KickStarter Encased - isometric post-apocalyptic RPG under the dome

[Sykar]

I changed my build to a sort of "Not so evil Dr. Doom" type with "Penitent" trait. I want a power armor wearing psionic who is a freaking genius. Got 10 in the perception, brains, psyche and fortune attributes but dumped strength, influence, deftness and guts to 1,1,1 and 2. Now before you complain about AP, bear in mind that AP is equally dependant on defntness and fortune so my AP is still pretty decent. Low HP and increased crit damage taken will be taken care of by my power armor. Piloting even gives a +2 Psyche in servo armor though needs the elusive "As a Bag of Hammers" trait/perk/ability.
Alternatively could have gone with "Dark Lord" trait which I might try with a Silver Wing variant.
I gotta try out a max skill point build and "Nerd" perk gives the most amount of skill points as does "Observant" in the long run. I could have gone for "Deft Hands" which would have been another 30 but eh, did not want to give up fortune and its immense crit chance.
I wish I could take Prodigy but the malus is multiplicative, NOT additive, otherwise it might be more bearable with high learnability but like that? No way, the price is too steep, I guess you could get some extra saved AP per turn but something that specfic and sacrifing dozens of hit points and skill points for that? Pff fat chance.

It seems like you are not starting with all possible crafting recipes at the start, just basic ones you can learn from a terminal in the Concorde station during the prologue.

Small starter tips: Get a shovel if you have high perception, there is something to be dig up right in Concorde Station. If you have low muscle try to trade for a worker belt and a backpack. Easier as silver wing employee since they start with more money. Also dont mindlessly loot. A lot of containers especially trash bins really are just trash bins an have just trash or even dirt in them. Waste of carrying capacity to lump empy bottles and dirt around. Maybe there is a Molotov cocktail recipe but I did not see one at the start.

 

[Acrux]

WTF IS A BAG OF HAMMERS

I checked every perk, trait and ability. It must be something you gain during the playthrough, similar to story perks in Fallout 1 and 2.

It's the trait used by the game to mark you as a dum-dum. I think there's a tooltip about it.

 

[Sykar]

Also nice by default it is turned off what unavailable lines entail unlike some other games where you get to know what you will say if you had that skill/ability/perk/faction. Even better would have been no line at all but it is at least a decent compromise.

 

[Lyre Mors]

The C12-Nashville Facility has turned out to be a lot more in depth of a "dungeon" than I thought it would be. Game keeps on pleasantly surprising me repeatedly every hour I play. Also thought the ServoShell powerarmor stuff you have access to for a period of time was going to be stupid and shallow. Was wrong again! Makes for some nice and interesting variety in exploration and combat versatility, without making you an overpowered hulking mass of death. Starting to really like this game, guys.

 

[Sykar]

Yeah you only get a taste of a servo shell but only for a brief time at the start. It also limits your exploration options while wearing it.

 

[Lyre Mors]

Sykar, do you no how to swap out or add more skill slots to your particular weapon quickbar? Like the psi-glove, for instance. I definitely have more than three psi-abilities unlocked, but can only use the initial three, and can't swap them out or add more in the locked quickslots in the bottom left of the screen.

 

[Sykar]

You have 4 abilities per threshhold but you need a different PSI glove for each row of abilities, the psi gloves work like weapons so at most you can use to schools of PSI at once though you can swap them during combat not sure what the AP cost of that was though. You can change abilities by roght clicking on the hotkey slot and assign or reassign whatever you want there.
You can get additional PSI gloves right off the bat from the guy who introduces you to PSI in the prologue, there are two small icons on all portraits, the upper one is "barter" the other "bribe" which I have not used as of yet. Bartering with the PSI instructor can give you access to another PSI glove though they are relatively costly if you are not a Silver Wing employee.

 

[Lyre Mors]

You have 4 abilities per threshhold but you need a different PSI glove for each row of abilities.

Yep, this was the issue. Literally just found a new psi-glove and can access those other skills now. Kind of fucking cool, honestly.

 

[Sykar]

This system is universal by the way except maybe Hand-to-Hand. Go to othe weapon categories and you see that all those weapon abilities in each row belong to one weapon group which are tied to specific weapon types, most of which are available at the start though again most cost quite a bit so you have to weigh what you think you need more, another weapon type or for example more carrying capacity. It will be difficult to get everything.

 

[Sykar]

Wow just noticed that the "Nerd!" perk gives 45 points in Tech and Science now instead of just 30 each. Amazing this makes it far superior to Observant where you would need to wait until level 32 for it to finally get even with "Nerd!". Excellent if you want both fields to go high. If you dont want either or just one Observant is still better though in the long run.
Also I like the new description of "Nerd!".

You have 4 abilities per threshhold but you need a different PSI glove for each row of abilities.

Yep, this was the issue. Literally just found a new psi-glove and can access those other skills now. Kind of fucking cool, honestly.

You have more than hotbar by the way. There are the little up and down arrows left to the first ability of the right bottom side, most if not all characters should start with the scanning ability in the first slot there. You can cycle between 4 hotbars there by clicking on the little arrows. Sorry for forgetting to tell you right away since you asked earlier.

Oh and guys if you think about using passives from abilities which give you extra skill points to weapon skills, those extra skill points do NOT count for threshhold abilities. If you gained "Self Hypnosis" from the T2 list of Influence and those 10 extra points into Psionics would improve Psionics to 60 you would not get the second tier of PSI abilities, only hard set points count.

 

[Lyre Mors]

I love how if you eat too much food in a row, you end up with flatulence for an extended period of time, which gives you -2 Charisma and -2 Deftness. There seems to be a ton of cool attention to detail that actually effects the gameplay in this. Also ALMOST had my second death. There is still some decent challenge to be had here, at least 5 hours in. Also, the end of C12-Nashville Facility was very cool.

 

[Sykar]

Stealth seems to work a little like Underrail. When I was just sneaking around the Roadside Picnic basment wich has the anomaly tree I definetely saw the "Disfigured Body" filling up a sort of an awareness meter. Furthermore handling boxes worsened the timer according to the descirption. Even better stealth has a nice unique animation now.

I will definetely make a stealth/assassin type later on.

 

[udm]

I love how if you eat too much food in a row, you end up with flatulence for an extended period of time, which gives you -2 Charisma and -2 Deftness.

Having had a bowl of salmon belly and baked beans for dinner last night (for real), I can fully relate.

 

[Sykar]

Nice, when changing maps inside a zone at least you are not leaving stealth. Stealth is definetely like Underrail which is a plus, you see an eye symbol over the heads of your enemies while in stealth which starts whitish/beige and turns red, slower or faster depending on your effective stealth skill.

 

[Fenix]

turned out, Encased is barely infected with it

Whaaaaaaaaat? I'll buy it then.

 

[Iluvcheezcake]

WTF IS A BAG OF HAMMERS

I checked every perk, trait and ability. It must be something you gain during the playthrough, similar to story perks in Fallout 1 and 2.

It's the trait used by the game to mark you as a dum-dum. I think there's a tooltip about it.

Hm, you sure?

 

[Sykar]

WTF IS A BAG OF HAMMERS

I checked every perk, trait and ability. It must be something you gain during the playthrough, similar to story perks in Fallout 1 and 2.

It's the trait used by the game to mark you as a dum-dum. I think there's a tooltip about it.

Hm, you sure?

Well you could make a character with brains 1 or 2 just to check it out.

 

[Lyre Mors]

There's definitely times in early quests where you're going to run into overpowered enemies you just shouldn't be taking on right then...but probably will try anyway. Risk is big, rewards are big if you manage to take these suckers down. Don't know if I'd recommend it - it's usually better to go find some stronger equipment/level-up - but it's great and fun that you can at least attempt it with some possibility of making it happen.

Really good game so far at 6 hours. I have some negatives, but I'm just too happy to share them right now. I'll try to do a longer post with my thoughts more ordered once I get at least a good 20 hours in. But man, this might be feeling like my GOTY.

 

[Sykar]

turned out, Encased is barely infected with it

Whaaaaaaaaat? I'll buy it then.

I went into the Nasville Complex in the prologue. A very minor spoiler since this just adds a little atmosphere but

Spoiler

you find a porn mag and the descriptions of the content are very explicit including a gangbang scene

Another example

Spoiler

when you arrive in the closed of complex of Nashville you can encounter a news terminal. The bulletin messages of the woman responsible for the news get increasingly disturbing for each passing day including in a later posted message that is about stuff that is INSIDE her vagina, or rather what she thinks is in there and begs for help to get it out. Creepy as fuck. It gives you a little taste of how the people over the course of a week roughly got increasingly mad/insane.

The game is not gentle when it comes to the depiction or description of the more gruesome "realities" of the Dome.

 

[Lyre Mors]

Gotta say, I was wrong to doubt the devs as much as I did. The difficulty has been just about perfect for me. I guess I was just surprised the first couple hours weren't a little bit more of a challenge, but once you hit C12-Nashville and beyond, it feels like a proper challenging CRPG. It might also be because I intentionally gimped my character pretty hard, but we'll see. That's not to say I wouldn't like a higher difficulty available, but I've been pleasantly satisfied with the difficulty as is. Biggest gripe I would have right now is some HP bloat, but that is easily mitigated once you upgrade your equipment and abilities - then the HPs start falling at a reasonable pace again. Besides that, enemies have some tricks up their sleeves and it is certainly not just "buff with meds, shoot, kite, win" like that one Russian reviewer said.

Again, this could all change, but as of now I'm happy enough with the difficulty.

 

[Fenix]

let alone firing that person this close to full release

This one looks for me like try to not pay for work maybe?

What is so bad about it?

Check Floss. lmao. they are biomass.

The highest difficulty, "Tactical" doesn't have any bonuses. It's basically the normal mode.

I request Ultra-Tactician then. Or Arch-Tactician.

 

[Lyre Mors]

This one looks for me like try to not pay for work maybe?

Nah, you probably missed the developer's post about it, but Pope quit. Just sounds like he got angry and severed ties because of a chatroom disagreement.

 

[ItsChon]

Downloading the game now, excited to try it. Can anyone elaborate on the writing/world building of the game so far? How is it? Any comparisons that can be made?

 

[jackofshadows]

turned out, Encased is barely infected with it

Whaaaaaaaaat? I'll buy it then.

I get the feeling that the game is written by libs. But it's absolutely not the same as game being pozzed. And you could buy it, sure - I mean it's so cheap but don't expect much, man.

it feels like a proper challenging CRPG.

Top kek.

 

[AdolfSatan]

I've played up to the point of finishing Nashville, what you may call the first dungeon.
Impressions so far:

+ Exploration and setting are very fun, they nailed the awesome feeling from exploring vaults in FO1.
+ There seems to be a good amount of reactivity/c&c.

/ I'm indifferent towards the voice acting. If one could remove the narrator and keep the characters it'd be pretty alright.
/ Loot containers rivaling Expedition Vikings in quantity. But you can just skip them, so I suppose it's ok.

– Lots of bad UI/UX decisions. Hire a proper designer, for fuck's sake.
– Combat is flat and boring. Better than FO admittedly, but not by much. Currently playing at the highest setting with a non-combat character, and I'm still beating every encounter without much thought. I doubt adding another difficulty tier will change anything because the base system is too simple to allow for proper tactics.
+ The silver lining is that, at least so far, I haven't seen any trash-mob encounters.

Despite the flaws, it's a very enjoyable game so far, and I could hardly put it down. Thumbs up.