Messages

46

General / Re: Help me appreciate chemical pistols

« on: March 18, 2019, 10:02:48 pm »

All right, some good points were made here. I am convinced that I should give the incendiary pistol a fair chance. And yes, I am going to pick Mad Chemist. Let's try it, why not.

I am still unsure about taking Ambush (have never tried it- sounds too situational for a feat and I still have many good feats to take), but I can see how it could work well with the incendiary pistol.

The build I posted in the OP is my third consecutive try at a pistol build. The first try was a mess, the second try was better but was designed around Steadfast Aim which I regretted, and my current run is the third. My DEX is 11 because that's decent enough for all types of pistols, and allowed me to have high INT for the skill points and High Technicalities. At L16 the point went to PE (for accuracy, damage and Sharpshooter). I am going to think about the 2 future ability points at L20 & 24, but they will probably go into CON for further survivability.

If I am happy with Chem weapons after this playthrough, my fourth try may feature DEX 14 to shoot them 4 times/turn. I am still not totally convinced that my AP are not better spent on energy pistols. I am convinced, however, to give chem pistols a fair chance. If  Iam happy with at least two of the chemical pistols, that's going to be good enough.

47

General / Help me appreciate chemical pistols

« on: March 17, 2019, 11:51:20 am »

I am currently trying a pistolero/grenadier build (with 1.0.4.17), and I have to say it is a lot of fun. I appreciate the simplicity of the 0.44 Hammerer, the crits of the plasma pistol, the stuns of the electrical pistol, and I love Execute too. Sometimes I use the laser pistol as well, eg when enemies have great mechanical resistance and the geometry of the situation doesn't  inspire me for electrical pistol use.

What I have trouble appreciating is the chemical pistols. I can find some utility in acid pistols and their entanglement. I also use them against metal armor. But incendiary and cryoliquid pistols have left me scratching my head. Specifically, I have not met any situations this far that would call for pyro/cryo guns.

Maybe part of the problem with pyro guns is the existence of pyro grenades. Throwing is a different skill altogether, but it is a support skill, and what pistolero doesn't use them? With cryo guns, I don't see the utility at all.

Do you guys have any advice on chemical pistols? I do not need them to be absolutely awesome to enjoy them, but they have to be at least situational if I am to carry them with me.

(My current build, I am at level 15, Hard difficulty: STR 3, DEX 10->11, AG 3, CON 5, PE 8->9, WILL 3, INT 8->9.
Skills: Guns, Throwing, Stealth, Hacking, Lockpicking, all Crafting skills, and partially Traps & Mercantile. Later I am going to max out Dodge too.
Feats: Gunslinger, Aimed Shot, Opportunist, Point Shot, Grenadier, High Technicalities, Cooked Shot, eXecute, Critical Power. The rest of them are going to be Three Pointer, Sharpshooter, and three out of Ambush, Uncanny Dodge, Quick Tinkering, Nimble, Mad Chemist, Practical Physicist)

48

Bugs / Re: [1.0.4.17] [minor] Jitter in Hopper Caves

« on: March 14, 2019, 09:48:51 pm »

Well, if it is a pathfinding issue, I have more coming your way. Note sure this deserves its own thread, so here it comes:

On Silent Isle, there are problems with pathfinding, although of a different nature. In particular, let's say I am in front of the boat, and psi beetles and rathounds are attacking me. Some rathounds go west (towards the psi beetles) instead of coming straight at me, and some psi beetles go back and forth every turn. I am assuming these are pathfinding problems. These problems did not exist in earlier versions of the game (before the summer, when I had last played it).

I have noticed the above behavior repeatedly in two successive playthroughs. This is not such a major problem of course, but here is hoping that pathfinding will be fixed.

49

Suggestions / Re: Feats and items improvements

« on: March 11, 2019, 02:42:07 pm »

@Quidam Craft,

I only left Sharpshooter out of the comparison because it requires focus (while pistol builds are generally mobile) and it also has a major requirement of Perception=10 (while pistol builds may choose to invest in Dexterity instead). However, Sharpshooter is still definitely relevant to the discussion.

Don't all energy pistols have a great Crit Dam bonus  (often more than 200%) when they are amplified? I doubt that any energy pistol build that respects itself will run without amplified pistols. And in the amplified case, which is the main case and probably the only case relevant to energy builds, the Critical Power bonus is always much greater than the Practical Physicist bonus. Unless I am missing something.

50

Suggestions / Re: Feats and items improvements

« on: March 11, 2019, 12:57:43 pm »

Why would you consider it to be a niche feat?

Practical Physicist applies only to energy pistols, while Critical Power applies to all pistols (and crossbows and melee weapons). That's why I call PPh a niche feat.

For example, I would like it better if a pistol build that used all pistols had to take CritP first, and a devoted energy pistol build had to take PPh first. More Choice&Consequence that way. The way things are now, all builds have to take CritP first, as it is more powerful in nearly all scenarios (even for energy weapons- when they are amplified).

51

Bugs / [1.0.4.17] [minor] Jitter in Hopper Caves

« on: March 11, 2019, 02:49:50 am »

There is significant jitter in the hopper caves region*. Not sure if jitter is the correct word, it is like my computer has trouble refreshing the screen. Maybe someone might want to check if it a general problem or just mine.

Graphics card: NVIDIA GeForce 830M.


*how to get there: From Crossroad Watch (where Jonas initially is) start walking towards Junkyard. After a few screens, you get to the region with a Sentry and some rocks to blow up. Blow up the rocks and you access a crawler region. Go through the crawler region and you reach the hopper caves region that I am talking about.

52

Suggestions / Re: Feats and items improvements

« on: March 11, 2019, 01:02:15 am »

Tygrende, I appreciate the feedback (all of it, btw). As I mentioned, I am not experienced with the build, and therefore  I am not confident in my opinions. You are much more likely to be correct in your assessments.

RE Chemical Weapons.
Alright, I will see if I can find a feat spot for Cooked Shot. Haven't picked it yet, and it was unclear from the description whether this feat would be worthwhile. Note that  I tried searching for info on cooked shot and did not come up with anything detailed, which to me indicates that  not many people are into chemical pistols. But maybe they have a marketing problem.

RE Practical Physicist vs Critical Power
Interesting. Of course one can pick both, but my main point is that of niche feat vs widely applicable feat. In principle, I believe that niche feats (eg, Practical Physicist) should be stronger than widely applicable feats (Critical Power), which is not the case for (amplified) plasma pistols either.

Anyway, if in your experience Practical Physicist is already strong enough, then I do not have an improvement to suggest, because I do not believe that Critical Power should be nerfed.

53

Suggestions / Re: Feats and items improvements

« on: March 10, 2019, 07:05:40 pm »

Currently doing my first pistols run. I am not experienced with this build, so I may be wrong, but...

 I think Practical Physicist needs a buff. Generally, niche feats (like Practical Physicist) should be stronger than widely applicable feats (like Critical Power) within their niche. However, it looks like Critical power is better even for devoted energy pistol builds.

The best design imo would have been to have Critical Power be the stronger feat for an all pistols build, and Practical Physicist be the stronger feat for an energy pistol only build. 


PS. Chemical pistols look like they need some work to be worthwhile. They are an interesting concept in principle, so hopefully they get looked into.

54

Bugs / Re: [1.0.4.17] [Burrower Emergency] Burrowers move to different room

« on: March 09, 2019, 03:46:42 pm »

OK, this didn't happen in the versions I played before, but  I don't remember the versions numbers.

Bad change imo. It was kinda cool having an optional tough fight in the prospector section. Optional tough fights are cool.

Cheers.

55

Bugs / [1.0.4.17] [Burrower Emergency] Burrowers move to different room

« on: March 09, 2019, 01:12:24 pm »

In the Burrower Emergency quest at Camp Hathor, the second map that is infested with burrowers is a cave divided in two. There is the non-optional section of the cave that one has to go through in order to go upstairs, and there is also an optional section with a dead prospector. Both sections are infested with burrowers, but the burrowers could not transition from one section to the other in previous versions.

In 1.0.4.17, they can. While I was fighting the burrowers in the non-optional section, the burrowers of the optional section migrated and joined in the fight.

I did not see how the migration happened. I just noticed that  I was fighting many more burrowers than I expected in the non-optional section, and then I went to the dead prospector room and it was empty of burrowers.

Steps to reproduce:
- Start Burrower Emergency quest.
- Go through first burrower-infested map and enter the cave.
- Start fighting with the burrowers.
- The burrowers of the dead prospector room migrate and join in the fight.

56

Development Log / Re: Dev Log #58: Environments Preview

« on: June 30, 2018, 02:25:34 am »

Right, I do play Oddity. I am on my 2nd full playthrough (Oddity/Hard). Entered Camp Hathor at level 10, Rail Crossing and Foundry at levels 11-12, did some exploring, and now I am starting Core City at level 14 (almost 15). By no means am I a master of the game yet, but I expect I will enter Institute of Tchort at level 19-20, and DC at ~22 (hopefully 23). It works out very nicely currently. That's why I am worried about the expansion.

Yes, that's mostly the idea. The expansion becomes available at some point in Core City. Main storyline stuff after that point will be tweaked for the expansion owners to keep it relevant at their level. Mid-game content that's already accessible over a wide level range (including the drones/protectorate questlines) will stay as it is.

Actually, the way you put it makes sense. If the expansion content is harder than Rail Crossing/Foundry, the progression may work with minimum casualties. Although it will probably be best if the expansion is harder than Core City (ie, expected to be done after getting the house).

57

Development Log / Re: Dev Log #58: Environments Preview

« on: June 29, 2018, 06:41:17 pm »

As far as I know the idea is to tweak the late game and endgame parts that come after the expansion's content to keep them balanced. The large free-form midgame part, which Expedtion expands, stays mostly the same.

Still, I can see the whole Core City, the Protectorate/Free Drones questlines, and the Institute of Tchort becoming much easier if I can level up further before I tackle them. Unless their difficulty is changed just for the people who own the expansion.

Personally, I think that the best way to do such a thing is rework the leveling up progression all the way through *just for the people who have the expansion*, so that everyone ends up at the same level entering DC, expansion or not. The example I have in mind is New Vegas' JSawyer mod (which is more less what it did, although it added 5 levelups to the vanilla progression). But it takes a lot of determination to do that successfully.

58

Development Log / Re: Dev Log #58: Environments Preview

« on: June 29, 2018, 02:54:35 pm »

Looks great, love the music.

Yeah, insulated armors needed some love.

The thing I am worried about is the difficulty progression/balance of a full playthrough (main game+expansion) with the expansion. Mid game expansions unbalance games too much for my liking, unless devs go to great lengths to rebalance them.

59

Suggestions / A few inventory suggestions

« on: June 28, 2018, 02:44:22 pm »

1) Mark as junk

For the items in our inventory, It would be great if we had the option to mark them as "junk". Junk would be a new category in our inventory, where the marked items go, and basically it is the stuff we want to sell. Each item will have a "mark as junk" button which should be toggleable, so that we can change our mind on something that we do not consider junk anymore. In this case, in the "All" screen there will be a toggleable "Show/Hide Junk" button.

Note that the above idea has been taken from the "Legend of the Void 2" flash game.

2) Keys and keycards should probably not be shown in the "All" category of our inventory. It is too clattered without them already. Or maybe give us a toggleable "Show/Hide keys" button.

3)  New categories in trade screen

Merchant stuff could be marked to go to our Wishlist or be Hidden. "Wishlist" and "Hidden" should be two new categories in the buy-sell menu. Every merchant item will have the toggleble options to be added to Wishlist or be Hidden.


4) About the crafting screen. Scrolling up and down to find the desired recipe is a bit of a pain. Give me categories in the crafting screen similar to what the inventory has. Eg, the categories could be "Biology", "Mechanics" etc. Each recipe would go to the category where its demands are highest.

While I am at it, for crafted items it would be great to be able to see the quality of materials that were used for crafting. Right now I note them on a (physical) notebook, so that I don't end up crafting new items that are inferior to what I already have, but it's a bit of a pain. 

60

General / Re: I hate you all [major spoilers]

« on: June 25, 2018, 11:16:33 pm »

Great discussion! Don't have anything to contribute yet, I only have a couple of questions.

Who are we? Who is the PC, that is. If I am not mistaken, we have no information on our past at all. I wouldn't mind it if this means nothing at all, but maybe it means something.

Three Godmen walk into a bar. Tanner, Six, and ...? Who is the third Godman? Do we have any information on this? I am suspecting Melek, but just because he is very powerful.

I take it that there is nothing in the game pointing to the reason why Six and Tanner are antagonists?