Game Mechanics

[jerryrowe]

I will edit and change this post as I learn more.

This game looks great, and looks like it will provide me with hours of entertainment.

But I'm not getting past the character creation screen at the moment. There is NO explanation about any of the stats, and I have no idea about dozens of things. Let's see what the LoG community is like, and if it can answer any of these questions:

• When do you ever get more skill points? At levelups?
• How many skillpoints do you get? (Is it based on class, or is it always just 1?)
• How much influence does "attack power" give? (Is a "+1" just +1 straight out to any damage that connects, or is it +10% to whatever damage you dealt, or what?)
• The resist fire / electric / cold / poison --- is this a %-based damage reduction? (e.g., 50 fire resist gives you 50% less damage to all fire, and 100 fire resist would make you immune)
• How does ranged combat work? How do hit and damage work?
• What are the spell/skill lists for each of the 4 classes' skills/spells? Is there any benefit beyond 10?

I have so many questions. I feel like this guy right now:
http://www.erfworld.com/book-1-archive/?px=%2F040.jpg

Seriously this is very frustrating, and I have absolutely no idea about what party to make. And half the fun for me is planning out what I'm going to do.

So, I'd like to have my fun in the form of "having any idea what's going out before I just plunge ahead without a plan or a clue." Dungeon crawls are fun when you have a grasp of your own capabilities / limitations, and I haven't any idea.

Any answers the community (or for pity's sake a developer) could give would be most welcome.

[msyblade]

When do you ever get more skill points? At levelups?

Yes, 4 points, per level up, no matter the class. click the star on bottom left of character pic when u open it and it will have your skills. the numbers tell you what skill level unlocks that ability.
[*]How many skillpoints do you get? (Is it based on class, or is it always just 1?)

See above ))
[*]How much influence does "attack power" give? (Is a "+1" just +1 straight out to any damage that connects, or is it +10% to whatever damage you dealt, or what?)

I believe it is simply a +1 factored in with weapon ability/accuracy, along with your dexterity for "To hit%"
[*]The resist fire / electric / cold / poison --- is this a %-based damage reduction? (e.g., 50 fire resist gives you 50% less damage to all fire, and 100 fire resist would make you immune)

Yes. Nailed it.
[*]How does ranged combat work? How do hit and damage work?

You'll see. its pretty straightforward, make sure to only focus on Missile OR throwing. Not enough points to share them. Same Idea with swords/Axes/Maces.
[*]What are the spell/skill lists for each of each class?

Max at 50, you will see when you get in the game and open your character pic and look thru the menus.
You must find scrolls to teach you the spells. (Or google it.)

Hope this helps and feel free to ask anything on your mind

[Komag]

If you feel stuck there, I would recommend using the default party for your first play-through, as they are somewhat "official" with their names and lore backgrounds, and it's a good well-balanced party

[jerryrowe]

This is more than I got looking anywhere else, but it's nowhere near enough.

"You'll see" is hardly a plan.

Is ice magic all utility, like haste and slow and shield? Is fire all offensive? Is lightning defensive? I have no idea about ANY spells of ANY kind. I also don't know if swords or unarmed would be better, since I can't see any of their effects later on.

I'm sure for some people, trudging their way through 13 levels JUST to see what ONE skill tree looked like would be fun. For me, it is not. I want to have an idea of where I'm headed, and I'm really just ASTONISHED that NOBODY (especially the developers! For shame!) has any real documentation on this stuff.

I don't want to get to the final boss, and have my party be all unarmed and fire magic spec, and then "Woops, final boss man is immune to fire and bludgeoning," or "woops, the only healing spells were in a different skill tree. Time to start all over and hope you pick the right tree! You are more likely to NOT pick the right one, though."

Are there even healing spells? I have no idea. I'd like to have an idea before I start playing and then have a variant of buyer's remorse with my party.

[Komag]

I don't think you're approach really fits well with this game. It's mean to be fun no matter what party you choose! There is a wide variety of gear and situations in the dungeon, and any party will work well. I've played the main game about 6 or 7 times all the way through, each time with vastly different parties. The devs very much on purpose didn't spell out all the fine nitty gritty details of how every mechanic works because for almost all of us that would have totally ruined the fun of discovery

[Hatti]

hohoho. would you like a walkthrough with that?

[Brodie301]

Just play it. It all evens out in the end.

[jerryrowe]

Look, I know some people like going through the starting levels several times and muddling through until they 'get' the game mechanics. But I don't.

I keep reading things people post like "oh defense does practically nothing for me end-game, guess I'll start over" and "oh the final boss is immune to ice, my all-ice-mage party was a poor decision."

I don't enjoy the idea, say, of trying to make the best front line fighters I can, only to have them be terrible endgame just because I didn't know what my options were going to be at character creation.

Continuing to read elsewhere, I discover that ranged combat ignores dexterity entirely, which is VERY counter-intuitive, and precisely what I wanted to learn before I began playing (since I often enjoy ranged combat in games I play where that is an option).

So until I get a chance to post stuff here, and learn more, here's the best I have atm:

http://www.gamebanshee.com/legendofgrim ... letics.php

That's a list of spells / skills. It doesn't tell everything, but it is a start at least.
For instance, I have no idea what the text-only descriptions are. "Massive damage." "A technique only known to grand masters." Does this mean a million damage or 100 damage? Is it a 300% of normal damage thing? Does it require "energy" like mages use? What's the cooldown on ANYTHING?

I have a feeling I'll just go with this guy's 'optimal party makeup' and play the game on easy, since 1) it's mostly a puzzle game for me anyway, and 2) the documentation on combat is so horrendous I don't think I could realistically enjoy it, so I may as well just ignore it and go easy mode.
"Optimal" party makeup: http://www.gamefaqs.com/boards/641157-l ... k/62566713

I'll update my original post when I know more.

[jerryrowe]

"Just play it."

Ok, yeah, sure. Let's play chess. "But how do the pieces move? What are the win conditions? How the hell did you take my pawn without even moving on to my square? Wait, castling? I didn't know you could do that." Only this takes 10 hours before you realize you screwed yourself and you get more frustrated.

A walkthrough? I just want to know what my characters are even DOING, that's hardly an unreasonable request.

I know that in real life, in hand to hand combat, there is no way I can take on someone who is a master in practically any martial art. But give me a fully automatic SMG and a thread of ammo, and I'm pretty sure any martial artist who isn't insane would back down.

In Grimrock, dexterity doesn't even factor into ranged combat? That's important to know if you planned on making a ranged-combat-focused party, don't you think? I wonder how long it would have been before I even noticed this.

Learning a new system can be fun.
Learning a new system BY TRIAL AND ERROR is absolutely not fun for me, and many others, I am sure.

I am getting the sense from this thread that learning things the hard way (i.e., by trial and error) is fun for the forum-active LoG community. Readers, make of that what you will.

[jerryrowe]

Just play it. It all evens out in the end.

So an all-ice-mage party can take on the final boss (who is immune to ice)?