks the pick.

GreenGoo · Post by **GreenGoo** » Mon Mar 19, 2012 1:50 pm

Co-worker taught me a simple algorithm that works most of the time.

Start dead center. That will unlock like 50% of the locks with no fiddling.

For the rest, slide it until it wiggles. The closer to the correct location the longer you can slide it before it wiggles/breaks. The difficulty rating determines the range that will open the lock. Very easy is a HUGE range, and the tougher ones are smaller, meaning you need to be more precise.

Back to the algorithm. Start in the middle until it shakes. Move all the way to one side. Does it shake earlier or later than when it was in the middle? Earlier means the correct location is on the other side. Less means it's on the same side, somewhere between the middle and the maxed side position.

After that it's just a matter of moving the slider until it wiggles, then tweaking the pick location, then sliding again.

What I do is slide it a bit, then release, then slide it a bit (before it's gone back to the starting position), then release. I keep this up until it wiggles or I've opened the lock. I can open most locks, even very difficult locks with zero lock picking skill and zero picks broken. Occasionally I'll be overly confident on the first slide and break one.

It's VERY rare that you'll break a lock instantly if you start in the middle, although you do need to learn to have a light hand.

Lordnine · Post by **Lordnine** » Mon Mar 19, 2012 2:18 pm

In my game at least almost all locks up to hard were picked at about ¼ of an inch right of the middle. Hard and very hard were completely random though. I found the lock picking mini game poorly designed compared to New Vegas and Skyrim so I maxed out my lock picking skill as soon as possible so I could skip it.

msduncan · Post by **msduncan** » Mon Mar 19, 2012 3:57 pm

Need cliff's notes please. Is this game worth the $$?

I just finished Skyrim, and then finished Mass Effect 3. Looking for my next fix.

Lordnine · Post by **Lordnine** » Mon Mar 19, 2012 4:23 pm

msduncan wrote:Need cliff's notes please. Is this game worth the $$?

I just finished Skyrim, and then finished Mass Effect 3. Looking for my next fix.

It’s definitely worth it if the idea of action-heavy RPG-lite interests you. The combat is glorious and character customization/skill/stat systems is better than most of the RPGs to come out in the last couple years but the story and actual roleplaying segments are buried under a lot of mundane (optional) fetch quests.

If you stick to the main quest line and faction quests you will have a great time but if you’re a completionist that has to do every quest you find you will probably grow bored quickly. If in doubt try the demo on Steam; it's a good representation of the game.

msduncan · Post by **msduncan** » Mon Mar 19, 2012 4:27 pm

Lordnine wrote:
msduncan wrote:Need cliff's notes please. Is this game worth the $$?

I just finished Skyrim, and then finished Mass Effect 3. Looking for my next fix.
It’s definitely worth it if the idea of action-heavy RPG-lite interests you. The combat is glorious and character customization/skill/stat systems is better than most of the RPGs to come out in the last couple years but the story and actual roleplaying segments are buried under a lot of mundane (optional) fetch quests.

If you stick to the main quest line and faction quests you will have a great time but if you’re a completionist that has to do every quest you find you will probably grow bored quickly. If in doubt try the demo on Steam; it's a good representation of the game.

Holy crap. Forgot there was a demo. Thanks!

naednek · Post by **naednek** » Mon Mar 19, 2012 7:08 pm

I'd wait for the sale. I'm sure it's upcoming since it's been out for awhile.

SlapBone · Post by **SlapBone** » Tue Mar 20, 2012 9:27 am

1st: I'm loving this game... at least until May 15

2nd: I just can't get over the fact that they keep saying they never expected anyone to approach this game with a completionist attitude. It just sounds like they are compensating for a design flaw. I can't help but feel that EA dropped a level cap on the developer because they wanted to wring all The DLC money out of us. Just speculation.

3rd: Legend of Dead Kel drops today

Blackhawk · Post by **Blackhawk** » Tue Mar 20, 2012 12:22 pm

SlapBone wrote:
3rd: Legend of Dead Kel drops today

I have to wonder (keep in mind that I'm not that far in), but what is the appeal of content DLC in a game that is known for having too much content to play?

Lordnine · Post by **Lordnine** » Tue Mar 20, 2012 12:37 pm

I guess it’s dependent on the content. If the quality of the DLC is like the faction quest or better then it will be a great addition. If it’s like the side quests, which I feel were just there for filler, I would agree that it’s rather pointless.

SlapBone · Post by **SlapBone** » Tue Mar 20, 2012 4:49 pm

Blackhawk wrote:
SlapBone wrote:
3rd: Legend of Dead Kel drops today
I have to wonder (keep in mind that I'm not that far in), but what is the appeal of content DLC in a game that is known for having too much content to play?

I agree with you completely. It feels kind of broken... but it's pirates.

Lordnine · Post by **Lordnine** » Wed Mar 21, 2012 5:21 pm

First review of the DLC is up. Sounds pretty good and makes me wish some of the features had been in the main game.

msduncan · Post by **msduncan** » Wed Mar 21, 2012 11:55 pm

Is it just me, or do the graphics on this game seem about 5 years old?

Lordnine · Post by **Lordnine** » Thu Mar 22, 2012 12:07 am

It’s a style choice. I think the game looks very nice. Lip synching could use some work but otherwise I was happy with it. What I don’t like is that the camera points downward slightly which means you miss a lot of the detail they put into the world in favor of looking at the floor.

Blackhawk · Post by **Blackhawk** » Thu Mar 22, 2012 8:56 am

They're going for a bright, exaggerated, slightly cartoony look. It isn't that the graphics are out of date on a technical level (although they aren't exactly amazing on that level, either.) It is more that they went with an art style that doesn't use highly detailed textures.

GreenGoo · Post by **GreenGoo** » Thu Mar 22, 2012 9:25 am

Which is another reason the game looks very MMO'y, similar to early WoW.

It doesn't bother me, but without the detailed combat animations (for the most part. I think even this area could be better, and its the game's strength) it wouldn't be particularly noteworthy, visually.

I'm perfectly fine with the graphics, but they are just servicable in this day and age, and I'm a guy who rarely plays RPG's but can play rogue-likes (with tilesets only) without issue, so it's not like I'm a graphics whore.

msduncan · Post by **msduncan** » Thu Mar 22, 2012 10:05 am

I was thinking it looked a lot like WoW.

Reemul · Post by **Reemul** » Thu Mar 22, 2012 10:58 am

I wasn't

msduncan · Post by **msduncan** » Thu Mar 22, 2012 11:21 am

Is this thing better on a console or on the PC?

Lordnine · Post by **Lordnine** » Thu Mar 22, 2012 11:45 am

I’ve heard it looks and runs better on PC. Some people on here prefer a gamepad with it because of the actiony combat but I think it works fine with keyboard and mouse. Keyboard also has the advantage of lots of shortcut keys to bypass menus and such. It got good reviews on all systems though so really just decide where you would rather play it.

Note that if you don’t want to use Origin you have to buy the PC version directly from Steam. All other versions activate on Origin.

Lorini · Post by **Lorini** » Thu Mar 22, 2012 12:52 pm

Trust me, don't buy it from Origin. Trying to get the DLC was ridiculous.

Smoove_B · Post by **Smoove_B** » Fri Mar 23, 2012 3:55 pm

I put the game on the shelf right after it came out because I didn't have the mental capacity to really get into the game. Over the last two days I'm guessing I've put close to 16 hours in and I'm having a blast. I have no idea how it plays or looks on the PC but on the Xbox360 I defy anyone to not enjoy fighting with daggers. I've just managed to loop back to the main story quests after finishing about 40 or so side / faction quests...though I'm nearly certain there are more. Between hunting for Lorestones and completing the side jobs, you can really boost your character significantly. I think I might need to explore a re-spec though as I think I wasted a few points here and there...not sure if it's worth it yet. I pretty much gave up talking to NPCs outside of completing quests and I have no problems jumping all over the map using fast travel. From the looks of the map and the fact that I appear to have covered about a 1/3rd of the known world, looks like I'll be playing this for quite some time.

Lorini · Post by **Lorini** » Sun Mar 25, 2012 11:25 am

What's really cool about the game is that everyone loves their favorite weapon. I love chakrams, others love sceptres, faeblades everything. I think the game is the most playable and accessible game released in years. I love it a lot!