Someone should write a "Guide"

[Tchey]

Hi,

Some players here seem to have a good knowledge of the game, gameplay loop, sharing advices and feedbacks.

It would be quite great to have all that compiled as a "Guide" here on Steam, as it’s usually the first place players look for getting started with a "weird" game.

[Xuande]

Version changes are frequent enough that its hard to pin down "advice" before balance reaches a more stable point. I get the feeling that, although GM is stable for most players, its more akin to an Early Access title at this time until the community brings it to a point where we don't get daily (or even weekly) version updates.

[Mythrix]

I love the idea, Tchey. I would super cool to see something like this.

Xuande is right, of course, but I think we're approaching stability, so definitely something for someone to consider shortly!

[Myll]

Originally posted by Tchey:

Hi,

Some players here seem to have a good knowledge of the game, gameplay loop, sharing advices and feedbacks.

It would be quite great to have all that compiled as a "Guide" here on Steam, as it’s usually the first place players look for getting started with a "weird" game.

For any new-to-game player, regardless how the game may still change, I would highly suggest the first game start in "Immortal" mode to see how things play out in that framework. Let's face it, even if it takes you 10 seasons - eventually that immortal Main Character is making it to max potential (4.5-5 Gold Stars) and will elevate the team into 1st Div (and eventually win it).
The key change for then playing the game again, with a different Class, perhaps different difficulty level, will come down to personal choice/goals after that.

However, if a new-to-game player immediately jumps into the mortal Main Character mode, they will likely be overwhelmed by both the game mechanics and lowly starting point of their team. I've tested out mortal starting characters, with NO save/scum to revive from mortality, and - 100% of the Main characters were killed off by Season 2, if you attempt to play the Main competitively (in Battle as much as possible when not injured). That's just the brutal reality of going mortal.

[Myll]

At least - we could start to gather some of our key findings of the game so far -- here in this thread, and it can serve as a reference point to potentially build a Guide from. The more data/feedback gathered here, the more detailed and accurate a Guide could turn out.

For example, yet another data point in starting up a new game in Dynamic mode (and this may apply to Roll20 games also) - restart your game if you don't get a full 5-gold star potential Main character. If you get a 4.5 gold star potential Main character when first viewed, your Attribute total count when maxed out at End Game - will be less. In terms of randomness - sure, you could get lucky with a 100 Weapon Skill character that has 4.5 Gold star potential, but your odds of that are reduced when total potential is less, and you may not want to wait a full game play-through to hope for such to work out (and it may not). Isolating your play through to only 5 Gold star potential characters, gives you the best odds that your main character will dominate later and help win 1st Div and the League.

I will start to make posts in this Thread that - may be useful Copy/Paste items individually to add into a future Guide, even if another player wants to use them for such.

[Myll]

Character Creation discussion. This post will be from the perspective of starting the game in Immortal mode, All "Dynamic" settings, and will use the Gladiator class (Strength focused), but could be applicable to many if not all other classes as well. Note the screenshot that I am including here - is perhaps my best example of a near-perfect character build to start the game.
1. The stars: think of them as a 20-level/rank system in the game, from .5 White Star (1st rank) to 5 Gold Star (20th rank). You should not expect to be any higher than 1st rank (.5 star) to start the game, at Current status.
2. Potential: Your end game potential for your Main Character can terminate at 19-20th rank (4.5-5 Gold stars). This is randomized at Game start/Character creation, so do not accept less than 5 Gold stars or you have accepted a less capable fighter in End Game. While I realize some may want to role play, I always focus on performance, and to end the game at the highest potential, the highest total aggregate of Attributes/stats. That's what the 5 Gold Stars translate to, in more real terms, is that your total count of Attributes that will be in that 90+ range, or even max out at 100, will be more or less depending on that Star Rating in your Potential. It adds up, literally, so don't cut yourself short for End Game. If not at 5 Gold Star potential, close the game out, and restart a new game.
3. Stamina, Recovery, and Speed, in that order of importance. That's how you want to view your Main Character upon first view when opening the Character Profile page. Speed doesn't matter, perhaps the most "throw away" Attribute/statistic in the current game, even says so during the beginning of the game. Note the screenshot and that Speed is only in the 30s - that's a good thing, because the initial character generation can often put speed up very high with Stamina and Recovery trading off. All your other Attributes will typically start in the <10 range, and there's no need to worry about them in this initial stage, but these other 3 Attributes are >10 and variable. Again, this isn't an argument toward the way the Dev has designed the game, this is about how to deal with the game as-is now, and get the math working for you. Only accept a Character that has reduced Speed and elevated Stamina (most importantly) and Recovery secondarily, and if you don't get this result, I would recommend closing your game and restarting again. For many of you that didn't play games in the beginning of PC video games in the 1980s, you may not have experienced this before - the continual start/restart of games until your Main Character is rolled up to where you want it to be, and for some of us - this was half the fun of the game, to keep pulling that randomization lever until the computer spit out a better template.

Higher stamina will keep your Main in the fight longer, even when in the starting weakened state. Your opponent may have better stats but if they run out of Energy (due to low Stamina), you can "win the day" simply by pressing the Attack, over and over. Recovery at a higher amount to start means - your Immortal main character that gets injured (and WILL get injured, no stopping that) - you will heal from your injuries in fewer days/weeks, and will be back in battle sooner, back in Training sooner, so your Main Character gets more contact time in battle and training to keep those Attributes/stats rolling - and it is a Steam Roller effect you need to set yourself up for in this game.
Screenshot to follow:
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2402264559
How you use this Character - my Strategy would be, to then enter this Character into Battles, whenever possible, even the very first 1v1 fight (if you're in the normal progressive fight mode), because you are playing the Stamina/Recovery odds into your favor, plus - don't forget, you don't get Attribute increase opportunities from Combat, unless that character is in Combat! Essentially, look at this game's Attribute increase system as twofold - Combat, and Training, and you want opportunities at both. Perks are the other factor - the current game bypasses the "Low" intelligence rating to enable level-ups for Perks at a better-than-Low pace, so you're then playing into a faster rate of gaining Perks in your play-through. This strategy is only useful for Immortal mode, for if you had all of what I have stated here in this post, yet have a Mortal character - then you would simply be permanently injuring and/or killing off what could have been your best Fighter in the long term.