Risen 3 Not getting the excitement

crpgnut · August 20, 2014

I find the combat extremely tedious and it kills a lot of my enjoyment. Also, the lack of weapon and armor choices is extreme. This game feels like an indie made for $50,000 to me. I've been letting Bones kill everything while I just wander around once they lose aggro on me. I grabbed that item that Joxer mentions in the spoiler thread on fog island and wandered around there a bit, but I'm heading back to the Crab Coast now. After I finish off exploring it, I'll try to go get Crystal Magic in Tyranis. If magic isn't much better than melee, this will be another PB game that ends up on the shelf.

Exploration is just wonderful in the game, but I can't seem to use 90% of the loot I find until later. I haven't found a locked chest yet that I can open as the game seems to expect all of your stats to be in the 50's range and so you're supposed the spend the first 30 hours of the game doing boring melee. Not for me; at all. I've never been a button masher. I like to kill from stealth; impossible in the game as far as I can tell. Ranged weapons have a range of like 10 feet. I haven't found a longbow, crossbow or rifle that allows for distance killing. The game should give you all 3 ways of killing right in the beginning. Give me a magic missile spell that I can spam instead of playing whack a mole. Gonna visit the mages and see if I can find a fun way to fight. If not, time to uninstall and move on.

Maylander · August 20, 2014

Finding a decent musket for ranged attacks is not difficult. Every major island has vendors that sell those. Going straight to a DLC island with only fighting is bound to limit you in quite a few ways. Yes, you do get 10% more XP, but I would recommend going there after you join a faction.

I still recommend the following:
Crab Coast -> Join a faction -> Fog Island

Joining a faction is essential, as you get all the neat skills and spells from them. Until then, you're stuck with rather basic stuff. Unlike previous PB games, you gain nothing by holding back on joining a faction.

crpgnut · August 20, 2014

Can you join more than one? I want all the magics

I'll finish Crab Coast and head straight to magic land. Can you stay at ranged easily? I don't mind Bones running in unless he's going to take collateral damage once I get me some cystals. I've noticed the merchant on fog island sold a lot of taxidermy type stuff. Since I didn't have much cash, I didn't but any but I got the bone saw that gives me two of those skills.

Maylander · August 20, 2014

1) No, you can only join one faction. For a "pure mage" type of character, your best bet is the Mages. I'd start with the fire spell, which is also what Marcusio or whatever recommends, in addition to healing and rain of fire. You'll get there. Very few things are resistant to fire, and none on the mage island if I remember correctly.
2) You can't really stay at range as a Mage. Their basic attack spell has a fairly short range, so I recommend charging the spells a bit when casting, similar to how power attacks work (hold down the left mouse button; letting go will trigger the cast). Even a hint of charging will add a knock back effect to the spell. The third attack in a combo automatically knocks back though, which is worth knowing.
3) Bones is immune to all of your AoE damage, so just blast away with rain of fire and what not. Keep in mind that non-companions are not immune, so don't fire up some massive spell in the middle of town.
4) Just learn the skills you don't have access to through the bone saw from a Hunter, and you'll never have to worry about buying it from a vendor. It's a pretty good investment, even if you don't get it right away.

joxer · August 20, 2014

Took mages myself.

1. The starter offensive spell is irrelevant, pick any. But do take telekinesis, it's essential just like in R2. This of course means Maylander is right. Partially. Fog Island first, then go join your "guild". As you'll kiss any dev who coded telekinesis in.
2-4. Dunno.
5. Focus? Q key? Um… Who needs that. As I've said, take telekinesis (called Wind Hand).

For "tedious" combat I said previously, just pump your attributes and unlock blade dancer skill, nothing can stop you then except shadow guardian OP combos when you're still squishy, and even he dies fast later. I'm now in chapter 3 and still use the sword - the only offensive spell I pull when 5-6 of mobs attack me at the same time is rain of fire. Fights end fast.

Maylander · August 20, 2014

There's really no point in going with swords if you want to play as a pure Mage. The damage output is similar once you've put a few points Magic. Also, the starter spell is not actually irrelevant, as there are quite a few ice resistant monsters on the mage island, which will make a pure mage rather useless. Lightning and Fire will both work though, but Fire works best as various water creatures are vulnerable to it, leading to extremely high damage.

PS. Pretty sure the TK spell is given to you for free not long after you join them. You'll get it when getting a quest.

joxer · August 20, 2014

I'm not sure if he wants to play pure mage. I definetly didn't want that.

In fact I got to the point of faction choosing (everything else solved), so tried mages - and found out you get spammable AoE fire spell, healing (now this one would be perfect if early!) and telekinesis so I remained a mage. That third spell renders item Q detection of all three factions irrelevant.
Dunno what other two factions get exactly, but summoning a sidekick from demon hunters is something I don't need in this game and just can't see me flying everywhere as a voodoo parrot… Not saying it wouldn't be fun, on some replay I'll pick another faction.

Maylander · August 20, 2014

Demon Hunters also get healing and TK actually. No rain of fire though, but more buff type spells such as attack speed, higher defenses etc.

It's easy to check them out, just use the one-time runes you have under magic (the red and black ones are Demon Hunter spells, such as Demon Blade and Runeskin). The orange ones belong to the Pirates.

DPB · August 20, 2014

Voodoo Pirates can get a telekinesis glove too, though I'm not sure they have any healing spells. The Voodoo spells are certainly a lot more useful than Risen 2's scepters.

JDR13 · August 21, 2014

crpgnut said:
I find the combat extremely tedious and it kills a lot of my enjoyment. Also, the lack of weapon and armor choices is extreme. This game feels like an indie made for $50,000 to me. I've been letting Bones kill everything while I just wander around once they lose aggro on me. I grabbed that item that Joxer mentions in the spoiler thread on fog island and wandered around there a bit, but I'm heading back to the Crab Coast now. After I finish off exploring it, I'll try to go get Crystal Magic in Tyranis. If magic isn't much better than melee, this will be another PB game that ends up on the shelf.

Exploration is just wonderful in the game, but I can't seem to use 90% of the loot I find until later. I haven't found a locked chest yet that I can open as the game seems to expect all of your stats to be in the 50's range and so you're supposed the spend the first 30 hours of the game doing boring melee. Not for me; at all. I've never been a button masher. I like to kill from stealth; impossible in the game as far as I can tell. Ranged weapons have a range of like 10 feet. I haven't found a longbow, crossbow or rifle that allows for distance killing. The game should give you all 3 ways of killing right in the beginning. Give me a magic missile spell that I can spam instead of playing whack a mole. Gonna visit the mages and see if I can find a fun way to fight. If not, time to uninstall and move on.

You don't want a button masher, but you want to be able to spam ranged attacks? In other words, you want to be able to mash buttons without taking damage.

Lack of weapon and armor choices? I agree there aren't a lot of choices for armor, but there are a lot of weapons. You just have to find them.

It sounds to me like you're simply used to games that throw a lot of loot your way right from the beginning. PB titles don't do that.

wolfing · August 21, 2014

I want to join a magic faction where I don't ever ever have to swing a weapon, which one is the closest to that?

JDR13 · August 21, 2014

wolfing said:
I want to join a magic faction where I don't ever ever have to swing a weapon, which one is the closest to that?

The Guardians. (Taranis)

crpgnut · August 21, 2014

You'll have to swing a weapon on Crab Coast enough to get sick of it, but I'm at the mages now but I haven't had anyone agree to train me in spells yet. I've talked to Marcusio and Magnus but I guess I have to quest for the mages first. Sounds like I need to visit the mines on that island. I'm just seeing what I can steal w/o getting caught or losing soul points. Money seems extremely tight. I was trying to raise dexterity/lockpicking as Maylander suggested, but it takes 25,000 xp to get to 50 lockpicking which is just ridiculous. That's like 2 1/2 islands of creature kills. It's amazing that you get to swing a sword for free but any other combat requires questing or a ton of exploration to get. Give me spells for free and make me pay to train in sword.

JDR13 · August 21, 2014

Don't worry about soul points. They're extremely easy to gain back later. In fact, it's actually easier to gain soul points than it is to lose them.

You don't need 50 in lockpicking before you join a faction. Especially if you're going to be a mage because you'll be able to open chests with magic.

Maylander · August 21, 2014

Well, sort of. Yes, you can use magic to open chests, but it relies on the "Crystal Magic" skill, which is a bit harder to boost than Lockpicking. Keep in mind that Lockpicking can be boosted both by getting skills from trainers, getting more Dexterity and by equipping various items. Getting to 100+ Lockpicking, and thus being able to open almost all chests in the game, is really not that hard. It basically just means getting to 50ish and then using skills and items to go the rest of the way.

Also, you'll get loads of XP, so I really wouldn't worry too much about that. You'll probably get both Magic and Dexterity to 50+ by the end of the island you're now on (if those are the stats you're going for). Keep in mind that taking them beyond 60 is not worth it, as you can go the rest of the way with permanent potions later on.

Edit: And yes, do the mine quest. You'll come across a few semi-hard fights during it, but it does indeed lead to magic.

Edit 2: And after you get magic, get it up to 25-30 fairly fast, as the costs are very low at that point. Then get the first +10 Crystal Magic skill from one of the trainers. That'll help your damage quite a bit.

crpgnut · August 21, 2014

Thanks guys. I'm plugging away at it and I'll do as suggested. I'm going to finish a PB game one of these days; maybe it'll be Risen 3. I really haven't used any xp yet, except for one skill that needed 20 in a couple things. I've got about 14,000 glory saved up, but that doesn't get me 50 lockpicking. I've got a 2nd meatshield on Tyrannosaurus Isle, but I'm not sure if the ankle biter is any good.

joxer · August 21, 2014

crpgnut, wait! I mentioned sword dancer skill for us who love to mix "swords and sorcery".

Try to get as soon as possible (IIRC Mercurio trains it) spell dancer skill. If that's not being unstoppable, dunno what is.

You can train lockpicking 3 times (each +10) at various trainers, but it depends on your corresponding attribute so you probably won't go for the third one (attribute requirement 90). So the attribute will be 60 but your lockpicking after two trainings will be 80. Add different equipable loot to it, jewelry to be precise, and probably each with +10 on lockpicking, it'll be 110 (3x10=30 +80=110) before you even realize.

I also suggest and I bet Maylander will agree not to use glory on an attribute above 60, but instead learn potion making, make permanent +5 pots and use those. The attributes cap is 105, if I'm right you find a total of 10 plants for permapots (10*5=50) so if you miss one or two plants somewhere, it's not a disaster.

And now I'm thinking maybe to replay the game and make a map for these plants on each island…

The highest number on a lock in the game is 120 (at least before chapter 4). Some chests cannot be lockpicked but need a proper key to open them.

Maylander · August 21, 2014

Indeed, no lock is higher than 120 and no pickpocket is higher than 120. Also, don't worry about the 120 ones. You'll get there easily with permanent dexterity potions later on.

crpgnut · August 25, 2014

I'm still plugging away at the game. It's not an award winner for me, but it's solid. I play slow so I'm about 45 hours in after 3 places: Crab, Mages, Thieves. There is so much hidden loot if you're super patient that it's almost unreal. Jump as high as you can, save your game, and then fly around as a parrot in every direction. You're bound to find dozens of little pockets of treasure.

Maylander · August 25, 2014

Yeah, it's part of the magic for me. I like that such creative exploration is rewarded.

What style of combat are you using? Pure magic, magic + melee or magic + ranged?

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