Messages

16

Suggestions / Re: Dense Blocks of HP

« on: October 15, 2013, 07:14:48 pm »

Just to make it clear, my melee character is one of several characters that I've used to play through (most) of the existing content - although he IS the only one I've actually had significant trouble with in Junkyard. Most of your other suggestions on playstyle aren't particularly helpful (to me, at least), Elhazzared, because I've already used them in other builds. I have a gunner who uses grenades. I have a dedicated psychic. I have a stealthy crossbow guy who uses traps.

Even with those characters, the huge chunks of health and damage output from later opponents can become frustrating. I've watched my gun specialist dole out 300+ damage in a single well-aimed shot, only to have a Mutant shrug it off, walk across the entire screen, and then kill me with a gout of acid. Special crossbow ammunition is handy, but useless when battles are deliberately designed to pit you against three or four opponents at once.

Stealth is certainly a viable approach to most situations in the game, but as with most skills it requires a very heavy investment to make it usable, and requires you to wear very light armor (meaning that combat becomes even more of a death sentence). Plus, of course, there's no real reward for being stealthy - beyond surviving and gathering loot from containers, you miss out on significant XP gain, making you even more ill-prepared for later parts of the game.

The most common suggestion tends to be 'build and use grenades', implying that all characters should invest heavily in Mechanics and Chemistry. When the most common suggestion for success in mid-game areas is 'make and use the best explosives in the game', then the balance is probably off a little. Besides, those explosives won't be of much help after you've thrown your first grenade, and you're stuck on 'grenade cooldown' for five turns.

Regardless, I understand that this is a game that's still in development. Shields will almost certainly shift the balance a little, once they're implemented. To make it clear, I've enjoyed what there is of the game very much, and I've apparently sunk 180+ hours into it already (if my Steam account is to be believed). I simply felt compelled to comment on the fact that, for an Alpha that only presents us with the first 30-35% of a game, the enemies quickly become overwhelming - before the campaign is even at it's halfway point.

I just don't relish the thought of running into opponents with 1,000+ Hit Points at mid-game, and 10,000+ at end-game.

17

Suggestions / Re: Dense Blocks of HP

« on: October 15, 2013, 05:03:42 am »

That's fine, you can assume that my builds are 'bad' based on my minor critique. I'm not really interested in arguing about that, since the quality of my builds or lack thereof has little to do with what I'm talking about. I stand by my original point, which is that the Hit Point creep far exceeds that of most other games.

Initially, enemies have something in the area of thirty to fifty hit points (Rathounds). It escalates from there, to the point where you begin encountering foes with a hundred or so hit points at GMS station. From there, though, it jumps radically (Siphoners, Burrowers, and pretty much everything in Junkyard) when 250+ becomes the standard. That, coupled with the fact that many of those enemies (Psi-Beetles, Mutants, Lunatics) can kill even a well-prepared adventurer in two or three attacks, might infer that the numbers could stand to be tweaked a little.

Simply giving every enemy more health does not make battles more interesting or more difficult. It makes them more tedious, especially for anyone who's not ready to spam grenades everywhere (or invest heavily in Psi abilities). Grenades should not be absolutely required in all builds simply because every enemy becomes a damage-sink by mid-game.

EDIT - As an aside, your last post basically amounted to a long-winded 'learn to play'. Please don't automatically assume that I am somehow at fault, simply because I made a suggestion on a suggestion forum.

18

Suggestions / Re: Dense Blocks of HP

« on: October 15, 2013, 03:02:53 am »

True, but that assumes that all players are running an assault-rifle toting chemist with sufficient Grenade skills to avoid blowing themselves up. Forcing a player to roll with a very specific character build isn't ideal. I enjoy Melee and the like, but I'm never going to use it if every enemy at midgame and onward can soak up every swing of my electro-sledgehammer and then tear me to shreds in a single return attack.

The mutants in Junkyard are pretty rough, too, with their huge HP reserves, immobilizing attacks, and tendency to leave lethal pools of acid everywhere. I quickly gave up on using my melee character around that point, since even acid-resistant armor wasn't enough to avoid a quick and bloody death. My demo/trapper character made it through without much trouble, but every one of my other builds struggled to overcome the inevitable swarms of mutants.

And, unlike the Burrower caverns, Junkyard isn't optional. You have to make it all the way through that area to progress the story.

19

Suggestions / Dense Blocks of HP

« on: October 15, 2013, 12:38:42 am »

Just a minor point of criticism, but enemy Health/Hit-Points should probably be reassessed at some point. Unless the player is supposed to get NPC companions to help him somewhere along the line, the current format turns most battles into a long-winded war of attrition. By the time the player reaches Junkyard, most enemies seem to have hundreds of Hit Points, and even lowly dogs can absorb entire bursts of Assault Rifle fire before collapsing.

I can certainly deal with the difficulty curve using some roundabout tactics (choke points, tactical trap placement, and regular retreating) but some battles quickly become absurdly deadly (the Burrower cavern in GMS Station comes to mind, where you're set upon by dozens of foes simultaneously). I'm all for a difficult game, but I dread to think what will appear later down the line given the current rate of enemy growth. I don't relish the thought of fighting enemies who have to be hit dozens of times before dying.

20

General / Re: My experience - Why I gave up in frustration after an hour

« on: October 15, 2013, 12:30:03 am »

I actually stopped reading the sarcasm-riddled First Post after about half-a-dozen paragraphs (around the point where he went to pick up his gun). I will note that, for someone who claims experience in the arena of video games, he made a lot of very odd and basic mistakes (Forgetting to equip things? Criticizing NPC response to theft, even though that's exactly how it's done in dozens of other triple-A RPGs?).

I'm not really a 'Yes Man' myself, as I've made several comments and suggestions over in the Suggestions sub-forum, but I will agree with the assessment that Angus Prune does not give the impression of someone who wants to give constructive criticism. He came to vent, and then decided to act defensive after people dared to disagree with his assessment. When Styg commented on this, Angus responded by claiming that Styg "isn't used to taking criticism" and demanded a refund. That sounds about on par for the internet, I suppose.

All in all, it's probably best to shrug and move on. Angus will either get over it and give the game another shot somewhere down the line, or he'll continue throwing his tantrum for a bit longer and eventually move on.

21

Suggestions / Re: suggestion re: 50 point skill hump

« on: October 15, 2013, 12:21:13 am »

I'm not sure if it's a bug or what, but I have had a few characters run into an odd phenomenon where I would add points to their skills - but the total skill value (after synergy bonuses / penalties) wouldn't change. I've made so many different characters, though, that I honestly can't remember which ones I had this problem with.

I want to say that it was something I only tended to encounter when heavily investing in skills with multiple synergy bonuses.

22

Suggestions / Re: Thoughts on Traps (And Grenades)

« on: October 03, 2013, 10:47:01 am »

Honestly, I plan my trap usage around the fact that Underrail is a sequential, turn-based game. Most commonly, I'll set a mine at a choke point with enough room to move around it, then I'll aggro the enemies while standing right in FRONT of the trap.

Given the current state of AI in the game, melee-centric enemies will then rush to attack me, piling up at the choke-point (and into the blast radius of the mine). Then, the next turn, I'll retreat back past the mine and out of the blast radius. That ensures that when the mine detonates, as many enemies as possible are in the blast radius.

It's not the most ideal strategy, but it was invaluable during my Trapper's progress through the last few areas in Junkyard. Those Mutants were a huge pain to kill conventionally.

An alternative I've had some success with is using traps in conjunction with a high Stealth rating. With a high enough Stealth skill, the player can sneak up on enemies and set a trap very close to them. Almost impossible to do without the Trap Expert Feat, due to the long trap-setting time, but particularly handy for set-piece battles (the Raiders under GMS, for example, or the Toll-Takers in mid-Junkyard).

The easiest method of use, at the moment, is when ambushing Sentry Bots. Due to the very predictable patrol pattern that most Sentry Bots follow, it's easy to set an EMP Mine in an area that they're sure to pass through. Then, once the EMP mine detonates, it's a simple matter to leap out and spray the incapacitated Bot with a large number of bullets.

23

Suggestions / Re: Character seperated save games

« on: October 01, 2013, 09:37:43 pm »

Now now, I think we're not giving Brotherhood of Steel a fair shake. I mean, can you really say a game sucks just because it was developed out-of-house, totally disregarded established storyline, totally disregarded established gameplay, totally changed the visual and audio style of the works it was based on, blatantly inserted commercial product placements, and-

Crap, what was my point again? Something about 'Brotherhood of Steel' and 'sucking'. Hrm.

Oh well, I'm sure it will come back to me eventually. In the meantime, I think we should all just be grateful that Brotherhood of Steel 2 was cancelled.

24

Suggestions / Re: Silent Isle

« on: September 29, 2013, 05:35:31 pm »

Huh, well, that would certainly explain why I had so much trouble. Being a big-time RPG klepto, every one of those mushrooms was in my inventory the second I saw them. Once they were gone, I was being attacked by a doppelganger almost every five turns / fifteen seconds.

I'll have to show some restraint next time I get to Silent Isle, I suppose.

25

General / Re: How big is this game now? How big will it be?

« on: September 29, 2013, 04:16:13 pm »

From my own experience, I would say that the current Alpha build has something along the lines of 10-12 hours of content. Of course, that varies heavily depending on character build and play-style.

Having run three of my characters through most of the existing content, the average level by the time the Alpha is completed seems to be about 10. Since the current plans are to set the Maximum Level to 30, it might be safe to assume that the completed product will be in the 30-hour range.

Of course, that's just a guess based on what I've seen so far. A more official answer from Styg will trump anything that I speculate.

26

Suggestions / Re: Silent Isle

« on: September 29, 2013, 04:12:12 pm »

Sadly, I only have maybe one character with any significant Stealth skills. Stealth is one of those abilities that only really works if you dump everything possible into it, so most of my character builds ignore it completely.

What I dread, really, is trying to do Silent Isle with one of my slower characters. I haven't tried it yet, but it seems like the kind of place that will be certain death for my heavily armored melee guy. All the health in the world won't help him, when 90% of the enemies on the island have unavoidable electro-psychic attacks.

Of course, that might be more easily managed with some kind of new helmet type or helmet enhancement. Something that boosts the PC's resistance to psychic attacks.

27

Bugs / Re: Pistol Scopes

« on: September 28, 2013, 05:52:40 pm »

Sad. I'd love to scope out my sidearm.

As for energy weapons, I don't think any optional attachments have been implemented yet. Or, at least, I haven't seen any. And I've been hitting the vendors pretty hardcore with my Crafting-heavy character.

For energy pistols, Laser Sights would certainly make sense.

28

Suggestions / Re: Thoughts on Traps (And Grenades)

« on: September 28, 2013, 05:50:35 pm »

Interesting. I was wondering what the piles of targetable rocks were for, so the TNT thing makes sense. If it's unlocked by a certain story event, though, then I can only assume that the random glitched blueprint that appeared in a locker (specifically, the unlocked locker on Level 3 of SGS) was an error of some sort.

29

Suggestions / Re: Thoughts on Traps (And Grenades)

« on: September 28, 2013, 04:41:13 pm »

Yeah, as I mentioned above, I totally forgot about the Acid Glob traps until I was, like, halfway through writing the whole thing out.

As for Frag Mines, yeah, I can see how they're military-grade shrapnel bombs. I guess I was thinking more along the lines of the good old nail bomb, or something to that effect. Maybe a lower grade Frag Mine for characters with less skill? Jar (or Vial) + Metal Fragments + TNT/Hexogen? I guess that might be more like a grenade, though.

I've seen mention of TNT and C4 from time to time (mostly on the wiki), but I was under the impression that they weren't implemented yet. I think I found a Blueprint for TNT once, but it was glitched out, with a 'place holder' image.

And I can see nail traps being easy enough to implement. Maybe the player could even use the 'Steel Spikes' or 'Tungsten Steel Spikes' objects in their construction, with the quality of the spikes determining the quality of the trap? But then again, spikes are pretty expensive. Maybe they'd be better used for some kind of pneumatic spike trap or something.

Another thought in regards to the idea of 'optional' components for traps - there's already an Anticoagulant component, and an Anticoagulation debuff, so that might work as a component for certain traps. Applying it to the construction of a trap involving blades, spikes, or shrapnel might add a bleeding / Anticoagulation type debuff to the affected targets.

30

Suggestions / Re: Suggestions for Crossbow Feat and Grammar

« on: September 28, 2013, 02:25:33 pm »

And don't forget that crossbows can be outfitted with the Pneumatic Reloader to reduce their AP cost even further. Not exactly a common enhancement, but you can start seeing them in Junkyard.