Underrail: The Incline Awakens

[lukaszek]

deterministic system > RNG

 

[lukaszek]

deterministic system > RNG

 

[Tygrende]

It can make a difference for some builds if your strategy is to 1-shot him or outrun his HP regen without bothering with the tanks. Not that you can't do either of those on DOMINATING, but it is in fact harder.

 

[ItsChon]

The fastest way to get through the Horticultural Center is to land on H6. You only need to kill two hives and some Sea Serpents to make it into the Horticultural center, assuming you can pass the Agi/Strength checks which should be possible for almost all characters I think with appropriate armor, food, and drugs. You can raise your Strength by six, and your Agi by three, just using armor, food, and drugs. Once inside the center, it's really not too bad. Most builds should be able to one shot a hive on even dominating I feel if you start combat and run up to to a hive, and gas/fire grenades make the center much easier as well. Area could be designed better, but it's really not that bad, and I usually do the center with no bio resistant armor as a glass cannon build.

 

[Ol' Willy]

Visited Fetid March for the first time lately - for oddities, of course. It's not that bad, though. With the correct armor it's a breeze. CAU + Rubber Boots + Aegis Helmet - 100% Acid and Bio protection. Replace CAU with high-quality heartbreaker and you have a decent Mechanical protection as well. Or just stealth. Cleared one area for sport, my next run on Classic and I will clear them all.

Most builds should be able to one shot a hive on even dominating

Hives are immune to crits, so no. With the knife it's a literal clickfest, the same pressure on mouse as when playing Last Stand in browser.

 

[Ol' Willy]

Gifts!

Crit bonus 20% lower than tungsten one, though.

 

[PrettyDeadman]

The big problem with the expeditions dlc - it wastes a lot of resources without giving ANYTHING back to you. Good luck try to sell spider butts to buy another 20 repair kits and 600 bullets for the next location...
You have to go back to the main game, go through empty locations to see if you left any of the loot in the enemies back, than try to sell 2-3 guns to traders, wait 90 minutes for them to restock, repeat. Who though this is a good idea???

 

[PrettyDeadman]

Spend thousands of bullets to get to technology nexus just to get booted out of it via elevator which goes up, but refuses to go back down. Very nice design, fuck you.

 

[Tigranes]

What the hell, you're level 24 and you aren't swimming in a million gold pieces? I guess not if you did 8 super steel and 2 jet skis?

 

[Trashos]

even as someone who's always criticised Expeditions encounters

What is your criticism, btw?

I do think that Handmaidens play too similarly to Strongmen. Also, I didn't enjoy defending the Aegis base, but I don't know how it could have been made more fun. I want to experiment with killing the assaulting ships while they are approaching the Aegis base, not sure currently whether it makes any difference on the assault.

(I generally enjoy the dlc content though. I was too afraid that we are going to get another DC, but this was much much better.)

 

[PrettyDeadman]

Yeah, my biggest problem with expedition is the lack of loot. The game expects you to shoot enemies, kill them with grenades and stuff, but it doesnt give you resources back. No bullets drop, not enough grenades. And what drops is completely useless, since you cant easily convert it into resources you need, so its just garbage laying around.

 

[Tigranes]

Trashos I think too many of the Expedition encounters end up being "here's a gimmick, work out a usually laborious routine, then rinse & repeat 80 times". And that's a summation of many different things. Indeed Handmaidens and Strongmen are too similar. Many mobs fight in their own terf without combinations, so you're always fighting one blob of things. Almost all the gimmicks are built around slowing you down, whether it's inching around in crab lands or endless locust attacks. Expedition fights (except humanoid ones, like Native bosses) are unlikely to ever give you a varied, exciting experience like Lunatic mall. From a purely gameplay standpoint, I'd have preferred to see strongmen wielded by a rival Aegis gang or more bison enemies 'tamed' by natives.

A lot of this gets alleviated once the player knows how to metagame and, say, disable most of the enemies in Nexus, or skip Fetid Marshes - but that's the point, the reward is to skip the monotonous battles. I like the DLC now, and there are many good things about it (combat inclusive), but I certainly don't think encounters in it compare to the main game for the most part.

 

[PrettyDeadman]

How do you explore Nexus? I can't get back to it. Once I activated electricity and take a elevator to the top floor - it doesnt let me go back.

 

[Tigranes]

Deadman I'm not sure, I've never tried to go back. Did the big statue outside activate as you left the area?

The key thing you had to do there was to grab the chip modifier item from the lowest? level desk. The 'middle' floors don't really have that much exciting stuff to them, so it's not a big deal if you skipped a bit, unless you wanted to do the most pointlessly convoluted puzzle in the history of mankind (Music cipher).

 

[Yaz]

How do you explore Nexus? I can't get back to it. Once I activated electricity and take a elevator to the top floor - it doesnt let me go back.

After activating the power there's a console that comes online on the surface. Use it to open the doors that lead to the loading bay.

 

[Yaz]

A lot of this gets alleviated once the player knows how to metagame and, say, disable most of the enemies in Nexus, or skip Fetid Marshes

Always thought that's exactly the point. There's only one best way available to every build to deal with the robots/Locusts/Crabs/Fetid Marsh/etc. And although that way will vary build to build, every one has to decide whether they have to avoid or fight.

 

[lukaszek]

deterministic system > RNG

 

[Ol' Willy]

Yeah, my biggest problem with expedition is the lack of loot.

Expedition pays off greatly with ACONR and Reef Glider. Getting at least 20000 coins for both is easy, more with good mercantile. It's better than loot.

 

[Parabalus]

Do you need to play like max stealth to avoid this idiocy?

If you see locusts that means that area is skippable.

 

[Trashos]

Expedition pays off greatly with ACONR and Reef Glider. Getting at least 20000 coins for both is easy, more with good mercantile. It's better than loot.

I think he is complaining about the lack of bullets for his assault rifle.

I think too many of the Expedition encounters end up being "here's a gimmick, work out a usually laborious routine, then rinse & repeat 80 times". And that's a summation of many different things. Indeed Handmaidens and Strongmen are too similar. Many mobs fight in their own terf without combinations, so you're always fighting one blob of things. Almost all the gimmicks are built around slowing you down, whether it's inching around in crab lands or endless locust attacks. Expedition fights (except humanoid ones, like Native bosses) are unlikely to ever give you a varied, exciting experience like Lunatic mall. From a purely gameplay standpoint, I'd have preferred to see strongmen wielded by a rival Aegis gang or more bison enemies 'tamed' by natives.

A lot of this gets alleviated once the player knows how to metagame and, say, disable most of the enemies in Nexus, or skip Fetid Marshes - but that's the point, the reward is to skip the monotonous battles. I like the DLC now, and there are many good things about it (combat inclusive), but I certainly don't think encounters in it compare to the main game for the most part.

Fair points overall.

I think locusts are the coolest opponents in the dlc. Maybe there are too many hives if one decides to do the Marsh, but other than that they are cool and create their own gameplay.

I will say that the dungeons gameplay in the expansion was overall not as creative as in DC (DC has some mindblowingly creative dungeons with inventive gameplay, that is not where its problem lies), but in the expansion I appreciate the various different ways to engage each dungeon. Another thing I like in the encounters is the ability to stage fights between your enemies (eg robots vs natives, robots vs creepers, robots vs crabs) in several dungeons.

I agree that experience with the content is rewarded much better in the expansion. This is very important afaic, in DC Arke is still unbearable to me after knowing what to do.

I am not a big fan of assault enemy base content (with the exception of Ironhead base, where enemy groups can be attacked separately), so I do not appreciate the lunatic mall as much as you do. I would probably enjoy it better if I played high AG characters and could fully stealth through it.

 

[lukaszek]

deterministic system > RNG

 

[PrettyDeadman]

It got significantly better after I started to use regular shots more often. Should've taken that 3 shot perk, would've saved a lot of ammo.
I also found out that you can store loot inside your scooter, which is pretty cool. It does seem to have some weight parameter, I sure hope they are not implementing vehicle "encumberance" mechanic.

Also, camp defenses seems to be diminishing even though I protected it every time. I though they will stop after I kill snake shaman. I guess there are more natives to kill? Attacks are pretty annoying...

 

[Parabalus]

It does seem to have some weight parameter, I sure hope they are not implementing vehicle "encumberance" mechanic.

Don't worry, it's already implemented.

I guess there are more natives to kill? Attacks are pretty annoying...

4 native bosses in total.

 

[PrettyDeadman]

The core gameplay loop of Underrail is perfect, and no changes need to be made to the combat or art imo. Two new weapons, ranged and melee would be nice, and perhaps one more PSI school that's support based like TM, to add to the build variety which is why we all replay the game. In terms of story, I just want Styg to continue expanding upon the world of Underrail, introducing us to new critters, new factions, and new locations. With that of course should come with new encounters that are enhanced by different and new enemy types. I wouldn't mind seeing some faction v faction v faction style combat too, kind of like the Native invasions but perhaps on a smaller scale with more than just two sides.

Oh, and the more gated content the better. Something like what AoD does but on a smaller scale, as it's very rewarding to get to access something secret/hidden/gated away due to your build, and gives you motivation to try other builds.

The existence of aliens is hinted. When I read description of lemurian abyss base, I though its going to be an orbital station, but apparently not. Anyway, I think new dlc should be dedicated to fighting aliens. Space saucers instead of gliders, flying around, attacking battleships and statition. Maybe epic battle against giant leviafan in the end, just to learn many more a coming (just like in mass effect) and underrail 2 will be dedicated fighting them.

 

[Parabalus]

You can fight aliens already, but success is far from guaranteed.