Messages

136

Development Log / Re: Dev Log #54: Specialization and Veteran Level Changes

« on: August 12, 2017, 12:30:41 am »

Problem is energy users usually have a CON of 3, one EMP vs PM(shield + dual energy weapons + goggles + Regen vest + taser) = a world of hurt. Perhaps we can get an anti-EMP utility with a super high electronic requirement?

You don't necesarily need to have 3 CON, that's a choice and like any other choice, it has its downsides. As a matter of fact plasma pistols can benefit quite a bit from 9 CON to pick Survival Instincts.

In your example you are using as much electronic gear as possible, so naturally EMP-throwing enemies will be your worst enemy and should be prioritized. Again, choosing to use all that gear and letting your total capacity reach crazy high numbers has obvious benefits, but there should be downsides as well.

I don't think a hard counter to a hard counter is a good idea, it would trivialize the entire mechanic.

As I said, I don't think every enemy should start throwing EMPs, but I think they should be more common than they are now.

137

Development Log / Re: Dev Log #54: Specialization and Veteran Level Changes

« on: August 11, 2017, 11:24:13 am »

Poor energy pistols, electroshock weapons and Power Management

I'm perfectly aware enemies using EMP grenades would also hurt energy weapon users. It would hurt all builds that rely on electronic gear.

As a matter of fact I think it wouldn't be that bad for energy pistols compared to other electronic gadgets. If your pistol gets drained you just need to spend 10 AP to start shooting again, not a big deal. If your shield is drained, you are left defenseless for the entire fight. If your night vision goggles are drained, you are effectively suffering a huge precision penalty for the entire fight. If your taser gets drained, you lose a reliable way to stun for the entire fight. So on and so on.

As for Power Managment, you could still get use out of it. You can use lower quality cores for gadgets that don't necessarily need to have high capacity, that way your shield/energy pistol can have more capacity while total stays the same, it's a cool concept. I'm usually aiming to have around 200 total capacity on my ranged builds- 60 for goggles, 20 for taser and around 120 for energy shield. It's pretty hard to reach 120 capacity until DC without Power Mangement.

I'm not primarily bothered by the lack of counters to energy shields, but by their simplistic non-engaging one-size-fits-all mechanics. Giving enemies more EMPs might make the combat more difficult, but not necessarily all that more interesting.

Energy converter is definitely the biggest issue, I think the conversion rate bonus should be lower. The conversion rate penalty on amplifiers is what makes them unusable, I would get rid of it completly. Perhaps the base dissipation rate should be a bit higher to make capacitors a better option.

138

Development Log / Re: Dev Log #54: Specialization and Veteran Level Changes

« on: August 11, 2017, 09:50:02 am »

4. Energy shields.

I don't want to get into this right now, but personally I am not content with how the shields work at the moment, both in the terms of crafting (where there's effectively one way to go about things) and with the amount of defense they provide with practically no active tactical or strategic engagement from the player and virtually no downsides.

Expect this to change at some point (prior to the end of the world).

I think the main issue with shields (other than High Efficiency Energy Converters being hands down the best mod to use) is that enemies using EMP grenades are too few and almost (if not all of them) are optional. The only enemies that use them that I remember right now are warehouse mercs, Protectorate Shock Troopers, Oculite Runners and Faceless Commander. Depending on your choices, you may not fight a single one of those.

EMP grenades/mines are a very hard counter to shields- not only do they render shields completly useless, they actually punish you for using them by dealing damage equal to half the capacity drained. So it's not like the counter doesn't exist, it's just that it's heavily underused. I think the best solution would be to let more common enemies throw EMP grenades and maybe add more EMP mines in the world (like the one in front of a door in Lunatics hideout in Upper Underrail, that got me good). It can't be overdone though- if every enemy suddenly started throwing EMPs then shields would become useless instead.

139

Development Log / Re: Dev Log #54: Specialization and Veteran Level Changes

« on: August 10, 2017, 04:54:05 pm »

I like the idea of specialization, I can't say I like the idea of getting skill points and derived stats after lvl 25.

The original approach allowed the player to still grow in power beyond lvl 25 but in a limited way, only by picking those unique and specific veteran feats. I liked this idea, it would prevent the player from becoming a jack-of-all-trades with too many skill points and wouldn't have much of an impact on the base game balance outside of late game encounters, while still being satisfying. The new approach makes the player grow in power even more after lvl 25 than before in all aspects. This will necessitate some serious re-working of the base game to accommodate this change, both combat encounters and skill checks outside of combat.

I have no problem with that if you guys can pull it off, but that will most likely take a lot of work. I guess I just don't want it to end up like Fallout:New Vegas where DLCs completly destroyed the base game balance by raising the level cap from 30 to 50, which in turn allowed the player to max almost all skills and pick way too many perks.

I really don't think that 5 levels worth of skill points would really allow for a character to become a perfect jack-of-all-trades. Especially when you throw psi skills in this.

It absolutely could if the base game is not adjusted properly. That's 200 bonus skill points. Even if you spend 5-15 of those every level to max your combat skills, it still leaves you with enough to completly max at least 1 skill or get 2 or even 3 high. Taking skills like persuasion/intimidation/mercantile or dodge/evasion would no longer be a true trade-off like it is now.

To give an example, most of my low armor penalty builds put so many points in crafting I rarely bother with dodge/evasion since they take a lot of investment and crafted shields/armor provides adequate protection already. I have moblity, I have stealth, I have good damage absorption, my only weakness is that I'm almost guranteed to  get hit everytime and if my shield is gone or easily penetrated, I'm not going to last long.

With 200 more skill points, I could put 100 in evasion/dodge and most likely get both of them to 200+ effective skill with infused siphoner tabis and other bonuses. Now my only weakness is gone. Even if I get hit by an EMP or are forced to take melee hits, I have enough dodge/evasion to easily survive regardless.

140

General / Re: Syphoner man?

« on: August 06, 2017, 09:20:35 am »

Happy 6th of August! It's Siphoner Man's birthday!

Is it his 3rd one?

141

Bugs / Re: Ambush disabled by saving.

« on: August 05, 2017, 03:49:01 pm »

It probably has something to do with light level rather than Ambush itself.

142

General / Re: Doppelganger after death

« on: August 05, 2017, 01:48:46 pm »

I agree. It's immersion breaking thing. I can't understand concept of it. Phisically immune creature, that can cause phisical damage?

Doppelgangers don't deal physical damage, they deal mental damage.

Remember reading e-mails on Wasi Abdul's laptop in Deep Caverns? I imagine that's pretty much what happens to PC.

Ok. maybe it's kind of emanation of "mental force of caster" but why in that case it stays alive after caster dies? It's contrary to ingame lore, btw.

Not necessarily. No one ever said billocation takes any conscious effort after the initial cast. Your brain was already afflicted.

143

Bugs / Re: Ambush disabled by saving.

« on: August 05, 2017, 01:00:28 pm »

Can confirm it happens to me too.

Also another thing related to Ambush- if you throw a grenade, the light level in its area of effect is set to max until the next turn- meaning you can throw a grenade at an enemy standing in total darkness and get the Ambush bonus until the next turn.

144

Suggestions / Re: On Tchort and An Alternative

« on: August 04, 2017, 07:59:25 am »

In general, I don't feel entirely comfortable killing Tchort considering the lack of information on what its plans are for humanity, I am unsure of the extent to which it could negitavely affect humanity, and the fact that the Faceless have committed just as much of (if not more) of a sin against mankind by culling the Institute.

I presume you didn't get to chat with the Faceless Commander? He explains the entire situation quite well.

Also, have you visited the restricted part of the Institute?

145

General / Re: Circular Wave Amplifier capacity

« on: August 03, 2017, 07:44:58 pm »

I see. I'm surprised it wasn't corrected by now.

146

General / Re: Circular Wave Amplifier capacity

« on: August 03, 2017, 07:29:49 pm »

Conservative shields still have some use at least. A normal shield will lose 2% of its capacity every turn/5 seconds, so it will completly run out in 50 turns/4 minutes and 10 seconds. For this reason keeping it on all times is not a very good idea, it would be a hassle to recharge it that often and necessitate carrying a whole lot of batteries.

Capacitor reduces the dissipation rate by 10% + 0,1%*quality, capped at 80% reduction with a 70 quality capacitor. This reduces the drain to only 0.4% per turn/5 seconds, 250 turns/20 minutes and 50 seconds to run out completly. That's a lot better, good enough to leave it on at all times to me. Shield like this would end up having less than half capacity of an efficient shield, but could be used as a permanent protection rather than something you need to activate beforehand. I can recall a few times when I was killed by coil spiders because I walked into one of their webs and couldn't even activate the shield before it was too late. Same for mines.

I think amplifiers would be just fine if they didn't reduce the capacity.

By the way, why is default dissipation rate 10,0%? Shouldn't it be 100%?

147

General / Re: Circular Wave Amplifier capacity

« on: August 02, 2017, 11:31:28 pm »

If so, then shields I craft with Circular Wave Amplifier have their Capacity well below the damage they block for a single attack. If true, this seems to make it essentially useless.

Both are correct, sadly.

Circular Wave Amplifiers really do suck for energy shields. The slight increase in shield threshold absolutely does not make up for the ridiculous hit to the capacity, especially considering High Efficiency Energy Converter and Shield Capacitor don't have any penalties whatsoever.

Would it help to use a lower quality Wave Amplifier?

Yeah.

The only possible use for Circular Wave Amplifier I found is to make a high frequency shield capable of completly stopping a single Aimed Shot from a sniper rifle. You just need to get a Circular Wave Amplifier that makes the shield's capacity and high speed threshold even.

148

General / Re: 2nd playthrough on hard, builds?

« on: July 30, 2017, 01:12:26 pm »

Is Psi/tranquil op on Hard also?

It's definetly strong, but I wouldn't call it OP. Psi HP penalty combined with lower HP on hard means you have very small margin of error and mistakes will lead to death much more often. This is even more true for Tranquility builds since you rely on having max HP to get a benefit out of it. Full psi is also pretty limited when it comes to skill points since you need to max 3 combat skills instead of 1 (2 tops) like all other builds do.

What builds have you had the most fun playing on Hard?

Definitely a sniper. They are really strong as well but after playing a lot of different builds I wouldn't call them OP either. Snipers shine when everything goes according to plan and you have the element of surprise/range, but there is a lot that can go wrong. Snipers are vulnerable to Crippling Strike since sniper rifles require 5 STR, huge close range penalty means you are in real trouble if melee enemy manages to get close and in even bigger trouble if he prevents you from getting away, huge move penalty means hiding behind a corner at the end of your turn to break the line of sight is less effective and often not an option, etc. Close range/move penalties can be mitigated to some degree (lowest possible is 12%/15% with a Spearhead Commando, so only slightly more than crossbows) but that means sacrificing some damage.

149

General / Re: Bogdan

« on: July 30, 2017, 12:39:33 pm »

You can find a note in his room in the residental area.

They are onto you. You will not be able to leave the city, so lay low for a while. We'll contact you when the time comes.

150

Bugs / Re: Bipod move penalty

« on: July 20, 2017, 05:29:24 pm »

Sounds reasonable, yeah. The added move penalty doesn't hurt sniper rifles as much since it's already pretty crippling.