Messages

226

General / Re: Thoughts on 5/5 spec'ed disassemble.

« on: December 02, 2019, 09:14:41 pm »

My problem with Thermodynamicity and Pyromaniac is that both are heavily random.
[...]
On tranquility psion I rarely find it optimal to alternate between fire and ice. 95% of the time I would prefer to either just spam ice, or use something from psychokinesis and/or thought control. Getting a good AP cost reduction on something I don't actually want to do most of the time (alternate between fire and ice, that is) is redundant.

Mmm.  You don't sequence your abilities well, then.  Chill is a fairly weak debuff; burning is one of the strongest debuffs against living enemies - it's the only DoT + fear, I think.  So what you'd want to do is open with, say, a premeditated cold ability like Cryo Orb, then use Pyrokinesis, pick off a survivor with Cryokinesis, and if you're dealing with a huge mass of enemies, then place a ThermoD, proxy a TK Punch for the ThermoD kill, Cryokinesis to kill anything that's not yet dead or on fire, and pop a psi booster then throw a grenade.  All that in one turn is no problem with Thermodynamicity.

It's even often nice when you're not using Metathermics as your primary output, since it lasts a turn. You can cryo shield yourself one turn, immolate the next, and do all that in the little sliver of AP you leave yourself between double Electrokinesis each turn, or Implosions, or whatever.  Industrial Robots are no threat at all - literally zero threat - if you can walk two squares and be immune to fire, so a few fights that could otherwise get hairy become predictable and safe.  Crawlers of any sort are loath to get up close when you're surrounded by fire, so you can make some ruckus, start burning, and then have a low-AP Cryo Orb to reveal crawlers in a huge area once you've given them a turn to get close - then with the rest of your AP, and a quick-cast Pyrokinesis, you can manage a room with no risk to yourself.

There's nothing random about Thermodynamicity.  It's best against large groups, or extremely tough enemies, and isn't something that you use in every single fight, unlike Premeditation, but it's top-tier if you play to it.

227

General / Re: Thoughts on 5/5 spec'ed disassemble.

« on: December 02, 2019, 08:23:42 am »

I prefer spending my spare points for Force User, since it gives the highest damage bonus out of any psi spec

Well, no. Thermodynamicity spec gives the highest damage increase of any psi spec, if you're just looking at raw numbers.  If you assume you have the psi reduction to afford the abilities, then there's no comparison. Thermodynamicity buffs Metathermics output almost (though admittedly not quite) as much as Locus of Control buffs TC output - and the only reason it's a lesser buff is that there are no fights in the game that go long enough for a max-output Thermodynamicity spam to benefit from the large difference in cooldown timers.  Even the Faceless invasions, or the Mutant horde down under the Institute, or Fort Apogee/Protectorate Docks in CC, or Grey Army maps, only have enough enemies to last two or three turns in a Metathermics blitz.

Force User spec is pretty nice, no doubt; not trying to suggest otherwise.  But it's not even close to close to what Thermodynamicity offers, from a raw damage output perspective.

228

General / Re: Next expansion speculation thread

« on: December 01, 2019, 12:37:17 am »

We've already got art, character concepts, and design for the Grey Army, and we all know that the only thing programmers enjoy more than getting asked if they can just add a toggle is recycling assets.  My guess would be if there's another expansion it could be into North UnderRail, with the Grey Army as a primary antagonist to North UnderRail.  They're clearly militaristic and powerful enough to pose a threat - perhaps even to Dis.  As to which faction would be portrayed as "the good guys" well, I have no idea.  Even SGS and Faceless, clearly the "good guys" of the base game, were hardly blemish-free.

I should add that despite the sexy purple dots by my name, I have zero insider information about this so it's just a SWAG.

229

General / Re: Ballistics, it it useful?

« on: November 29, 2019, 04:07:37 am »

It only really has two compelling use cases.  Used in Kevlar-enhanced Tac Vests, you can get 10+ extra bullet threshold with the feat, or 20+ extra with feat + specialization.  That then makes you basically immune to enemy bursts.  Since Tac Vests generally have poor DR any ability to crank up the DT significantly expands their useful range.  Used in Riot Gear, Ballistics has broader application, but is so watered down that really all it'll do is make you mostly knife-immune.

As others have said, it's really not worth it.

230

Builds / Re: Really wish occulus would sell more vanishing powders(or a bp)

« on: November 29, 2019, 04:01:04 am »

You should be able to remove topics that you've created. No need to leave this here.

231

Builds / Re: I wanna do a build that's like a Starcraft Ghost

« on: November 25, 2019, 06:39:26 pm »

You'll need Guns, Evasion, Stealth, Mechanics, Electronics, and Tailoring. You'll probably also want Traps, Throwing, Hacking, and Lockpicking, though nowhere near max for those skills.

You'll need good Perception (start with 10), reasonably good Intelligence (start with 5 or 6), some Strength (5 or 6, also), and probably some Agility.  You can safely put Will and Constitution to 3, and depending on how much Dexterity you want, you could probably dump it as well if you needed to.  You'd want to add at least two of your six level-up stat points to Perception, and maybe as many as four, but there's no need to have 16 Perception, so you'd have a few stat points to raise other stats as needed to get certain feats.  If nothing else seems necessary, you could dump leftover stat points into Con to make yourself a little less glass-cannony, but Ghosts were never much able to take hits, IIRC.

You'd want to build as a stealth sniper; Interloper if possible, Snipe, Ambush, that sort of thing. Your crafting will let you make cloaking devices and stealth gear so nobody will ever see you, and tasers so anyone who gets close ends up stunned and helpless.  Spec Ops and Grenadier will help if you plan to use a lot of grenades, but you'll need to find some Dexterity for Grenadier.  Traps will let you set up deadly killboxes on a field of your choosing, and also disarm&collect the enemy traps that your high Perception will let you see.

Snipers only really need four or five feats to work well, and stealth doesn't actually need any though Interloper isn't a bad QoL feat.  You'll have plenty of spare feats to play around with.

232

General / Re: Skinner and gun nuts in 2019

« on: November 25, 2019, 02:14:39 am »

Skinner isn't a total waste. It's actually better now because of the diminishing returns on high-end infused leather quality, in that it lets you get your effective quality up in the 180-200 range in a way that's simply not possible with the raw materials.  It's not an especially good feat.  I have for years said it should be rolled in with Clothier, because if you could get both effects for one feat, then stealthy crafters would get real advantage from the feat, but even just as it is now it's OK.  If you plan to wear leather armor a lot, it's not a bad choice at all.  The quality bump is just enough that on DOMINATING you don't have to farm Heartbreaker Serpents - you just use whatever leather you happen to find on the first serpent you kill, throw in a mid-upper quality SS plate, and your infused heartbreaker leather turns every locust attack to 0/0 and you get to ignore the debuff.  That's not terrible.  It's also, admittedly, not great.

Its specialization is so bad that you'd never consider using points there, so you don't have to worry about it messing up your spec point plan.

Gun Nut is useful for burst builds because you end up shooting enough bullets that you live in the mathematical average zone.  It's only a little bit useful, but AR/burst shotty builds in particular have several feats to spare.

233

Builds / Re: Crossbow, psi support, and point shot build. (Advice needed)

« on: November 21, 2019, 10:47:30 pm »

Does thermodynamic destabalization scale

Oh, yes.
https://www.underrail.com/wiki/index.php?title=Thermodynamic_Destabilization
edit: added example screenshot (with, clearly, Pyromaniac + specialization)

234

General / Re: Milton's Key / early laser pistol pre-drill parts

« on: November 21, 2019, 01:42:05 am »

https://www.underrail.com/wiki/index.php?title=Milton

But why not just get the energy pistol from Elwood? It's extremely easy to get it, much easier than getting to Milton and dealing with him.  Honestly, though I haven't looked in a long time, I'm not even sure how to get to Milton pre-drill.

Just go do the first two Scrappers quests.  That'll get you an energy pistol, easy as pie.

235

Suggestions / Re: Moving to core city sucks (mover bots and stash boxes)

« on: November 20, 2019, 08:12:15 pm »

If it's a new character you've made after playing the game at least once, then you should know better already.

Early-game stuff gets stored in your room at SGS.  You'll be back to SGS from time to time, so you'll gradually sell this inventory down.  It's also the inventory you'll use when trading with Blaine (and he's how you'll convert your otherwise useless-by-mid-game SGS credits into Charons).

Junkyard inventory goes in the trash bin next to the weapons vendor shop, for easy access.

World loot from the Underpassages gets carried back to Core City (because of the elevator) and stored in the barrel by the elevator on the Oligarch level.  The other barrel holds stuff you'll be migrating to your house when you unlock it.  Arena loot (and for me at least, other loot pulled from the encounters around Core City) goes in the three barrels by the weapons vendor shop right outside the Arena entrance.

Other loot stays in the nearest cities.  Your call as to whether it's better to move the Ironheads loot to Core City or keep it to Rail Crossing/Foundry.

Now that you've got that system down, there's very little hauling back and forth.  Sure, there'll still be a little bit, but you won't have to do twenty laps; just sort of consolidate stuff as you whittle down your various stashes.

All that said, I do think that for new players especially, it would be nice if you could pay someone (like, say, the Core City Housing people) to move your things from your room in SGS to your house in Core City.

236

Builds / Re: An Average Explanation of Outstanding Psi Builds

« on: November 20, 2019, 05:56:42 am »

I'm trying to work with the Psychosis build, but i'm being shredded like cabbage by the rats in the first mission, they usually go into really big numbers and the pack bonus towards me.

Even with high Constitution, psi isn't a great choice for face tanking.  How about you play in such a way that the rathounds don't get the chance to bite you at all?  You've got psi powers, and rathounds don't have opposable thumbs.  Try to keep a gate between you and them at all times, when possible.  For the one place there where you can't do that, bring a flare to buy yourself two turns.

237

Suggestions / Re: Shotgun and sniper that spawn near omega station should not be randon loot

« on: November 19, 2019, 05:21:42 am »

They're pretty powerful weapons. It's bad enough that you can get an assault rifle and decent medium armor at level 1.

Still, you could probably get a decent shotgun or sniper rifle immediately after handing in the quest to retrieve Jonas' watch.  Take a high-value weapon from Lucas, get the submachine gun from Jonas, the crossbow from Quinton, and maybe the crossbow from M'lan Ratula as well, then hop over to Junkyard and sell them off.  Even better if you have the tac vest and AR (and possibly riot gear and additional weapon) from the Underpassages.  That should get you plenty of value, even on Dominating, to buy a shotgun or sniper rifle and some ammo, even with the initial outlay of SGS credits to buy the grenade(s) you'd need to reliably handle the Underpassages fights at level 1.

If you're on Classic XP, you might have to hit level 2 just barely, but still, that's very very very early-game.

238

Suggestions / Re: Throwing knives need a huge buff (so do pistols but thats been discussed)

« on: November 18, 2019, 05:55:57 pm »

-have throwing knives operate on a different scaling rules that exponentially improves damadge with a high throwing skill

Careful, now.  This is Styg we're talking about.  "But 0.97 is an exponent, guys"

239

General / Re: How to get "Meet Azif"? (Spoilers)

« on: November 17, 2019, 06:12:54 pm »

I don't even know that quest exist lol
You could just skip it, it's just small side quest that doesn't affect anything in the future.

Well that's completely untrue.  That innocuous little side quest opens up a huge piece of UnderRail lore, gives you access to more quests, and gets you access to two very high-quality vendors that you can't access any other way.  It isn't necessary to beat the game, of course, but it certainly has significant effects.

240

Builds / Re: An Average Explanation of Outstanding Psi Builds

« on: November 14, 2019, 10:47:56 pm »

Now secondly, could you show what lvl30 should roughly look like? I am way past lvl16 and kinda afraid of either over or underspecing my skills, i.e. wasting points I will never need or ending at lvl30 with no chance to craft / buy the high end gear I want to have.

What should I aim for in equipment? Psi Headband, Psi Vest and Tabi Boots?

I didn't really want to give a level 30 build in this guide because I was hoping people would explore the game in their own style rather than follow a complete cookie-cutter build.  I can honestly say that if you've followed either of my build recommendations to level 16, and just put the rest of your stat points into Will and kept your psi skills topped up, you've got a good enough character that there's nothing to really worry about.

If you want to know what the skill thresholds are, I still think the best resource is probably destroyor's FAQ on the Steam forums.  Here: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=843557165  There's a skill threshold section in the section index on the side.

Psi headband is always yes (I suggest Muffled Uni-Psi headband with an extra component of your choosing - I usually use the TK Punch module, myself, but Cryo Orb or either bonus crit module can be very nice for Psychosis builds), tac vest with psi beetle (or possibly psi crab) is yes, footwear is more of a "whatever you feel will be most helpful" situation.  Tabis are an obvious and easy choice. Personally, I prefer Infused Pig Leather Striders for the bonus carry capacity and bonus Con, but that's not really an option if you're relying heavily on stealth.  Even TiChrome or Super Steel boots can be helpful if you find yourself taking physical damage hits regularly or walking across caltrops all the time - and if you've gone with psi crab carapace, your armor penalty is already so high that the extra from the metal boots is really meaningless.