zutsu13
4 days ago (edited)
Thank you so much for the tips!
I somehow have managed to miss the janitor entirely (unless they are also in the basement). Once I do find them I should have piles of cash, because of how much gear I've collected from grinding the first couple of areas in the asylum.
Right now my permanent insanity is at II. I've been save scumming to avoid having it go up too high. However, on a previous play through it was at IV, and yeah I basically had to pump resolve every level to even be functional.
I have yet to discover how to visit Egypt, but I did see there was a learnable Bastet occult skill. I may just grind out SP and get a few more things to help out.
Finding the janitor is a must though, because I've run out of cloth to make molotovs with, despite stocking up on piles of alcohol. Unless there's a way to tear down clothing I've missed, that would solve that problem.
Update: I got the Minotaur to 0% with some grenades and dynamite i found and he didn't die :(
Also I found the janitor. I could have sworn I checked in this room, but apparently I missed it.
Update 2: Finding the janitor has given me a massive power boost considering all the equipment he has access to. I've finally been able to make significant progress (Who knew star vampires were weak to being shot in the head with an SKS?).
Tabula Rasa Games
3 days ago
"Also I found the janitor. I could have sworn I checked in this room, but apparently I missed it. "
Unless things are profoundly bugged in a way completely undetectable to my own playtesting thus far (ALWAYS POSSIBLE), the Janitor is in the room if you go straight ahead as soon as you enter the asylum as the Academic. He can also be found in the basement later on. In Investigation B, on the other hand, he can first be found at Bellevue, and then can be found outside the Mausoleum in the Cemetery, and once the Cemetery is alerted, he moves in Investigation B.
In Investigation A his appearance in the basement shouldn't be contingent on first having met him in the room straight across from the entrance on the first floor, and Investigation B his appearance outside or inside the Mausoleum shouldn't be dependent on having first met him in Bellevue. I tried to make him very, very hard to miss. Additionally, worth checking back with him as you progress, as his inventory gets updated periodically with more and better gear and items.
Also, in Investigation A he does get very pissy if you find his quarters in the southwest section of the asylum and take his .30-06 rifle off of his wall. This can effect his future inventory, depending on how you handle it when you talk to him.
"Update: I got the Minotaur to 0% with some grenades and dynamite i found and he didn't die :("
I have killed the minotaur a dozen times now and I have never seen him fail to die from being killed! I have no idea what is going on here, but I will try to look into it. I probably have a savegame somewhere nearby I can load in the basement and I can tweak the chance of him appearing to see if I can reproduce this bug. There is an 'Immortal' state flag sometimes added to certain enemies so they don't actually die at 0 HP, but I never used this on the Minotaur.
As to save scumming to preserve your sanity, try to limit that instinct! There is actually a fair bit of cool later game content that you can only access if you are crazy enough. It's not obvious at first, but permanent madness can have niche benefits, particular once you reach the other side of Asylum 2F and meet Vassago, Malphus, and Andras (the middle of these is your gateway to Egypt through Investigation A). Generally speaking, permanent insanity of less than 4 is pretty manageable, and even 4 is survivable depending on how you spec. (Indefinite Insanity 5 is a very precarious state: at that point you really do want to get to Egypt and Bast as fast as possible.)
Glad you're progressing, and big thanks for the updates!
zutsu13
3 days ago(edited)
Oh yes, the minotaur was very strange. Got him down to 0%.
He spent a few rounds after that on fire, bleeding, and stunned while I attacked him. Still didn't die after the stun wore off and a full round passed. At that point I had to run away, because he can easily one shot the academic and possibly get lucky enough to take one of the detectives down at the same time. If I have more time to play today, I'll try it again to see if I can reproduce the issue. Maybe something has changed since I was able to flee and go back to the hotel.
*Update*
Attempted it again. He finally died after about three rounds of everyone going insane and punching about randomly while at 0%.
I guess I was just too hasty with my retreat earlier.
Also the blessing of Bast is my favorite thing. Love cats <3
zutsu13
3 days ago
Finally made it to the trio and got to try out Egypt.
I also tried to go to 1892. She took the LeMat revolver from me but then nothing happened. If the whole Egypt trip never happened I'd feel ripped off! :P
Very excited to see where things go next.
zutsu13
3 days ago (edited)
Ran into a missing file issue when examining one of the paintings. The itch comments are being ornery and don't want to allow me to upload a screenshot. It's the Rosa Temptation painting in the room with the trio.
Notably this is before you open a portal that takes the inspection button's place.
zutsu13
3 days ago
After getting insanity to IV thanks to looking at the Yellow Sign and spending a good amount of time going through options provided by the trio (Including finally visiting Bast once my insanity hit level V) I moved on and got to the confrontation with the Morgenstine twins, but ended up failing the conversation portion.
It was a close fight after they split, but they ended up killing me (first death on this save).
The silence song ended up hurting me quite a bit early on, but I just started lobbing all of the explosives I had. Sadly by the time they end up separating and getting serious they made short work of me before I could get one of them down to about 50%.
Which gave me a unique opportunity. I chose to restart in the same body.
Surprisingly this put me at the hotel's position in chapter 3 with almost none of my gear, not quite as many SP as I once had, and (most?) of my levels and stats. A nice surprise but...
The door is locked behind me and the enemies are absolutely brutal for the gear we have equipped.
I did notice I still have the manuscript to learn spells (hooray!), and the detectives started with different guns (including a nice shotgun).
Everyone missing a good chunk of active and passive skills at this point in the chapter because of a lack of SP definitely feels bad. You kind of have to sacrifice between active skill synergy or passives that you had before. And splitting up SP to get some passives and some active skills just leaves you a lot weaker and ill-prepared.
I was also hoping I could go back to earlier sections and pick up some of our previous gear - the academic in particular lost basically everything she was wearing. RIP my enchanted magic knife, amulet, and nifty Bast skill - but alas the door was locked behind us after we went through.
I wonder if picking the Occultist at this point would have also had different starting changes?
I may reload before the twin fight and see what happens next time I die, but I do need to talk to the nice woman in the wheelchair now that I've died to see what else she says.
On another note, I enjoy the spell learning process out of the manuscript. It's really well done.
Also the twins themselves are great, as much as I complain about them being very difficult. The whole encounter just oozes the right kind of atmosphere for the king in yellow. "
I'll also paste the relevant ones into the relevant Playtesting Threads.