Messages

271

General / Re: Old Music

« on: January 24, 2016, 01:24:40 pm »

I guess an enthusiast would be able to pick up the torch and patch the Old Drones files into the current release version (I am guessing it is more involved than simply locating and renaming a bunch of files/resources).

It's actually that simple.

But you also need to convert the files to .ogg, as the release version uses that format instead of .wma.

I was able to change the main menu music to the old version by simply converting the file to .ogg, copying it to the game files and renaming it to "MainOpener" and "MainLoop".

Keep in mind that if you want to do this, you will probably have to repeat the proccess after each hotfix. Also, make a backup of original files.

Here is the site I used to convert to .ogg (Audacity can't open .wma files because of patent reasons):
http://audio.online-convert.com/convert-to-ogg

272

General / Re: Thanks Captain Mareth!

« on: January 24, 2016, 01:09:03 pm »

Wow, you can actually get it without killing CAU now?

That's pretty cool, it's one of the best armors in the game, even when compared to crafted gear. I would even say it's the best overall for Deep Caverns.

273

Suggestions / Re: Ironman Mode/Achievement

« on: January 24, 2016, 12:46:16 pm »

I'm not saying you need all of them. I just listed all the possible counters, one or two is usually enough.

80 biology is doable on every build, and it takes care of stuns/incapacitations as long as you remember to take a pill before every fight unless you are 100% sure there will be no stuns/incapacitations involved, or that you can kill the enemy before he gets a chance to apply them.

Amplifed energy shield and anti rifle tac vest is also doable on every build. 65% penalty hurts on stealth builds and amplifed shields are pretty bad overall, buy  and you can equip them both just once or twice and be done with them.

Also, high HP pool doesn't necessarily means you need high CON. It can also be achieved by having high level and using sturdy vests. You need hogih CON only if you want to have one of the highest pools possible. My 5 CON build had 350+ hit points at level 25, and fights that require such a big pool are usually optional and you can pick them when you want. Hell my 5 CON char was able to tank Carnifex 1st turn after failing initative check.

So as you can see, almost every build can achieve good defense against everything. Of course tanks are going to be better at that, but you can manage with somewhat glassy builds as well.

That's actually damn hard to do.

Well that's the point of Ironman runs, isn't it?

274

General / Re: Old Music

« on: January 24, 2016, 01:01:15 am »

Hah, I got them.

There is still an alpha demo floating around the Internet, and music files are easy to access since they are  in .wma format.

Now I realized how much do I miss those old tracks, especially the old main menu theme.


I hope it's okay for me to upload them...

http://vocaroo.com/i/s00EX1rFaH16 (Used to play in areas like Buzzers Shop or Depot A, my 2nd favourite)

http://vocaroo.com/i/s0UjT11Q2vEd (Old SGS/Junkyard theme)

http://vocaroo.com/i/s1yOlWTDeRgP (I think it used to play in the mushroom cove and other water-y caves)

http://vocaroo.com/i/s1QDj8RdksIh (Old caves music)

http://vocaroo.com/i/s1XJHUcgsZw4 (Old main theme, my favourite, I miss it so much)

275

Suggestions / Re: Ironman Mode/Achievement

« on: January 23, 2016, 09:45:45 pm »

But it is!

It's not.

Very powerful effects that can make or brake the battle happen on random dice, like various disabling attacks

Stuns/incapacitations can be mitigated by either:

Passing a Fortitude roll (high CON builds)

Thick Skull feat (at least 10 CON builds)

Locus of Control feat (Psi builds)

Bullhead pills (builds with at least 80 Biology skill)

Acting first before anyone can stun/incapacite you (either stealth or high initiative builds)

Sucking it up and surviving the duration (tanky builds)

Shaded visors (only flashbangs)

special sniper attacks from afar, etc...

Besides the fact such situation happens maybe twice/thrice in the whole game (Lurkers base and Warehouse mission) , can be mitigated by either:
High HP pool (high CON builds)

Tactical vests with ceramic plates or metal armors (tanky builds, but any build can equip one)

Amplified high frequency  energy shields (any build, but those with electronics especially)

Acting first before Sniper gets to fire a shot (either stealth or high initiative builds)

And most of them do not have proper counter that can be used by most of the character builds (only some specialized builds can get protected from some of the effects).

I just listed 7 counters for stuns/incapacitations that work with a wide variety of builds, and 4 counters to Snipers, 2 of which will work on any build.

Every build needs some kind of defense against everything. If it doesn't have it, it's just a bad and unreliable build that was made with savescumming in mind. Don't blame the game, blame the player.

Game is very very very offense driven in this regard and with kind of the options that are available to the player.

Player has a lot of options to choose from, a lot more than any enemy in the game.

This leads to battles that can be both easy wins and easy losses at the same time. Usually, initiative check and luckily roll will determine what kind of battle it will be.

Invest in DEX/AGI to have very high initiative then, luck factor will be reduced considerably. If you fail, have a plan B and even C.

Or use stealth to start (almost) every battle on your own terms. If you fail, have a plan B and even C.

Or be tanky enough to survive the first turn no matter what.

See, it's all about planning your build so it can deal with every situation.

This is additionally amplified with game focusing only on single character vs many characters. If it was game played with companions this effect would be greatly diminished.

On the contrary, enemies don't get any preparation time, nor do they have optimized builds (well, Carnifex kinda does) or human intelligence.

I would say the player has a huge advantage.

Personally I do not mind. I am determined to win, using all options given to the player, including save scumming.

No, you just made a build that has to rely on savescumming to get by.

Nothing wrong with that, but you are resposible for it, not the game itself. No one is saying that Ironman Mode would be possible with all builds, it's pretty obvious it's only for those that  rely on luck as little as possible or even not at all.

276

General / Re: Broken wall sections and sledgehammer

« on: January 23, 2016, 07:45:48 pm »

You can do it with a sniper rifle though, or any firearm using W2C rounds that can deal over 349 damage without crits.

Physics.

277

General / Re: Old Music

« on: January 23, 2016, 05:36:09 pm »

I miss a few of them as well, they were pretty good.

Now I regret not saving them when I had the chance.

278

Suggestions / Re: Ironman Mode/Achievement

« on: January 23, 2016, 04:43:38 pm »

It's very much possible with enough planning, even on hard.

279

Bugs / Re: Line of sight issues really need to be addressed

« on: January 23, 2016, 03:55:00 pm »

There is also an issue with sight radius being shorter than range on assault/sniper rifles, but it's not the case for enemies.

I had multiple situations where enemies were shooting at me even when I couldn't see them. Not fair if you ask me.

280

General / Re: Unique weapons

« on: January 23, 2016, 03:42:48 pm »

Right, I confused the two. Nice catch.

281

Suggestions / Re: crafting of rifles and shields are useless

« on: January 22, 2016, 10:25:25 pm »

Power Management is the best crafting feat imo if you have elctronics. 35% more capacity on energy shields is basically 35% more health.

Shields ... and that's it. Die-faster-to-EMP-nades Management increases energy cap for all electronic devices but is good only for shields. You're not the first person to mention only shields when saying how good Die-faster-to-EMP-nades Management is. It used to be better for everything else (35% cost reduction) but got nerfed for reasons unknown to me. It would be "35% more health" if your max HP was 1, but it's more than that. Also, damage that goes against HP is reduced by armor while damage going against shield is not.

Die-faster-to-EMP-nades Management is quite useful for energimp pistols IMHO. It won't eliminate their reloading problems, mind you, but will at least reduce them.

How many times do you fight with enemies using EMPs? Like maybe twice in whole game, and only if you give them enough time to throw them? It's hardly an issue.

It's also convenient on night vision goggles, since the low-energy ones tend to run out during longer fights.

282

General / Re: Unique weapons

« on: January 22, 2016, 10:18:50 pm »

I've played through this game once on easy and twice on normal now; found every unique weapon except for the Black Arrow and Kukri.
SPOILERS BEWARE

Here's all the unique weapons that I've found and their locations:
Bieretta 99 - found in a storage facility in the caves to the east of Rail Crossing; the Protectorate quest line will have you go to this warehouse to retrieve some Mutagen D5s.
Gluck 17 - Panacea Lab in Upper Underrail.  It's on one of the dead bodies.
TT3000 - found on Marvin (Martin?) Junior's dead body in the Free Drones base; the best time to get this is during the last quest in the Protectorate questline.
W&S .44 Magnum - Wyatt Pear in Depot A, Junkyard.  Low level players beware because Wyatt is a pretty tough cookie.
Wasteland Hawk - Found on a named Lunatic in the shopping mall to the west of the Institute of Tchort; you will have to go to this place to retrieve an artifact if you want to join the Tchortists.
ZC 99 - Northeastern sector of Drop Zone, you will have to find the shack this weapon is located in in the first quest for JKK.
Phase Gun - Deep Caverns, in the section to the east of the main compound; the one with all the destructible walls.  Highly recommend bringing a Jackhammer as a lighter alternative to stacks of TNT.
XAL-001 - Institute of Tchort; Investigator Georgis will give you a quest to test this experimental chem pistol.  As long as you don't turn in the quest you can keep this weapon forever.
K&H MP6 - Depot A, in the underground section in one of the boxes.
Mini-Izu - Drop Zone, the building it's located in is south of the shack that Luben is located in for the Coretech questline.  There is a ladder to take you down to a ledge to enter the buildling; the SMG is upstairs.
NF R90 - Found on the dead body of Major Clifton in SRO, right above the Protectorate Embassy in Junkyard; you will have to kill him for the Free Drones questline.
Syg MPX - RAF 013 (I think it's called that).  You will have to go to this facility in the Tchortist questline to find Rassophore Nevil; the door to the zone is locked and inaccessible prior to this quest, so don't bother.
Tommy Gun - Found on the dead body of Joe de Pacino in Drop Zone for the Praetorian questline.
AKX - Found on the body of a Free Drone fighter during the Missing Train questline given by Capt. Herve in Rail Crossing.  You will have to kill the Free Drones yourself which locks you to the Protectorate faction.
K&H KH416 - Found on the body of the gang leader at the end of Gorsky's questline in Core City.  Forgot what the gang is called.
N16 - Found in the Protectorate Warehouse in the dock section of Core City.  It's the second storage unit from the right.
NF F2500 - Found in the Deep Caverns, in the Caerus Residential Blocks.  You need to clear out Arke Power station and redirect power to Caerus in order to access this weapon.
Steyr-Auch - Found in the sections somewhere to the south of Foundry and possibly east of Rail Crossing; on a named hostile NPC named Simon Peres.  Be warned, this NPC is surrounded by hostile Ironhead bandits.
AFW - in the Crystal Caves deep in the Foundry Mines; it's in the room where the Beast is, and the room is still accessible after you kill the Beast.  The rifle is on one of the dead soldiers.
Black Arrow - I have no idea.  The stats on this weapon hints that it's found in a higher-level zone, possibly Upper Underrail or Deep Caverns, but I am not sure.
Dragunov - Found in the tunnels beneath Buzzer's shop south of Rail Crossing.
Jawbone - Found on the dead body of the Rathound King.
Power Fist - Found in Hecate Research Facility, east of Foundry.  In a box in the basement of the facility with a bunch of Coil Spiders and grills that occasionally electrocute anyone that stands on them.
Ripper's Glove - Found on one of the Lunatics in the room west of Harpocrates Station in the Institute of Tchort; you will be asked to check the area out during one of the institute's quests.
The Claw - Found in the sewers of Core City, on one of the Muties.
Bone Handle Knife - Found on the body of a dead Tchortist in Deep Caverns, Leo wants this weapon back in order to befriend him.
Butcher's Cleaver - Found on the Lunatic Butcher in the tunnel systems in Lower Underrail; you will have to fight through him and several Lunatics during the Free Drones questline.
Dehumanizer - Found on a named NPC (Zaman?) in the Core City Sewers that you will have to kill for the Coretech questline.
Jackknife - Found on one of the Bandits in the residential level of GMS.
Kohlmeier's Lucky Knife - Found on a named NPC in Junkyard, Kohlmeier will give you a quest to retrieve this knife as well as telling you how to find it.
Kukri - No idea.
Balor's Hammer - Found on Balor to the south(?) of Foundry.  It's super heavy.
Mind Cracker - No idea.
Quake - Found on a named hostile NPC (Gubbins?) in Upper Underrail, surrounded by hostile bandits.

Kukri is found on the Ol' Chopper, a murderer in the caves near Junkyard.

Mind Cracker is in a box in the secret laboratory part of  the Insitute of Tchort.

283

General / Re: Fix my build

« on: January 22, 2016, 05:57:34 pm »

try to get an energy shield emitter with some 'high frequency values'

If you put points in electronics, low frequency shields are far better since their very high/high/medium ratings will be high enough to stop pretty much everything except for Snipers Aimed Shot (but that happens like twice in the whole game) while also being very good aganist any slow projectiles (crossbows, spits, psionics, chemical pistols) and melee.

But if you don't have crafting, I agree that high frequency is a better choice. Thresholds on found/bought shields are pretty low so only the high frequency shield will be able to stop anything fully.

BUT, Deep Ceverns are generally full of enemies that use slow projectiles (bio spits, acid spits, tentacle darts and psionics) so I would go with low freq for DC regardless.

284

Suggestions / Re: crafting of rifles and shields are useless

« on: January 22, 2016, 05:33:49 pm »

Power Management is the best crafting feat imo if you have elctronics. 35% more capacity on energy shields is basically 35% more health.

Gun Nut is pretty weak, not worth the INT investment on it's own, but if you already have 7 INT to get other feats you might as well take it on builds that are not too feat-hungry.

Weaponsmith is good I guess.

Armor Sloping is good if you want to use anything with metal plates and keep your armor penalty as low as possible.

Ballistics is too weak to mean anything, a waste of feat.

Clothier/Skinner are a flat increase in cloth/leather quality and that's always good.

Disassemble is very convenient. I can't imagine looking for new mods every time I find a marginally better frame.

285

General / Re: Has anyone ever killed Blaine?

« on: January 22, 2016, 02:16:41 pm »

He is the only reliable source of special ammo blueprints and rare weapon mods that I know of, all other traders (like Dirty Tom or the Scavengers) are just too random.