Author Topic: List of improvements I'd like to see.  (Read 1642 times)

MaZe

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List of improvements I'd like to see.
« on: September 03, 2017, 05:59:52 pm »
Here is a list of things that should, ideally, be changed/improved.
Bare in mind all of this is taking hard mode into consideration since that's the only mode I've bothered to play on.

1. Enemies need to be changed to be actually threatening and more enemies need to be added.
What do I mean by this? Well let's see.
Crawlers for instance. First time I met them on my sledgehammer build, on hard mode, I was wiping the floor with groups of them and they couldn't even pierce my armor.
I ran into them again with a different low armor build with low perception and they were a pain in the ass. Constantly breaking through my armor and constantly paralyzing me.
This is good. I like enemies like this. Enemies that are countered by certain builds but give other builds a hard time are the pinnacle of good design.
Sadly, these are few and far between in Underrail. I can't think of a single other type of enemy like this.
Speaking of which, there is a distinct lack of enemies. We need more non human enemies. Lots more, I'm thinking at bare minimum 3 more, all of which designed to do their job similar to the Crawler.
My sledgehammer guy felt overpowered as fuck, so something that bypasses heavy armor would be ideal.
This game has a lacking enemy roster unfortunately. A little too heavy on the humanoid enemies as well. I'd like to see more creature enemies added that provide unique challenges for certain builds ideally.

2. Blatantly overpowered shit like Energy Shields / Psi focused builds need to be toned down.
This shit is game breakingly overpowered. Once I got my first energy shield I can't remember the last time I felt that I was even remotely in danger.
Psi has a few small issues early on but quickly spirals out of control once you've got some key psi abilities and levels behind you. Some anti-psi enemies could help with this. One would think Crawlers would solve this since Psi builds tend to have low armor and low Perception but I never really found that to be the case for some reason. Maybe because Crawlers are 'usually' alone other than a few areas were they're grouped.

3. Unique gear needs a boost. Even at low levels, crafting reigns supreme and gives far too many benefits and renders unique gear obsolete. Every Sledgehammer I find is worse than a simple electric one I can craft. Every unique rifle I find is worse than one I can craft. This sort of thing takes away the magic of finding a unique piece of equipment when you get them and realize that the thing you crafted with very little effort is leagues ahead of it.
Crafting gives a plethora of benefits as it is. You can freely make and endless supply of of custom made armor/weapons ideal for certain situations. There's no reason for them pieces of gear to also be tenfold more useful than any of the unique gear. Having no crafting means you're also at the mercy of stores and what not.

4. Worthless skills need to be given a meaningful purpose.
Skills like the social ones and pickpocketing feel like filler to pad out the skill list. The benefits they provide are insignificant and with your already limited amount of skill points you can distribute I can't ever think of a reason for picking them.

5. Mid-late game needs to be more difficult
Once you get a few levels under your belt and your build starts to take off, all semblance of difficulty seems to just vanish. This could be attributed to the limited enemy roster or just enemies not being scaled well enough, but either way it becomes dull and unexciting when there's no challenge. It's a shame to say this but I can't think of many stand-out locations later on in the game other than the obvious one which is Deep Caverns. Like it or not, but the most memorable areas are usually either heavy in atmosphere or difficult. It's why whenever you hear new players talk about the game they always bring up Depot A. It's the first hurdle you come across but sadly there's nothing else like that until the extreme end game comes along. More areas with some difficulty spikes would be a very welcome edition.

destroyor

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Re: List of improvements I'd like to see.
« Reply #1 on: September 03, 2017, 08:38:59 pm »
1. Psi enemies are suppose to be anti-heavy armor but because you usually kill them before they could do anything it give the illusion of no anti-heavy armor enemies. I think it would be far more effective and challenging to have new optional (keyword: optional) areas with special enemies setup, ex: huge groups of crawlers, PSI enemies protected by special barrier so no alpha strike (sort of like the rathound fight in Ratking's maze) and/or better AI for them.

2. Again I think instead of nerfing more EMP and hardier psi enemies would be the way to go. You can even have plot triggered EMP field taking out the player's shield. The key is to allow psi enemies surviving long enough to do damage.

3. Agree 100%. Right now uniques are more useful as a tool (huxkey, jackknife, boxing gloves, etc) than a weapon. The only exception right now is powerfist which is superior to any metal glove you can craft.

4. Agree w/ social skills but disagree w/ pickpocketing. You will never run out of med and ammo if you have an effective pickpocketing of 50.

5. Easier said than done as we already have people complaining the game is too hard and/or too unfair. There's also a financial aspect - I've seen people commenting they refunded the game on steam because it's too hard/unfair. I've also seen review saying you shouldn't buy Underrail due to the "disappointing" end game.

Sanger

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Re: List of improvements I'd like to see.
« Reply #2 on: October 08, 2017, 06:54:35 pm »
The difficulty of the game can basically be determined by the build you're playing. In the early game all characters are much the same, and they can all expect more or less the same degree of difficulty. Once a build's strengths and weaknesses begin to manifest, some characters will begin to breeze through the game, whilst others will continue to struggle. Making things harder for builds that have it too easy without making them impossible for builds that already struggle isn't straightforward.

Shields apparently will be facing a rebalance soon. I'm not sure how I feel about that, as whilst I appreciate that for some builds all they really do is make fire and shock damage irrelevant and so on, for others the point at which you get a shield is the point at which you cease to be prohibitively squishy. Again, what is an overpowered thing for one character is only an equaliser for another.

Agree about uniques and social skills. I would say that all of the unarmed uniques are potentially useful, but few other uniques are. Balor's hammer, XAL-001, etc. Most unique firearms are trash.