Underrail: The Incline Awakens

[lukaszek]

deterministic system > RNG

 

[Sheepherder]

Serrated is better than dagger. More Crit Dmg and procs bleed, which enables Taste for Blood. The dmg from dagger is overall less than dmg from serrated.

im not convinced its true after nerf to power critical feat. 15% crit dmg increase translates now to 30%, not 37.5%. Meanwhile daggers got that 25% dmg boost to fleshy targets. None of that rly matters against robots though.
Taste for blood can be enabled with nail bombs now. Honestly though Im not convinced its required to have this feat. Everything drops quickly without it, doesnt help against robots. In the end, for stabby builds, how you deal with robots is everything

Energy edge won't do shit, I'm afraid. For melee the only chance is EW.

makes sense, cant recall since i was fighting them last time and i lost my saves. I guess critting with lazers is the best way to overcome their DR?

It's more than 30%, you have to keep in mind there's Ripper.
p. much, it's either crits with e. pistols or kill them with EW. I could kill one per turn with knives using EW.
If you're having trouble, try using an e. pistol with a Polarizer. Craft a laser pistol with a decent quality Polarizer (other components quality don't matter). Shoot a naga with it a bunch to reduce resistances, then use your big dick plasma pistol or w/e.

 

[lukaszek]

deterministic system > RNG

 

[Calcium]

I just found out that Styg actually wrote the expansion. I honestly thought he'd hired someone else considering what an improvement the writing is over much of the base game.

 

[epeli]

I just found out that Styg actually wrote the expansion. I honestly thought he'd hired someone else considering what an improvement the writing is over much of the base game.

You found out what? It's the same writers for both the base game and the expansion. Styg's writing is mostly limited to items, feats, game mechanics and such. He hasn't done much dialog writing since 2013, except some of the deeplore stuff like talking to rocks.

Edit: a bit more about the writing.
In general the game's writing is improving slowly on purpose, because the devs want to keep the writing style consistent between different writers - no sudden and jarring style changes. And they're all learning as they go, that's definitely also a factor. In fact there's a third new writer on the team right now, so you might notice that some bits in the waterways update are slightly different.

The expansion was a big leap in many ways, so the changes in writing stood out more. Styg also commented that not making it a standalone expansion was a mistake, because staying consistent with the base game was more limiting than they originally expected (and properly integrating it with the base game content took more dev time than anticipated).

 

[ItsChon]

ust found out that Styg actually wrote the expansion. I honestly thought he'd hired someone else considering what an improvement the writing is over much of the base game.

This sounds as if you're saying the writing in the main game was inferior to that of the expansion. I know you're not calling the writing in the main game bad, but I don't think there's an outright jump in quality in the expansion compared to the main game. It's more so the team putting a further emphasis on the writing and atmosphere, and allowing themselves to really let their pens go so to speak. That makes me optimistic about the future of the series and Infusion, as I can only imagine how damn good the world building will be in a completely different part of Underrail.

 

[Wunderbar]

Idk i liked main game's writing more than in expansion (except for Ladelman).

 

[Ghulgothas]

Expedition is far more erudite and overtly thematic in it's writing compared to the down-to-earthedness of basegame. Though considering how tightly written and economical the narrative of basegame is they more than earned the right to go off the rails with Expedition.

 

[Calcium]

I just found out that Styg actually wrote the expansion. I honestly thought he'd hired someone else considering what an improvement the writing is over much of the base game.

You found out what? It's the same writers for both the base game and the expansion. Styg's writing is mostly limited to items, feats, game mechanics and such. He hasn't done much dialog writing since 2013, except some of the deeplore stuff like talking to rocks.

Well in that case I stand corrected. I posed a question about the writing in a thread on /vrpg/ and was told that Styg was the main guy behind it.

This sounds as if you're saying the writing in the main game was inferior to that of the expansion.

That is what I'm saying. There is some very questionable writing in the early parts of the game, especially with character descriptions. It makes sense considering they were written years before the expansion was even conceived.

 

[Ol' Willy]

Expedition writing is better in artistic quality - talking about the literary value of the text, you know what I mean - but also is a way more wordy; base game keeps you starving for the info, never giving too much of it, while Expedition throws a ton of new information at you right away.

 

[Major_Blackhart]

The two are different styles entirely, and both of them are quite good. I do like the wordiness of Expedition, but you have to remember it still leaves you hanging about how the Sormiboeren actually came about, how they mutate into these terrible things, and what they're gods actually are.

 

[lukaszek]

deterministic system > RNG

 

[epeli]

Expedition is far more erudite and overtly thematic in it's writing compared to the down-to-earthedness of basegame. Though considering how tightly written and economical the narrative of basegame is they more than earned the right to go off the rails with Expedition.

Expedition writing is better in artistic quality - talking about the literary value of the text, you know what I mean - but also is a way more wordy; base game keeps you starving for the info, never giving too much of it, while Expedition throws a ton of new information at you right away.

I gotta say, in those aspects I prefer the base game's writing style.

But Expedition's writing also did some good things with the video game format, namely adding more interactivity and descriptive text blurbs to the environment. It also tried some things that didn't really work in the context of Underrail, IMO. For example the dreams you would get if you sleep at the expedition camp. If the game had had an established rest mechanic, those would've been a better fit.

I do like the wordiness of Expedition, but you have to remember it still leaves you hanging about how the Sormiboeren actually came about, how they mutate into these terrible things, and what they're gods actually are.

You can learn quite a bit about those things. Read everything in the research dome, cycle through all floating text blurbs and carefully digest the shadowlith research logs. You basically get the whole story how the Sørmirbæren came to be, from the beings that unwittingly turned themselves into them. Including the origin and history of the mutations.

The "god" stuff remains esoteric, but there are small new pieces to the puzzle, as well as a bit of scientific data on their artifacts. Hope you like quantum chromodynamics!

 

[Ol' Willy]

but you have to remember it still leaves you hanging about how the Sormiboeren actually came about

This is actually more or less explained

Spoiler

Regular Lemurians lived in the NFT-created environments - in case of Black Sea the facilities near the water.
Atlanteans - people of Scandinavian heritage (Danish? Swedish?) who had a fancy for living deep underwater (because Denmark was flooded?).
Those two groups of people lived separately, but when Biocorp attacked the NFT facilities, surviving Lemurians moved underwater, to live with Atlanteans.
Some Atlantean scientists meddled with the things unspeakable, opening the rift to the Darkness (through the Shadowlith and its precursors)
Serpent-like beings from the Darkness corrupted some of the Atlanteans, urging them to regress to the ways of old and worship these beings as Gods (thus, the snake fetish)
Deranged Atlanteas revolted, wrecked the Abyssal station and moved to the surface, to worship their serpents undisturbed and protect the original rift (Shadowlith).

This is why Sormibaeren are so aggressive towards the Expedition - they don't want Shadowlith to be discovered.
Their Gods are the serpent-like beings from the Darkness (usual Lovecraftian stuff).
Their mutations are the direct result of interacting with these beings.
This is why Biocorp didn't went down to the Abyssal station - they somehow learned about Shadowlith and decided to

 

[epeli]

This is why Biocorp

Spoiler

didn't went down to the Abyssal station - they somehow learned about Shadowlith and decided to

There's also a possibility that

Spoiler

Biocorp tried to get there, but the Abyssal Station research crew used their experimental Phased Shadow Wave Beam to negate a Biocorp Undernavy submarine out of existence. One of the early shadow wave psychoprojection images depicts something that could be interpreted in this way.

 

[Ol' Willy]

There's also a possibility that

Spoiler

Biocorp tried to get there, but the Abyssal Station research crew used their experimental Phased Shadow Wave Beam to negate a Biocorp Undernavy submarine out of existence. One of the early shadow wave psychoprojection images depicts something that could be interpreted in this way.

Spoiler

Well, one guess is that Biocorp attacked NFT exactly because of their meddling with the unspeakable things, and the goal was to prevent them from succeeding in making the rift. If so, Biocorp failed miserably at this - they destroyed everything except for the important Abyssal station. This raises the question - why didn't they persist in destroying the Abyssal station, if it was their main goal? Why just don't dump a ton of pressure bombs to square the place?

Or, did they just wanted ACORN?

 

[epeli]

Spoiler

Well, one guess is that Biocorp attacked NFT exactly because of their meddling with the unspeakable things, and the goal was to prevent them from succeeding in making the rift. If so, Biocorp failed miserably at this - they destroyed everything except for the important Abyssal station. This raises the question - why didn't they persist in destroying the Abyssal station, if it was their main goal? Why just don't dump a ton of pressure bombs to square the place?

Or, did they just wanted ACORN?

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Spoiler

I tried to dig up a concrete dates of NFT's meddling with the unspeakable, but I just don't know. Why, indeed, did Biocorp leave Black Sea and Abyssal alone? Most likely shadowlith played a part in it, but the details elude me. Someone needs to piece it all together...

Pretty sure that Biocorp was (and is) after the acorn, though. And they almost got it when they attacked Lemuria. It was shipped to Abyssal at the last possible moment, pretty much.

 

[Fenix]

Question to more experienced wizard players: so, the damage will catch up or the build is crippled?

It depends on your build. I have similiar Psychosis build, with SI - I regret 100 times I took it, cause for my tactic it useless. I took also Hemopsychosis, and used regen vest - you can guess, it's like pouring water from one vessel to another - energy from vest goes-->to hp, and hp goes-->to psi pool for psi abilities. Thus SI completely useless for me, I could take something really good like Nimble, bleh..
Also there are people, who using it, but you need to take feats like Stoicism, so you will survive if something will hit char and so on.

And I heard Execute isn't terribly useful but I thought it'd be fun, especially if it works against EMP'd robots.

What I rememebrfor sure, is Opportunist? doesn't work for robots. Was surprised.

Tanks are good!

Hilarious and highly intertainig build, I always love such creativity ahah.

The burst-fire bonuses from feats apply to combat shotguns too, and I'm thinking of adding Critical Power and Shooting Spree to make Snipers viable.

Think about Fragmented Chaos man. After CP nerf it could be more suited for shotguns.

Styg's writing is mostly limited to items, feats, game mechanics and such. He hasn't done much dialog writing since 2013, except some of the deeplore stuff like talking to rocks.

Who wrote Wyatt Peer story? I like it so much, man, it's really awakes imagination. Always was shy to ask devs lol.

 

[epeli]

Styg's writing is mostly limited to items, feats, game mechanics and such. He hasn't done much dialog writing since 2013, except some of the deeplore stuff like talking to rocks.

Who wrote Wyatt Peer story? I like it so much, man, it's really awakes imagination. Always was shy to ask devs lol.

Styg. He did everything up to Old Junkyard alone. He was the only dev back in those days, remember? Back when you did your level 1 playthrough and set his difficulty balancing sense on the right track. :D

 

[Black Angel]

The part about

situational protection against Mental Breakdown: throwing a molotov at my feet when I know I'll be fighting Thought Controller enemies. Heat damage from burning ground breaks Mental Breakdown.

is just brilliant. This would have saved me a lot of problems in my tank run. Why no one advised it before? Is it Sheepherder discovery?

Styg should add Lunatics with Premeditation in the next game, life isn't hard enough.

Gotta play another tank on Dom, that's for sure.

Nah, a dude over at the discord came up with it.
I came up with another way to deal with Bilocation: be surrounded by melee enemies on all sides. It's foolproof, Doppelgangers can't reach you.

All hail the Dummy ThiccTank!

I opened the game only to spend two hours travelling to vendors and crafting.

With maxxed Mercantile and all the feats + specialization, you can play the game as if it's Merchant Simulator!

but you have to remember it still leaves you hanging about how the Sormiboeren actually came about

This is actually more or less explained

Spoiler

Deranged Atlanteas revolted, wrecked the Abyssal station and moved to the surface, to worship their serpents undisturbed and protect the original rift (Shadowlith).

Spoiler

Unless I misinterpreted what you said here, the original rift (Shadowlith) is down there in the Abyssal Station Zero, so I doubt the Atlanteans are trying to 'protect' it by merely cutting a piece of the rock and brought it to the surface.

Spoiler

Well, one guess is that Biocorp attacked NFT exactly because of their meddling with the unspeakable things, and the goal was to prevent them from succeeding in making the rift. If so, Biocorp failed miserably at this - they destroyed everything except for the important Abyssal station. This raises the question - why didn't they persist in destroying the Abyssal station, if it was their main goal? Why just don't dump a ton of pressure bombs to square the place?

Or, did they just wanted ACORN?

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Spoiler

I tried to dig up a concrete dates of NFT's meddling with the unspeakable, but I just don't know. Why, indeed, did Biocorp leave Black Sea and Abyssal alone? Most likely shadowlith played a part in it, but the details elude me. Someone needs to piece it all together...

Pretty sure that Biocorp was (and is) after the acorn, though. And they almost got it when they attacked Lemuria. It was shipped to Abyssal at the last possible moment, pretty much.

Spoiler

The Biocorp coveting the ACORN is simply it, I believe. Unless there's a hidden record somewhere on the ship in the middle of the Pirates HQ, from what I know there's no way for the Biocorp to be actually aware of the existence of the Abyssal Station Zero. The Atlanteans must have one hell of an anti-detection tech, and I'm sure the Lemurians at the very least goes out of their way to hide their relationship with the Atlanteans to secure an alliance with them.

 

[epeli]

Spoiler

The Biocorp coveting the ACORN is simply it, I believe. Unless there's a hidden record somewhere on the ship in the middle of the Pirates HQ, from what I know there's no way for the Biocorp to be actually aware of the existence of the Abyssal Station Zero. The Atlanteans must have one hell of an anti-detection tech, and I'm sure the Lemurians at the very least goes out of their way to hide their relationship with the Atlanteans to secure an alliance with them.

Spoiler

On the pirate questline you can learn more about the Black Sea conflict's history, motives of the expedition and Grim, but not any insight into this topic if I recall correctly. Officially (as in what in-game historians will tell you about it) the reason for the Biocorp-NFT conflict was simply competition. ACORN seems a reasonable motive for all that. But it's not 100% out of question that Biocorp could've known about Shadowlith.

However, Biocorp Undernavy knew about Abyssal Station, or at the very least stumbled upon it by accident. One of the consoles shows floating text blurbs about Flottsørmir's power negating a large submarine.

...just as He has expunged the invading submarine...
...tonnes and tonnes of sooted slime in its place, darkening...
...bring a fragment of that which gave us wisdom...
...Flottsørmir's power - infinite!

I believe the psychoprojection drawing I mentioned earlier depicts the same event. I doubt it was literally Flottsørmir manifesting and dealing with the sub, but rather the derailed scientists using their experimental PSWB weapon that they had already successfully tested before succumbing to shadow dust corruption. This event, creating a massive concentration of shadow dust in the waters, gives a whole new meaning to the name Black Sea, really. It could've been the trigger that pushed Flottsørmir's influence in our world over a critical threshold and forced Biocorp to GTFO.

F̮̰̳̟͉̰̲̕o̴͙̪͓͚ṛ͓͕͍̭̹̕s̮̺̦̰̫k͞a̳r҉͕r̴ ͔͕̭͔F̨̜̺̼͙͙̭͉l͖̪͘ͅo̝͇͙̘t̫̕t͙̬͔́s̢̲̳ø̗̮͎̯̪̟͝r̭̲͚ͅm̩̼͇̪̙̬̪i̡͎̫͖r̨͇̪̙͈, ̯̣Æ̪͙t̜͕̥ͅe̤̖̮r̥͚͜bæ̗͈͙r͉͉͇̘̤͕en̛͖̺̯͎!̶̦̙̥̞

 

[Calcium]

That musical puzzle... I just... what the fuck.

 

[Ol' Willy]

Ерсловекждинианшник Славорад Кокошка
Yerslovekzdinianschnik Slavorad Kokoschka

First name looks stupid even in Cyrillic. Second name is Slavic one, alright. The surname is after the Austrian painter of Bohemian descent.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oskar_Kokoschka

This guy is definitely not a painter.

 

[lukaszek]

deterministic system > RNG

 

[epeli]

Since fusion explosion is an AoE, it targets the ground rather than you directly. So it has the same precision regardless of who's in the blast radius. (Unless you're emitting/absorbing light - that would also make the ground somewhat easier/harder to target.) Evasion AoE damage reduction is capped at 85% but you can stack it with explosion damage reduction.