Skill / Spell Books

[OobleckTheGreen]

I got the impression from the game's initial help (the blue runestone) that more books could be found by searching libraries. Problem is, I've never found a library. Should I be searching for a building specifically called library? The closest I've gotten was by entering a house in an abandoned city, which had a room in the map tagged "yellow" with a note saying it would be a good place to find books. Went there. No book.

[Kemeno]

From my adventuring, I've noticed that there's a certain kind of small house in the evergreen forest locations that seems exceptionally likely to have libraries. I probably run into 1-3 of those books in every evergreen region when I browse the surface chunks for them.

[c4sc4]

I got the impression from the game's initial help (the blue runestone) that more books could be found by searching libraries. Problem is, I've never found a library. Should I be searching for a building specifically called library?

No there isn't a building called a library (well there is one you can build in you settlement but that has nothing to do with profession books).

The closest I've gotten was by entering a house in an abandoned city, which had a room in the map tagged "yellow" with a note saying it would be a good place to find books. Went there. No book.

That is exactly what you are looking for, any room that shows up yellow has a chance of holding a profession book, ie libraries and studies. They do not always have a book in them. If the region level is equal to your civ level then there is an 80% chance of finding a book. If the region is above your civ level there is a higher chance of finding a book. If the region level is below your civ level then the chance of finding a book is lower (although there may currently be a bug that prevents you from finding books in regions below your civ level).

[OobleckTheGreen]

Ahhh, very informative answer sir! Thank you 

[Nalgas]

If the region level is below your civ level then the chance of finding a book is lower (although there may currently be a bug that prevents you from finding books in regions below your civ level).

I just found one in a level 1 region in 0.501, and I'm certainly not level 1 myself anymore, so it's at least possible to find them.

[c4sc4]

If the region level is below your civ level then the chance of finding a book is lower (although there may currently be a bug that prevents you from finding books in regions below your civ level).

I just found one in a level 1 region in 0.501, and I'm certainly not level 1 myself anymore, so it's at least possible to find them.

Alright, there was a mantis issue on this but I already have everything unlocked so I didn't test it. Perhaps you could post in that mantis post saying you found one.

[tigersfan]

So, a couple folks found them in rooms below their civ level, but, it's still a lot easier when you are looking at or above your level.

[Itchykobu]

Is this something where we are supposed to see the yellow as soon as we enter the building, or do we have to scout in as well? I've found only 1 building w/ a study in it, and it had no book in it. I've been through a ton of houses since, and no study/library in any of them. It may be kind of a cop out, but having some sort of minor description outside the building would be nice: "Press Confirm To Enter. This building appears to have a library in it", or something like that. There's definitely a balance to be struck here, I think - It's an exploration-based game, but we don't want that to turn into tedium/exasperation.

Other than inability to find books, having fun so far though

[BobTheJanitor]

Is this something where we are supposed to see the yellow as soon as we enter the building, or do we have to scout in as well?

That depends on how big the building is. When you walk in, look for the % scouted. If it's 100% you can be sure there's nothing more than what you see already. If it's less, you might consider going deeper to get it all scouted. Or just go on the next building anyway.

[GabrielKronos]

Actually, has anyone found any books in a study room? I know they're yellow colored, and their tooltips say that they're an "Okay" place to find books, but in my experience, i've never ever ever ever ever ever found a single book in a study room, to the point that when I see one, I just scout more till I find a library or don't have nothing more to scout.

And yeah, even when the region was 2 levels higher than mine I got no books from there. Might check here if this is a bug so I can put this on Mantis.

Edit: To the Devs -> Check to see if the rate isn't just too low for it. "Okay" look a little bit too promising for the actual book rates, could be changed to "At rare occasions, someone could have left a book in this room"

[Martyn van Buren]

I have just found a scroll book in a study.  I forget whether the region was my level or one level up.  First time I've ever been in one, actually, so definitely possible, don't know if it's likely.

[Martyn van Buren]

Just spent half an hour looking for skills books in a region one level up from me, got two out of libraries and one from a study, out of probably five-eight studies I found?  So looks like they're worth checking.  That said, I do agree with your sense that finding books is a pretty annoying way to use time; I want to get stronger by accomplishing things, not by scouring attics for instruction manuals.  Makes me feel like I should have leveled up a few times when my father moved and I had to clean his house out.

[zebramatt]

Genius! 

But yes, I've found two books in four or five studies a couple of levels above me.

Although I'm all for occasionally getting books as rare rewards, I actually quite like the emphasis on mostly exploration to find them.

[Misery]

Is this something where we are supposed to see the yellow as soon as we enter the building, or do we have to scout in as well? I've found only 1 building w/ a study in it, and it had no book in it. I've been through a ton of houses since, and no study/library in any of them. It may be kind of a cop out, but having some sort of minor description outside the building would be nice: "Press Confirm To Enter. This building appears to have a library in it", or something like that. There's definitely a balance to be struck here, I think - It's an exploration-based game, but we don't want that to turn into tedium/exasperation.

Other than inability to find books, having fun so far though

It's very much based on the TYPE of house you're entering.

For example, in the "ruined town" type area, or whatever it's called, there's various building types there, the two most common being "modern ruins" and "angled house".  The angled houses have a quite high chance of producing either a library or a study, whereas I've never seen one in the ruins.   There's also the "old shed" buildings, which are usually just one large single room with an item in it somewhere, those are worth entering in the area.

Different building types definitely have an impact on what's actually generated in them.

[Martyn van Buren]

I dunno, I feel like this is something that will improve if they're able to bring loading times down in the future.  As it is, just walking in and out the door takes me like half an minute, which adds up pretty fast when I'm trying to survey a whole town for a few studies.

Also, back to Itchykobu, studies and libraries turn up yellow once you've scouted them, but if they're more than two nodes away you won't see them when you enter the house.  Look at the percent scouted above the dungeon map to see if you're missing any rooms.  The grey rooms are the bombed-out empty ones, btw, not unexplored (that confused me for a while).