Doing as PZ told me, I pickpocket everyone and go on treasure hunt as long as I don't have a notoriety problem :) The pic shows the top of a church, was more of a difficult climb up there.
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The view is great from way up there!
;)
Here's an in-game model of the villa and the small city it is located in. Currently it produces 11.1k florines every 20 minutes... I can hardly spend that much money (all "upgrades" and repairs to that city already completed) ;)
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Indeed - in one of my saved games (PS3) I have over 3/4 million florins - and with practically nothing to spend it on.
750k florins buys a lot of courtesans...
If you have a lot of money (I'm now at 250+k) you can climb onto a roof and throw coins down at the people for a while, as if it rained them ;D Funny to watch how guards and people are all the same: greedy ;)
Here I was not so lucky with the guards in a heavily guarded area, there is a seal somewhere inside. I had girls with me for distraction, but there were more guards who watched me instead. Those who had been watching the girls now started fighting with them, I fought with the other guards, and miraculously I was alone against like 10 guards. All I used were my two hidden blades, now I can hardly move my arm (bloody button-hammering of LMB, RMB, and the "leg" button I use with my thumb) but heck, it was worth it ;D
Here I have grabbed one of those axes as souvenir which one of the brutes dropped when I jammed my blades through his eyes.
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fun to use the guards weapons, be sure to "learn" the techniques to sweep and use long weapons etc. back at your training in the villa. you can also learn to throw sand from the ground at guards!
did that, done that ;)
I actually never used a guard's weapon. Just looks cool ;D
A glance at my current stats: 378 kills, 135 of which with hidden blades (rest was sword and knife) and I only died 6 times. As far as I remember (was at the beginning of the game) I only died due to errors regarding how to bloody climb and jump -- basically I just literally "dropped dead" six times.
Venice is a nice town. Apart from killing people, you can walk there, climb, swim, dive and... race boats (gondolas) ;D
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Quote from: Art Blade on March 17, 2010, 07:18:45 PM
... there is a seal somewhere inside.
Just in case you have not discovered the entrance, you don't go inside to find the entrance to this tomb quest - you need to go behind the building and climb to the roof, then walk along the edge toward a spot where you find a ladder and a flat concrete-appearing area (a treasure box is there). Look for the entrance among the columns on the west side.
I'm enjoying your pics by the way :-X
Thanks :) Yes, I have all but one seals so far, I haven't got the map location for it (yet). What I do is, systematically climb all viewpoints, buy all treasure maps (which reveal everything else) and then I hunt down those encrypted papers you stick to the wall in the villa and get all seal quests (I want Altaïr's armour). Right now, I'm on the mission where I'll have to use DaVinci's flying machine :)
That's a fun one - you end up inside the palace that you posted about - lots of fun and high speed action.
Just managed to shoot this one before starting to fly:
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FINALLY got Altaïr's armour... For the last seal, I didn't count the numerous attempts it took to get some of the jumps right. Not that I didn't know what to do, but the PC game (and I f@#$ing hate it) sometimes provides only a fixed camera view from afar, and it is nearly impossible to get the angle within an angle right if you have to jump at a wall and jump off it in a different angle, using a keyboard and mouse. I believe a console controller is a little bit better in this case.
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I agree, and have activated my Saitek controller which works great under these circumstances. While steering Ezio is great using the mouse, I prefer the console controller with other functions.
I can see the advantage, clearly :)
Well, on with the story... I got all the good gear now. And...
Carnevale di Venezia, and I am incognito wearing a mask (lol). Time for some good killings... this one in the middle has just got my spear rammed through his chest, the fellow guards watching with disbelief.
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Did a couple of things then I couldn't afford otherwise... like a double air-kill with blades, jumping off a balcony, killing two guards below in a single blow. NICE :-* ;)
Man I love that. You can kill all guards and they're never the wiser ;D
Got a decent show-off axe. Now we're talking ;D
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The animations of disarming a guard with an axe and killing him are great. I had trouble actually fighting axe guards, so I'd just sheath my weapon, then take his away from him and use it on him. I love the axe-poke to the gut followed by a "Babe Ruth" swing to the head. :-X
At Carnivale be sure to walk up and knock over one of the acrobatic jesters just to be mean.
Haha, good one ;D
I decided to be a real stronzo and pickpocket everyone on this plaza a little away from the carnevale festivities. Who dared to protest, had to pick up his own teeth with two broken arms ;D
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Enjoy your incognito status while you're wearing the Carnivale mask - you can do as many bad things as you want ;D
Now I understand you guys (especially PZ) why you were ranting about "races" -- took me quite a bit to find a way to beat that fricking Capture The Flag contestant. Only because I found out that it is better to jump off a roof and lose most of the health points but be quick down and near the flag than trying to catch up with that ba$t@rd who otherwise, for some reason, mostly got and kept the flag. What I have to rant about is that this fricking game counts a not synchronised state (I fell off into water in a zone that was not yet accessible) as a death. Now, again due to that unspeakable jump system (I sometimes started climbing walls and jumping into wells only because I was close enough) I ended up without a chance and voluntarily dropped into an out-of-sync zone to get a quick start-over, only to get rewarded with two more "deaths" - now I have 8 deaths, none of them because of being killed in a fight. Gah!
My stats so far, 604 kills, 233 of which with hidden blades, 16 of which air assassinations and 6 more count as double air assassinations. And never got killed by an opponent :)
However, I'm surprised at how gigantic those towns are, especially Venice. I have just unlocked yet another part of town.
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Man, this is impressive. Here you get a better view, not all cloaked in a haze.
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For a change, Monteriggioni. That's where the villa is, your "base" if you like.
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So you know what "the villa" means:
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nice shots Art, they make me want to go visit Renaissance Italy again.
Thanks :) I know you have a packed calendar, tight schedule for games, hehe ;D
It is incredible. I have spent like 35 hours and have only like 50% of the game so far. Well, I'm playing sequence 10 I believe. Massive!
I never did finish all the side assassinations and races and courier jobs etc. I'm kind of waiting to go back to it and have that stuff available without starting a new game, though I do have an early save game as well. Yeah - it's a good busy to have though. It's nice to spoil myself on such great games lately ??? don't tell the wife ;) just kidding, she doesn't care - I think :-\
Hehe :)
You know, of all the characters that play a role in AC2, who really existed, I visited one of the "villas" of one of those families, the Borgia, which originally were Spaniards. I walked around in El Palacio de los Borgia in Valencia, Spain, that's where they originated from. I learned a little bit about their history during a guided tour; later I read a lot about them, too. It was amazing. You wouldn't believe how rich they were, and how influential... they even had a family member elected Pope in 1492 (Rodrigo Borgia, aka Papa Alejandro VI) :) Try wikipedia, many characters of the game who really existed do have very interesting entries :)
yes, there are alot of interesting facts they have put into regarding the buildings, areas, and people. Then there are the glyphs which have truth mixed with speculation and outright conspiracy theory to suit the idea of the series. But more importantly than the content of these theories I am interested to hear what you think of them from a puzzle standpoint. The early ones I got on ok, but eventually had to consult the web for a few (particularly the circular puzzles, and a few matching number/symbol puzzles).
I think you may have more of a knack for that stuff than I do Art, and I'm interested to hear how you do with them. Finding them on buildings was not so tough, just the puzzles. Oh and I did consult the web to find every feather :-[ at the end.
I have already considered to consult the web for those darn feathers, when I don't have anything else to do (end game) -- Remembering AC1 (collecting flags), I know I'd be looking eternally for the last few of them ;D
Regarding those puzzles, well, I don't know if they will get more difficult later on, right now I have only solved like 5 of those (didn't really look out for those glyphs). The ones you mentioned, respectively all of those I solved, I found quite simple. I remember looking for apples in the pictures, later for basket balls (apple of eden), then sharp weapons in pics, then turning circles was quite easy because I have a rather visually working mind. Maybe because of that I found it relatively easy. The only one I didn't quite get was in one of the photos of 18hundred-something, where you saw rows of soldiers, what the heck it was. Even when I found it by systematically clicking imaginary squares the size of the cursor field, I didn't see what I was supposed to recognise.
Here some "merc action" -- thugs I hired to finish off some guards. The ones I hired have white V-shaped arrows hovering above their heads. To the left, that treasure, is a message I received just then from my villa, it tells me I should go recollect my money. The next payment will be sacked by "my" sister who had told me she'd grab every florine that exceeds the maximum capacity of that chest (within the next twenty minutes, that is).
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I've meant a couple of times to take a pic the moment I chuck myself off a church tower. Now here it is :) Observe Ezio and his shadow (both marked yellow) ;D
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Found out something that amuses me: I hired four groups of thugs and sent them after guard patrols. You can see about three (victorious) groups right now, the last one is fighting outside of the borders of that pic. Quite some ruckus, then ;D
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So you can see what everyone is talking about, "codex pages" and the "codex wall"
A) regular view (you see random documents)
B) eagle vision (you see a world map)
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Apparently the episodes that came as DLC for the consoles are incorporated into the PC game as "restored memories" which are inverted symbols (exclamation mark and assassin logo are black on white ground). If that is correct, then the following pic should show part of the Battle of Forlì
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I like the idea of hiring multiple groups of thugs to start a huge fight!
The glyph puzzles got much harder in my opinion, but you may not find the same problem.
here are some good links for both feathers and glyphs:
feathers: http://www.thehiddenblade.com/feathers
glyphs: http://www.gamesradar.com/f/assassins-creed-ii-glyphs-and-statuettes-guide/a-20091120161944695091/p-5
Thank you very much for those helpful links, space :) I'll check them when I need them :-X
Right now, I'm more occupied with this immense story. Since the PC version has all sequences of the DLC in the right order, it seems to take forever! I'm at 55.6% of the memories synchronised (game progress) and 783 people killed, 321 with hidden blades. Still haven't been defeated :) Also, I could drown a small village in coins, 650+k florines. I wish I had a villa that produced money every 20 minutes ;D
Here is a moment at the end of a mission (that's when the area dissolves into a 3D grid). It shows a special move that is hard to capture, so I take what I get: Stabbing through the eyes :)
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Quote from: Art Blade on March 19, 2010, 06:45:42 AM
Apparently the episodes that came as DLC for the consoles are incorporated into the PC game as "restored memories" which are inverted symbols (exclamation mark and assassin logo are black on white ground). If that is correct, then the following pic should show part of the Battle of Forlì
What great screen shots! You are correct - although I can't clearly see the two standing on the parapet, one is definitely Catarina, and the other is either Ezio or Machiavelli. I like the way that the game plays with the "repaired memories".
You've mentioned that you are at sequence 10 - did you complete all of the codex page acquisitions to see the world map on the codex wall? If so, I've never done that - tried to see the map before arriving at sequence 14.
Thank you :) It is catarina and Ezio on that tower.
I think I'm on 11 or 12 now, still related to the Apple. Currently, I have to clean out the city of Florence, remove all captains that are scattered across the city, who are under the influence of that spell. The one I just finished was fun: Kill someone on a guarded boat without getting noticed. And the guy was not exactly unguarded... I finally found an opportunity to use my handgun in a reasonable fashion. That made the job easier :)
Yes, I have all codex pages. Even before that, I was able to identify that puzzle on the wall as being a world map (Africa gave it away).
I just finished getting Altair's armor this morning and then finished sequence 14. Now, I'm back into 15th century Italy wreaking havoc with side assassination missions and the Templar missions. I've hardly collected any of the feathers - kind of like FC2, I'm not much into collecting. I've also not done many of the puzzles either - my favorite thing to do is to battle with guards ;D
Nice :)
If I hadn't got other games in mind to play next, I'd probably take my time and do those side missions (although, Templar missions? I don't think I have any). I collected 33 random feathers, just accidently found them on my way to view points and racing around on rooftops. Those little statues for the villa's garden and secret of grandpa were a matter of minutes, I ran around with eagle view all the time and they glow white in all that dark blue. The glyphs, well, they are relatively easy to find, given you want to. The codex pages are very easy to get, just look on the map and the rest will be given to you during the main mission. So two things I don't spend much time on are glyphs and feathers, the latter one in particular. Oh, well, I did "collect" treasures at the beginning to become rich enough to buy gear to start with, and to investigate considerable amounts in the villa once I got there. That's about it, apart from collecting other people's money I had nicked from their pockets :)
However, here a tweaked version of Florence at night. It was too dark to enjoy it in the forum's gallery as it was, so forgive me, but you can see a lot more like that.
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By the way, it's Sequence 13 already, that Bonfire's mission, where I have to rid that city of 9 lieutenants, one of which was on the ship. Just then, someone singing on that fat dome, got me killed after killing him because those screwed controls actually made me jump off the church missing the haystack. So another death due to the laws of gravity and intuitive, logic and easy steering mechanisms :D
Oh and by the way, I hate those races as much as you do, PZ :) But I found a cure... the hidden pistol. I've shot many a runner with it, as well as protected targets ;D
Ah, got carried away a little, reading wikipedia's entries about Medici, Savonarola, and other people. Nice trip through history :)
Girolamo Savonarola's end (in reality, he was first lynched and then burned by the mob, in the game you'll see him burning, too). Well, in this variant, I finished him off with a blade through the neck ;D And by that, finished sequence 13.
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That man can look so cool, if the light is alright ;)
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Alright, I'm through :) Very nice... might be that we'll get to see AC3 some time in the future I reckon.
A goddess... god knows what's next.
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She looks a bit like a TRON character ;D
Do you mean Yori? ;D :-X
Quote from: Art Blade on March 19, 2010, 04:43:53 AM
B) eagle vision (you see a world map)
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Actually I misplaced only one piece: from top left go one to the right and one down (or, one down diagonally) -- that one needs turning and all is good.
It's been a while.. but I'm on my second playthrough now. I just solved one particularly nasty Assessin's Tomb quest, San Marco's Secret. During my first through I needed to check a youtube vid to get it done, this time however I managed rather quickly. I didn't really remember how to solve the puzzle but my training from back then and during the current through accumulated, I think, regarding how to climb and jump. I don't have half of the difficulties I had back then, only when the camera view is fixed and at the time I need to jump around corners. That is more a design flaw than lack of ability, especially with a PC and mouse plus keyboard it is a nightmare sometimes.
However, here a glance at what it looks like when you've solved a tomb quest and recollect one of those six seals needed to unlock Altaïr's Armour:
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I'm trying to have some fun during carnival in Venice, but there are limits. :-* ;)
If you're wondering what I'm doing there, well, I'm just swinging an axe you could split an ox with ;D
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Nice screenies :-X
I haven't played AC2, so I'm bewildered by the screen message in the last pic. Does it mean that if you kill too many civvies, you'll have some sort of a fit? ;D
Thanks :)
More likely the other way round, if you have some sort of a fit which makes you kill too many civilians, the game will sort you out by having you restart from the last savepoint ;D
Here you can take a close look at the golden mask you had to steal from Dante Moro :)
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Two shots at Villa Monteriggioni
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Hired thieves follow you almost everywhere.
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Excellent screen shots - brings back fine memories ;)
I recall the term "desynchronized" used when I killed one too many civilians.
Thanks, PZ :)
And indeed,
Quote from: PZ on July 19, 2010, 01:18:19 PM
I recall the term "desynchronized" used when I killed one too many civilians.
..or when you ran outside of the boundaries of a specific mission area, or if your target left a specific area (escaped), or if you or someone killed a person that was supposed to survive, or if you failed during a mission (contests during Carnival of Venice), or if you ran out of time during a timed event, or if you died during a mission or, last but not least, if you had been detected when you shouldn't have been.
I guess that's all. ;D
Finally got the Condottiero War Hammer (having collected and deposited 50 feathers, your uncle tells you that he had the blacksmith make one for you to pick up at the weapons shop, still costs 30,000+ florins including discount for upgrading the blacksmith to the max at Monteriggioni)
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Cool - how is it as a weapon?
It's the second from the top, and it is considerably weaker than Altaïr's sword. So I reckon it was designed for those players who kept collecting feathers like maniacs and arrived with 50 of them very early at the villa so the condottiero hammer is better than what you get early in the game but not as good as other weapons. Quite a disappointment for me because I already had Altaïr's sword by the time I got that hammer.
it's all about the style man. That thing is cool looking! I too got my feather collecting underway after completing the story, but it is fun to walk around with that thing.
As for finding feathers I posted a link here somewhere to a site I believe called the hiddenblade. It is an awesome interface with pics for finding all the feathers. I resorted to it after getting about 70% on my own...
I have used the link you posted then (in this very topic, by the way) :)
Quote from: spaceboy on March 19, 2010, 06:50:14 AM
here are some good links for both feathers and glyphs:
feathers: http://www.thehiddenblade.com/feathers
glyphs: http://www.gamesradar.com/f/assassins-creed-ii-glyphs-and-statuettes-guide/a-20091120161944695091/p-5
I have to admit that the red trim does make the hammer look cool ;)
Quote from: Art Blade on March 18, 2010, 11:43:44 PM
Found out something that amuses me: I hired four groups of thugs and sent them after guard patrols. You can see about three (victorious) groups right now, the last one is fighting outside of the borders of that pic. Quite some ruckus, then ;D
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I assume you hired them sequentially, but the initial ones kept fighting - good series of photos; makes me want to return to Italy :-()
your assumption is correct :)
I just populated my PS3 wallet with the funds necessary to purchase the new DLC - now let's see if I can download it successfully ????
good luck, then :-X
Quote from: Art Blade on March 18, 2010, 06:23:17 PM
Now I understand you guys (especially PZ) why you were ranting about "races" -- took me quite a bit to find a way to beat that fricking Capture The Flag contestant. Only because I found out that it is better to jump off a roof and lose most of the health points but be quick down and near the flag than trying to catch up with that ba$t@rd who otherwise, for some reason, mostly got and kept the flag.
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Have you ever tried shooting the fast runner from the rooftop?
(I do tend to rant :-())
I never tried to shoot him.. you're evil.. I like that. :-()
..and your rants. ^+-+
^+-+
Someone on the forum actually gave me the idea to shoot the flag contestant, but I can't remember who!
In any case, your screen captures are excellent :-X
In the capture the flag contest the only thing I've found to be consistently successful is at full tilt the initial plunge off the rooftop refill health while getting to the flag and then cut back and to the left of the flag's position where there's a canal bridge or a passage way between buildings and get to the roof tops!
On the flat your opponent will run you down in a flash and your only edge is better free running agility.
Also as you are running back to the finish line there is a spanning cable that allows a way to cut over to the staging point that effectively causes you to cross the start point in the opposite direction and however appealing shaving a few seconds off your time may seem at the moment don't do it!
Stay on that parallel roof top and run past the objective and then take the next cable span to hit the start/finish line facing the direction the flag will be at the beginning of the next race. Trust me.
If you cross the finish line facing the wrong direction then at the start of the next race you will start out also facing in the wrong direction and this is an event that off the start every split second counts. :-X
The next time I do this event, I'm going to try to shoot the flag contestant >:D
However, this is the "fair" way that I like to do the contest:
AC2-timed event-Carnivale flag race (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OZXf2x9x8xo#ws)
Funny.. I chose a different route, I'm quite sure I did. I remember I too jumped down like that, grabbed the flag and ran past a few ladies -- next to them was a soil pipe or ladder I used to run up to the roofs and I believe I ran just the opposite direction, other than that bloke.
That's the beauty of open world games - there are many ways to arrive at the same destination :-X
I just love these kind of games where you can explore the game world :-X
The static screen before you hit play for the video you posted PZ shows the cable that cuts off to the left creating the more direct line back but going that route saved time and cost me the next race because I was facing the wrong way and had to turn and reorient myself for the flag to start the next dash. I got lost. :-[
I'll have to look at your alternative route Art the next time I go through or now that I'm thinking about it there may be a way through the DNA memories to replay that. I'll have to check.
Yes, when you upload a YouTube video, you never know where the video will start relative to the starting image - however, when I do this event, I am on the roof of the building faced in the proper direction. I already have my "run" buttons pressed and begin immediately after the sequence starts - when I hit the ground, I start running for the flag, even if my health is low.
A word of advice for those that are entering this mission - be sure your health is already full or you might desynchronize when you jump off the roof :-()
in other words, only jump when you're fit for it or your face might look like a blind cobbler's thumb when you get up (if) :-D
^+-+
Yes indeed! I've managed to amass enough armor by the time I reach this challenge so that I don't lose that much health when I hit the ground. :-()
Every time I hit the ground I was looking at my health and armour bar and thought it looked like a corn cob someone had shot with a pump-action gun. I bet I lost all my armour plates on hitting the ground, like an old Christmas tree its fir needles when kicked at. :)
^+-+
These games sure are fun, especially with the variety of approach we see. :-X
Now playing AC2 on the PC, I am still amazed at the night time scenes in Firenze. The screen capture does not begin to do the game justice - it is almost like being there.
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