Games you are playing

[Drathi]

Okay, it's official. Oghren has officially lost his place at the top of my favorite Dragon Age Characters... Xenon of the Black Emporium is now my favorite. XD

[Weeaboolits]

Finished Yakuza 4.

Doing all the side-quests I skipped in Premium Adventure mode.

[Maxine MagicFox]

^_^;

So... Friday when I got home, Monster Hunter had not arrived yet. So, instead, I fired up Phantom Brave. I tried to start it about a month ago after my sister asked me to not play because she was playing and she didn't like me getting ahead of her. I got her permission after she had not touched it for a while. I didn't get far when I fired it up because A) I discovered she had accidentally saved over my game *sigh* and B) I decided to play Disgaea instead.

I got really into it on Friday so when MHFU came in the mail, Rissa snagged the game to play while I continued to play PB. ^_^; She LOVES it. And meanwhile I'm now 6 hours into PB and enjoying every second. There's something about it that's just a little better than Disgaea and keeps my attention going. For Disgaea after every map I'm like "*phew* Time to take a break!" but with PB I'm like "w00t! ANOTHER MAP!! ANOTHER!!" or "AGAIN AGAIN!! LEVEL UP LEVEL UP!!" :3

[Apolloncrash]

I've never actually played an MMO before, but I've decided to give Cabal a go. I can't download it right now, because I've already gone over my data allowance this month, but that clicks over in a few days. Meanwhile I've decided to start planning out my character. From I've read so far, I've been thinking of running either a Blader or a Force Blader. What class(es) would some of the people here suggest? Keeping in mind that I intend to play Solo as much as possible.

Also on Recettear:
(spoilered for borderline length)

[spoiler]I picked Recettear up again after taking a bit of a break from it. Currently have Louie, Charme, Caillou & Tielle's True Cards. Tielle is ridiculously overpowered, but hearing that charging sound over, and over, and over, and over, and over gets very annoying, very fast so I'm actually considering delegating her secondary status and keeping Caillou as my main adventurer, despite Tielle being way stronger.

I also find it hilarious that I've never before had money be such a moot point in a game, when the goal in Recettear is to make money. Even though a few loops ago I started wasting days (go to town, enter random area, return to shop, repeat) whenever not meeting a condition for a True Card, I still have made so much money that I have ~300 Super Vendors and Checkered Floors and I never have a shortage of other top tier equipment. I have also given the maximum Ferromin HP boosts to both Caillou and Tielle, with ~5-15 of each type of Ferromin left.

Finally, if anyone is interested, I did a lot of testing trying to find the ideal ratio of tables to Vending Machines to get maximum Vendor sales. I still don't know exactly how it works, but it seems the more Vendors you have, the less sales on average they'll make. At the lower end of the scale, more Vendors is better, because the extra 'set' of sales they generate offsets the lower sales per unit i.e. 3 'sets' of 4 sales is better than 2 'sets'of 5. The decline of sales is exponential; each Vendor you add decrements the average sales per unit more than the last. The sweet spot seems to be 4. So, whilst having 5 or more Vending Machines will generate a new 'set(s)' of sales, it sees the sales per unit drop more than the extra 'set(s)' of sales can offset.

Tl;dr Version: At the the final expansion, 4 Vending Machines and 6 tables is your best bet to maximise profit.[/spoiler]

[noodles]

what do you mean by "data allowance"

[Apolloncrash]

The amount of data my ISP allows me to download/upload a month on my current plan (2GB peak/6GB off-peak) before my speed is lowered from 4/2 Mbps to 64/64 kbps.

[Skele Von Mann]

Bulletstorm - Got the Thumper and a shotgun, pretty cool game, though I suck at making those skillshots.


Dragon Age Origins - Dwarf Noble Rogue who just finished Ozammar, gonna go shop in Denerim, then probably gonna go to the fade in the Tower.

[noodles]

[scy]

[Maxine MagicFox]

[ZetaBladeX13]

Second shelf GET!!




Alternate/closeup pics:

[Maxine MagicFox]

bah, so last few maps in phantom brave I didn't stop to take time out to level up... as a result, in the final map with the boss, I got my ass handed to me. >_< Now I'm grr'ed, but it's my own fucking fault. BAH!!

:[ WHEN I COME BACK, ASSHOLE, I SWEAR YOU'RE GOING DOWN!!

[Apolloncrash]

@Data limits: Truly unlimited plans are very rare in Australia. They would only be available to the most urban of areas (i.e. Sydney) and cost literally hundreds of dollars a month.

To give you an idea, I have a cousin who lives in Sydney who pays ~$100 a month for 8/Mbps and 200GB of data, and I have a friend who lives in a less urban, more average Australian town and she pays $140 for 4/Mbps and 120GB.

I personally live in quite a rural area and can't get ADSL2+ (or even regular ADSL), and so have to rely on satellite broadband. I pay $80 a month for the plan I mentioned in my last post and that was after extensive research and shopping around to get the best possible plan available in my area.

I'd actually just assumed it was like this in America too, though not as bad, since we always get screwed over with everything here. Living in Australia kind of sucks. So many games and anime and everything else never come out here and even the ones that do take forever. I had to wait over a year after Guilty Gear 2 came out in America before we got it here. Madman still haven't released Saiyuki Reload Gunlock here, even though we got the first 2 series and the movie, and America has had it since 2006. We still don't have an R18+ rating for games (if Metal Gear Rising gets RC because of this crap, I will not be happy). [/rant]

@Cabal: Hmm... from what I've been reading, Bladers and Force Bladers (especially FBs) seem to be most suggested out of all the classes for Soloing, because of their buffs/debuffs, especially Hard Luck. I guess I'm going to have to go deep into research mode and try to find out as much as I can before I DL the game tomorrow. It's kind of hard though, because most of the class guides and discussion on the subject are from a few years, and apparently the game has gone through some major changes in that time.

How exactly does levelling up skills work? Is it possible to screw up a character by levelling up the wrong skills? I read through the Beginner's Guide on the official site, but it wasn't very helpful. Also, if it's not too much trouble, could you give me a brief rundown on the how the basics of combat works?

Given how much of a time sink MMOs are, how little time I have, and the fact that I intend to eventually completely max out my character (assuming of course I like the game), I only want to have one but its hard making an informed decision when there is so little official documentation for the game.

[Maxine MagicFox]

Since my character is broke(T-T money for the poor), I've not obtained that skill yet.

^_^; It's on my list to acquire and it's the first time I've heard mention that that skill is particularly useful. :3 I'm getting some money soon and I'll check it out.

STILL! As I mentioned, the classes are very well balanced, but each have their own specialities, and until you get the later game, the characters are so closely matched you can have a huge debate about which is better.

And yes, as I said, Force Bladers are the most highly recommended, but you have to be careful from what I hear or it can be screwed up. I've seen some aweful Force Bladers o_O; but :3 I've also been party to some and they've wow'ed me.

Bladers - I do not have the skill Hard Luck yet (lack of money and I leveled up really fast through dungeon runs w/ buddies :3). However, I've NEVER heard someone say we are good at solo-ing. Nor praise us for our buffs. You want buffs, go do WI or FA. Bladers hit many enemies at a time, which is nice, but we don't have much bang for the buck (which is why criticalling is ESSENTIAL, I can't get enough damn crit equipment on me), and our defenses can be fairly weak. We are the ones that run out first, cause a lot of havoc, and then withdraw to let the others clean up. In dungeon runs, I can either be really helpful or just slow the team down.

Your question is hard to answer because you are asking about solo-ing. Cabal's "solo"ness is forced to end around level 80ish. You can try to keep it going past that, but seriously if you haven't learned to start asking for partners into dungeons, you are missing out on a big portion of the game. You can't go into Ruina Station alone your first few tries.

Ok! Info time (spoilered for length)
[spoiler]- Basics if combat
(Now, I've only ever played this one MMO, so forgive me if I mention something that is an MMO standard or something)
You have a toolbar down at the bottom of the screen where you put your skills and use the hotkeys 1-10, plus - and +. When you go to attack a monster you select the monster you want to attack on the screen with a mouse click and you hit the button of your skill. From there the game runs automatically depending on your settings. Either you have to keep pressing buttons OR you let the game go on auto and it will cycle through your skills, until the first one in the set is down reloading and then it repeats. Put longer reloads in the front, shorter reloads farther down in the strip.

Every skill consumes MP. EVERY skill. However, while there is a button for Mana Potions, you won't be hitting it. The moment the game realizes there is not enough MP for a skill, it automatically consumes the potion. The only reason you want to keep the potions on that button is to keep track of how many is left in your inventory. Health potions are not automatically consumed ^_^;;

-Leveling
On your bar is level up meter that extends the length of the bar and is blue. It reaches one side, you level up. Experience is gained NOT from killing an enemy but from HITTING the enemy. In other words
Enemy X has 100exp to give for example. The harder the skill hits it and the most damage it causes the more of that exp it's going to consume. So, just because you don't kill the enemy, don't think you didn't gain something from attempting an attack. Obviously if you kill it that means you gained all the exp you can get from it. THIS THIS THIS is why Bladers are the fastest to level up. We hit several enemies at a time instead of just one for similar damage to all of them.
A blader hits that Enemy X and gains 30 out of its 100exp, but there were 5 standing beside it. :3 The blader just gained 150exp out of that seemingly pathetic attack. That's the glor of AoE skills and why I take some time when exp farming to gather several enemies close to me.

- Skilling
This is more important than exp gaining.

So, while you are also getting exp points, you are gaining skilling points as well for the skills that you use. Use to be weapons only gave up weapon exp and so forth but that's changed, now everything skills at the same time no matter what. There are ranks for each set. This is where G.Master and Expert comes in. In your skill menu you will see an Exp bar and your current Skill Rank. Level up that bar and when you max out for your rank (you might need to fill 30 of those bars to do that) you gain a new rank (you might need to get a Class Rank upgrade, though). This just says "you can only equip certain skills at this point and level them up to a certain point."

You purchase skills (or find them from drops) from instructors. Once you qualify you can learn them and use them. Then you can level them up as high as they will go for even more damage. Now as you are skilling up you are also gaining skill points which is what you spend to level up those skills.

Now, for beginner skills it's hard, I'm going to say, don't level them up too high. You are going to be getting rid of them, but then I'll say get rid of all of your newbie skills EXCEPT FOR TWO, but seriously just take them down to level one. I'll tell you why in a moment. Anyways, to unequip and get rid of a skill, you first have the level it down, which costs money. Seriously, don't skill them too high when you are a low level, but if you want then go ahead, I warned you. If you think you need to, do so, just keep in mind that money is hard to come by in Cabal.

Also, PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE remember to equip the first title you are given in the game. It gives you a +2 Skill Points bonus which skills you up faster.

Remember: You want to be a high level Skiller for your level.

- Training Dummies
Remember those skills I told you to keep? Well, the next time you think you are going out for a while and will be away from your comp, take your character over to a Training Dummy. (The NA version has them free for all to use, though they use to be for Premium Users only. So, I dunno how it is for the Aussie version.) And equip only those two weak skills, with any skill boosting equipement or titles that you have. Start attacking the dummy and then... leave your computer. This is the easiet way to skill. Use to be, we would have to unequip our shit and try to go after a low level monster and attack as we could for as long as we could to skill up.

- Ways to screw up a character
At every level up you can put points into three attributes. You can level these down, but those are expensive items and the only free up three points at a time. This is the biggest way to fuck up your character.

Have the wrong skills or put too many points in the wrong skills. I said you can level these down and purchase new ones but, new skills cost 1mil or more each. And to skill down and regain your points and get rid of skills ALSO costs money. Still this is part of the game so except for the later half of the game when things are ungodly pricey, you can't do too much damage.

So... even if you do create a fucked up character, you can fix it... it just will be a lot of time and effort and... hard earned money wasted.

Things that cannot be changed during the course of the game.
-Your nation alignment - oh, wait, umm, I THINK there is a quest now to change this in a most recent update. I've NO idea. o_O; I need to catch up with all the changes....
-Your crafting choice
-Your Battle Aura (but... I think they are the same thing now these days anyways... lightning looks the kewlest though)

Once you choose these things, you are set for life.

[/spoiler]

I hope that gave you a general gist of the game. If there's anything you'd like me to re-explain or go more indepth about, or if you just have another question, feel free to ask. ^_^

[Weeaboolits]

AFK skill leveling.