So, I decided to write up what I did in the game and why I did it.
I'm not through yet, I just wanted to post it up because I'm rather annoyed at the state of things atm and had to take a break.
I never got past the GSM complex, so past that, it's very much a first playthrough.
Some conclusions down below.
Contains spoilers. Maybe.Starting a melee character, imaginatively named "Grunt".
High Constituation, a bit of strength and agility;
I'll have to get 2 points of strength for Sledgehammers at some point.
Conditioning grants me some decent resistance.
Spent points into psionics because it's free power.
Did the firing range quest.
Gun is basically done just when I am.
I briefly consider selling it for some money, but I don't really have anything to spend it on.
I decided to reroll to draw a point of Intelligence for a point of Strength.
If I make a dumb melee character, I should really make a dumb melee character.
It'd cost me a few skillpoints a level, tops.
... Actually turns out it costs me all tailoring and mechanics, but I'll catch up, I won't level all the psionics in the future.
Probably mainly Psychokinesis, but I never got far enough up to be sure.
I really wish for a Gamma Option, when the lights are out, I really don't see anything.
The 'help screen' with the annoyingly blinking questionmark doesn't tell me how to close it again. ESC obviously works.
.... Turns out I actually forgot a point in agility this time and dumped it into constitution instead. Well, it certainly makes me sort of tougher.
Target practice isn't done with 10 shots. It seems to require ten hits, or something. I reload because I can basically throw away the pistol now. On the plus side, it started with 170 durability.
Maybe I can savescam for more?
..Yup. Three reloads later, I get 170 again. I'll get the target close to get those ten hits faster.
Got my first lesson from Ezra.
Health Regenerates? Neat.
Into the caves.
Managed to kill the first rathounds with a mix of psionics, crossbow and fists.
I'd really like me some brass knuckles now.
Or later maybe a Power Fist. Or Psionic Gloves.^^
Could kill the rest easily with mad skills shooting my Crossbow through the fence.
I really want shroomhead, but I picked Snooping for now, I need those secret passages or a lockpick skill worth the name.
Dumped 11 points into mechanics, might end up being useful.
Managed to grab a Combat Knife. The Perk is already worth it.
Off to the station to heal. I could swear the old man has Dialogue lines he didn't before.
The Tissue samples got me 800 xp, not bad. Not bad at all.
As I don't plan to learn much in the way of metathermics, I immediately used the freebie.
Killed a few more rathounds to the left of the first cave, totally forgot to get the compensator or whatever.
Well, off to heal again, so why not.
Flux Controller was it's name.
Went north from the generator cave and took quite a beating there.
Can someone tell me how a knife degrades when I miss?
Is the air really that corrosive?
Time to step by the doctor again.
On the way I can turn on the lights in 2 more rooms.
Damn, that trader has a Scoped Crossbow with 275 Durability.
Not that I can use crossbows, but it's nice to see. Now if only I could get a Knife of that quality.
Traded him my Pistol for Credits, my armor won't last forever if I'm facetanking my enemies.
Went to the armory, and traded my current suit, damaged crossbow (got a fresh one),
remaining bullets and 60 credits for a suit of rathound leather armor with 21%/4 mechanical, and some cold.
Should provide enough protection to facepunch the rathounds.
Decided to just attack the guy in the Outpost. I mean, who is he, sitting on all that juicy loot and probably not letting me pull that switch.
It's around 150 Credits?
First try, I opened with an Ice needle, and got tagged with a poisonous bolt.
Reloaded, opened with a telekinetic punch, stun, crit for 42 damage.
Managed to kill him second round without him shooting any of those valuable bolts.
Lost 6 durability on my new armor, 304 to go. Fists kinda work.
Levelup.
Got Mechanics up to 15, then tailoring to 6. Melee and Dodge are obviously full.
I'll probably stop leveling other psionics than kinetics to save more points for that, though I suppose a point of Intelligence is really missing now.^^
149 hp now. 100+9+20/level? Nice.
Once I got the outposts up, I suppose I can afford an actual melee weapon again, a dagger or serrated knife might be neat.
Had plenty of good feats to choose from, but picked up shroomhead.
Keeping around 70 Psi ready might come in handy way more than an occasional stun kick.
The mushroom in the outpost will immediately be put to good use.
Moved down the elevator and through the tunnel.
The next outposts shelves contain blueprints for leather armor and crossbows, not a bad find.
While I'm annoyed I can't open anything, it's a tradeoff I made for the character I chose to play.
I gave Jonas his Watch for free.
Silly choice given he has nothing I need, nor do I have money to buy it, but it might pay of in the future.
Might be a bit out of character, but I really didn't need what he offered, either.
As expected, repairing an item can increase it's worth by far more than the repair kit costs.
Sold off my Zephyr and repaired the looted Hurricane, even a melee character needs a Crossbow from time to time.
(8+14)/2*4 = 44
(17+27)/2*2 = 44
Looks like bar excessive strength, a Combat Knife and a Sledgehammer have the same Damage.
With 9 Strength, it's 44 * 1.08 for the knife, and 44 * 1.1 for the Hammer.
Looks like I don't need to hurry to get one of those.
Ok, at least not one that bad.
...
If I get the Deflection Perk, and switch to unarmed after every turn before continuing, do I get permanent dodge Bonus?
Didn't manage to convince Modre to give me two Hypos. I found it hillarious the one time I got there so far.
Bought a fishing rod, couldn't do anything with it. Reloaded.
First Mindbug killed. Got the drop on me, took quite some damage. Lucky I so much health.
I love fighting the Psibeetles. Despite dishing out massive damage, they never hurt my armor. Granted, they might bypass it, as well, but hey, it's value that lasts.^^
And Level 4.
I picked Opportunist and raised my Tailoring to 16.
Was a really tough choice wether to take 8 strength or 5 Intelligence, I decided on the strength based on the fact I have only 3 skills for Int skilled, that would only gain 1 point each from the change.
Strength only granted my 3 pts melee, as well, but it might in the future allow the use of sledgehammers and metal armors.
Went north in the mushroom cave and into a Rathound Alpha. Stealth was pointless, and they'd have surely killed me.
Autosaves make sense, and a lot of it.
After reloading, I tried out caltrops. Ended up standing in their middle, darn that was a shitty idea.
After trying two more times, I beat them, but the caltrops killed me more then them. I'll try again, despite wasting a few perfectly good crits.
This would be far less of an issue if I got full health in the station again.
...
Around ten times later, I've come to value the one time I won. Given the health I had before the fight, that was a near perfect outcome.
...
Finally, I beat them.
Threw the caltrops in the way, seperating them, could take one out, then hit and run till they were dead.
Damn, that was challenging.
Back to base.
Took a break at a mushroom.
When I got back 20 minutes later, there seemed to be a sort of traffic Jam at the hopper Holes.
A new day.
On my way to the next mission with those annoying robots (Never got any further yet).
I choose to learn Forcefield, because why the heck not. A mechanical repair kit sits well in my bag just in case that knife corrodes again.
Below the Underrail, found a guy with a Sledgehammer. Remembered him as pretty lethal from my first char (demo) that got here.
Chilled him from stealth, one crossbow bolt and three knife jabs later he's down.
I suppose he isn't that dangerous with 169 hp, managed to hit me once.
After saving, I decided to spend the mechanical repair kit on the Hammer, and replace the Knife. Damage is just ok.
Killed another guy in the tunnel, gave him the hammer. He dropped a Frag, first for this char.
Might come in handy.
After sneaking around a bit more, i found two more Stalkers. Attacked them before I saw it was two, and sadly first the one with the knife,
not the one with the Pistol. On the bright side, I critted the first one for 71 damage the second turn, considerably easing the fight.
The second one had the decency to use my health hypo in the fight, though on the plus side it saved me from two bullets, potentially improving the quality of the loot he'd drop afterwards.
I'm drained, I need to find a Mushroom.
Found a door in the tunnels, just where it should be.
An EMP Grenade, Burrower Poison, and Poisoned Caltrops. Good stuff.
On the way back to the station, I attacked the rathounds that'd be in my way anyways.
Stupid idea, with half health and no PSI left, but sometimes, stupid ideas work beautifully. Critted the first, then two hits (1 round) for every other.
Decided to kill the rest of them there as well.
Kinda hard to be exactly in the right space when innitiating combat, a point of movement is one attack less.
I think this game needs housing.
I'd decorate my room with my very own mushroom.
Seriously, topping off in the caves is no fun when you're on the other end of the station. But what has to be done has to be done.
I park Grunt in the shroom cave and go eat.
Took some time, took a nap... seems like stuff respawns?
When I came back, the Rathounds were back, too.
Sigh. Back to grab a repair kit.
Killed a few more Rathounds.
The Sledgehammer loses 9 Durability in 2 hits? wtf?
I can't afford that, I'll go back to a knife for now.
I mean, I'll have to buy repair kits every second engagement if that goes on.
On the other hand, my armor has survived me being beaten to shit around 3 times now, and is barely scratched.
Maybe I can Wrap a Metal Armor, should I aquire one, around an Iron Pole and use that to smack my enemies?
Doesn't need to be directed, the pure weight is fine.
South the station, another group of rathounds with an alpha. I tried a few times, but I can't beat them.
Maybe with a Sledge, but I plain can't afford that.
The security bots are outright annoying.
I can't sneak past them, I can't destroy them in a fight, and i can't hack either.
Had a reload a few times because of unsatisfactory situations.
I suppose going for Kinetics was a retarded choice, I should have spent those points in proper skills and just
level metathermics enough to chill enemies for opportunist.
And having to have a crowbar equipped to open the ventilation shafts is ********.
I don't have to have a multitool in hand to open it, either.
Just when I thought I was stuck, I managed to sneak up the body in the second level and grab everything, then rush off again.
Looks like the key might be matching that trap door.
I sure hope it does.
...
I am amazed to find out that a successful persuasion check actually gets me in a fight with more enemies than just attacking them outright.
Who would have thought that putting points into social skills literally gets you killed?
Oh well, reload.
Well, duh, that Crossbow girl hits like a Truck.
Actually had to use a health hypo this time, and even then it was close because she also crits every second turn.
Now I'll have to sneak back past those annoying sentries to heal up at the station, and I probably need some repair kits as well.
Just imagine I had spent all the useless 20 points into thought control
(more control over your body? I thought that'd help me in melee at some points) into hacking,
I might actually have useful equipment now and could activate that turret.
Crap.
So I got back up, camera locks me, sentry bot is nearby.
...
I'm stuck.
I can't beat the bandits with that low health and damaged weapons, I can't fight the sentries without going through roughly
everything in my inventory, and by moving up, I have no autosave anymore. ....Shit.
So, what did I draw from this:
- High life and melee is definitely easier than what I tried so far, earlier on. Life is free, after all.
It seems to hit a few walls through the game.
- Crap, Durability is annoying. Why does my knife degrade on a miss? Armor, on the other hand, can apparently stop bullets and not take a scratch. Meanwhile I do.
- Going back to refill resources is just
a bit annoying.
- The level with the bots requires either top notch equipment, including lots of electricity, or mad skills at stealth, hacking, lockpicking (pick 2).
I know life isn't fair, but hey, game; Maybe that should somehow be communicated before? As a melee specialist that was stupid enough to skill some psionics and social skills over science, I kinda feel I might as well go in naked and blind.
Overall, I still love this game, though.
Edit: Changed from code to Quote.
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