Small fixes for the expansion

[nodule]

I'm finishing up my my first play through (what a game!), and had a few thoughts on minor things that could improve the experience, perhaps even for the expansion (though I know it is already in alpha testing).

• Some of the best parts of stealth are trying to get a lockpick/hacking attempt finished right under someone's nose.  In fact,  you can do almost everything stealthed: looting, transitioning zones, interacting with objects, entering ducts.  But interacting with computer consoles and going in elevators always brings you out of stealth, giving you no chance to complete certain objectives stealthily.  It would be nice if this were an option, even if it came with a penalty (like people investigating an empty elevator).  There are a new other oddities here, like I can craft a weapon and remain stealthed, but not repair a weapon (but I can charge an item).  I can take drugs, but not use a bandage.

• New players have quite an uphill battle to learn the systems enough to build a decent character.  Fixing this is pretty tough, but I wonder if starting all attributes at 3 instead of 5 (and increasing the points to spend correspondingly) would help new players think in "underrail".  In most RPGs, the systems are designed so that it's a good idea to leave most attributes at the "neutral" level and boost a few, but underrail requires a different approach.  (I think providing a few suggested characters would be an improvement too, but that's beyond a small fix.)

• The crafting system is pretty daunting for new players.  One way to simplify it would be to remove some or all of the components that are required, common, but have no functional effect on the recipe: leather soles, knife/sledge handles, bolt trigger, googles frame.  They add nothing to the recipes but provide annoyance if you don't have one on hand.  At least, vendors should stock them 100% of the time so you don't have to wait 90 minutes or travel across the map to get one.

• Silenced weapons are super fun, but the damage penalty is pretty severe considering they are only compatible with 5mm barrels and exclude the use of muzzle brakes.  Despite regularly upgrading my silenced SMG with high quality frames, I only found it viable here and there (but it was great fun when it worked.)

• "Recharge item" and "start combat" really shouldn't have the same sound effect.  The number of times I thought "shit, someone spotted me"

[Duskmare]

Can't add much here. I agree with most of what's been said.

Coming out of stealth for things like interacting with computers and applying bandages could do with being removed.
I had no idea you could carry stuff in the crafting slots. That's a nice trick. Guess I know how to carry all those metal plates now then, haha.

Personally I think it was the skill point limit that caused the min-maxing, rather than the major stats being restricted. I know for sure that I spread my points too thin in my first ever playthrough and at one point I realised that there was just no point having put 50 odd points into various skills because I wouldn't be able to develop them along with the skills I really wanted. From what I've seen, people use the major stats to boost the effective value of their skills so that they can use less points to better effect, or to make a lot of points worth double. I'm hoping there will be enough of a point increase with the expansion that the new skills can be added to old builds, rather than having to make a new build from scratch to remove points from other areas to prop up the new skills.

I agree that a huge feat list can be a bit daunting. It was the same in Fallout 3/NV as they had a very similar system. My best suggestion to fix that would be to categorise the skills under headings like "combat", "stealth", "crafting", "psi", etc.
There are some skills that would fit into multiple categories so it should be more like a search function where "ambush", for example, would come up under both combat and stealth.

Would definitely like to see alternative frames and soles, etc. Like, mounting lenses in a gas mask frame would give you both goggles and mask. To be honest, the crafting costs are all quite low. I was able to add crafting into my high powered psi build just by putting a few extra points into int instead of will and then by putting in the exact numbers needed to reach the highest skill requirements for items. So adding some hybrid items like psi goggles or night vision gas masks would be reasonable if the skill requirement was basically the two separate requirements added together. That way you could almost have a pure crafting character with godlike gear to carry them through, haha.

Not tried silencers myself but I can imagine how painful that damage reduction would be on an smg shooting 5mm already. Pretty much any armour would block that entirely. I played with a tactical vest pretty much my whole last game and didn't have to worry about enemies with guns, other than sniper rifles, energy weapons and maybe the occasional very high damage rifle. Whenever I saw an enemy with a pistol or smg I could basically just ignore them and take care of the higher threat enemies first.

Yeah, the sounds for recharge and combat are different but very similar. I think the recharge one is higher pitch and they have slightly different melodies.