Others Finding Color in the Ashes [Alpha v2.30] [MooncatcherStudios]

[Donny Clink]

Also if everyone is posting here asking for Genies to grant their wishes I can add to them.

I dont know if this is THAT kind of game but I got night stalker tea, 300 attunement/magic. Lucy is passed out drunk. I cant sneak into her room still. Still runes. I feel like at some point it should be "She must have been too tired to set up runes" and you get to break in or, maybe I can study these runes and break her warding.

Once your inn and stats get maxed out there isnt much to do on weekends. Sure the merchants come but you cant go fight monsters (except at night with scout as you can always go out at night with scout) and you cant make potions. I can throw up a statis so my inn stop crumbling(1turn), talk to the miners and shopkeepers (0 turns). Then....Bang Lucy? Not even the other Chars.

 

[Donny Clink]

ooooh damn, i've completely forgor about the tower. I've done the panters quest and then forgot about it. thank you very much!

[EDIT] about the kobold mine: i gave them a ton of materials for the upgrades and maxed it out (they consider the mc a "friend"). The rewards are kinda meh, the best ore they give is mithril and for 500 gold they give like 3/4 different ores. it's ok if you need em but i feel like the dwarf expedition is more fruitfull. The kobold drop starsteel too.

about the enemy drops: it kinda gets grindy ngl, i still have to buy out the last 3/4 scouts upgrade for the cellar. the drop rates from enemies could use a boost.

about the gear: i can't help you out because you seem more knowledgeable then me. i use a plate armor +3 and a greatsword +3 and i've maxed out the mc stats, i didn't have any issues in defeating the various bosses or enemies even without potions.

Plate is nice, 5 dice, cheaper. 3 dice roll values are fixed so you're going to average like 10-11 on those and since you have 7 dice to pull your last value from you can get another probably 6-12 on those. No crits on armor. But hard plate's built in ability is re roll 1's and 2's so your one fixed die is going to average 4-5 if you cant roll 1-2 instead of averaging 3-4. Then you have a million dice to pick your last 3 from, especially if you have initiative.

Then for enchantments 3 additional dice once doesn't seem that helpful when you have 7 dice for power draw while keen edge is another +2 dmg. For armor double recovery boost seems useless to me (while if I could use recover twice I'd consider it). Mana regen gives you like 5 or 10 mana a turn so if you cast smite every turn you dont burn out of mana. The "block dodge" (deflection) seems to be interesting, if you get a crap roll when trying to dodge you still avoid some damage, if it was good enough it might be amazing, if you could just dodge every turn and if you fail roll defence, but I'm not sure how good it is and I just like regenerating mana every turn.

For weapons katana+7 4x1 is 4dmg+7=11x2=22 low end 6x4=24+7=31x2=62 high end

Greatsword+7 is 4x1=4+7+7=18x1.5=27dmg low end and 6x4=24+7+7=38x1.5=57 high end

Hammer is... odd. 1 fixed dice 3 choosable. doubles gives you +3 damage. triples is +6 while my greatsword is just +7 always. I'm not sure how much you get from 4 matching dice but how often do you get 3 dice to match your fixed roll? also then you're picking 2's and 4's and 3's to match your fixed die when 3/7 match your fixed die.

Halberd is nice before you max defence because it gets you another def die (so does spear). But later its attack bonus is +3.5 with 300 points/7 agility die instead of +7 on greatsword.

But yeah greatsword/katana debate is more high end damage and less low end damage for katana and I'm not a huge fan of variability.

Wight blade is probably better. You can only get +5 max and +7 from attunement instead of +7 +7 but its more dice, 2fixed and 3 chosen

But daggers crit like katana and katana is probably on par with greatsword, its more preference, so fey blades might be much better than katana/greatsword. requires more grinding.

 

[Donny Clink]

RANT ALERT!
​

Okay, so I kinda forgot about this game for quite a while. But it's one of those simple, yet nicely done ones with "just one more turn" feeling growing on you... When I started a new game, it was around 19:00. When I stopped, it was 4:22 in the morning. Anyway, I feel like this game needs a bit more... ajustments.

1. The weird.
- Why I can't work during weekends? There's inn to run and fractured ones to kill!
- Patroling should be available also during midday, given quite the amount of new interactions on the region map.
- Making potions should be available at all times. Currently gifting Lucy alchemical supplies in the evening is more time efficient and profitable option, making normal potion brewing simply obsolete.
- Brewing in COLD cellar aside (because magic!), cellar is a very wierd first option to be restored with whole inn ruined, rain pouring through the roof and starvation at the horizon (Yes, I am aware Lucy can conjure some magical food) Having a proper shelter and garden to grow food should be the priority in "fracured infested" area.
- Lucy and MC having to develop and maintain wards around tavern would be a good idea to make it more secured.
- Stasis Ritual is OP, please nerft. It's making the materials obsolete. Time left to disperse would also be nice.
- Proper storage facilities to be build (to hold all that materials and ores) should be required, not to keep those in MC's pockets.
- Stats and leveling are enough for 90% of the content.
- Equipment doesn't matter much. I aquired halberd only because I like it as a weapon.
- With fight being MC+Companion vs 1 enemy, going full glass cannon is the way to go. Huge hit, dodge the attack (or block, whatver you prefer), revoery and finish it with a companion.
- Recovery is removing all status effects, making using potions obsolete.


2. The start
- Starting is kinda ridiculous. I picked all the pro fight options (training with sword, fighting fractured ones, training at the guild buying equipment), but I started with a character having 13 Power, 10 Agility and 10 Defense. Reload the game, another try 15/11/13. Seriosuly? What MC was training, his own shortsowrd? I am not asking him to be 100/100/100/100/100, but having so low starting statistics is pretty immersion breaking for pro fighting MC.
- Monster presence: DANGEROUS!!! Isn't dangerous at all. I get it, it supposed to be a "region" map, but I find it kinda funny, that after killing the first fractured foe, finding another one on the next day is bloody hell a miracle.
- Having to research undead first before Scout goes clean about it is making her help of brewing stuff a promise of future months. And cellar, at this point, is basically useless.

3. Mid game
- Dryad in the garden is making food management and alcohol production trivial.
- Overpriced potions for soldiers. Seriously, it's a gold mine.
- Forvalaka's claws grind for Ole is borderline masochism. This creature (per Lucy description) is supposed to be rare and invincible. Yeah, it is rare, I agree with that. So rare I only managed to fight three of those. And when I do, it seems procuring it's claws is borderline impossible. POI for this creature on the map is needed.
- Why I have to pay so much for outposts in the area? Are they made of gold or something? Why do I even have to pay for then in the first place when they are military ones? I should be the one getting paid for supplying them!

4. end Winter game.
- Chop wood, chop wood, gift alchemical supplies, Fuck Lucy or a companion. - Repeat at nauseam until snowstorm is finished. It supposed to be cozy, yes, and even is, but it's slowy getting boring withou stuff to do.

RANT OVER!
​

Anyway, I like the game. I hope it succeeds but, at least for me, it's not "there" yet.
Cheers.

I dont know if this is in previous versions but with the forvalaka's claws you can take scout out at night and she can perform a 3 wood 3 reagents ritual to summon one every night. What's more annoying is constantly running into fractured soldiers all the time. No loot and they're possibly the hardest thing Ive fought. No poison/bleed/regen but buckets of damage. You gotta block every hit cuz if you dodge and fail a 38 damage hit is going to almost wipe you out and he has another one coming the next turn. Very good melee def so you'll probably want +7 spell casting and +7 smite and smite him every turn. And if you max out your friendship with the army the incinerate spell is going to make fighting the forvalaka a joke. I find heal and more storage less useful but the min maxer in me says he needs it. Its not like if you fail to dodge healing 12 hp or spending another 15/15/20 mana to get it maybe up another 10 hp is going to help when that thing hits you for 40 dmg

 

[lewdman89]

Just start a new game, there are too much that was added

"Just start a new game" he says, as if I hadn't spent double digit hours grinding to triple digit in-game days

 

[Dman1791]

Katana is cool but if you're using 4/7 agility dice you're bound to get some crap anyway so you might as well get 2 fixed dice and use 2/7 to get the best 2/crit. Bottom end for katana damage is much lower and top only seems to be slightly higher, but if you're double critting with daggers fey blades might be really good.

Katana also gets x2 instead of x1.5 from crits, so any crit will do 33% more damage by default. Technically a bit less since it has a smaller base damage (no +1 from dice), but still a big increase. Mighty blows, the perk that rerolls 1s and 2s on attack, makes the katana extremely good since it guarantees decent crits (can't roll lower than 3).

 

[Donny Clink]

Katana also gets x2 instead of x1.5 from crits, so any crit will do 33% more damage by default. Technically a bit less since it has a smaller base damage (no +1 from dice), but still a big increase. Mighty blows, the perk that rerolls 1s and 2s on attack, makes the katana extremely good since it guarantees decent crits (can't roll lower than 3).

And regardless of the damage range you're not going to willingly pick crap dice. But the difference between
Greatsword [(4x6)+7+7]x1.5=57
Katana [(4x6)+0+7]x2=62
Wightblade [(5x6)+7+5]x1.5=63 and since you dont have keen edge and it manasteals you can have the dodge armor and still cast all day

Isn't extreme and you can get your Greatsword and get it to +3 without the army and without a forge. It costs money but as people have pointed out making potions and selling them to guests and giving Lucy spell tomes to +10 spellcasting and then alchemy ingredients to make potions is OP. Then you can focus on wightblade.

Deflection enchantment BTW is you take half the damage if you fail to dodge the attack. IE that fractured soldier is going to do 40 dmg, you try to dodge and you still have to get past 40 if you want to dodge but if you fail or dont want to burn that much stamina you're only going to take 20 dmg instead of 40. Which is actually pretty good.

 

[Donny Clink]

Ugh, Fey armor 1fixed, 3 variable dice. No trait. Pre enchanted +1 bonus die to spells (roll 8 dice instead of 7 max level)
Cannot be upgraded via forge or enchanted since its not a trait that it comes with (like hardplate) its an enchantment.

 

[Dman1791]

And regardless of the damage range you're not going to willingly pick crap dice. But the difference between
Greatsword [(4x6)+7+7]x1.5=57
Katana [(4x6)+0+7]x2=62
Wightblade [(5x6)+7+5]x1.5=63 and since you dont have keen edge and it manasteals you can have the dodge armor and still cast all day

Isn't extreme and you can get your Greatsword and get it to +3 without the army and without a forge. It costs money but as people have pointed out making potions and selling them to guests and giving Lucy spell tomes to +10 spellcasting and then alchemy ingredients to make potions is OP. Then you can focus on wightblade.

Deflection enchantment BTW is you take half the damage if you fail to dodge the attack. IE that fractured soldier is going to do 40 dmg, you try to dodge and you still have to get past 40 if you want to dodge but if you fail or dont want to burn that much stamina you're only going to take 20 dmg instead of 40. Which is actually pretty good.

Ah, I was under the impression that the greatsword was +1 per used die, not per die in general. I'd assume that I'm in the one in the wrong here.

 

[Soulcatch]

Ah, I was under the impression that the greatsword was +1 per used die, not per die in general. I'd assume that I'm in the one in the wrong here.

Yeah if you have a total of 6 str dice available, youll deal +6 damage.

 

[aack]

I keep getting cooked by random monsters even though all my stats are maxed to 200. Any tips?

 

[lustysloth]

"Just start a new game" he says, as if I hadn't spent double digit hours grinding to triple digit in-game days

They're right, dude. Too many features were added and modified since you last played. If you play with your old saves, there's chance that you will miss certain season-based events, especially if you are into the Winter, and even more if you are in Spring. If you're in the Spring, you'll miss out on the Blacksmith companion. And there's a strong chance you get some bugs happening during your gameplay as testing saves from versions months away from each other would be a huge time sink. Especially for games early in their development cycle.

There's the Fall Start. You'll start a few weeks before Fall with several things unlocked.

 

[lustysloth]

I keep getting cooked by random monsters even though all my stats are maxed to 200. Any tips?

If you haven't already, get and equip gear. Since all of your stats are maxed at 200, I'll assume that you are during the Fall and so you have the Army Merchants during the weekend. Get one of the highest tiered weapons and Hardplate armor from the Merchant. In addition, brew up some potions.

As for combat tips, dodge when the enemy's attack is low and/or if you have the stamina to contribute more to dodging. Block if the enemy's attack is too high. Focus on retaining your health, but if you feel like you can't make good work on the enemy's health within 3 turns (for me, my comfort zone is 30% of their health), I start immediately running away. I'd get my companion with me teleport me if I feel like I can't survive two more turns.

 

[Donny Clink]

Ah, I was under the impression that the greatsword was +1 per used die, not per die in general. I'd assume that I'm in the one in the wrong here.

Katana IS better.

Always better to be able to pick your dice.
Ceiling is higher and floor is lower but since you can get an ability to re roll 1'2 and 2's.
With 7 dice you're always going to crit.
You also dont need ANY power if you're using agility/defense dice. You still need agility for initiative and dodging, still need defense for blocking. All might is good for is might weapons.

The only advantage of might is it's cheaper/obtained earlier.

2 dice in power is 15 gold, 2 dice in agility is 25
3 dice in power is 75. defence 150, agility 300.
4 dice in power is 500.
4 dice in agility/defence requires the military or a forge and costs 700 from merchants.

I was more debating that if its worth it if wightblade is better still but that's actually kind of shaky ground if I'm also arguing money isn't a problem. Since it might take a while to get the starsteel you need to reforge it, its probably better to bridge with katana. I was just being stubborn.

Even in terms of picking your dice, I was thinking plate-hardplate the difference was marginal with one less die but only being able to pick 2/5 dice suuuuuucks. Hardplate also gets rid of the garbage. I had mana regen on my hardplate and thought Id switch to plate and put deflection on it but I dont like it as much. Might re enchant my hardplate with deflection.

Be nice to get a shield that would let you crit defense. Maybe only works with one handed sword, axe, spear, rapier, wightblade

Also for fey weapon/armor every week or so you get another +1 as it keeps re-growing in your greenhouse. (max unknown) But I'd argue katana is better than daggers and I dont know if any spells need 8 dice to make that worth while.

Also not only does spell damage cap at +10 now, each individual spell caps at +10 (No more +15 smite ^_^) had to happen.... I was going to see how high I could get it. With most monsters being 4-5 melee def dice and 2-3 magic dice Smite was working out to be better than most weapons for me.

 

[Donny Clink]

I keep getting cooked by random monsters even though all my stats are maxed to 200. Any tips?

TBH I ran from a lot of monsters at the start. Every time a forvalaka showed up before I had incinerate I friggin ran. Which was hard because it was fast. I was also worried about dying and forcing lucy to fracture more but that more or less seems to be part of the story.

Focus on your inn. Make money. Buy stuff. Upgrade stuff. Lots of thing don't have good spell Def, every time you give Lucy a spell tome for 50 bucks she'll come back at you with +1 spell damage for all spells up to a max +10, once you have ellie when you're doing experiments you can pick the outcome out of 3 outcomes(not heal/incinerate mind you) to get your spells up to +10 dmg and have a +20dmg smite on a 4-5d6 melee def monster with 2d6 magic defense. You can also upgrade your weapons and armor. In addition to giving Lucy spell tomes at 50 bucks a pop to increase your spell damage you can give her alchemy ingredients at 15-18 bucks a pop to give you potions for free. Initially its one random potion and you're like BFD, its a little cheaper since you need a couple reagents but I cant pick. But then she starts giving you 4 random potions and you can fill in the empty spots in your stock with "brew potions with lucy" in the afternoon. And once you're level 20 you can get that advanced training to get jacked.