Hi, just finished the junkyard and I'm loving your game. Feedback so far.
Before you read my main rant. This statement is probably the most important contribution I'll ever make.
You need a sense of purpose and a sense of belonging.
I spawn. I go do missions. I kill things. I get loot and buy better things to kill people with.
I really don't care about GSC, It's a place to get free heals and free gear when I can finally pick all the locks.
RECOMMENDATION: You should replace the skills persuasion, and intimidate with the feats Persuasive and Intimidating. This allows the player to participate alot more in dialogue.
Social rewards should be much more prevalent but don't have to be monetary. People should want to root you on, give you better, more detailed advice, unlock unique dialogue options with other NPCs.
Rewards for social skills non-existant. For example.
-Instead of killing the crazy rat-dog hermit or convincing him to leave pass a check to make him a permanent merchant.
-Convince NPCs you need supplies when they try to send you off on missions.
-Convince NPCs you earned a bigger reward my embellishing your accomplishments.
-Make Ezra feel bad for being an asshole.
-When stuff goes missing on base pass a check to convince people you weren't there and you totally found this stuff out on your mission.
MECHANICs AND GAMEPLAY SUGGESTIONS:
1.) Focus is way too important a factor. Sniping it would make the difference between a 35% and a 85% shot. Focus should be a benefit, not a crutch and certainly not out-perform your innate gun skill.
2.) 0 Weapon skill may be too forgiving. I ran around with a scoped crossbow with 0 skill for the entire game, 80%+ for most shots.
3.) Scopes should lose their bonus after a minimum range. Red dot sights could be introduced to give a close range bonus.
4.) Equipment penalties seem minimal/non-existent: being able to burst fire rifles and swing sledgehammers that are 3 above my str score seem to have no penalty.
5.) Enemies need to follow you.
6.) Re spawns should be randomized. Also not humanoids with the same equipment as before.
7.) Swapping some types of weapons should probably require AP. Drawing a Sniper rifle or sledgehammer for example. However if pistols/SMGs didn't have this penalty they would probably have more of a niche use.
8.) I should not get a focus benefit while sprinting. I am 'focused' on running.
9.) I should be able to remove caltrops.
10.) I should be able to keep disarmed mines as salvage components.
11.) enemies blown up should probably have damaged gear.
12.) 'destroyed' gear could possibly be reduced into salvage components?
13.) Scrapyard Needs more assholes. Also needs more backstabbers. Also needs to let you take your shot at being a backstabbing asshole. Also consequences. I killed grover and treasa and apparently no one missed them.
ARMOR:
Metal Armor: Encumbrance and heavy armor needs some feat loving. You cannot use skills in heavy armor and there is no way to fix this. As a 0% encumbrance sniper I just sprinted around in fortified rathound/mutant dog leather and avoided hits altogether. Heavy armor should penalize move speed and stealth, not action points. This makes a STR character not only inferior by comparison but ruins any hope of diverse game play since you can only make 1 normal attack per turn. Unless you do dagger+blade armor, which is just broken. I didn't realize tungsten was STR 9 instead of STR 8, action points working as intended.
Bladed armor is cool, but should not stack with melee weapons. My world ending electric sledgehammer doesn't need an additional +30 mechanical damage.
Ballistic vests: Need to be ~30% encumberance max for bulletproof variant. No reason to ever use them when metal armor gives me better protection at the same encumbrance level. Non-ballistic modified vests are inferior to quality leather armor. If vests offered components that gave elemental resists that would be nice.
Leather: Stealth bonuses are too high; allows for damage stacking with the ambush feat. On the other hand, stealth penalties for heat resists feels a bit harsh.
WEAPONS:
Crossbows:
This games crossbow damage mechanics are weird.
Crossbows actually do a better job than bullets against soft body armor such as Kevlar. Soft body armors spread the force from the bullet as the bullet deforms. A crossbow bolt is not a soft piece of deforming metal; its a giant slug that doesn't allow its energy to be dispersed and tears through the bulletproof material.
Stun on the electric bolt seems a bit excessive when combined with execute.
Pistols:
Damage and AP use seem to go a bit bonkers after awhile. Example: my .44 hammerer uses 32 action points. An assault rifle becomes more ergonomic than a pistol. Heavier rounds penalize STR users. Instead of using AP as a balancing faster, STR requirements would work better. This would balance STR based characters and DEX/AGI ninjas. Currently as an Agility character I just save the pistol until my aimed shot is up.
Assault Rifles: Burst fire should probably not critically hit or if they do crit, only do +50% damage since your spraying instead of aiming. Other than the occasional crit spam they seem balanced.
SMGs: Same as above but inferior to ARs.
Sniper Rifles: could only use 1 shot per turn. Biggest issue was the imbalance between focus, aimed shot, and move speed. Sprinting and shooting with a sniper rifle felt a-bit imbalanced, albeit fun.
ECONOMY:
Biggest issue I see is vendors actually think your junk is worth buying. Why would a food vendor spend his life savings on your 20,000 dollar crossbow of doom? No cash no service. If you had "exchange" vendors like colton who took your loot/junk and converted it into coins which you then used on other vendors it would assist in balancing the economy.
Mods shouldn't affect player selling price exorbitantly: If I have a $3000 pistol frame + $2000 extended mags +$2000 laser sight, i get a pistol worth 8000$ Mods should add about 10% of their value when selling instead of 100%
That's it for now. Sorry for all the text and I hope I contributed something useful.
