Messages

121

Suggestions / Re: Let's have a chat about the Deep Caverns. (wall of text, and OBVIOUS SPOILERS)

« on: February 07, 2016, 05:27:13 pm »

Exactly. Of course people needed more time to get through in the older versions, when trying to wait out the debuff took almost a minute each time.

122

General / Re: [Some Spoilers] Opening the Gate of Tchort Institute Manually

« on: February 06, 2016, 02:21:18 pm »

Yes, you can break the main quest that way. I've already reported it here:

http://underrail.com/forums/index.php?topic=1834.0

The biggest problem is, it isn't something obviously game-breaking like trying to murder every NPC in sight. One of the NPCs in the institute actually gives you a reason to investigate the basement, which - unless you can sneak well - will make the tchortists hostile. At this point the main door will become locked, even if you had used it previously, but the game won't inform you of that.

123

General / Re: [Some Spoilers] Opening the Gate of Tchort Institute Manually

« on: February 06, 2016, 10:21:06 am »

Unless they have fixed it in the recent patches, no, there isn't.

124

Builds / Re: Build: Synergistic Glass Cannon of All Trades

« on: February 04, 2016, 07:22:27 pm »

Well, my character fought the tchortist for roleplaying reasons (and that probably won't change, I like the little guys in the basement too much), hence the question.

I play on hard, however.

125

Builds / Re: Build: Synergistic Glass Cannon of All Trades

« on: February 04, 2016, 12:48:34 pm »

This is probably a stupid question - because I have not touched guns in Underrail - but if you rely on sci-fi pistols (plasma, electroshock and acid), do you need 16 dexterity? Wouldn't 14 (plus one from food) be enough? Because with the short range of those pistols, I'd rather have 6 agility for sprint.

And I am not sure about 3 constitution, light armor and no dodge and evasion. Grenades and sci-fi guns make a lot of noise, which means once you attack, everything is going to zoom on your position. How would fight the tchortists, for example? There are very few vents at the university and some of the rooms you enter have heavy melee stationed at the door, and mages with snipers further behind.

126

General / Re: Tithonus- Please Help

« on: January 31, 2016, 06:36:19 pm »

I'm not 100% sure about this, but the card should be in the housing complex (building with lots of webs in it). Second floor, south area. I think this one card is available from the start, unlike the rest, which you can only get after you reroute power to the complex.

127

Suggestions / Re: Deep Caves & Final Battle re-design suggestions.

« on: January 29, 2016, 06:29:49 pm »

But why would your character care about confronting tchort anyway? That you can leave deep caverns only after you kill tchort, because otherwise your genius-at-mechanics character can't repair the lift is not really good motivation. If anything, I would call it a meta-gaming reason.

Exactly that. Just from thinking a few minutes, I can think of a few alternatives for my character. Like, steal a Tuneller and return to Underrail in it. Or kill all Tchortists and use their elevator (after persuading Faceless to restore power to it, if it is even down, because it doesn't seem to be unpowered to me!).

I'm suddenly forced to wonder why you couldn't just burrow around that damn gate rather than have to go through all the pointless annoyances to get it working. If that cube is so important, and if you're friendly with them, I don't see why they couldn't fix up that abandoned tunneler in the Hollow Earth section and point it at the wall for you. Surely that's a good trade? Not like anyone who lived to get that far couldn't solo all of Cytosine Outpost if they'd be worried about losing manpower beforehand.

I think that sums up the biggest problem with the plot: lack of choices towards the end. Not even to abandon the main quest. There is a free adventure/RPG game called Hereoine's Quest, where your heroine can choose to do exactly that - just leave, which immediately finishes the game (the bad guy wins and the world ends). Maybe not a happy ending, but the option is there. (and then there is also another, hidden bad ending  )

Considering that tchort doesn't even actively threaten Underrail, your character could leave deep caverns without killing him (if that were a possibility in the game). All that would require would be another exit route and a few more ending slides, telling what happens if tchort lives.

128

General / Re: (Spoilers) Finishing the Game as a Mutant

« on: January 29, 2016, 08:04:16 am »

I doubt it is currently possible, because if tchortists become hostile, the gates to the institute remain locked and your character won't be able to go to deep caverns. My guess is such an ending was never planned, which is a pity, because it's an interesting idea: facing tchort as a mutant.

129

General / Re: Mixed psi build

« on: January 29, 2016, 07:54:56 am »

Thank you so much for this post! I was actually thinking that it should be possible to do a sniper/thoughht control character, but as I have no idea about guns, I wouldn't even know where to start.

You are right about resolve being a problem (but my guess only on enemy psi users), but there is one feat - mental subversion - that helps a bit with that. (That's how tchortist psi users managed to stun my mage, because this debuff lasts quite long and stacks. I think it is percentage based, so the higher your resolve, the bigger hit it takes - but I'm not 100% sure about this)

Even if it is just theorycrafting, I like the character concept on itself, it kind of reminds me of Kerrigan from Starcraft. 

130

General / Re: Mixed psi build

« on: January 28, 2016, 11:03:17 am »

Locus of control lets you use those disabling spells as an area of effect. That is a huge advantage in terms of psi point costs, e.g. mass bilocation, lock the room with a force field. By comparison: one telekinetic punch, one enemy down and half of your psi. Even dedicated psi mages tend to run out of steam very quickly. Sure, electrokinesis works against robots, but so do emp grenades - I've actually found them better, because they also remove shields from plasma sentries. Force field works well even with minimal skill investment, the force user feat doesn't require much skill either. Having played a metathermics-focused/grenadier mage: metathermics is not worth it. In my opinion it actually becomes the weakest psi skill towards end game. The related feats work very badly with each other - thermodynamicity means you need to use fire and cold spells interchangeably, which means you will remove any effects applied by them, and none of them come even close in usefulness to locus of control. Immunity to mental effects doesn't seem necessary until you take on the tchortists or faceless, with their thought control psi users. Much tougher than robots, because robot attacks are stopped by a good shield, buying you enough time to dispose of them, but mental attacks bypass shields & armor and even with high will you are not guaranteed a save.

131

Suggestions / Re: Deep Caves & Final Battle re-design suggestions.

« on: January 28, 2016, 10:35:24 am »

The problem isn't whether it is satisfying for the player to beat tchort or not, but what motivates the player and what motivates the character (which are two separate questions) to even finish deep caverns? Because in my opinion, deep caverns fail to deliver on both accounts.

If tchort doesn't threaten Underrail, that's fine, I don't actually like the usual "save the world from the big bad" stories. But all your character gets in deep caverns is some pseudo-mystical "because I tell you so" from a very annoying NPC. There isn't even a sense of fighting for survival - which could be motivation enough - because tchort doesn't threaten your character, it's just sitting behind a gate. If anything, deep caverns feel stagnant. The faceless and tchortists are supposedly at war, yet they just sit in their camps doing nothing, while you travel back and forth gathering equipment necessary to open the gate.

But why would your character care about confronting tchort anyway? That you can leave deep caverns only after you kill tchort, because otherwise your genius-at-mechanics character can't repair the lift is not really good motivation. If anything, I would call it a meta-gaming reason. And what about the motivation for the player? The majority of encounters aren't dangerous, there are just tedious, regardless of whether you choose to fight the monsters or avoid them. There is no satisfaction in finishing a series of boring tasks. The interesting parts of deep caverns (power plant battle, faceless camp, scientist backstory, mutagen puzzle) are too few to overcome the bad impression.

132

General / Re: Mixed psi build

« on: January 28, 2016, 10:01:29 am »

I think you need a minimum of 7 strength for most assault rifles (but not all?) and high perception, so a mixed psi/AR could work, since you can dump dexterity, unlike with pistols. Thought control with a splash of psychokinesis is probably best; even with 10 will a combination locus of control followed by an offensive ability like bilocation is nasty. The only real downside I can see is that with both low dexterity and agility, your character would loose initiative rolls most of the time. And with the psi hit point penalty, I'd suggest not lowering your constitution too low.

Maybe something like this?
strength 7 (add 1-2 points to get 8-9 and wear the best armor)
both dexterity and agility at 3 (oh well)
constitution 5
perception 8 (add 2, not sure abut what perception feats ARs use)
will 8 (add 2 for locus of control, but this can wait, because you also need high thought control)
6 intelligence (for premeditation)
If you leave your strength at 8, you can add 1 point to intelligence and get some crafting feats, which is probably better. I don't know how well the heavy armors compare, but my mage managed just fine with a tactical vest and a crafted shield. The only notable exception were enemy snipers, because they seemed to have infinite range (e.g. she would get shot by an enemy outside of her sight range).

Keep in mind that I've never tried a guns character, so I might get some things wrong. 
edit: I also had a look at the possible AR feats and wiki indicates you need 7 strength for full-auto.

133

General / Re: Mixed psi build

« on: January 27, 2016, 09:38:55 pm »

I think the problem with this character idea is that, while thought control would still be very useful (though a bit weaker) with only 10 will, pistols on their own require dexterity, perception and a bit strength (unless you are willing to forego steadfast aim). And that means you would indeed spread your stat points around. I don't think there is any real synergy between psi and pistols anyway, unlike between psychokinesis and unarmed.

A few psi abilities work even with 3 will and minimal skill investment (only as much as it's required to learn them): cryostasis (no save, only immunity protects from the effect), electrokinesis (again, no save, just immunity), force field (you can shoot and throw things when standing at the edge and then step back for cover), and maybe pyrokinesis to blow up some traps. So in theory a standard pistol build (which I can't help much with, as I've only played a mage ) could still get some limited use out of psi.

134

General / Re: Can't find the last keycard for Arke... any help appreciated (DC spoilers)

« on: January 27, 2016, 08:38:42 pm »

About the second basement exit, if I recall this correctly: the ladder that you come in is somewhere on the right and the exit ladder is in the lower left corner. If you are in the area with the faulty console and the zapping floor, you have to hug the west wall and move down from there. There might be a keycard or a key hidden somewhere, but I think the room with the exit ladder had also some containers, therefore it could be there.

(the power plant key hunt gets repetitive after a while, so I'm not sure about the details)

135

Suggestions / Re: Deep Caves & Final Battle re-design suggestions.

« on: January 27, 2016, 07:21:47 pm »

The biggest problem I have with the tchort battle is that it basically comes down to whether you can deal enough damage to a stationary, damage resistant, regenerating HP-sponge. And if you want to reduce its regeneration rate, then you need to destroy four stationary, damage resistant HP-sponges. In retrospect, it really does look like this battle was designed with all those "insanely high damage in one hit" characters in mind.

By comparison, my favorite deep caverns encounter was the faceless camp: here you have a group of enemies with a variety of skills and weapons, capable of delivering a fast-paced and tough fight without resorting to HP-bloat. Battling tchort on the other hand was as exciting as watching your character chip away at a bunch of rocks.