Messages

241

Suggestions / Re: Luck stat

« on: November 12, 2019, 01:29:26 pm »

Really the idea behind it is for challenge runs

Sounds like a lot of work for something you as the player can easily customize.  Want more challenge? Play through without ever using energy shields.  That one tiny change will profoundly impact the game.  Not enough? Play with no healing item use - you need healed, go to the doctor.  That'll make a huge difference, too.  Still not enough?  Play with slightly-reasonable item stack limits, like one or maybe two grenades per belt slot.  Play an Ironman-style character and reroll when you die.  Play without stealth.  Play with minimal violence.  Play without armor, just run the entire game in your starting clothes.

All of those things require zero dev time, zero mechanics modification, zero changes to the game at all.  And they're already built into the game, ready for you as the player to choose to stick with.  Adding another core stat and figuring out its interactions with the stat balance, skill pools, and game effects while still giving it a useful role to play (because, design 101: If It's In Your Game, It Should Be Meaningful) is an awful lot of work for what amounts to a third or even fourth play-through option.  What do you figure the rate is for that? One player in a hundred?  Personally I doubt its even that high.

Besides, a Luck stat already exists in UnderRail. It's called the RNG 

242

Bugs / Re: Not working as intended Thermodynamicity

« on: November 11, 2019, 12:57:29 am »

Isn't that one for AP?

It is.  OP just misread the feat description.

243

General / Re: Where are the new Prot. and Freedrone Armors?

« on: November 06, 2019, 03:11:11 pm »

Or did i missread the update notes? Because it shows : New armor for CC, JKK, P.Security, Protectorate, F. Drones and [Redacted].

Nope, that's not what it says.  What it says is "Added a faction specific armors and item for JKK, Coretech, Praetorian Security, Protectorate, Free Drones, and [REDACTED]" and that particular update note was under the "Items" heading. It doesn't say that it changed the armor for NPCs, it says there are faction-specific armors available.

Check the faction vendor(s).

244

Suggestions / Re: Balance + Crafting + QoL Suggestions

« on: November 05, 2019, 05:54:24 am »

Psi needs a nerf and let's hit them where it hurts them the most.. their psi cost values.

This won't in any way change how powerful psi is.  All it will do is make psi less fun to play by pigeonholing characters into a set "rotation".  You need to think this through; a high cost for psi abilities only means psi needs to use fewer abilities before popping a psi booster.  But psi already has efficiencies that overwhelm other mechanics (that's why it's so "OP"), so all psi needs to do is use those.  You make my psi costs go up, and all I have in a tight spot for damage is Premeditation -> ThermoD -> TK Proxy -> TK Punch. That's no problem even with increased psi cost.  Dealing with robots instead, and their high physical+fire DR/DT?  Electrokinetic Imprint -> Entropic Recurrence -> Temporal Distortion.  Still no problem.  And all of that is largely immaterial since with psi costs skyrocketing, all I'll want to do is pull groups to a force field and Premed -> LoC -> Enrage.  All that did is make fights less varied and less fun.  Psychosis in particular feels the pinch, and if any build needs pinched, it's Tranquility.

I get the feeling you don't play psi.  Psi cost isn't what hurts.  Psi boosters literally grow out of the ground.

245

Builds / Re: Any suggestions for a 10 CON stealth knife/utility build?

« on: November 03, 2019, 08:53:32 pm »

You might be interested in SubterminalOptimization's thread on beating the game on DOMINATING with a level 6 character; he found that he could stealth Emporion at level 6 with no trouble at all, so with a good crafted stealth set you'll have no trouble whatsoever even with only partial investment in stealth.  Infused Cave Hopper leather armor is a really incredible stealth suit when combined with black cloth and soft padding.  At the very least, I'd say you can go maybe half each into Stealth and Traps and do very well.

Get some Biology.  The Beast fight is frustrating for a simple melee build without the benefit of gas grenades and bear traps and cave ear or crawler caltrops.  Presumably you'll have enough Mechanics, from making your own knives, that you won't need Persuasion to skip the Arke fight, but if you do that fight, it'll be a hassle too unless you come loaded with EMP III.

Even with 10 CON, I still think Conditioning is at best a QoL feat.  I'd worry more about not taking big hits rather than mitigating damage in.  You're probably better off building as an evasion tank and just using your health pool to mitigate the hits you have to choose to take so you don't take the other hits.  I wouldn't build the character as a damage tank, unless you plan to build a quirky 35AP PC and carry a quad-plated tank set to swap into when stealth isn't called for.  Knives are very very light, so with Pack Rathound I suppose you'd have the carry capacity to spare.

246

Builds / Re: Are snipers just terrible?

« on: November 03, 2019, 06:00:36 am »

have no idea how reliable just 140 Thought control is
I could just abandon Psychosis/Empowered Methatermatics but I really like the idea.

On DOMINATING 140 effective will result in some of your Enrage/Fear/Incap getting resisted.  It's not a huge deal since you'll have other tools at your disposal, but you'll feel the difference between 140 and 200 effective skill. Above 200 you're mostly just increasing NO damage rather than significantly improving Resolve threshold checks.  If you plan to wear a psi headband you'll get quite close to 200 with that character.

Your most powerful Metathermics ability, ThermoD, won't benefit at all from Psychosis because it can't crit; your remaining psi is all at support-tier skill levels and thus crits won't really be a huge deal.  If your conops is something like "Premed -> ThermoD -> [DAMAGE] -> loot" then you'd be better off skipping Psychosis entirely.  That would free up two feats and give you some real breathing room.  I think for a psi-support sniper, you'd get more benefit from Pyromaniac than from Psychosis - all Psychosis does is increase your damage output, and you already have a high-output weapon that you're good at using.  Pyromaniac gives you a entirely new tool for your toolbox, and that's quite valuable.  EDIT: Or, obviously, switch out Psychosis+Mania for Tranquility+Meditation, giving you that extra psi pool so you can in fact hit multiple panic buttons when things go awry.

247

Builds / Re: An Average Explanation of Outstanding Psi Builds

« on: November 02, 2019, 09:51:27 am »

I agree with Shredded Cheddar on Premeditation. I think it's the best 2 points you can spend as a full psi character.  Conversely, I really didn't like LoC spec becuase I very rarely had fights go long enough to use LoC twice unless I was deliberately stringing them out, and the extra turn of duration is pretty meaningless.  So I can't agree with SC on that, but it'll come down to how you play your character as to whether you get any use out of those spec points or not.

I really do like Thermodynamicity spec for min/maxing.  It's the greatest output-increasing specialization you can have, and I'd always put 5/5 there before putting anything into LoC.  Remember that the Thermodynamicity AP reduction is applied to the base ability cost, then the flat tranquility reduction is applied to whatever the modified AP cost is.  So, for Tranquility builds, 5/5 Thermodynamicity can enable you to throw 8-9 abilities in a turn.  It's simply devastating, if you have enough psi reduction to make it all work.

My Tranquility specialization point loadout, in order, is:
Premeditation cooldown reduction 2/2
Future Orientation 5/5
Thermodynamicity 5/5
(whatever I feel like) 3/?

If you have no other idea what to do with your points, try that.  It'll probably impress you.

248

General / Re: Empowered Psionic feats worth it?

« on: October 31, 2019, 03:24:22 am »

Initially I didn't want to take thermodynamicity since I don't want to thaw out chilled or frozen opponents, or put out ones who were on fire, but if I'm going to be taking empowered metathermics, would you recommend I switch out pyromaniac for thermodynamicity?

I would consider Pyromaniac to be superior to Thermodynamicity in almost all situations.  You have a few feats that you could sacrifice for Thermodynamicity, but I wouldn't be happy with the trade-off for Pyromaniac.

Also, do you think having 3 constitution along with advanced empathy would be viable considering it's on normal?

Sure. 3 CON psi is perfectly viable. I don't recommend it for a first-time player because there's less room to learn from mistakes when you have a narrower margin for survival, but if you've played UnderRail before, or are just willing to pay close attention to what you're doing, then there's no problem with 3 CON. I don't even use shields with my psi characters and I can do 3 CON DOMINATING runs Ironman-style; if I can, so can you with a little practice.

I plan on wearing a sturdy, antithermic or galvanic overcoat with psi beetle carapace and a super steel sheet, as well as kevlar boots of some kind

You'll be surprised and disappointed at how bad galvanic vests are (except, possibly, when stacked with Psi Crab carapace and galvanically padded boots, but that's rather niche). You'll be happier with Sturdy or Regenerative vests.  And the only way to put kevlar on your feet is with kevlar tabis and you'll find those underwhelming, as well.  But try them out, and try other things, too.  Crafting is a really fun side-game in UnderRail.

249

General / Re: Why is the hit chance of grenades calculated as it is?

« on: October 31, 2019, 03:15:57 am »

And yea, I have to disagree. Anyone with an arm - EVEN A CHILD - could underhand toss a grenade like 20 feet, not even to mention dropping it at their feet.

I'd prefer if we minimized suggestions that nerfed non-psi characters as well as being completely unrealistic.

You'd think that, and yet in a completely stress-free environment, with no live target or threat or even realistic time constraints, recruits still drop grenades at their own feet during grenade training and have to get tackled by the safety officer.  Think how much worse it would be if you were hurt, scared, and riding a wave of adrenaline, all while throwing a grenade in a low-ceiling environment with a bunch of stuff it could bounce off of and roll right back to you.

There's nothing unrealistic about screwing up and eating your own grenade. Given the kill/injury radius for a standard frag is 5/15 meters, it should probably be more lethal.  It happens in training, and it happens in combat.  But it certainly shouldn't happen in the game, because realism should always take a back seat to enjoyment as long as we're not talking about training simulations.

250

Builds / Re: Are snipers just terrible?

« on: October 31, 2019, 03:05:43 am »

You can get 3 shots per round no problem with a Rapid Reloader (or the one low-AP unique) which is usually enough to get stuff done.  On DOMINATING, the HP bloat is sufficient that you can't really one-shot most enemies with pistols or crossbows except with special attacks (obviously) so the one-hit potential is pretty nice, especially against pesky enemies like Ancient Rathounds and Goliath Azuridae and Death Stalkers, any of which can eat your lunch if you don't make them dead right away.

Sniper doesn't take many feats to be good, so it works really well with other firearm builds that don't take many feats to be good, like AR (or maybe SMG/pistol if you can handle the Dex problem).  You can kill off the high-threat enemies from a safe distance and then just do AR/SMG/pistol stuff like you normally would.

No, they're not terrible. They're second-tier, along with every other good build that isn't full psi (which really is the only top-tier build, unfortunately).  Maybe you just don't play the game in a way that lends itself to taking advantage of the strength of the sniper.

251

General / Re: Empowered Psionic feats worth it?

« on: October 28, 2019, 03:47:04 am »

I think that for a Psychosis build, Empowered Metathermics or Psychokinesis are always good choices. You're relying on your first-strike ability, so it's good to be able to dump as much damage as possible in that opening turn (or whichever turn you judge to be best for your maximum output).  If you're going to end the turn hiding behind a forcefield, or behind a LoS break, then the psi drain is completely meaningless.  If you're going to empty your psi pool anyway, it's not really any difference to you whether you're out of psi because you spent it all or because you got whatever leftover six points you had drained when the Empowered feat switched off.

For your build, with only 13 Will, I like Empowered even more since you've got fairly low effective skills.  If you don't want Thermodynamicity, then yeah, Empowered Metathermics or Psychokinesis is probably a solid pick.

252

Builds / Re: An Average Explanation of Outstanding Psi Builds

« on: October 28, 2019, 03:18:33 am »

Hey, just wanted to say thank you.
You basically made a game for me. Had a really good ~150 hours.

Well, I had no part in the making of the game - I'm just a beta tester. But if the build outline here helped you enjoy this great game, I'm happy to have helped.  Be sure to let Styg know you like his game! =)

253

Bugs / Re: Great Siphoner Pools Trap

« on: October 25, 2019, 04:52:15 am »

Not really a bug or a trap.  If you have to buff up to get access to a place, you should probably expect to need that buff to get out as well.  There should be (and certainly used to be) a similar agility check very early on that can trap a player who manages to buff up and lose the buff.  Basically, that was just poor planning on your part; happily, it's a tiny area and as you saw trivially easy to load a save to escape from.  There really are hardly any "gotcha" moments in UnderRail at all, but it also isn't designed to protect the player from every possible bad decision they could make.

254

Suggestions / Re: Decimation of Fort Apogee garrison should affect the game world

« on: October 22, 2019, 09:25:36 pm »

Maybe it really is just decimation. That wouldn't have a huge effect; decimation is painful but not catastrophic.

But most importantly, it's a game; it's not realism, it's not a training simulator.  It doesn't have to be probable.  It's more probable that a well-equipped, well-trained small team with the advantage of surprise and placement can destroy a platoon of moderately-equipped, moderately-trained soldiers caught unawares - that's sort of the whole concept of special ops teams, in fact - than it is that people can start doing magic with their mutated genes.  Or, for that matter, that a person could take a piece of metal and a wooden(?) stick and without any tools or heavy machinery turn that into a masterfully-crafted shock hammer.  Or that a little bottle could contain a controlled fusion reaction to be used as a battery.  Or that cryogas would even ever be possible without completely violating one of the most fundamental laws of thermodynamics.  Or that you could survive getting shot 20 times by a 9mm just because it was a little wobbly and maybe had some rust on it.

If Fort Apogee breaks your "immersion" and these things don't, then you're just using a buzzword with no reason behind it.  We know the game world is abstracted - there's more to Core City than just what the player can see - the maps only exist to show interesting parts of the city.  We know there's more to the caves of UnderRail than just what the player can see.  Why wouldn't there be more to the Protectorate than just Fort Apogee?  Or, depending on how you like to think about it, more to Fort Apogee than just what the player can see?  No reason at all that there wouldn't be.

255

Suggestions / Re: Quick Tinkering nerf is poor and excessive

« on: October 22, 2019, 04:33:56 am »

Plus I ain't even see a Development Log or Hotfix Readme stated that you guys have added such a huge cost for QT on current standard version

You mean like the Patch Note update on Steam for 1.1.0.12, from August 14, that described the change and the Specialization option?  The Spec option which specifically does what you say can't be done?

You need to pay more attention before you throw a fit.