Messages

61

General / Combo feat, is it useful?

« on: May 11, 2020, 12:14:34 pm »

Have tried it before, more damage is always nice.
But according to wiki, you need to hit the enemy 3 times in a row for it to work, so I guess if you miss, it will just reset.

This means it will not work very well against the most difficult enemies like blocking foes with riot shield/sword parry/spear block (or does it work even if all damage is blocked??), or against high dodge (high level) enemies.

And against average melee enemies, you can get by fine without it I think.

Anyone have experience with Combo in Expedition/against dangerous enemies?

62

General / Re: How useful is Riot Gear?

« on: May 10, 2020, 08:43:03 am »

Riot gear is good if you are adventuring into areas where there could be stealthed melee enemies who want to stab/sting/rip your guts out.

With shield, it can help in aborting an enemy machete flurry attack. I think it also procs riposte from your machete, so synergy there.

63

General / Re: Quick Question - Caltrops

« on: May 10, 2020, 08:35:49 am »

There is something about caltrops that I never got around to check: do the "Sure Step" feat work just like wearing metal boots? Or do you crush/remove the caltrops by walking on them with metal boots?

(Intuitively, sure step means you walk "around" the caltrops leaving them in place, while with metal boots you walk on them, removing them from play.)

64

Builds / Re: Commando Build

« on: May 06, 2020, 06:08:14 am »

Looked at your build, looks solid, but a few thoughts:

I'd drop Hit and Run. Problem is if you miss or fail to one-hit-kill your target, it does not help you.

For 5 STR, just redistribute some points from perception. If you want to salvage your build, put next point into STR and eat a barbecue when you need your sniper while waiting for lvl 12.

I'd never play a sniper without Paranoia. You are completely a glass cannon, you need all the detection and initiative you can get, or lurkers/crawlers/arena fighters etc will eat you alive.

Interloper, I'd only take on a melee build. It is very much a luxury feat for you, and slower stealth movement is actually a benefit, as you will spot traps without walking on them first and dying with 3 Constitution and little evasion/armor.

65

General / Re: Leveling Crafting

« on: April 30, 2020, 06:20:12 pm »

A better question might be, to what extent should you level crafting? Should you go all-out and level to the point you can make the best possible equipment or is something more middle-of-the-road acceptable?

Well that depends what you want.

You can do fine with low leveled science skills if you simply wish to craft some low/mid-level stuff out of convenience. Examples: Repair kits, meds like adrenaline/focus stims, a taser, poisined bear traps/caltrops, custom made ammo like JHP or W2C.

Or, you can go all in on one or more skills, to build a devastating weapon, a great piece of armor, an excellent shield, the best grenades or mines etc.
You should then invest a lot, as you want to be able to craft something better than you can buy, and generally stay ahead of the power curve.

You can usually loot or buy some pretty decent stuff, so personally I go all in on a science skill if I have a plan that require very specific gear. Like a crafted crossbow or energy pistol, that benefit a lot from making it yourself because of the feats. Or a gun with very specific mods, or a specialized armor suit.

66

General / Re: Where is an energy edge emitter?

« on: April 28, 2020, 08:18:22 am »

I see them some times randomly for sale, for example at Gorts junk shop in Junkyard. They are rare though, it is very random. Just keep checking, one will pop up eventually.

67

Builds / Re: Shotgun Psi build

« on: April 26, 2020, 02:54:25 pm »

Keep in mind you need a minimal skill level to be able to use the more advanced guns without crippling penalties to hit.

68

Builds / Re: Pacifist build?

« on: April 14, 2020, 11:08:50 am »

Hi, I am playing a very stealth-centered character now, with pickpocketing and traps. It is on hard, oddity mode, stealthily killing isolated enemies with a silent weapon. It is by no means pacifist, but rather a silent thief type.

It is a pleasant way to play, so I recommend this for people wanting to play without the need to kill everything in their path. You have to kill some times, it is pretty much unavoidable.

69

General / Re: Ambush vs. Snipe

« on: March 26, 2020, 07:32:00 am »

I am now playing a stealthy (guns) sniper, and have to decide just this, at lvl 12. It is a difficult choice.
Some immediate thoughts:

Pros of Ambush:
-With fire grenades, or a flare at point blank, you can create ambush points in dark areas
-100% crit chance is doable in mid game
-Works with sidearms too, so you can use other guns if needed
-Can be used every turn, even several times
-Also havles enemy evasion, very helpful

Cons:
-Fire grenades can miss and mess up your plan
-Some areas are fully lit up, or unsuitable
-Require space to move, useless in a brawl
-Useless against crit immune enemies
-No benefit from smart damage modules


Pros of Snipe:
-Crazy damage with high stealth
-Require no A-A scope, so you can get a regular w/+10% presicion instead
-Benefit from smart damage modules
-Works against crit immune enemies
-Good with all sniper types

Cons:
-Require stealth (not being undetected, you can restealth in combat and snipe next turn)
-Has cooldown


But how do we play in practice?
I play a mobile stealthy sniper with decent dex+agi, traps, Quick Tinkering, Sprint and Strafe. So high mobility, rapid Spearhead, hit-and-run-tactics, traps a vital part of both attack and defense. For this Ambush is great, really great.

Unfortunately, Ambush doesnt always work, despite creative solutions. And when it fails, you are in trouble, usually with close range enemies breathing down your neck.

But Snipe also benefit from for example Blindsiding. And we have Aimed Shot too, and need to throw grenades and nets, quick tinker traps and move around, so many shots will be special damage shots too, to benefit from smart module and smart lenses.


Ultimately, I can not choose, it is too hard. I take Nimble instead to have more stealth and evasion.

But later, I want both.

70

Development Log / Re: Dev Log #65: Codename Infusion

« on: March 11, 2020, 08:15:37 pm »

This is very cool, thanks for all the hard work you guys put in.

71

Builds / Re: My best build for no death domination

« on: March 10, 2020, 08:06:52 am »

How do you deal with:

-Death Stalkers
-Stealthy enemies with close combat weapons and incapacitation
-Xbow enemies w/stun bolts, or nets for trapping you (or both)
-Greater Coil Spiders

Especially the coil spiders I wonder how you can survive, w/minimal web detection or disarming, no stealth and no initiative?

72

Builds / Re: Relative noob looking for a crossbow/traps build

« on: March 09, 2020, 09:45:16 am »

Crosbows have a move-and-shoot penalty, and they can usually not fire that many times in a round, so it is important to have decent chance to hit.
They also have a penalty for close range shooting.

If you can start combat on your own terms and fire before you move, this is ok.
But if you need to reposition a lot, or duck out from a corner, shoot and retreat to cover, you will start to feel the %-to hit penalty.

Not the least if melee enemies close on you, then you will either have to shoot at close range, or move and shoot, both with to hit penalties.

Depending on how you play, you can consider to take the feat Strafe, that will eliminate the move and shoot penalty. You can try without first, and see if you want it.
I consider it essential for crossbows.

Trap Expert is not a good feat in my opinion, you can do without it and feats are too valuable to be wasted.
If you are annoyed by long time to set or disarm large trap fields just speed up the game to double speed with the "+"-key.

Lastly with a 3 str character who likes traps (they weigh a lot), you probably could take Pack Rathound much earlier, I'd take it as one of the first feats.
This is another case of try without and see how much you want extra carry weight.

73

Suggestions / Re: Trap Expert feat improvement: halve carry weight of traps

« on: February 09, 2020, 07:14:41 am »

Yeah, problem is Trap Expert is really weak now. Detection difficulty is marginally useful on paper, but the arm/disarm time is just useless especially now that you can speed up the game.

I can not think of any situation I'd take Trap Expert over any other feat, there are so many better ones. And I love traps.

Being able to carry more traps around, then you can actually be a Trap Expert.

An alternative would be to be able to craft better traps, but that would discriminate against those w/o science skills and homemade traps.

74

Builds / Re: Sniper with a firearm pistol

« on: February 08, 2020, 07:12:30 am »

What if you use a smart silenced 5mm neo luger to execute lone enemies silently, can you get decent damage and pull that off?

75

Builds / Re: Need advice for a Stealth/Melee/Throwing Knives/Temporal Manipulation Character

« on: January 27, 2020, 06:56:16 pm »

Edit: The research I've done always seems to come up with 'use grenades, traps, and mines!' Grenades and a trap here and there sounds good, but the talk about mines makes it sound like if I'm using them then what's the point of using anything else since they're just that good.

About mines, yes they can be devastating, but they have some drawbacks. Setting up a minefield while hidden in stealth at a chokepoint is instant death for those who step on them.

But mines are very heavy. At 2kg per mine, it is limited how many you want to lug around. The more dangerous kinds also cost a lot.

Human enemies can and will detect your mines, and bypass them, if your skill is low. To place mines close by enemies, you need to have a quite decent stealth skill, and either Quick Tinkering, Trap Expert and/or the Interloper feat at least, if not you will be detected.

Most importantly, mines only help you if you have the luxury of being able to prepare the battleground in advance, preferably from stealth. (So you probably have to be the lightly armored, stealthy, squishy type.) Unfortunately there are several times when you have to fight right away with no chance to place mines beforehand, so you need to have other tricks up your sleeve.