Part 8: Fake Update #1 - Annoying Otho

Fake Update #1 - Annoying Otho

As was clear from Chapter 5, Otho is one grumpy Dwarf. His crusty exterior hides an even crustier interior! The developers even put in a few extra ways to really tick him off for no reason.

Let's start the anger parade by taking some Drudanae from Lanilor's garden. If we ask Lanilor's permission first, everything's fine and dandy. But if we don't ask, Otho catches us red-handed.





Before we even say anything, we're in the hole with Otho by 10 disposition points just for stealing. We have three choices to respond:

1) Blatant lie.
2) Defensive, blaming the victim.
3) Apologetic.


3) Being apologetic saves us any further disposition loss.

Oh, I'm sorry. Shall I put the herbs back?
Don't be an idiot! It's too late for that now you've pulled 'em up. What's that you're carrying... Drudanae? Be careful with that herb, it's dangerous. Humph... well, what are you waiting for? Congratulation on being a bad thief? Get out of my sight!
What's so dangerous about these Drudanae herbs?
Not a lot - apart from some powerful hallucinatory and addictive side effects. Of course, a high dose can kill a horse. Now, get out of here. And watch where you leave that stuff... I don't want some poor kid eatin' it, mistakin' it for a sprig o' butter leaf.
Very well. Again, sir, my apologies.


2) Defending yourself by blaming the victim just digs your hole deeper by another 10 points.

Oh, I'm sorry! I didn't realize this was Lanilor's garden. There's no sign to say so.
No sign? Of course there's no sign! Everyone around here knows enough to keep out of each other's property!


1) Using blatant lies, Otho won't contradict you, but he's pretty sure you're lying.

I have Lanilor's permission, friend dwarf.
Really... What's that you're carrying... Drudanae? What d' ye need that for?




You get three more choices to respond:

1) Another blatant lie. (This ends the conversation right away.)
3) None of your business. (This ends the conversation right away.)

None of these three options will damage your standing with Otho further, but they don't get you out of the hole either.

2) The truth.

George asked me to get it for him.
George? Hrmph... I better have a word with the old fool.

(He doesn't.)

Do whatever you think is necessary, but I really have to go now.

Instead of that, you also have the option of blatantly contradicting yourself by saying that Lanilor needs it for a potion to help Mardaneus, one sentence after you said George wanted you to get it. Otho doesn't call you on this and you don't lose disposition.

That was just the warm-up, to get our griefing muscles all limbered up.


Video - Annoying Otho for Fun and Anti-Profit (Voice-acting)


Next in Otho's house, you'll notice a skeleton.




That looks touchable...



Oops. This lowers Otho's disposition by another 10 points. (It seems to cap at -35, which is a good idea. We want to annoy him, not kill him.)

Well, that was fun. Anything else? Say... what's that in the tips you get when you save and load a game?



Sounds reasonable. You raise pigs to slaughter them, right? We're saving time!



Aww... he didn't mean it. He's just kidding. He'll thank me!



This lowers Otho's disposition by another 15 points, up to -35.

You... you mass murderer! You'll pay for this!





This is only lethal below a certain health range, maybe based on your level or reduced by armor. Jeremiah has 40 health at level 1 and this is an insta-kill then.

When you reload your game, the game gives you some helpful advice:




@@@@

Oh yes, the other day, I might have mentioned the skill Resurrect. I think I said I probably wouldn't be using it. Once I heard that many normal enemies in "Act 2/Act3" can drop Gold Charms, I changed my mind. (Charms are like gems from Diablo 2, socketable into items, and Gold Charms are the highest quality.) My name isn't Mr. Swoon, but I have just become a Monster Rancher.

Bookshelf farming is simple. Find a bookshelf you KNOW you haven't already looked at, and quicksave. Check the shelf. If there's a spellbook, yay. If not, quickload. Repeat. Most of the time you'll get random books or gold. Spellbooks only appear on a bookshelf about once every 20 reloads, and there are a lot of possible spellbooks, so getting a PARTICULAR spellbook can potentially take a long time. Finding one on the 6th book out of like 200 shelf checks is really fast. If you get something the first time you look at a shelf and the same thing for the next 5-10 reloads, that shelf is already locked and you're not getting anything. I don't normally do this kind of grindy thing, I'm mostly doing it to see how much I can break the game open.

I was lucky enough to bookshelf-farm a Resurrect spellbook after only about two hours (five or six magic books appeared, but since I was only looking for one, I didn't bother with those). That sounds like a long time farming bookshelves, but it's actually incredibly short.

Resurrect
- When used as intended, Resurrect is similar to Revive from the Diablo 2 Necromancer, except that your summons aren't on a time limit. Based on your Rank of the skill, resurrected minions have 20%/30%/40%/50%/75% of their original stats. There isn't a limit to how many you can control as far as I know.

When used as intended, Resurrect is a mediocre skill. Nice for some distractions, especially when used on minibosses who have huge statistics anyway.

There is something about the way Resurrect works which may (or may not) be intentional. If you revive an enemy, it is on your side with reduced statistics... until you leave the area. Once you leave the area (teleporting, passing into/out of an interior space), the game forgets that the Resurrected minion is that, it only recognizes an alive enemy unit. When you next go to that area, your former minion is back to full strength and is an enemy once again. VERSION 1.40 CHANGES - This bug has been fixed. Resurrected enemies now die forever once you leave an area, so the farming trick won't work.

These enemies who you already killed once can be killed again for full experience and item drops. Minibosses can be revived. Minibosses ALWAYS drop a magic item. Magic items, at the very least, sell for a lot of cash. As long as you remember to revive the guys before you leave the area, they'll be there when you come back.

I can kill a group twice before I need to sleep (for free refills of my magic), and even with the timer preventing you from sleeping too often, the time it takes to kill them twice is long enough that I can sleep immediately.

In conclusion: With Resurrect, you can get free experience, cash, and items indefinitely. Luckily, I am at a point in my narrative where the main character is anticipating a fight, so suddenly acquiring a lot of gear will make sense.

I'll repost this later when the time comes, and it's not terribly spoilerish, but for those who are curious now, here's how I'm currently using Resurrect:

 There's an Orc miniboss and two lesser orcs waiting near a teleporter platform (Diablo 2 Waypoint). I put up my Shield spell, and go in, using my Burning Wall spell (Diablo 2's "Blaze", except electric and a lot more awesome).

One of my lucky drops from the farming was a magic +1 Burning Wall piece of armor, which made Burning Wall incredibly damaging. Just ONE Rank 2 Burning wall can kill a 2000 HP Miniboss Orc if he gets caught in it just right. Rank 2 is so good for the mana cost that I can do three runs (instead of two) before needing to rest and get my mana back.

I Burning Wall all the Orcs to death, pick up the magic item the Miniboss always drops, and Resurrect the lot, step onto the teleporter and go somewhere, then immediately back. The Resurrected enemies are immediately back to being full health regular enemies.

When I run low on magic, I revice the crops and return to my favorite trader who ID's my items for 100 gold each. After I've got a chest full, I sell them off to my favorite merchant, then I rest and return to the farm. 

Next update we start the long exploration of Aleroth Beneath. Also, I start abusing spellbooks to break the game.