The usefulness of your companions depends on which companions you select, some are really effective and can be the main damage dealers even in the new maps.
Swapping shield skills for thaumaturgy can be a valid way for survival, can mask your mind, force push opponents away, teleport to a safe distance, etc. also combat skills isnt at the core of your survival, your ability to run away is.
Some are somewhat more resilient and responsive in combat than others however they all suffer from the same mistakes AI does in this game. They also do not last very long even with the best equipment and overall tend to be more of a nuisance. They are just another thing you have to constantly mind and take care of. In combat against very aggressive, tanky enemies such as Alpha Fael (that's what pp call them) they can sometimes turn into literally that very crappy chair that's in your way and makes you fall, ahaha. Nah, useless decoys. That comes from someone who has almost 4k hours in CSGO and loves a good and long team based matches.
Shield skills are not even my favorite skill tree, during my last playthrough, which ended fairly abruptly in the market due to gravity after having literally killed everything in all other areas, I had 5 Thaum skills and almost entire thaum tree. I've used it, had some tough skelly and non skelly teammates including the sword-master and knights. They are meh. Shield skills are a far more predictable and reliable variable than mates that come and go, act differently depending on the situation and such like. Having those fellas should be a nice, fun extra during a second half or even late game stage. It's a cool quirk, I guess. Although basically it's just nothing but some rudimentary AI manipulation from a server admin, lol. In my opinion what's really unique and great about this game is its visual style, environment and weapons especially, and it's combat system of course. Lore comes second and only then can I even start considering thmautargy. I guess it can be a nice addition to lore. But no, most aspects of thaum are not reliable and too kinky. Also, do you really think you'd have enough time to effectively force push someone while getting beaten up by 3 fael in close quarters? I doubt it. As for running away to survive, well no. If you want to fully experience the game at its fullest while feeling like you're on top of it I do not think that running is a core survival strategy, I'd say it's something one might consider in some situations.
Enemies drop what they have on them, also why would you need item drops to feel a sense of accomplishment for defeating hard enemies? Though Exanima is more combat oriented than Sui Generis, every fight is still optional, if you don't want to kill something because it doesn't drop the loot you want, then don't.
I never said anything about the drops, most items enemies drop are garbage anyways, real good items can only be found in chests, so far at least. A certain amount of my sense of accomplishment, and i'm sure this applies to a lot more people out there, comes from getting XP from killed enemies, discovered items, and overall game progression. Killing an enemy which doesn't provide you anything useful apart from having fun fighting it feels incomplete for this type of game. Perhaps after a certain amount of skills is learned it should become harder to "skill up" but blocking it completely is just stupid. I'm at the last level of the current Beta, all other levels have been cleared and I've got only two 2 thaum skills so far. On top of that the devs plan to add more thaum...So if you want to have both mind and force thaum I'd have to give up on most combat skills in order to have them? That's just stupid. From the devs point of view making the whole skill tree accessible, or let's say ermm 85% of it by the end of the story with everything dead and discovered seems like a far better approach. Also, why would my Character's progress and learning have to be fully stopped from a lore or an in-game world perspective? What's the philosophy behind it?
When more skills are added, ranged combat, more fleshed out thaumaturgy trees and so on, then yea, being able to train all of the skills is gonna be OP. Even if you personally has mastered combat, having those skills have a huge effect on your performance, so gonna still struggle against someone who isn't as good at combat but has those skills trained. With the level cap you can either be a jack of all traits but master of none or master of a certain thing.
By adding more skills to the game and having this hard cap on the amount of skills one can learn you're taking away the motivation from the players who for example really likes magic so he learns first, get's all of the magic skills and then gets artificially stopped by the Devs. It's a mid game cockblock. As for being op, mind thaum definitely did not make my character any stronger, pack of faels was just as tough with or without it. Perhaps force thaum could be somewhat more combat applicable, I guess? But then to get all skills with the current skill progression rate you'd probably have to clear like 12 to 15 levels in exanima? Seems like a worthy present at the end of the game. Again, the very concept of a mid game HARD FULL STOP CAP on progression is just stupid. An all around no fun decision. When I've realized I've reached it and have no real interest in mind thaum I haven't played in exanima for 2 days straight. It's a real, artificial de motivator, trust me, and to me it makes 0 lore sense.
Isn't making your character a certain build the fun thing about a role playing game? You choose to play a certain class and try to beat the game through that character, the strength and weaknesses of the character is gonna make certain parts of the games easier and other harder. I tend to not find rpg games where the character becomes an all around master of everything that fun to play, it makes the playthroughs less interesting.
Maybe the skill cap might be relaxed because Exanima is more combat oriented and not that long, it's still a VIP thing, but for Sui Generis I'm pretty sure the skill cap will be a thing.
Not in this game. Not in this game because it is an Exploration/Combat based rpg. Having to decide which skill/skills/skill tree you're going to learn already decides your build in a lot of ways, it's an ingame process-build, and you experience it in game for hours and hours. Your playstyle and general approach are already set in stone by your personality and skill level. I like combat but I also want thaum just for the sake of making my character, myself in this game more powerful, so that no one else could "take over my mind", it's a purely lore centered decision for me, and this game must always feel natural and sensible, believable and immersive. Hard cap felt like a total WTF to me when I discovered it in the market area, "HUH WHY NO PROGRESS IS DIZ A BUG? WUT?". I can't give a rats ass about some silly AI npc running around me, at best it just messes with my attention, at worst i stumble over them in combat or they negatively affect enemy's AI and make it's movement more unpredictable. I want to pull its movement strings, makes it easier to hit.
Allowing me to get 80 to 85% of all skills by the end of the game won't make me "too OP". If it would than the devs should make enemies harder, clear and simple.
