Ars Magica 2 - Affinity Tomes?

[ThePokepika99]

I've been playing around with Ars Magica 2 a lot in Direwolf 1.6.4
And when I was doing stuff in creative I found that there were items called "Affinity Tomes".
After reading Arcane Compendium a bit, I found that they give you 10% for that Affinity what it is, like Affinity Tome: Arcane would give you 10% affinity for Arcane affinity. But there is no crafting recipe for it. I looked trough NEI, but nothing. I even tried shooting Disarm spell on those Dark Mages and Light Mages (they seems to hold Affinity tome in their hands), but only Dark Mages dropped affinity tomes, and it was: Affinity Tome: None. And they did absolutely nothing.

So I checked my Arcane Compendium again, and it said:
"Affinity Tomes contain detailed reports and information gather by magi over the years pertaining to a specific affinity"

So if I get these Affinity Tomes: None books, if I hold them in my inventory for a while and casting tons of spells, will they turn into specific Affinity Tome what my Affinity is most at? Or will they become Affinity Tomes trough if I for example cast a lot of Arcane Affinity spells, will they turn into that Affinity Tome?

If none knows about these "Affinity Tomes" I'm gonna investigate them by myself on course of my magical career. And report them here if I find anything interesting.

 

[Yusunoha]

I believe they're dungeon loot from Ars Magica, meaning they can be found in dungeon chests.
but Mithion has decided to move the dungeon generation from Ars Magica itself, towards Better Dungeons.

meaning if you want Ars Magica 2 dungeons to spawn, you'll need to install Better Dungeons aswell

 

[ThePokepika99]

I believe they're dungeon loot from Ars Magica, meaning they can be found in dungeon chests.
but Mithion has decided to move the dungeon generation from Ars Magica itself, towards Better Dungeons.

meaning if you want Ars Magica 2 dungeons to spawn, you'll need to install Better Dungeons aswell

Well that's a shame, since I was really hoping there to bit easier way to get me out of 90% full Lightning Affinity. I don't really like to be hit with lightning during rain. Even tough I can just become Zombie Pigman and get 0 damage from lightnings.
And I can't and want really install Better Dungeons mod, since it wouldn't (at least I think) fit theme of FTB, expect maybe Magic World 2 and I'm playing on a server in Direwolf20 1.6.4.

 

[Yusunoha]

Well that's a shame, since I was really hoping there to bit easier way to get me out of 90% full Lightning Affinity. I don't really like to be hit with lightning during rain. Even tough I can just become Zombie Pigman and get 0 damage from lightnings.
And I can't and want really install Better Dungeons mod, since it wouldn't (at least I think) fit theme of FTB, expect maybe Magic World 2 and I'm playing on a server in Direwolf20 1.6.4.

you could perhaps use Minetweaker and add in recipes for those affinity tomes

 

[ThePokepika99]

you could perhaps use Minetweaker and add in recipes for those affinity tomes

Well, maybe I'll just do it the hard way by casting tons of other types of spells and get some other affinity.

 

[YX33A]

Affinity Tome: None is actually one of the most useful ones, as it can decrease all affinities by 10%. Now, this may seem useless, but when you get a affinity to 100%, it locks, preventing any others from increasing(might not, I'm not sure, ask mithion for more info). But since all affinities have upsides and downsides, the ability to decrease a affinity can be very useful if you, say, have 100% arcane affinity and are not very well versed in defensive magic and are fighting mages(or really, anyone who can deal magic damage), as a high Arcane affinity makes you weaker to magic damage. It does make all your spells cost less as it increases(above 50% IIRC), and when it gets high enough, it has a chance to even make your next spell cost NOTHING, which can be very useful for super powerful spells you wish you could cast all the time, but instead can't cast at all yet.

I'd wager that if you fought some of the bosses in AM2, aside from dropping Infinity Orbs(which are badass, BTW), they might drop affinity tomes. Just a thought.

 

[ThePokepika99]

Affinity Tome: None is actually one of the most useful ones, as it can decrease all affinities by 10%. Now, this may seem useless, but when you get a affinity to 100%, it locks, preventing any others from increasing(might not, I'm not sure, ask mithion for more info). But since all affinities have upsides and downsides, the ability to decrease a affinity can be very useful if you, say, have 100% arcane affinity and are not very well versed in defensive magic and are fighting mages(or really, anyone who can deal magic damage), as a high Arcane affinity makes you weaker to magic damage. It does make all your spells cost less as it increases(above 50% IIRC), and when it gets high enough, it has a chance to even make your next spell cost NOTHING, which can be very useful for super powerful spells you wish you could cast all the time, but instead can't cast at all yet.

I'd wager that if you fought some of the bosses in AM2, aside from dropping Infinity Orbs(which are badass, BTW), they might drop affinity tomes. Just a thought.

I tried to use these "None" Affinity Tomes once, but they had no effect on me. Nothing changed. I didn't lose any affinities or got any affinities. But I have to try them again, since it was not latest version when I used them, so it might have had a bug on it.

 

[Redius]

I'd wager that if you fought some of the bosses in AM2, aside from dropping Infinity Orbs(which are badass, BTW), they might drop affinity tomes. Just a thought.

I also have had zero effect from using the "NONE" tome. In addition, I've killed over 50 of the AR2 bosses, and never seen a tome drop...so if they do, it's stupidly low rates (or I'm horribly unlucky, but with that many kills, I'm not thinking that's the case).

 

[YX33A]

I also have had zero effect from using the "NONE" tome. In addition, I've killed over 50 of the AR2 bosses, and never seen a tome drop...so if they do, it's stupidly low rates (or I'm horribly unlucky, but with that many kills, I'm not thinking that's the case).

You might be surprised on how weird drop rates in AM2 have been. Like, there has always been a 1/50 chance to get witchwood saplings from witchwood trees. But still, only recently can you get them. Even though some people reported having a double chest full of witchwood logs, they have zero saplings. Take my thoughts on drop rates with a grain of salt, anyway. The Bosses are at least supposed to drop cool toys.

The fact that Affinity: NONE does nothing is weird as all hell, though. I'll have to run some tests. They decrease all of your affinities by 10%. Maybe it only works IF your affinities are above ten percent? Or, hell, maybe they only work when one is at 100%. There are commands to test this sort of thing, well, Mith used them during a AM2 demo video. Ages ago. Still, worth a shot!

 

[Redius]

The Bosses are at least supposed to drop cool toys.

They most definitely do. Spoilered what I've gotten thus far;

Spoiler

an "air sled" which is actually pretty cool; it's like creative flight, but with slightly less control. Also found the nature elementals' scythe...+7 attack damage (haven't checked to see if I can enchant), AND it is a ranged attack if you right click with it, all for the low low price of 250 mana a toss. As a bonus, looks very cool.

 

[TangentialThreat]

The NONE tomes are (sometimes) obtainable by shooting a dark mage with a disarm spell.

Affinity seems to be a mostly broken mechanic at the moment; it is very, very difficult to get to 100% even if you mostly spam two spells so you will probably never need it. In fact, I'm not sure it does anything.

It is too bad Better Dungeons is not in FTB because it is gorgeous awesome content, but last time I tried manually adding it the stress of generating huge dungeons was a bit much for my computer and it frequently derped resulting in either a crash or a continent made of tiled overlapping ships or something.

 

[Redius]

I'm not sure it does anything.

It most certainly does; try ignoring it and spamming heal spells as you work through blood magic. Do that for about 25 levels. Then go kill a living creature...say a cow, pig or sheep. Or heck, try a slime. Then report back

 

[Yusunoha]

if you want to talk about weird things from Ars Magica... be careful when killing those dryads... I've it happen from time to time that a dryad spawned a Natura Guardian after I killed it

 

[Redius]

if you want to talk about weird things from Ars Magica... be careful when killing those dryads... I've it happen from time to time that a dryad spawned a Natura Guardian after I killed it

The spawn mechanic for him is to kill 5 in close succession.

(fun fact, for every 5 killed in quick succession a guardian will spawn. Kill 10, you get 2 guardians, kill 15 you get 3, and so forth. I'm also totally not advocating making a dryad spawner in a concrete bunker, slaughtering all of them, spawning 5+ guardians, then letting them suffocate in the roof.)

 

[YX33A]

if you want to talk about weird things from Ars Magica... be careful when killing those dryads... I've it happen from time to time that a dryad spawned a Natura Guardian after I killed it

Seeing as that's the intended mechanic for the Nature Guardian to spawn... Don't know if I'd call that weird.

The spawn mechanic for him is to kill 5 in close succession.

(fun fact, for every 5 killed in quick succession a guardian will spawn. Kill 10, you get 2 guardians, kill 15 you get 3, and so forth. I'm also totally not advocating making a dryad spawner in a concrete bunker, slaughtering all of them, spawning 5+ guardians, then letting them suffocate in the roof.)

What a curious idea. I think I may try to do such a thing some time.

I'll have to grab a copy of Soul Shards I'd wager, but still, seems interesting!

 

[Yusunoha]

Seeing as that's the intended mechanic for the Nature Guardian to spawn... Don't know if I'd call that weird.

I actually never read on how to summon a nature guardian... I always thought it was similar to spawning a water guardian

 

[YX33A]

I actually never read on how to summon a nature guardian... I always thought it was similar to spawning a water guardian

Most bosses are summoned that way. Not so the nature guardian, who shows up when you kill a bunch of dryads. He's the weird one out of the bunch. Also the one who may show up LONG before you're ready to fight him.

 

[Redius]

Seeing as that's the intended mechanic for the Nature Guardian to spawn... Don't know if I'd call that weird.

What a curious idea. I think I may try to do such a thing some time.

I'll have to grab a copy of Soul Shards I'd wager, but still, seems interesting!

MFR spawner with a dryad in the net, and a Portal Gun to drop the mobs from the spawn to the bunker....

 

[YX33A]

MFR spawner with a dryad in the net, and a Portal Gun to drop the mobs from the spawn to the bunker....

Is that really how you're planning on doing that? I would maybe use the MFR Autospawner(as in, will likely use the MFR Autospawner), but as for actually getting them to my "Death Bunker", I'd be either just spawning them there, or taking a leaf from Crafted Movie with their advice on "How to open a door with Style".

Well, that, and the Blue Ball Machine.

 

[Redius]

I actually did it that way, mostly because it made me smile. Is it the most efficient way? Probably not...but after a while, amusement trumps efficiency for me.