Messages

1

Suggestions / Enemies AI Suggestions

« on: January 11, 2023, 12:35:50 am »

I think a very nice improvement to Underrail, or perhaps as something to include in Infusion, is better enemy AI. I think this would really help the game be more difficult and fun for veteran players. Here's a few examples.

• One of the most abusable AI limitations is that enemies won't use AoE abilities, such as grenades, if the player breaks line of sight. This means a very successful strategy is to hole up behind a corner or wall, outside of which the player has clear LOS to the enemies, and behind which the enemies don't have LOS to the player. By ending turn behind the corner / wall, the player doesn't face any danger. At this point, it would make total sense for enemies to chuck grenades (frag, EMP, gas, etc.) to flush the player out. Or use AoE psi abilities, if that's an option.

• Enemies currently don't change their behavior much when they step on a trap. When this happens to an intelligent enemy, I think they should alert their allies and start patrolling. Human enemies can start throwing flares at random directions. The same could happen if a dead body is seen, although in this case, there should be a mechanic to hide corpses (e.g. corpses could be treated like items, and carried around in the player's inventory).

• In encounters where one expects the enemies to be coordinated, such as with Protectorate soldiers, I would like to see the enemies form groups and assault as one, rather than charge the player individually. Also, tougher enemies (e.g. the dreadnoughts in Fort Apogee) could lead the assault.

• Not exactly a matter of enemy AI, but it would be great if enemies used more abilities. I don't think I've ever seen an enemy use Quick Tinkering, Expose Weakness, Cryokinetic Orb, or Psycho-temporal Contraction.

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Suggestions / Re: idea for a stasis nerf

« on: January 11, 2023, 12:13:21 am »

I was thinking about the same thing just a few days ago. I think the target could be dazed for the turn after coming out of stasis.

3

Suggestions / Biology Skill Check to Examine Faceless Corpses

« on: January 27, 2020, 06:20:02 am »

The first time I killed a Faceless, my natural thought was "can I now remove its mask?"

I think there should be a Biology skill check to examine Faceless corpses.

Moreover, maybe it could unlock a special feat if you examine enough corpses. Say, you can now craft infusions with Deep Caverns components. But, as a tradeoff, all Faceless are automatically hostile to you.

Here's why I think is a good idea.

1. It's balanced imo. The Deep Caverns become much deadlier, but you are also stronger. Moreover, you're only stronger for the Deep Caverns and afterwards, since before then you won't have the components to make infusions. So crucially it doesn't affect pre Deep Caverns difficulty.

2. It incentivizes playing differently. I think most players try to remain at least neutral with the Faceless for obvious reasons. This could change that.

3. It makes sense that a character with high Biology would do this. And it's a natural way to add some interesting lore.

Even if you disagree with there being a feat reward, I think there should absolutely be the option to examine Faceless corpses.

4

Bugs / Flurry goes on cd when hit deals damage but electrical damage finishes the enemy

« on: December 30, 2019, 04:05:25 am »

This playthrough, I've had several instances of a killing blow putting Flurry on CD. I looked at the combat log, and this has happened even when all attacks hit and deal damage. My suspicion is this happens when the electrical damage (my machete has an electroshock generator attached) deals the killing damage as that's been the bug condition the last few times it has happened.

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General / Re: Where to find Hypercerebrix Blueprint?

« on: September 16, 2019, 04:38:58 am »

Another guaranteed spot is underneath Port Crag (the one with Razor). Roughly two (one?) maps north then two maps east of the main entrance to the pirate base. You can access the location by jet ski, or if you managed to stop the kidnapping, through the uncovered secret tunnel.

6

Suggestions / Flurry Should Give a Stack on Kill; Here's a Good Reason Why

« on: September 10, 2019, 08:11:24 pm »

Like with other weapons that have high critical damage bonus, as your character gets stronger and you min-max critical damage bonus, you become able to kill many enemies in 1-2 critical hits. And this is primarily what keeps crossbows, pistols, and certain melee weapons as viable alternatives to psi or ARs, albeit still weaker.

The problem is, if you kill an enemy on your first Flurry hit, then you don't get stacks from the second or third Flurry hit. It's pretty awkward to be getting 1-2 less stacks per turn because you've built a strong character with very high critical hit chance. It incentivizes gimmicky gameplay like having a low quality off-hand sword to build up stacks with before switching to your primary sword.

I think there's a simple fix. Change Flurry to provide an additional stack if it kills the target, but also, make it so a single Flurry can't add more than 3 stacks (this way you'll still need at least two Flurrys to get max stacks). Alternatively, this could be implemented as a specialization.

I think this is a fair and relatively minor buff, that only starts to have some impact in the late game, and helps a build that is clearly far less strong than psi or AR. But I think it is needed because Flurry is the primary reason to use swords and there isn't another build in the game where feats like Critical Power and Cheap Shots come with a notable, objective downside.

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General / Re: Stealing from Ray's Shop

« on: September 06, 2019, 04:38:49 am »

So, it seems impossible to steal a jet ski from Ray's shop. I'm talking about the good ones inside. The ones outside can be stolen.

I was actually able to drive the Devastator out of Ray's shop without any camera turning orange or red. No NPC saw me either. So, I was fully expecting to have succeeded, but there appears to be a fail safe. So far as I can tell, moving one tile past the gate always triggers hostilities, even if the cameras stay green and you don't drive the jet ski past any core city NPCs.

Has any one been able to steal one of the good jet skis? Or is it as impossible as it seems?

It seems to me, you get into the sniper's guy field of vision. Try to wait a bit and sail off when no one can see you

I'm aware of that guy. Here's the "test" that I did. I opened the water gate and confirmed that I hadn't turned anyone hostile. I waited until there were no NPCs on screen, entered combat mode, and drove my jet ski one tile past the gate then back. No one saw. Cameras stayed green. It only took one turn. And yet, everyone was hostile.

Were you able to steal a jet ski? Maybe I did miss someone who saw me. I probably tried two dozen times and was always paying attention. But if you've done it, that must be it.

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General / Stealing from Ray's Shop

« on: September 04, 2019, 01:53:56 am »

So, it seems impossible to steal a jet ski from Ray's shop. I'm talking about the good ones inside. The ones outside can be stolen.

I was actually able to drive the Devastator out of Ray's shop without any camera turning orange or red. No NPC saw me either. So, I was fully expecting to have succeeded, but there appears to be a fail safe. So far as I can tell, moving one tile past the gate always triggers hostilities, even if the cameras stay green and you don't drive the jet ski past any core city NPCs.

Has any one been able to steal one of the good jet skis? Or is it as impossible as it seems?

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Suggestions / Re: Better Ambush Indicator (Please)

« on: August 24, 2019, 08:04:02 am »

How about I do the following instead:

You will now see which targets qualify for Ambush feat proc based on their and your current location. The indicator will be placed left of the target's health bar.
?

That would be great. Thanks!

10

General / Re: So what improvements would benefit Underrail 2?

« on: August 24, 2019, 05:24:41 am »

3. Shields

Styg has repeatedly said he wants to alter shield mechanics. Right now, there's not much of a tradeoff. Shields protect you, so it's better to have them on. But I get that he's maybe thinking of a more Dune dynamic [he's halfway there already, with slow weapons penetrating more easily], where maybe it amplifies certain types of weapons against you while blocking others. Or maybe affects your perception/aim, or your own weapons' effectiveness.

It will be tricky to retrofit such changes into Underrail 1, so maybe most of it should be saved for the sequel. A clean slate makes it much easier to rework shield mechanics.

Where was this said? I was recently thinking that shields, when active, should impose a precision penalty that increases with shield capacity. I'm not sure it's possible to make Underrail challenging without significantly reworking shields. And frankly, that was true before specializations and the new level cap. So I really hope this gets done.

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General / Re: Does intimidation affect the chance for enemies to resist brutality?

« on: August 23, 2019, 05:53:08 am »

Kinda makes the feat not all that attractive, since not only the 15% chance is low by itself, the enemy can resist it too.

I found it to be pretty strong with a certain item. It let me handle large groups very differently. I could just run into 10 or more enemies, knowing that if I killed 2-3 of them, I probably wouldn't have to worry too much about the return fire for one turn. The AoE for the affect seems pretty large.

What difficulty? I know that death grin increases the chances, but on hard and dominating enemies are generally stronger too and probably will resist it more often.

I was playing on dominating. I basically took the feat for fighting against groups of 8+ enemies, where it was likely to have an effect, especially since I was playing with 3 CON and light armor. So when I say it was strong, I mean it was strong fighting against large groups, since I wasn't looking for it to be useful in other situations. After all, fights with fewer enemies were pretty easy.

Anyways, the feat was disappointing before I got Death's Grin. Or maybe my luck was poor. Either way, I stopped leveling Intimidation since I thought it wouldn't provide further benefit, so my effective skill (with Death's Grin) was only 105. I don't know if dominating raises enemy resolve. Maybe it does, but I was playing a sword/knife build, so it was pretty easy to kill 4-5 enemies each turn. And that meant 4-5 chances to apply fear so the feat felt pretty reliable against large groups.

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General / Re: Does intimidation affect the chance for enemies to resist brutality?

« on: August 22, 2019, 06:48:48 pm »

Kinda makes the feat not all that attractive, since not only the 15% chance is low by itself, the enemy can resist it too.

I found it to be pretty strong with a certain item. It let me handle large groups very differently. I could just run into 10 or more enemies, knowing that if I killed 2-3 of them, I probably wouldn't have to worry too much about the return fire for one turn. The AoE for the affect seems pretty large.

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General / Re: Does intimidation affect the chance for enemies to resist brutality?

« on: August 22, 2019, 08:29:25 am »

Hey,

Thanks. I guess I won't need to invest any further in intimidation. Though I was hoping that intimidation boosting items would make the chance more likely. I think with thought control the effective skill makes abilities like frighten and mental breakdown harder to resist.

Thought control skill only increases your damage and allows you to learn new abilities. Like enrage etc.
You could still invest a bit in intimidation to pass some intimidation skill checks.

-Azura

Huh, okay. Then I'm confused because this is what the wiki says,

Attacks and status effects can be resisted (ie. completely avoided) with Dodge, Evasion, Fortitude or Resolve, depending on the attack's type. These four saving throws are checked against attacker's relevant skill, e.g. An attack with Frighten would test attacker's Thought Control vs. defender's Resolve to determine its duration.[2]

The base save chance of Resolve and Fortitude is 1 - attack skill / defense skill * 0.7 and it is capped between 5% and 75%. So relative to defense skill, about 135% attack skill minimizes the save chance and 35% maximizes it.

Is this incorrect?

If it is correct, what would be the attack skill when throwing a flashbang? That falls under the category of status effects that can be resisted with fortitude. I guess it would be your Throwing skill?

The wiki is correct.
The attack skill for Brutality is Intimidation. It can be resisted with Resolve.
The attack skill for Flashbang is a virtual skill with base ability 14, level 10, 10+5 points invested per level. Equivalent to 111 skill. It can be resisted with Resolve. (However, Styg mentioned shortly before Expedition's release that he wanted to do something about grenades being too good with no throwing skill. So things like this might change in the near future.)

Thanks! But I don't totally understand what you said about Flashbangs. The virtual skill begins at 14 and grows by 5 points with each level up? At level 30 you would then have 159 virtual skill, so after the 0.7 multiplier, out comes the 111 you mentioned. Is that correct?

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General / Re: Riot Gear Vs Metal Armor confusion

« on: August 19, 2019, 08:51:24 am »

The metal armor will keep you alive longer versus bullets, since while the two armors will have similar damage threshold, the metal armor will have higher damage resistance to protect against aimed shots. The metal armor will also protect better against energy weapons and grenades due to providing energy (and possibly heat) resistance.

The riot gear will keep you alive longer versus melee attacks as it has similar damage resistance and threshold against mechanical melee damage compared to the metal armor, but, also has a chance to block melee damage.

Based on the stats you posted, I assume you are early in your playthrough, so the metal armor may have significantly higher armor penalty than the riot gear. If you rely heavily on mobility or stealth, and aren't regularly dying to bullets, I would recommend the riot gear. But it all depends on your build and where you are at in the game.

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General / Re: Does intimidation affect the chance for enemies to resist brutality?

« on: August 18, 2019, 11:24:53 pm »

Hey,

Thanks. I guess I won't need to invest any further in intimidation. Though I was hoping that intimidation boosting items would make the chance more likely. I think with thought control the effective skill makes abilities like frighten and mental breakdown harder to resist.

Thought control skill only increases your damage and allows you to learn new abilities. Like enrage etc.
You could still invest a bit in intimidation to pass some intimidation skill checks.

-Azura

Huh, okay. Then I'm confused because this is what the wiki says,

Attacks and status effects can be resisted (ie. completely avoided) with Dodge, Evasion, Fortitude or Resolve, depending on the attack's type. These four saving throws are checked against attacker's relevant skill, e.g. An attack with Frighten would test attacker's Thought Control vs. defender's Resolve to determine its duration.[2]

The base save chance of Resolve and Fortitude is 1 - attack skill / defense skill * 0.7 and it is capped between 5% and 75%. So relative to defense skill, about 135% attack skill minimizes the save chance and 35% maximizes it.

Is this incorrect?

If it is correct, what would be the attack skill when throwing a flashbang? That falls under the category of status effects that can be resisted with fortitude. I guess it would be your Throwing skill?