Early-game Teron is infuriatingly hard

[deepblue]

I know I'm going to catch some flak for this, and I'm well aware of the type of game that Age of Decadence is trying to be, but some of the early combat encounters in Teron are infuriatingly difficult. I'm playing as a mercenary on the Imperial Guard line and even in the initial raid on the caravan there's a frustrating element of randomness in how likely I am to get through the fight. It seems to depend almost entirely on how long the raider companions survive.

Ditto for the Antidas fight later. When taking him on with the scrub Imperial guardsmen, it was honestly impossible to beat the fight. So much of these fights seems to come down to how lucky you get with critical strikes not landing on the AI teammates.

[Vince]

We'll take another look. What are your stats and skills?

[Rogi]

I get that feeling. I tried a fighter (9/8/8/7/4/4) with axe 4 / block 4 / CS 3 (3+1 crafting) by the time I got in the first Imperial Guard fight (first thing I did after getting back to the inn). Homemade iron-Zaghnal, Buckler and Helmet, tried different strategies, when I got the best results, still had to try a dozen more times before having it done. I'm okay to plan the "fights order" to take on the easiest first and the hardest last, I'm okay to be punished for making stupid calls, and I'm not bothered when the RNG is being a serious ass but when it (the RNG) is ruling the entire first part of the game, it's a bit annoying

[Rogi]

On the other hand, with a similar character focusing on dodge, I finished it with one of the raiders barely surviving on my second try. I don't know enough about the game to affirm that dodge > block, but in my experience so far it seems that way

[Kref]

Well, I also play mercenary for the imperial guard. Imperial guard faction is funny )
Well, I think that the game is all right when you play mercenary. You should join imperial guard if your character is good for fight - you are likely to get stuked and die in imperial guard playing not for some kind of brute. So, mercenary can initially join thieves, merchants, and/or lord of Terron - viable choices if he is not so much for a fight.
I am passing combat difficulties with crafting. I've passed terron for imperial guard first mission with a shield-axe build, and I also got two or three (or four?) in crafting and forged myself fine armor, axe, shield (bronze, but perhaps I was able to scrape enough metal for iron axe maybe before joining), and I sharpened the axe with wet stone. So first battles for imperial guard were without problems.

[Rogi]

That might be my problem here. When I tried the axe/shield build, I didn't want to use nets/potions/stones so early in the game, I wanted to save them for da big fights coming up

[Nukenin]

The first IG fight is an RNG crapfest.

My suggestion is either add another "raider" or get rid of an enemy guard. That will help leading into the surprise second fight as well for those unprepared to heal themselves with salve while looting the battlefield, as hopefully they have come through with a bit more health.

I enjoy the combat in this game and simultaneously dislike it with a passion because the RNG wall can be a hard surface to headbutt. Some folk might just want to play the game and not the metagame.

[Lee]

On multiple accounts I've murdered every possible random event in Teron, I have killed the entirety of the Imperial guard, I have killed Antidas and all of his guards, ambushed and killed the loot cargo, and have killed the raider camp and all the people in the mine location.

It's all possible, just difficult.

[Duck]

+1 to this. My first playthrough was so damn long because of all the save-scumming I needed as a no-talky no-bribe-paying fighter (pure 2H sword/dodge/craft). This game actually got significantly easier once I hit Maadoran - I actually think that the fights were SIGNIFICANTLY harder in Teron (soloing Raider Camp/Aurelian Mine/IG 1 & IG 2) than they were in the rest of the game, which I don't think is fair.

Yeah I know a large part of that difficulty was understanding the mechanics of the game...but I don't think it's justified that the game goes from a 9/10 on difficulty in the first couple hours/fights to like, a 5/6 (tops) rest of the game.

Anyway, I found that abusing AI pathing and the way the map set up is actually one of the best ways to go. For IG1, you can sneak around the side, then initiate combat NEXT TO THE MERCHANT. Because he has terrible dodge/armor skills, you can usually wreck him in 2 turns, aggro the others, and kite the guards around while your raider buddies trash whoever's left..then if you're lucky, maybe one guard at a time will run back to your buds. It's super cheesy, and I felt kind of cheap doing it, but eh.

You can also cheese the raider camp encounter pretty hard. There's a dead end by the left wall that only has a 1 tile choke- you just manually aggro, run to the choke, and kill them one by one as they funnel into you. Also cheesy. If your damage is pretty high, you can start combat next to the closer archer and kill him before the other raiders catch up.

[Nukenin]

I think killing the merchant is how my more talky (Kingmaker) first IG stab went. My attempt to do it more honestly (well, as honest as someone toting around bolas and nets with a poisoned blade can be said to be) earlier today led to numerous castings of Power Word: Reload.

Since purchase I've only tried various stabs through Teron, always stopping to try something else once a character moves on (or is ready to move on). The "non-violent" (is it really non-violent when you blow up a bunch of blokes, or hire one band of blokes to take out another resulting in dead bodies everywhere?) approaches have been the most rewarding, and I am strongly considering a "non-violent" praetor who takes to the sword in chapter 2 as an alternative to fighting the combat RNG in chapter 1.

[eustach]

I made a character specifically to tip the balance of these of NPC battles.

10 dex, 2-handed spear, dodge and alchemy. My strategy is to poison every single hostile NPC and keep them poisoned while avoiding a direct brawl. This let me finish the IG line in Teron with minimal reloads and no side-quest grinding.

The character is also quite effective in solo fights as long as he can zone out multiple opponents with the spear. Other spearmen and archers can chip him out.

[Silence!]

Beat Teron in a 3 hours for Legion. Axes, dodge, critical strike, persuasion. Choose your position in fight wisely.

[Lee]

Originally posted by eustachy:

I made a character specifically to tip the balance of these of NPC battles.

10 dex, 2-handed spear, dodge and alchemy. My strategy is to poison every single hostile NPC and keep them poisoned while avoiding a direct brawl. This let me finish the IG line in Teron with minimal reloads and no side-quest grinding.

The character is also quite effective in solo fights as long as he can zone out multiple opponents with the spear. Other spearmen and archers can chip him out.

Ah, sounds almost exactly like my favorite combat build. Am at 121 kills as we speak :)

[deepblue]

Originally posted by Vince:

We'll take another look. What are your stats and skills?

Thanks for the reply. I'm at about 6 or 7 STR, 6 INT, Very high Perception and Dex and low Charisma. CON brings me to 40 Health. I've got I think 5 in both Block and Swords. I'm using the Cavalry Shield, no helmet and the Iron Imperial Guard armour that's one tier below Lorica Segmentata but allows for 11AP in combat. Sorry for the lack of specifics here but I can't get into the game where I am at the moment.

I'm open to hearing that I've ♥♥♥♥♥♥ up my build but the thing is I perform fine in the one on one fights and against Militades' thugs for instance. The problems arise in the battles with allied NPCs, where it seems to succeed or fail solely based on how lucky the NPCs get. It's just annoying to being so restricted early game. Even allowing that this is a very hardcore RPG, it seems counterintuitive that it should be so punishing early game and then easier late-game as more options present themselves and builds become more effective.

I appreciate what you're doing with the design and had no problem with the unforgiving approach in my last playthrough as a diplomatic character where I never felt gipped as the game beat me into making world-appropriate decisions (like not trying to be Batman when my guy is a consumptive smoothtalker) but on this combat run I feel like it's more frustrating trial and error than anything else. I literally cannot defeat Antidas and have tried him with two different combat builds now.

[screeg]

Originally posted by deepblue:

The problems arise in the battles with allied NPCs, where it seems to succeed or fail solely based on how lucky the NPCs get.

A suggestion: in crowd fights where your allies seem feeble, think of yourself as a force multiplier. Poison a few of your opponents, throw a net on a guy who's adjacent to your allies, knock them down if you're a hammer user or break their shields if you've got an axe. If your guys have ranged attack, keep the enemy away. Those strategies occasionally help me get some mileage from the help.