BrakoVonDoom: [...]
The combat feels a bit starnge but I guess that can be put down to age, or the fact it might have always been a bit pants. Anyway I want to ask a few questions.
1: What is it I need to be doing in terms or combat and waht skills to use.
2: I know nothing about mods or how they work, but are there any decent mods for this game that are worth looking into.
The combat is indeed a bit clunky. I remember having played the game thinking "it's a kind of hack'n slash, just run into them and see what happens...". Well, if Redemption is a kind of hack'n slash, it's not the most brainless. With the latest official patch, the developers added quite a few commands to help managing your team (which made up for the increased difficulty, as a free savegame feature was implemented).
First things first, have a good look at the shortcuts given in the manual. You'll see that you can manage the team much more easily. In the Readme, they wrote that you can also define a specific behaviour for each member if you shift-click a stance with one or more characters selected. You can also pause the game (active pause, so orders can be given), stop without clicking again on the ground, walk, do a secondary (stronger) attack... And also look quickly around without putting your cursor one the edges (numpad 5 e.g.).
As for the skills, I'm only halfway through the game, and the best thing is indeed to check the manual to see what's of interest for you. Keep in mind that the easiest way is to strenghthen your companions' skills and vary yours a bit (give all Disciplines books to Christof). A lot of characteristics are only limits to your Disciplines learning, just check the manual to see what is necessary to what (Intelligence is clearly limiting on the long run). Some are less self-evident: higher Wits value lowers (a bit) your chances to go frenzy (reaaaaallly bad in combat) - Manipulation increase buying and selling advantages.
Quickly increase Feed, Heal, and Awe (doesn't work on all kinds of enemies, but it's a must when it does: the enemy stops and you can thus replenish your blood pool easily by feeding on him!).
Pause the game when things heat up! And save OFTEN. Once you've found your own fighting style and got the basics right, the game's really starting to be interesting. Ah yes and always play with stances: the AI is just good enough to respect them (expect during very crowded, confined fights which are always, and realistically, well, nightmarish). If a character can become invisble, undo the group (shift+R) and control him/her to scout an area.
Still, the AI will be lacking and the mechanics aren't entirely balanced. So, as to 2: what mods?
... install the Age of Redemption 2011 mod. It's meant for veteran players, so you'll have to tweak it to play the game as intended on a first walkthrough (open config.txt from the Start menu/AoR Mod):
- respawntime = 0 (no enemy respawn, as by default. It's useful when other options for advanced players are left on, like dilution. Otherwise, it increases the difficulty, so disable it)
- dilution = 0 (your stats will remain the same after centuries of torpor, intended by the scenarists.)
- partycanhunt = false (put it on "true" and you can expect quite a lot of fights in towns - and a huge loss in humanity too)
- partyusesresurrection: well, this one depends on your style. It's also available in the game options (even though using the mod renders party options useless). If you like your characters using resurrections, concentrate on your main character and play with a lot of blood vials, you can leave it on. Otherwise, if you like to control everything, reanimate specific enemies only and carefully using your blood, turn it off.
Launch the game with "AoR no-cd".
Now the AI will be a bit better, management easier, and Disciplines more balanced. It's a bit like the third patch which the game never got before.
I hope this will help!
