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General / Underrail has such a contradictory design

« on: February 02, 2022, 09:09:40 am »

I'm level 16 on normal classic with a MT TM build, after repeatedly failing at Depot A with various builds, but now it's smooth sailing exploring the different layers and questing.
What gets me is the glaring contradictory design.

What do we have:

• You have to be able to handle organic and non-organic enemies
• You have to be able to handle single targets and large groups of enemies
• You have to be able to deal with invisible enemies and traps
• Crafting for the best items
• Skill-based system which affects hit-chance, damage and requirements to even be able to use an item/weapon

With that in mind:

• How come Throwing is the de facto best off-spec as it offers grenades for every single enemy type + group size? -> effectively just completely breaks rules 1 and 2 as a single off-spec skill just counters everything
• How come Stealth is the other de facto best off-specc as you can completely avoid enemy types or groups you can't/don't want to fight, or get the drop on enemies? -> completely mitigates 1, 2 and 3 to some degree
• How come any ranged build inherently gets the PER benefits, something every other build has to fight for with items and buffs to counter invisible enemies/traps?
• Crafting obviously is a hard requirement as you can craft the best items, including ammo, grenades, traps, consumables + you can craft important items like e.g. a tactical vest/with psi beetle very early and thus have a far better/easier early game
• Who the hell thought a random vendor inventory is fun in a game that pushes crafting to such a degree, and then not even offering a means to manually reset the inventory outside of using Cheat Engine?
• Why the hell does Bear Trap have no skill requirements while offering big damage, instant and DoT, and a 3 turn root to carpet-trap whole areas before engaging combat? -> just breaks 1-3
• Why the hell do AoE PSI abilities have a hit chance? PSI inherently has to invest a lot of points into INT and WILL, low CON, low-ish PER, and has to juggle PSI points during combat, and then you're "rewarded" with missing your AoE spells?
• Depot A: after being forced to redo it a few times I understood that it's not that difficult, it's just that the level design completely breaks with the previous one up to that point of large areas with plenty of space to move around. Now you have to fight in small spaces and corridors with little room to retreat, where opening doors will immediately put you into combat with 4-5 enemies

As with similar games I play it despite it being a turn-based game, and not because of it, as the story and presentation keeps me going.