Post your experiences with the new Dominating difficulty!

[TheAverageGortsby]

Another example are Dan and Saban during the Beast quest. Due to the insane amount of extra spawns they will run out of ammo and run into the Bladelings in melee.

If you'll make a stack of gas grenades and just cover the ground with bear traps or acid traps before you activate the doohickey, then you can lay down a horrifying miasma of death and your allies will do so much extra damage that they won't run out of ammo, even if you do very little actual killing yourself.  That fight is basically the most perfect setpiece for using gas grenades and immobility that I can imagine.

[Sykar]

This forces you into building up Chemistry to make gas grenades since to my knowledge they are not sold by anyone but yes it was pointed out to me that this is a possible tactical choice. Another one is to have a bunch of Crawler poison Caltrops at hand.
Still my main gripe here is that the AI and their equipment are just stupid and make no sense. Both Dan and Saban know about the hard shells acting as active bullet protection so why do they not have at least some armor piercing bullets and why do they have relatively few ammunition in the first place? I never come close to run out of ammo when I am fighting them so why would they?

[TheAverageGortsby]

This forces you into building up Chemistry to make gas grenades since to my knowledge they are not sold by anyone

Yeah, fair point.  They only take effective 20 Bio, 20 Chem, and 5 Mech and I always on every character have at least that much so I do assume that, and I shouldn't.  Fair point.

Bear traps and HE mines, then.  With just the Jackknife you'll get the 5 you need to place HE.  That has no skill or stat requirements, and though you'd need to lay traps all the way along the fenceline back to where Dan and Saban stand, you could probably do it.

[Sykar]

I did solve the fight the way you suggested but I needed some reloads to make sure that Saban and Dan survive which considering the length of this stupid and boring fight makes it all the more infuriating considering the very simple solution.

[harperfan7]

Bear traps and HE mines, then.  With just the Jackknife you'll get the 5 you need to place HE.  That has no skill or stat requirements, and though you'd need to lay traps all the way along the fenceline back to where Dan and Saban stand, you could probably do it.

Don't bother with mark 1 HE mines there; they aren't good enough for that encounter.  When I did it, I placed over 40 bear traps and 20 HE mines, and the mines ended up being a waste.

[Sykar]

Bear traps and HE mines, then.  With just the Jackknife you'll get the 5 you need to place HE.  That has no skill or stat requirements, and though you'd need to lay traps all the way along the fenceline back to where Dan and Saban stand, you could probably do it.

Don't bother with mark 1 HE mines there; they aren't good enough for that encounter.  When I did it, I placed over 40 bear traps and 20 HE mines, and the mines ended up being a waste.

HE mines do some damage at least because they ignore a portion of DR. Frag mines deal basically no damage at all. It is not much but considering the retarded HP bloat in this fight but everything that does even a little damage helps.

[Twiglard]

Anyone tried SMG their way through Deep Caverns? How much ammo would I need to just shoot through the tchortling areas?

My idea is to take several caliber SMGs, 30-40 frags, some napalm, and at least 3k bullets. It may not be enough.

[SubterminalOptimization]

Previously I would very patiently stealth through this section but the absurd amount of critters now makes this approach basically impossible without a lot of save scumming and luck since on top of the increased numbers Roderick has a penchant for attacking the critters on his own and him dying means automatically a reload since you cannot escape from the island without him. What is even more hilariously stupid and immersion breaking that in real time the PSI beetles tend to no use PSI at all and just rush to him in melee. It bums me that the Silent Isle is now basically a combat exclusive area.

For what it's worth, though I *sometimes* have to load once or twice (the Captain can get randomly engaged over his head, luck does somewhat factor in) it is very much possible to regularly one-shot (no save/loads) (with stealth builds) under level 10.  Do you have interloper and optionally some cheap ninjatabis with +speed or other initial stealth gear (and maybe an Agility steak)? Are you using adrenaline in the "safety" area near the crystal room transition for a quick grab?  Are you using combat-controlled stealth movement to your advantage (it freezes enemies in place if they don't see you yet)?

I have *never* used damage-dealing to complete Silent Isle on Dominating and I've completed several such runs now (and even more completing at least the Silent Isle...always go on the Azure bug side).

However, the way I approach Silent Isle (and the rest of my runs) is to semi-scientifically break down and analyze the geometry, movements, skills, and tactics needed.  I agree with you that you can't just willy-nilly stealth the island like on lower difficulties, but I feel that that is kind of the point.  Dominating *forces* you to fully optimize for what you want to do and go all-in on doing it and will still heavily punish you if you make execution mistakes.  Unless I'm misremembering, this difficulty is specifically designed for people who already know the game from start to finish. 

So it's in no way true that you *must* fight to complete Silent Isle or that you *must* have save/loading in order to use stealth there, but it definitely has potential for bad luck and very thin margins when stealthing.

[harperfan7]

HE mines do some damage at least because they ignore a portion of DR. Frag mines deal basically no damage at all. It is not much but considering the retarded HP bloat in this fight but everything that does even a little damage helps.

Yes, they do *some* damage, but you'd be better off putting a bear trap down instead of one.

[Dieusama]

Foundry Beast killed.

No trap, no gas grenades no mines => Force field + thermodynamic destabilization + cerebral overload. Worked pretty well, but it was not effective enouth to save braindead NPC IA Saban and Dan . . .

[Mindless]

Guys, I finally finished my psionic mini-guide for DOMINATING diff with some videos, so if you want, you can find it on steam guides section, with ENG/RUS version. 
P.S. Thought about posting here, but it's pretty problematic with all videous and bilingual nature of the guide.

[harperfan7]

What is the actual difference between hard and dominating now, other than dominating having higher stats?  Are the numbers and types of enemies different too? 

I'm asking because I think I want the "added" (if they actually are) enemies and types, but not their higher stats.

[TheAverageGortsby]

What is the actual difference between hard and dominating now, other than dominating having higher stats?  Are the numbers and types of enemies different too? 

Yup.  For example, on lower difficulties there are no Goliath Psi Beetles on Silent Isle; a whole lot fewer Lunatics in the Mall and Station; regular Coil Spiders instead of Greater ones in several locations.  SO aside from enemies being harder to kill, there are more of them, and sometimes a wider variety.  However, I don't think there are any Dominating-only creatures (though there are several Dominating-only NPCs, like the named Lunatics in Emporion or that extra, high-health guy east of Foundry in the gang), so you'll still see Greater Coil Spider, Goliath Psi Beetles, and Hunchback Mutants, just later in the game and in smaller numbers.

[MirddinEmris]

You also get enemies in very inconvenient places. Which is good for me, since it spiced up my dominating run, making me change my usual tactics, often on a fly.

[Sykar]

Previously I would very patiently stealth through this section but the absurd amount of critters now makes this approach basically impossible without a lot of save scumming and luck since on top of the increased numbers Roderick has a penchant for attacking the critters on his own and him dying means automatically a reload since you cannot escape from the island without him. What is even more hilariously stupid and immersion breaking that in real time the PSI beetles tend to no use PSI at all and just rush to him in melee. It bums me that the Silent Isle is now basically a combat exclusive area.

For what it's worth, though I *sometimes* have to load once or twice (the Captain can get randomly engaged over his head, luck does somewhat factor in) it is very much possible to regularly one-shot (no save/loads) (with stealth builds) under level 10.  Do you have interloper and optionally some cheap ninjatabis with +speed or other initial stealth gear (and maybe an Agility steak)? Are you using adrenaline in the "safety" area near the crystal room transition for a quick grab?  Are you using combat-controlled stealth movement to your advantage (it freezes enemies in place if they don't see you yet)?

I have *never* used damage-dealing to complete Silent Isle on Dominating and I've completed several such runs now (and even more completing at least the Silent Isle...always go on the Azure bug side).

However, the way I approach Silent Isle (and the rest of my runs) is to semi-scientifically break down and analyze the geometry, movements, skills, and tactics needed.  I agree with you that you can't just willy-nilly stealth the island like on lower difficulties, but I feel that that is kind of the point.  Dominating *forces* you to fully optimize for what you want to do and go all-in on doing it and will still heavily punish you if you make execution mistakes.  Unless I'm misremembering, this difficulty is specifically designed for people who already know the game from start to finish. 

So it's in no way true that you *must* fight to complete Silent Isle or that you *must* have save/loading in order to use stealth there, but it definitely has potential for bad luck and very thin margins when stealthing.

I always take Interloper on my stealth builds though though I do not think you can find or buy Tabis before you are done with Depot A. As to "sientifically analyze movements" there are a lot of PSI beetles near the shrooms on the left side which you need to stand in to avoid the Bilocation proc, and the right side you can barely walk without stepping on a Rathound. Maybe you are just that much better or you abuse turn based mode a lot to get through it but with sensible gameplay I do not see a reliable way to get through it on a regular basis without reloading and/or without fighting.

What is the actual difference between hard and dominating now, other than dominating having higher stats?  Are the numbers and types of enemies different too? 

I'm asking because I think I want the "added" (if they actually are) enemies and types, but not their higher stats.

In a nutshell "Autistic" as I call this difficulty is an explosion of effective HP and a significant increase of damage. Even more so than before you want to burst down enemies in 1-3 rounds because the chances of dying in prolonged combat is even higher now. It also breaks immersion and friendly NPCs have a hard time coping with the increase of enemy numbers, HP and damage.