khumak

Engaged Member
Oct 2, 2017
3,716
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I finally got around to completing Caitlyn's quest last night. Very cool quest. Would love to see some more in depth quests like that on some of the other girls. Some already have quests obviously, but I haven't seen any others yet that are as in depth as Caitlyn's. Really adds depth to her character. Also adds a nice permanent income source :)
 

LizJ

Member
Aug 13, 2020
278
177
My household is grumbling; the staff are upset; whispers of "Master's Pet" have be heard...

I have hired Ansel, and he attends dinners and parties, but the other adults in my household are left out. The old-timers among them remember the days when all the adults were invited, and every evening event fuels their resentment. (More "spending time" and extra carousing at Dockside Tavern has not appeased them.)

I tried to explain that it was not my choice; it was decided by the Creator.
That did not help. Although they have not not disclosed their religions, it seems that none of them are worshipers of Grim.

My latest idea was a House weapons tourney.
Anger fueled their efforts, and the outcome made many of them feel better:
  • Ansel finished last, earned only a participation ribbon, and was relegated to the Broad Side of a Charuck division.
  • If he loses again next time, his team at the Arena will be renamed The Ansel Motte Misses, and he must wear a Eden gown over his armor.
;)
 
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a1fox3

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Aug 8, 2017
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My household is grumbling; the staff are upset; whispers of "Master's Pet" have be heard...

I have hired Ansel, and he attends dinners and parties, but the other adults in my household are left out. The old-timers among them remember the days when all the adults were invited, and every evening event fuels their resentment. (More "spending time" and extra carousing at Dockside Tavern has not appeased them.)

I tried to explain that it was not my choice; it was decided by the Creator.
That did not help. Although they have not not disclosed their religions, it seems that none of them are worshipers of Grim.

My latest idea was a House weapons tourney.
Anger fueled their efforts, and the outcome made many of them feel better:
  • Ansel finished last, earned only a participation ribbon, and was relegated to the Broad Side of a Charuck division.
  • If he loses again next time, his team at the Arena will be renamed The Ansel Motte Misses, and he must wear a Eden gown over his armor.
;)
Just one of the reasons I don't use parties in this game, and for the most part I don't like the kinks that come with the party.

No parties and there is no grumbling!:p

But hey some players like those kind of kinks and more power to them.
 

khumak

Engaged Member
Oct 2, 2017
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Finally got my melee skill up past 90 and I'll have to say a pure melee build for combat is a lot more viable than I thought it would be. Once you have 80 dex or melee you can change MC's starting position to close so you don't have to waste a turn moving in during the fight and a power attack with a greatsword reliably does damage equivalent to a plasma gun with crits doing as much as Ayden's super coil gun (I took a guy in duraplate down to half in 1 shot and almost 1 shot someone in combat armor).

The icing on the cake is it makes those hits with the cane whip for capturing pretty much guaranteed. I haven't seen a way to make any of your followers start in the close position though, only the MC. So I'm not sure how viable a pure melee strategy would be for your mercs in a difficult fight. I would not want all of my mercs doing zero damage on the first round against a tier 6 bounty for instance.
 

Ezengrane

Newbie
Apr 8, 2018
65
138
Finally got my melee skill up past 90 and I'll have to say a pure melee build for combat is a lot more viable than I thought it would be. Once you have 80 dex or melee you can change MC's starting position to close so you don't have to waste a turn moving in during the fight and a power attack with a greatsword reliably does damage equivalent to a plasma gun with crits doing as much as Ayden's super coil gun (I took a guy in duraplate down to half in 1 shot and almost 1 shot someone in combat armor).

The icing on the cake is it makes those hits with the cane whip for capturing pretty much guaranteed. I haven't seen a way to make any of your followers start in the close position though, only the MC. So I'm not sure how viable a pure melee strategy would be for your mercs in a difficult fight. I would not want all of my mercs doing zero damage on the first round against a tier 6 bounty for instance.
Yeah, I was doing fine with melee build and that katana thing for quite a few versions already. Followers are still better with a simple rifle than any melee weapon though, thanks to that wasted round. And since they grind their ranged stat this way it's easier to just equip railguns for special targets later.
 

khumak

Engaged Member
Oct 2, 2017
3,716
3,748
Are there any plans to improve Whitehaven Academy's teaching job? Right now the max amount is like 400 something, which is peanuts. Beating up random thugs literally bring more cash than teaching as a professor for hours. I think the pay needs to be increased, or add events such as:
-students bribing you to pass
-having exam events at the end of each half-semester and being given cash bonuses depending on how well the students do it (which in turn depends on how much you teach them and your skill)
-receiving patronages from spheremasters
I think when the Academy/Historical Society faction is more fleshed out, teaching classes could also maybe spawn random quests to go find an artifact or something to turn in to the Historical Society. Would spice things up a bit if you're going Atheist and trying to make them a vassal.
 
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Oct 2, 2019
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Does anyone else dislike the "Advocate" trait? Even if your slave with the trait loves you, if her willpower is over 20, she tells the other slaves that you are a prick and raises their willpower to resist against you. I feel like the mechanic is a bit too binary?
 

khumak

Engaged Member
Oct 2, 2017
3,716
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Does anyone else dislike the "Advocate" trait? Even if your slave with the trait loves you, if her willpower is over 20, she tells the other slaves that you are a prick and raises their willpower to resist against you. I feel like the mechanic is a bit too binary?
Advocate and Feminist are actually both traits that you can use to your advantage. If you ignore them then yes those girls will work against you, but if you get them to low willpower and high corruption they'll help you break the other girls. Just takes some work.
 
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Advocate and Feminist are actually both traits that you can use to your advantage. If you ignore them then yes those girls will work against you, but if you get them to low willpower and high corruption they'll help you break the other girls. Just takes some work.
Yeah, but the issue is that the mechanic does not care if the slave's affection level is extremely high. The advocate trait's effect doesn't make as much sense in that context. My preferred willpower level for slaves is between 10-29 (depending on how much I like that individual slave lol), which is already in the low range.

I guess the trait's effect would still make sense regardless of the slave's affection level in the event that the slave's willpower is incredibly high like 70+, but even if it seems bizarre that a slave that loves you would still be inciting rebellion against you when her willpower level is medium or low.
 

FSDL

Newbie
Nov 29, 2016
88
121
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The character mechanics work well for me if I consider how I might feel/feel if I were to find myself in the situation depicted. I don't find it to be unreasonable that a person will resent finding themselves in indentured servitude while simultaneously discovering admirable qualities in the person to which they are indentured.

I's also like to point out that "enslavement', a misnomer here I think, does not suddenly turn the "enslaved" into dogs and cats or other non-sentient animals.

I say "misnomer" because, while it's convenient to refer to many as slaves, the game text clearly refers to slave contracts, which are begun and can be ended. But the word "slave" is in regualr use in the language, where saying "indentured servant" would be awkward. The in game institution though, resembles far more the "slavery" of places like the Ottoman Empire than say, the systems used in the pre civil war US deep south.
 
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khumak

Engaged Member
Oct 2, 2017
3,716
3,748
My preferred willpower level for slaves is between 10-29 (depending on how much I like that individual slave lol), which is already in the low range.
To each his own, but the way the game's mechanics are set up you generally want your slaves willpower to either be really high (70+), or less than zero. You get various benefits for high willpower and also for low (especially negative) willpower. You don't really get anything for medium willpower.
 
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khumak

Engaged Member
Oct 2, 2017
3,716
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The new merc training mechanics are a nice improvement over the old way. Now I can specifically train ranged on Bud instead of watching him randomly gain strength/dex/melee, and can also train up his painfully low 75 hp to more like 150. Makes him a much more viable mid to long term option if you want to train him up and toss him a plasma gun rather than pick up another top tier. The training session can fail though so it's not going to be +1 ranged every time you train him. More like 50% or so and then I think the success chance drops lower once his stats reach a certain threshold.

I actually tried going with an all low tier squad just to see how it worked if I focused on training the mercs, but it's REALLY hard to get your tanking and damage dealing capabilities up to par with no top tiers in time for those tier 5 and 6 bounties to start showing up. Doyle can tank pretty well if you toss him some duraplate but he's really the only low tier who's effective with something stronger than a rifle by day 15 (when the tier 5s can start showing up). Also if you get the hardest version of the tier 5 as your first tier 5, 2 or 3 assault rifles is not going to cut it unless you have duraplate on everyone and doctors kits ready to use on 2 or 3 people per fight.

I got my first tier 5 bounty on day 16 and was barely able to afford both duraplate for Doyle and the aim implant for my main in time to have 2 people who could reliably hit something with an assault rifle. Got lucky and it was just a single guy with duraplate and a plasma gun so managed to do that one, but zero weapon drops. The next one however was the hard version and there's no way that was going to work. I had been training ranged on Bud every day but he was only up around 65 ranged by that time which means his hit rate with an assault rfile in that fight was 0%.

I think probably a more realistic option would be to pick up 1 top tier, both to tank and for the extra firepower and then try to get Bud trained up enough to be reliable with a plasma gun by day 35 when the tier 6 bounties can start showing up.

I do think it's now viable to actually run with a pure low tier squad indefinitely now since you can really train them up to be powerhouses eventually, but you'll probably have to just skip some of the tier 5 and 6 bounties for awhile.
 
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Remarius

Member
Mar 30, 2022
133
108
To each his own, but the way the game's mechanics are set up you generally want your slaves willpower to either be really high (70+), or less than zero. You get various benefits for high willpower and also for low (especially negative) willpower. You don't really get anything for medium willpower.
Why 70+ willpower as that amount isn't mentioned in the wiki? :)
 

jjs12

Newbie
Jul 4, 2019
35
32
Why 70+ willpower as that amount isn't mentioned in the wiki? :)

This is a game in development that is changing all the time with people playing many different versions at the same time depending on there patron level, the Wiki page is way out of date for any current versions and I personally would prefer that Grim continues to consentrate on new updates to the game then keeping the Wiki up to date.
Having never tried high willpower slaves I can not say why you need 70+ willpower and what bonuses you get from it, I might have to try high willpower on my next play thru, from reading messages in here it sounds like there is damage bonuses you can get your slaves. I am not sure what other bonuses high willpower adds.
I am thinking the next restart I will try only a few slaves to start with and get there willpower up and train them to fight the first as companion, the second for arena and the third as gardener when I get the garden upgraded, but after establishing a good income stream coming in I will drop there willpower into the negatives because I enjoy that play style.
 
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Gunner Rey

Well-Known Member
Aug 15, 2018
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Why 70+ willpower as that amount isn't mentioned in the wiki? :)
If you keep them over 70 they get an extra small bonus to fighting in the Arena I believe. I think that comes from someone looking at the code and I couldn't verify how accurate that is. I look at code and marvel at how much it resembles a butt-texting.

Most of the bonuses start at a lower willpower, 30+ for better training and Charisma chance, 40+ for the big Arena bump etc.
 

bolondro2

Active Member
Oct 12, 2018
532
593
After having a run at the game in version 8.12, I have just made my run at 8.19 an I have some questions to ask just in case if some of the gentle readers here can give me an answer.

My run have been as an academic. I have finished all the quests, or almost, and now I have "hit the wall" of the 200.000+ investments. My daily routine it´s gearing up, go to the academy to teach, go to the arena to arrange a fight for Aria, check if there are any bounty (no problems at all except for the 6th tier ones) and clean of bandits (if any) the Stokke Hills and Manston Avenue with my team of Bud, Loren, Mr Doyle and Rebecca, armed with rifles an Coil Guns for the hard targets, armoured with Combat Armor. No troubles at home, all my girls with Willpower above 80 and 7 of the 8 (all except Caitlin) with corruption above 50. Daily income 540 per day, influence +51 per day (+ Aria + Teaching + Bandits +Bounties), so I´m facing a long grinding wall. I have gone to the arena till the mid of the High tier, but I´m not interested in an Arena gameplay, seems out of character to me as an Academic.

And now, the questions:

Capturing Slaves: I was able to capture one at day ¿20?. I´m now at day 180 and this one have been the one and only one. Without some source of slaves seems impossible to make the Dockgrave quest

The political and factions game. Seems that in late stages the game it´s geared to this kind of thing. It´s developed enough to be worth the grind or it´s still a WIP?

I´m missing some evident path to shorten the grind?

Thanks on advance

Thanks on advance
 
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