ELEX ELEX RELEASE THREAD

[pOcHa]

interesting bit of information:

PIranha Bytes has already funded, at least in part, the sequel to the upcoming open world action RPG Elex. The first game in this new series by Piranha Bytes and published by THQ Nordic is scheduled to release October 17th. The grant for Elex 2 is listed as being for 150, 000 Euros, which consists of 9% of the budget for Elex 2 – which would make the budget of the sequel over 1.5 million Euros.

 

[anvi]

Lol at everyone playing this game.

 

[Abu Antar]

Lol at everyone playing this game.

I'm loling at how much fun I am having.

 

[Hobo Elf]

Heads up, it looks like strength doesn't do a whole lot for melee damage (https://forum.worldofplayers.de/forum/threads/1502981-Kampffähigkeiten-verbuggt in German). The attribute is either bugged or the effect is very small. Better weapons make a comparably large difference though, I just got a broadsword and the enemy HP bar is actually moving now when I hit them. Just don't dump all your points into strength and expect a massive damage increase.

That there is no character overview with comprehensible descriptions/formulas for how damage/hp/armor/etc. work is easily the biggest flaw so far.

Doesn't seem like Dex makes much of a difference either. Seems like PB had to nerf the damage given by stats because of other sources of damage, such as the skills and upgraded weapons.

 

[Jenkem]

I unlocked t he teleporter by the dome city and don't have a teleporter to cleric land what are you people talking about? unless I did the wrong teleporter? They wont let me into the domed city... if I hang around that area without a companion I get kidnapped by clerics, is that what people are referring to?

 

[thekdawg21]

The balls that these guys have to release a real aRPG these days KNOWING it was going to get panned by modern games journalism are massive. 40 hours and I'm still impressed. Meme magic made my first full price purchase in 5 years feel like a pleasant surprise rather than a massive disappointment.

 

[Raapys]

I curse the day I saw someone mention that the teleport to cleric citadel is readily available in the dome city. Couldn't help myself and rushed there at level 7, hoping to become a part of the clergy. Now I'm stuck not being able to win the mandatory battle with the drug dealer...
And that's after miraculously solving the quest that involved killing four cleric drones and a goliath.
I guess it's time to buy a few hundred energy cells and master the art of hitting and running for 10 minutes straight. Ehhh, maybe tomorrow...

Or, you could pick up 2-3 Force Push/Wave from one of the extractors and just use those for an easy-ish win.

 

[funkadelik]

You guys hyped me. Just bought Elex, waiting for it to install.

 

[bataille]

I unlocked t he teleporter by the dome city and don't have a teleporter to cleric land what are you people talking about? unless I did the wrong teleporter? They wont let me into the domed city... if I hang around that area without a companion I get kidnapped by clerics, is that what people are referring to?

When you activate the telepad, you get a destination near Hort, the character even comments on that. The teleporter in question is near the cement structure with stairs by the outlaws' camp.

 

[Junmarko]

Repaired the drone companion only to then realize he comes equipped with his own flashlight...

...well Duras, guess I'll be ratting you out to your boss after all.

 

[ShadowSpectre]

Enjoying Elex so far. . .

. . . despite the bugs. XD

 

[YES!]

Parrying with a weapon
- You will lose stamina if attacked while parrying with a weapon, if the attack reduces you to 0 stamina you will take damage from the attack.
- You will fully negate the attack if you have at least 1 stamina left after absorbing the attack

Have you tested if and how parry affects shields? Shields make combat a lot easier for me as either the stamina drain is much less on blocking or the DR is high enough to mitigate it but it seems as long as I don't fuck up something I have more stamina to attack with more often. And as stated, you want to start a chain with full stamina since the later attacks cause way, way more damage in the chain. I seem to really stink at getting the special attacks off correctly when the game recommends them.

Also, shields have a damage stat only (as a base stat). When you improve a shield only damage goes up. You can attack with shields so the damage is relevant, but I don't think it has anything to do with defense at all. I have a named shield that does shit damage but has a gem slot and increases electric resistance. I see no difference in stamina lost on blocking or time to regen or regen speed while blocking or any defense related anything when using this shield versus a tier 1 or 2 warshield.

I am almost able to equip a 2 handed sword I got early on that does 75 damage so I may switch to that at least for non-trash mobs since the longer you fight the tough ones the higher chance for a fuck up.

I kind of like how there isn't one good way for standard weapons to kill everything I've come across. What is good for the spam mobs is bad for the tough mobs, or at least from what I've seen and how I play. I want higher def and better defense when fighting a group of mutants or albs, but defense doesn't matter when fighting a troll so you want every possible edge in damage dealing to end it faster as the only defense that works is not getting hit.

 

[Stavrophore]

The main motor for me playing this game is to finally find a weapon that will set me on equal footing with trolls and best enemies in the game.The plot doesn't interest me as much as this retarded craving. I guess PB specifically constructed the difficulty and this world for this to happen. Ranged weapons suck balls, so i guess i have lot of hours ahead.
Most economical are laser rifles with 2$ ammo price, and then bows. Next are harpoons and plasma rifles with 4$ price. Shooting overleveld enemies with such pricey ammo is a recipe for not having money instantly -you have to explore world and do the quest in correct order if you play ranged character, because you will burn that elexit for ammo. Doesn't help that ai is stupid and you can just sit on the roof, shoot few times, move by side when enemy cast ranged attack, and then attack again rinse and repeat, even with strongest enemies. The problem is that higher leveled enemies hav damage reduction, so you will spend like 80 shots, instead of 10 if you were in the correct level. So trying to kill overleveld creatures, even if they are doable is not advisable for ranged character-its better to take on enemies with equal or slightly higher level.

 

[Jedi Master Radek]

This should be the soundtrack for this thread

 

[MadMaxHellfire]

I just beat The Chicken! That's it, enough stress for today..

and here i always thought that slapping the cock was a stress reliever.

 

[Mark.L.Joy]

Did a lot of running around completing quests, getting one shotted teaches dodging skills pretty fast even using jetpack to compensate stamina, fun watching enemies charge air while you take flight. Found a good sword that can be used at around level 9 with full str/dex investment for 47 energy dmg don't know if that's appropriate for the level but speech checks don't seem to produce worthwhile rewards so I'll go for that. Starving forgot to eat dinner, anyway

This is fine

 

[Turisas]

Heads up, it looks like strength doesn't do a whole lot for melee damage (https://forum.worldofplayers.de/forum/threads/1502981-Kampffähigkeiten-verbuggt in German). The attribute is either bugged or the effect is very small. Better weapons make a comparably large difference though, I just got a broadsword and the enemy HP bar is actually moving now when I hit them. Just don't dump all your points into strength and expect a massive damage increase.

That there is no character overview with comprehensible descriptions/formulas for how damage/hp/armor/etc. work is easily the biggest flaw so far.

Doesn't seem like Dex makes much of a difference either. Seems like PB had to nerf the damage given by stats because of other sources of damage, such as the skills and upgraded weapons.

Any idea what Attack Strength does? Is it better or worse than Melee Weapons (assuming it only improves melee damage)? Is one or the other always better, or does it change if you use slow 2handers, for example?

 

[Jasede]

Am 21 hours into the game and I have found -one- two-handed weapon in the entire game so far, so it's hard to say...
Ah well, Mace +2 it is.

 

[Cross]

It's good to see Piranha Bytes going out of their comfort zone and taking some inspiration from other open-world RPG's.

Spoiler

 

[Shinji]

Take that Todd Howard!

 

[jungl]

ranged weapons are fine. You have to use them as pirana byes intended. Get in melee range and have the ai switch to melee then roll, auto aim shoot, quickly auto aim again shoot, roll repeat. Don't actually intent to have a legit gun fight with enemies as if you were playing a triple A game without a retarded combat system pirana byes hates that. Its why since gothic 2 they been making combat progressively worse and more goofy looking in their games.

 

[eric__s]

Anyone catch the throwback to Gothic 2 with Jack in the lighthouse?

 

[Tigranes]

Alright all you people not getting the melee combat, this is classic Gothic style. Click your next attack right on the heels of your last. It's a timing based system.

This is action combat system and uses hyper armor. What that means is that if you swing when your enemy is open, you will cause them to flinch and be able to follow it up with another attack.

These are just general tips and may differ depending on the type of attack the enemy is using and what type of weapon (1 or 2 handed) and whether it's a big monster attacking you or not, but it's a good guideline to how melee combat works:

Attacking
- If you attack with a LIGHT attack you will flinch if you get hit during your attack, and your attack will be interrupted and you will take damage
- If you attack with a HEAVY attack you will NOT flinch if you get hit during your attack, but you will take damage
- The more successive hits you get in a well timed combination will improve your combo meter faster and will allow you to use a special attack that you cannot be flinched during
- If you time your attacks badly you may not even swing even though you've hit the button to do so. The better timed your attacks are, the faster your next one will come out and the more of the combo meter will get filled up.

Parrying with a weapon
- You will lose stamina if attacked while parrying with a weapon, if the attack reduces you to 0 stamina you will take damage from the attack.
- You will fully negate the attack if you have at least 1 stamina left after absorbing the attack

Hyper-armor or Poise
- The earlier you are in your attack animation that you get hit, the more likely it is that you will flinch. The later you are the more likely it is that you will follow it through.

Enemies
- Also use heavy and light attacks.
- The heavier the attack, the more stamina it will drain if you parry. It's a good idea to save up enough stamina to dodge out of the way rather than parry for big enemy attacks.
- Big slow monsters will have big telegraphed attacks but can one shot you, so conserve that stamina

Weapons
- You want to upgrade them often. Even a +2 increase in damage from a weapon could mean the difference between 50 attacks to down an enemy and 10.
- (Not tested yet) I suspect that two-handed weapons will have more "Poise" which means that you will get flinched less often when you use them, so you can blast away tanking enemy hits and dealing big damage in return.
- One handers have more of a dart-in dart-out style that lets you punish enemy openings and take less damage overall if you're good at timing.

Multiple enemies
- I've found success mostly in cheesing when I get attacked by multiple enemies. Kiting by running away and thinning the herd with grenades and ranged attacks.
- You can sprint away from an enemy while keeping the camera looking behind you, let them catch up just barely enough and then surprise them with a heavy attack and a dodge away immediately afterward. I was able to drop a group of 7 reavers at level 2 by doing this. It's not very satisfying though.
- Not cheesing this will basically be trying to drop the weaker foes (the ones wearing less armor) with ranged attacks and then dueling the toughest guy with your superior action twitch skillz

Spamming attacks
- Don't fucking do it or you will think the combat sucks

If this helps anyone I'll keep updating it as I learn the combat system more. This system is actually fairly complex and I suspect if you enjoy action combat, melee is the way to go.

This needs to be stickied or someshit. Every PB game you need to figure out the timing and patterns, and once you do it's such a logical system.

With this and some experiments now against some tavern thug in Domed City I think I've got the basics down and it's good - I'd say sensible and fun in a way comparable to Risen 1, though a bit more predictable and generously timed (on Difficult) than say G1/2 maybe.

Crucially shield block works somewhat on monsters, block activates very quickly so you can watch for animation on slower critters, and it doesn't really seem to slow you down. Apparently the Old World made better shields than swords.

 

[thekdawg21]

Have you tested if and how parry affects shields? Shields make combat a lot easier for me as either the stamina drain is much less on blocking or the DR is high enough to mitigate it but it seems as long as I don't fuck up something I have more stamina to attack with more often. And as stated, you want to start a chain with full stamina since the later attacks cause way, way more damage in the chain. I seem to really stink at getting the special attacks off correctly when the game recommends them.

I have no points in Con so no shields yet for me. When I do I will test out the stamina consumption when blocking, damage through a parry (if there is one). I know that shields DO block ranged attacks, which could be huge, since I get smoked once I come into contact with enemies I can't bait into only meleeing me.

There are quite a few hidden stats so I suspect there is a hidden shield stat that I would call "stability", which is a varying amount of stamina consumed when you block an attack. It'd be silly to just have added damage to shields, but from what I've seen the shield bash skill is a pretty safe maneuver to use that still counts as a block an attack during your shield bash animation.

One thing I'm interested in is the melee weapon hold block + light attack move. I'm not sure what it does yet. I thought it was like a parry in Dark Souls where if you time it right you can get a critical attack on an enemy, but I either haven't learned the timing yet or it's just an unused animation that only works for weapons with alternate attacks. I'll update as I test more.

(I turned off the tutorial immediately once it started to slow time in the game so if I've missed something that was explained there.. that's why. I was sucking hard until I realized it was more like Gothic than Risen)

 

[thekdawg21]

Am 21 hours into the game and I have found -one- two-handed weapon in the entire game so far, so it's hard to say...
Ah well, Mace +2 it is.

I've found a couple. If you want a hint I can tell you where a really nice one is pretty early. They're great for high risk/high reward combat.