Messages

16

General / Re: Goliath Beetles Not Dropping Shells

« on: May 04, 2020, 05:03:43 pm »

You aren't reloading a save and clearing the same area multiple times, are you?  Loot is generated randomly, but it's generated on monster creation, not on monster kill.  SO if you save a game, clear an area, load the game, and clear it again, you should get the exact same drops.  You'd probably need to clear the area, then go do other things, and come back when the Goliaths respawn.

If you aren't doing that, then you just have terrible luck right now with the RNG.  Goliaths can drop carapace.

No, I wait for them to spawn back naturally. It's really strange I haven't found a shell yet...

17

General / Goliath Beetles Not Dropping Shells

« on: May 04, 2020, 04:45:25 am »

I'm trying to craft my psi tac vest for the endgame, but I can't find a 100-quality psi beetle shell. I've tried farming goliaths, but after killing tens of them in the caves north of Rail Crossing I haven't gotten a single piece to drop.

What gives? More than half of the regular beetles give shells.

18

General / These Directions Suck

« on: May 03, 2020, 07:32:52 pm »

I'm really REALLY trying to play this game without looking up guides, but the directions some of these quests give make it impossible not to.

The first problem I had was finding the abandoned warehouse to get the strange device that disabled the robots. I followed the directions but couldn't find the warehouse. Turns out I had to exit south at a specific exit or else I ended up somewhere entirely different. I do remember an NPC saying something vauge about keeping to the east of the tracks, but I couldn't ask them again to confirm what they said.

Then I tried finding the Bakers. Originally this one was on me since I didn't think to ask the Hardcore barkeep about the random man with tattoos who was the train driver. Kinda obscure, but I suppose that's part of being a detective. What got me was   trying to follow his directions to head into the northern caves. I did so and kept heading north until I couldn't go north anymore and no sign of them. Had to again consult a guide to find out they were in some random cave you could only hope to find with pure luck. Couldn't there have been acid puddles or something to point you in the right direction?

But the worse so far has been Hephaestus Research. I was told it was North of the GMS Compound. Only there isn't any path north from there. I originally tried the Burrower caves, as those were located North, but that is a dead end. Turns out I have to start somewhere completely different, Rail City, and then somehow randomly stumble my way there with no directions whatsoever.

One time is a fluke, two times is a coincidence, three times is a trend. This is a great game, and I realize it's also meant to be a challenging one, but there is a difference between challenging and frustrating. Combat is grueling enough, i don't also have to fight the map.

19

Builds / Re: An Average Explanation of Outstanding Psi Builds

« on: May 02, 2020, 01:01:06 am »

What is the rational for dumping DEX and AGI completely in favor of CON? Its nice not being completely made of glass but as a Psi user you are still pretty fragile only now you shoot second, third or fourth, which has often meant insta-death for me. Nothing makes you want to rage-quit more than zoning in and instantly being gibbed by some Ironheads.

20

Builds / Re: An Average Explanation of Outstanding Psi Builds

« on: April 30, 2020, 05:55:27 pm »

Do you not have the expansion?  Your original post about building a psi character mentioned that you wanted to give the expansion a go, but every time you link to a build you're thinking about using, you link to a build that isn't using Expedition.

If you do have Expedition, then you should probably reconsider your build progression since there'll be another psi school for you to consider, several new feats, and an increased level cap.

For what it's worth, with 10+6 Will, 10 Int, 6 Con, and 5 Per, you will still have enough skill points to get all your crafting, lockpicking, hacking, persuasion, mercantile, and intimidation thresholds while maxing at least two of the schools of psi.  You don't need Dex or Agi for your build.  Very minimal investments ultimately are wasted, because if you can succeed with 15 points in a skill, you can succeed with 0 points in a skill.  It's the same reason you never want a stat to be 4; if you can succeed with a stat of 4, you can succeed with a stat of 3 and reclaim that stat point to put somewhere else.

Regardless, ultimately, if you want to build to your own liking, then you should do that and play.  Don't get so mired in the theorycrafting that you never get around to playing the game 

No i don't have the expansion. I think I meant I'd give the expansion a go if I could complete the base game, but that's looking less and less likely to happen anytime soon...

Taking your advice, I made this build.

http://underrail.info.tm/build/?GQMDAwYFEAoAAAAAAABISHkAAEtLACRLwofCh8KHMSRAKDYrPxQqBQpkIT0cLidQ

Able to craft everything I want and pass all checks in the base game, as well as max out psi abilities. I dumped leftover points into stealth cause I think that comes in handy time-to-time.

I'd really like to take the points in CON and dump them into DEX so I can level lockpick more efficiently and perhaps go into pickpocket or traps, but the lack of health was making me pull my hair out. That and I' want to have lockpick 50 by the time I get to the GMS Compound with all the sentry bots, as otherwise its a massive pain in the ass.

Honestly, theory-crafting is more fun than the game right now. Even on normal its absolutely punishing.

EDIT:

Here is a 3 CON 6 DEX build I made:
http://underrail.info.tm/build/?GQMGAwMFEAoAAAAAAAAXSF1NAEtLACRLwofCh8KHMSRAKDYrPxQqBQpkIT0cLic

21

Builds / Re: An Average Explanation of Outstanding Psi Builds

« on: April 30, 2020, 04:38:37 pm »

Thanks for the advice. I took you up on making intelligence 10 cause of all the crafting I need but I'm not sure about dumping the leftovers into CON. Psi makes you loose 25% of your health anyways and I need those points for DEX so I can unlock stuff. I also don't want to dump PER and AGI completely because it made navigating minefields a crap-shoot and made combat challenging with such a limited pool of action points.

I also want at least a little starting stealth so enemies don't see me immediately and it can be built on through cloaks.   


http://underrail.info.tm/build/?GQMGBAQEDwoARAAAAAAPSF0AAEtMACRZwofCh8KHMyU_KDYrPxQqBQpkIT0cLicW

Goals for this build:

- Ability to craft psi bands and psi tac vests that will carry you through the game (Open to divesting points to put into traps and pickpocket, don't need the best, just great)

- Be able to spot mines without tripping over them

- Make every speech check. Unlock, and hack everything

- Save psi points by using grenades

- Good stealth with a crafted cloaker.

I'm concerned about the lack of action points tho.

22

General / Re: Leveling Crafting

« on: April 30, 2020, 03:23:34 pm »

A better question might be, to what extent should you level crafting? Should you go all-out and level to the point you can make the best possible equipment or is something more middle-of-the-road acceptable?

23

General / Leveling Crafting

« on: April 30, 2020, 01:16:10 am »

When is a good time in the game to level the crafting skills, if at all? Leveling biology to 50 to make advanced health stims seem reasonable, but otherwise the investment needed in extreme.

I want to be able to craft psi bands and tac vests for my pure psi character but the point requirements just seem too intense. My current save is pretty busted I think cause I leveled it too early at the cost of other useful skills.

Is it really worth it? should I just focus on crafting either psi bands or tac vests and not both? And is there a character somewhere who can craft for you?

24

Builds / Re: Pure Psi, Pure Noob

« on: April 29, 2020, 05:05:21 pm »

1. I want to be able to pass every speech check, open every door, and pick every pocket.

This means you're going to need WIL and DEX. However, since PSI skills AND Persuasion/Intimidation are strictly WIL-based, you're going to want to put all the bonus stat points you gain every 4 levels into WIL, which means not only the psi skills are greatly boosted by synergy with WIL, but also the social skills. This means you don't really need to put as much skillpoints into the skills as you would normally have, though I'd still recommend maxing your psi skills for maximum damage output.
You see the numbers in the bracket right next to the amount of skillpoints you allocated into the skills? That's the effective skills you have which would almost always be checked by the game, except for requirements to gain access to certain psi abilities and other stuff. Pay attention to the effective skill, and for Persuasion/Intimidation you generally want the effective number to be somewhere around 130-140, and with synergy with WIL you only really need to put half of those numbers into the actual skillpoints allocation.

But don't get too much DEX, 4 is fine for neither bonus nor malus, from what I heard putting Pickpocket into a little bit above 100 is enough to get as many pocket picked as you want, while as for Lockpicking you don't need higher than 120 or even 110 effective number thanks to certain items in the game that can help you. 

2. I have no idea what I'm doing in terms of crafting ability. I just based them off of what I was told you need to get the best psi headband and psi tactical vest.

Since INT benefit psi builds by increasing your psi regen, you generally want high INT, though 7 is suffice if you want to get some of the crafting feats. And as Gortsby said, Neurology *instead* of Meditation is an inferior choice, but having *both* would greatly benefit Tranquility-based psi characters so long as you keep your HP full. And it synergize even better when paired with stealth, where you get almost always get the alpha strike.

3. While an endgame build is nice, if you could also give me an initial level 1 build in addition to whatever you come up with that would be great as well!

This might sound harsh, but I'd recommend asking for less advice and play more for yourself. It's actually fun to put in the effort to learn and master the system by yourself, and then see if you can pull off different builds later on.

Asking too many questions might spoil your experience as you might narrow-mindedly try to attempt other's suggestions to you, when it would be generally better for you to learn and flexibly adapt as you on your own sees fit.

4. I'd like to spec into stealth, but that means diverting points to agility and making it harder to pick locks and pickpocket.

Again, you don't need to put as much point into DEX and even AGI. If you want to sneak reliably, you might want at least 7 AGI to get Interloper feat which helps increase your sneak speed while also adding a bit of Movement Points while in stealth to help during combat. And you generally don't need to allocate many points into stealth because gears can help you there. And even then, sneaking also largely depends on your ability to point-n-click, and if you know how it works you can also divert attentions if you're also fast enough.

I see what you're saying about not researching your character too much, but what I think is worse is hitting a wall you can't crack after 20 hours cause you built your character wrong.

Anyways. how does this look? Assuming I wear black tac vests and tabi boots will my stealth be effective?

http://underrail.info.tm/build/?GQMIBAMDDwoAAAAAAAAxSFFaAEtMAB5ZwofCh8KHMQBAKz8oFD0uKgohZgVkJzY

25

Builds / Pure Psi, Pure Noob

« on: April 29, 2020, 05:40:51 am »

I've had this damn game sitting in my library for so long, but never played it despite rave reviews since I kept getting chewed on by rats in the starting caves and quit from frustration.

Now with the expansion and Sseth's glowing review, I want to make an actual go of it.

I want to go pure Psi, and this is the build I came up with only a little more than 0 experience.

http://underrail.info.tm/build/?GQMIAwMDEAoAAAAAAAAAR1BaAFVXCShmwofCh8KHLwBAKz8oFCM9Vy4cKmcKIWYF

Some notes:

1. I want to be able to pass every speech check, open every door, and pick every pocket.

2. I have no idea what I'm doing in terms of crafting ability. I just based them off of what I was told you need to get the best psi headband and psi tactical vest.

3. While an endgame build is nice, if you could also give me an initial level 1 build in addition to whatever you come up with that would be great as well!

4. I'd like to spec into stealth, but that means diverting points to agility and making it harder to pick locks and pickpocket.