Messages

46

General / Re: Perception affects chemical pistols?

« on: July 31, 2020, 12:44:45 am »

The cooked shot works like an AOE skill with always 100% chance to hit, or it has percentage of success depending on your perception?

Neither, but also your understanding of AoE is wrong.  AoE isn't 100% chance to hit; that's a special feature of certain things like some psi abilities.  Read the link I embedded in my previous post to get a better understanding of how missing works.  The short version is - AoE can miss, but the way it misses is different from the way point damage misses.

47

General / Re: Perception affects chemical pistols?

« on: July 30, 2020, 10:20:07 pm »

Mostly they work just like regular pistols, though Cooked Shot is an AoE attack and acts as an AoE attack, which is different from the more typical application of precision mechanics.

48

Builds / Re: Psi/melee or gun build questions

« on: July 30, 2020, 05:44:40 am »

I genuinely have no idea what I'm doing with this, so I sorta went with a hodgepodge build

Hulk gives you good advice on tightening up that build, and I hope I haven't scared you off with being a little terse in my initial reply.  If you've got more questions, hope you do come back and ask them.  UnderRail does have a rather niche approach to character generation compared to most RPGs nowadays - it rewards specialization very heavily, and throws hard enough challenges at the player that sometimes you just have to take a moment and think about a new and better approach to some problems.  If that's your jam, you should get many enjoyable hours from the game; and if you end up getting stuck or having a hard time getting started, this is the place to hammer out why.

49

Builds / Re: Psi/melee or gun build questions

« on: July 29, 2020, 08:00:51 am »

Well, that's terrible.  So much so I have to wonder if you're joking/trolling.

Focus your stats.  You want some stats to be high, and as a result you have to accept some stats being low.  A general stat profile will not serve you well.  Make your strengths strong, or you will be frustrated at how hard UnderRail feels.

Focus your skills.  Especially early on, keep your skills maxed.  If you're going to use a skill, be good at it.  You've got skills with 4 points, your combat skills aren't maxed...that's all just setting yourself up for failure.

Conditioning is always a waste. Do not use it.  Sure Step is perhaps worth it if you're going to go with melee, since you'll have need to get to a target in a fight, and sometimes there will be acid or caltrops in the way.

The only way to make a useful tri-focus build (psi + melee + guns) work is with Versatility.  You'd want to go with a high stat for melee or guns (perception or dex) and let your other skill fill in from Versatility.  Then you can use psi at a support tier or strong support if you run with 10 Will.

50

General / Re: Crafting of new "Psi inhalant" consumable discussion.

« on: July 28, 2020, 04:43:36 am »

It is psi bullets, after all.  While surely not a popular take, I think the inhalant is underpriced.  Comparing it to bullet cost - which, presumably, is the parity point Styg wants to reach - you can't even fill up a single SMG/AR/shotgun/sniper-rifle magazine for the cost of an inhalant. They should probably be more like 750 to get close to that economic parity point.

It does discount the up-front expense of buying psi mentors, but if you upgrade a firearm several times over the course of the game, that comes fairly close, especially now that basically every mentor can be found rather than bought, if you're feeling stingy.

51

Bugs / Re: Bullet weight not added to loaded weapon

« on: July 26, 2020, 06:47:45 pm »

Yeah, that's been around for a really long time. Same with any firearm.  On the bright side, you can maybe eke out an extra unit or two of carry weight if you make sure you fully load all the guns you're carrying back to sell.

52

Suggestions / Re: Wording change on Kevlar items

« on: July 26, 2020, 02:02:00 pm »

Lol, if the objective of the poll is to see if people understand something, you can't just say "well 30% of people don't understand, so the poll is flawed." Thats literally what the poll is about. And why does the audience matter, should it only be sent to people who already understand it so it can look artificially better? Make your own poll then thats worded "correctly" and see what happens.

That's not what I said, at all; it's not even a reasonable misinterpretation of what I said.  My problem with the methodology is that it's an uncontrolled sampling of people self-selecting from, if I understand harper correctly, 4chan, the dirt patch of the Internet where trolls are grown.  I wouldn't trust a 4chan sample for any reason.  My problem with the wording of the poll is that it is more specific than the text on the items, and thus doesn't as freely allow someone wearing two/three pieces of %-boost gear to conflate the DT boosts and believe they have more protection than they do - as I spelled out in my OP.  Indeed, in your previous post in this thread you corroborated that idea, saying "I wondered if its effects applied everywhere".  Finally, I didn't say the poll was flawed - I said that if the poll provided any useful information at all, it suggests that the system of explaining DT has a high error rate, and is flawed.

Come on, man.  This is easy stuff.

Am I reading this correctly?

You are, Styg.  I've seen the question come up, and answered variations on the theme, again and again.    I don't know if it's a pressing concern, especially right after a major update goes live, but there are and have been people posting frustrations about being unable to progress in the game and not realizing their armor isn't protecting them nearly as well as they believe.

53

Builds / Re: Weapon for a psi build

« on: July 25, 2020, 07:43:28 pm »

If you manually start turn-based mode and begin combat on your own terms, you will always have the highest initiative, regardless of what your initiative stat value is.  Why not just use the weapon you prefer and take care to manually begin fights?  Here is the complete list of fights that you can't do that way:

Two bandits at the ladder in GMS3.
Beast bladelings fight.
Arena fights.
optional: Eels assault on Scrappers.
optional&random: that Azuridae map that in some games spawns on the way from SGS9 to Mushroom Cove.

That's it.  All the rest of the combats can be done on your terms.  If you're letting the game roll initiative, then you're choosing that play style.  If you want to choose to let the computer roll RNG, then maybe play tin can AR with psi.  No stealth, lots of tanking, and ARs are extremely potent.

54

Builds / Re: Please help! Build: SMG [Hard]

« on: July 25, 2020, 07:26:33 pm »

Though ARs will not benefit from my high dex right? And are you sure I should use Riot gear with such a build? I'd lose a lot of mobility won't I?

ARs won't benefit from your Dexterity, but they'll do more damage per bullet and offer you greater range.  I wouldn't suggest you use them much past the very earliest part of the game if you're making an SMG character, but there are potential benefits including possibly spreading out the ammo need you've got - SMGs are ammo hogs.  As for the riot gear, it provides extra protection against melee and bullets, so if it's a half-decent set that gets RNG'ed up for you, then it might really help you survive the bandit trio.  You might also go pick up a Vigorous Belt from Pasquale, the doctor in SGS.  If you don't need stealth for a moment, then 30 extra health - especially early on for a 3 Con character - might make a real difference.

My personal favorite for that fight is to clear out all the other bandits first, then go up to the front door and open it but don't go in.  Wait a few seconds in real-time (for the turn to end so you recover your action points) then manually start turn-based mode, chuck a grenade in there, raise a force field (if you have that ability, which you don't, so skip that step unless you restart with a new character) and then hustle out of the way toward the elevator so you've got that nice double LOS break.  When the bandits get through your force field they'll come running to you, and you can pick them off as they close.

You've got plenty of inventory capacity even at 3 Strength.  I wouldn't suggest you use ARs or riot gear with your build most of the time, but it may be helpful in certain situations to carry a spare set of gear so you can try different approaches if you find yourself bouncing off of problems.

55

Builds / Re: Please help! Build: SMG [Hard]

« on: July 25, 2020, 03:54:37 am »

Well, your stats seem fine, though clearly the 3 Constitution is hurting you.  Your skills are spread out a bit.  Tiny investments in Dodge and Evasion are generally not very helpful since if you're 88% likely to get shot in the face or 86% likely, you're still uncomfortably likely to get shot in the face.  You've also invested early on in soft skills that don't really help keep you alive - Mercantile, Hacking, Lockpicking, and those crafting skills (which will help you stay alive, but not until you've got something useful to craft, obviously).  As feats go, I would much rather - for an SMG build - have both Opportunist and Suppressive Fire at level 4 rather than just one of the two and Point Shot (unless Suppressive Fire no longer triggers Opportunist, but I don't recall that changing).  Level 4 is fairly early to be at GMS L3 - are you playing Oddity or Classic XP?  I usually get to level 6 by the time I'm done with L2, so it's possible you could use some additional exploration.

I wonder if it's down to gear, though.  By the time you go into GMS level 3 where the bandits are, you probably should have cleared out the easier parts of the Underpassages, because they are so very very full of loot.  Sure, you're a 3 STR SMG build, but you've got enough guns skill to use the AR available in the Underpassages - just hitch a ride (or walk, but that's a little dangerous) to Junkyard and buy one Junkyard Surprise, then savescum until you get +2 Strength from it.  Underpassages will also have some nice armor options for you that might help you take a hit or two, especially if you get lucky RNG and the rathound room has a riot gear + shield.  You could also, as long as you keep your distance, go loot the shelves and boxes in the Lunatic map due south of GMS.  Might be something there helpful, and IIRC the boxes/desk are locked at 35 skill.  There are some rathound maps that are adjacent to the path you took to get to GMS, but just barely out of the way; one of them has two rooms behind a gate that you could check for loot, too.  There's also an abandoned Omega building map with a few items of loot.

If you don't want to reroll your character and focus a little tighter, then probably you should see about doing a little bit of exploration.  Your character is going to be fragile, so early on and with such low Dodge/Evasion, maybe armor up a touch.

If you do want to reroll, then don't invest in Mercantile (edit: well, unless you want to rush to 15 to get a more expensive weapon off Lucas) or any crafting skills until you need them, probably around level 6 or so (maybe 8 or even 10 depending on XP mode and how much exploration you do).  You might even want to go in for Psychokinesis instead of TM, early on - you won't get psi haste until after Depot A, anyway, and TK Punch and Electrokinesis will be awfully useful even at low skill in the early game (and electrokinesis always).  Worry about surviving first, then worry about thriving.  On Hard difficulty, there's enough money in the game that you don't need to worry about squeezing every last charon out of the early game.

Also, if you're going to have Psi Empathy and 6 Int anyway, make sure you rush to 35 points invested and get Premeditation at level 6.  Whatever else you wanted to get can wait.

56

Suggestions / Re: New Update

« on: July 24, 2020, 05:07:47 pm »

Asking me?  It doesn't really matter how I'd feel since I don't matter and am not part of the decision-making process 

I think that's the same idea Tamior posed earlier and I cautioned against.  It's rewarding an artificially invariant playstyle, which just isn't a good design principle in an RPG.  It doesn't even address the problems of the current system, much less solve them.  There's still no way to regenerate reserve in combat, meaning players who are inefficient have no way to recover from their mistakes; it still penalizes leveraging synergies which are mechanically baked into the game.

Honestly, if you wanted to elegantly break the generalist playstyle, you'd have to disassociate the psi schools.  Make Psychokinesis scale from Strength, and Thought Control from Will, and Temporal Manipulation from Intelligence, and Metathermics from hell-I-don't-know-maybe-Con-we-haven't-used-that-yet-in-this-example.  I'm not sure even that's a good idea, but it would at least do one thing well:  it would mean that just because your build is optimized for one school of psi doesn't mean it's optimized for them all.  That's what you've got now - a system that requires your build, if optimized, to be a generalist build, and then a heavy-handed dev response to quash the fundamental synergies baked into the game's ruleset.  It just makes sense to combine psi schools because they have different strengths but stem from the same basis.

57

Suggestions / Re: New Update

« on: July 24, 2020, 02:19:22 pm »

In terms of solutions, I would prefer a feat that allows some restoration of reserves rather than a consumable. This is three-fold: First, spending a feat incurs an opportunity cost, which tunes down the power of dedicated psions, which seems to be the ultimate goal of the update.

I don't dislike your idea, but I'm afraid it runs pretty contrary to what Styg has said he wants.  He laid out his thought process in the devlog, and pretty clearly wanted psi to have a globally scarce consumable resource, and also wanted to limit the versatility of psi generalists because they had too much fun many options.  I do like the idea of a trickle feat for dedicated cave wizards, but in the long run that breaks the scarcity model; there's no correlating opportunity to create bullets from thin air, for example.
But don't tell Styg that Hemopsychosis also circumvents the scarcity mechanic completely or he might fix that too

Imagine if Mantra gave a passive regen to psi reserve.  Someone might actually take the feat!

58

Bugs / Re: 1.1.2.0 Unknown Item in GMS

« on: July 24, 2020, 03:00:12 am »

I believe that may be the exact bug addressed in the 1.1.2.1 patch.  See: https://underrail.com/forums/index.php?topic=1566.msg30431#msg30431

59

Builds / Re: Psi Pistol Build/Theorycrafting/Questions

« on: July 23, 2020, 08:37:45 pm »

- You don't have 6 int for premeditation. Get premeditation. Go read premeditation so you know what it is. Just to be clear... GET PREMEDITATION.

This.

As a result of getting Premeditation, with 6 Int you'll have 5 psi slots, which will be enough to get good utility out of two schools.  You don't need 7 Agi, so you can take one point from there and move it to Int.  You should probably do that.

60

Builds / Re: Thoughts and Shots: Shotgun/Psi build

« on: July 23, 2020, 08:33:45 pm »

I guess a few things come to mind:
- Shotguns are mostly short to medium range weapons, and psychokinesis is mostly short to medium range.  That's good in that it gives you full potential in your killbox, but it does leave you a bit weak at long ranges.
- Psychokinesis is mostly strong point damage and weak AoE, and shotguns are mostly point damage with a slightly unpredictable AoE.  This means your only consistent targetable AoE will be your grenades.
- Metathermics is mostly strong AoE but moderate point damage, and is mostly medium to long range.
- Psychokinesis offers Force Field for utility and brings crowd control in the form of stuns; Metathermics offers Exothermic Aura and brings crowd control in the form of incapacitation and - with Pyromanic - fears + DoTs.

I would say that either one is very viable, but how you want to play would probably steer you clearly one way or the other.