Thoughts from a newbie

[icowden]

Hi all,

I have been playing Andor’s trail now for a week or so, and it struck me when I was browsing the forum that most of the people posting here seem to be experienced users, and are focusing on development of the higher level areas rather than the initial experience. I thought it might be helpful to share with you some of my thoughts as a low level new player.

I found that the game started well. The initial quests (breakfast bread, rats, missing husband, were pitched well for my low level and I found them not too tricky to complete, and there was no meaningless farming or grinding required. I also worked on the rat infestation and picked up drunken tale and calomyran secrets and did some basic exploring.

For me, the game then ground to pretty much of a halt. I couldn’t get to the skeletons to complete disallowed substance, fallen friends was too difficult, the rats were too vicious to let me near the key of luthor and I had no clues as to heartstone (other than the forest started getting really dangerous).

So since then I have basically been grinding and farming the snake cave to get the best armour, shield, helmet, gloves, rings, and weapon so that I don’t keep getting whacked too much. Even at level 8 with some decent equipment, it’s a slog to get to the target.

Let’s take the skeleton/bonemeal quest. To get to the skeletons, I have to get past three rabid foxes. These are rated “Easy” but are far more dangerous than any of the hauntings in the skeleton dungeon. Lost spirits seldom touch me, Spirits only slightly, Wraiths harm me a little more, but the skeletons don’t do that much damage at all generally.

As I slog through the dungeon I pick up glass gems, and ruby gems but these are worthless compared to meat. Eating a steak seems to be also far more beneficial than using magic potions to heal. In fact, most items seem to have little worth when compared with animal items (meat, poison glands). Killing what appeared to be a boss skeleton at the end of the dungeon was particularly disappointing (ooh a ruby).

Some thoughts:-

1) Remove the “easy / very easy” status. This is all relative. At level 4 a large cave rat is flipping dangerous.

2) Creatures should get harder to beat as you progress through a dungeon, not easier.

3) Rebalance some of the item valuation. Why are gems worthless, and magic so ineffective?

4) It would be nice to enhance the conversation system so that NPCs know you have spoken to them before and jump to the correct part of the tree (a la NWN)

5) Compile a bestiary and look at the relative strengths and dangerousness of creatures to make a more organic and logical progression in terms of power (i.e. is a forest wasp really likely to be more dangerous than a skeletal warrior?)

6) Maybe I am doing something wrong, but the “block” status doesn’t seem to do much. I have been increasing mine since level 1, but I still get hit by very basic level creatures.

7) Introduce resting – it would be useful to be able to rest in a cleared area of a dungeon with a certain level of attack risk from wandering monsters / respawns.

8) Slow down respawning. If I have cleared an entire dungeon on the way in, it’s really disheartening to find it completely full again on the way out.

9) Add a few more lower level quests to give a reason for the player further to go further in to the snake cave.

10) Maybe have a character in the village who will teach you combat skills (i.e. provide a player motivated way of gaining XP and levelling) to help you as you venture outside of your small village.


Hope you find the above observations helpful!

Iain

[Piggy the Slayer]

The boss of the snake cave drops an excellent dagger that will really help. The Jewel of Fallhaven (expensive) but can result in an extra attack per turn.

Most players focus on attack chance and attack damage with less emphasis on defence. As they say the best form of defense is attack.

Good luck! Oh and save often.

[Mino]

I can see how some of the quests may be more difficult if you just got the game. For a lot of us, there weren't as many quests that you could start, and out of those, there was 3 that couldn't (and still can't) be completed all the way, so once you finish what there is, if you're still playing you just wander around killing things and gaining experience/gold.

At the early levels, go after the small snakes just north of the snake cave, and the small rabid dogs for lower level creatures that drop meat.

Also, when you start going after the bosses, do not sell any unique drop items (venomous dagger, Flagstone's pride, Iragotu's necklace, etc) because you can only get them once, and there's even a regret topic for those of us who didn't know that and sold it.

The easy/hard difficulty rating for each creature is actually based on your stats as well as theirs so I find it can be helpful. The reason you still get hit, even if you increase your block chance is that their attack chance is high enough to overcome it, so check their stats too.

As said above, I would focus on increasing attack chance and damage first, then HP (so you can take more hits without dying right away). For block chance, just start getting the gear for now (and maybe avoid the ones that reduce your attack chance, or that reduce it by the least amount possible (example: all shields reduce it by some amount).

And yes, saving is very important. I save after every kill, because if the next creature gets a lucky attack you lose a bunch of experience, in which case I reload from the last save.

[kabbie1882]

1) Remove the “easy / very easy” status. This is all relative. At level 4 a large cave rat is flipping dangerous.

Once you have built a few more levels, the "easy/very easy" will be a lot easier than you think now.

2) Creatures should get harder to beat as you progress through a dungeon, not easier.

Maybe not. Maybe there are more "easier" and less "stronger" as you move through.

3) Rebalance some of the item valuation. Why are gems worthless, and magic so ineffective?

A lot of people have mentioned this. Not all the magic is ineffective.

Bonemeal is very powerful for its price

4) It would be nice to enhance the conversation system so that NPCs know you have spoken to them before and jump to the correct part of the tree (a la NWN)

I like having the whole conversation being there. You never know what you might have missed the first time. You could have missed a word or location and are not able to finish quest.

5) Compile a bestiary and look at the relative strengths and dangerousness of creatures to make a more organic and logical progression in terms of power (i.e. is a forest wasp really likely to be more dangerous than a skeletal warrior?)

If the forest wasp is as big as the ones on the screen, they could be a lot more dangerous. They do appear to be the same size as our characters. If you think of your character being 5 feet tall and the forest wasp is 5 feet tall, you get the picture.

6) Maybe I am doing something wrong, but the “block” status doesn’t seem to do much. I have been increasing mine since level 1, but I still get hit by very basic level creatures.

It is possible to be hit as receive damage even with 200% block chance.

You block chance 200%
monster attack chance 150%
chance that you will block 50%

At least that is how I understand it.

7) Introduce resting – it would be useful to be able to rest in a cleared area of a dungeon with a certain level of attack risk from wandering monsters / respawns.

There are many places where you can rest. All of them, except your home bed, you either have to do a quest or pay ONCE for use of the bed. You will regain all your HP when you rest.

8) Slow down respawning. If I have cleared an entire dungeon on the way in, it’s really disheartening to find it completely full again on the way out.

This can be another answer to your 2nd question about monsters getting easier. Also you will be happy for a faster respawn rate later in the game.

9) Add a few more lower level quests to give a reason for the player further to go further in to the snake cave.

There are a total of 22 completable quest out of the 25 total quest. More are being worked on for future updates.

10) Maybe have a character in the village who will teach you combat skills (i.e. provide a player motivated way of gaining XP and levelling) to help you as you venture outside of your small village.

This also has been discussed before. Not sure if anything is going to happen with it though.


I hope this answered a few of your questions.

[Rory Mac]

Good first post! Welcome to the forum. I think you’re on the right track. At your current level, the snake cave is probably the place to be while you accumulate experience and gold and upgrade your equipment. I just started playing less than a month ago, so I can definitely relate to most of what you are going through right now. Don’t worry, it won’t take you long before you have built yourself up to a respectable level. It does take some grinding, but you have to do it to get enough gold to buy upgrades.

Some things to save up for would be the +6 damage ring, jewel of fallhaven, and ordinary chainmail. Don’t hesitate to buy the intermediate level stuff as soon as you can. You will get back about 75% of their cost when you’re ready to upgrade to something better.

I recommend you focus your leveling bonuses on attack chance and attack damage. I used an early level up on block chance and regret it. You’ll want some more HP as well once you start battling more difficult monsters. I obtained almost all of my BC from equipment. Chainmail alone will give you 22%.

With regard to respawning, I understand what you’re saying, but trust me, you don’t want it any slower. In just a few more levels you’ll be wishing they would respawn faster.

And I’m sure it goes without saying, but don’t even think about heading over to Blackwater mountain yet. It was a mistake when I tried it at 16. Now at 26 it’s pretty reasonable.

And do try to get all the way through the snake cave as soon as you can. The piece of equipment dropped by the boss is one of the better pieces in the game. I’m still using it, and so are others who are much higher than me. I didn’t appreciate it for quite a while, and kept trying to get weapons with higher AD, but once I got my total AD number up though level ups and the +6 ring, I realized how powerful it was. Don’t make the mistake of some here and sell it off, or for that matter, I wouldn’t sell any of the unique drop items until you are sure you’ll never use them.

Keep on plugging, and check out all the great posts here and you’ll do fine. It’s a great game!

With all the great replies here, maybe we should "sticky" this thread for all the future newbies!

[tuner240]

I agree on the sticky part. Very valuable info for the noobs. The beginning is not easy, but save often to prevent loss of exp. Perseverance is the key.

[sdevaney]

I agree on the sticky part. Very valuable info for the noobs. The beginning is not easy, but save often to prevent loss of exp. Perseverance is the key.

Done

[Rambo]

I noticed you mentioning that you eat the meat drops. I did the same thing until I found out how much it sells for. Your actually better off selling the meat. Its one of the best ways to make money. It s3lls for 24 gold and heals 12hp, whereas minor heal potons cost 5 gold and heal 5 hp. I usually buy a boatload of minors and heal after battles, only using bonemeal potions during fights. A penny saved is a penny earned.
As for weapon, I found the jewel of fallhaven neck, both +6 damage rings, with the quickstrike daggerqactually have the most damage output by allowing you to swing 5 times in 1 round. Its better than the venomous dagger because the 20% crit and +1 or 2 damage doesn't make up for the addition of 2 extra swings.

[Rory Mac]

I noticed you mentioning that you eat the meat drops. I did the same thing until I found out how much it sells for. Your actually better off selling the meat. Its one of the best ways to make money. It s3lls for 24 gold and heals 12hp, whereas minor heal potons cost 5 gold and heal 5 hp. I usually buy a boatload of minors and heal after battles, only using bonemeal potions during fights. A penny saved is a penny earned.
As for weapon, I found the jewel of fallhaven neck, both +6 damage rings, with the quickstrike daggerqactually have the most damage output by allowing you to swing 5 times in 1 round. Its better than the venomous dagger because the 20% crit and +1 or 2 damage doesn't make up for the addition of 2 extra swings.

Um... this is a beginner thread. Highly unlikely that the OP has access to bonemeal or the jewel of fallhaven yet. Those are more advanced strategies, and it's by no means a consensus that the quickstrike is better than the venomous dagger.

[Rambo]

It may not be as popular, but that doesn't change how well it performs. The quickstrike may not look good on paper, but when I use it I can clear every monster in the gargoyle caves without using 1 single potion. Every other weapon (excluding legendary) I must use a minimum of 3 bonemeals. You should try it, you may be surprised. I've used both extensively. The 2 extra swing are more consistant from my experience.