Abilities question
 

So, do the "overall" Ability stats, i.e. Combat, Personality, Survival, etc., have a direct impact on the abilities within the list itself? Example, if I raise Combat a few points, say, with a chem, does it have any direct impact on the damage I deal in combat? Or are those values mostly just for dialogue skill checks?

Buying the skill combat raises your damage a bit, but I'm not sure about the drugs. I just sell them. I'll be interested in your findings.

You mean the ability 'Combat Skills' from the Personality list?

It's weird. There has to be some sort of…something…tied to those Ability Scores. But maybe there are just for dialogue checks.

I tried doing things like buying a point of Heavy Weapons, but it didn't have any effect on my Grenades it seemed (which are considered Heavy Weapons, but also have their own ability in the Combat list…also weird.)

Also, the attributes don't seem to do anything related to damage. I increased CON, STR and DEX, to see if it altered my Grenade damage at all. Nope, still 50. At least in the menu screen. Tested their damage on Big Jim :P and it seemed to be the same as I was doing before.

I have a bunch of points and stats saved now so maybe I'll test more. I think I'll try and raise my Combat skills a bunch and then test it that way. Unless maybe @Maylander or someone has these answers already.

The one skill that I"m still confused about is 'Attack Strength'. The description says "Your strikes will have more power", but it doesn't specify what kind of attack it's referring to.

Also, the 'Bookworm' skill seems to be broken for now.

Yep, same here. I tested it and it didn't seem to do anything for my Grenades. The icon also seems to be a melee type of icon. So who knows.

Well, there are apparently a lot of broken attributes and abilities in Elex.

Or… as far as the attributes are concerned, it was a deliberate deign choice according to Pankratz (via Gamestar). The attribute description is wrong. If you increase an attribute it does not and is not meant to increase damage like it does in the Gothics/Risens.

The only reason you can increase attributes is to unlock weapons. So there is no point at all to raise an attribute all the way to 100 since no weapon/equipment requires a value of 100.

So if your desired weapon requires a strength of e.g. 60 then 0 -59 does nothing at all. No damage increase, nothing. You will only unlock the weapon at 60. The points from 0 to 59 are literally ummm… pointless :biggrin: .

This is working as intended according to Pankratz. They wanted to keep the game interesting from start to finish so you are only supposed to get better through your weapons but not through stat increases.
Why they kept the numerical x to 100 system then is anyone's guess. They should have maybe done a perk system instead(?)

There's a long German thread on this issue here at WoE, too, where people have tested and confirmed that increasing attributes does zilch except enabling you to equip higher rated stuff. Some of the people there have used Cheat Engine to directly check stat values in RAM.

However, the strange way in which attributes work compared to previous games is a deliberate feature and not a bug according to Pankratz so it probably won't get fixed. Outright broken abilities will hopefully be addressed in a patch though.

Thanks for the info @Moriendor. Some interesting things to consider there.

I'm personally fine with the system as it is but I hope they patch the flat out non-working aspects of it. Bookworm, for example, and the ones that are bugged.

I'm actually quite pleased with how the attribute system works, even though the descriptions are misleading. It's a big improvement from Risen 3, where it was far too easy to raise all your attributes to very high levels and become an invincible demigod.

Feels a bit wasted to me… I think there are better systems out there. Even if increased attributes don't make a massive difference, they should make a difference.

Strength could increase critical chance for melee weapons by 0.25% per point or something

Intelligence could increase the ability of unlocking some 'unseen' quests or dialogue.

Cunning could be used to make sneaking somewhat skill dependent.

Sent from my SM-A520F using Tapatalk

I did a little testing, but I never noticed a difference. What I never tested though was doing a huge boost to see if that had an impact. The easiest way to do that is to:
- Save
- Find a mob of a certain type
- Check out the damage on the given mob
- Load
- Get the personality skill that gives +10 combat in one go. That's a huge boost.
- Attack the same mob again

If +10 doesn't make a difference, I think it's fair to say there's no difference.

I thought it said +1 to combat skill.

Sent from my SM-A520F using Tapatalk

Nope, those personality skills give +10 to the one you want, but it's only for use in conversations. It's basically to pass conversation checks. Let's say you have 3 combat (+1 melee, +1 ranged and +1 parry). That won't allow you to pass too many checks. Add the personality skill for Combat and you'll have 13, which is enough to pass almost all checks (there are a few +20 checks, but they are very rare).

Apparently the attributes *do* increase damage, etc., based on their in-game descriptions, it's just by a minuscule amount. Devs confirmed they are working as described in the game and as intended. Good stuff.

That's good, as it's currently not intuitive at all.

Thanks. I will need to double check that.

I have been on holiday for the last few days so I have not been able to play at all.

Sent from my SM-A520F using Tapatalk

Normally, a holiday is a good thing, but.. :D

Haha don't worry… It is [emoji3]

Sent from my SM-A520F using Tapatalk

People were speculating that either the descriptions were wrong, or a poorly-worded translation. It's just that their impact is minimal to the actual numbers, etc., but they do work, and they are mainly for unlocking requirements of the abilities and equipment. I haven't pondered it all that much but at first glance I think it's a pretty awesome system tbh. Even in Gothic you could pump up Strength or Dexterity and do much more damage earlier in the game than you could in ELEX, where you need to still meet the requirements for the skills and gear you need. Just my 2.

Yeah, I don't actually mind the system, but the description is lacking. That would also have been fine if the system itself had been intuitive, but it's not. That combination is a poor decision in my opinion, and will result in some negative reviews from confused players. It's a bit annoying, as it's such an easy thing to fix via a few extra, in-game descriptions and tooltips.

I heard they do that on purpose though to discourage super technical builds and keep some mystery etc behind the systems. I find it refreshing in a way, where I focus less on the minute details and more about just playing the game. But I know it will annoy some like you mentioned.