Underrail: The Incline Awakens

[Mystary!]

Please let us open vents with crowbar with Attack (1). Having to not only switch gear, but also your toolbar, every time you run into a vent is just goddamn annoying. You can't even access the command with the Quick Invoker.

 

[Whisper]

I dowloaded a "demo" of Underrail, but now plan to buy it from Steam. Will my saves work?

 

[Whisper]

You can't. *cry*
Had a minor OCD-induced stroke when I found out part of the map was now unaccessible to me.

I cant access it later?

Also, what is in this cave? (useful items etc.)

 

[janjetina]

I haven't had time to play computer games for over a year. I just back the games I hope I'll play sometime in this decade. I tried Wasteland (was a backer) and PE (wasn't a backer), but gave up on them after a few hours, value for time was just too low. I also backed Stasis, but haven't got to playing it yet. I bought Underrail with the mindset of playing it "when I have time". Since it's Christmas, I decided to take some time off work and play Underrail. I'm hooked. I haven't had this much fun playing a computer game for a decade. I'll spend a large part of the Christmas day playing Underrail.

 

[toro]

Anyway, I've encountered a strange dillemma: I've crafted a sniper rifle which is worse than what I had (!?) and it was supposed to be better.

I found the Corsair Commando and I crafted the Rapid Corsair Commando. The thing: I cannot hit shit with the new weapon. And even when I hit the damage is lower than for simple CC.

The main difference I see is the 10% precision because with Reckless perk, RCC should have 17% critical chance. In reality I get way more criticals with the simple CC which has 13% critical chance.

Another notable difference: critical with RCC are rarely 200+ while with RC I got 300 dmg several times. This is completely wrong considering that critical bonus damage is 150% for RCC and that's the only reason why I crafted the weapon in the first place.

My current impression is that the precision handling is wrong (higher precision should not produce higher criticals) or at least the difference should not be so noticeable considering that we are talking about 10% improvement.

I'm really on the edge about this. Am I wrong or somebody else had the same issue? Or maybe my expectations are wrong?

Criticals run off your first hit so if you hit with a 38 your critical will only be the 150% boost of that so you could be just having shit luck with RNG, no bipod? In general i found that sniper rifles work best with precision boosters as you will be shooting from 20 tiles away and you kinda need it, from looking at the quality you are fairly low level so you need all the help you can get to hit as well.

You are right, precision seems to be the most important stat for sniper rifles. 10% makes a huge difference.

*CC had bipod enhancement, RCC has the Anatomically-Aware Scope.

 

[toro]

Please let us open vents with crowbar with Attack (1). Having to not only switch gear, but also your toolbar, every time you run into a vent is just goddamn annoying. You can't even access the command with the Quick Invoker.

Use Omni-tools.

 

[Alfons]

I need some help.

Spoiler

Does someone know if it's possible to fuck up Abram's quest? finished the provide the intel about the embassy one and plant the bug one a while back and the guy's gone. It's been at least 10 hours but he's not back yet.

 

[Parabalus]

I need some help.

Spoiler

Does someone know if it's possible to fuck up Abram's quest? finished the provide the intel about the embassy one and plant the bug one a while back and the guy's gone. It's been at least 10 hours but he's not back yet.

Go to the Junkyard gate, a commoner should walk up to you.

 

[Alfons]

I need some help.

Spoiler

Does someone know if it's possible to fuck up Abram's quest? finished the provide the intel about the embassy one and plant the bug one a while back and the guy's gone. It's been at least 10 hours but he's not back yet.

Go to the Junkyard gate, a commoner should walk up to you.

Thanks.
Some more unique weapons, mostly unspectacular.

 

[Shaewaroz]

Had to buy this now even though I don't have time to play it, but to me paying less than 10$ for something as awesome as Underrail is disrespectful.

 

[Mystary!]

Use Omni-tools.

Omni-tools are for wussies.

 

[Xzylvador]

You can't. *cry*
Had a minor OCD-induced stroke when I found out part of the map was now unaccessible to me.

I cant access it later?

Also, what is in this cave? (useful items etc.)

Spoiler

You can get the key from Gorsky later, after complaining to the critter-obsessed guy at agronomy level.
What's there is pretty much spoiled in the few seconds the gate is open: burrowers.

 

[Parabalus]

I was having a blast playing the game, getting high on , then I got to Deep Caverns.

Now I'm liable to throw my PC out the window.

MMO-style respawning mobs, really?!?
I am playing a pure Psi char and I can't kill them fast enough (thanks to the debuff) to exit combat to even interact with the environment.

Ok, no problem, apparently I should really use stealth for the first time - I craft myself a set of 130 stealth gear and it seems to be working. It's retarded since I have no stealth feats and walk like a snail, but I can at least move around. The best part of the game, exploration, just became a huge chore.

What's worse though is that things just stopped making sense and I'm really struggling to summon the will to finish it, I could use some help.

Spoiler

Can Eidein come with you down the elevator? I kept killing the Faceless after the elevator came until I would inevitably miss a Pyrokinesis and hit them, can you save him or do you have to make a run for it? How do you open the his console if you can't, his body doesn't have anything.

I sided with the Tchortists since the faceless told me to "leave". Do the faceless explain anything to you if you do side with them?
The Tchortist leader is as clueless as me.

The Tchortist also say the Eye of Tchort debuff should stop bugging me since I'm one of them, but it doesn't.

Do you have to kill the entire faceless camp for the Tchortist reconnaissance quest? Didn't find any other way so I blew them up.

What do you do with Lora Baker? She told me stuff about Tanner etc. , I get the option to "take her to SGS" , but I recognize through Biology that I need help to carry her or she drops dead. From who? Leo? The Tchortist captives I freed conveniently had nothing to say about her.

Does this imply I can really take an elevator back to Lower Underrail? (after I restore power through Arke perhaps? )

Where is the Labyrinth Leo talks about , do the pillars in it give anything useful?

Tichone Lab, is there anything else to do but pulling the plug on everyone and looting? I tried taking out just the guy who starts flipping the power switch off, but even if I do that, the console is just unresponsive.

How do I get through Arke the fastest way? I have hacking and lockpicking, been through the east area to get the janitor keycard and ran back out again. This area seems like it would be a treat if I had been going for a stealth playthrough, but I didn't, and having to half-ass it is horrible. Going with combat gives me about 10 second between robots spawns to interact with stuff, so not really an option.

Where do I get the right hydraulic pump ? I'm also missing 2 canisters of hydraulic fluid, got the one from the Tchortist locker.

How do I use the mutagens to get rid of the ooze? I got through the mushroom forest and acquired the part from the big red shroom and got 10 different canisters.

Should I have gotten blueprints to use DC flora and fauna before I took the elevator, or will I stumble upon them?

I'd really appreciate some answers since combing through any more respawning areas will make me uninstall the game and I'd *really* like to finish it because it was brilliant before this crap.

 

[empi]

Hey epeli are ballistics panels bugged?

As you can see here, both panels have roughly the same quality but the laminated is simply better. No trade off. I suspect this is indeed a bug since every component in the game seems to be more or less balanced. Or am I missing something?

If I were to guess, I'd say the hybrid was supposed to have higher mechanical DR and less/no vs firearms bonus while the laminated was supposed to have less DR but 200% vs firearms. Just my 2 cents.

I don't understand what you're trying to say. The trade off is between DR and DT

 

[ArchAngel]

Does DT and DR reduce damage together or does only one work?

 

[gestalt11]

Does DT and DR reduce damage together or does only one work?

Whichever results in the lowest number is taken.

The more complex question is how various defense inter-relate with energy shields.

In general, one of the things you really need to take into your analysis is critical hits from range. Since Aimed Shot is a very common feat and critical hits can literally one shot things (including you). You should not do you defensive analysis purely on a sort of death by a thousand cuts type of thing rather, some types of weappons can be greatly nullified by DT + bullet multiplier but something like a Sniper Rifle will blow through you DT and one shot you. To address this you can use a shield but if you do so, the SMG that a tact vest nullifies will eat your shield away really fast.

For cirts you want to a) make sure you can survive one and b) try to minimize how many there are (3 crits in a row is gonna kill most people). In this case high evasion and a really good shield can help a lot. But so can metal armor. Similarly you could be a tact vest user with good CC and just make sure the stun/mez the guys with sniper rifles or energy weapons and take the hits from rifels and smgs (and maybe use a nanocomposite plate).

This is the attraction of metal armor + other metal things. Its the best way to a good resistance score (say 60& or higher). Resistance can help a lot againt crits. Especially if you add some healing in.

 

[TwinkieGorilla]

Fuck you, it's called strategy.

 

[gestalt11]

Fuck you, it's called strategy.

traps work really well in this game if you have the patience and don't mind the huge weight managment mini-game. However for that particular encounter, due to the multiple waves you maybe wanna not sure the explosive mines. Don't they clear the bear traps? Its smart to space from each other at they are as they explosition size should not domino trigger the others.

Also if you had that gas grendade on the bladelings when they are stuck its nice way to cut through all their annoying resistances and keep them in the cloud.

 

[Lhynn]

Holy shit, coil spiders are going to give me nightmares. Too bad im too weak to use it, looks p. OP.

 

[marux]

Has anyone ever felt as hyped as i am right now? Feels like actually being there.

 

[ST'Ranger]

Holy shit, coil spiders are going to give me nightmares. Too bad im too weak to use it, looks p. OP.

 

[Zetor]

I was having a blast playing the game, getting high on , then I got to Deep Caverns.

Now I'm liable to throw my PC out the window.

MMO-style respawning mobs, really?!?
I am playing a pure Psi char and I can't kill them fast enough (thanks to the debuff) to exit combat to even interact with the environment.

Ok, no problem, apparently I should really use stealth for the first time - I craft myself a set of 130 stealth gear and it seems to be working. It's retarded since I have no stealth feats and walk like a snail, but I can at least move around. The best part of the game, exploration, just became a huge chore.

What's worse though is that things just stopped making sense and I'm really struggling to summon the will to finish it, I could use some help.

Spoiler

(snip)

How do I get through Arke the fastest way? I have hacking and lockpicking, been through the east area to get the janitor keycard and ran back out again. This area seems like it would be a treat if I had been going for a stealth playthrough, but I didn't, and having to half-ass it is horrible. Going with combat gives me about 10 second between robots spawns to interact with stuff, so not really an option.

Where do I get the right hydraulic pump ? I'm also missing 2 canisters of hydraulic fluid, got the one from the Tchortist locker.

(snip)

I'd really appreciate some answers since combing through any more respawning areas will make me uninstall the game and I'd *really* like to finish it because it was brilliant before this crap.

I agree that the MMO-style respawning in the Deep Caverns is terrible, especially if you aren't a melee or psi build. I also shelved my playthrough for now, but I'm more inclined to start over with a better build instead of the janky "whatever works" mess I tossed together in this run... and play on hardmode this time. I -will- resume the playthrough to slog through the DC eventually if the respawns stay as they are, though... because I want closure, dammit!

I disagree a bit about the atmosphere / narrative shift in Deep Caverns, though. I find that the minimalistic "Dark Souls"-style storytelling works MUCH better here than in the rest of the game. No, the NPCs aren't much help, and the ones that seem helpful are probably lying and/or insane. There's plenty of information that can be discerned just from the environment, though. For example:

Spoiler

I think Arke is a pretty good example of the player able to reconstruct how pretty much everything went wrong there without a single expository NPC or audio log (heh), just by the way the various rooms look, the location of certain items, and the corpses of Important People (judging from their keycards).

Regarding your questions, I would also like to see some answers. Here are some things I've discovered that may help:

Spoiler

I've only finished Arke so far, and yea it's a huge grueling slog with the constant mandatory backtracking and respawning killbots... on the other hand, it felt kinda fun to be put under such pressure for once, it gave me System Shock 1 vibes. I didn't use stealth, but was still able to do all the lockpicking/hacking needed without getting locked into combat. The robot spawning is on a timer and they're on a fixed patrol route (as long as you don't get spotted by a camera or piss the AI off by trying to disable security).

Basically:

1. Start from the main entrance ("central area"), head to eastern area to get janitor keycard
2. Get back to the central area, enter janitor room in SW corner, this should get you some more keycards
3. Go back to eastern area, use your new keycard to enter door in NE corner (...yeah), get past all the production line stuff and take the ladder down
4. Fun times with crawlers, more fun times with spiders (seriously, fuck that room). Eventually you find some more keycards, another hydraulic part (I think) and get to another ladder.
5. Take the ladder up and enter a big assembly line area (I'll just call it "western area"). Kill the industrial robot and dodge the rest, kill them as they aggro. The terminal here opens the backdoor to the facility (to this room) as well as opening a shortcut to the central area and powering the elevator in the northwest. More importantly, take the stairs up and get the keycard before taking the shortcut to the central area.
6. Go to the northwestern part of the central area to unlock the exec's room with the keycard, get the power control thing (finally!)
7. Go back to the western area, take the elevator, deallocate power from security and robot production. This will stop the robot respawns, though you still have to kill the ones that are currently active.
8. At this point you can reallocate power to other parts of the Deep Caverns (needed to enter some areas). Annoyingly it's not possible to kill the AI by depowering the IRIS area, and even though it's possible to enter it now (you can try the "open IRIS main access" option at the entrance and it'll work, allowing you in there), it's just a big room with unopenable doors and constantly respawning robots. Will have to come back later, probably.

Power switches in Arke seem mostly useless. I used the power switch in the eastern area and the one in the central / western areas to disable the shield rechargers for the robots, but it just turned back on by itself (wtf). There's also a power switch in the basement next to some plates that alternate between "electrified" and "safe", but it doesn't seem to do anything either.

I found two hydraulic plumps so far (HS-78, HS-83), and at least one of them was from Arke. The other one was either also in Arke or in the southernmost Tchort area (the one directly adjacent to the deep caverns 'entrance' with a lot of breakable walls). Be sure to search the big assembly room as well as the underground section.

BTW, I really really hope there's a way to punch that HK-47 / SHODAN wannabe in the faceCPU for all the aggravation it caused me.

 

[epeli]

I was kind of disappointed that the pneumatic loader lowers the AP cost, but not by enough to actually be of any use.
Other than that, stealth kills with snipe are pretty fun.

With a pneumatic loader enhanced xbow you can fire 2 special bolts a turn, without the marksman feat needed.

Special bolts cost 7 AP extra while that loader only saves you 4 AP per shot. You can fire one special bolt without that feat or you can use stim that gives you additional 20 AP and with this loader you will have enough AP left to fire once more in that turn.

Talking about crossbow AP costs, have you guys tried Cyclon crossbow with pneumatic reloader? Only 17 AP. It can unleash impressive bolt barrages in a single turn. Up to 6 with all the right tricks! Interesting alternative to the more commonly taken maximum damage per shot route.

Overall, I think crossbows are one of the trickiest weapons to utilize well, if not the most tricky, but also the most satisfying. Their synergy with stealth assassin playstyle shines brighter than ever before thanks to the new noise system.

So is 60 considered the 'optimal' amount to sneak past most stuff? That seems very low.

Hehe, no way. 60 might be enough to get you barely through some early game sneaky missions. But if you really want to poke your nose everywhere without being seen, you'll end up wanting 300+ stealth skill and some speed bonuses. Good equipment can provide much of that, but stealth investment is always useful for those who really like to use it. High stealth skill is nice to have, for both ranged and melee stealth fighters. For the first it increases snipe's damage and for the latter it lets you get into backstabbing range undetected.

Anyway, I've encountered a strange dillemma: I've crafted a sniper rifle which is worse than what I had (!?) and it was supposed to be better.

I'm really on the edge about this. Am I wrong or somebody else had the same issue? Or maybe my expectations are wrong?

I don't think there's anything wrong with the rifles or with what you said. Randomness and small sample size, that's all. SGS shooting range with its console logging is handy if you want to do some controlled tests, just remember to use same ammo in both rifles.

The more complex question is how various defense inter-relate with energy shields.

Damage gets absorbed by energy shields before anything else.

Basically, defenses go from evasion/dodge/resolve/fortitude (attack type) -> energy shield (impact speed) -> armor resistance or threshold (damage type) -> other damage reduction (damage type) to HP.

This makes shield selection/crafting a bit more complex than one might expect. Heavily armored characters actually get more benefit from shields that have low-quality modulator(s), as long as they have good energy cores. It allows the shield to last longer while their armor can still mitigate most/all damage that goes through the shield.

 

[Pope Amole II]

That's Lightning Claws, you irreverent blasphemer!

 

[Alfons]

Shield emitter nullifies the spiders quite easily. The problem is their traps. They are quite powerful and stepping in one is like kicking a hornets nest, every single one of those fuckers comes crawling out no matter how far he is or how large the area is.