Topics

1

General / What builds have you completed the game with? (ENDGAME SPOILERS)

« on: November 27, 2016, 12:57:29 pm »

What builds have you completed the game with (including killing the final boss) and how do your experiences with different builds compare (both in the final fight and throughout the game)?

I'm asking because it actually took me a long time to get around to finishing a game. I have several characters that reached Tchort, but were unable to kill him - in the last case, I was actually under the impression that I had solved the mutagen puzzle when I actually didn't, and thus went into fully healthy Tchort's chamber under the mistaken belief that I'd have an easier time, but I didn't. Couldn't kill him. (There was also the psi build that I simply abandoned before the DC, although I might finish her up some time.)

Recently, however, I finally managed to finish the game. It was an assault rifle/sniper rifle build - not entirely optimal since I wanted to try out things on it that I haven't tried before (riot gear, Mercantile skill and the related feat), but it still certainly seemed like that a build like this is actually the optimal one for the Tchort fight. The sniper rifle could kill pretty much anything in 1 hit, and even though the mutagen tanks generally took two, even with W2C bullets, it was very helpful because I didn't actually have to enter significant tracts of the map to reach and destroy the tanks. The assault rifle was also insanely powerful - a 9-long burst, even with normal bullets, could kill a tentacle most of the time. The other times I tried this fight, I had much less impressively powerful characters (crossbow, sledgehammer...), and this just felt so much easier. On the other hand, this assault rifle fellow actually struggled for a while before getting established, while my psi-based character had a pretty easy time from the beginning until the point where I stopped playing her (i.e. throughout most of the non-DC parts of the game). I wonder how she would do against Tchort...

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General / Spoilery questions regarding "breaking the game" (really, lots of spoilers)...

« on: November 18, 2016, 10:01:32 pm »

I'm currently trying to play through the game a few more times to explore quests I haven't done before as well as various build types, but there are a few things that, while I'd love to try out in principle, I'm fairly sure I'll never want to do given just how much work it'd entail (essentially I'd have to devote a whole playthrough just to a few more lines of conversation). I'm curious, however, if anyone else has tried them out perhaps, and can share the experience. Basically, here is what I'm trying to get answers to... I kind of know what happens if you win "normally" (Tchort dies, you give the cube to the Faceless commander, you go back up and Six has a conversation with you about his future plans, then you can end the game whenever), but what I want to know is, how will things differ if:

- I kill Six when I meet him first? (In particular, will Tanner still disappear?)
- I kill Hadrian Tanner before going down into DC? (Will Six make note of this?)
- I kill both Six and the South Gate Station? (As far as I know, Six offers the possibility to go to North Underrail, and the SGS offers you the possibility to become their councillor. Is it possible to formally win the game if you complete Deep Caverns after having killed both Six and the SGS?)

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General / What do you think are the most important lockpicking/hacking checkpoints?

« on: November 16, 2016, 11:38:18 am »

I'm never quite sure how far to raise these two skills - I always want to pump 5 points into them every level until the very end of the game just because of how frustrating it is to miss a locked container by just a couple of points, and because I never quite know what treasures might be in those containers. At the same time, I recognize that I could save a lot of points by not pouring more points into those two skills after a certain points. Anyway, I've played the game through a few times (sort of... I'm yet to defeat the final boss, none of my builds ever managed to kill it), so there is no need to be careful about spoilers here as far as I'm concerned. What I'm looking for are some opinions: what are some important lockpicking/hacking checks that help out significantly with quests or help get unique items/something more than just sellable loot, and aside from that, is there some level of lockpicking/hacking beyond which you don't see investing in these skills worthwhile at all? (Basically - beyond which there are few containers and nothing that has anything extraordinary?)

4

Bugs / Cytosene Outpost - minor quirk with the Tchortist guard (spoilers)

« on: January 09, 2016, 09:47:27 am »

There is that Tchortist guard who really wants to make sure you are not a Faceless spy and thus, if you don't have robes on, he demands you to explain why. The thing is, it appears that Tchortist Rassophore armor is sufficient for the purpose of passing his requirement, but 'Tchortist robes', the non-protective ones you can get from the Tchortist rearguard at the Coretech facility which grant Stealth and Intimidation, do not - even if you have these on the guard asks why you don't have your robes. I think you should definitely be able to pass the guards with this kind of robe. (I'm not sure if there are other kinds of Tchortist armor the player can wear, but perhaps they should be checked as well if there are.)

5

Suggestions / Grant the player top initiative when starting a battle through a conversation

« on: January 07, 2016, 09:48:24 am »

A simple idea, as explained in the title. This is frankly just a quality of life improvement and doesn't actually make the player's job easier. For example, if I wanted to kill a non-hostile NPC who I could aggro through conversation ("I've come for your ugly head! *attack*"), then I could obviously do so through the conversation, but then I'd risk losing initiative. However, I could just as well initiate combat manually and attack without having a chat to begin with - I can think of only a single instance where I genuinely lose access to information by skipping the conversation, and even then it doesn't really matter. By manually initiating combat before even talking, I get top initiative anyways. So, might as well just ensure the player moves first when a fight starts because of a conversation option, so the immersion wouldn't have to be broken with this gamey little tactic.

6

Bugs / Detritus keeps coming back (spoilers)

« on: December 28, 2015, 08:58:05 pm »

Alright, so I met the Tchortling Devourer called Detritus in the lower area of some mutagen tanks. Poor guy apparently got a pretty bad deal out of joining the Institute, I feel kinda bad for suckering him in for the Investigators now. I killed him to put him out of his misery (and because I needed to get to some containers) and after coming back another time, I found that he was alive, while his previous incarnation's corpse was lying next to him. I think he should be made non-respawning, shouldn't he?

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General / I've had enough of the Deep Caverns (spoilery help-request)

« on: December 25, 2015, 10:23:32 pm »

Alright, so this is just getting frustrating. I have a crossbow-wielding character who is performing very poorly against the Tchortlings. I'm wandering around in the Deep Caverns, with no idea what to do, not finding anything that I think I need and getting lost in tunnel mazes with worm creatures I cannot damage, nor escape if they happen to spot me. I'm not sure if crossbow characters are just particularly weak at this stage or every character has this much trouble, but I'm having a hell of a time trying to make any progress, mostly because enemies just take so long to kill, and the only way I can kill some of the stronger Tchortling creatures is by zipping in and out of zones every two turns and healing up.

With that in mind, I'd like to ask a few questions. Please don't spoil anything more than what is absolutely necessary to answer.

• What do I need to do? What is the absolute shortest series of tasks I need to accomplish to get out of this place? Do I need to do any of that stuff the Tchortist boss guy is telling me to do?
• Is there any way the Faceless will ever let me into their areas, or will I have to keep sneaking by? (If it's the latter, I'll stop reloading every time I bump into a Faceless Gaunt, which I've been doing so far just to be careful.)
• Does the game end at whatever is the conclusion of this Deep Caverns questline (which, I guess, might be killing Tchort, or making sweet love to it, or any other kind of interaction with it - please don't spoil it) or will there be more? 'Cause there are questlines in the Underrail proper that I know to exist but which I haven't done anything with. (I'm just asking because if this is the last section, I'm thinking about starting a new, more powerful character. You have no idea how frustrating it is to plink away at stuff with a crossbow for real-life hours. Or maybe you do, if you've tried a build similar to mine.)

8

Suggestions / Thick Skull seems a bit dubious

« on: December 25, 2015, 10:22:36 am »

Thick Skull seems like a nice little feat and I took it for my character, but I quickly found that it sometimes works in a very dubious fashion. It is all well and good that it leaves me only Dazed when I'd be otherwise stunned (which is useful, for example, against crossbow enemies using a few Shock Bolts or psions using a few electric attacks at the start of the battle), but the problem is, there is no "Second Wind" anymore. This, in turn, means that enemies that can stun me every turn with their attacks (Coil Spiders! As well as anyone else using strong electric attacks on a regular basis) can also daze me every turn. This actually seems to be a bit of a downgrade in a way - without Thick Skull, I was immune to stunning effects for the two turns of Second Wind and didn't get dazed either, while now I get -15 AP every turn. We could also look at it this way: stunning removes 50 AP (if you have not boosted your APs) and the ability to dodge and act, but then you are immune for two turns. Now, over the course of three turns, getting constantly Dazed means that I lose 3*15=45 AP. More specifically, using a crossbow with an AP cost of 21, and assuming no AP boosts, I lose two normal attacks when I get stunned, but I lose one normal attack each turn with the "constantly dazed" option, which actually leads to repeated "Dazed" arguably being worse than being Stunned and no Thick Skull in certain situations, at least for my character.

My suggestion is simple: have a "Second Wind"-type of effect apply to "Dazed" as well, for characters with Thick Skull. (I.e. you are immune to being Dazed as well for two turns.) That'd make the feat a clearly superior option in all cases to fighting without it and make the feat more useful in general.

9

Suggestions / A suggestion to make entrances more visible

« on: December 25, 2015, 10:08:44 am »

Some entrances really are very hard to see. Case in point:



It is not obvious at all that there are stairs leading up just behind my character. I actually wasn't sure how to get up for a long while because I thought that dark grey thing there was just a wall, not stairs. The other side of this area has a small blue patch so it's more visible there, but I was mostly looking at this part at first.



Again, it's hard to see that there is a transition area here - you can only realize this if you happen to mouse over by accident. It makes things more confusing that often, ostensibly open areas like these are actually just dead ends.

Now, I think that there should be a way to make entrances more obviously visible so you can see where you can enter or leave an area. I think that pressing Tab could fulfill this function too. There are two solutions I can think of: either name every single transition area or (the more elegant solution in my opinion) just have the red and blue colored squares that indicate the exits go to the top when you press Tab, displaying over everything else (perhaps in a translucent manner so it's not too ugly).

10

Suggestions / More verbal warnings

« on: December 23, 2015, 04:56:42 pm »

Sometimes, I feel like NPCs should give you more warnings about accessing certain areas. There are two examples I can think of. In the United Stations embassy in the Junkyard, there is a Protectorate Soldier standing right inside, warning you to unequip your weapons when you enter. Now, I don't remember if he forces a dialog with you the first time you enter (if he doesn't, he definitely should), but I think a single warning each time you enter the area with a weapon wouldn't be a bad idea. (The warning should only trigger while you are in that entrance area, of course.)

Another, more severe example (in terms of annoyance, since you probably won't lose much progress if you have autosaves on) is the Foundry prison. Once you enter the room south of the northern corridor, the guards and everyone attack you, even though none of the two guards nor anyone else (not even common sense) gives any indication that the area is off-limits. (In fact, for all I know, maybe I'm just supposed to unequip my weapons there like in the embassy, but I get no indication either way.)

11

Bugs / Two combat bugs which may or may not be related + Last Stand

« on: December 23, 2015, 04:51:01 pm »

I've had a bug first happen to me while fighting the Black Crawlers. One of the enemies ran out of ammo but seemed to be trying to reload, unsuccessfully, getting the warning message "Out of Ammo!" about 8 times before giving up and passing his turn, doing nothing else of use. I presume that there is some timeout mechanic for enemy turns, or else he'd probably have tried to reload his pistol forever.

I also got a bug in the Ironhead base - here is a save to test it out. Basically, attack Balor and observe as he does nothing - nothing at all during the entire battle, allowing one to kill him with ease. I suspect that he may be having the same problem as that Black Crawler, trying to do an action he cannot and eventually giving up. My suspicion is that the action is 'switching on his energy shield', perhaps, as Balor's AI worked just fine before I breached his shield. Thus I think that these two may be instances of the same bug.

Finally, an unrelated issue: the description of Last Stand states that you get two turns of full health. This is a little misleading IMO, since you only get one effective turn out of it: after you activate Last Stand, you get one turn where the enemies are trying to hit you at full health. After your next turn (i.e. at the start of the enemies' next turn) your health goes to 1, meaning that if there are still enemies around, they're going to kill you if they hit even just once, and you don't really get a second turn. I'm not sure if this is an issue with how the skill works or the description, but one of them should be modified.