New player

[fiernaq]

First off, I would like to complement the author on a well designed story and a beautiful game with a lot of potential. Now, if I can just figure out how to play After.... 2 weeks of play I've just managed to reach level 7 and have 82 gold. Somehow, after reading a bunch of the forum posts here, I don't think I'm doing all that well so I finally decided to create an account so I could ask some questions.

1. The goal of the game is to complete the story but within that main goal a player can also choose to work towards certain equipment or try to defeat certain monsters of finish certain quests. What should be a new player's focus... Try to level up a lot early on so that encounters are easier? Go for the quests and just expect to save/load a lot? Grind gold to afford good equipment or grind items such as meat or bonemeal for survivability?
2. Do most players go fight until they reach low HP (can be just a single fight sometimes) and then run back to bed or is there some way to avoid that so that you are able to spend more time fighting and less time walking back and forth?
3. Which items should I buy and which ones should I just ignore because a better one is only slightly more expensive/difficult to obtain?
4. Half of the quests I currently have are ones that I've attempted to defeat a boss and failed or worse yet, I can't even get to the boss because I can't kill more than a couple of monsters before having to return to an inn. What is the best way to handle this kind of situation? Just keep grinding lvls/gear till I can defeat them or am I not supposed to be able to beat quests (albeit with difficulty) at the level I get the quest at?
5. In the forums I've stumbled across mentions of a snake cave that is supposedly the best place to get meat but I couldn't find anything telling where the cave is or how to get there. Who knows, I may have already been there and just didn't realize it because I didn't read the forums till later.
6. Out of all the reading I've done, it seems that 12AP is the max you can ever have. Is that correct or am I missing something? With max AP nearly identical to beginning AP is it more important to find a 3AP cost weapon early on just so you get the extra hit or is my current Hardened Iron Longsword (AP cost 5, AC 14%, AD 2-6) any good?
7. What are the best skills to choose early on and in what order should they be taken? Better yet, which skills should I just ignore completely because they're not worth the point?

So far, I only have one real complaint with the game and that is the movement. I have the Samsung GS2E4GT (acronyms ftw) and with a 4.5in screen controlling my character is pretty difficult. Without the dpad my finger covers the place I'm trying to move to and I sometimes run into a monster I didn't intend to run into and get myself killed not to mention the slew of trees and other obstacles that I'm constantly hitting or the conversations with random npcs that happen unintentionally. The dpad isn't any better because with a multi-touch capable screen it can sometimes misread where I'm clicking. I'd be going east, for example, and then slide my finger to the UP position on the dpad and my character keeps going east or sometimes even goes an entirely different direction. The diagonals are also rather difficult to use because a thumb is a pretty wide touch point and in my case it covers the entire dpad so it's up to my phone to attempt to determine where exactly I intended to click. Any suggestions as to how I could improve movement would be greatly appreciated as currently that's the only thing about the game that frustrates me to no end. I've tried to think of an alternative movement method that I could suggest to the developer but I've got no ideas for him yet.

Thanks for listening to the rant of a newbie and I look forward to figuring out how to play AT better

Fiernaq

[nyktos]

Welcome to the forum!!!



1. Since this game is in development, my first goals were:

- to get strong enough to survive a few screens away from home
- explore the world & learn the land
- talk to people to find out "what's up"
- do some quests if i can
- yes, yes can be somewhat strong an less than an hour

[your choices as you level are very important, as is what you spend gold on]

2. Bread is what i used to heal early on, and during battle i would use (raw / dropped) Meat for healing quickly.

3. early on, i buy a rings for adding damage, and spend my first few levels on damage up (AD +1)
then i bump AC up a few times so im not missing as often...

[i can go into character build details as well, if you'd like?]
(quick notes: i get to [AD:5 & AC: 80 base stats] - before worrying about HP or BC)

4. dont rush to your death, there are quite a few ways to get significant boosts in power, quickly.
[e.g. - gloves of swift attack raise your AC by 15% and are quite cheap, make up for the BC loss with cheap armor]
[throw in a weak ring of damage, 1 or 2... your hitting harder & more often - early]
but yes, caution and rest are your friends (early on anyway)

5. leave the first town to the south, look for rock formations to the left / west (keep going south a little...)
there is an entrance guarded by ants - purple snakes inside (they drop the meat i mentioned)
the meat is worth tons of gold - kill little dogs too, they drop meat - great early source of money
[a large group is hiding in the trees outside the eastern exit of Crossglen - watch out for the big one though! ]

6. sooooo many ways to go when talking about combat tactics... let me post this first!
you can change weapons, but not skills... so i will hit that one instead

7. skills, again... huge topic...
but, a few pointers...

im a very aggressive tactician, but i favor a little defense in this game...
i take Increased Fortitude first, but i have to wait till lvl. 5 to get it. (you get skills every 4 levels)
the next i take is Regeneration @ lvl. 8 - healing is expensive this early on in the game
(you need 30 HP and Increased Fortitude so i take +5HP as i level - one time only )

random thoughts...
more free healing? corpse eater is great too, at higher levels...
criticals are great for doing heavy damage...
cleave is nice when you are outnumbered...
quick learner & magic finder are great for those who get a bad taste in their mouth from "too much grinding" [ not my words! ]

[Mino]

Welcome to the forum! Some of the questions are things I think you'll enjoy more if you figure them out for yourself, but I'll try to provide some help. I just noticed Nyktos already replied while I was typing this up but since I already typed it up, I'm still hitting submit.

1. This is kind of up to each player, but if you click on a monster you can see what level they are at, in comparison to your own (easy, difficult, impossible), so if a lot of the common monsters you run into are at high levels, then I would recommend leveling up and/or getting better equipment. I personally am a fan of the save-reload method, not just before fighting something but also before starting new dialogue in case there's a choice to be made and you want to take back your choice.

2. I tend to fight until I'm low on health (but not too low, some monsters have critical hits so you need to be careful there). I also used to rush back to the bed for a free HP restore, but as the maps get more expansive, its too much of a pain to have to keep going back. I recommend stocking up on meat from killing monsters (since you also get gold and XP in the process). If the snake cave is too tough right now, the little green snakes near your starting town can also drop meat, as well as the small rabid dogs, so try them too. The other animals (fox, wolf, boar) also drop meat but are tougher to kill.

3. What gear to get really depends on what type of build you're going for (offense with or without critical hits, or defense), but you can check the gear list to plan things out: http://andorstrail.com/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=1159
(Make sure to take note of the Jewel of Fallhaven)

4. If the quests are too difficult then I would level up a bit, get some better gear, and make sure to have plenty of meat for healing.

5. If you explore around, you should find the snake cave. But its not called that in-game, we just call it that because its full of snakes.

6. 12 AP is the max you can have as your "base" AP (without equipment or potions). There are 2 weapons (the Shadow of the Slayer which is a boss drop, and the Elytharan Redeemer which is a Legendary Item with a very low drop rate) that also raise your AP by 2. There is also the Minor potion of speed, which adds 2 to your Max AP for 5 rounds (not permanently). So the highest Max AP you can have is 16, but only temporarily until the speed potion runs out. Max with equipment is 14.

7. Here's a few topics discussing various skills. There's a few that many of us didn't see the value in at first but now really appreciate, so its really up to you.
http://andorstrail.com/viewtopic.php?f=12&t=1258
http://andorstrail.com/viewtopic.php?f=12&t=1259
http://andorstrail.com/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=1372
http://andorstrail.com/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=1326

[fiernaq]

Wow, 2 full blown responses this quickly. Impressive for a small forum

Thanks for pointing out where the snake cave is, I will definitely go there to pick up meat. I'm planning on starting a new character after I mess around with this one for a bit longer once I know a little more about the game and I think I agree about getting increased fortitude at lvl 5 and regen at 8. I originally went for a bit of everything which I think is partly the cause of my lack of growth because I wasn't really good at anything. I think I'm going to go the way of speed demon and try to up my dmg and AC so that I can run around all punch happy. I think the one big item I will try to save up for early on is the Jewel of Fallhaven and then at some point I need to figure out where to go to get the RoL weapon that returns HP to me for each hit.

Thanks for the info.

Fiernaq

[nyktos]

Wow, 2 full blown responses this quickly. Impressive for a small forum

can you say..."Cult Following!!!" ?

I'm planning on starting a new character after I mess around with this one for a bit longer once I know a little more about the game...

i always feel more comfortable with my choices (and exploring) the second time through...

I think I'm going to go the way of speed demon and try to up my dmg and AC so that I can run around all punch happy.

sounds like you will LOVE the update - the enemies will splatter!!!
punch happy + splattering mobs = malevolent grin

great to have you!
[good luck & happy hunting]

[lady black]

While I was typing my reply, Mino posted his reply, and said just about the same things, so now I will just add my "Welcome to the game and the forum."
Happy hunting!

[Mino]

I'm planning on starting a new character after I mess around with this one for a bit longer once I know a little more about the game and I think I agree about getting increased fortitude at lvl 5 and regen at 8. I originally went for a bit of everything which I think is partly the cause of my lack of growth because I wasn't really good at anything. I think I'm going to go the way of speed demon and try to up my dmg and AC so that I can run around all punch happy. I think the one big item I will try to save up for early on is the Jewel of Fallhaven and then at some point I need to figure out where to go to get the RoL weapon that returns HP to me for each hit.

Thanks for the info.

Fiernaq

I agree with Nyktos that getting Increased Fortitude early on is a good idea, and Regen sounds like a good idea too, especially early on. If you're impatient like me, and don't want to wait an extra level up to use a skill point though, I was recently thinking that Treasure Hunter might be a good Skill to use early on.

If you've been playing for a while, then it might not seem like a good skill because you will eventually build up a pretty big gold reserve over time, but if you don't want to spend as much time grinding, then it would help you be able to afford better equipment (which means better stats without leveling up as much). Just something I was considering if I start a new game while waiting for the update.

I also leveled up each stat (AD, AC, BC, HP) equally when I first started, before reading some posts recommending focusing more on AD and AC, so don't worry, eventually those will have helped too.

The Rapier of Lifesteal (ROL) is a Legendary Item, which has a drop rate of 1:10,000. But it is definitely a great weapon. The most sought after Legendary Item (among us on the board, since its not actually mentioned in-game) is the Ring of Lesser Shadow (RoLS). You can read all about them (and the other items) here: http://andorstrail.com/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=703

[fiernaq]

What is the "Shadow Regeneration" and "Bless" that I see in some people's signatures (like yours)?

Excellent link to a thread I hadn't seen yet about extraordinary/legendary items

Fiernaq

[Mino]

What is the "Shadow Regeneration" and "Bless" that I see in some people's signatures (like yours)?

Excellent link to a thread I hadn't seen yet about extraordinary/legendary items

Fiernaq

They are conditions added on by certain equipment, in this case both of them are Legendary Items, so you can read all about it in the same thread.

[fiernaq]

Is AC really worth it past about 150 or so? I took a look at the graph that Samuel linked (Hit chance formula plot) and it peters off pretty quick around 150-200 AC. Do people get more AC just to have it or is there a specific reason for continuing on that path instead of switching to something like AD, HP, or BC?

Fiernaq