Show Posts

This section allows you to view all posts made by this member. Note that you can only see posts made in areas you currently have access to.


Messages - Easyprey

Pages: [1] 2
1
General / Re: A few Psi related questions
« on: January 11, 2025, 08:34:52 am »
Quote
My limited experience with that wasn't very smooth. I started a tranquillity build and in the first 10 levels

Quote
t wasn't terrible, and surely my build wasn't optimized yet (I aborted the game because I inadvertently messed up the Oculus questline), as I said it just wasn't great considering my innervation was at 100%, I had my 12% mufflers, meditation & thermodynamicity (albeit no fast metabolism).

If it wasn't clear, I was level 10, an those were my first mufflers.

2
General / Re: A few Psi related questions
« on: January 07, 2025, 03:35:12 pm »
Quote
Like I said before a lot of spells are pretty situational so its not something you would have innervated the entire time. 35 points isn't a particularly crazy investment I do it because I generally play on ironman so having strong stuff early is important.

I totally get that, it's just not my cup of tea, I guess.

Quote
The psi points issue might be because you are innervating more than 2-3 schools or have bad quality mufflers. Remember also to have a filter for whatever damage spell you are primarily using on your headband. More damage = less casts, so it will save you a lot of psi in the long run combined with mufflers. With TM you can also spam boosters like your life depends on it (it does) with limited temporal increment.

I was running a two school tranquillity build, MT & TK on Hard.
It wasn't terrible, and surely my build wasn't optimized yet (I aborted the game because I inadvertently messed up the Oculus questline), as I said it just wasn't great considering my innervation was at 100%, I had my 12% mufflers, meditation & thermodynamicity (albeit no fast metabolism).
Thinking about it, maybe the real problem was on the other end of the stick and I was just doing too little damaged per spell.

Quote
Cryostasis is good because you can do damage, cryostasis, and leave combat. Making fights with lone enemies like Vilmer or the camera guy in the protectorate embassy trivial. It remains useful for bosses later, on a full-psi build you wont really be shattering enemies with cryo-induction unless you have a good enough TK punch.

I can see how that could be useful, especially with high health enemies and especially if you need to keep it quiet.

3
General / Re: A few Psi related questions
« on: January 07, 2025, 09:23:00 am »
Thanks for your reply.

Quote
Psi points really aren't such a big deal for psi builds,

My limited experience with that wasn't very smooth. I started a tranquillity build and in the first 10 levels, despite mufflers and flexibility talent, I did run low on psi points quite a few times.
It was okay-ish, just not great.

Quote
MT is nice with a minimum of 35 early, you get to spam cryokinesis for the first 6 levels which trivialises all early encounters (beetles and gms) and then you get cryostasis which is a un-resistible incap that is used through the entire game.

I would hate to pick 35 points just for the early game, I'll consider them wasted later on, even if they were needed for that build to survive the first levels.
Also I didn't really get much use of cryostasis, maybe because I wasn't playing on dominating.
I find it expensive, unreliable (bots and enemis resist to cold) and not really worth the slot, even with cryogenic induction for shattering it.

I did read your guide already.  ;)

4
General / Re: My thoughts on the new combat system
« on: January 04, 2025, 02:09:13 pm »
Welp, knowing there won't be the same AP turn based combat system is quite a bummer.

I don't doubt the new system will work out fine, one way or another, like may other games do in fact, but I am disappointed at the prospective of losing what made this game stand out from those others.  :-\

5
General / A few Psi related questions
« on: January 04, 2025, 01:11:08 pm »
Hi, y'all.

I'm messing around with a possible Psi build. I know is common to copy other's build as a reference but I don't do that, I prefer to understand how things are supposed to work.

So a couple of questions came up:

- Several talents use a wording that seems to exclude psi form their benefits (Opportunist, Ambush, Blindsiding), is that right? I mean, are these talents useless to a psi user? Generally speaking, does psi damage have to be specifically included by the wording of an effect to be taken into account?

- Since playing psi essentially means having a kind of a second AP bar to manage in addition to the standard one, is there any point in taking the usual 70 points in Temporal Manipulation?
As I see it, adding a third school to the mix (I'm assuming a 2 schools build here, MT&PK ) would increase the general cost of spells and also would probably eat up your premeditation with Contraction (on non Psi focused build Contraction is just free AP ), both things increasing your psi expenses and thus ultimately countering the whole point of picking 70 TM, i.e. to be able to cast more spells per turn.

-As consequence of of the previous question, is there any point in off-speccing 70 points in either Psychokinesis or Thought Control? (thinking always of two schools builds here, either PK&MT/TM or TC&MT/TM). I'm leaving out MT as I don't see a point in half-assing that one.
I can see 70 TC being useful for Locus control and some additional crowd control.
70 PK doesn't seem much worth though.

Thoughts, anyone?

6
General / Re: Junkyard Gang Showdown question
« on: November 28, 2024, 12:33:16 pm »
So after a few tries I managed to get everyone dead  ;D

I have noticed that there is a huge difference if your character is in combat or not.

When you're in combat the Protectorate Soldiers and the Scrappers fight in turn based too, and the match is a little more fair.

If you're not in combat though, the Cans completely overpower the Scrappers with what I guess are real time fight mechanics.

Also I can confirm that sometimes the Protectorate stop reacting after a certain point.

It is as once they exit combat after killing the first wave (Elias, a few dogs and a couple of thugs), they refuse to fight the remaining  forces coming from the other side (Gort + stragglers of the other side of the assault.)

My last 2 Cans died this way in fact, standing still while Gort and another thug attacked them.

In my experience Silas gets killed 95% of the times, 100% if you're not with him.

Are the odds so unfavorable to the scrappers that they can't kill even one measly Protectorate?

More often than not they should kill at least one soldier. With SGS they somehow managed to kill two.

Although, and that is already explained above, game difficulty matters. Soldiers outmatch gangsters. If you start on easy/normal there's 90% chance of you getting at least one ally corpse, be that of SGS or Protectorate. Sometimes even Silas can get an unlucky crit and whole Eel party may appear dead.

Me personally always attacked with Eels. That always (again, depending on difficulty) resulted in one heavy trooper body. Probably them dogs and sniper at the entrance did it, I dunno.

Never managed to get SGS on board. I really never leveled persuasion, which is needed as far as I know.

On the other hand, I don't recall ever finding a dead trooper when I attacked with the Eels.

7
General / Re: Junkyard Gang Showdown question
« on: November 26, 2024, 12:34:18 pm »
Found 2 major differences:

Old game: I was lv 11, game difficulty was normal

New game : I'm lv 8, game difficulty hard

I can try to delay the showdown and see if I can level up. No idea if that has an impact though.

8
General / Re: Junkyard Gang Showdown question
« on: November 26, 2024, 12:23:22 pm »
Level is of no consequence, but difficulty might have an effect on the outcome. It's likely that Protectorate schmucks benefit more from higher difficulty settings due to their base stats, equipment, etc., which makes them outscale some shitty gangsters despite increased difficulty values being the same for them and gansters alike.

Yeah, I thought of that too. I'll try to see if I have the old savegame available because I can't remember for sure if the old game was on Hard difficulty too or not.

Could also just be plain variance. Perhaps you should conduct the showdown experiment a couple hundred times more for more comprehensive data :)

I'll definitely try a few things.

9
General / Junkyard Gang Showdown question
« on: November 26, 2024, 09:46:34 am »
Hi, y'all.

I was meaning to ask if anybody knows if there is some scaling involved in the junkyard showdown between Black Eels and Scrapper.

While I was doing an old playthrough I came upon a discussion that explained how to exploit the showdown in order to loot a few Protectorate corpses:
  • pick to fight from old junkyard
  • start fight an hide
  • wait (reload) untill protectorate have it bad

Apparently sometimes the 4 protectorate soldiers should freeze after entering the Scrappers' hideout. I have never seen this happen though.

But, in that old playthrough, I managed to get serveral times where one, two or even three Cans where lying dead afterwards. (I was aiming for four, doh!)

Now that I'm doing a new melee playthrough, I gave a shot at it and this time the Protectorate soldier are just wasting everyone without losing more than 10% of shields (did a few reloads).
It doesn't really look like the Scrappers have the slightest fighting chance. I think they're non even drawing their weapons ::)

So, what gives? Are the odds so unfavorable to the scrappers that they can't kill even one measly Protectorate?

That would kind of make sense, storywise, but if so, how did they manage to kill 3 Cans it in my old game?

My question is: has it something to do with my level\the game difficulty\something else I did?

10
Builds / Re: Versattility build, common Questions
« on: November 20, 2024, 09:25:36 pm »
Hey, I'm kinda new too, but I guess It couln't hurt to point out a couple of possible mistakes you seem to be about to do.

First off, choose one kind of damage just one. You want swords? Go melee. You want shotguns? Go guns. Not both.

In that regard, Versatility is kind of a trap. There are builds that use it, yes, but very specific builds. Don't expect to damage with both shotguns and knives(swords).
One of the two will be better, and progressively you will ditch the worst one when faced with tougher encounters.

You can take a bit of throwing though, 30 points to get the granadier (and 6 dex) for the granadier talent. Really cuts the cd on granades.

Same story with stats. When you create your character ( or in the builder) drop to 3 all the stats and then raise only the ones you really need.

If you're doing a knife build, I guess dex is your main stats.
You really should leave willpower to 3 on the other hand.

Intellect helps you with crafting, mostly. Or psi. 6 for premeditation, really useful. 7 for crafting talents.

Can't tell you much about shotguns, really.

I can tell you you should chose if you want to create a tanky character, or a glass cannon. Middle ground doesn't work much.
Either you move out of harm's way or you prepare to take it.

Stealth is your friend. It really shines in this game, it gives you control to engage in fights only when you can win. It lets you overlook initiative. Let's you gap close if you're melee.

You can do without, of course. But I wouldn't advise it for a first run.

Hope this helps untill someone more experience comes by.


11
Builds / Re: Newb Sniper/Ar build
« on: November 19, 2024, 08:50:54 am »
Well, for this playthrough I lost my chance when I took concentrated fire instead of spec ops.

Next time, I guess  ::)

Or the next after that, because next run is going to be either psi or pistol  ;D

12
Builds / Re: Newb Sniper/Ar build
« on: November 18, 2024, 01:15:39 pm »
AR kills everything and anything, my AR build 1 burst 8k hp off the final boss.

Yeah, I'm sure of it. My point was exactly that it may feel a little boring to just burst things down after a while.

But that's just my opinion or a matter of personal preference if you will.

After all this is my first full fledged playthrough, I think it's understandable I wanna try and mix things a little.

13
Builds / Re: Newb Sniper/Ar build
« on: November 18, 2024, 12:49:43 pm »

In general, I don't see the reason to get feats for two separate weapons that both meant to be used as main source of damage.


Disagree here, I think AR is the wrong choice since AR can kill anything sniper can kill, just better. However SMG pairs very well with sniper, incendiary bullets can proc ambush and its a good low ap close range choice.

Dragunov is bad use AFW instead until you get a spearhead and/or a harbinger.

And traps are lame.

Smg feels pretty solid too, they are probably a better pairing. My idea was to have 2 one shot long range, then 2 (3) one shot (burst) mid range.
I felt like smgs would need me to be too close to the enemy for my own good.

And yeah, AR can kill almost anything with one burst. Almost.
I feel like a 400% damage snipe can hit that spot.
AR definetly can work on their own, but then what? If you prefer, let's say this is an AR glass cannon build with a side of SR  ;D

About Dragunov, I progressed in the game and crafted 12.7 mm reaper harbringer. Now im doing Expedition, still haven't tackled DC.
Having fun murdering scores of natives with contaminated bullets atm.

I still didn't find the AFW.

My bad, I looked it up, apparently I missed it in Foundry.  ???
I'm going to give it a try now, thanks.

14
Builds / Re: Newb Sniper/Ar build
« on: November 18, 2024, 12:32:14 pm »
Thanks for the replies, guys.

Traps are much-much more useful with Trap Expert. It's a lot more than QoL, like how it seems. Simply placing traps almost immedaitely allows you to set them up a LOT closer to enemies with stealth. Quick Tinkering is perhaps the best CC in-combat ability. Interloper + Hit and Run is a must, Sprint is not needed. Ambush is fundamental too.

In general, I don't see the reason to get feats for two separate weapons that both meant to be used as main source of damage. When an enemy is within AR range (or even a tile close), you can just as well kill them with a sniper rifle. Due to this, taking feats of anything else is a waste. Especially if they involve you wasting stat points too. Also you have to carry more bullets, often different caliber. A pistol can be the only exception as it won't fight the rifle, it supports it with boosting your Initiative and allows you to perform Kneecap Shot with the longest range and the cheapest AP. Excellent CC ability for any incoming melee.

In addition, with high Detection and Stealth, crawlers pose zero danger and are just sitting ducks. Even without Motion-Tracking Goggles with NV, you can easily spot them before they notice you and just pop them. They also cannot open doors. Paranoia helps your bad Initiative and is pretty much the anti-crawler feat for so many reasons. Once you are able to make crawler poisoned Bear Traps and see just how immensely OP those are, you feel like you want to farm these critters. Incendiary Traps are also amazing to trigger Fear and Ambush on demand where you want it.

Any case, here's a tried and tested DOM-proof Sniper build for reference:

https://stygiansoftware.com/forums/index.php?topic=10837.0


I get how strong traps are, I tend to use them only when I'm struggling. I did in the early game, now I rarely do. I still carry a few traps around for thought times.

During a previous test build a got interloper. Made stealth a lot more easy to use.
I guessed I could have done without, but it's definetly useful.

My previous test builds were to determine which side arm to use with a sniper. I tried pistols and Smgs. I decided to save pistols for a full pistol run.
I was undecided between AR and Smgs untill the last moment. Smgs a probably a better complement to Sniper Rifles, yeah.

Although I don't think I completely wasted that point really. Isn't 6 strength needed to carry that last unique SR?

About crawlers. I'm running a high perception build, and I carry around a pair of detection goggles. Still, it takes a few moments to spot them, and sometimes they still take me by suprise. They are less of a threat now, but I did struggle a lot with some early encounters.
I dread what pain in the ass they could be for a low perception build, especially since I'd like to try a psi build next.

All in all, in retrospective, I think I've ditched too many QoL talents, probably because as a newb I expected some crazy difficult ahead.

Thanks for your advice.

15
Builds / Newb Sniper/Ar build
« on: November 13, 2024, 12:54:44 pm »
Howdy.

After a few test runs, I started my current playthrough on Hard difficulty.

I'm currently lv 22, considedring to go in Expedition. I have to admit I'm pretty satisfied with my build (combat wise at least ...), I didn't follow any precompiled build, just read around casually, mostly to understand what feats actually did, gameplay mechanics, etc..

Since I've got snipe, I open fight from stealth with it. Got my hands on the Dragunov, refubished it pretty soon. Added killing spree, then commando.
I regularly kill 4 target during first round, if things don't work out smoothly I pop premeditation+ time contraction + adrenaline.
I use traps only but seldomly. I made vast use of molotov cocktails early on for area denial and setting stuff on fire, now much less.

Ofc if I somehow miss a 95% snipe & aimed shot I'm done for, but that's acceptable I guess.
Crawlers have been a major pain in the ass, especially those leading to the Black Crawler Lair near Rail Crossing.

What gives me pause is the crafting section of my build. I took 7 point in intelligence, but at the moment I only took Power Managment from the crafting feats (and I'm even second guessing it...).

I tried to craft weapons and armors, to get use of mechanics and tailoring past 50 points, but utill now I'm not very satisfied with the results. Unique weapons are more than adequate, (Dragunov, K&H KH416 , Thumper). Recently I managed to craft Rapid Precise Chimera which is arguably better untill I can refurbish the Kh416.

Leather armors, and hence tailoring, are the true let down though. I don't need dodge and evasion. Neither damage resistence really. Rat King Regalia was very good untill I decided to move from 5 to 6 strength, now I really don't know what to use and crafting doesn't help with that at all.

Jkk tactful jacket is meh. Crafting a new cave hopper leather for that useful +1 agility? I guess that's an option, but going from +20 stealth to + 40 stealth doesn't feel like a bouns worth of the points I spent in tailoring.

Electronics has good payoff at least, the crafted shields are good, taser is a must, but I doubt I will really feel that +35% capacity in the end.

Chemistry
will stay low, I find much more granades of what I make us of lately, but it has been pretty helpful early on.
Same for biology. I find so many hypos right now, though It has been pretty helpful to be able to craft adrenaline a few level ago.

I guess on my next run I won't give 7 points to intellect, I didn't see much benefit in it. And keep tailoring at lower levels if my build doesn't need specifically a good armor.

About specialization points I guess I made a mistake in taking the opportunist ones instead of the concentrated fire ones, but I'm not feeling my damage output hindered at the moment.

I guess this post was to ask for any general advice and see if there's anything major that I've missed.

Would this build work on Dominating? How could I optimize it?

Pages: [1] 2