Definitely don't like the way stat-boosting potions currently work

[retsa2b]

Here's how it works: You make the potion, you drink the potion, you get your boost. But the glory cost for the next boost gets bumped up, as though you'd bought the upgrade with glory points.

Think about the ramifications. This not only means that the best time to use the potions is in the last 1% of the game when no more glory is available, but you'd be an absolute fool not to, ah, "take advantage" of the ability to buy an otherwise impossibly expensive upgrade.

The game itself does not pretend these potions are trivial; it only gives you the components for a small handful of each (if you are a diligent scavenger), and there is a lot of hoop-jumping besides. Further, stat boosts from legendary items do not punish the player in the same fashion.

I think it's obvious that this is a bug. I'd rather think it is, than entertain the prospect that the devs really meant for the player to angst over when to actually use their potions. Too early, the glory savings is trivial. Too late, and you barely get to enjoy the boost before the game is over. In both cases, it's a complete waste.

[pw1108]

It was same for Gothic 1 and 2.
I don't know it's bad or good, but it was.

[Tyx]

As pw1108 said, this is how it has been done since the begining of the Gothic series, which Risen is the child of.

Else, its mainly a matter of choice. You spend skillpoints and money to get the Alchemy skill up, you could have used both to increase your fighting skill rather...
If you are seeking to get the absolutly top of what you can get, then of course you are going to end up with dillema like you are having now; needing to wait to use the stat-boosting potions until the final end of the game. You could have used them earlier, so early that you ate them raw and never even thought about training alchemy.

The only other way to deal with these potions would be to remove them, they are a simple permabuff that you can take whenever the heck you want and even not at all. Good to get something neat from spending xp and money in the alchemy skill. :)

[retsa2b]

So the game has tradition on its side. Doesn't mean it's a good method, especially when this very game already institutes two other skill boosts which rightfully bypass the exp-spending system (legendaries and training). You can do both of those at your leisure, as it should be.

Shrug. I guess the main reason I'm bent out of shape on this is because of how much this game gets right. Loot is almost 100% static, which is oh so nice (especially after a game like Divinity Original Sin). Random loot destroys a sense of accomplishment. Then again, so does unpredictable mob respawning, and this is the first Risen game I've seen where mobs have in fact been respawning here and there, without my having triggered a new chapter. That was disappointing.

[Taron]

Originally posted by retsa2b:

Then again, so does unpredictable mob respawning, and this is the first Risen game I've seen where mobs have in fact been respawning here and there, without my having triggered a new chapter. That was disappointing.

They added respawning that isn't triggered by something specific (getting a quest, chapter change)? I, too, find that disappointing then.

[Carver]

Originally posted by retsa2b:

and this is the first Risen game I've seen where mobs have in fact been respawning here and there, without my having triggered a new chapter. That was disappointing.

But do they still give you glory when you kill them?
I remember some enemies in Gothic 3 would respawn but you wouldn't get the XP when you'd kill them again.

[pw1108]

You can still get XP from respawned monsters in G3.

[Carver]

Really? I could swear it was like that with a number of enemies that would randomly respawn, as I didn't got any XP after killing certain enemies again.
But oh well.

[pw1108]

Maybe you are confused with beaten humans.

[Carver]

Nah, they were scavengers and other weak enemies I could kill with two hits by then.
Might have been some bug.

[dead bard]

You should use potions for stats that you don't really want to improve much but can still be useful, for example Influence, once you reach a certain point spending over 5k glory for each upgrade seems kinda pointless on said stat but boosting it with potions doesn't cost you any glory and the mats to do so aren't used in anything else so you might aswell do it and get further benefits from it.
Depending on your build you could use them for any skill, if you're a mage you could boost your melee with pots for the times when you're forced to draw your sword to block, if you're a fighter you might need them to boost ranged stat for the time you wanna pull out your musket and kill from a distance, potions to me are a way to boost your stats all around without wasting glory on side-stats and it's something that costs only 2k money to learn (afaik permastats pots don't get any further boost by boosting alchemy but I might be wrong) so why not going for it?

[retsa2b]

WARNING.

I now believe I was mistaken in my observation that mobs were respawning without any cues from me. I was clued by the fact that some of the respawns were not the same mobs as what I'd killed beforehand. It would appear that joining one of the guilds (or perhaps more specifically, gaining one ally, since this happened simultaneously) is what triggered the respawns I saw. It needs to be recognized that I seem to have only generated respawns on the island whose population became allies (Taranis, in this case). Crab Coast, for example, remained depopulated. I cannot speak for other locations, so be forewarned.

Anyway, it looks like that's how it's going to work: Ally an island, and that's when it gets repops, regardless of "chapter" or whatever. Maybe some future plot development will repop everything again, or on the unaffected island(s). And so I regain my respect for and faith in this game and its devs.

Now, excuse me while I jettison the last six hours of playtime...

[Fezul]

Dont forget abous soul level. I think it might influence mob respawn too.

[retsa2b]

Well, not in this case. I did many tests to ensure that it was indeed my joining the guild that prompted the respawns.

I need to note, however, that the respawns did not appear until I left the island and came back. (Or perhaps simply having waited a full day.) That anomaly is the main reason why I mistook what I was seeing in the first place.

[Rawex]

doesnt new monsters spawn so you can keep getting glory points for killing them?