Messages

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Suggestions / Re: Classify Throwing Knives as "Light Weapons" for Dexterity Purposes

« on: May 16, 2015, 11:30:13 pm »

DEX reduces AP cost for throwing knives. See it's in game description.

Huh, really? No idea how I missed that. I don't remember seeing it in any of the descriptions, but I'll admit I was mostly reliant on the Wiki for some of the information (which must not be up-to-date on that subject). I only ran my most recent "stabby-throw" character up to Level 2 or 3 before switching off to a different concept. Now I feel kind of silly.

Though, regardless, the throwing knife mechanics could probably still benefit from some smoothing out. As a few others have stated, their use as a tactical slot item instead of a hand-slot item leads to some odd and counter-intuitive behavior. As epili stated, there's a lot of information about throwing knives that gets hidden from the character, due to the way tactical slot items are displayed.

EDIT - I just did some brief testing with a high Dex and low Dex character, and it does appear that throwing knives are indeed counted as light weapons. The reason I didn't notice it before is because I was operating under the assumption that they cost 15AP to throw by default. Apparently this is not the case (it's 18AP). At Dex 10, it still costs a fairly hefty 14AP to throw one. Not terrible, but not really great either.

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Suggestions / Re: Skills for slow'n Heavy

« on: May 13, 2015, 06:36:11 pm »

Pry Open (Someone please find a better name)

Maybe "Smash and Grab"? Or maybe something more basic, like "Brute Force" or "Breaking and Entering". Might be a good feat to synergize with the crowbar tool that already exists in-game.

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General / Re: Playing an assault rifle combatant

« on: May 13, 2015, 05:02:38 pm »

Well, the Gun skill also adds a small but steady increase to your gun damage as your skill increases, doesn't it? So there wouldn't really be a "max" where it stops being useful, and it would be one of the few skills that's worth perpetually keeping as high as possible. Or am I incorrect in this assumption?

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General / Re: Lockpicking and Hacking, How High is High Enough?

« on: May 13, 2015, 04:59:25 pm »

Yeah, I'm trying to plan long-term with synergy in mind (though thus far I've only run a character as high as Level 8 for testing purposes).

Between advanced lockpicks (+15), the Jackknife (+7), and dex/mechanics synergy I figure I can safely stop boosting Lockpicking once I get to about 65-70 on most of my builds. Maybe a bit lower, depending on how heavily I'm boosting Dex. Hacking takes a bit more investment, since I rarely have higher than 7 INT and there's no Jackknife equivalent for it - so that might have to go as high as 80 or so.

Regardless, it's good to have those rough numbers, so I get a general idea of when I'll be able to free up that extra ten Skill Points per level.

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General / Lockpicking and Hacking, How High is High Enough?

« on: May 13, 2015, 02:44:15 am »

I've recently gotten back into Underrail, since we're drawing close to the final release date, and I've been trying out all sorts of different character builds. Since I tend to map out my builds well in advance, I'm curious about the upper threshold of usefulness for certain skills - chief among them, Hacking and Lockpicking.

There's no denying that both Hacking and Lockpicking are useful skills, but there has to be a point where you've reached the maximum useful skill value. I've only actually played up to a bit past Junkyard, but the highest difficulty I think I've seen for any locks is 90. Are there locks that are 100 difficulty? 150? 200? At what point have you invested enough points into those skills, sufficient to get you past the most difficult locks in the (current) game? This is, of course, keeping in mind that you can theoretically boost your Hacking and Lockpicking up to +22 with other in-game items (Jackknife, Haxxors, Lockpicks).

EDIT - A quick glance at the wiki states that 100 is enough for most locks, both electronic and mechanical, but that 'most' part makes me even more curious. It does seem to imply that there are a few other locks out there that have even higher requirements.

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Suggestions / Re: Some fresh ideas

« on: May 13, 2015, 02:28:50 am »

I'd agree on the hints. If there's one thing that Underrail really suffers from, I think it's a general lack of documentation on a lot of the small but important game mechanics. Tossing hints at the player during loading screens would certainly help to mitigate that a bit.

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Suggestions / Re: Eviscerate and Pummel

« on: May 13, 2015, 02:27:16 am »

I'd definitely agree that Pummel needs some kind of buff. It's currently relatively useless since, as you stated, the whole point of the skill is for enemies with high Dodge - but then when you try to Pummel them, they just dodge it! An accuracy buff definitely seems like the way to go for it. Heck, I wouldn't even mind having the move do no damage, if it hit automatically! You're using the move for the utility of the debuff anyway, not the damage.

I'm not so sure about Eviscerate, though. Prior to the nerfing, Eviscerate had absolutely insane damage potential against organic targets (especially if you "stacked" your bleeding procs with bladed armor and/or boots and a serrated knife or bladed combat gloves), and it's still pretty wicked. With my recent high-dex fist weapons build, I had up to  eighteen bleeding procs per turn (for an average of six or seven bleeding wounds per turn). That meant I could end most turns with an Eviscerate "nuke" that would do 400-450% damage (100% base weapon damage + 50% per bleeding wound) if I needed to finish off my enemy before ending my turn. Since the enemy would generally be dead after that attack anyway, it didn't matter if they were still bleeding or not afterwards.

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Suggestions / Groin Guard and Dirty Kick

« on: May 13, 2015, 02:11:59 am »

I know the Groin Guard is just kind of a "silly" belt-slot item, but it seems a bit odd that it doesn't provide immunity to the Dirty Kick maneuver. I'm pretty sure I've seen some enemies use the Dirty Kick move in the past, though I could be mistaken on that.

Just a thought.

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Suggestions / Classify Throwing Knives as "Light Weapons" for Dexterity Purposes

« on: May 13, 2015, 01:57:40 am »

Pretty much what the subject says. I recently started putzing around with a high-stealth knife build, and there's some natural synergy between using both thrown and hand-held knives. The issue is that Throwing Knives are considered grenade-like weapons, and as such they appear to have a fixed AP cost (15). The main appeal of knives is that they're fast weapons, especially when you're stacking Dexterity - but even at default values, the slowest knife (12 AP) costs less Action Points than it takes to throw a single throwing knife.

This isn't really game-breaking, of course, but it's something that really jumped out at me during my current test-run. Throwing knives certainly benefit from the scaling damage that increases with your Throwing skill, but their slow speed and limited utility makes them a bit sub-par as even secondary weapons. Ripper + Fatal Throw can certainly be a fun feat combo when it comes to finishing off badly wounded foes, but that soaks up two feat slots AND can't be acquired until Level 10. Pinning is certainly interesting, but is far from reliable (35% proc) and has a very short duration (1 turn). Split Spare is probably the best of the throwing feats, but it's also somewhat unpredictable (since it randomly selects your "secondary target"). Having all four feats can, of course, make throwing knives much more appealing - but again, that requires using up four of your precious feat slots, all to buff up a sub-par base weapon.

I think the ideal "fix" might be to simply have Throwing Knives follow the current Dex-based AP reduction scheme. Unless my math is off, that means that by Dex 10, it would cost about 11AP to throw a knife. Not a huge difference, but a notable one that makes sense from an in-game logic standpoint. It might also be ideal to have Tabi Boots reduce the AP cost for using throwing knives by 1AP (the same way it currently reduces the AP cost for melee attacks), since the link between ninjas and throwing knives is fairly obvious.

An alternate solution might be to introduce a feat that reduces the cost for using Throwing knives, though by itself it might not make for a very appealing feat (some secondary effect might be required to make it more appealing). It would also add to the already hefty investment required to currently make throwing knives more "usable", since it would be a fifth feat stacked atop the other four. A feat that reduces the AP cost to use all throwing utility items might be ideal, though, since then it would be appealing to all throwers (Nets, Grenades, Caltrops, Knives) rather than just knife throwers.

EDIT - An different "simpler" alternative might be to introduce a new "Knife Strap Belt", akin to the Bullet Strap Belt that already exists in-game. It could even have near-identical effects - one extra utility slot, +5 to Intimidation, and then an AP discount for using throwing knives (and their poisoned counterparts) in place of the reloading bonus.

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Suggestions / Blades and Spike Mods for Other Armors

« on: May 13, 2015, 01:34:46 am »

I know we're pretty late in development now, but I was wondering why Spikes and Blades aren't available as armor mods for other types of armor. I can understand not having it for something like the Tactical Vest, given the lack of surface space to cover with pointy bits, but sticking spikes or blades on leather armor or riot armor wouldn't be too far-fetched - heck, at least a few of the stock character portraits show folks wearing leather jackets with spikes on them.

From a balance standpoint, it's easy enough to just toss in a slightly higher armor penalty when attaching those mods (I think +3% is the standard penalty for sticking them on boots and metal armor). About the only minor balance concern I can think of is that it might give one more source of bleeding wounds to a moderately armored Bleeder-build (Evisceration, Taste for Blood, Vile Weapons), but since the associated Feats were all toned down over the past few patches I'm not sure if that's something to worry about too much.

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Suggestions / Re: GMS Station Vault

« on: October 16, 2013, 01:39:18 am »

Given that it's an area that will only ever be seen by players who have invested in the Persuasion skill

Wrong... after Gorky brushes you off and denies you the keycard, you can talk to Quinton, who will chew out Gorky, who will then grudgingly give you the keycard.

Really? I never tried that.

Well then, I wouldn't mind seeing that optional area get some expanded content. I stand by my original suggestion, though, which is to re-evaluate the risk:reward ratio. If there's going to be more content added to the GMS Vault, then part of that added content should be some loot that's actually worth fighting your way through a horde of Burrowers for.

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Suggestions / Re: GMS Station Vault

« on: October 15, 2013, 11:56:21 pm »

I don't know if making that area more expansive is really the right answer. Given that it's an area that will only ever be seen by players who have invested in the Persuasion skill, it seems a little silly to focus more attention on making it a more interesting or extensive area. It's probably safe to say that only one out of every five or so players will ever even see the inside of the Burrower-infested vault.

Then again, if there were more ways to access the vault, then I wouldn't mind seeing the area within being expanded. Perhaps the player could barter for access to the vault, or use pickpocket to steal the key away from the guard carrying it.

But the simplest solution, in my eyes, would just be to bump the 'reward' side of the Risk:Reward formula up a bit.

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Suggestions / Re: Dense Blocks of HP

« on: October 15, 2013, 11:49:24 pm »

[Comment Redacted]

EDIT - I've given my personal opinion on the matter of HP Creep and the basic assumption that all players HAVE to use Mk5 grenades. If other people disagree with that assessment, then that's fine. Moving on now.

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Suggestions / GMS Station Vault

« on: October 15, 2013, 07:23:30 pm »

Minor Spoilers ahead. Proceed at your own risk.

This popped up in a separate thread, but I figured it was worth getting it's own topic. A minor point of criticism, but the risk/reward ratio in the optional Burrower Caverns is way off. The foes there are quite possibly the deadliest in the game, next to the Mutants in Junkyard, and the rewards offered are very minimal.

After fighting their way through wave after wave of Burrowers, the player is rewarded with a single lootable corpse (for me, it had mediocre equipment) and a few Burrower parts (looks like a 15-20% drop rate on those?). Definitely not worth the ammunition, explosives, health hypos, and psi-boosters that I had to burn through to clear the place out.

If the intent is to teach the player that its not worth exploring every area, then its working as intended. Otherwise, there should probably be a bit more loot hidden in there somewhere.

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Suggestions / Re: suggestion re: 50 point skill hump

« on: October 15, 2013, 07:15:57 pm »

Aah, that makes sense. Understood.