[spoilers] - pindicator is excited for the next Realms Beyond league mechanics

[pindicator]

087

Next settler is out and on a boat.




I also started the next settler at Onslaught.  I'd been toying with where that settler is going and right now I think it's going to be either on that single tile plains hill - a choice that is meant to give the minimal impact on expenses while giving me the fastest gain in commerce.  Or there is setting up between the rice and copper, which is a better long-term play.  Actually, I may not have to choose; I'll have another settler coming out of the capital a few turns later.  We may just do both and the choice may only be the order.




I hope Gav doesn't mind, but I declared and am pushing the work boat through his territory.  Actually, I forgot to check him for giving open borders.  Well, hopefully the work boat can pass through.

Speaking of open borders and passing through, Old Harry and Hitru asked again for OBs.  I don't want to push them too much so while I didn't agree, I did decline and reoffer.  And then immediately regretted it.  I thought I'd be filling out the rest of my own trade routes, but then I checked again and this is only 2 cities right now.  2 commerce is not worth it, and I'll cancel the OB as soon as I think it's in my interest to.  I might take the time to make a work boat and send it through OH's territory.




These frickin barbs, man. Maybe I should have taken the 97% shot I had last turn.

[Mardoc]

Can you tell us anything about Gavagai? He's not really reporting.

[pindicator]

Not really. I know he went Oracle into Metal Casting and then leveraged the engineer into Pyramids. He's on the lower end for cities for all his work there: only 6 which ties him for fewest. I would guess we see Colossus from him too - although there not being any resource boosts it may not be a priority. Or just taking a long time. He didn't have Alphabet when I declared in, or Currency.

[pindicator]

So I've been thinking that maybe the culprit to balance right now is Build Research. Lately the right path as been to go Writing -> Alphabet -> Currency. This lets you expand to your heart's content in a map like this where everything is spread so wide: you get to put all the hammers you gain right back into commerce and potentially just snowball away without having to worry about economy. Ever since Open Borders was moved to Alphabet that made this the right path for focusing on economy.

This makes me wonder if moving Build Research and Build Currency a little farther down the tree is warranted? Or - and I don't know if this is possible at all - if you could have an initial version that works at 50%, and then say it bumps up to full strength when you get to Economics / Education. Or Paper/Guilds.

Thoughts?

[Juri]

Or - and I don't know if this is possible at all - if you could have an initial version that works at 50%, and then say it bumps up to full strength when you get to Economics / Education.  Or Paper/Guilds.

This is absolutely possible to do, as it's the implementation they have in Fall From Heaven 2. Whether it's desirable or not I have no idea.

[pindicator]

New Path of Exile league today. What are you all playing?

[The Black Sword]

Whenever I make extensive use out of build research/gold, I feel as if I've made a mistake earlier to put myself in that situation. I'd need serious convincing to see it as a problem.

And I'm currently playing Frostpunk.

[Miguelito]

What were your impressions of the assassin rework in the end? I think their defenses are tuned too high right now. I played with only a tabula on mine and while I didn't get into red maps I was able to breeze through yellows. I kept meaning to swap it out for a good 5 link but I found I never needed the defenses.

Hm, my boy died, so clearly it wasn't enough
 But yes, I felt quite comfortable most of the time, and as mentioned, when he died, I very stupidly did not have Elusive on (could have had it easily from Withering Step - can't overstate the importance of this skill, and still trying to use it properly in combat situations). Might even be that I died to a crit

Actually, Elusive was the main motivation for the frost blade raider: I took Nightblade on the fifth support, then with Raider getting +10% to both dodges, quartz (?) flask and spell dodge craft on body armour, you're at max dodge most of the time even without Vaal Grace. The new Mistwall shield that was announced is pretty crazy for that build, as you're also always phasing, and hardly ever get hit, so you're sitting at max block most of the time despite Acrobatics.

I'm surprised you didn't give summons a try, because they are really over tuned right now as well. You can do good damage with just about any summoning combination. That's what I found with my Scourge Arrow, Cast While Channeling, SRS, Summon Phantasm on kill build. (Cyclone is probably the better choice but if I'm going to meme build I'm going to do it right.)

I just don't feel summoners, but that sounds like a fun idea at least

I'm really excited for 2.0, and really like the gem change. Right now links are everything when leveling, and I think divesting that from the item system will let you have a lot more freedom to actually focus on the items and not the sockets while you're leveling. As long as they can get the currency cost to get a 6L right I think it'll be an improvement.

As I said, I haven't really followed and if it is what you say then I agree it's the right thing. I just got the idea that you could get lots of 6link setups and I think limiting resources with regard to gems has been important in demanding difficult decisions.


So, new league's here, are you playing? Any plans?
I am going for softcore this time to try to push as far ahead as possible. We're of course supposed to play bows, but I found none of the new skills and reworks particularly interesting, so I'll start with a new edition of the Frost Blades Raider, as I quite liked her and she should stay unchanged. If everything goes splendid I can set that shield as league goal? Doubt it though... Depending on drops or when the character stalls I might switch to something else, I also really liked a Vortex Occultist I played in Synthesis, could do that (or the Chaos variant) or whatever suits a good drop.

[pindicator]

I have always wanted to play an ice shot build, but because for some reason or another every time I'd start one I'd get side tracked and it would get abandoned somewhere in the 40s-50s. So this time I opened with that. With the changes to monster defenses and them getting more elemental resists I was really tempted to go Inquisitor to get around those, and even put together a plausible ice shot build. But decided to play it safe and went with a standard Deadeye. I copied a popular streamer build but I'm starting to tweak it a bit. I'm mostly playing solo, but found some time to play with my brother (who is doing an Impale Tornado-shot champion. He also says that the new Ensnaring Shot feels strong with bleed added to it). If I run into a wall with progression then I'll turn to trading. I probably should sell some of the better unique items I've had drop too. So far there's a Lioneye Reach and a Null Inclination. I was lucky to have a very nice rare bow drop in Act 9.

I did want to mess around with the new supports a bit. Arrow nova looked interesting from the 2.0 gameplay footage, but in practice I didn't like how it felt. Barrage support has been a pleasant surprise: i swap that with GMP for bosses, and there's a noticeable change between using barrage support and something that just buffs damage like hypothermia.

I like the metamorph mechanic a lot. Early on it didn't feel like a big miss to run past it if I got to the end of a zone and found I was missing a part. And now that I'm in maps it feels like a 2nd, tougher map boss that you can tweak the difficulty on. I started maps absurdly low on life - thank goodness I'm playing SC, especially after seeing all the streamer deaths to metamorph fights - but I'm at least up to 3k life and am getting more familiar with the boss fight mechanics.

Only just got into maps Sunday evening (I'm getting faster but it still takes me a full day to beat Kitava, especially when you factor in time for breaks) so I'm still learning that system. Got my first watchtower but that's as far as I am.

Tonight I am not touching the game until I play my turn and post a report. I think it's been 5 turns now and I owe you all an update.

[pindicator]

096

So OH is running away from the game and I am entirely in the dark as to how or why. I'm FIN like he is yet I'm struggling to keep up with expansion costs, while he shrugs them off like we're playing on different difficulty settings. Perhaps he was able to focus more on coastal tiles and pull in the commerce there? But then that's still a 60h investment for the lighthouse after the granary. So blessed with many coastal resources? Able to actually have grassland to plant down cottages? Just plain lucky? I have no idea. I'll try to play my own game, but I know I'm the first target of any OH expansion just by proximity.




And now there's a holy city on my border to deal with. Of course, last time a Confucian holy city appeared on my borders...

So I canceled the Ivory for Fur deal that I had given when we first met. At first this was for benefit of good initial relations but now I realized it was helping him and not me. So OH responded with a counter-offer:




I took this one. I'll be settling my 2nd whales shortly. And the open borders are being used by both of us, although I was reluctant to agree there as well... I really just want to scout through his lands and then I'll call that one off too.




With exploring...




That's Commodore to the west of Gavagai. I've seen a number of barbarians along the coast there; I'm guessing he has as much trouble as me.




And poor AT. I haven't met his borders but I released some of my frustration on his work boat. I'm sure I'll get pay back against me for that later.

Still settling new cities:




Torment and Tempest are apt names for how i'm feeling about this game... The next one probably settles the Whales, but I want to start pushing west more. I can push up against BeardBeard that way and then north to Mouse.

Demos:




Currency in 4. 5 at the most.