Mikko's Epilogue Thread

[Mikko Lehtinen]

I want to eventually win Epilogue. I'll be playing a lot this year. I decided to create my own thread for battle stories and feedback.

At the moment I'm still learning the basics. Some questions:

• Is there a way to tell what kind of damage a given enemy inflicts? I know that I can look at his weapon after I've killed him, but that's too late... At one point I was carrying three armours that were good against different damage types. Since I didn't know what kind of damage a given enemy will do, I usually kept a good Physical armour on and switched a good Magic armour on when facing spellcasters. (As a Shield/Magic character I didn't have much reason to keep other swap items, and I had lots of space for swap armours.)
• What negative buffs is Minuet supposed to heal exactly? Before the latest hotfix Minuet healed Scorched status, after the hotfix she didn't -- if my memory serves me right.
• Some Rune effect cease instantly when I'm no longer standing on them. But the Blank Rune effect continues for a long time after that. Is this asymmetry intentional? Minuet doesn't seem to cure Blank rune.

[Mikko Lehtinen]

I found a bug: when I save/quit and reload a game, the game forgets information about previously seen terrain. The small map remembers everything correctly, but squares that are visible on the small map are black on the big map.

[kraflab]

Answers:

You can't explicitly see what type of damage an enemy does, but there are some giveaways: elemental attacks have a colored particle effect (orange is fire, etc) and the mouseover shows an expected damage number.  Thus, if you want to you can switch between armors and see how the damage changes.  I generally just keep a single piece of armor with me that is relatively balanced.

Minuet should heal any negative buff that is colored red I believe.  Scorched has never been curable by Minuet so it may be that by chance it expired when you prayed to Minuet previously.  Burning is removed along with poison and a variety of effects that show up in later levels.  Scorched is temporary armor damage, so I guess my reasoning is it is outside Minuet's realm of influence.

The blank rune effect is intentional.  It's as if your elemental affinities are drained and have to recover.

That bug is rather curious.  I'm not sure how the little map and the main screen could end up out of sync.

Edit: fixed the bug

[mughinn]

Good luck winning the game, It is a difficult task.

Your questions were already answered by kraft, so i don't have a lot to tell you except for some tips.

I'd really recommend you start seeing and thinking about the different gods, and which one you like better, each has it's benefits and downsides, and they're a really important part of your strategy.

Also, start looking into alchemy, it's not necessary to win, but it can help you a lot, specially if you find by chance the healing potion recipe.

Again, good luck

[Mikko Lehtinen]

Kraflab, I admire your bug crushing speed!

Thanks for the tips, mughinn. For now I think I like destroying chests in the name of Zhangroh, since I'm getting flooded by constant inventory choices... I took Scrounger for my new character to practice alchemy more efficiently.

Another bug: the effects window doesn't handle Running properly. When you mouse-over effects, the window behaves as if Running weren't there.

[kraflab]

Another bug: the effects window doesn't handle Running properly. When you mouse-over effects, the window behaves as if Running weren't there.

Fixed, thanks.

[Mikko Lehtinen]

Am I correct that stamina-boosting equipment are only useful when you level up, giving you more max health? So I should start using my Glowing Dark Bow with Stamina +20% when Exp reaches 90% or so?

[Mikko Lehtinen]

Uh oh, something very bad just happened.

I was at 90% Exp, wearing all my stamina boosting items. I shot a potentially lethal arrow at a monster, there was a sound (leveling up?), and the screen went blank. There was just the mouse pointer on the menu  background image, no map, no text, nothing else. Controls didn't work, and I was locked to this screen, unable to even quit.

I was also extremely fatigued and about to fall in sleep any moment. Perhaps I leveled up and fell in sleep on the same game turn, and that froze the game?

OK, kill the program and start again. Thanks for the autosave at the beginning of each level, that saved me.

[kraflab]

You are right about stamina on equipment.  Personally, I completely disregard the bonuses on equipment, but they're there for people who enjoy paying attention to that type of thing

That is a very odd bug.  Are you saying that you could move the mouse pointer around still, but there was no way to exit the screen (in other words, not a crash or freeze, but just stuck on this blank screen)?

Were you getting to level 4 or 7 when this happened?  When you reach level 4 and 7 you unlock new character traits, at which point a menu opens up prompting you to choose one.  The fact that you saw menu background but no text is perplexing me.

This is exactly why I put autosave in, so I'm happy that worked out for you.

[Mikko Lehtinen]

You are right about stamina on equipment.  Personally, I completely disregard the bonuses on equipment, but they're there for people who enjoy paying attention to that type of thing

I like the item bonuses otherwise, but IMO the stamina bonuses on items are weird and unintuitive. Were I the developer, I'd get rid off them. Not a huge issue, though.

That is a very odd bug.  Are you saying that you could move the mouse pointer around still, but there was no way to exit the screen (in other words, not a crash or freeze, but just stuck on this blank screen)?

Were you getting to level 4 or 7 when this happened?  When you reach level 4 and 7 you unlock new character traits, at which point a menu opens up prompting you to choose one.

Yes and yes.

[kraflab]

Stamina boosts have been on the chopping block for a while, I've just always been preoccupied with other things.  You may see them removed in the next version.

[Mikko Lehtinen]

There are also some item bonuses that are never useful. Shields may have bonuses to other defensive skills, two-handed melee weapons bonuses to Magic, off-hand weapons bonuses to Shield.

[kraflab]

There are also some item bonuses that are never useful. Shields may have bonuses to other defensive skills, two-handed melee weapons bonuses to Magic, off-hand weapons bonuses to Shield.

Are you quite certain about this?  This should not be possible as there are checks that reroll skill bonuses when the bonus is not usable.  Shield bonus to other defensive skills is hypothetically useful.

[Mikko Lehtinen]

I thought that the Shield skill replaces the other defensive skills when a shield is in use? That's why I've been avoiding shields with my Fortitude character. Your answer seems to suggest that the highest of the two skills is used instead.

I'll take notes if I find a weapon with unusable bonuses. I've no proof at the moment, and perhaps I'm mistaken.

Zhangroh rewarded me three times, but I haven't noticed what the effect is. I haven't been paying close enough attention to my skills -- I suspect Zhangroh might have given skill bonuses but I'm not sure.

[kraflab]

Yes, he boosts your skills.  Perhaps it should be more explicit.  In essence, he represents an exchange of the utility of extra items for the raw survivability of increased skill magnitude.

If you are using a shield but your fortitude skill is higher it does pick fortitude over shield when receiving a magic attack.  A shield is certainly extra protection so in a tight spot, if just to stay alive until something comes off cooldown, a shield with fortitude boost on a fortitude character may come in handy.

I see that the text in game says the shield replaces the other skills, so I will need to clarify that.  The idea is that if your character knows they are good at evading magical attacks they will evade, while if they are bad at dodging arrows they will try to use the shield to deflect them, etc.

There are other variables as well:
If your legs are heavily damaged, your defensive skills suffer due to lower mobility (actual value is fortitude*limb_effectiveness[legs]).  A shield is wielded though, so its effectiveness is based on arm status instead.  This also factors into which defensive skill you use, so if your legs are completely gone, wielding a shield would be the only chance to block/dodge attacks.  On the other side, if your left arm is removed your shield skill becomes useless.  Of course, extreme limb conditions are somewhat of a rarity.