Topics

1

Suggestions / Shield Bash & Boarding Up Improvements

« on: March 20, 2025, 09:43:35 am »

I.e. guess what kind of build I have been playing recently:

1) It would be neat if Shield Bash's cooldown could be refreshed after each 4 or 5 successful melee attacks performed on the same turn. I noticed that 'charging' Shield Bash with 5 hits required to stack Boarding Up is similar to pneumatic hammer activation. It feels nice to fulfil some condition, however small, in order to deal more damage, so it would be neat if Shield Bash were to become conditionally available multiple times per turn via this kind of interaction. For bonus meme points this mechanic could be tied to Shield Arm, an overall horrendous feat that nobody ever wants to take and that should really just be integral to shields by default. If Shield Arm bore the offensive component of promoting Shield Bash's rate of usage, it might actually start serving a purpose.

2) Boarding Up should also increase the chance block per stack by 5%/10%. Not like shields are amazing and often used anyway, and not like having a somewhat strong defence exclusively against melee attacks is all that broken. Spears can already block more or about as much as top shields, but at 100% chance with Spear Guardian and without locking the wielder into a specific armour type. Shields meanwhile offer a 50% chance to block at best and even that with Shield Arm, an overall horrendous feat that nobody ever– right, you get the idea.

3) Applying Daze onto an already Dazed enemy should Stun the target for 1 turn. I saw this interaction in Darkest Dungeon 2, where applying Daze on an enemy that already has a Daze token upgrades it into a Stun token instead. If Underrail were to adopt a similar mechanic, Boxing Gloves would immediately become broken beyond belief, boxer builds rise up! ^jk

4) I may come off as a shield fa– enjoyer, but at the same time I think that sledgehammer attacks shouldn’t be blockable at all or should bypass a considerable percentage of block value depending on the block source. Sledges already have the real life gimmick of disregarding living targets’ mechanical threshold, so it’s really odd for melee block, which is pretty much just a separate situational mechanical threshold, to be exempt. I could see a shield mitigating a hit from a hammer partly but certainly not fully, a portion of the impact would still be transferred to the body just like it would through armour. Blocking even the tiniest fraction of a heavy hammer swing with a sword, knife or your own hands – Guard feat or Boxing Gloves – sounds rather preposterous.

I hereby rescind all responsibility for suggesting what might have already been proposed a long time ago.

2

Bugs / Mushroom Forest minor bugs

« on: March 19, 2025, 06:56:24 am »

1. Spore Turrets can be immobilised (specifically via Pinning feat). Not like they are going anywhere anyway, but nonetheless.

2. I can't remember ever landing critical hits on Pulsating Roots with any weapons, and yet with throwing knives it appears to be possible. Pardon my mnemonic deficiency if the Roots can receive critical hits normally after all.

3

Bugs / Shield Bash crits do not trigger Bone Breaker

« on: March 19, 2025, 06:48:27 am »

Title. I'd assume that Shield Bash qualifies as a blunt weapon attack and should therefore interact with Bone Breaker (especially since even Dirty Kick is somehow capable of breaking ribs).

4

Bugs / Handmaiden Pharmacist Dialogue Bug

« on: March 18, 2025, 07:31:41 am »

Dialogue with the randomly spawning Handmaiden pharmacist at Lemurian Health Institute has options for presenting Phil's hand with the chip and the chip by itself at the same time. That's while the chip is still in Phil's hand; once extracted, there is no option to present anything at all. Implanting the chip leads to the prompt of presenting your own hand, so that works correctly.

5

Bugs / Exosoldiers do not spawn at the Compound's training grounds anymore

« on: March 05, 2025, 02:04:55 pm »

Title. Whether on a first or a repeat visit, not a single enemy spawns after interacting with the console, despite Cognator being alive and not a single other Exosoldier having been harmed elsewhere. No matter the obstacles primed, the game just shows four empty corners of the arena - very dramatically - before freely admitting passage to the next area.

I know they are no longer supposed to spawn when none are available, but that should definitely not be the case given the circumstances.

6

Bugs / Possible minor issue in Booth's dialogue

« on: January 22, 2025, 04:39:18 am »

One of the possible stories Booth may tell the player during the procedure concerns a character conspicuously reminsicent of Chemical Agent, who comes to get the names of his dissolved adversaries engraved on his putrid flesh. Booth, however, mentions that it's been quite a while since his last visit, the implication being Chemical Agent's death at the player's hands. The problem is that Booth hit me up with that story before I had fought in the Arena at all, which makes his apparent disappearance a little premature, but is all in all no big deal.

I do miss the option of recognising who Booth is talking about and gloating about having put the Agent out of his misery though (to be fair I did not bother to test if such an option appears after having actually killed him, so my bad if it already exists).

7

Bugs / Razor lost his knife

« on: January 10, 2025, 06:25:51 am »

When I was 'negotiating' with pirates in my most recent playthrough, Razor's arguments were for some reason delivered in the form of kicks and punches. Upon inspecting his corpse, I discovered that he had no knives on him at all, which is a little odd for a character notoriously skilled with knives. He even had a sharpening stone, to add insult to injury, so if anyone has seen a sharpened combat knife of ~110q floating around the Black Sea, kindly return it to the corpse of the original owner.

I also checked just in case and the last playthrough in which he fought with a sharpened knife took place in September, 2023, quite a while ago.

8

Suggestions / Throwing Axes

« on: December 16, 2024, 07:38:16 am »

A heavier alternative to throwing knives. Higher damage, higher AP, less penalty to mechanical penetration and less or no bonus against organic targets (bonus points if could be crafted with an optional plasma-related component to also deliver fixed energy damage on impact; yes, I basically just want a 'throwing knife' for Industrial Bots).

9

Bugs / Spiked Chrome Brass Knuckles cannot be laced with poisons

« on: November 18, 2024, 05:57:34 am »

Despite the fact that any spiked combat gloves can be laced with poisions and similarly applied substances, the unique brass knuckles refuse to follow suit. Similarly, only in reverse, CACS can actually be put on them, which is impossible with any common spiked combat gloves (including Ripper's Glove and The Claw).

Additionally, Spiked Chrome Brass Knuckles, as they are first found in the game, are at 300/1050 durability. I'm not saying that the original owner can't have used them to that extent, but still cannot help seeing a connection between the oddly precise value and common Brass Knuckles' max durability also being 300.

10

Suggestions / Wyatt should heal from toxic gas

« on: November 15, 2024, 03:50:09 pm »

Title. Basically permanent, unconditional Bioscrubber filtering effect, as well as immunity to contamination. A superhuman such as him should not succumb to so trivial a threat.

11

Suggestions / Thought Control check in Rob Protectorate Warehouse mission

« on: October 21, 2024, 07:28:32 am »

Apologies if this has been suggested before, but it would be neat to make a character with sufficient mastery of TC appear to be Bob in the minds of people in the warehouse, allowing you to walk near them without getting exposed.

Additionally, it would be amusing for some of them, upon noticing the one they think to be Bob, to strike up a conversation with you, as they might have some serious issues with Bob's work ethics or Bob in general. Depending on your replies during the dialogue they might grow suspicious, due to which the 'spell' on their minds would weaken and make them realise that you are an impostor (kind of like certain dialogue options with people at the Grey Army Base).

12

Suggestions / Miniguns suggestion: wind up stacks are gained per rounds fired, not bursts

« on: August 30, 2024, 12:19:00 pm »

Disclaimer: the change proposed is meant to neither improve nor weaken miniguns (although it is mostly a buff). It's merely something that, to my mind, makes a lot of sense.
Disclaimer, part two: I have not checked if this has been suggested before and am not going to bother.

I've realised that the attached file doesn't work so here's the accursed excel file in google docs: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1Kj2mehbaTk7rJwulvsb9k1d374CNwKUo/edit?usp=drive_link&ouid=100305591423394744982&rtpof=true&sd=true

As per title, I think it would be neat for each wind up stack to be gained per a stated number of rounds fired, rather than per each burst. Taking Jumpstarter Mk1, for instance:

- instead of 1,5 rounds gained after each burst, every six rounds fired grant a wind up stack (six because that's the motor's starting burst capacity, not for any deep^tm lore^tm reasons), which then adds extra 1,5 rounds to future burst attacks.

At first glance, it would change absolutely nothing about that minigun's progression, requiring the same four bursts in order to reach max burst extent. A single look at the progression rates listed in the accursed excel spreadsheet attached will reveal no tangible difference either, save for lessened ammo expenditure.

The situation takes a drastic turn with the addition of Full-Auto into the picture. While currently Full-Auto does nothing to improve the rate at which extra rounds are gained, with wind up stacks being derived from the total number of rounds fired, Full-Auto could actually contribute to the progression. If one should, once again, refer to the accursed excel file, one shall see that Full-Auto makes both Slowstarter motors reach their respective max burst caps 1 burst earlier than without, while Long Game Mk1 does so in 7 bursts as opposed to 10, and Long Game Mk2 in 8 rather than 12 (and even less ammo is used). Jumpstarter Mk1/2 remain virtually unchanged.

The change proposed introduces non-linear scaling to miniguns and makes every round count towards ramp up speed, even including the rounds added via Full-Auto and Mag Dump. Non-linear scaling is manifest in Slowstarter Mk2's proposed Full-Auto-assisted progression of 5 > 6 > 8 > 12 > 17 > 20 (cap), as the equation of

• extra rounds per [y] rounds fired (I'm skipping wind up stacks here for brevity) creates breakpoints through accumulation of total number of rounds fired consecutively, breakpoints clearing which adds a lot more extra rounds at once than around the first 3 bursts. I daresay that having a transition from slow start to explosive growth later on fits Slowstarter and Long Game motors' theme better than their current gradual growth (although Long Game motors retain somewhat linear scaling). Additionally, it would be very nice to think of additional rounds from Full-Auto and Mag Dump as an accelerant to the burst length's escalation, especially now that conditional AP reduction for miniguns is a thing.

Once again, the impact of this change would concern primarily Slowstarter and Long Game motors, both in regards to reaching maximum capacity faster and decreasing ammo spent to do so.

All relevant - and perhaps some irrelevant - data supporting this suggestion may be found in the attached file. There's too much info to convey with text alone, so do consider referring to the file before calling me a lunatic (even though I am one).

13

Suggestions / Yearly plea for enriched hypos' rework

« on: July 04, 2024, 10:07:08 am »

This has been asked for before and I'm going to do it again.

(with two examples; values are taken as in Normal difficulty)

14

Bugs / Two crafting bugs & Vanishing Powder Grenade

« on: June 27, 2024, 10:59:25 am »

1) Hyperallergenic can be used in bear trap, throwing knife and caltrops blueprints, though only to produce ordinary versions of said paraphernalia without any additional effects.

2) High Explosive & Frag Grenade crafting bug: when crafting a MK4 grenade of each variety, putting Hexogen in the second slot and T.N.T. in the first changes the Chemistry requirement from the intended 69 to 112, same as MK5.
Still produces a normal MK4 nade that way, unfortunately.

3) Stealth gained from using Vanishing Powder Grenade is immediately removed once said utility is unequipped or replaced with another item from inventory; moving the grenade between the utility slots doesn’t affect Stealth gained from it in any way.
I assume that VP Grenade somehow counts as a separate stealth skill, so removing it makes the stealth granted by it disappear as well.

Bonus Dirty Kick segment ahead, proceed at own risk:

a) DK interacts with Combo by adding a countdown stack on a first or second attack, but deals no bonus damage on the final hit, effectively wasting the third empowered attack. I reckon it should function as an ordinary unarmed attack in all instances, or none at all.

b) DK has a static chance to crit, most likely 5%, same as Unarmed’s base chance. I kicked a rathound in the nuts about 20 to 30 times and only saw a single crit, which should be, I daresay, rather improbable at 80% chance to crit with ordinary unarmed hits. I’m guessing the same reasoning that restricts Dirty Kick’s critical damage bonus to 100% is in play here; however, I refuse to understand why these static values should be in place, lest forced by the game's internal limitations.

c) DK (allegedly) does not benefit from Improved Unarmed and Expert Unarmed feats. I only tested that hypothesis with the first feat, but nonetheless the damage dealt remained within the range stated in the ability’s description, completely ignoring the 20% modifier. No number of crushed rathound balls could elicit the slightest increase in damage from the feat, in contrast with ordinary fists being thrown around.

Basically, Dirty Kick is described as a special unarmed attack yet in many ways feels more like a combat utility such as a Taser, and looking at the related patch history - especially how it used to bypass Uncanny Dodge - it must have been pretty much a combat utility masquerading as an ability, similarly to the Vanishing Powder Grenade functioning as an ability despite being a combat utility (provided I’m anywhere near the truth of how these things actually work internally).
 
Dirty Kick appears to be stuck in some sort of quantum superposition of being and not being an unarmed attack at the same time, as its damage is derived from Unarmed yet doesn’t benefit either critical chance or critical damage modifiers; it interacts with two hits in Combo’s sequence and grants Taste of Blood stacks on hit (Collar of Misery does as well, working as a proper melee touch attack it is stated to be) and kill alike, yet wastes the third hit’s bonus and ignores Improved/Expert Unarmed feats; it doesn’t not seem to benefit from the special attack bonus provided by ZC 99 and smart pistols either, despite such weapons uniquely mentioning special melee attacks (of which only two that could be launched with a ranged weapon equipped exist, the other one being Shield Bash, though I have no empirical knowledge whether that ability is as problematic as Dirty Kick).

Looking at the related patch history I could tell that Dirty Kick’s conflicting nature stems from some bottomless eldritch well of fundamental issues with the code, which makes me question if these issues could be resolved at all at this point. I’m hoping that these faults will at least be ironed out for Infusion, so long as Dirty Kick is to make a comeback for me to bust at full power and without restraint.