Trying my luck

[Itoao]

Hello All, I am going to try my luck here. I posted on vgtact.com and anticipated playing and loving diplomacy. I however am in Khal and after having to grind just to get high enough to win anything then wait forever for them to fix Getzin the gnome. I am stuck on Infuriating Keyvan and I cannot beat Sa'id Modebi. I am very close to just saying forget it all together as this has seriously tainted my view on diplomacy as a whole. It is supposed to be in the newbie line and I wanted to work my way through it as I did in beta. However I cannot beat him because all the cards he plays are 0 cost and give him two influence. This is unacceptable.
I have seen one post in my thread at vgtact.com by Aruspex and have not seen or heard anything else or heard anything about it. I am sure he is busy and all but that doesn't help me get through the quests. I am ready to just call it quits. I feel like telling my friends who are on the fence about buying the game to not even concern themselves with diplomacy when making their decision. As I feel that being stuck this long in the very beginning is really awful. I hope someone here can give me some different insight into the problem. I am lvl 53 diplomat and I start off with 10 influence and he has 16 and still beats me. help please!

[Nil]

Originally Posted by Itoao

Hello All, I am going to try my luck here. I posted on vgtact.com and anticipated playing and loving diplomacy. I however am in Khal and after having to grind just to get high enough to win anything then wait forever for them to fix Getzin the gnome. I am stuck on Infuriating Keyvan and I cannot beat Sa'id Modebi. I am very close to just saying forget it all together as this has seriously tainted my view on diplomacy as a whole. It is supposed to be in the newbie line and I wanted to work my way through it as I did in beta. However I cannot beat him because all the cards he plays are 0 cost and give him two influence. This is unacceptable.

I've not fought that particular NPC, but there is a person in the Dwarven newbie line that uses cards like you describe.

I assume that the cards he's playing feed you something. What is it? Can you use it?

If what you're saying is true (all of his cards are Comments), then you should be able to win by brute force - though it likely will involve things like giving yourself a color you don't need, then repealing it to power your racial (I had two evaluations that added 4 expression for my racial (demand), an evaluation that added two inspire expression, and a repeal to turn that inspire into demand. Racial every 2-3 moves. If he feeds you anything, you can drop a corresponding card and add your 2 influence comment to your deck) Since you don't care about feeding him expression, you've got alot of options open to you.

You should have at least one 0 cost, 2 influence card as well.

[Iendan]

also, if he is gathering lots of one type of card then using it on one REALLY big nuke (im not exactly sure what you mean, but this sorta thing happened to me in beta) you might try going to the card vendor (assuming he is still there...) and buy a card that takes away from his expression of that type, idk if that will help but it helped me in khal's noobie dip line (tho i think i went with the other option, the evil helping the port authority thing...)

[Fyrestrom]

There are no Card Vendors in Live and you cannot use a rebuttal on someone who plays 0 cost cards. If you could lay out the cards you have and cards being played against you, maybe I could try and help you. I have been known to beat a few so-called "Unbeatable" parleys. Also tell me what expression your newbie gloves give you if you could.

[Itoao]

Originally Posted by Fyrestrom

There are no Card Vendors in Live and you cannot use a rebuttal on someone who plays 0 cost cards. If you could lay out the cards you have and cards being played against you, maybe I could try and help you. I have been known to beat a few so-called "Unbeatable" parleys. Also tell me what expression your newbie gloves give you if you could.

I am at work atm so I may not be entirely correct on the cards. I am mordebi so my racial type is demand. My newbie gloves give me +1 to inspire.
The last time I played him he played these.
Brilliant Analogy 0 cost 2 Inf
Keen Remark 0 cost 2 inf
Acid Tongue 0 cost 2 inf
Litany of Logic 0 cost
Shrewd Allegation 0 cost 2 inf

I cant tell you which cards I have atm but I will post later when I am able to check them out. Thanks for all your replies.

[Absalon]

Itoao, assuming it's a convince parley as you indicated in the thread on vgtact (inspire blocked), it should be doable.

You mentioned he has these cards:

Brilliant Analogy 0 cost 2 Inf
Keen Remark 0 cost 2 inf
Acid Tongue 0 cost 2 inf
Litany of Logic 0 cost... get my drift here
Shrewd Allegation 0 cost 2 inf

Keen Remark gives you 2 flattery, which enables you to play Enticing Whisper.
Litany of Logic gives you 2 reason, which enables you to play Itemized Comparison.

Acid Tongue and Brilliant Analogy only give 1 reason and 1 flattery, respectively, but they are on longer refresh timers than the other 2.

Shrewd Allegation gives you 2 inspire which you can't use.

Do you have repeals yet? If not, check with your trainer. As a Mordebi, you are demand based, so you will get a repeal called Flat Dismissal. When he plays Litany of Logic and gives you 2 reason, you can play Flat Dismissal and turn that into 4 demand and then use your racial assertion.

If you have Flat Dismissal, I would use that instead of Itemized Comparison.

So your deck would be:

Snippet of Wisdom
Flat Dismissal
Mordebi Candor
Enticing Whisper
Fan the Flames (if you have it...if not, then Frank Discussion...or you can substitute a 1 point comment)

In 4 turns the NPC will get 8 influence. In that same time, you'll play Snippet of Wisdom (2 inf), Flat Dismissal (0 inf), Mordebi Candor (5 inf) and Enticing Whisper (3 inf). You should come out ahead.

If you don't have repeals and the trainer doesn't offer you the quest for repeals, there is a quest to parley with soldiers. I don't know the exact name of it, but you can try asking in the diplomacy channel ingame (/join dip). I'm sure someone will know it. This quest was added to the game to help people who were stuck get to 40 so they could move on to civic dip, but you can use it to get your skill high enough to get the repeals quest from the trainer if you need to.

If you don't have repeals and you can't get them from the trainer and can't find the soldier quest, then try this deck:

Snippet of Wisdom
Itemized Comparison
Aggressive Statement
Enticing Whisper
Fan the Flames (if you have it...if not, then Frank Discussion)

Within the first 5 turns you should be able to play Snippet twice, and each of your assertions once, for a total of 13 influence compared to the NPC's 10 influence.

[Itoao]

Thanks for the breakdown. I think I do have repeals. One problem is Mordebi Candor requires Flattery and I think that is the attribute I cant use. I am still patching and all the servers are down atm anyway. When I am able to get in then I will know for sure.

[Aegis]

I'd really like to know where you're doing this, because I did the newbie quest line, and after I did the gnome one you mentioned, I went over to Dark Horse Downs, got a belt, and then I assumed I was done. Did I miss something?

[Absalon]

Originally Posted by Itoao

Thanks for the breakdown. I think I do have repeals. One problem is Mordebi Candor requires Flattery and I think that is the attribute I cant use. I am still patching and all the servers are down atm anyway. When I am able to get in then I will know for sure.

http://www.vgtact.com/wiki/index.php...Mordebi_Candor

Mordebi Candor is a 5 influence assertion. It costs 4 demand, gives 1 demand to the NPC, and has a refresh of 1-2.

If flattery is blocked rather than inspire, then you'll want to switch out Enticing Whisper and put in Loud Criticism. Everything else should be the same.

[Itoao]

I tried the deck. Unfortunately it didn't work. He doesnt feed me anything. By the time I hace 2 reason his token is already 6 spots over to his side of the board.