Messages

496

Suggestions / Re: Commercial punishment doesn't belong to the difficulty settings

« on: February 24, 2019, 09:34:59 pm »

You are protecting the "path of the trader". Now you're forced to the life of poverty and feats you don't need. You no longer can make money by crafting only by hauling stuff and disassembling it for certain merchants.

If you can't free up one feat from your build, you've lost focus on your build completely.  No build requires 14 feats to work optimally.  Most builds only need 6-8.  Beyond that you're just tweaking and setting up preferences.  And besides, even with 3 Strength and no Pack Rathound, you can carry all the loot in the game; you don't need to waste a single crowbar, rathound leather, or metal plate if you don't want to.  Also, as long as you aren't buying things you don't need, the quest rewards will give you plenty of money to keep your ammo&consumable inventory topped up.

DOMINATING difficulty doesn't say "this difficulty is only hard during combat".  Part of the game difficulty is the economy.  Cutting the sell value of items is a really good way to remove the "buy your way to victory" approach which is very viable on the other three difficulty levels.  It sounds like you want to play on the highest difficulty level, but not have the difficulty.  You should expect the hardest setting to require you to make tough choices and sacrifices.

497

Suggestions / Re: Commercial punishment doesn't belong to the difficulty settings

« on: February 24, 2019, 07:32:23 pm »

There's plenty of money on Dominating, as long as you're careful with it.  If you craft, check out Disassemble - it's worth a tremendous lot of money.  If you need money, find a way to free up one feat slot.  Disassemble will pay for your house.

It might not be possible to farm Super Steel on Dominating, but you'll find you can afford 6-8 plates and a fully-loaded house.  That should be enough.

498

General / Re: Does the Junkyard recover after the Gang war?

« on: February 21, 2019, 12:28:18 pm »

Blaine gets you access to new things, sure.

In early game, Blaine isn't much more helpful than Gort, yeah.  Blaine's special niche in mid-game is that he takes SGS credits as well as charons, so you can swap out those otherwise useless SGS without paying Colton's exchange rate.  Sure, you can do the same at Jonas, but Blaine has 12.5x the charons to exchange.  Plus he does get better and higher quality rare items than Gort, and unlocks a very good selection if you've got the (rather low) Mercantile to unlock his special stash.  Gort doesn't have unlockable merchandise.

499

General / Re: Does the Junkyard recover after the Gang war?

« on: February 20, 2019, 12:07:48 pm »

You lose a shop either way, that's how the quests are built.  And, no, the Junkyard doesn't fully recover - the old Scrappers territory stays abandoned.  On the bright side, neither of the stores are really high-end stuff, so once you've finished the Depot A questline and the world opens up, you don't have much cause to go back to those early-game stores.  The only merchant in Junkyard that is really end-game viable is Fixer.

500

General / Re: Core City before or after Foundry?

« on: February 18, 2019, 12:25:39 pm »

Split it.

Go to Core City mostly right after the world opens up, and do the Arena fights until you have a hard time with one. Maybe you never do and run straight through; maybe you have to stop.  Whatever.  Hopefully you went ahead and aggroed your fellow challengers and took their stuff when you were fighting the groups; free loot.

Then go ahead and find Gorsky and do at least part of his questline.  Poke around in the Drop Zone, and the sewers/undercity, hitting up those little fights and loot caches.

Then, having done the easy stuff in Core City, picked up maybe a level or two, and gotten a little bit of nicer loot, you can safely head over to Foundry and walk on through the whole thing.

501

Suggestions / Re: UI suggestions

« on: February 16, 2019, 12:39:22 pm »

[...]pixel hunting. Especially objects hiding behind walls are terribly tricky sometimes when you can't see lower obstacles there.

Tab to highlight things.  Once highlighted, your cursor will "stick" to the item even if you move the cursor slightly into an area that would have otherwise been blocked by the environment.  There are a few places where it works poorly, though.

The problem with automating tool use is that it takes away (or makes more difficult) player choice.  Maybe you want to use your MkIII lockpick on a door; maybe you want to save it, and instead equip your Jackknife or eat a burger to boost your Dex, instead (well, now that food is so much more expensive, maybe not the second option so often).  By making the player choose, the player automatically gets that choice.  Don't want to blow 15 energy every time you open a door with that MkIII Haxxor?  Carry a plain one as well; but then how does the auto-choice work?  If you use the last juice from the MkI, does it then say you can't open the next easy door?  Or does it automatically use the item you don't want to use?

UI design is difficult largely because there are so many ways people can want to do stuff.  I don't honestly see how you could streamline hack/pick and still let the player have full control over all the options the game presents.

502

Suggestions / Re: Feats and items improvements

« on: February 15, 2019, 10:14:21 pm »

So uh, anyone actually use the Clothier feat?

Seems to me like the ability to make an extra pretty pink dress is somewhat wasted in Underrail.

I have in the past, for a stealth character.  With all three - ninja tabis, balaclava, and the cloth layer on an overcoat - it amounts to like 20 points of stealth over using the same gear without Clothier.  Can also use it to get more cloth scraps if you have a repair kit economy going.  Can't really say it's a very compelling choice, but it provides enough benefit that you can see the effect, which I guess is really all a QoL feat needs.

Personally, I'd roll Skinner and Clothier together into one feat, but it's been suggested before.

503

General / Re: Skill/Stat Breakpoints?

« on: February 13, 2019, 08:56:13 am »

One other thing I wanted to ask is if builds without defensive stats are viable? The original build I'd seen put no points in dodge/evasion and seemingly relied on tactical vests + mobility + quickly killing enemies in order to avoid damage, though it was several years old, is this approach still viable or would it likely lead to getting mulched later in the game?

It's very important to have some strong defensive ability for your character, but the defense options are more varied than perhaps you would think at first.

Stealth is enormously powerful.  I rarely play characters with stealth because it trivializes something close to 90% of the game. OTOH, if you're having a hard time with the game, be stealthy and you'll sail on through.  Stealth is an incredible defense because if they don't know you're there, they can't kill you.

Psi is enormously powerful.  I really like playing psi characters but it's almost as potent as stealth and there are skill synergies that really do trivialize nearly any part of the game.  Psi is an incredible defense because it can make you impossible to hit, it can stop enemies from attacking, it has so many tricks up its sleeve.

Crafting is enormously powerful.  If you can craft at a high skill level, you can make better stuff than any other items you'll find in the game.  The broad variety of things that you can craft means that whatever your play style may be, you can craft excellent gear to reinforce that style.  Maybe you want quad-plated armor that bullets and claws bounce right off of; maybe you want a sneaky trenchcoat and a cloaking device so nobody can find you; maybe you want devastating traps and powerful grenades.  Whatever you like to do in the game, crafting lets you do it better.

Dodge/Evasion is a good defense.  They're not enormously powerful but they're a passive defense unlike psi and stack with any other defenses you have, unlike stealth.

Line of sight and AI manipulation are good defenses.  They're situational but they're almost perfect defense when applicable.  However, use of these does require that you already have some good knowledge about the game and how it works.

There may be others; it's early and the coffee hasn't really kicked in yet.  But my point is, you do need some defensive ability because UnderRail is a dangerous place.  But there are a lot of ways to get enough defense to make it through the game on any difficulty.

504

General / Re: Skill/Stat Breakpoints?

« on: February 12, 2019, 11:36:53 am »

Traps: whatever you need to place the highest-difficulty trap you expect to want to use.  If you have no idea, then shoot for an effective skill of 100.  Don't forget that if you are willing to swap things out, both the Trapper's Belt and the Jackknife will boost your traps skill.

Other skills: Just check destroyor's FAQ. There are a lot of skills and a lot of valid breakpoints.  https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=843557165

If you plan to use grenades a lot, then the Grenadier feat is nearly a must-have.  You don't need to put any more points in than what you need to unlock the feat, though.  The only reason to put more than about 50 points in would be if you plan to use throwing knives a whole lot.  For grenades, 30-50 is absolutely enough.

There are no diminishing returns for stats, directly, but there are points where your success rate from your skills is as high as the game will allow.  For a SMG build, you're going to want probably 10ish points of Per and a lot of Dex so your SMG AP cost is low and you can spray bullets all over everything.  Check the wiki for the AP cost breakpoints you're going to want based on what weapon you plan to use: http://www.underrail.com/wiki/index.php?title=Dexterity    Check out those charts which are by default minimized.

505

General / Re: Crawlers / Death Stalkers

« on: February 07, 2019, 12:40:28 am »

I did not even have 1! second before a Derp Stalker initiated combat regardless which vent I went through. I cannot initiate combat since it is on a CD when you move through the vent. There is not even time to place a single trap or throw a single flare. There was absolutely nothing I could do besides having 70 Persuasion and go through the front door.

Did you try going into turn-based mode before you went through the vent?  It only takes 25AP.  If you pop Adrenaline on the other side, that's enough AP to throw three grenades - incendiary, whatever, and flashbang, for example.  The first two will establish a safe area around you, revealing any hidden creatures, and the flashbang will give you the upper hand on the following turn.

Since your stealth isn't high enough to matter, did you swap out armor and wear a Regenerative Vest? Regen Vests tick their healing without triggering Hyperallergenic.

Do you have Quick Tinkering?  Lay down a bear trap.  Death Stalkers are melee so all you have to do is be one tiny fraction of a tile out of their reach and you're safe.

You're playing psi, huh?  Did you try going through the gate and simply setting up a Force Field?  The Death Stalkers will see you through it and come stand right next to it.  Since you initiated turn-based before you went through the vent (you did that, right?) you'll have initiative when the force field drops, four turns later.  And you'll have had 4 turns to see them, so you'll be able to target them right away.

Did you use Enrage?  Death Stalkers don't have an impressively high resolve, so theyre very susceptible.  While they're killing each other, you kill them, too.

Did you try putting up mirror images before you started combat?  The Death Stalkers don't have machine sight so they'll hit those images and miss you.

Did you use Irongut before combat, so that you could take antidotes in case you needed to drop a few stacks of poison, and still take only a tiny bit of damage from Hyperallergenic?

Sounds like you're just unwilling to do the things that would give you the upper hand.  You complain a lot about the Death Stalkers, but they're really very easy.  Maybe you should play better.

506

General / Re: Maximum recommended skills?

« on: February 06, 2019, 05:11:45 am »

Well, as usual, I'll lead by suggesting you take a look at destroyor's FAQ.  There are some spoilers, but they're mostly tagged and forewarned, so even if you haven't finished the game, you can avoid plot details easily.  Here's the link: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=843557165

Lockpicking of 100-110 with tools but without food buffs is probably as high as you're ever going to need to go.  Hacking, you could make a case for taking up to 130 with food but without tools, but unless you intend to use it in that one specific way, then there's not much call to take it above 110-120.

The only skills that you realistically want to max all the time are your primary combat skills; guns, melee, crossbows, psi.  And even those don't need to be capped, it's just that the difference is noticeable when you don't keep them maxed out.

507

Suggestions / Re: Feats and items improvements

« on: February 05, 2019, 08:49:44 am »

Furthermore the only part you really want from Disassemble are things which are rare to buy like Rapid Reloaders but that is not worth a feat slot and you will usually get 2-3 at least if you are diligently checking merchants. Otherwise you want higher quality parts, not lower quality parts and you can find copious amounts of parts anyway if you scour every corner of the game.
As to repair costs, seriously? If you are a "crafter", who actually is not, you can buy the repair kit blueprint dirt cheap and the materials are dirt cheap as well.

What you're describing tells me that you don't optimize heavily, and that's fine.  But that doesn't change the fact that there's a ton of potential money from Disassemble.  If you did want a top of the line jet ski, if you did want to sink money into super steel, and also fully kit out your house in Core City, Disassemble would be the way to make that happen on Dominating without farming for cash.

Got a mod on a 5mm pistol? Pull it off and put it on a crafted .44 or something.  And remember, the base cost multiplier rises with more mods, so you didn't just pull a mod off a cheaper weapon, you increased its potential value by putting it on a fully-modded  frame.  Plus, when you re-craft the 5mm pistol you took apart, it'll be at full durability, meaning it'll sell for more; or if you plan to recycle it for repair kit scraps, you'll get more of those.

Like I said, better than you give it credit for.  There's no need to use it on any build, of course - but it's worth more cash than any feat except maybe Salesman, and if that matters to someone, they'll get good mileage from Disassemble.  Especially if their build has room for QoL feats.

508

Suggestions / Re: Feats and items improvements

« on: February 04, 2019, 08:36:58 pm »

Disassemble: Hardly worth a feat. At best worth an expensive blueprint.

Again, better than you're giving it credit for.  If you don't play on Dominating then you probably have infinity moneys, at all times; but if you do play on Dominating, you likely find your finances a bit more cramped.  Disassemble is worth an enormous lot of potential money, and there's also a meta for it that results in you getting free repairs for any gear you're using that you could also craft.  Ending up with a way to avoid repair costs while also pulling expensive components off found/looted items so you can fill up the optional slots in crafted items?  That's quite useful, and well worth a single feat slot for a crafter build.

509

Suggestions / Re: What about traits?

« on: February 04, 2019, 08:30:14 pm »

Nah, traits just served as an additional tool for min/maxing, with the exception of Bloody Mess which IIRC was strictly flavor.  Firstly, the games are different enough that I don't feel a need for UnderRail to try to become a reskin of Fallout.  Secondly, it seems like specialization points serve a similar purpose, and are absolutely a significant discriminant - maybe you would never consider maxing out the Salesman specialization; maybe I already have   And just so, there's additional uniqueness.

510

General / Re: Negative Armor Penalty Increases Movement Points

« on: January 31, 2019, 08:59:59 pm »

That's neat.  It must also be relatively new, perhaps introduced with all the new content, because a good while ago I had the same thought and found that a) armor penalty was capped at 95%, giving 1MP no matter what, and b) there was no "backwards overflow" with negative armor penalty giving bonus move/stealth.  That's a good find, though.