Random questions

1. Healing blast (in life magic tree) - level 1 says it recovers 44 to 84 health - will that continue to increase as the spell gains levels? If so, approximately what level does it need to get to before it recovers, say, 100-200 hit points?
2. Solar Flare and Sun Ray (in the sun magic tree) - I have Sun Ray up to about level 45 and it does I think 20 to 40 damange. Will it ever do significantly more than that? And Solar Flare - I don't have it yet but it does 15-21 damage to multiple targets at level 1 - again, will it ever do, say, 100 to 200 points of damage? P.S. I do remember being told that wearing full plate armor from head to toe and carrying a halberd is not the recipe for maximizing magic - I just haven't played around with other armor and weapons yet. I do like my halberd, especially leg sweep - few things in the game are funnier than watching a chest mimic fall on its wooden butt with its tongue hanging out.
3. In the Heavy Armor tree I see "taunt" and "provoking shout" - why is it good to increase the enemy's aggression?
4. I've pretty much ignored the Focus tree so far in my first 100 or so hours of gameplay. Mind Lock looks interesting - if a spell like Heavy Armor's Strength or a Haste Potion has a duration, will Mind Lock actually extend those durations? Anything else particularly useful on the Focus tree?
5. In the tactics tree, is "defensive stance" as useful as "parry" when you're being attacked by 5 large skeleton footmen or 5 ebon cultist fighters/archers?

That should do it for now - thanks as always
DalTXColtsFan Dragon

 

1), 2) If you mouse over a skill in the skill tree (K) you can see its affects twenty levels ahead.
3) When you're in a party you may want the mobs focus on a single player whilst the rest of the party inflicts damage and/or heals.
4) Mindlock doesn't affect the duration of any skill it affects the duration the glyph stays in your hotbar when not using a locked deck.

 

5. Defensive Stance should always be on in addition to glancing blow.

Van

 

1&2. These ones answers are the same, as it is for all magic. 1st thing is that tooltip damage rarely reflects actual damage, it is an indicator of power progression, but you can often deal far more damage than the tooltip can predict (as proven with the fact that all my skills have a max hit of over 1500, yet I've never seen my tooltip for those skills go higher than 500. For magic, your source of power comes from : Attunement, which is the average of your 10 highest skills (active or passive) in that specific magic school, the skills level, the weapons and gear you're using (wands and staves can give spell damage, for armor you want armor with intelligence, and Carapacian cloth can give spell crit bonuses), and then your masterwork/enchantments that can boost it further. This is true for healing spells, but also all the different spells for each magical schools.

3. Taunting is good for group play, mages and archers deal a lot of damage, usually enough to be the one target mobs want to hit. With taunting skills, you can have a heavy armor guy ago the mobs, so that the healer has 1 target to heal, and the others can focus on damage instead of survivability.

4.mind lock is for dynamic decks, where your glyphs pop up like a deck of cards, and the extended duration is how long they stay in your hand before being dropped to your discard pile. Much more useful if you use a dynamic deck, which I doubt you are doing yet, or at least not to the extent requiring mind lock. The really useful skills in the focus tree for everyone are Spellbinders stance if you are a mage, and then Aether feedback for everyone (the special effe t from spell crits works on ignite weapons Damage over Time fire, so even a warrior can benefit from extra focus and the focus regen buff). Apart from that, pretty much all the passive are good, but mostly the lower focus cost and the lower fizzle chance, intelligence and focus ones.

5.defensive stance buffs your active defensive skills as well as all your passive defenses from gear, so if you are not using another stance use this one. You should always have a stance up if you are fighting, be it berserker stance to go all out, defensive stance for extra survivability, or spellbinding stance if you want to cast/use skills faster, but you should always use them!

 

Thanks as always for all the help. More random questions:

6. Is there a way to predict which town will be under siege based on moon phases or dates or whatever like there was in Ultima V to figure out which towns would have shadowlords in them?

 

Yes. You can use the astrolobe or moondial. But 4 years on, I still can't figure out how to read them.

 

And the easy route is to just use this website: https://www.moongatetravelers.org/index.php/encyclopedia-britannia/siege-mapper

 

Each planet is associated with a cabalist. When a planet crosses a given constellation, a siege occurs in any town with a devotional associated with that constellation. The planet(s) crossing that constellation determine which cabalist(s) show if you kill all the siege engineers. The cabalist arrives the moment you kill the last engineer. If the planet(s) is/are no longer crossing that constellation when that happens, a lich mage arrives instead of a cabalist.

 

Just for the fun of it, I once went back to the Tower of the Shuttered Eye after the quest with Min Liang Tan had been completed, and after I fought my way up to the level where he was, there was a lich mage there instead. This was me:

 

7. Am I supposed to be able to actually find Lord British and Arabella in Central Brittany? I searched that castle with the hologram of the planets outside of it but all I found was Chuckles's great great great grandson (I'm joking obviously, no idea if he's a descendant of Chuckles).
8. What, if any, effect do the maps you can find in the game have on the actual game, i.e. whether or not the map is available in a location when you press the M key, or the amount of detail on the map when you press M, or anything else? Any other benefits to those hand-drawn maps I'm overlooking?
9. I only have one companion - Fiona. I've searched Aerie, Jaanaford and a few other important-looking towns but haven't found anyone else who wants to join me. Am I supposed to end up with a party of 8 like in Ultima IV? If so, where can I look for one more person to join me? Keep in mind I'm playing in Offline mode.
10. Do Fiona's experience and skills also continue to increase and she mows monsters down with her triple crossbow? If so, is there a way to see her stats and equipment like in Ultima IV and V?

 

@DalTXColtsFan

7. I can't answer this sorry!
8. I think there was a time where those were supposed to be the in game maps, but the project was abandoned? Not quite sure, but they look great as decorations!
9. From what I remember, you should have 3 companions, Which should be found in Ardoris, Aerie and Resolute if I recall correctly, but maybe @Anpu can confirm or correct this, he knows the quests and stuff better than me
10. Haven<t played single player, sorry!

 

7. Hopefully someone else can
8. Thanks - I didn't even think of using them as decorations - I do have a lot of bare walls in my house!
9. I finally broke down and actually started thoroughly reading (not just skimming) the player instructions and it does list the 3 companions. I've met Ariel but she didn't offer to join me - I'll have to try her again. The Player Instructions do say an avatar can only have one companion at a time (plus a summoned or tamed beast) - if that means I can't have Fiona, Ariel *and* Dupre I will be disappointed.
10. Thanks anyway!

 

I believe you can only have 1 companion with you at a time. But you can decide which one.

 

11. Where, in the offline game, can I start finding better weapons and armor? I have the best stuff that can be bought from the merchant in Owl's Head, and haven't seen anything better for sale in any other town. By pure chance I found a copper halberd +2 that had better numbers than the Benefactor Polearm or whatever it was I got in Owl's Head but have yet to find any magic armor significantly better than plate.
12. Do items completely disappear from the game once they're sold to a shopkeeper? I know some games keep track of those so they can be bought back from the merchants later for more than what the merchant paid for them. But that would probably get pretty annoying after awhile, I mean I don't need to see "pristine aortic thrombus" on the list when I go to a grocery merchant.
13. Would anyone happen to have a transcript of the conversation with Min Liang Tan in the Tower of the Shuttered Eye? I was completely unable to converse with him when I got to him for some reason. I don't know if I accidentally attacked him or had an AOE spell or what, but he wouldn't talk to me and just attacked me.

 

11. I think you pretty much need to craft them yourself. There's a few artifacts, and you can get some better stuff at higher levels like bandit armor, but most good gear is either crafted, or artifacts.
12. Mostly. Crafted items in online can show up as loot drops, but you can't buy stuff back.
13. Probably? I'm not at my PC right now, but if somebody who did the quest wanted to search through all their chat logs, they should be able to find it.

 

13.

Spoiler

Code:

[5/5/2017 11:12:38 PM] Min Liang Tan: Greetings, friend.
[5/5/2017 11:12:47 PM] Min Liang Tan: Greetings again, friend. I am sure you have many questions regarding why I have called you here.
[5/5/2017 11:12:47 PM]
[5/5/2017 11:12:52 PM] Ian Berie: called you here
[5/5/2017 11:12:52 PM] Min Liang Tan: Yes, you wanted to know the truth about Siranto and Khasi. I can certainly tell you that, oh, yes. And there is no need of a device to show you the truth. None at all.
[5/5/2017 11:12:52 PM]
[5/5/2017 11:12:56 PM] Ian Berie: truth
[5/5/2017 11:12:56 PM] Min Liang Tan: Yes, one who is truly strong can face the truth of what is around them. And you and I, we are strong folk. We see things as they are, not as we would like them to be. And you know that we are on the cusp of a new age. A prophetic time, if you will.
[5/5/2017 11:12:56 PM]
[5/5/2017 11:13:04 PM] Ian Berie: new age
[5/5/2017 11:13:05 PM] Min Liang Tan: It is not an age you will live to see. Only I can serve the master after night falls... only I am worthy!
[5/5/2017 11:13:05 PM]
[5/5/2017 11:13:09 PM] Min Liang Tan attacks Ian Berie and hits, dealing 50 points of damage.
[5/5/2017 11:13:10 PM] Min Liang Tan: (fighting) Greetings again, friend. I am sure you have many questions regarding why I have called you here.
[5/5/2017 11:13:10 PM]

 

14. Is there a way to see the total number of experience points (adventuring and crafting) my character has accumulated, not just how much is left in each pool?
15. Are there any charts anywhere that show how many experience points are required level by level skill by skill to reach each level?
16. Are there any charts anywhere that list how many experience points each monster is worth when they're slain?
17. Does the character's adventuring level actually mean anything?

 

14. Do /xp and look at the misc chat! Detailed info there with how much xp total, how much is used, for both adventuring and producer xp

15. There is, in the player created resources forum, an XP Calculator through Google Sheets for almost all skills and tracks adventuring lvl as well.

16. Sotawiki.net is trying to do that, look up a scene and if someone calculated it you'll have the info. I'm trying to get more scenes done this way.

17. It will do the following : Raise your health points, raise your focus pool, raise your health and focus regens, raise your carrying capacity. Note that these things are raised only very slightly by your AL.

 

16. you can start compiling one.

 

https://github.com/Barugon/cota

Each level adds some health and focus. That's it.