[Split Personality]

Hi, I recently downloaded the remake of QfGII and am playing as Fighter. Since I don't have access to any of the others, I'm starting from scratch. Is it me, or is the overall combat difficulty in this game set a fair bit higher than the others. Even on minimum difficulty, I'm still having trouble, to the point where I feel I need to down healing and vigor pills so I can enter every fight in peak condition. I've finally gotten my stats up to the point where a Scorpion or a Brigand is something I can handle, but I just got ripped to shreds by a Terrorsaurus. I realize that I'm not handling defense terribly well (I was hoping the co-pilot could help me out there), but is there something else I'm not getting? I'm using minimum difficulty, and I still feel like it's a bit of a struggle just to keep up.

On a slight tangent, I'm not sure if the controls for Arm Wrestling are working properly. I've tried both keyboard and mouse input and it looks like nothing happens until I get the message "With your staying power diminished, Issur slams your hand into the anvil."

[fbinder]

Hi,

Yes, the combat is more difficult than the original. But if you train a lot with Uhura you can learn pretty well how to dodge, parry and some cool tricks with Rakeesh (if he is watching). You can start trainning with combat help on and then as you grow more confident you can disable it.

If that message appears is because you are too weak to handle Issur I think.

[Split Personality]

Hi,

Yes, the combat is more difficult than the original. But if you train a lot with Uhura you can learn pretty well how to dodge, parry and some cool tricks with Rakeesh (if he is watching). You can start trainning with combat help on and then as you grow more confident you can disable it.

If that message appears is because you are too weak to handle Issur I think.

Well, that'd mean Issur's more difficult, too, because My strenth is somewhere around 112, and I remember being able to easily beat Issur, first try, with an imported character with Strength 100. Also noted that his enthusiasm for arm-wrestling seemed to diminish rapidly at that point.

I've been training with Uhura. I still don't get it, even on the easiest difficulty, with the co-pilot set to maximum defense. Ironically, I'm not having too big a deal with offense, I can pull of the double-swing pretty well, but I can't seem to manage parrying and dodging with anything remotely resembling player skill. I guess I've just gotten my stats up to the point where I can mow down a Brigand or a Scorpion with an unrelenting barrage of slashes, but I'd need to actually know what the heck I was doing to take down a Terrorsaurus. Of course, on the easiest setting, even Uhura provides no challenge, as she can be mowed down by a persistent offense as well. I fought her once or twice on the hardest setting and no such luck.

[tenata]

Hi,Split Personality! Don't worry about your low stats,after some training you will become demigod,believe me!I had the same problem in the beginning.But when your strength,luck,weapon use,parry and dodge go up all battles will be easy work.The same with armwrestling

[Split Personality]

Still having trouble integrating defensive moves into my combat, but at least I'm getting a better hang on tactics.

I've discovered that Terrorsauruses are easier to handle if you don't worry about approaching them. If you try to close with them, you tend to walk into attacks. Let them be the ones to close the gap and greet them with a faceful for double slashy goodness. Of course, once in a while they hit you with that jump attack, which, even if I were any good at using the dodge keys, I'd probably still get hit by because I never, EVER see it coming. But I've killed two or three of the suckers now that I've learned not to be too aggressive against them (unlike Uhura or a Brigand, where you pretty much want to corner them on the far side of the battlefield and beat the stuffing out of them when they've got little room to maneuver). Scorpions... not sure what the best tactic is. They tend to like hanging back, so if you let them come to you, you'll do a lot of waiting, but they have a lot of gotcha moves for players like me, who like to unleash a flurry of attacks once at close range. But who cares? Harrik won't take anymore tails anyway, so they're pretty useless to me, except as practice.

No idea about Ghouls or Jackalmen yet. Haven't found any. (Went hunting at night on Day 3 and it was just an endless parade of Scorpions!)

With Issur, I still feel like I'm doing nothing, and I've got Strength at something like 130....

Edited by Split Personality, 11 October 2008 - 07:08 AM.

[Split Personality]

OK, doing much better, especially now that I've mastered (at least the character has, I don't always pull it off, though) the various counterattack moves, Combat is going much more smoothly. I've beaten every kind of monster (Brigand, Scorpion, Terrorsaurus, Jackalmen, Ghoul) more times than I can quite remember. And I beat Issur on the same day I quenched the Fire Elemental (that was a good day). Right now I'm looking at some pretty amazing stats: 200s in Strength, Agility, Vitality, Throwing, Communication, and Honor, with Weapon Use at 195, Parry at 190, Dodge... somewhere in the 160's, I think, Luck 171, and Intelligence just bumped up to 120. So yeah, it'll take a lot to take me down. Thinking of wandering out in search of the dreaded Pizza Elemental soon....

Oh, and kudos on the text if you try to use the eye, hand, or mouth icons on the various monsters. I don't know if that's your work or the original Sierra teams, but they're some cute messages.

[Erpy]

Good to hear you got the hang of it more. It can be pretty difficult at first when you don't know how to use the various manouvers. It's not just the hero, but also the player who has to get more experienced with it. A couple of strategies:

Brigands: get in their face and slash them. Counterattack whenever you manage to duck or block a blow.

Scorpions: take a poison cure pill just in case. They can't block while wiggling their tail, so abort their sting attack with a quick thrust. For the rest, they attack in set patterns...like: left pincer low, right pincer high, twin pincer low, countergrip, repeat. Once you memorize its pattern, you'll exactly what move he's gonna use next. The only thing random about his attacks is the stinger attack he throws in from time to time. Block and counter his right-handed attacks, counter the low attacks with a skullsplitter move and jump back from the high left attacks.

Terrorsauri: Get familiar with its behavior, which is rather predictable. His jump/maul attack can be sidestepped. Ditto with his headbutt. Don't corner him, he'll get VERY agressive. (he has to, since he can't sidestep or block himself) If you slash him and he walks back afterwards, get ready to sidestep a headbutt. If he jumps at you from two spaces away, sidestep to avoid getting grabbed. His bite can be blocked and countered, his kick can be ducked and countered, his tail swipe can be skullsplitter-ed. Remain defensive and you'll wear it down.

Ghouls: Get the boots from Mirak to avoid damage from their acidic puddles. If you finished QFG1 with some undead unguent, it'll import along and it'll make a ghoul fight a joke. If not, let it exhaust its mana supply with expensive spells. (boom and hellfire are pretty easy to dodge and cost a lot of mp) Do hit and run attacks to nullify its mp-restoring move. (where he flashes purple...it hurts him but speeds up his mana recovery rate) When it's weak, close the gap and finish it off.

Jackals: Use blocks and kicks to avoid double-whammies. Not much strategy, just don't let them get too many hits in.

And yeah, most of those lines were new.

[Split Personality]

Gotta admit, couldn't handle the Pizza Elemental.... Too much happening at once, and I can't see the tentacle attack coming until it's too late.

Admittedly, I'm still playing on easy difficulty, but I tried fighting Uhura on the highest setting again, and it was fun, and I even managed to win!

Is it possible to deliberately trigger the leap attack (the one where you leap back and immediately leap forward again with an attack)? The in game stuff when you talk to Rakeesh suggests it only triggers automatically, but I seem to be having some luck forcing it to trigger by pressing E just as I'm landing from the leap backward. Am I actually doing anything there, or is it just coincidence, since my hight stats means that the move happens a lot anyway?

[Matthias]

Is it possible to deliberately trigger the leap attack (the one where you leap back and immediately leap forward again with an attack)? The in game stuff when you talk to Rakeesh suggests it only triggers automatically, but I seem to be having some luck forcing it to trigger by pressing E just as I'm landing from the leap backward. Am I actually doing anything there, or is it just coincidence, since my hight stats means that the move happens a lot anyway?

I think it's just coincidence. I've had a similar experience where, if I the key to move towards the enemy again after the leap lands, it seemed to counter every time. Although, as I've played more, I've noticed that it doesn't always happen and I've also seen it trigger when just hitting back to dodge. I wonder if it triggers more often when your agility's higher (as my Thief's was maxed on the first playthrough).

[Erpy]

The Pizza Elemental's Arti-choke is only a problem if you stay on the offensive. Pizza Head hardly ever recoils from your blows, so if the both of you are attacking at the same time, he'll usually be the one having the advantage. Best thing to do...duck his punches and then immediately stab once (or use the rising slash as a fighter) and wait for it to attack again. Duck if it's a punch, walk back if it's an arti-choke. Those falling pizza's hardly ever fall in melee range. And the fight WILL take a long time, since none of your attacks do more than 1 point of damage. Consolation...the battle's exactly the same no matter what difficulty you play on.

As for the lunge, it's triggered at random (always), but there are ways to increase its frequency.

- If you're a wizard, having zap on your weapon gives a bonus to your odds of using it.
- If you use the backflip to land from a knockdown, you also get a bonus to the odds of using it.
- The luck stat is directly tied to the odds. (and the leaping lunge also happens to be the best way of boosting that stat) High luck means you'll pull it off almost every time when jumping back.
- Class makes a difference too. Basically it's Thief>Fighter>Mage. (unless the wizard has his weapon zapped in which case it's Thief>Wizard>Fighter)

When jumping back with 200 luck, all classes have between 80% and 90% chance of lunging. When backflipping, it becomes 90%-100% chance. Having 240 luck or more also makes it 100%.

[Split Personality]

The Pizza Elemental's Arti-choke is only a problem if you stay on the offensive. Pizza Head hardly ever recoils from your blows, so if the both of you are attacking at the same time, he'll usually be the one having the advantage. Best thing to do...duck his punches and then immediately stab once (or use the rising slash as a fighter) and wait for it to attack again. Duck if it's a punch, walk back if it's an arti-choke. Those falling pizza's hardly ever fall in melee range. And the fight WILL take a long time, since none of your attacks do more than 1 point of damage. Consolation...the battle's exactly the same no matter what difficulty you play on.

As for the lunge, it's triggered at random (always), but there are ways to increase its frequency.

- If you're a wizard, having zap on your weapon gives a bonus to your odds of using it.
- If you use the backflip to land from a knockdown, you also get a bonus to the odds of using it.
- The luck stat is directly tied to the odds. (and the leaping lunge also happens to be the best way of boosting that stat) High luck means you'll pull it off almost every time when jumping back.
- Class makes a difference too. Basically it's Thief>Fighter>Mage. (unless the wizard has his weapon zapped in which case it's Thief>Wizard>Fighter)

When jumping back with 200 luck, all classes have between 80% and 90% chance of lunging. When backflipping, it becomes 90%-100% chance. Having 240 luck or more also makes it 100%.

OK, since Day 13 seems to be a Slow News Day in Shapeir (I dealt with the Earth Elemental, Julanar, and the Caged Beast all on Day 12), and I've already gotten the note from Uhura, maybe I will sally forth and try the Pizza Elemental again.

My stats would seem to explain why I'm getting the leap attack so often. Basically Magic, Stealth, Pick Locks, and Climbing are all at 0, Intelligence just bumped up to 153, and everything else (including Luck) is at 200.

And may I say, when fighting Uhura at high difficulty, when she gets three shots off on you, and you managed to land on your feet from the knockback AND get a lunge attack... well, that's some cinematic combat, right there.

I was going to ask the Genie for an Intelligence bump. Wasn't sure what to spend the other wish on, but Luck is definitely a candidate if I can be garunteed to hit Khaveen in the face every time I'm forced to leap back.

[Erpy]

That's up to you. When having the Djinni raise combat stats, your fighter will obtain one or two master techniques, depending if you magically raise strength/weapon use, vitality/parry or agility/dodge. Luck raised does give you a guaranteed lunge, but it doesn't guarantee you'll hit Khaveen every time, cuz he can dodge your lunges if he feels like it. (ditto with every other move you can throw at him)

[Split Personality]

You mean techniques above and beyond what I've already got for have 200's across the board for stats? (Except the aforementioned Intelligence)

Intriguing. If they do exist, I actually don't want you to tell me what they are, I think I want to find out for myself....

[Erpy]

Stat values are irrelevant. Simply getting certain stats magically raised, even if they don't end up beyond 200, is enough. There's one technique for strength/weapon use, one technique for vitality/parry and one technique for agility/dodge. (but you can only get two at maximum for obvious reasons)

[tatsu]

if i may share ... we can quickly raise our battle stats by practicing with uhura, right? but at lower levels, it's obvious that we run out of stamina quicker than she does. by using fighter type, it's easier to win though. i just thought of how can i raise my stat rapidly in one combat practice, and maybe i found out how.

when we challenge uhura, we always keep our stamina at the highest point right? and after one or two challenges beating uhura, usually our stamina has run out. i prefer doing it longer and better. when i fight uhura, i just triple and double slash her until her stamina is almost out, then i'll wait for my stamina to recover while defending from her attacks by parry ... it's obviously long battle, but i managed to raise both (at least weapon and parry) of my stats rapidly. and after the battle ended, i still have the stamina to do other things, even challenge her again. i bet i can even max out my parry skill with just 1 challenge, but it's gonna take a very long time to do though.

well, that's my 2 cents.