Messages

16

Builds / Re: An Average Explanation of Outstanding Psi Builds

« on: July 22, 2020, 10:24:17 pm »

Excellent outline on the new PSI mechanics!

Looks a bit like the most useful new PSI ability is "Throw a grenade" and "Lay bear traps" ;(

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Development Log / Re: Dev Log #67: Version 1.1.2.0 - Waterways and Psi Update

« on: July 21, 2020, 06:05:19 pm »

I love how the game evolves. I really played a lot in the past year and enjoyed how so many different builds are possible, none of them boring.

I've never been a big fan of pure PSI builds, though, so I don't know how to feel about the general PSI nerf, but the Temporal Manipulation school was great for any non-PSI build and I wish it would be possible to use this in exactly the way it functions right now. For 'real PSI' builds, allowing two schools of PSI and then adding AP/PSI cost for learning/using more might be a simpler and less restrictive choice. I agree with people saying that the limit on few PSI abilities will just reinforce well-known patterns of extremely useful abilities and lots of other abilities won't be cast, a pity. If you allow people two schools, they can at least experiment with "their" specialty.

Having played thematic builds like Snow White and Nova (you can guess what they did focus on) it seems to me, PSI should encourage a player to focus and get better with one set of abilities, but for instance, just being focussed on Ice PSI never felt massively overpowered with the rule set at hand and now introducing different sets of resources for this feels a bit convoluted.

As regards the nerf to spearhead and crit power, I don't know, is this an area where huge imbalances existed? For single player, I don't get why the existing rules needed adaption, my reading of the builds section was: you can build cool glass cannons, or many other different builds and they worked well. If anything, why not focus on builds like sword that get no love as the flurry thing seems a bit underwhelming instead of removing well-working builds? Why tinker with them?

Disclaimer: I'm not on beta, so maybe the nerf to crit power will make no big difference, but for instance the nerf to spearhead seems to make sniper rifles pretty unattractive, as two attacks per round at most seem not that useful... is there any weapon that does less now?

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Builds / Re: DOMINATING Laser Pistol Critical Build: 7 shots/rd., 5+ dead, not a scientist ;)

« on: July 21, 2020, 02:24:09 pm »

New experimental patch nerfs the critical power, so the build will definitely not one shot enemies now

Possibly. Haven't done the calculations yet, but with opportunist on rooted or tased enemies, damage is still quite high. And most enemies even on dominating have less than 600 HP and the numbers given in the OP weren't the maximum possible. But yes, the new patch might be bad news for many critical builds, including all snipers using rapid spearheads... kinda sucks. I downloaded the current game files via GOG so I can continue to play with the current rule set

If you want to try a critical build, NOW is the time 

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Builds / Re: DOMINATING Laser Pistol Critical Build: 7 shots/rd., 5+ dead, not a scientist ;)

« on: July 21, 2020, 07:38:24 am »

Ok, sorry ive omitted stealth by accident. So with rathound armor you get 27 movement points? Any other armor recommendation or uniques? Let's say you don't kill a group, how do you escape? Pop a forcefield? With small amount of movement points, without sprint you can't really move much, you get 57mp with haste.

Depends a bit. In the beginning, when the laser pistol is weak, you use all you have at your disposal: bear traps to prep chokeholds around corners, taser, nets, the environment. Later you get Imprint, can stun with electrokinesis if you need it badly. The movement has always been plenty (and restealth grenades might also work, though, I never used them), sure, high AGI builds have much more and that gives you much better mobility, but you do have plenty of options if you realize a fight doesn't go well. I used the stealth to scout and know where enemies are and get close enough to have a good hit chance.

Also, laser pistol is not too loud, so often stealthing around, picking off individual enemies can prep a fight well in your favor as well. But yeah, if you think real big groups like lurker prison, you better prep a nice choke hold and lure people there.

In terms of armor: infused rat hound for crit.chance, not so much movement. I preferred the light tac vests as they look better, but if you want to max crit. chance, definitely this.

I think I also always had some stealth gear (black cloth armor, stealth generator) around, but can't remember ever needing it. For what it's worth, I played the Balor mission (which is a typical sneaky mission without any problems with the build).

Edited to add: energy shields also help. Picking off targets so that in the worst case people remain, who can't penetrate your shield.
Edited again to add: Force Field is also excellent to block damage, if people have to move around it first or it creates the chokehold you need for imprint or traps
Edited yet again: Grenades and flash bangs against big groups help too. If you have seven shots and expect to kill five, this does cover most groups, so if you come against a really big group, all of the above should be an option as you won't likely have run out of flash bangs etc.

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Builds / Re: DOMINATING Laser Pistol Critical Build: 7 shots/rd., 5+ dead, not a scientist ;)

« on: July 20, 2020, 11:58:30 pm »

Three agility on dominating? No stealth i presume? Unless you kill all enemies on sight as they appear, you will get toasted.

Not at all. Max stealth, as I wrote, and AGI 3 is completely sufficient to sneak around, even on dominating. The build is able to stealth and meant to play that way without any issues.

21

General / Re: First Dominating Attempt - Salvage my run

« on: June 24, 2020, 10:20:26 pm »

Absolutely, once you got Critical Power and the Circular Wave Amplifiers, it's a different world.

I think not going for higher critical chance is something that makes the game harder with energy pistols. If you have the high critical damage, an additional 30% from survival instincts, or ambush in some situations, really makes a difference IMHO.

Anyways, congratulations for salvaging your run

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General / Re: First Dominating Attempt - Salvage my run

« on: June 11, 2020, 09:37:55 am »

Glad this helps!

I don't have a link in the builder, as I don't think the additional info on exact skill values is that helpful (many builds need exact skill values at specific levels, and the builder doesn't allow that). The feat progression and mentioned skill levels should be fairly transparent in the description though.

As for PSI: You need psychotemporal contraction and acceleration, so Temporal 55 (please refer to the guide, it's easy to make a mistake in this one area, which would force you to take the acceleration feat a bit later on impact the feat selection order). Otherwise I only had Psychokineses to 45 for the Imprint. Imprint you can get with TNT from a Lurker base near GMS/SGS after Depot A but is a bit hard if you don't know the meta: lots of strong Lurkers on your way, ideally just sneak past some if you can and don't engage the people in the proper base. It's stun is a massive boon to a build that tends to need such crowd control before getting Critical Power.

In general, prioritize Guns, Stealth and your Crafting skills apart from the above PSI.

One random thought on a first run in dominating difficulty: I know you can't do it with Newton (which I'd consider the only hard barrier in dominating difficultywise), but after Depot A you can go many directions, so don't be afraid to sneak past hard enemies in the beginning and come back if necessary later.

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General / Re: First Dominating Attempt - Salvage my run

« on: June 10, 2020, 09:29:46 am »

I've written a guide here on laser pistol that allows to play laser pistol nearly from the get go (before Newton ideally!) and for dominating. I think it has one shot less than the build you mentioned but allows for laser pistol all the way. Second post in this link is how to make a quick detour to Junkyard before even starting with the quest chain and that should solve your money issues.

https://underrail.com/forums/index.php?topic=5086.0

Hope this helps!

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Suggestions / Re: Add a "shopping list" + merchant tweaks

« on: June 07, 2020, 10:25:36 am »

THE PROBLEM

Just take a few snipers or tac vest, and sell em.

Minimal investment in crafting allows you to make repair kits out of the rest you don't want/need to carry/sell (cheap guns etc.). You use this to repair the sniper rifles, ARs etc. you hoard for selling. Has been mentioned multiple times on the board, unless you want to buy money sink stuff, you don't need all the cash, not even on DOMINATING.

Since this is a rant thread: I hate how modern triple AAA stuff has their worlds full of collectible shit unrelated to the game just to pad out playing time. Trains us all to be OCD about collecting what drops in whatever game. And then people play a game like Underrail and expect all stuff has to be picked up.

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Builds / Re: Is this Build good for Hard/Dominating

« on: May 28, 2020, 05:19:07 pm »

I think the most advanced counter determines the timer, but I might be mistaken, i.e. all additional tags inherit the timer that has been applied first.

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Builds / Re: Is this Build good for Hard/Dominating

« on: May 28, 2020, 09:38:54 am »

Depends how you want to play it. 120 should be plenty for most situations to start out of stealth, maybe even in heavier armor (tac vests can get heavy). If you want to run around in stealth a lot to scout the map before initiating combat on your terms, maxing it is better. If points are scarce, less would work too, if you bring along stealth gear you crafted (a lot of stuff can give you a bonus to stealth).

I love stealthy characters and hate heavy armor, so I always max stealth. Thought Control has good synergy with a stealthy play style as neural overload is completely silent. TK Punch and Temporal Distortion aren't very loud as well IIRC (there's a wiki entry on noise). What I also like about stealth is it can help you avoid tedious or overly difficult fights, something to ponder if you don't know the game yet. For instance, Depot A (you know it once you get there) is considered very difficult and it comes early on, where a build doesn't have a lot of options yet. But you can stealth past everybody there with high stealth and completely avoid all the enemies that annoy you. I like that about stealth a lot.

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Builds / Re: Is this Build good for Hard/Dominating

« on: May 26, 2020, 02:32:41 pm »

I'd say yes, much better. If you plan on spamming temporal distortion, you'd probably want to max the temporal skill too, as its damages scales in skill. You are still way above necessary thresholds for the crafting skills and persuasion.

On normal and hard, dodge/evasion could help; and or stealth, to initiate fights on your terms. But that's all depending on how you want to play.

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Builds / Re: Is this Build good for Hard/Dominating

« on: May 26, 2020, 01:35:21 pm »

In general, you should check out AverageGortsby's build guide for PSI to get pointers what could be improved to make the build less frustrating.

Specific points on temporal distortion build (I've played one on dominating): you cannot quickly kill things and the spreading of it (is this a COVID build?) is underwhelming. While you wait for things to die, you need to somehow survive. So Force User way early would allow to hide behind a long wall of force. Picking Locus of Control to use Mental subversion to keep people stunned works extremely well (especially since temporal distortion stacking does not break it). In addition, using a Tranquility build for reduced casting cost of Temporal Distortion allows quicker stacking. Temporal distortion really synergizes well with Thought Control (Fear, Mental Breakdown etc.) and that's a psi school you should maximize, same as your WIL score.

It's fun seeing a group of people all get the temporal bug, but I found it rather tedious, because you move to a fight, you get carpal tunnel from stacking the distortion, and then ... you wait...

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Builds / Re: Creating Psi Monk help me.

« on: May 21, 2020, 11:18:31 am »

Check out destroyor's build for a DEX based CRIT PSI MONK (it's in his steam guide). Insane damage, IMHO much preferred to STR, if you are good to go with leather gloves. If you want to use the Power Fist or otherwise prefer a STR route that's doable too, to (I think) at least hard difficulty. The setup is pretty standard for a leather puncher, and things get only a bit more difficult to plan if you go with bare fists or have to think about the trade-off between STR/DEX in a STR build, so I'd rate the DEX build also much more beginner-friendly.

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Builds / Re: New, using a Psi Build. Having a hard time?

« on: May 21, 2020, 11:14:33 am »

That shoud do ytou. 

Adding to AverageGortsby's door trick, I'd like to point out if your build is stealth capable, you can avoid quite a bit of their nastiness in Depot A. For instance, all of Depot A can be sneaked through without having to fight AT ALL (there's a YouTube video of someone doing that in 5 or 15minutes or so ). More to the point: a full map of the inner Depot A with real Mutants and Acid Dogs can be completely avoided, by following the underground routes (it's not the Map with the Door trick, but the other one, if you enter via Eddy on the first map after a high lock pick fence north/east, this map you could ignore).

One thing that might be helpful to know: even with XP instead of oddity, you don't have to kill everything and will still easily reach max level. Depot A mutants are a prime candidate to ignore, since you usually are not yet powerful enough to obliterate them easily. If you hate the thought of this, just come back later and give them hell...